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

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

Post by blindpig » Sat Jun 25, 2022 10:59 pm

War in Ukraine. Summary 06/25/2022
June 25, 22:14

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War in Ukraine. Summary 06/25/2022

1. Severodonetsk.
The city has been completely liberated, including the entire industrial zone of the Azot plant. All civilian hostages have been released.
Borovskoye, Voronovo and Sirotino were liberated. The remnants of the enemy forces from Severodonetsk withdrew to Lisichansk.

2. Golden.
The liquidation of the boiler is completed. The remnants of the enemy forces tried to break through the minefields towards the Disputed.
Like Severodonetsk, Zolote, together with Gorsky, will actually disappear from military reports in the coming days, just as Mariupol disappeared.
So far, there is no clarity on the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (killed / wounded / prisoners) in Severodonetsk, Gorsky and Zolote - up to 800 prisoners and more than 1000 killed were declared yesterday.

3. Lisichansk.
The city is in an operational environment. The only road to the city from Seversk is under fire control of the RF Armed Forces.
There are signs of preparations for the withdrawal of the AFU grouping from Lisichansk to Seversk.
Today, fighting began directly in Lisichansk itself and on the outskirts of the Lisichansk refinery.
The battles for Belaya Gora and Privolye continue.

4. Soledar.
Fights for Berestovoye and Belogorovka, as well as near the Artemovsk-Lysichansk highway in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe captured Nikolaevka. The pressure on the enemy front north of Soledar will obviously increase in the coming days. The enemy, in turn, will prepare to defend the Soledar-Seversk line.

5. Artemovsk.
Fights in Klinovoe and near Pokrovsky. So far, it has not been possible to completely cut off the Novolugansk and Uglegorsk TPPs. The enemy is still holding Semigorye.

6. Avdiivka.
Positional battles near the Avdeevka-Konstantinovka highway and on the outskirts of New York. After the build-up of counter-battery work on our part, the intensity of shelling of Donetsk decreased somewhat.
In addition to terrorist shelling, the enemy fires at the DPR army units and targets ammunition depots. Our troops are focused on the destruction of guns and MLRS of the enemy.

7. Carbon.
Quite intense fighting continues in the area of ​​Yegorovka and Pavlovka. The enemy is trying by his activity to force the command of the RF Armed Forces to reduce pressure in other directions and along the way to improve their tactical position, taking advantage of the fact that there are no large forces in the Uludar direction now.

8. Kharkov.
The RF Armed Forces have seized the operational initiative in this direction and are putting pressure on the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of ​​Uda, Tsupovka, Dementievka and Verkhny Saltov.
A direct threat to Kharkov and Chuguev has not yet been created - so far, the UAF is gradually taking away what was lost in May during the counteroffensive of the UAF to the border.

9. Slavyansk.
Fighting in the area of ​​the Valley and Krasnopolye, as well as in the area of ​​Prishib, Bogorodichny and Sidorovo. The pace of progress here is still low.

10. Nikolaev.
Positional battles in the Nikolaev and Krivoy Rog directions. The activity of both sides is constrained by artillery.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to inflict intensive strikes on manpower and equipment in Nikolaev, incidentally inflicting strikes on Krivoy Rog and in the Nikopol directions. The Armed Forces of Ukraine are trying to fire missiles at Kherson and Skadovsk.

11. Odessa, Izyum, Zaporozhye - no significant changes.

https://t.me/boris_rozhin - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7700028.html

Severodonetsk liberated
June 25, 20:21

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June 25 is the day of the second liberation of Severodonetsk from the Nazis.
In the evening of this day, the Russian Defense Ministry officially confirmed the establishment of full control over the entire territory of Severodonetsk. All civilian hostages at the Azot plant were also released. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine also recognized the loss of Severodonetsk. Earlier, Zelensky said that the fate of Donbass was being decided in Severodonetsk. The fate of the Donbass was decided by the troops under the command of General Surovikin.

Borovskoye, Sirotino and Voronovo have also been liberated. The remnants of the enemy forces fled to Lisichansk, which has been in operational encirclement for 2 days. Gorskoe and Zolotoe were also liberated today. The remnants of the enemy forces tried to break through the minefields near Stepnoy.
All in all, a very successful day. We are waiting for the liberation of Lisichansk and the completion of the liberation of the territory of the LPR.
After that, Artemovsk, Soledar and Seversk will come to the fore. And of course Slavyansk.

The official statement of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the liberation of Severodonetsk:

The units of the People's Militia of the Lugansk People's Republic, with the support of Russian troops under the command of Army General S.V. Surovikin, as a result of successful offensive operations, completely liberated the cities of Severodonetsk and Borovskoye, the settlements of Voronovo and Sirotino of the Luhansk People's Republic.

Thus, the enemy's attempt to turn the industrial zone of the Severodonetsk enterprise "AZOT" into a stubborn center of resistance was thwarted. Currently, the territory of this enterprise is controlled by units of the People's Militia of the Luhansk People's Republic.

With the liberation of Severodonetsk and Borovskoye, the entire left-bank territory of the Seversky Donets within the borders of the Luhansk People's Republic came under its full control.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7699930.html

Regarding terrorist attacks in the liberated territories.
June 25, 14:51

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Regarding terrorist attacks in the liberated territories.

1. They were, are and will be. The situation there will be identical to the situation in the Caucasus after the 2nd Chechen war, after which a long CTO was required, when it is simply necessary to simply shoot the most stubborn and destroy the main terrorist networks of cells.

2. Accordingly, it is necessary not to fall into hysterics, but to methodically strengthen the CTO regime with the involvement of local resources, to strengthen control and shoot Ukrainian terrorists. The main thing is the methodicalness and the inevitability of retribution.

3. The SBU and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense must be officially recognized as terrorist organizations, equated with ISIS and Al-Qaeda, in order to remove unnecessary restrictions on the elimination of Bandera terrorist cells and their agents in the liberated territories. The leaders and functionaries of these structures must also be hunted individually, just as the hunt was carried out for the leaders of Chechen militants or ISIS emissaries.

4. Elements of the Soviet experience in the fight against Bandera in Western Ukraine must be studied and implemented, adjusted for the current situation. Ultimately, in the 40-50s, the USSR showed a successful example of the elimination of the structure of the Bandera bandit underground supported by the USA and NATO. Of course, this is not about copying the Soviet experience, but about introducing its useful elements for current conditions.

https://t.me/boris_rozhin/55019

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7699285.html

Google Translator

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From Cassad's Telegram account:

***

Forwarded from
ANNA-NEWS
🇺🇦🇷🇺The main events of the special military operation in Ukraine on June 25:

🔹Severodonetsk was liberated. The entire left bank of the Seversky Donets was under the control of the LPR
🔹The allied forces of Russia and the LPR continue the operation near Lisichansk, the enemy grouping in this direction is in operational encirclement
🔹A series of strikes were inflicted on Ukrainian military facilities, up to 50 missiles were fired. The targets were the training center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine "Desna", the Yavoriv training ground and facilities in the city of Sarny, Rivne region
🔹In the area of ​​Zolote and Gorskoe, the cleansing of the liberated territory and the collection of trophies continue. The authorities of Russia and the LPR provide humanitarian assistance to the civilian population in the liberated territories

***

Forwarded from
Rybar
❗️🇷🇺🇺🇦 Offensive on Donbass: the situation in the east of Ukraine
by the end of June 25, 2022

▪️In the Kharkiv region , the RF Armed Forces are fighting in the vicinity of Verkhniy Saltov and Pitomnik .

▪️Allied forces under General of the Army Surovikin occupied Severodonetsk , Borovskoye , Voronovo, and Sirotino .
➖During the day, the NM of the LPR and the RF Armed Forces took control of the territory of the Azot plant in the south of Severodonetsk .
➖The final cleansing of the left bank of the Seversky Donets will take at least a few more days, after which the entire territory of the LPR on this side of the river will come under the control of the Republic.

▪️Fierce fighting continues on the southern outskirts of Lisichansk .
➖The clashes go for the Lisichansk gelatin plant , RTI, glass factory. Belaya Gora is currently in the gray zone, the fighting is still ongoing.
➖Separate disorganized groups infiltrate through the encirclement in Gorskoye and withdraw towards the Lisichansk Oil Refinery and Bakhmut .

▪️In the Soledar direction, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are pulling personnel and equipment to the Seversk-Zvanovka-Soledar-Bakhmut-Zaitsevo line .
➖At the turn of Pokrovskoye - Klinovoe - Semigorye , the Wagner PMC assault detachments are fighting and preparing for a breakthrough on Bakhmut.
➖There are fierce battles in the area of ​​​​Klinovoye and Pokrovsky
➖The Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to hold the territory of the Uglegorsk TPP , Kodema, Semigorye and Novoluganskoye .

▪️In the Ugledar direction , units of the Russian army continue to fire at the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, preventing them from going on the offensive.

▪️In the Zaporozhye region , the RF Armed Forces attacked enemy positions in Poltavka.

▪️In the Krivoy Rog direction of the side, the Russian army attacked the facilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Shirokovsky and Zelenodolsk regions.

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***

Forwarded from
sunshine
We publish the data of another denazified Nazi:
TSYGANKOV Yakov
Organization: "Right Sector"

Note: the militant under the pseudonym "Yashka Tsygankov" was a member of the "Right Sector". Being a native of Georgia, since 2014 he participated in a punitive operation against the inhabitants of Donbass. In 2015, he “became famous” as a complete sadist by publishing photographs with a captured DPR fighter Viktor Korobkov, whose fingers were cut off.

Subsequently, after the exchange of prisoners, the militia told reporters that the Nazis first shot him in the arm, and then cut off his fingers. Tsygankov himself then called the torture of the militia "a successful training for an attack on Donetsk."

Tsygankov had 8 years to dump in his Georgia, but he really liked the feeling of his own impunity ... This feeling ruined him: his carcass was denazified by brave warriors somewhere near Kharkov.

For more information about this Nazi, visit our website .

Project Sunshine - we'll burn them to the ground.

***

Forwarded from
⚔WELDERS
The “planned withdrawal” of the ukrovermacht for individual champions of the independent turned into a run through a minefield.

The current situation is the result when politicians begin to use the army for the sake of PR and the achievement of private political goals.

In the case of Severodonetsk and Lisichansk, everything is simple. By holding them, the Armed Forces of Ukraine were supposed to demonstrate the stability of their defense and the effectiveness of the supply of Western weapons.

Zaluzhny is well aware of the need to conduct mobile defense, despite the importance of these key cities, the loss of which calls into question the existence of the entire grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in this direction.

But Zelensky is also aware that by giving all the initiative to the military, he will not be able to make a beautiful picture on TV, and a planned retreat to “save the lives of military personnel” will turn into a hopping run all the way to Kyiv. And in the same place they can also call on Bankovskaya, ask questions.

***

Forwarded from
Operation Z: Military Correspondents of the Russian Spring
0:05
‼️🇺🇸🇺🇦👎American M777 howitzers are impossible to conduct rapid fire

It has long been wondered why all the videos with the combat work of M777 howitzers in Ukraine always include no more than one shot, or is a gluing of single shots. The scouts gave us the answer🅾️the brave ones who learned from the radio intercept data that the sight mounts break off over time when firing. In view of this, in order to save the gun, Ukrainian artillerymen have to remove the sight before firing every time after aiming. Taking into account the fact that all but four howitzers delivered from Canada have an optical fire control system, this is a very critical shortcoming. The already simplified version of the howitzer, which does not have a digital fire control system, becomes very ineffective in terms of rate of fire and accuracy of firing.

***

Сolonelcassad
Disperse boys, Severodonetsk is no longer important.

The National Guard explained the reason for the departure of the Ukrainian defenders from the city and told the details.

“The purpose of the withdrawal is to save the lives of our soldiers, who are now responsible for the defense of this city. The situation in Severodonetsk is reminiscent of the situation in Rubezhnoye, which was practically wiped off the face of the earth by Russian bombs and Russian shells, and it really makes little sense to keep it, despite the fact that it was destroyed by more than 90%," the press said on the air of the telethon. - Officer of the Rapid Response Brigade of the National Guard Khariton Starsky.

We are waiting...

The situation in Lisichansk resembles the situation in Severodonetsk
The situation in Artemovsk resembles the situation in Lisichansk
The situation in Slavyansk resembles the situation in Artemovsk

In general, you already understood the scheme of excuses.

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 » Sun Jun 26, 2022 2:25 pm

The war at the front and in the rear
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 06/26/2022 ⋅ LEAVE A COMMENT

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Yesterday morning, Chechen leader Ramzán Kadyrov stated on his social networks that Russian troops, including Chechen units, had rescued hundreds of civilians who were in the Azot chemical factory in the town of Severodonetsk. Shortly after, an Izvestia report confirmed the evacuation of civilians from the factory. With this, the industrial zone of Severodonetsk, the only point under control of the Ukrainian troops, is finally in the hands of the LPR and the battle now moves to neighboring Lisichansk, the last city of Lugansk still in Ukrainian hands and where a part of the Severodonetsk garrison. Advancing from different points, the Russian and Republican troops have already begun to fight for the city.

However, not everything on the front is about advances and setbacks, but attention must also be paid to the use made of the civilian population in war. As in Azovstal, the use of Azot to claim control of a part of the city in a battle that was already lost reminds us that Ukraine continues to use the strategy of hiding behind the civilian population. This strategy goes much further and is not limited to the locations where the fight is taking place at any given time. In many cases, the strategy does not only take into account military, political or informational conditions, but there is also a clear component of collective punishment against a population that is considered disloyal.

Original Article: DonRF

At the beginning of the special military operation , the mayor of Nikolaev, aware that the defense of the city was futile, helped put military installations throughout the city and boasted that artillery units had been placed in residential neighborhoods. . Now the mayor of Nikolaev himself claims that citizens must leave their homes and flee. The city is going to be even more militarized and there will be no option to lift the siege. It is not the first case, the same thing happened in Chernigov, which was about to fall into Russian hands when the goodwill gesture [the Russian withdrawal, not only from the Kiev region, but also from Chernigov, where it had vantage points- Ed]. The same thing happened in Mariupol, Volnovakha or Severodonetsk, which only surrendered when they were already destroyed.

Ukraine has acted in the same way against the cities of Donbass. Fully aware that they will not be able to lift the siege of urban agglomerations: "In the last 24 hours, two civilians have died and five more have been injured as a result of Ukrainian bombing on the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic."

They attack the cities just to buy time and guarantee more destruction. The city of Kharkov has suffered a similar fate. As soon as the threat of conflict was identified, the city was quickly turned into a fortress and now the civilian population is hostage to the situation. Of course, this is not always the case. Kherson did surrender: "Savluchenko, director of the Department of Youth and Sports, was killed in a terrorist attack in Kherson, the local administration told RIA Novosti ."

Now there are periodic terrorist attacks there, as in other cities that have surrendered without a fight. The goal is to prevent governance and plunge the regions into anarchy. The tactic is very effective as long as you don't care about the population or what's going to happen to it. They do not care. This is something that should be understood by the population of the historical region of Novorossiya, which has become the battlefield.

Yesterday I read a reproach to the residents of Sviatogorsk [north of Slavyansk] in a Ukrainian public forum: “I see that our people are very happy to accept (alms) food from the enemy. You can convict me, but that same video is going to be used by the Rashists [a term widely used right now by Ukraine and its foreign supporters made up of a mix of Russian and fascist terms- Ed ] against us.”

There are many similar examples. According to Ukraine, the population of the lost territories should not eat or use transport, public services should not work, the crop should not be planted (there have been attempts to destroy the fruit of Kherson farmers), and doctors should not accept patients . All must willingly die in agony. So that the BBC has a good image. And those who do not die will be collaborators and traitors. These are not the words of some crazy person, it is the official policy of this semi-state that allows its security forces to commit terrorist acts against non-combatants.

What can you do about it? They may reproduce.

In cases where there are enough forces for a double ring encirclement, it pays to lay siege to the cities and then carry out one of those evacuations that have been so widely joked about. I remember that in Syria, fighters were allowed to leave besieged cities in convoys for territories that were safe for them. That gave them a chance to avoid a bloody assault, and the strategy paid off in the end.

Local authorities and garrison commanders can be warned that they will be personally responsible for the urban battles in those areas and it will happen without letting them flee to the European Union to use their partisans. Horrors are possible for a reason: they are not punished. The scheme is simple: they blow up a city, they raise their arms, they are fed, they are exchanged and they go to blow up another city.

Insurgents cannot be treated like ordinary combatants. Everyone on the other side should understand that there will be consequences for trying to play Breslau's siege. That will save both the population and the cities. Anyone enjoys simplicity. A person can be made to work in the liberated cities, but with population control measures. It is much better than terrorist attacks.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/06/26/24907/#more-24907

Google Translator

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

On the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus
June 26, 15:24

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On the deployment of nuclear weapons in Belarus

So, we have the official transcript of the conversation between Putin and Lukashenko, in which the nuclear issue surfaced:
http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/68702

Let's try to collect what follows from it.

1) Lukashenka expressed concern about the exercises of NATO countries with the participation of nuclear weapons carriers in the immediate vicinity of the borders of the Union State and suggested considering "the question of a mirror answer to these things, without busting."

2) Lukashenka asked for help to "adapt" the existing Belarusian aircraft to the use of nuclear weapons. I mentioned the Su-35, but they are not there. Apparently, he had in mind the Su-30SM ( https://t.me/vatfor/5858 ).

3) Lukashenka emphasized that we are not talking about the deployment of nuclear warheads directly on the territory of Belarus, at least in the short term.

4) Putin spoke about 200 tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of six NATO countries in Europe, and about 257 certified aircraft of NATO countries. Not exactly news. He confirmed that Russia has no bases with nuclear weapons outside the national territory.

5) Putin did not want to "mirror", but offered to "appropriately retrofit" the Belarusian Su-25 in Russia, with the appropriate training of pilots. Su-25s are not always recorded as TNW carriers, but there seem to be no particular obstacles. In addition to the fact that in general this is not the most obvious choice, especially in NATO, for example, the F-35 will become the main carrier of a similar class in the future.

6) Putin announced the transfer of the Iskander-M OTRK to the Belarusian Armed Forces in the coming months, and emphasized their "dual purpose", i.e. the ability to use cruise and (aero)ballistic missiles in conventional and nuclear equipment.

Now the questions that are of great concern to us:

a) Will item 3 be formalized?

b) Is it really about the Su-25 (p. 5) or, nevertheless, about other aircraft? Moreover, do we understand correctly that “refurbishment” is about adaptation to “nuclear” tasks?

c) What kind of "Iskanders" (clause 6), in what configuration, in what quantity (division? brigade?) and under what conditions (sale? netting on the chassis? leasing?) will end up in Belarus? Where will they be based? The topic is so very old, and very toxic ( https://t.

d) All together, this is very puzzling in the context of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons ( https://www.un.org/ru/documents/decl_co ... /npt.shtml ) and our traditional position on the violation by the United States and NATO countries of its paragraphs .1 and 2, which are traditionally understood as a ban on the creation of conditions by nuclear powers for the use of nuclear weapons by non-nuclear ones. By the way, we also have a relatively recent CSTO statement ( https://www.odkb-csto.org/upload/iblock ... 0cba48.doc ) on this matter:

The CSTO member states urge the states parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons that possess nuclear weapons to limit their deployment on their territories without deploying them abroad, to eliminate all infrastructure that allows for the rapid deployment of these weapons on the territory of non-nuclear states, to refrain from conducting exercises related to the development of skills in the use of nuclear weapons by the personnel of the armed forces of states that do not possess such weapons.

We also recall that after the amendments to the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus and the update of the Military Doctrine of the Union State, there are no formal obstacles to the deployment of nuclear weapons on Belarusian territory, which was noted at one time (https://www.iiss.org/blogs/analysis/202 ... ar-weapons ) incl. and in Western research organizations. Well, except for the collapse of the mentioned narrative about violations of the NPT by the US and NATO...

By the way, it is possible that these initiatives will have an impact on discussions around the fate of the Russia-NATO Founding Act ( https://www.nato.int/cps/ ru/natohq/official_texts_25468.htm ), and the current state. As a reminder:

NATO member states confirm that they have no intention, plan or reason to deploy nuclear weapons on the territory of new members and do not need to change any aspect of NATO's nuclear force posture or NATO nuclear policy, and do not foresee the need to do so in the future .


PS Last time this whole topic came up ( https://t.me/vatfor/7279 ) against the backdrop of talk about the possible appearance of American nuclear weapons in Poland. Apparently, they decided to stimulate.

https://t.me/vatfor/7838 - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7701008.html

Must go a long way. You can't force
June 26, 13:23

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Must go a long way. You can't force

We have at our disposal brief notes from a closed meeting of the EU Council at the level of permanent representatives, where the admission of Ukraine as a candidate member of the EU was discussed. Translation from English.

European Commission. A difficult situation. Russian aggression. They hope for us in Kyiv. It is important to show solidarity. Membership criteria must be met. I ask you to express your opinion in an expedited procedure. Georgia is not discussed, agreed earlier. Only Ukraine and Moldova are on the agenda.

Sweden. Ukraine does not meet the criterion of the rule of law. There is no political pluralism. The accelerated procedure is excluded.

Germany. The possible admission of Ukraine and Moldova will change the balance of power in the European Parliament. Even in the event of a return to the status quo of 2021, huge economic injections will be required. In any case, it will be perceived extremely negatively in the Balkans. Against the accelerated procedure.

France. In general, yes, but no specific deadlines can be set. It should be possible to play back if circumstances change or there is a clear non-compliance with membership criteria. We also support Moldova.

Poland. Ukraine can enter in the changed borders. Candidacy should not affect the existing mechanisms of economic assistance to EU members. There are too many refugees in the country. An equitable distribution scheme or a joint return effort is urgently needed.

Italy. Against the accelerated procedure. We regret that Georgia was not included in the list. We understand that there is no common border, but the issue must continue to be kept under review.

Hungary. We will support only on the understanding that this does not impose any obligations, does not automatically entail acceptance.

Romania. Together with Ukraine, Moldova should be accepted. An accelerated procedure is impossible, there will be problems with the Balkans.

Belgium. Now it is important to send a clear political signal – we are with Ukraine. Practical issues will be discussed later. Against the accelerated procedure. financial implications.

Luxembourg. Ukraine has deep problems with the rule of law. Doesn't meet criteria. Must go a long way. You can't force.

https://t.me/rezident_ua/12977 - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7700942.html

“We don’t care about the proposals of the separatists”
June 26, 12:25

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“We don’t care about the proposals of the separatists”

The French channel France 2 published the contents of the conversation between Macron and Putin 4 days before the start of the special operation
Les francophones, lisez ici ( https://www.leparisien.fr/international ... ppel-entre -emmanuel-macron-et-vladimir-poutine-revele-24-06-2022-5N47FPJXXVBW3JG7O7672VFLOU.php ).

The French President began the conversation bluntly: "I would like you to first tell me your vision of the situation and, perhaps, directly, as we both usually do, tell me about your intentions." "What can I say? You can see for yourself what is happening,” the Russian president replied, adding: “In fact, our dear colleague, Mr. Zelensky, is not doing anything (to implement the Minsk agreements). He is lying to you.”

Nextthe master of the Kremlin accused his French colleague of wanting to "revise the Minsk agreements" and asked to take into account the peace proposals of the separatists. Macron objected: “I don’t know where your lawyer studied law. I just look at the lyrics and try to apply them.”

Putin expressed regret that the separatists were not being heard. "We don't give a damn about the proposals of the separatists ," the French president snapped, adding that they were not covered by the agreement. But he offered to act as a mediator and hold a meeting of all parties. “I will immediately demand this from Zelensky.”

Macron finally got to the point of his call - convincing Putin to agree to a meeting with US President Joe Biden in Geneva to attempt a de-escalation at the summit. Putin showed little enthusiasm, even less enthusiastic about the idea of ​​setting a date: “To tell the truth, I was going to go play hockey (...) Now I'm talking to you from the gym. First, we need to prepare this meeting. Emmanuel Macron eventually got him to agree in principle. Immediately after the call, the Elysee Palace announced a future Biden-Putin summit, which never took place. And four days later, SVO began.

(c) Translation from French by Svetlana Kiseleva

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7700560.html

Google Translator

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Russia Is Running Out Of [Whatever The Media Claim]

The main stream media have no problem with contradicting their own reporting:

*U.S. Lacks a Clear Picture of Ukraine’s War Strategy, Officials Say - Jun 8, 2022 - New York Times
Intelligence agencies know far more about Russia’s military, even as the United States ships billions of dollars in weapons to the Ukrainians.
*Commando Network Coordinates Flow of Weapons in Ukraine, Officials Say - Jun 25, 2022 - New York Times
A secretive operation involving U.S. Special Operations forces hints at the scale of the effort to assist Ukraine’s still outgunned military.
> [S]ome C.I.A. personnel have continued to operate in the country secretly, mostly in the capital, Kyiv, directing much of the vast amounts of intelligence the United States is sharing with Ukrainian forces, according to current and former officials.
At the same time, a few dozen commandos from other NATO countries, including Britain, France, Canada and Lithuania, also have been working inside Ukraine. <


---
Another such scheme:

*Russia running out of precision munitions in Ukraine war- Pentagon official - Mar 25, 2022 - Yahoo/Reuters
*Is Russia running out of missiles? US, Russia send mixed messages - May 16, 2022 - Jerusalem Post
*Russia ‘running out’ of precision weapons - Jun 11, 2022 - UK Defense Journal
*Russia Unleashes a Missile Barrage, While Inching Ahead in Eastern Ukraine - Jun 25, 2022 - New York Times


There are only a few 'western' sources who have a grip on reality:

The Return of Industrial Warfare - Jun 17, 2022 - RUSI
> The expenditure of cruise missiles and theatre ballistic missiles is just as massive. The Russians have fired between 1,100 and 2,100 missiles.
...
The initial stockpile in February 2022 is unknown, but considering expenditures and the requirement to hold substantial stockpiles back in case of war with NATO, it is unlikely that the Russians are worried. In fact, they seem to have enough to expend operational-level cruise missiles on tactical targets. The assumption that there are 4,000 cruise and ballistic missiles in the Russian inventory is not unreasonable. This production will probably increase despite Western sanctions. In April, ODK Saturn, which makes Kalibr missile motors, announced an additional 500 job openings. <

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This 'Russia is running out of ...' thingy is by the way a recurring scheme:

*Is Russia Running Out of Money? - Apr 26, 2022 - Trustnodes
*Russia needs to sell oil. It's running out of options - May 9, 2022 - CNN Business
*Russia running out of weapons, can be defeated by Ukraine – UK Secretary - May 9, 2022 - Daily Trust
'*Russia is running out of manpower' and Putin may have to shrink his war aims more: national security analyst - May 16, 2022 - Raw Story
*Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is running out of steam, again - May 16, 2022 - Economiest
*Vladimir Putin is running out of options to avoid defeat in Ukraine - May 17, 2022 - Atlantic Council
*Crippled Russia running out of weapons as embarrassing war ending looms 'Shockingly inept' - May 21, 2022 - Express
*Russia ‘running out of ideas’ in 3-month-old war. Can Ukraine win? - May 24, 2022 - Global News
*The Russian Army Is Running Out Of Tanks For The War In Ukraine. These 60-Year-Old T-62s Are Proof. - May 25, 2022 - Forbes
*Russia sanctions: Now the country is also running out of chips - Jun 2, 2022 - Basic Tutorials
*Russia running out of troops and equipment as 'catastrophic' war hits 100 days - experts - Jun 3, 2022 - Daily Star
*Time is running out for Russia, German economy minister says - Jun 2, 2022 - Reuters
*Vladimir Putin running out of soldiers as catastrophic Ukraine invasion hits 100 days - Jun 4, 2022 - Mirror
*Russian Army Running Out Of Ammo, But War To Continue For 'Long Time': Western Officials - Jun 22, 2022 - IBT
*Russian Army Could Soon Run out of Weapons and Troops: Boris Johnson - Jun 22, 2022 - Newsweek
*Russia will soon exhaust its combat capabilities, Western assessments predict - June 25, 2022 - Washington Post


Small shifts in territorial control matter less than the overall balance of forces, which analysts say could shift back in favor of Ukraine in the coming months
Yeah, sure!

Now cope with this and guess again what someone is is running out of:

*Ukraine war: 80% of troops killed or injured in elite military unit, says commander. - Jun 25, 2022 - Skynews
> Speaking near the frontline, south of the city of Severodonetsk, company commander Oleksandr said a core of experienced soldiers who had been fighting together since 2018 have been lost.
"My unit was 100% made up of professional soldiers who have a lot of experience. Now, 80% are incapacitated from serious injuries or death," he says.

In comments which will alarm those backing Ukraine in its four-month long war with Russia, he says he does not know how long his unit can sustain such losses. <


Posted by b on June 26, 2022 at 7:47 UTC | Permalink

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

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And now, a message from a think tank which has absolutely nothing to do with the Masters Of War
The Return of Industrial Warfare
Alex Vershinin
17 June 2022

Image
Adobe Stockbublik_polina / Adobe Stock

Can the West still provide the arsenal of democracy?

The war in Ukraine has proven that the age of industrial warfare is still here. The massive consumption of equipment, vehicles and ammunition requires a large-scale industrial base for resupply – quantity still has a quality of its own. The mass scale combat has pitted 250,000 Ukrainian soldiers, together with 450,000 recently mobilised citizen soldiers against about 200,000 Russian and separatist troops. The effort to arm, feed and supply these armies is a monumental task. Ammunition resupply is particularly onerous. For Ukraine, compounding this task are Russian deep fires capabilities, which target Ukrainian military industry and transportation networks throughout the depth of the country. The Russian army has also suffered from Ukrainian cross-border attacks and acts of sabotage, but at a smaller scale. The rate of ammunition and equipment consumption in Ukraine can only be sustained by a large-scale industrial base.

This reality should be a concrete warning to Western countries, who have scaled down military industrial capacity and sacrificed scale and effectiveness for efficiency. This strategy relies on flawed assumptions about the future of war, and has been influenced by both the bureaucratic culture in Western governments and the legacy of low-intensity conflicts. Currently, the West may not have the industrial capacity to fight a large-scale war. If the US government is planning to once again become the arsenal of democracy, then the existing capabilities of the US military-industrial base and the core assumptions that have driven its development need to be re-examined.

Estimating Ammo Consumption

There is no exact ammunition consumption data available for the Russia–Ukraine conflict. Neither government publishes data, but an estimate of Russian ammunition consumption can be calculated using the official fire missions data provided by the Russian Ministry of Defense during its daily briefing.

Number of Russian Daily Fire Missions, 19–31 May
(See chart at link)

Although these numbers mix tactical rockets with conventional, hard-shell artillery, it is not unreasonable to assume that a third of these missions were fired by rocket troops because they form a third of a motorised rifle brigade’s artillery force, with two other battalions being tube artillery. This suggests 390 daily missions fired by tube artillery. Each tube artillery strike is conducted by a battery of six guns total. However, combat and maintenance breakdowns are likely to reduce this number to four. With four guns per battery and four rounds per gun, the tube artillery fires about 6,240 rounds per day. We can estimate an additional 15% wastage for rounds that were set on the ground but abandoned when the battery moved in a hurry, rounds destroyed by Ukrainian strikes on ammunition dumps, or rounds fired but not reported to higher command levels. This number comes up to 7,176 artillery rounds a day. It should be noted that the Russian Ministry of Defense only reports fire missions by forces of the Russian Federation. These do not include formations from the Donetsk and Luhansk separatist republics, which are treated as different countries. The numbers are not perfect, but even if they are off by 50%, it still does not change the overall logistics challenge.

The Capacity of the West’s Industrial Base

The winner in a prolonged war between two near-peer powers is still based on which side has the strongest industrial base. A country must either have the manufacturing capacity to build massive quantities of ammunition or have other manufacturing industries that can be rapidly converted to ammunition production. Unfortunately, the West no longer seems to have either.

Presently, the US is decreasing its artillery ammunition stockpiles. In 2020, artillery ammunition purchases decreased by 36% to $425 million. In 2022, the plan is to reduce expenditure on 155mm artillery rounds to $174 million. This is equivalent to 75,357 M795 basic ‘dumb’ rounds for regular artillery, 1,400 XM1113 rounds for the M777, and 1,046 XM1113 rounds for Extended Round Artillery Cannons. Finally, there are $75 million dedicated for Excalibur precision-guided munitions that costs $176K per round, thus totaling 426 rounds. In short, US annual artillery production would at best only last for 10 days to two weeks of combat in Ukraine. If the initial estimate of Russian shells fired is over by 50%, it would only extend the artillery supplied for three weeks.

The US is not the only country facing this challenge. In a recent war game involving US, UK and French forces, UK forces exhausted national stockpiles of critical ammunition after eight days.

Unfortunately, this is not only the case with artillery. Anti-tank Javelins and air-defence Stingers are in the same boat. The US shipped 7,000 Javelin missiles to Ukraine – roughly one-third of its stockpile – with more shipments to come. Lockheed Martin produces about 2,100 missiles a year, though this number might ramp up to 4,000 in a few years. Ukraine claims to use 500 Javelin missiles every day.

The expenditure of cruise missiles and theatre ballistic missiles is just as massive. The Russians have fired between 1,100 and 2,100 missiles. The US currently purchases 110 PRISM, 500 JASSM and 60 Tomahawk cruise missiles annually, meaning that in three months of combat, Russia has burned through four times the US annual missile production. The Russian rate of production can only be estimated. Russia started missile production in 2015 in limited initial runs, and even in 2016 the production runs were estimated at 47 missiles. This means that it had only five to six years of full-scale production.

If competition between autocracies and democracies has really entered a military phase, then the arsenal of democracy must radically improve its approach to the production of materiel in wartime
The initial stockpile in February 2022 is unknown, but considering expenditures and the requirement to hold substantial stockpiles back in case of war with NATO, it is unlikely that the Russians are worried. In fact, they seem to have enough to expend operational-level cruise missiles on tactical targets. The assumption that there are 4,000 cruise and ballistic missiles in the Russian inventory is not unreasonable. This production will probably increase despite Western sanctions. In April, ODK Saturn, which makes Kalibr missile motors, announced an additional 500 job openings. This suggests that even in this field, the West only has parity with Russia.

Flawed Assumptions

The first key assumption about future of combat is that precision-guided weapons will reduce overall ammunition consumption by requiring only one round to destroy the target. The war in Ukraine is challenging this assumption. Many ‘dumb’ indirect fire systems are achieving a great deal of precision without precision guidance, and still the overall ammunition consumption is massive. Part of the issue is that the digitisation of global maps, combined with a massive proliferation of drones, allows geolocation and targeting with increased precision, with video evidence demonstrating the ability to score first strike hits by indirect fires.

The second crucial assumption is that industry can be turned on and off at will. This mode of thinking was imported from the business sector and has spread through US government culture. In the civilian sector, customers can increase or decrease their orders. The producer may be hurt by a drop in orders but rarely is that drop catastrophic because usually there are multiple consumers and losses can be spread among consumers. Unfortunately, this does not work for military purchases. There is only one customer in the US for artillery shells – the military. Once the orders drop off, the manufacturer must close production lines to cut costs to stay in business. Small businesses may close entirely. Generating new capacity is very challenging, especially as there is so little manufacturing capacity left to draw skilled workers from. This is especially challenging because many older armament production systems are labour intensive to the point where they are practically built by hand, and it takes a long time to train a new workforce. The supply chain issues are also problematic because subcomponents may be produced by a subcontractor who either goes out of business, with loss of orders or retools for other customers or who relies on parts from overseas, possibly from a hostile country.

China’s near monopoly on rare earth materials is an obvious challenge here. Stinger missile production will not be completed until 2026, in part due to component shortages. US reports on the defence industrial base have made it clear that ramping up production in war-time may be challenging, if not impossible, due to supply chain issues and a lack of trained personnel due to the degradation of the US manufacturing base.

Finally, there is an assumption about overall ammunition consumption rates. The US government has always lowballed this number. From the Vietnam era to today, small arms plants have shrunk from five to just one. This was glaring at the height of the Iraq war, when US started to run low on small arms ammunition, causing the US government to buy British and Israeli ammunition during the initial stage of the war. At one point, the US had to dip into Vietnam and even Second World War-era ammo stockpiles of .50 calibre ammunition to feed the war effort. This was largely the result of incorrect assumptions about how effective US troops would be. Indeed, the Government Accountability Office estimated that it took 250,000 rounds to kill one insurgent. Luckily for the US, its gun culture ensured that small arms ammunition industry has a civilian component in the US. This is not the case with other types of ammunition, as shown earlier with Javelin and Stinger missiles. Without access to government methodology, it is impossible to understand why US government estimates were off, but there is a risk that the same errors were made with other types of munitions.

Conclusion

The war in Ukraine demonstrates that war between peer or near-peer adversaries demands the existence of a technically advanced, mass scale, industrial-age production capability. The Russian onslaught consumes ammunition at rates that massively exceed US forecasts and ammunition production. For the US to act as the arsenal of democracy in defence of Ukraine, there must be a major look at the manner and the scale at which the US organises its industrial base. This situation is especially critical because behind the Russian invasion stands the world’s manufacturing capital – China. As the US begins to expend more and more of its stockpiles to keep Ukraine in the war, China has yet to provide any meaningful military assistance to Russia. The West must assume that China will not allow Russia to be defeated, especially due to a lack of ammunition. If competition between autocracies and democracies has really entered a military phase, then the arsenal of democracy must first radically improve its approach to the production of materiel in wartime.

https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/p ... al-warfare

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Minsk Deal was Used to Buy Time – Ukraine’s Poroshenko
JUNE 25, 2022

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Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Photo: STR / NurPhoto via Getty Images.

Petro Poroshenko said the Minsk agreements “meant nothing” and claimed credit for giving Kiev enough time to militarize

Petro Poroshenko has admitted that the 2015 ceasefire in Donbass, which he negotiated with Russia, France and Germany as president of Ukraine, was merely a distraction intended to buy time for Kiev to rebuild its military.

He made the comments in interviews with several news outlets this week, including Germany’s Deutsche Welle television and the Ukrainian branch of the US state-run Radio Free Europe. Poroshenko also defended his record as president between 2014 and 2019.

“We had achieved everything we wanted,” he said of the peace deal. “Our goal was to, first, stop the threat, or at least to delay the war – to secure eight years to restore economic growth and create powerful armed forces.”

He cited Sun Tzu’s stratagems as an inspiration for the deception. Winning a war does not necessarily require winning military engagements, Poroshenko said, calling the deal he made a win for Ukraine in that regard.

Poroshenko failed to be reelected in a landslide vote for President Volodymyr Zelensky, who promised voters that, unlike his predecessor, he would secure peace in Donbass.


In the interviews, Poroshenko spoke about his role in negotiating the Minsk agreements, a roadmap for reconciliation between his government and the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics. The former president apparently confirmed that Kiev hadn’t come to the talks in good faith, but simply wanted a reprieve after suffering a military defeat.

The agreements included a series of measures designed to rein in hostilities in Donbass and reconcile the warring parties. The first steps were a ceasefire and an OSCE-monitored pullout of heavier weapons from the frontline, which were fulfilled to some degree.

Kiev was then supposed to grant general amnesty to the rebels and extensive autonomy for the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Ukrainian troops were supposed to take control of the rebel-held areas after Kiev granted them representation and otherwise reintegrated them as part of Ukraine.

Poroshenko’s government refused to implement these portions of the deal, claiming it could not proceed unless it fully secured the border between the rebellious republics and Russia. He instead endorsed an economic blockade of the rebel regions initiated by Ukrainian nationalist forces.

Zelensky’s presidency gave an initial boost to the peace process, but it stalled again after a series of protests by right-wing radicals, who threatened to dispose of the new Ukrainian president if tried to deliver on his campaign promises.

Kiev’s failure to implement the roadmap and the continued hostilities with rebels were among the primary reasons that Russia cited when it attacked Ukraine in late February. Days before launching the offensive, Moscow recognized the breakaway Ukrainian republics as sovereign states, offering them security guarantees and demanding that Kiev pull back its troops. Zelensky refused to comply.

Now an opposition MP, Poroshenko, called on Western nations to provide more and heavier weapons for Kiev so that Ukrainian soldiers can “do [the West’s] job” and defend Europe from Russia. He also called for more anti-Russia sanctions and for his country to join the EU and NATO as soon as possible.

Poroshenko claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was the one who broke the Minsk agreements. He claimed credit for Ukraine not falling into Russia’s hands within a matter of days, which was the prediction of some Western officials. The country stood up to the attack thanks to military reforms that his government implemented, the former president claimed. Moscow never gave a timeline for its military operation in Ukraine, stating only that it has proceeded as intended.

The Ukrainian official also called for the “de-Putinization” of Europe, his own country and Russia itself. He said this meant curbing Russian influence in other nations and toppling Putin. It is the only way to save the world from an “existential threat” that, Poroshenko claimed, the Russian leader poses.

https://orinocotribune.com/minsk-deal-w ... oroshenko/

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Russian bombing of the Ukrainian capital leaves two injured

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According to the mayor of the Ukrainian capital, the Russian bombing seeks to intimidate the Ukrainians before the NATO summit next week. | Photo: Telegram: vitaliy_klitschko
Published June 26, 2022 (3 hours 17 minutes ago)

Russian troops are operating again in kyiv, an area where no bombings have been reported since the beginning of the month.

Two citizens were injured this Sunday in kyiv, Ukraine, after a bombing occurred in a residential area near the territory.

The Emergency Service reported that "after a bombardment" there was "a fire in a nine-story building" and according to preliminary reports, two people were sent to nearby hospitals.

The governor of the kyiv region, Oleksiy Kuleba, reported that "a missile was shot down by anti-aircraft defense in the kyiv region, the debris fell on a village."

"Search and rescue operations are underway at a residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district where the rocket landed. There are people under the rubble. Some residents were evacuated, two victims were hospitalized," he said.

The detonator was perceived around 06:30 (local time) and "several explosions were also reported in the Chevchenkivsky district", in the center of northwestern Ukraine.

The Russian bombardment in the early hours of Sunday in kyiv was aimed at "intimidating the Ukrainians" before the June 28-30 NATO summit in Madrid, according to the mayor of the Ukrainian capital, Vitaly Klitschko.


It is about "intimidating the Ukrainians (...) given the proximity of the NATO summit," said Klistchko, who went to the place where the bombing took place.

So far it has been announced that there are "ambulances and rescue personnel" in the area to evacuate individuals from the property.

According to Oleksiï Goncharenko, Russian troops fired 14 missiles at kyiv, a territory that had not received Russian defense since the beginning of June.

The spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, Igor Konashénkov, reported last Friday that the Russian Army had control over 10 settlements of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic (PLR) as a sign of the advance of these troops in the country.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/ucrania- ... -0005.html

Google Translator

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Lavrov: EU & NATO Are Bracing for War With Russia

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that the EU and NATO are assembling a coalition for war with Russia as "Hitler did during the Second World War". | Photo: Twitter @uawarinfo

Published 25 June 2022

Following the special operation Russia launched against Ukraine, countries from both organizations have imposed sanctions against Russia. In addition, NATO started redeploying more troops towards its eastern fringes bordering Russia, while EU nations resurrected talks of a European army.


Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has stated that the European Union and NATO seem to be forming a modern coalition essentiality with the goal to wage war against Russia. The minister drew parallels between current-day events and those of the first half of the 20th century when Germany was preparing an attack on the USSR.

"When the Second World War began, Hitler gathered a significant part, if not the majority part, of European countries under his banners for the war against the Soviet Union. Now, [...] the European Union, together with NATO, is forming such a modern coalition to fight [...] a war against Russia," Lavrov told reporters.

The minister also stressed that Moscow has few illusions regarding current anti-Russian sentiments in the EU or hopes that they will somehow dissipate in the foreseeable future. He added that it was the path that Europeans had chosen.

"Of course, we will be looking at the real actions of the European Union and following the steps it is taking. [We will monitor] whether candidate countries comply with these requirements or [if] they still try to maintain their independence," Lavrov said.


The Russian foreign minister brought up the example of Serbia that does not want to abdicate its policy-making independence as European politicians try to dictate to Belgrade how it should act. Serbia has been a candidate for EU membership since 2012.

Lavrov's comments came in the wake of the EU's decision to grant candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova, while excluding Georgia, which has refused to join anti-Russian sanctions so far. In line with the minister's warnings, EU leaders adopted a document the day after appointing new candidates which says that sanction pressure against Russia will continue and that candidate states should join the policy.

Candidate status is only the first step on the path to EU membership, which can take decades and does not guarantee the end result.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Lav ... -0001.html
"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 » Sun Jun 26, 2022 10:40 pm

MEASURES AND COUNTERMEASURES
LITHUANIA BLOCKS KALININGRAD: ANOTHER NATO PAWN AGAINST RUSSIA
Jun 25, 2022 , 10:41 am .

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Authorities of the Russian exclave point out that in the new economic conditions, instead of Lithuania, Russian operators should earn money from transit (Photo: Mikhail Golenkov / RIA Novosti)

A situation involving Lithuania, a NATO partner, is happening these days: as part of the implementation of the fourth sanctions package against Russia, the Lithuanian authorities declared last June 18 that they would not allow trains to enter Kaliningrad ( exclave Russian ) through its territory if they transport goods subject to European "sanctions".

According to experts, the ban would mainly affect metals, cement and other important merchandise, which is considered clearly illegal as it violates the international treaties signed between the two countries, and even with the European Union (EU).

Given the fragility of Russia's relations with the Baltic countries, such a decision was expected, so much so that Russia has been transporting goods through maritime transit for several months. It is also known that the decision to block transit is not just a Lithuanian initiative but rather responds to an initiative backed by the EU and, in particular, by Poland, an ex officio agitator in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

On June 20, before the meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg, the Lithuanian Foreign Minister, Gabrielius Landsbergis, stated categorically: "We are not dealing with the initiative of Vilnius (the capital of Lithuania), but with the implementation of the decision of the European Commission".

In statements to the press, he clarified that a similar ban will come into force on July 10 for cement, alcohol and some other goods, as of August 10 for coal and other solid minerals, as of December 5 for Russian oil.

RETURN STATEMENTS

The governor of the Kaliningrad region, Anton Alikhanov, who called the "openly hostile steps" a blockade, claimed that it is a ban on the supply of 40-50% of the range of goods, including construction materials, other products important for construction and production, finished products that were exported to "great" Russia. For his part, Dmitry Peskov, press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, stated that "the decision is unprecedented, it is a violation of everything and everything."

Lina Grigiene, press officer of the Lithuanian Customs Department, stated: "Land traffic between the Kaliningrad region and other regions of Russia has not been stopped or blocked. Passenger and cargo traffic that did not fall under the 'sanctions' continues. '. Lithuania has not introduced any unilateral, individual or additional restrictions."

The Lithuanian Minister of Transport, Marius Skuodis, and the Deputy Foreign Minister, Mantas Adomenas, affirm that there can be no talk of a blockade, "because Russia still has access to Kaliningrad by sea and by land."

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Map of the shore of the Baltic Sea where Kaliningrad is located, a Russian exclave embedded in the middle of Poland and Lithuania, EU and NATO countries (Photo: File)

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation summoned the Charge d'Affaires of Lithuania, Virginia Umbrasiene. She "declared a strong protest". On Smolenskaya Square, they emphasized: "The Russian Federation reserves the right to take measures to protect its national interests."

Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev added that its consequences will seriously affect the population of Lithuania. He has also assured that the restrictions on the traffic of goods and the growing influence of NATO in Eastern Europe are part of the campaign of Western pressure on Russia after the start of its military operation in Ukraine.

The spokeswoman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zajárova, has warned that Lithuania's decision will have consequences:

"One of the main questions was whether the response would be diplomatic. I can immediately say no. We will act in a practical way. Details will be announced once the response measures have been agreed."

WHAT IS KALININGRAD? WHY IS IT A STRATEGIC TERRITORY?

Kaliningrad is the name of a province ( oblast ) and a city located 1,200 kilometers from Moscow, embedded between two NATO members, Poland and Lithuania, and without any land border with Russia. It was born after World War II, when Soviet troops occupied what until then had been the German port of Königsberg, formerly part of East Prussia. After the allies (Soviet and British) destroyed most of the city and all the resident Germans were expelled to carry out a Russification process by the Soviet Union.

In 1945, after the fight with the Nazis and the Potsdam agreement, the territory of East Prussia was divided into three parts and given to Poland, Lithuania and Russia. There the latter has the base of its Baltic Fleet and is the only Russian port in Europe completely free of ice. In 2016, the Eurasian country added its Iskander-M medium-range missile system, which can carry both conventional explosives and nuclear warheads, to the powerful S-400 missile system it already had stationed in Kaliningrad.

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Iskander-M missiles are part of Russia's military deployment in response to NATO's advance on Eastern Europe (Photo: Politinformburo)

The Iskander-M system was adopted by the Russian armed forces in 2006, they are equipped with various mechanisms to try to penetrate enemy defenses and, from Kaliningrad, could reach all the Baltic republics and probably two thirds of the Polish territory. Their range of approximately 500 kilometers would put them in violation of the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty that prohibits the development and deployment of such weapons.

Analysts affirm that Russia has a "fairly complete variety of military capabilities" in Kaliningrad, among which what is known as the A2AD (Anti-Access Area Denial) system stands out. A military asset that allows "refusing access to an area by enemy forces, hindering their movements and their logistics infrastructure" through both defensive and offensive resources. Through this position, it could attack NATO command centers and embarkation and disembarkation points in the event of a conflict with the Baltic republics and the Alliance came to its defense, as dictated by Article V of the Atlantic Treaty.

Also a report by the Rand corporation assured in 2016 that the Russian army would take a few hours to continue advancing to take over the capitals of Estonia and Latvia. The threat that Russia perceives is not new, it has existed since the expansion of NATO, now worsened by the anti-ballistic missile defense system and the organization's military deployments to the east, however small they may be.

The Alliance has established a Multinational Divisional Command in Poland, which coordinates four battalions located in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, each with 1,100 soldiers. It has also held military exercises in the Baltic region, including one with more than 11,300 soldiers from 20 countries.

EVERYTHING LOOKS GRAY ON A HORIZON OF CONFLICT
For its part, since it left the Soviet orbit, Lithuania has become a satellite country of the West, together with Estonia and Latvia they are called the Baltic republics, they were integrated into the USSR until the beginning of 1991 when they achieved independence, in 2004 they went on to become full members of the EU and NATO, as part of the West's advance into Eastern Europe.

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On March 11, 1990, a year before the formal dissolution of the USSR, Lithuania became the first Baltic state to declare independence (Photo: File)

The following years were marked by the liberalization of the economy, notorious cases of corruption and a type of apartheid, which persists in Estonia, in which the population of Russian origin does not have full citizenship and cannot vote in elections.

Russia did not make any territorial claim on the areas with a large Russian majority that exist in Estonia, nor did it sponsor secessionist movements in them, in addition the withdrawal of its army from the three republics was carried out in an orderly manner without giving rise to notable incidents.

In 2009, the Lithuanian Parliament confirmed the existence of two secret prisons of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States, presumably used as detention centers, in 2003 and 2004. In 2011, the then Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe, Thomas Hammarberg, summoned Poland, Romania and Lithuania to give explanations about the existence of three high-security detention centers in their territories to carry out "forced interrogations" against suspected terrorists by the CIA.

In addition, Lithuania has had an "America Department" in its Ministry of Foreign Affairs, since 2005, which coordinates large financial flows from USAID for a regime change strategy in Belarus.

The measures that Russia could implement in a country like Lithuania are extensive, and risky for all involved:

*Cancellation of Lithuania's secession from the USSR and cessation of its existence as a subject of international law. It is assumed that in this case the NATO protection regime will cease to operate on the territory of Lithuania.
*Withdrawal from the agreements with the EU on Lithuania, which was able to join the EU and NATO because Russia recognized its borders in exchange for guarantees for the transit of Russian citizens and goods to and from Kaliningrad.
*If Brussels and Vilnius destroy the package of agreements signed in 2003 on the transit of Kaliningrad, then the EU should understand the consequences of its decision for the legitimacy of its own eastern border.
*Others claim that a military solution is not the best scenario because Moscow has other no less convincing arguments in its arsenal. For example, a naval blockade of the only Lithuanian port - Klaipeda.
*Russia's demand to return Klaipeda, the country's most important port city. The current borders of Lithuania were established by the USSR, and have nothing to do with the Republic of Lithuania, which declares itself the legal successor of pre-Soviet Lithuania and rejects the Lithuanian SSR as *"Soviet occupation". In fact, the only official successor to the USSR is the Russian Federation. This means that Moscow has the right to reconsider the ownership of the territories annexed to Lithuania during the Soviet period, in particular the ownership of the Klaipeda region.
*Lithuania's disconnection from the BRELL energy system (an energy ring that unites Belarus, Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) also appears on the horizon of the conflict that, encouraged by the EU, Lithuania wants to unleash. Even as he vigorously pretends he doesn't need to be connected to BRELL, there's no telling how his populace will feel after an actual shutdown and an increase in the price of everything from goods to fuel.
*Creation of the Suwalki corridor, a 96-kilometre strip of territory between Lithuania and Poland, which could connect the territory of Belarus (an important ally of the Kremlin) with the Kaliningrad region of Russia. It is the only land communication route between the Baltic countries and the rest of Europe.

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Since last April, Russian gas imports for Lithuanian consumption have been obtained from Norway through the Klaipeda regasification terminal, a port that could be claimed by Russia (Photo: File)

The great game that the EU opens, using Lithuania as a vanguard, takes place in the context of Russian advances in the special military operation in Ukraine, where the operational strategic initiative is in the hands of the Russian army.

Furthermore, if the West has not been able to fully defend a large country like Ukraine, it is unlikely to defend a small one like Lithuania. The serious impasse is a new affront by proxy of the United States against the Russian Federation and the alternative projects to the decadent hegemony of Atlanticism.

https://misionverdad.com/globalistan/li ... ntra-rusia

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War in Ukraine. Summary 06/26/2022
June 27, 0:17

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War in Ukraine. Summary 06/26/2022

1. Severodonetsk.
The control of the entire territory on the northern bank of the Seversky Donets was officially announced.
Nevertheless, according to the LPR law enforcement agencies, up to 1,000 enemy soldiers remain in the industrial zone and forest plantations, who could not retreat or changed into civilian clothes, trying to blend in with the civilian population. There are also foreign mercenaries among them.
The remnants of the Severodonetsk grouping, which retreated to Lisichansk, are now either being used to defend Lisichansk, or are gradually being pulled towards Seversk, while such an opportunity still exists.

2. Lisichansk.
The cleanup of Volcheyarovka has been completed. The enemy rolled back to Lisichansk. There are fights at the Lisichansk refinery and in Belaya Gora. There are battles for Verkhnekamenka, the retention of which is critically important for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, since in the event of its loss, the proposed withdrawal to Seversk could become a big problem.
The Seversk-Lysichansk highway is under the fire control of the RF Armed Forces. The enemy will have to solve the problem of the operational encirclement of the entire Lisichansk grouping.

3. Soledar.
Intensive fighting in Belogorovka, Berestovoye and in the Nikolayevka area near the Artemovsk-Soledar-Lysichansk highway. This road for the APU is completely lost.

4. Artemovsk.
Fighting in Klinovoe and in the direction of Pokrovsky. The Armed Forces of Ukraine note the accumulation of forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the Artemovsk direction and are waiting for the start of the assault on the city, but I believe that until our troops reach Soledar from the north, the assault on Artemovsk will not begin directly.
There are no changes near Kodema and Semigorye, as well as in the area of ​​Novolugansk and Uglegorsk TPPs.

5. Golden.
They report on the continuation of the cleansing of the territory of the boiler and active filtration measures, since a significant number of enemy soldiers, as in Severodonetsk, mixes with the local population. Those who were able to retreat from the cauldron are mostly now either in the Lisichansk area, or have retreated to Seversk and Artemovsk.

6. Avdiivka.
On the front to the north of the village without significant changes - positional battles are going on, as well as near New York. There is no significant progress here.
The enemy continues to shell Donetsk, Makiivka and other settlements, but somewhat less intensively than a week ago, after hitting artillery and MLRS positions. Today there were powerful blows to Avdiivka. In addition to terrorist shelling, the enemy continues to target roadblocks and warehouses using Western weapons and OTRK (including targets in the depths of the DPR and LPR.

7. Slavyansk.
Fights near the Valley, Krasnopolye and Mazanovka.
Fights near Sidorov, Prishib and Tatyanovka. According to Slavyansko - The Kramatorsk agglomeration is under attack

8. Ugledar.
Intense fighting continued in the area of ​​Pavlovka and Yegorovka, but the enemy was unable to develop success after entering Pavlovka. Nevertheless, attempts to completely oust our troops from the Yegorovka area will certainly continue.

9. Serpentine.
The enemy attacked the Tavrida drilling rig (the platform was damaged), and also continued attacks on the island, which were repulsed (1 Su-25 was shot down).
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine promises to continue the confrontation for Snake Island.

10. Nikolaev.
On the Nikolaev, Krivoy Rog and Nikopol directions without significant changes. In fact, there is no “attack on Kherson” - fuss continues in the villages between Nikolaev and Kherson.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Black Sea Fleet continue to inflict regular strikes on military facilities and accumulations of enemy manpower and equipment in Nikolaev and the Krivoy Rog region.

Odessa, Izyum, Marinka, Zaporozhye, Kharkiv - no changes.

https://t.me/boris_rozhin - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7702040.html

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From Cassad's Telegram account:

***

Сolonelcassad
Attack on Lisichansk.

All day on the armor. We rode in the vicinity of Volcheyarovka. Here in the east of Ukraine "motolyga" or "motolaba" is the queen of the fields. At full speed, dirt flies from under the tracks in the face. Then the sand creaks on the teeth for a long time ... not the most pleasant feeling.

But our suffering cannot be compared with those who remained to defend Lisichansk. The neck of the boiler is rapidly slamming shut. The group "Brave" is especially different. Yesterday they were able to free Volcheyarovka. Before that, it was possible to get to Lisichansk by 4 roads, now there are only two. In two or three days the lid of the boiler will slam shut.

The rest inside will be very, very bad. Already today, SU - 25 flew over our heads 10 times and worked on targets on the outskirts of the city. Add to this the constant artillery strikes and the roar of tank barrels. Such a bleak picture awaits those who cannot leave. And there will certainly be. Dozens of prisoners are already being taken. Basically, they are mobilized. They look shabby, but they are still alive and this is good news. More details in our material. Hope it comes out soon.

Alexander Kharchenko

***

forwarded from
🇺🇦Open Ukraine | Open Ukraine
“ Today, the Armed Forces of Ukraine can operate only 34 out of 108 M777 howitzers, the sharp ones have been destroyed or are being repaired,” - The National Interest

In Ukraine, they complain about the poor quality of American M777 howitzers, which fail in the first battle.

Today, this weapon is simply not suitable for further use, as it requires a long repair, the newspaper writes.

So let's win!

***

forwarded from
Rybar

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The situation in the Odessa direction and in the area of ​​​​Snake Island
as of 14.30 on June 26, 2022

▪️On the night of June 25-26, units of the grouping of heterogeneous forces of Ukraine carried out a massive shelling of the positions of the RF Armed Forces on Zmeiny Island .

▪️Barrel artillery was involved, including 155-mm M777 howitzers, and Western-made MLRS. In the area south of Zatoka , three MiG-29 fighters and one Su-25 attack aircraft were operating, probably taking off from the Voznesensk airfield .

▪️ According to a press release from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation , air defense units shot down a Su-25 aircraft, as well as 12 artillery shells and MLRS.

▪️The next shelling was preceded by increased activity of flights of reconnaissance aircraft of the US Air Force and NATO Air Force over the territory of Romania and the Black Sea - at least 10 units.

▪️A day before the previous attempt to attack Zmeiny on June 20, a similar picture was exactly observed: at least 10 reconnaissance aircraft were reconnaissance in the air (against the "normal" squad up to six aircraft units) .

🔻After a failed attempt on June 20, the Ukrainian command announced that the Ukrainian Armed Forces would continue attacks on the island until it was completely liberated. At night, probably, an assessment was made of the state of the air defense systems on Zmein (positions, number of systems and ammunition).

As in the previous case, reconnaissance aircraft of various types actively worked in the air: electronic and electronic intelligence and early warning radar. In the coming days, we should expect a more intense attack on the island's garrison.

It is for this purpose that the American leadership additionally transferred 18 patrol boats to the "mosquito fleet". It is possible that the surface equipment is either already on the way or has already been delivered to the Ukrainians. As a rule, the official approval of the bill takes place some time after the actual dispatch of military aid.

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

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

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

Post by blindpig » Mon Jun 27, 2022 1:36 pm

The fate of Donbass
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 06/27/2022

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More stable in terms of military advances and setbacks and political changes than in the first months of the Russian intervention, the war in Ukraine has once again undergone significant changes in recent days. With a consolidated front over hundreds of kilometers, the attacks and counterattacks of these weeks have produced slight changes both in the area of ​​the Kharkov region, where Russian troops have recovered the ground lost in the previous Ukrainian counteroffensive, and in the Kherson area, where Ukraine repeatedly announces great advances that have never produced consolidated successes.

However, this is the theater of operations in which Ukraine hopes to get more military revenue from the newly arrived Western weapons, hence the insistence on seeking media attention in an area where the press is scarce, so it is possible to get that filtered information is published as fact with the sole objective of creating an altered image of reality. Last week, there was even talk that Ukrainian troops had not only reached the city but had already captured several streets, information refuted by the city's population, who denied any urban combat.

In military terms, the Donbass scenario and the continuation of Russian missile attacks remain the basis of the war. The release of thousands of Russians continues despite the fact that, already in March, all the international press believed the Ukrainian version to be true, which stated that Russia had the resources to fight for just a few more weeks. That discourse has continued throughout the four months that the Russian intervention has lasted and this very week, Boris Johnson stated that he hopes that the pace of the Russian intervention will slow down, although his words seem to be based more on his wishes than on the data of intelligence.

Missile attacks have occurred almost daily in these months, but have increased in intensity in recent days, not only in areas near the front, for example Nikolaev, where the mayor called for the evacuation of the city, but also in some as far away as kyiv. This weekend, in which for the first time the Russian forces have used the territory of Belarus in the attacks, targets have been attacked in the city of kyiv, which since the Russian withdrawal had been in the background. One of the missiles, either because it missed its target or was shot down by Ukrainian air defense, hit an apartment building killing one person. Anton Gerashenko, advisor to the Ministry of the Interior and who is linked to the Mirotvorets website, which cost the life of journalist Oles Buzina,

Also condemning the Russian attack, whose objective was the nearby Artyom factory, the mediatic Oleskiy Arestovich, advisor to the Office of the President and main supporter of the theory that Russia is about to run out of resources with which to fight, stated on the networks social that there will be a response. "But not against civilians, as you do." A speech similar to the one used these days by Volodymyr Zelensky, who in the fight between orcs and elves , placed Ukraine in the enlightened elves against the savage orcs .

Hundreds of kilometers from Kiev, on the other side of the front line, which in that area has hardly moved since the start of the Russian intervention, the Ukrainian citizens of Donetsk continue to come under daily fire from the Ukrainian Grads , whom in recent weeks the 155mm ammunition delivered to Ukraine by NATO countries has joined. Since the escalation began on May 29, the capital of the DPR has experienced its worst weeks, with indiscriminate attacks on neighborhoods near the front, but also in the city center, for years safe from Ukrainian bombing that was limited to the line of separation. The danger for the civilian population of a city until now considered safe as Donetsk has increased markedly in recent weeks.

The will to shoot indiscriminately against a city lost eight years ago is a good indication of the Ukrainian strategy in Donbass, a region that has suffered significant military damage and whose industry is largely destroyed or stopped due to the economic blockade that Ukraine imposed from 2015. Unlike in areas that kyiv hopes to recover, such as Kherson, where the Ukrainian withdrawal was practically immediate, which has limited the damage, Ukraine has opted in Donbass for the tactic of fighting for each locality, guaranteeing thus the complete destruction of the cities.

Repeating the strategy that had already proved unsuccessful and destructive in Mariupol, Volodymyr Zelensky chose to deny the strategic withdrawal requested by the military authorities and personally gave the order to fight to hold Severodonetsk, the city in which Ukraine had installed its regional civil-military administration. after the loss of the city of Lugansk. "The fate of Donbass is at stake in Severodonetsk," said the Ukrainian president, according to the Ukrainian press on June 8. At that time, the Ukrainian troops maintained control of the industrial zone and the surrounding areas. A week earlier, an article in the French press quoted Ukrainian soldiers on the ground as saying the city was already lost to Ukraine, which had begun a partial withdrawal to nearby Lisichansk, a more advantageous position to defend Severodonetsk and, above all, the route between Lisicahsnk and Arytomovsk, right now one of the important focuses of the war. It is possible that Ukraine is already carrying out a partial withdrawal from Lisichansk in search of a front that it can defend more efficiently.

On Thursday, beginning a phase in which defeat has to become victory and Severodonetsk has to become a destroyed town and not worth defending, the governor of the part of Luhansk still under Ukrainian control (currently Lisichansk and some surrounding towns, all of them on the right bank of the Severskiy Donets), Serhiy Haidai prematurely announced that the Ukrainian troops would be forced to leave the city. Yury Butusov, a journalist from Tsensor.net who in recent weeks has earned the hatred of the authorities for revealing uncomfortable data for Ukraine, broke the news. Both received reproaches from Hanna Malyar, Deputy Defense Minister, who accused them of putting a withdrawal at risk that, in reality, did not involve the complications that it did, for example, theorderly and planned withdrawal from Debaltsevo in 2015. A part of the Ukrainian troops had already withdrawn and the Ukrainian contingent in Azot was small, so, despite the absence of bridges to Lisichansk, the short distance between the two towns has facilitated the work. In the face of the disastrous siege of Azovstal, which cost Ukraine hundreds of dead and wounded soldiers and more than 2,000 captured by DPR forces, there has been neither a mass surrender nor an extraction operation in Severodonetsk, but rather circumstances have marked the only possible step: withdrawal.

The battle has thus moved to the outskirts of Lisichasnk, where Russian troops (including Chechen units) and the RPL have advanced once the siege of Gorskoe and Zolotoe has been closed. There, too, there was a partial withdrawal of Ukrainian troops, who were to be completely isolated and unable to receive supplies. In Gorskoe, the RPL troops raised the flags of the Republic, that of the Russian Federation, and that of the Prizrak Brigade, which had been practically forgotten since the death of its commander Alexey Markov. Together with the Russian troops, the Prizrak soldiers advance towards the last city of Lugansk still under Ukrainian control, Lisichansk, defended in 2014 by its first commander, Alexey Mozgovoy. Journalists on the ground say the battle for the city has already begun, more propitious to the defense when being in height. Also there, Western journalists, such as those sent by the French chainFrance 24 , have been able to verify, to their surprise, that a large part of the population that remains in the city rejects the evacuation offered by the Ukrainian volunteers and hopes that the Russian troops will be victorious in the battle.

The fate of Donbass was not at stake in Severodonetsk, an important city, but whose capture is insufficient without neighboring Lisichansk, itself key to advancing towards the Artyomovsk communications hub and later towards Kramatorsk-Slavyansk. The fate of Donbass is at stake in each city that is fought for, in the subsequent reconstruction and in Ukraine's intentions now that it has received the long-range heavy artillery it demanded from its partners. "We will recover all the cities," Zelensky said, mentioning Severodonetsk, Lugansk and Donetsk (although not Sevastopol or Yalta, perhaps because of the commitment made to the United States not to attack Russian territory with Western weapons). In these weeks, his troops have shown how Ukraine intends to recover the lost territory: In addition to the intensification of the bombardments on civilian areas of Donetsk, cities such as Gorlovka also continue to be the target of the Ukrainian artillery in bombardments that do not seek territorial advances but rather to punish the population. To these cities have been added rearguard towns such as Stajanov in Lugansk or Snezhnoe in Donetsk, a town that had not been attacked for several years.

The Ukrainian defeat in Severodonetsk comes in a week in which Ukraine is expected to once again receive explicit support from its partners. The G7 has already announced that, at its meeting this week in Elmau, Germany, new sanctions against Russia will be introduced, despite the consequences these are having on Western economies and the difficulties they are going to cause in terms of energy supply for countries like Germany. It has already been confirmed that member countries will ban the import of Russian gold, possibly leading to an increase in its price.

In military terms, it is foreseeable that the NATO summit being held this week in Madrid will serve as the occasion for the announcement of more military aid to Ukraine by the member countries, which, led by the United States and especially Great Britain, continue to advocating increased military assistance to Ukraine in pursuit of a Russian military defeat at the front.

It is possible that the recent increase in missile attacks at a time when Ukrainian troops are suffering in Donbass is intended to maximize the victories in Donbass and pressure kyiv for negotiations. However, the option of diplomacy without waiting for a Russian withdrawal from Ukraine, defended to a certain extent by Emmanuel Macron (who believes that Ukraine could now negotiate in a position of strength), is clearly a minority in Ukraine and especially among its Western partners. As could already be glimpsed last March, the possibility of a negotiated resolution to the conflict is slim in the current conditions and the war will continue, at least, until the end of the battle for Donbass.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/06/27/el-de ... more-24913

Google Translator

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Cold Creator
June 27, 11:19

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Fresh cover of "Spiegel".
It turns out that cold weather is being sent to them from Russia.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7702610.html

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Western Officials Admit Ukraine Is Crawling With CIA Personnel

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The New York Times reports that Ukraine is crawling with special forces and spies from the US and its allies, which would seem to contradict earlier reports that the US intelligence cartel is having trouble getting intel about what’s happening on the ground in Ukraine.

This would also, obviously, put the final nail in the coffin of the claim that this is not a US proxy war.

In an article titled “Commando Network Coordinates Flow of Weapons in Ukraine, Officials Say,” anonymous western officials inform us of the following through their stenographers at The New York Times:

As Russian troops press ahead with a grinding campaign to seize eastern Ukraine, the nation’s ability to resist the onslaught depends more than ever on help from the United States and its allies — including a stealthy network of commandos and spies rushing to provide weapons, intelligence and training, according to U.S. and European officials.



Much of this work happens outside Ukraine, at bases in Germany, France and Britain, for example. But even as the Biden administration has declared it will not deploy American troops to Ukraine, some C.I.A. personnel have continued to operate in the country secretly, mostly in the capital, Kyiv, directing much of the massive amounts of intelligence the United States is sharing with Ukrainian forces, according to current and former officials.



At the same time, a few dozen commandos from other NATO countries, including Britain, France, Canada and Lithuania, also have been working inside Ukraine.



The revelation that the CIA and US special forces are conducting military operations in Ukraine does indeed make a lie of the Biden administration’s insistence at the start of the war that there would be no American boots on the ground in Ukraine, and the admission that NATO powers are so involved in operations against a nuclear superpower means we are closer to seeing a nuclear exchange than anyone should be comfortable with.

This news should surprise no one who knows anything about the usual behavior of the US intelligence cartel, but interestingly it contradicts something we were told by the same New York Times not three weeks ago.

“American intelligence agencies have less information than they would like about Ukraine’s operations and possess a far better picture of Russia’s military, its planned operations and its successes and failures,” NYT told us earlier this month. “U.S. officials said the Ukrainian government gave them few classified briefings or details about their operational plans, and Ukrainian officials acknowledged that they did not tell the Americans everything.”

It seems a bit unlikely that US intelligence agencies would have a hard time getting information about what’s happening in a country where they themselves are physically located. Moon of Alabama theorized at the time that this ridiculous “We don’t know what’s happening in our own proxy war” line was being pushed to give the US plausible deniability about Ukraine’s failures on the battlefield, which have only gotten worse since then.

So why are they telling us all this now? Well, it could be that we’re being paced into accepting an increasingly direct role of the US and its allies in Ukraine.


The other day Antiwar’s Daniel Larison tweeted, “Hawks in April: Don’t call it a proxy war! Hawks in May: Of course it’s a proxy war! Hawks in June: It’s not their war, it’s our war!”

This is indeed exactly how it happened. Back in April President Biden told the press the idea that this is a proxy war between the US and Russia was “not true” and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said “It’s not, this is clearly Ukraine’s fight” when asked if this is a proxy war. The mainstream media were still framing this claim as merely an “accusation” by the Russian government, and empire spinmeisters were regularly admonishing anyone who used that term on the grounds that it deprives Ukrainians of their “agency”.

Then May rolled around and all of a sudden we had The New Yorker unequivocally telling us that the US is in “a full proxy war with Russia” and hawks like US congressman Seth Moulton saying things like, “We’re not just at war to support the Ukrainians. We’re fundamentally at war, although somewhat through a proxy, with Russia, and it’s important that we win.”

And now here in June we’ve got war hawks like Max Boot coming right out and saying that this is actually America’s war, and it is therefore important for the US to drastically escalate the war in order to hand the Russians “devastating losses”.

https://twitter.com/MaxBoot/status/1538849455348359170

So the previously unthinkable idea that the US is at war with Russia has been gradually normalized, with the heat turned up so slowly that the frog doesn’t notice it’s being boiled alive. If that idea can be sufficiently normalized, public consent for greater escalations will likely be forthcoming, even if those escalations are extremely psychotic.

Back in March when I said the only “agency” Ukraine has in this conflict is the Central Intelligence kind, empire loyalists jumped down my throat. They couldn’t believe I was saying something so evil and wrong. Now they’ve been told that the Central Intelligence Agency is indeed conducting operations and directing intelligence on the ground in Ukraine, but I somehow doubt that this will stir any self-reflection on their part.

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/06/26 ... personnel/

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Union of Communists of Ukraine, About the war and the tasks of the working class
6/27/22 12:10PM

Statement of the Union of Communists of Ukraine

On the war and the tasks of the working class



The general assessment of the nature of the war launched under the guise of a special military operation (SVO) by the Union of Communists of Ukraine (UCU) generally coincides with the Statement of the Communist and Workers' Parties of February 24, 2022, supported by the UCU.

In this war, two imperialist groups of world capital clashed on the territory of Ukraine: an international capitalist alliance of countries led by the United States and NATO, and an international capitalist alliance of countries led by Russian state-monopoly capital. A number of the largest capitalist countries (China, India, etc.) have not yet directly entered into the unfolding conflict, but are waiting, assessing the prospects for its development. We agree with the conclusion that the source of this military conflict lies in the counter-revolutionary destruction of socialism in the USSR and the restoration of capitalism in the post-Soviet space.

The Ukrainian bourgeoisie, which grew up on the plunder of the economic resources of the Ukrainian SSR, on the seizure of property from the overwhelming majority of the population, as well as in Russia, quickly concentrated this property in the hands of a few oligarchic groups to the level of sectoral monopolies and, following the country's economy, "privatized" and state power. The contradictory position of these oligarchic groups consisted in the fact that they tried to limit as much as possible the participation in the concentration of private property in the country of both Russian and Western capital. At the same time, the big bourgeoisie tried to simultaneously actively cooperate with the Russian oligarchs in economic cooperation in order to obtain high profits through access to Russian energy resources at fairly low prices, and to flirt with the international capital of the West, because the resulting profits were placed in Western banks and privately owned in Western countries. For the ideological justification of the relative disengagement from the "East" and "West", the Ukrainian oligarchic bourgeoisie just needed the ideology of radical bourgeois nationalism, which also corresponded to the interests of Western countries (especially after the "orange revolution" organized by them in 2004) with its anti-Russian orientation. It was then that Bandera and Shukhevych began to be heroized in the public consciousness of Ukrainians. also corresponded to the interests of Western countries (especially after the Orange Revolution organized by them in 2004) with its anti-Russian orientation. It was then that Bandera and Shukhevych began to be heroized in the public consciousness of Ukrainians. also corresponded to the interests of Western countries (especially after the Orange Revolution organized by them in 2004) with its anti-Russian orientation. It was then that Bandera and Shukhevych began to be heroized in the public consciousness of Ukrainians.

For the working class of Ukraine and the broad proletarian masses of the city and countryside, the restoration of capitalism turned into a colossal narrowing and restriction of its rights in the process of de-industrialization of the country. But in conditions of political and ideological disorientation, the working class, trade unions and leftist parties were only capable of rearguard action. The discrediting of socialism by bourgeois propaganda pushed the Ukrainian proletariat to narrow its struggle to economic tasks only and pushed the most qualified strata to migrate abroad in search of better wages. SKU directly participated in these class battles of the nineties and zero years,

The immediate prerequisite for the growing confrontation between Russia and NATO countries on the territory of Ukraine was the global financial, commercial and industrial crisis of 2008 and its consequences. The long-term stagnation of the world economy and all the efforts of the leading capitalist countries to shift the consequences of this crisis onto the working class and the broad proletarian strata, as well as the dependent capitalist countries, have shown that there is no economic way out of this crisis within the framework of capitalism. To overcome this crisis, the leading capitalist countries, led by the United States, switched to direct robbery of a number of countries by unleashing for this a series of coups d'état through "color revolutions", local wars under the guise of "democratization" of countries.

The coming to power in 2010 of monopoly oligarchic groups led by Yanukovych, who were perceived as pro-Russian bourgeoisie, on the one hand, strengthened the cooperation of Russian and Ukrainian monopolies, but only to the extent that allowed the Ukrainian oligarchs to maintain control over the economy and property in the country. On the other hand, Yanukovych made his political advisers experts in electoral technologies from the United States and Great Britain, such as Manafort, who recommended him, on the basis of "opinion polls", to build an election campaign for re-election for a second term so that in the second round his opponent would be the leader Nazi party "Svoboda" (renamed social-nationalist party) Tyagnybok. As a result, it was with the money of allegedly “pro-Russian” oligarchs that Nazi groups began to grow from marginal groups to the level of political parties. They were given the opportunity to win elections to local councils in the western regions and to get their deputies into the Ukrainian parliament. For this purpose, Yanukovych did not even cancel the decrees of his predecessor Yushchenko on awarding the titles of "Hero of Ukraine" to Bandera and Shukhevych.

But Yanukovych's "advisers" played a different card behind his back. Under their leadership, pro-Western oligarchic groups, with the support of US and EU imperialism, carried out a coup d'état in 2014. The pro-fascist and Nazi organizations supported by them not only turned out to be the striking force of this coup d'etat, but were armed with the new oligarchic power and in the form of paramilitary "volunteer battalions" became its striking force.

The internal political significance of the Maidan 2014 coup d'etat was the completion of the counter-revolutionary destruction of the consequences of the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution, which gave the people of Ukraine the first national state in the form of the Soviet socialist state. The post-Maidan authorities with particular hatred destroyed everything that was connected with the victory of the revolutionary workers’ and communist movement on the territory of Ukraine and with the establishment of Soviet power, and also glorified those who were defeated and expelled during that revolution and civil war: starting from Petlyura and Skoropadsky and ending with Bandera, Shukhevych and other enemies of the working people of Soviet Ukraine.

The coup d'état marked the beginning of a civil war in Ukraine between supporters of the new nationalist government and its opponents, which led to the secession of Crimea and its absorption by Russia as a result of a referendum, as well as to the formation of the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (LDNR), which fell into a situation of prolonged armed confrontation with Kyiv power. And although even the participants in this confrontation themselves did not perceive it as a class one, but rather as an interethnic one, it was characteristic that all the oligarchic groups supported the post-Maidan government and, through the hands of their deputies in parliament, gave this government the appearance of legitimacy. And not a single oligarch, even from the Yanukovych group, went over to the side of the LDNR created during the civil war.

In terms of their social composition, especially in terms of the backbone of the armed formations, the republics of Donbass were proletarian in nature. And in their political form, they were bourgeois republics and simultaneously expressed the interests of both the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, who did not accept the radical anti-Russian nationalism of the post-Maidan authorities and its pro-Western course.

Since the formation of the LDNR, the UCU, given their internal inconsistency, has been involved in helping the workers and communist organizations of these republics in the formation of their ideological class position.

The bourgeois authorities of Russia in relation to the LDNR took a controversial position: on the one hand, it provided military and economic assistance to the republics of Donbass, and on the other hand, it did not recognize them politically and did not include them in the Russian Federation, like Crimea, but went to recognize the legitimacy of the puppet pro-fascist regime Turchynov-Poroshenko-Zelensky, to sign the Minsk agreements with this regime, which did not bring peace to the LDNR, and made the war a latent state on the line of demarcation for eight years, allowing the Ukrainian authorities to create a strong and Nazi-motivated army, which became a threat not only to the LDNR, but also to itself Russia.

The internal inconsistency of the position of the Russian bourgeois state in relation to the LDNR and the post-Maidan authorities is due to the fact that its economic interests were closely intertwined with both the capital of the Western countries and the Ukrainian oligarchic capital. Russian politicians scolded the “Maidan authorities”, and Russian oligarchs, together with the Ukrainian oligarchs, profited from the use of pipelines through the territory of Ukraine (the ammonia pipeline from Tolyatti to the Odessa port plant stopped its work only on February 24, 22), resale of Donbass coal to Ukraine according to the scheme “ Rotterdam +”, resale of metallurgical and other products.

In the same way, the Ukrainian oligarchs cursed the “Russian aggressor” through their politicians, and continued to extract joint profits. It is the economic interests of the Russian bourgeoisie that explain, first of all, why the LDNR so actively opposed the demands of the workers of Donbass for the nationalization of enterprises owned by Ukrainian oligarchs, why the military operation against the pro-fascist puppet regime in Ukraine was postponed. And only secondarily is this due to the need to complete the rearmament of the Russian army.

The real reasons for the SVO lie in the fact that the Russian oligarchic bourgeoisie has realized that it will not be able to economically overcome the consequences of the global financial and economic crisis. It finally decided to sacrifice that small share of the profits that was derived from cooperation with the Ukrainian oligarchs and with the capital of the West, for the sake of redistributing spheres of influence in the global economy and capturing new markets for its goods, as well as counteracting the growing efforts of the NATO countries led by the United States to seizing the territory of Russia and gaining access to its raw materials.

This war is not in the interests of the "Russians", "protection of the Russian-speaking population", "denazification" of the Ukrainian state, but in the interests of the Russian capital, which felt the danger and the need to create new international conditions to ensure further opportunities for profit to increase their capital. This war does not embody or protect any interests of Russian, Tatar, Chuvash, Yakut workers and workers of all other nationalities of the Russian Federation.

The puppet regime in Ukraine is participating in this war in the interests of the Ukrainian oligarchs, who have made themselves completely dependent on the big capital of the West and NATO, who have turned the Ukrainian army into an advanced military detachment of the Western bourgeoisie. The war is not for the “Ukrainian nation”, not for the “Ukrainian language and culture”, not even for “European values”. This is a war for the united interests of the Ukrainian and international bourgeoisie, which coincide in their desire to destroy the economic and political power of the Russian bourgeoisie. This war does not protect any interests and rights of Ukrainian workers. Both Ukrainian and Russian workers in this war have the right and duty only to go to the front and die so that one of the groups of the world bourgeoisie will defeat the other and get more monopoly rights to oppress the workers, as their own country,

Thus, the military conflict, which began in the form of civil confrontation and civil war on the territory of Ukraine, with the beginning of the NMD develops into an imperialist conflict - it becomes the beginning of an imperialist world war. With the beginning of the NMD, the parties to the conflict actually become: on the one hand, the Russian bourgeois state, on the other, the NATO bloc, waging war with the hands of the Ukrainian army, providing it with weapons, ammunition, intelligence, planning military operations with the participation of its military "advisers", training the army , information propaganda, cybernetic support and so on.

Secondly, the goals of warfare are changing. If at the first stage of the civil conflict the Ukrainian regime set as its goal the restoration of state control over the Ukrainian territories where this control was lost, then at the second stage it was the destruction of Russia as a condition for the existence of Ukraine. The Russian bourgeois regime at the first stage declared its goal only to support the LDNR in the conflict with the Kyiv regime, and at the second stage it was to ensure international conditions for the capitalist development of Russia and overcome NATO opposition for this. It is only in this context that the goals of "denazification" and "demilitarization" declared by the Russian state acquire real meaning. The demand for the "denazification" of Ukraine is gradually developing into a demand for the "denazification" of the Baltic States, Poland, Europe and the entire Western world, because "they are all infected with the Nazism of the West." Similarly, the demand for "demilitarization" will expand in the same direction as the military conflict develops. In fact, both of these demands are only a cover for the real imperialist aims of the war.

The development of the military conflict on the territory of Ukraine has shown that its leading trend is its development into an open clash between two imperialist blocs: Russia and its allies, and NATO. This means the escalation of the war into a nuclear conflict and the emergence of a real threat of the annihilation of mankind. It is quite possible that the danger of nuclear war rising to its full height may lead to compromises between the opposing sides of the conflict. But this, in any case, will be a temporary compromise in favor of one of the parties, which will only be a respite for a new resumption of struggle and hostilities.

For the working class of Ukraine, this imperialist war bears the most tragic consequences. It is on the shoulders of the workers that the role of "cannon fodder" and the inevitability of death during hostilities, mass impoverishment, unemployment, complete restriction of rights and freedoms for the sake of protecting the interests of the Ukrainian big bourgeoisie, oligarchs and the interests of the bourgeoisie of the West in the destruction and robbery of Russia, the seizure of its natural resources falls. . This will inevitably be accompanied by the destruction and seizure of Ukrainian industrial and natural resources, including in the event of Russia's success. The same fate awaits the overwhelming majority of the Ukrainian petty bourgeoisie.

The big bourgeoisie has already bought off their children from the war and taken them abroad, just as they took their capital. But this is not the main thing: the big bourgeoisie is cashing in on the war under Zelensky’s rule just as it was cashing in under power and with the participation of Poroshenko: stealing finances, making money on the resale of weapons, supplying uniforms, food to the army, carrying out repairs, humanitarian aid, and so on. . In the war, the bourgeoisie makes billions of dollars, and the mobilized are forced to equip and provide food to relatives, friends and volunteers, which is clearly not enough. As in peacetime, but even more arrogantly, the bourgeoisie grows rich on the bones of the working class!

The consequences of this imperialist war will be just as dire for the working class of Russia and the countries of the Russian bloc. They strike catastrophically at the proletarian masses of all countries of the world. A world war cannot but have global consequences: hunger, impoverishment, unemployment, falling wages are already sweeping the planet. But the war will draw the armies of many countries into the fighting, turning their workers into "cannon fodder"!

The consequence of the world imperialist war that began on the territory of Ukraine will not be getting rid of the global financial and economic crisis, but its catastrophic deepening, which, in turn (as it happened in the past), will lead to revolutionary situations in a number of countries where contradictions aggravate the most. Under the conditions of international economic and political integration, the development of revolutionary situations will lead to the formation of chains of revolutionary uprisings.

The UCU sees the way out of the imperialist war for the working class not in abstract calls for peace and disarmament (which, at best, can only give a delay in the war for the parties to accumulate forces for the sake of an even more violent clash), but in the need to eliminate capitalism as a parasitic and destructive a social system in which capital competition inevitably leads to crises and wars.

In the struggle against war as a struggle against the power of capital unleashing wars, we put forward the task of fighting against the capitalists in each of the belligerent states.

We set ourselves the goal of achieving the defeat of the Ukrainian puppet regime in Ukraine.

We appeal to the workers armed with this regime to direct their weapons against the power of the bourgeoisie in Ukraine and turn the imperialist war for the interests of the bourgeoisie into a civil war of the working class against its bourgeoisie in order to destroy its capitalist domination in the course of the communist revolution.

We appeal to the Russian workers as a fraternal class, bearing all the hardships of the war on their shoulders, also suffering from impoverishment, unemployment, the elimination of fundamental rights and freedoms: seek the defeat of the bourgeois power in Russia, deploy weapons against the Russian oligarchs and their political minions. We are ready to fight together with you to turn the imperialist war into a class war against the power of capital and for the communist revolution.

We appeal to the workers of the countries that are members of NATO: to stop the threat of annihilation of mankind in a nuclear clash of imperialist war is possible only in the struggle not for an abstract peace, but for the overthrow of the power of the bourgeoisie of their countries, unleashing these wars and profiting from them. Strive for the defeat of the bourgeois governments and the NATO bloc in this war, put forward the task of turning the war between nations into a war between classes, turn the weapons produced by the hands of the workers not against the workers of other countries, but against the capitalists of your own country, against their power.

Capitalism has existed for two centuries as an international system of bourgeois domination and oppression of the workers. This worldwide system of exploitation, the source of crises and wars, can only be ended by uniting the efforts of the struggle of the workers at the international level in the course of the international communist revolution, which grows out of the chains of revolutionary situations. The only thing we can oppose to bourgeois nationalism (and its forms - chauvinism and fascism), which pushes peoples together in war, is proletarian internationalism.

We understand the complexity and danger of the tasks put forward, which will inevitably cause repressions from the bourgeois political regimes. Therefore, in order to set and implement such tasks, workers' and communist organizations will need to develop, along with legal, illegal forms of class struggle. The SKU has been forced to conduct its work in illegal forms since 2014.

Many workers' and communist organizations may find these anti-war tasks overwhelming because of their organizational weakness and lack of influence on the working class. But historical experience shows that the correct and honest formulation of the tasks of the working class in the conditions of war - real, and not momentary tasks - may not give success immediately, but will give a gain in the conditions of the growing revolutionary situation.

Since the task of destroying capitalist social relations is an international task, the importance of international coordination of the actions of workers and communist parties is growing, including in the joint development of tasks for the struggle against the imperialist war of the 21st century for the sake of uniting the international struggle against this war for the communist reorganization of society and world peace. .

Proletarians of all countries, unite!

http://solidnet.org/article/Union-of-Co ... -Ukraine-/

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Russian Defense Minister Pays Visit to Troops in Donbas

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Russian media reports that Minister of Defence Sergei Shoigu arrived in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, where he inspected a grouping of Russian troops. | Photo: Twitter @GurasPanos

Army General Sergei Shoigu made an on-site inspection for the first time since the start of the special military operation in Ukraine 123 days ago.


Defense Minister, Army General Sergei Shoigu made an on-site inspection, for the first time since the start of the special military operation in Ukraine 123 days ago, of a command center of Russian troops.

In a statement, the Defense Ministry reported that Shoigu took advantage of his visit to decorate servicemen who showed heroism while carrying out missions in the self-proclaimed Donbas people's republics.

"Shoigou presented state awards: the Golden Star of the Hero of the Russian Federation medal and the Order of Valor to Russian servicemen who showed heroism and dedication in carrying out combat missions during the special military operation," the ministry reported.

"I assure you that you still have many glorious deeds ahead of you for the benefit of our homeland, the Armed Forces, the Airborne Forces. Congratulations! Take good care of yourselves," said the Minister of Defense.


During the inspection at the command posts of the Russian groupings, Shoigu heard reports from the commanders on the current situation and actions of the Russian Armed Forces in the main directions of the special operation in Ukraine.

The general also drew attention to the creation of necessary living conditions for Russian military personnel at the temporary deployment points.

The presence of the Defense Minister at several army command posts took place against the background of the seizure by Russian troops of the territory of the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

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

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War in Ukraine could increase drug production

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In 2020, authorities dismantled 80 drug labs in Ukraine, compared to 17 intercepted the year before. | Photo: Weather
Published June 27, 2022 (1 hour 17 minutes ago)

The UN warned that drug production in the midst of the war in Ukraine could have spread as it was not threatened by police surveillance.

The United Nations Organization (UN) warned this Sunday that the war in Ukraine could facilitate the illicit manufacture of drugs.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) stated in its annual report that “information from the Middle East and Southeast Asia tends to indicate that conflict situations can act as a magnet for the manufacture of synthetic drugs that, in fact, can be produced anywhere”.

The coordinator of the 2022 World Drug Report, Ángela Me, said that the production capacity "could be extended if the conflict persists" since the police are not active to control laboratories and sales.


The international statement pointed out that "illegal drug economies can flourish in situations of conflict and weak rule of law, and can, in turn, prolong or fuel the conflict", while the situation can worsen if "the conflict zone is close to consumer markets.”

Regarding the production of narcotic drugs, the report states that before the conflict Ukraine already reported an increase in heroin trafficking and amphetamine production, backed by established laboratories.

In 2020, 80 production facilities were dismantled, far exceeding the 17 intercepted the previous year.


Another important detail is that armed conflicts can "disrupt traffic routes", which may experience a decline in Ukraine from the beginning of 2022.

The gender issue is also important given that the majority of users counted in 2020 were men, but women who are “underrepresented in treatment” were also registered, Me stresses.

The document presented by UNODC is a "preliminary evaluation", based on information obtained from its member states, antennas, means of communication and its own institutional reports.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/onu-guer ... -0007.html

Google Translator

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Lithuanians Stick New Finger in Eye of Russian Bear
by Ray McGovern Posted onJune 21, 2022

Lithuania is trying to create new "facts on the ground," hoping to provoke the kind of response from Russia that will determine tone and substance of the important NATO summit scheduled for June 28-30 in Madrid.

Trouble Ahead

On June 17 the Lithuanians announced they were banning the rail transit of goods through Lithuania to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. The ban went into effect on June 18. Sandwiched between EU and NATO members Poland and Lithuania, Kaliningrad receives supplies from Russia via rail and gas pipelines through Lithuania including goods sanctioned by the EU.

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Moscow’s response came on June 20, with a foreign ministry statement calling the denial of transit "openly hostile." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov branded Lithuania’s actions "illegal" and told reporters:

"This decision is really unprecedented. It’s a violation of everything. We consider this illegal. The situation is more than serious … We need a serious in-depth analysis in order to work out our response."

This is just the latest divisive issue. Indeed, the Madrid summit is scheduled at such an inauspicious time that former U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Robert Hunter, says it should be postponed, since it "risks creating serious problems when the alliance can least afford them." (Hunter is the kind of highly experienced diplomat for which the Blinken-Sullivan twins have no use. They will, of course, go ahead and add the coming summit to their distinctive diplomatic achievements.)

It is still not possible, a week before the summit, to forecast whether (1) it will take shape as the usual lemming-like performance by NATO bloc heads, jumping (this time off the cliff) to the US tune, or (2) whether to expect some unaccustomed fireworks from more seasoned lemmings, who squint at disaster ahead for Europe, if the dance in Ukraine does not end soon.

Stopping the music, of course, would require painful concessions, as well as putting the usual arms-makers on a reduced diet. NATO leaders will be convening just as Russia consolidates it’s hold on the Donbass. Lemmings normally cannot read tea leaves, though, and it seems a safe bet that the Germans and the French will do little more than frown at the Lithuanians and similarly bellicose Poles, and kowtow to Washington’s plan for the NATO agenda.

That’s What Always Happens

Professor John Mearsheimer recently addressed the seemingly innate inability of German and French leaders to stand up to US presidents. In a speech on Ukraine, Mearsheimer noted that Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Nicolas Sarkozy, lacked the courage to stand up to President George W. Bush as he pressed for NATO membership for Ukraine 14 years ago.

Both Merkel and Sarkozy were dead-set against inviting Ukraine (and Georgia) into NATO at the Bucharist summit in April 2008, but, as Mearsheimer indelicately put it, "They caved big time; they always do." The eventual NATO declaration stated "Ukraine and Georgia shall become members of NATO." Mearsheimer recalled that Merkel was quoted as saying that "Putin will see this as a declaration of war." It seems a safe bet that Scholz and Macron will take the lemming route and jump when the US says jump. I wish the following quip were more funny that it actually is in present circumstances:

"Two lemmings are chatting while standing in the line to the cliff. One says to the other, ‘Of course we have to go over the edge. Anything else would dishonor all the lemmings that have gone before us.’"

In the less likely event the Germans and French summon the courage to resist US, Lithuanian, and Polish pressure to up the ante in Ukraine, the meeting this June could be a benchmark for the unraveling of NATO (even as it, presumably, adds Finland and Sweden) under the impact of the severe economic damage the sanctions are just beginning to inflict on Europe. Adding the two Nordic nations may come to be seen as high irony as the last new passengers on a foundering NATO boat. (Ukraine is not likely to find its passenger ticket amid the current turmoil.)

Marking 25 Years of NATO Expansion …

At the historic NATO summit in July 1997, when the NATO welched on the US promise, given to Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev in Feb. 1990, not to move NATO "one inch" toward Russia, NATO voted to admit the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. Ironically, that summit was also held in Madrid.

… and Moving the Atlantic to Far East

According to the current US Ambassador to NATO, Julianne Smith, a new NATO strategic concept document to be released in Spain will include the first mention of the "threat" from China in a NATO strategic concept, although a statement released in June 2021 after an alliance summit in Brussels said that China’s "growing influence and international policies can present challenges that we need to address together as an alliance."

Ambassador Smith also announced that NATO has invited leaders from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea to attend the summit in Madrid. A full deck. Smith added that NATO leaders are also expected to address cooperation between Russia and China and how it affects the alliance. In my view, they would be well advised to spend the lion’s share of the time discussing what have become, under the impact of the war in Ukraine, the implications of the new bi-polar world: NATO on the one side, and Russia, China, and most of the rest of the world on the other.

https://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2 ... sian-bear/

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Zelensky tells G7 leaders he wants war with Russia over by the end of the year
By Kevin Liptak, CNN
Updated 6:37 AM EDT, Mon June 27, 2022

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From left, European Council President Charles Michel, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pose for a photo at the G7 summit at Schloss Elmau near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, on June 26, 2022. Stefan Rousseau/Pool/Getty Images Telfs-Buchen, Austria CNN

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told G7 leaders during a virtual meeting Monday that he wants the war in Ukraine to end by the end of 2022, according to a source familiar with his remarks.

Zelensky delivered the message during a video-link during a morning session at the Schloss Elmau castle in the Bavarian Alps. He called for a major push to end the war before the winter sets in in several months time, the source said. The message was as clear a sign as Zelensky has given about how he sees the trajectory of the war headed.

President Joe Biden and fellow world leaders, huddling in the Bavarian Alps, are mulling the next phase of Ukraine’s country’s grinding war with Russia. The conflict has been at the center of the Group of 7 summit being held inside a century-old mountainside castle in Germany’s Bavaria region. Leaders have decided on new steps to isolate Russia’s economy, including a ban on new imports of Russian gold, and are discussing ways to further limit Moscow’s energy profits by applying a cap on the price of Russian oil.

(more...)

https://us.cnn.com/2022/06/27/politics/ ... index.html
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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

Post by blindpig » Mon Jun 27, 2022 11:23 pm

War in Ukraine. Summary 06/27/2022
June 27, 23:16

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War in Ukraine. Summary 06/27/2022

1. Severodonetsk.
Most of the civilians held hostage were taken out of the territory of the Azot plant. The plant itself will continue to operate after restoration.
Combing of the industrial zone and forest plantations near Borovsky and Sirotino continues. Filtration measures are activated.
A direct assault on Lisichansk from Severodonetsk is not expected - the bridges have been destroyed + Lisichansk itself is on a hill. The intensity of the shelling of Severodonetsk fell - the main efforts of the enemy artillery are applied to hold the front near Lisichansk.

2. Lisichansk.
Fights for Verkhnekamenka, Lisichansk refinery and factories on the southern outskirts of the city.
Fights for the White Mountain.
The neck of the Lisichansk cauldron - up to 8 km. The real route to Seversk is now only through Belogorovka, but this road is already under fire from Russian artillery. Ukrainian propaganda is already preparing society for the surrender of Lisichansk. The LPR says the city will be liberated by the end of the week.

3. Artemovsk.
Fighting in Klinovoye and in the Pokrovsky area. The enemy strengthened the defense of the city by rotating the battered brigades defending the city. The pressure of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation on Artemovsk will intensify in the near future, but without the capture of Pokrovsky, a direct assault on the city is unlikely to begin.
In the area of ​​Svetlodarsk, there are no significant changes so far.

4. Soledar.
Fighting at Berestovo, Belogorovka and near the Lisichansk-Artemovsk highway in the Nikolaevka area.
After the loss of Lisichansk, Soledar will become an element of the Soledar-Seversk defensive line, on which the Armed Forces of Ukraine will try to hold the front north of Artemovsk. After the capture of Lisichansk, it is worth waiting for an offensive in the direction of Seversk and Soledar from the north.

5. Kharkov.
Positional battles in the area of ​​Tsupovka, Uda, Dementyevka, Upper Passages and Upper Saltovka. The enemy is almost completely on the defensive. The fire destruction of the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Kharkov and Chuguev is intensifying. They are also probing the Zolochev area.

6. Slavyansk.
Fights at the Valley, Krasnopolye, Bogorodichny, Prishib and Sidorovo. The enemy notes some advance of the RF Armed Forces towards Slavyansk. The fire destruction of enemy forces in the Seversk area is also intensifying.
On the Izyum direction without significant changes.

7. Avdiivka.
At the front without significant changes. As before, fights in the industrial complex, on the Avdiivka-Konstantinovka highway and on the outskirts of New York.
Counter-battery work is intensifying, which, however, has not yet stopped the shelling of the cities of Donbass. Today there were civilians killed and wounded again.

8. Serpentine.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine claim that as a result of the shelling of Zmeinny Island, they were able to hit the Pantsir air defense missile system. No other successes are reported. It is stated that Zelensky gave the order to try to recapture Serpentine from the RF Armed Forces in 2 weeks. Apparently in other areas the chances of a "counteroffensive" are even less.

9. Nikolaev.
Positional battles in the Nikopol, Krivoy Rog and Nikolaev directions. The offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine remains purely virtual here. The Ukrainian command is already openly calling to stop writing about the “successes of the Armed Forces of Ukraine”, as the picture of the “offensive” is becoming more and more ridiculous against the background of numerous shots of the destruction of manpower and equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine by rocket and artillery strikes.

10. Zaporozhye.
On the line Kamenskoye-Orekhov-Gulyaipole-Velikaya Novoselovka without significant changes.
Fighting in the area of ​​Ugledar and Pavlovka. In Novomikhailovka and Marinka no changes. The activity of the enemy with the attack on Pavlovka and Yegorovka did not last long.

https://t.me/boris_rozhin/55358 - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7704545.html

"A return to the previous relations with Russia in the light of the situation in Ukraine is impossible"
June 27, 20:52

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"A return to the previous relations with Russia in the light of the situation in Ukraine is impossible" (c) German Chancellor Scholz

Scholz is absolutely right - there will be no return to the old relations between Germany and Russia.

For a long time, relations between Germany and Russia were relations between two states dependent on the United States and recognizing their hegemony. At the same time, both countries sought to acquire greater sovereignty, taking advantage of the weakening of the United States. Such attempts were under Schroeder and under Merkel.

After the start of the NWO, Russia achieved almost complete independence from the United States, completing the dismantling of most of the previous systems that ensured Russia's dependence on the United States and structures controlled by it, going beyond the American world order - this is the only way to ensure real subjectivity.

Germany, on the contrary, following in the wake of the Washington policy, turned out to be even more dependent on the United States than before the start of the NWO in Ukraine. In this regard, if Russia was moving towards complete independence, then Germany, on the contrary, was moving towards strengthening its own dependence.

Therefore, in the medium and long term, relations between Russia and Germany will be formed based on the simple fact of relations between an independent state and a dependent state. So yes, the relationship will be different.

https://t.me/boris_rozhin/55345 - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7704246.html

Family contract on rapes
June 27, 20:11

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About how the Denisov family organized a family contract to spin tales about "rape in Ukraine."
Everything turned out to be as primitive as possible.

Family contract on rapes

Unbridled fantasies about mass rapes ( https://t.me/pezdicide/1540 ), invented by the ex-Ombudsman of Ukraine Lyudmila Denisova, were denied even by the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office ( https://www.pravda.com.ua/articles/2022/06/ 27/7354838/ ).

It turns out that in March, Denisova launched a psychological support hotline funded by UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund). The project was led by psychologist Alexandra Kvitko, Denisova's daughter.

Kvitko stated that in a month and a half of work they received more than 1,000 calls, 450 of which concerned child rape. But the prosecutors received an extract, according to which only 92 calls were received during the entire operation of the line.

The Prosecutor General tried to investigate the crimes described by Denisova, but no evidence was found in any case. Investigators even tried to find "two-year-old twins from Kherson", who, in the fantasies of either Denisova or Kvitko, died after being raped.

By the way, at one of the interrogations, Denisova already blamed her daughter. It was she, according to the ex-Ombudsman, who told her all these brutal stories, and the official broadcast them to the world.

The interview is still hanging on the Vikna portal ( https://vikna.tv/ru/istorii/interviu/ne ... o-rabote-s -zhertvami-rossijskih-iznasilovanij/) with Kvitko, in which she stated that the Russian military "did not spare even children and people with disabilities." Then, the "therapist" describes how she helps non-existent rape victims cope with trauma.

For example, in Kvitko's fantasy there is a 45-year-old male patient with a disability who was raped in his own home. The "smallest patient" in the fantasies of the unfortunate psychotherapist is 10 years old.

Kvitko also said that she is undergoing supervision (professional counseling with colleagues to analyze the feasibility of treatment methods) with Israeli colleagues, “and they say that they have not had such cases that we are working with now,” “in the modern world, such atrocity has long been did not have". We willingly believe that Israeli colleagues certainly prefer to work with real cases, rather than fictional ones.

The boundless fantasies of the Denisova-Kvitko family do not end there. Kvitko also spoke about a girl who asked for help in changing her orientation, as she "does not want to love men anymore." Another fictitious 14-year-old girl is pregnant after being "raped by five soldiers" and because of her religiosity does not have an abortion.

But that's not all. Kvitko's stream of consciousness also gave colorful descriptions of his lusts: "most of the rapists were either wearing a mask or a balaclava", "there were cases when one Russian soldier rapes while another looks", "more often when he holds one of the victims' relatives and makes me watch my mother, father, sister”, “I now have two sisters in counseling, when the younger one was raped in front of the older one, and the older one was forced to watch in order to remember”, “they try to rape publicly ... on the street, in the yard, but not in the house and not alone. But “people with an oriental accent” do not cover their faces in Kvitko’s fantasies, and they do not rape, “they hurt, commit cruel violence, but without rape.”

The unfortunate psychotherapist expertly declares that such “rapes” do not end with ejaculation, since their goal is “moral, not physical pleasure” (we won’t ask where the pregnancy comes from then). The rapists in Kvitko's fantasies are guys between the ages of 20 and 26, "Putin's generation", for whom "violence is the norm." From such fantasies and conclusions, I want to go into the forest forever.

Apparently, there is not only a banal cut of money from UNICEF by mom and daughter for a non-working support line, but also some incredible force of spiritual exhibitionism for the whole world. The history is unprecedented.

Meanwhile, Russian feminists represented by Daria Serenko ( https://t.me/pezdicide/1601 ) continue to talk about “sexualized war violence” and raise money for “victims”.

https://t.me/pezdicide/1641 - cink

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7703973.html

Google Translator

Ya know, Boris here may believe it, and others also, that this war could go on for years. Both sides are saying as much, especially the American side. This is bullshit or idiocy. The most brief study of history reveals that long war ruin both sides. I have no doubt that the Russians know this but I wonder about the Biden regime. So nobody in their right mind plans for a long war, one or both sides believe they can deliver a knockout blow in the first round. But seldom do. I suspect the Russians, working with really bad intelligence or in a fit of hubris, thought they could roll into Ukraine as they might have in 2014, but that train was long gone. That would explain their deployment in the Kiev area, where they never had near enough troops to assault a city of that size by any reasonable military standards. They were kinda hoping to be offered the keys to the city....Well, I guess it was worth a shot...

So I figure both sides are trying to scare the other into negotiations at disadvantage with this 'years' talk. Either that or they're just plain suicidal.

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A pivotal moment in eastern Ukraine
The Russian forces are now almost in total control over the Luhansk region. However, peace is a long way off — several months away, perhaps

June 27, 2022 by M.K. Bhadrakumar

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Ukrainian troops retreat from Severodonetsk city in the eastern Luhansk Oblast after weeks of fighting, June 24.

The retreat of Ukrainian troops from Severodonetsk city in the Luhansk Oblast of the country is a pivotal moment in the ongoing conflict. The Russian forces are now almost in total control over the Luhansk region. The latest reports from front lines say Russian forces entered the last remaining city of Lysychansk in Luhansk on June 25.

In a briefing, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced in Moscow: “On June 25, the cities of Severodonetsk and Borovskoye, the settlements of Voronovo and Sirotino passed under control of the Lugansk People’s Republic. The localities liberated… are inhabited by about 108,000 people. Total area of the liberated territory is about 145 square kilometers.

“Success of the Russian army… considerably diminishes the morale and psychological condition of the Ukrainian army personnel. In 30th Mechanized Brigade deployed near Artyomovsk, there are mass cases of alcohol abuse, drug use and unauthorized abandonment of combat positions.”

However, peace is a long way off — several months away, perhaps. In the speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin last week at the SPIEF in St. Petersburg, he made no references to peace negotiations. Putin hardly referred to the fighting.

Meanwhile, three highly provocative moves by the opposing side within the past week are significant markers indicating that the conflict may aggravate. If the missile strike at a Russian oil rig in the Black Sea has been an act of provocation, the US supply of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), a powerful long-range weapon system, is intended as a potential game changer that can help Kiev turn the tide of the conflict, and, third, the bizarre move by Lithuania to block Russia’s rail transit to Kaliningrad is a reckless escalation of tensions.

On the arrival of the HIMARS, Ukraine Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov ecstatically wrote on Twitter on Thursday: “HIMARS have arrived to Ukraine. Thank you to my colleague and friend @SecDef Lloyd J. Austin III for these powerful tools! Summer will be hot for russian occupiers. And the last one for some of them.”

Washington claims it has received assurances from Kiev that HIMARS would not be used to attack Russian territory. Moscow has warned it will attack targets in Ukraine that it has “not yet been hitting” if the West supplies longer-range missiles to Ukraine for use in high-precision mobile rocket systems.

The Lithuanian move is a blatant violation of international law and Vilnius would only have acted on the basis of prior consultation with the US and NATO to test the Russian reaction. Kaliningrad is a major Russian base with nuclear missiles, where its Baltic Fleet is headquartered, apart being the only Russian port on the Baltic that is ice-free throughout the year. Evidently, there are some insane fellows in the NATO camp who are itching to climb the escalatory ladder.

For Russia too, there is “unfinished business” ahead insofar as it holds roughly the same amount of territory in Donetsk only as the separatists controlled in February before the special military operation began. Now, seizing the administrative territories of the Donbass is only Moscow’s minimal goal. There is going to be a sprawling battlefield in the next phase, stretching from Kharkiv in the northeast to Mykolaiv and Odessa in the southwest. Much fighting lies ahead.

The New York Times reported that “Pentagon officials expect that the arrival of more long-range artillery systems will change the battlefield in Donetsk.” Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters recently, “If they (Kiev) use it properly, practically, then they’re going to have very, very good effects on the battlefield.”

The Russian military approach doctrinally is centered on attrition warfare, which aims to grind the way toward incremental territorial gains. Therefore, the advantage goes to the side which has greater staying power on the battlefield. In a sustained war of attrition, one military is ultimately going to be depleting the capability of the other. This is where the fault lines in the Western unity come into play if the current traces of “war fatigue” in Europe turn into “solidarity fatigue.”

Ukraine’s ability to shift the military balance depends critically on sustained military support from the US and other European countries. That, of course, hinges on political will and cohesiveness of the Western allies. As for Russia, it is not only committed to a protracted war but also has the capacity to sustain it.

Unlike the case with Ukraine, Russia is not dependent on any other country for boosting its military capability or training and advising its military. Also, historically speaking, a defining characteristic of the Russian military is its incredible endurance and ability to sustain prolonged attrition.

The US is still betting that the Russian economy cannot hold out for a long time, since the full impact of sanctions and export controls is yet to be felt. In this calculus, the rebound of the ruble currency is seen as largely due to the strict government controls on capital flows and plummeting imports into Russia.

Equally, the US has convinced itself that the restrictions on technology exports to Russia will gradually stunt the growth of its industries. Thus, the focus of the G7 summit in Germany currently under way (June 26-28) is on new plans to further “tighten the screws” on Russia’s economy.

But not much Russian budget data is available to make such daring assumptions and it is even harder to quantify how much Moscow is spending on the war in Ukraine. Certainly, there is no evidence to suggest that Kremlin’s ability to finance the war effort is coming under pressure from sanctions.

While President Joe Biden boasted in March that sanctions were “crushing the Russian economy” and that “the ruble is reduced to rubble,” the exact opposite has happened. Russian oil revenues have set new records and the ruble hit a seven-year high this week against the dollar. Expert opinion is also that Russia’s financial system is back to business as usual after a few weeks of severe bank runs.

Going forward, Biden must retain control over the Congress in the mid-term elections in which Republicans are sure to capitalize on the rising cost of living. As for Europe, cooler temperatures in the coming months will raise alarms about energy shortages as Moscow has cut down natural gas supplies to Europe, which would aggravate the economic pressure they now are experiencing.

Therefore, the big question is, whether the desire to resist Russia will be sustainable as the war itself grinds away. The matrix has changed. After all, Biden uttered the following about Putin as recently as in end-March: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”

But in three months’ time, today, Biden only says he is striving to help Ukraine negotiate optimally with Russia for a settlement. Here, too, Biden needs to make sure Russia is losing ground, while also constantly weighing that new weapons do not escalate the conflict too fast.

Admittedly, Biden is under little political pressure at home to back away. And the crack in Western unity is, arguably, not to be construed as amounting to anything like a rift in the fundamental strategy toward Russia and the Ukraine conflict. That said, the bottom line is that this is also a perilous moment for the global economy.

Post-pandemic economic recovery, supply-chain disruptions, rapid price increases, infrastructure investment, trade practices, global oil prices, world’s food supply, recession — these issues surely impact the Western leaders’ standing in the polls. It means economic and political pain is coalescing.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/06/27/ ... n-ukraine/

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Newsbits on Ukraine - Lysichansk Cauldron, Civilian Damage, Reserve Troops, Russian 'Default'

This was the Lysichansk area on June 2022 with the Russian positions in red.

Image


This is the same area one week later.

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The distance between the red fronts above and below has shrunk to 8 kilometer (~5 miles). According to Russian source there are some 8,000 soldiers and militia left in Lysichansk.

The area between the Russian fronts is under full Russian artillery control with drones flying above seeing anyone who moves to escape from Lysichansk to Siversk on the left side of the map. A Washington Post report describes what happens to those who try:

The Ukrainian Airborne unit was relieved to be pulling back from the front Sunday morning, riding a column of armored personnel carriers away from the embattled city of Severodonetsk, which had already fallen to the Russians, and Lysychansk, which was on the brink.
“Nothing happened to us to when we were at the front,” the unit commander said. “It was while we were retreating that we got hit.”

They were hit, and hit badly.

As the convoy moved into the farm village of Verkhniokamianske, with many of the soldiers riding on the outside of the vehicles, the first blast struck right by them. It was a cluster bomb, they would later surmise, something that tore through the contingent of men clinging to that side of one truck.

Several men were wounded, with blood pouring from limbs and, in one case, a soldier’s head. But there was no time to treat them while the convoy remained in the crosshairs of Russian artillery. The uninjured applied tourniquets where they could, dragged the hurt back onto the vehicles and raced out of the village, across rutted farm lanes to a line of trees across a golden wheat field about a kilometer away.


(The claim of a cluster bomb is likely wrong. An exploding 152mm high explosive artillery round spreads many fragments of deadly metal around.)

There were at least eight wounded in the attack. The bodyguard of the WaPo reporter helped to apply first aid to them. They were 'evacuated' back to Lysichansk.

Whoever commands the 8,000 soldiers there should tell them to give up and to surrender to the Russian led forces.

---
On Saturday Russian bomber flying over the Caspian Sea fired four cruise missiles into the Artem missile factory in Kiev. The 'western' reporting claimed that some hit a civilian building:

Russian missiles hit a multistory residential building and a kindergarten in Kyiv early on Sunday, killing at least one person and injuring six others in what the city’s mayor called an attempt to “intimidate Ukrainians” on the eve of summits in Europe focused strongly on the war.
...
The casualties occurred in the nine-story apartment block in central Kyiv, badly damaged by what the Ukrainian air force said were Russian Kh-101 cruise missiles launched from long-range strategic bombers over the Caspian Sea, roughly 1,000 miles away.


A picture in the report shows damage to the upper two floors.

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The Kh-101 cruise missile has a warhead with 450 kilogram of high explosives. If one had hit that high-rise the building would be completely gone.

Modern Russian cruise missiles are extremely precise as last week's damage of the Dnieper bridge in the Cherkasy region of Ukraine shows. The railway part that was used to transport heavy weapons is gone. The road bridge right next to it has little damage.

Image

It is way more likely that the building in Kiev was hit by an Ukrainian air defense missile that missed its target but eventually fell back to earth.

---
Any army fighting a war will hold some trained units in reserve. Such a reserve will be used to block a strategic breakthrough by the enemy or when there is a good chance to launch a significant counterattack. As Kiev was throwing untrained Territorial Defense Forces into the slaughter of the Donbas front I began to doubt that there was still a significant reserve. On Friday or Saturday the Ukrainian president Zelensky ordered all Territorial Forces that were left in areas that are currently not fought in to move to the Donetsk front. This included some units from Odessa which is still in danger of being attacked. That nearly sealed it for me. If they pull troops from Odessa the Ukrainian reserve must have gone.

But on Sunday the daily report by the Russian Defense Ministry told me that I was wrong:

High-precision attacks of Russian Aerospace Forces and Kalibr missiles were launched at 169th Army Training Centre near Desna (Chernigov region), 199th Air Assault Troops Training Centre near Teterevka (Zhitomir region), as well as at 184th Training Centre of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) near Starichi (Lvov region).
Attacks have resulted in neutralising 65th, 66th mechanised brigades and 46th Airmobile Brigade from AFU strategic reserves that were finishing their preparation at those training grounds. The planned redeployment of the above mentioned units to operations area has been frustrated.


Three full brigades, likely at full strength and equipped with weapons the 'west' has delivered, are a significant force of probably 12,000 men. They could have launched a decent counterattack on Kherson or some other area the Russian forces have captured but where their defense lines are currently quite thin.

---
Another day, another false claim of civilian casualties?

The Kyiv Independent @KyivIndependent - 4:32 PM · Jun 27, 2022
⚡️ Zelensky: 'Russia strikes shopping center in Kremenchuk, while over thousand people inside.'

“The mall is on fire, firefighters are trying to extinguish the fire, the number of victims is impossible to imagine," said President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Volodymyr Zelensky/Telegram
Embedded videohttps://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/status/1541429159792197632


The video show a burning shopping center which does not seem to have an urban surrounding. Some 20 civilians are hanging around and watch as the firefighters do their job. They show no panic or grief. The shopping center's rather large parking space is empty except for some five cars which all seem to be undamaged. I see no bicycles.

If there were 1,000 people in the shopping center how did they get there? How did they plan to get home?

Another video from a different perspective also shows a large empty parking space with two soldiers strolling by in full battledress. They have helmets on, wear body armor and carry their weapons. They have large military backpacks. Some other soldiers who are hanging around in olive green clothing great them.

Image

Kremenchuk is on the Dnieper, far from the front lines. Why were the soldiers at the burning shopping center. Was there something in there that was of military interest?

Satellite pictures show that the shopping center is right next to the large Kredmash machine plant. Was that the real target of the attack with the shopping center being an unintended casualty?

---
The New York Times headlines:

Russia Misses Bond Deadline, Signaling Its First Default on Foreign Debt Since 1918

About $100 million in dollar- and euro-denominated interest payments failed to reach investors within a 30-day grace period following a missed May 27 deadline. The grace period expired Sunday night.
A formal declaration of default would need to come from bondholders because ratings agencies, which normally declare when borrowers have defaulted, have been barred by sanctions from reporting on Russia. The Credit Derivatives Determinations Committee, a panel of investors that rules on whether to pay out securities linked to defaults, hasn’t been asked to make a decision on these bond payments yet.


Russia has paid the interest on June 24:

MOSCOW. June 24 (Interfax) - National Settlement Depository (NSD), the paying agent for Russian sovereign Eurobonds, has received 8.5 billion rubles or $159.4 million equivalent in order payment of coupon interest on the country's 2028 Eurobonds, the Finance Ministry said.
The ministry said it had honored obligations to service the sovereign bonds in full.

The ministry said on June 23 that it had has transferred rubles to the NSD in payment of coupons on the country's 2027 and 2047 Eurobonds as part of the new arrangement for servicing sovereign external debt, as approved by a presidential decree of June 22.


The new form of payment came after the 'west' rejected to receive the money in Euros. As the NYT writes:

Russia is rejecting the default declaration, on the grounds that it has made efforts to pay. Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, told reporters on Monday that the statements about default were “absolutely illegal.”
“The fact that Euroclear withheld this money, did not transfer it to the recipients, it is not our problem,” Mr. Peskov said. “In other words, there are no grounds to call this situation a default.”


The bond investors can easily get their money in the currency they want. They will have to open two accounts with Gazprombank in Zurich, one in rubles and one in euros. They then can ask Russia's National Settlement Depository to send their rubles to their rubles account at Gazprombank which will happily buy those rubles and move the corresponding euro value into the investor's euro account.

That is simply the reverse of the process European buyers use to pay for Russian gas in rubles.

There is zero reason then to call this a default.

Posted by b on June 27, 2022 at 17:11 UTC | Permalink

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

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

From Cassad's Telegram account:

***

Сolonelcassad
Also, Miroshnik https://t.me/miroshnik_r reports that the withdrawal of part of the APU grouping from Lysichansk has ALREADY begun.

Groups of militants leave Lisichansk and try to break through to Seversk, where their concentration is observed.

Local residents report that they are witnessing the beginning of the withdrawal of Ukrainian armed formations from Lysichansk. Yesterday they tried to pass through Verkhnekamenka towards Seversk, but under the blows of the allied artillery and the Russian Aerospace Forces, they lost several columns.

The next attempts to break through, militant units made through Belogorovka . The results of the attempts will be known tomorrow.

The reserve units of the VFU are being withdrawn and are trying to find escape routes from Novodruzhevka, Privolye, and Shepilovo. All of them depart towards Seversk.There, in Seversk, according to eyewitnesses, Ukrainian troops are being pulled up from Kramatorsk and the Slavic direction. According to sources immersed in the events on the other side, up to 5-7 thousand Ukrainian armed units can be brought to Seversk.

Events are clearly accelerating.
The fact that they would try to withdraw through Belogorovka was obvious after the occupation of Volcheyarovka by our troops (its quick capture is really of operational importance).
Well, after ours got hooked on Verkhnekamenka, the Armed Forces of Ukraine had no choice at all - they had to break through in the conditions of fire destruction of the retreating columns. The quite understandable task of our troops is to make this withdrawal as costly as possible for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

***

Сolonelcassad
Ambassador of the LPR in Russia Miroshnik https://t.me/miroshnik_r reports on the significant progress of our troops in the liberation of Lisichansk:

Assault groups of the allied forces of Russia and the LPR have already passed about a third of the length of Lisichansk and are engaged in close-range shooting near the Shakhter stadium. Moving west.

On the north side of Lisichansk, near the settlement Shepilovo and Privolye, the allied forces crossed the Seversky-Donets and entrenched themselves on the right side of the river , where they are equipping bridgeheads for a further attack on the city.

Today, fighting was already going on inside the village of Maloryazantsevo , and inside Verkhnekamenka.From the eastern side, the allied forces also entered the territory of the Linik refinery and continue to squeeze out the militants from the territory of the enterprise.

Ukrainian terrorist units are still at the refinery. Today they are from the territory of the so-called. "pits" - this is the repair shop of the refinery, they opened fire from cannon artillery and MLRS at Lisichansk. The consequences of the shelling - multiple damage to residential buildings, broken windows that overlook the refinery.

Such a rate of advance hints that the enemy is not preparing all-round defense in Lisichansk (like Mariupol), but is already actively pulling troops to Seversk in order to reduce the expected losses.
In view of this, the liberation of Lisichansk already this week looks more than likely.

***

forwarded from
Vladislav Coal
Summary of hostilities on June 27, 2022 from

Vladislav Coal

🎯Kharkiv direction - front line without changes. Ukrainians recognize the loss of positions in the area of ​​Tsupovka and Upper Saltov (Zamulovka village).

🎯PAVLOGRAD ARCH:

🏹The northern flank of the arc (from Izyum to Popasnaya) - in the area of ​​​​Izyum and Slavyansk - is unchanged, the release of Sidorov has not yet been confirmed. Severodonetsk and the surrounding villages have been taken under control, a cleanup is underway. The exact number of the Armed Forces of Ukraine there and in the Gorsko-Golden Cauldron is unknown. From the positions between Yampol and Rubezhnoye, the bypass road between Lisichansk and Seversk is being shot throughalong the river. The offensive continues on the southern and western outskirts of Lisichansk: the battles for Belaya Gora, the village of the Matrosskaya mine and the RTI plant continue. To the west, Volcheyarovka was liberated, from which an offensive was launched in the direction of Maloryazantsevo to block Lisichansk from the west, as well as Topolevka, Lisichansk Oil Refinery and Verkhnekamenka to take control of the Lisichansk-Seversk highway and further reach the line of the Seversky Donets.

🏹The central front (from Popasnaya to Marinka) - in the direction to Artemovsk , the front remains stable along the Lisichansk-Artemovsk highway, the most intense battles are in the area of ​​Berestovoye and Belogorovka. The situation in Pokrovsky and Klinovo is unknown. In the direction of Svetlodarsk , information about the liberation of Kodema turned out to be premature, the work of artillery continues. In the area of ​​Avdiivka and Marinka - no changes.

🏹The southern flank of the arc (from the Dnieper River to Marinka) - the counter-attack of the Armed Forces of Ukraine south of Vugledar finally failed, Yegorovka is controlled by the NM of the DPR.

🎯Kherson-Nikolaev direction - The Armed Forces of Ukraine report on the fighting in the area of ​​the village of Potemkino in the direction of Krivoy Rog. The rest of the front is stable, but the Armed Forces of Ukraine have intensified shelling of the Kherson region, including long-range artillery.

***

forwarded from
Rybar
❗️🇬🇧🇺🇦Offensive on Donbass: the situation in the east of Ukraine
by the end of June 27, 2022

▪️In the Kharkiv direction, the Armed Forces of Ukraine stopped attempts at offensive operations and switched to mobile defense.
➖Most of the reserves were transferred to the Donetsk direction.
➖During the day, the RF Armed Forces carried out missile strikes on enemy targets in Kharkov .

▪️In the Lisichansko-Severodonetsk direction, the allied forces are developing an offensive with the aim of encircling the enemy grouping.
➖Assault units of the Russian Armed Forces, with the support of army aviation, broke through the defenses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine west of Volcheyarovka and occupied part of the territory of the Lisichansk Oil Refinery .
➖The fighting is going on in the western part of the oil refinery and in the village of Maloryazantsevo . It is now possible to leave the outlined boiler along the only remaining road along the coast of the Seversky Donets through Belogorovka , which is under the fire control of the RF Armed Forces.
➖In Lisichansk , fighting is going on in the southern outskirts in the area of ​​the rubber products factory, Belaya Gora and the glass factory.
➖On the eastern bank, the cleanup of the territory of the Azot plant in Severodonetsk has been completed .

▪️In the Soledarsko-Bakhmut direction, the RF Armed Forces hold the front on the line Yakovlevka - Berestovoe - Nikolaevka , inflicting artillery strikes on enemy positions.
➖At the turn of Pokrovskoye - Klinovoye - Semigorye , the Wagner PMC units continue methodical shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
➖Under Ugledar , positional battles continue along the Novomayorskoye-Shevchenko- Yegorovka line .
➖As a result of shelling by Ukrainian formations of the cities of the People's Republics, at least ten civilians were killed.

▪️In the Zaporozhye region , the parties are engaged in artillery duels in the vicinity of Vasilyevka .

▪️In the Poltava region , the city of Kremenchug was hit : the Kremenchug plant of road machines became the alleged target of the RF Armed Forces .
➖Due to a powerful explosion, the Amstor shopping center caught fire.
➖The military-political leadership of Ukraine is shifting the focus and accusing Russia of a deliberate strike on a civilian object, trying in every possible way to hush up the proximity of a strategically important plant.

▪️In the Krivoy Rog direction , mutual shelling of the parties continues in the area near Vysokopole and Zelenodolsk .

Image

***

forwarded from
Rybar
🇬🇧🇺🇦On the explosion in the Amstor shopping center in the Poltava region

Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Timoshenko announced the first information about the dead and wounded as a result of a missile attack on Kremenchug , Poltava region.

▪️According to preliminary information, two people died, 20 people were injured ( 9 of them were in serious condition). Perhaps the number of victims will increase.

Maybe the mall was open. And people after a shortened working day were bought for barbecue on the occasion of tomorrow's Constitution Day.

▪️A small number of cars in the parking lot, on the one hand, can be easily attributed to the fuel crisis in Ukraine. On the other hand, the acute phase of the crisis has passed , and getting hold of fuel in Kremenchug is not so difficult. The country's largest oil refinery continues to operate quietly .

▪️On the one hand, one can try to explain the huge number of military personnel by the fact that the duty squad of the National Guard arrived at the scene. On the other hand, Ukrainian soldiers running back and forth with machine guns and knapsacks look, at the very least, absurd and do not pull on duty attire.

But there is a rather important nuance.

Judging by the nature of the destruction and the direction of the fire, the source of the fire was located behind the building: Amstor was simply caught by a powerful explosion.

❗️Just 90 meters away is the workshop of the Kremenchug plant of road machines . Since 2014, ATO equipment has been repaired at the plant. The railway leads directly to this workshop, which makes this facility suitable for performing strategic tasks for the restoration of military equipment.

News from October 20, 2014:

Three repaired armored personnel carriers were handed over to the army from the 92nd mechanized brigade by workers of the Kremenchug plant of road vehicles "Kredmash".

The blow with a huge degree of probability was inflicted on the Kredmash workshop. And it exploded a lot.

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

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

Post by blindpig » Tue Jun 28, 2022 1:50 pm

Interests, diplomacy and the prospect of more violence
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 06/28/2022 ⋅ LEAVE A COMMENT

Image

Many have been the media that this week of important geopolitical agenda have picked up Boris Johnson's insistence on not concluding a bad peace with Russia, which, in his opinion, would give Vladimir Putin -not Russia, but its president- " license to manipulate both sovereign countries and international markets in perpetuity.” The British Prime Minister, who last March boasted of having derailed the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia at a time when it was hinted (somewhat naively) that there could be an agreement, has been the most active leader in political, diplomatic and military defense of Ukraine.

Johnson's position contrasts with that of Emmanuel Macron, the main proponent of the idea of ​​seeking some kind of agreement that would guarantee a temporary ceasefire to buy time in search of a longer-term solution. Although both positions may seem opposed, his objective is the same: to ensure that Ukraine has sufficient military and political support to negotiate with Russia, now or in the future, in a position of strength. While the French president considers that the current moment - with Ukraine already a candidate country for entry into the European Union and with the threat of reinforcing the Ukrainian Army to a level that could cause excessive costs for Russia - could be conducive to a commitment, the premierBritain has publicly stated that any territorial concessions to Russia would be unacceptable. While the British and American position -also supported by certain countries of the European Union such as Poland or the Baltic countries, which seek to punish Russia rather than achieve peace in Ukraine-, the powers of the EU (Germany, France and Italy) they seek to achieve a ceasefire that will give way to a negotiation that, taking into account the current situation, would in any case be uncertain.

Regardless of the viability of negotiations in search of a ceasefire at a time when the battle for Donbass is in full swing, the background of recent years makes negotiations between Russia and Ukraine mediated by European powers even more unlikely (more even in case of mediation by their Anglo-Saxon allies).

Even before the Russian military intervention that began on February 24, Moscow's recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics had put an end to the Minsk process. Signed in September 2014 and February 2015, both times as a commitment to stop the war in the face of Ukrainian military defeats, the peace accords achieved some success in terms of avoiding open warfare, but never managed to move to the political phase of what should be a peace process.

Weeks before events escalated, Sergey Lavrov's publication of diplomatic correspondence between the German, French and Russian chancelleries not only showed Europe's firm will to defend the Ukrainian interpretation of the agreements and to defend kyiv from having to comply with the political points that he never intended to implement (linguistic rights, economic autonomy, amnesty for the participants in the war and, above all, the special status for the territories of the DPR and the RPL in exchange for the return of the territories to Ukraine) but undermined what little trust there was between the parties. The same can be said for the publication this past weekend of the content of the last conversation between the French and Russian presidents before February 24.

Part of the material for a documentary in which Emmanuel Macron tries to present himself as a statesman in search of peace, the conversation makes clear the continuity in the positions and the fundamental gap that always made diplomatic progress impossible. While President Putin refers to the numerous proposals put forward by the People's Republics, the separatistsTo whom Macron openly refuses to listen, the French president presents the Minsk agreements as a pact with Russia in which the role of Donetsk and Lugansk is simply to comply with what kyiv has proposed. It matters little to the French president -or to French and German diplomacy in general- the Russian insistence that the basis of the Minsk agreements was to seek a fit for Donbass in Ukraine through a direct dialogue between kyiv, Donetsk and Lugansk.

For seven years, Ukraine, with the strong political support of Germany and France and the disinterest of the press - both Western and Russian - has managed to impose a discourse in which the Minsk agreements are presented as the victor's peace , a Russian imposition of politically unacceptable conditions that a democracy should not be forced to comply with. Emmanuel Macron also refers to these terms, who in his words shows the apathy of indifference to the text that he claims to be defending or his absolute ignorance of the letter and spirit of the agreements.

"In relation to what you have said, Vladimir, several comments," Macron rebuts Putin's reproach for kyiv's lack of interest in even listening to the proposals of the DPR and the RPL. “First thing, the Minsk Agreements are a dialogue with you, you are absolutely right. In this context, it is not planned that the basis of the discussion will be a text submitted by the separatists. And so when your negotiator tries to force the Ukrainians to debate on the basis of the separatists' roadmaps, he is not respectful of the Minsk Agreements. It is not the separatists who are going to make proposals on Ukrainian laws!”, concludes the French president, making it clear once again that the only role of Donetsk and Lugansk is to comply with what is imposed by kyiv.

"We have a completely different reading of the situation," insists Vladimir Putin. "During our last meeting, I reminded you and even read you articles 9, 11 and 12 of the Minsk Agreements," he adds, to which Emmanuel Macron replies, increasingly annoyed, that he is only trying to apply the texts. "And I don't know what jurist can tell you that in a sovereign country the texts of the law are proposed by separatist groups and not by the democratically elected authorities," he continues, openly ignoring that the basis of the Minsk agreements was a special status that should from the dialogue between the parties.

It is precisely the mention of Vladimir Putin to the dialogue that provokes the incoherent reaction of Macron who admits that “we don't give a damn about the proposals of the separatists. What we are asking them is that they react to the texts of the Ukrainians and things must be done in that sense because it is the law! What you have just said calls into question, somewhere, your own will to respect the Minsk Agreements, if you think that you have illegitimate and terrorist authorities in front of you”. Illegitimate and terrorist, the Donetsk and Lugansk authorities are necessary, however, to maintain the appearances of a negotiation process in which, according to the French president, they do not deserve a voice or a vote, but which their presence in the Group of Contact. Only, yes, to comply with the Ukrainian proposals.

Four days after that conversation, the Russian intervention freed kyiv, not only from complying with some agreements that it had tried to free itself from since they were signed, but also from the need to maintain the fiction of the will to dialogue.

As then, Ukraine continues to seek to impose its position, now against Russia as it has already tried to do with Donetsk and Lugansk. "This is not the time for negotiations," repeated yesterday Volodymyr Zelensky, who asked the G7 countries for more sanctions against Russia and more weapons for Ukraine with the aim of doing what is necessary so that the war ends in 2022. He did it before that in the afternoon a Russian missile that sought to destroy a military industry caused a powerful fire in the shopping center located a few meters away, killing at least fifteen people and injuring several dozen. However, neither this attack nor the attacks of the last few days are the cause of the Ukrainian refusal to negotiate.

Always unlikely before the battle for Donbass was concluded, a Russian-Ukrainian deal became simply impossible following the Russian withdrawal from kyiv and Chernigov, perceived by kyiv and its allies as irrefutable proof of Russian weakness. That turning point confirmed the Ukrainian and Western will to fight to the end in search of a Russian military defeat in Ukraine that would mean a global political defeat for Moscow.

The interests of the European Union have so far focused on seeking a ceasefire that would allow Ukraine not only to rearm -this was also one of the successes of the Minsk times, as former Chancellor Merkel publicly admitted-, but to stop the Russian offensive in the east. Already received the heavy artillery with which it hopes to recapture Snake Island (and thus threaten Sebastopol, at least for the gallery) before moving it to the southern front to advance on Kherson or to the eastern front to continue destroying the cities that kyiv knows it will not be able to recover, that option has no appeal for Ukraine. It coincides in this with London and Washington, less affected by the secondary effects of the sanctions against Russia.

With the clear objective of making an economic relationship impossible - political relations have been so damaged that it will be difficult to repair them for decades - between Berlin and Moscow, the situation favors the geopolitical, strategic and even economic interests of Washington, which you can even test your weapons against the powerful Russian anti-aircraft defense. If this process of blowing up all the bridges between Ukraine and Russia or between Germany and Russia implies the actual destruction of all the bridges on the Dnieper (or on the Dniester) it does not seem to be a problem for the United States or for kyiv, which wants to use the war to perpetuate its alliance with the West and cement a complete and irrevocable break with Russia.de facto member .

For seven years, Ukraine preferred to risk the war perpetuating itself or spreading throughout the country rather than honor agreements it falsely presented as a concession of sovereignty to Moscow. Now, the risks have increased, but the logic has not changed. In the balance between avoiding the complete destruction of the country's industry and infrastructure and seeking a compromise, kyiv and its partners continue to reject an agreement that implies any territorial concession, including the acceptance of the Crimea brand that occurred without violence eight years ago, with no sign since then that the population wants to return to Ukrainian control. The goal, as Volodymyr Zelensky has openly stated, is to forcibly return to the February 24 borders.

That condemns Ukraine to a more violent and more dangerous phase as Russian missile strikes seek to hit more difficult targets, many of them located in cities, carrying a high risk of increasing casualties. civilians. And that also condemns Donbass to the reprisals of the Ukrainian troops, always ready to subject to the collective punishment of indiscriminate bombings a population that they have alienated since 2014 and that they know will not recover.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/06/28/inter ... more-24923

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Donbass: Full Liberation of Severodonetsk, Russia and LPR Control Zolotoye and Gorskoye
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 27, 2022
Christelle Néant

On 25 June 2022, about 800 civilians were finally able to leave the territory of the Azot factory in Severodonetsk, where they had been held by Ukrainian soldiers who had dug in. In the process, the territory of the factory and the industrial zone came under the control of the LPR (Lugansk People’s Republic) people’s militia, thus enabling the complete liberation of the city.

Four months after the launch of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine, the situation on the frontline is evolving at an increasing pace. After the liberation of Zolotoye and Gorskoye on 24 June 2022, the advance of the Russian army and the LPR people’s militia into the area around Severodonetsk and Lisichansk has accelerated.

In the early afternoon, the Head of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, announced that the industrial zone and the airport of Severodonetsk had been completely liberated, and that about 800 civilians had finally been able to evacuate the territory of the Azot factory where they had been held by Ukrainian soldiers.

https://t.me/RKadyrov_95/2410


One of the people held there, Olga Cheveleva, said that Ukrainian soldiers put the civilians on the territory of the Azot factory in danger by evicting them from the shelters in the middle of the night under the pretext of evacuation, at the risk of being shot at by the Russian army.
https://t.me/donbassinsider/14791

This was clearly a provocation aimed at achieving bloodshed among civilians, and then blaming it on the Russian army, since the humanitarian corridors for evacuating civilians from the Azot factory were organised during the day, not at 3am!

A few hours later, Ramzan Kadyrov announced that the village of Borovskoye had also been liberated. Then, in the evening, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the liberation of all these localities, as well as the villages of Voronovo and Sirotino. This information was confirmed by the headquarters of the Ukrainian armed forces.

With these settlements, the entire left bank of the Severski Donets River on LPR territory is now under its control. The complete cleaning of the area will take a few more days, as the Ukrainian soldiers have laid mines everywhere during their retreat.

Confirming Franceinfo’s description of the camp chosen by the people of Lisichansk, the people of the village of Katerinovka, near Zolotoye, said they were happy that the Russians had arrived.


In the cauldron of Zolotoye, Gorskoye, small groups of disorganised Ukrainian soldiers are trying to reach the refinery in Lisichansk and the town of Bakhmut to escape the choice between captivity and death.

And while we’re on the subject of Lisichansk, the fighting has already started on the outskirts of the city, in the industrial zone of the gelatine and rubber factories. To the south-east of Lisichansk, the village of Belaya Gora is still in the ‘grey zone’ (not yet fully controlled by the Allied forces).

See the map of the area around Lisichansk :

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Given the speed of progress of the Allied forces, it is possible that Lisichansk and the surrounding villages will be completely liberated very quickly, allowing the LPR to finally control its entire constitutional territory.

Russia and LPR Control Zolotoye and Gorskoye
Christelle Néant

Following the formation of a cauldron around Zolotoye and Gorskoye, Russia and the LPR (Lugansk People’s Republic) very quickly engaged the Ukrainian forces and took control of the two localities. And both in this cauldron and near Lisichansk, Ukrainian soldiers are surrendering en masse in the face of the obvious futility of continuing to fight.

Barely two days after the announcement of the closure of the Zolotoye – Gorskoye cauldron, Russia and the LPR took control of both localities. As early as 23 June 2022, fighting was announced in Zolotoye, whose Karbonit micro-district came under the control of the LPR on the same day.

https://t.me/DonbassDevushka/11965

According to the Russian Ministry of Defence, 41 Ukrainian soldiers surrendered on 23 June 2022 in this cauldron of Zolotoye – Gorkoye, where there are about 2,000 fighters (more than the initial assessment), including 1,800 Ukrainian soldiers, 120 neo-Nazis from Right Sector, and about 80 foreign mercenaries.

https://t.me/russianfortress/2688

Surrendering Ukrainian soldiers stated that the encircled Ukrainian units were exhausted, that they had only 40% of the required personnel, and that the Ukrainian high command had lost control of these troops, who are without ammunition, fuel or logistics.

The reduction of the pocket continued on 24 June 2022, with successive announcements of the complete takeover of Zolotoye and then Gorskoye.

https://t.me/intelslava/31815

https://t.me/millnr/8962

In Gorskoye, one resident cried with joy when she saw the Russian soldiers arrive in the town. She said she had never been so happy in her life, even when she was married.

https://t.me/Slavyangrad/2009

In the cellar of a building in Gorskoye, the LPR people’s militia found a veritable arsenal installed there by Ukrainian soldiers: whole boxes of grenades for automatic grenade launchers, anti-tank rockets and mortar shells. If the arsenal had exploded as a result of a shot, the apartment building would have been destroyed.

Photos : Lug Info Center
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Ukrainian soldiers left weapons everywhere as they fled quickly, as shown in these videos released by Ramzan Kadyrov.

https://t.me/RKadyrov_95/2395

In Lisichansk, the allied forces have already entered the outskirts of the city and started fighting against the Ukrainian armed forces. Ukrainian troops were ordered to leave the positions they still had in the south of Severodonetsk, to avoid encirclement (sic). Which they did last night, according to Ukrainian propagandist Yuri Boutoussov.

Except that it is already too late. Even if they then try to flee from Lisichansk (which is already practically surrounded), the two major roads out of the city are under the control (physical or fire) of the Allied forces! The order to withdraw was given far too late to save the troops in the Severodonetsk – Lisichansk area, as can be seen in the video below, showing what happened to those who tried to escape from Lisichansk.

https://t.me/swodki/122255

The liberation of Severodonetsk will soon be officially announced. A temporary administration of the city is already being formed. The LPR has appointed Mark Vorjev, a native of Severodonetsk who has not set foot in his hometown for eight years, to head the city. He had joined the people’s militia in 2015 when he was still a minor (16), claiming to have lost his passport and added a few years to his real age.

Near Severodonetsk, the town of Voronovo has also come under the control of allied forces, according to Ramzan Kadyrov. Further west, Russia and the DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) took control of Sidorovo, near Slaviansk, on 23 June 2022, and clearance of the village is underway.

In Lisichansk, the population is impatiently waiting for its liberation by the Russian army, whose victory they hope for, as Franceinfo was forced to acknowledge. And according to the information received this evening, the allied forces have already begun to penetrate the city.

The Head of the Chechen Republic shared the video of the Ukrainian soldiers of the 74th Battalion, in which they complain about the conditions and the command.

https://t.me/RKadyrov_95/2389

“We came here with machine guns and we have been without communication [with the command] for 10 days now, we live in dens…. We have problems with food, medicine, no water, no artillery support, no thermal imaging equipment… We have concussion and battle casualties… We can’t keep fighting… It looks like our command wants to get rid of us… Take care of the leadership of the battalion…”, they say in the video.

In all, over two days, more than 800 Ukrainian fighters surrendered in the cauldron of Zolotoye – Gorskoye and near Lisichansk, and about 1,000 were reportedly killed. But in view of the situation, these figures will certainly increase in the coming days.

https://multipolarista.com/2022/06/26/c ... ar-russia/

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Ukraine’s Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion Has Built a ‘State Within a State’
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 25, 2022
Dmitry Plotnikov

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Despite the surrender of the Azov regiment at the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works during the fighting in Mariupol last month, the legend of this unit has turned out to be enduring. The Ukrainian command has already announced that new Azov special operations forces will be created in Kharkov and Kiev.

At the same time, a partial rebranding has been carried out. A medieval heraldic symbol – a trident (the coat of arms of Ukraine) consisting of three swords – is now depicted on the chevron of the ‘new’ Azov in place of the stylized Wolfsangel (‘wolf’s hook’) that has attracted so much criticism from not only Russia, but also the West and fellow Ukrainians. This condemnation is for good reason, as the symbol was used on the lapels of the SS’s Das Reich and Landstorm Nederland divisions, as well as the logo of the Dutch Nazi Party.

The Azovites have rejected all such accusations, claiming their regimental symbol was not a Wolfsangel, but rather the first letters of the phrase ‘National Idea’, allegedly written in the old Ukrainian alphabet, which was a mix of Cyrillic and Latin letters. And this is not Azov’s first rebranding – at one time, the ‘wolf’s hook’ on their chevrons replaced the occult ‘black sun’ symbol, which was used in SS rituals and decorated the floor of the order’s castle in Wewelsburg. However, back then, the Azovites didn’t bother trying to explain how the ‘black sun’ had notional Ukrainian roots.

The rejection of the Wolfsangel is clearly intended to make it possible to say, “Yes, there used to be ultra-right elements in Azov, but that is all in the past now. The regiment is moving forward with new symbols and new ideas.”

However, this is not the case. On the contrary, the rebranding shows Azov has only strengthened its ideology, becoming more mature and discarding youthful outrage along with its Nazi symbolism, which alludes to an ideology that the regiment, as an organization, never really shared. To understand this, it is enough to look at Azov not only as a military movement, but also a political project.

Azov was founded by radicals crossing over from Patriot of Ukraine. This organization was based in Kharkov, a city in the northeast of the country, which has always had a predominantly Russian-speaking population. Therefore, Azov’s brand of nationalism was different. Unlike Ukrainian nationalists, they did not focus on issues pertaining to Ukraine’s language, ethnicity, or religion. They perceived the nation as a statist project in the spirit of Italian fascism. Actually, Patriot of Ukraine’s main ideologist, the 20th-century Ukrainian publicist Dmitry Dontsov (whose ideas were also a major influence on the Nazi collaborators of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists), called his ideology of ‘integral nationalism’ the Ukrainian version of nationalism developed in the 1920s, while repeatedly referring to the works of Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Gentile, the main authors of fascism.

At the same time, Dontsov equated the concepts of nation and race. The latter he divided into master and slave races. According to Dontsov, Ukrainians are a race of masters, while Russians are a race of slaves seeking to enslave Ukrainians. The clash between Ukrainians and Russians is of an absolute, existential nature and can only end with the destruction of one of the parties, Dontsov believed. Romanticism plays a key role in this struggle, which he defines as the will to sacrifice, the coherence of multiple individuals’ will to attain power, and directing all efforts towards one goal – the building of a Ukrainian nation. It is this romanticism that ensures that the individual belongs to the collective whole and directs the nation on the path of expansion.

Dontsov’s romanticism is based on the myth of the ‘final battle’ from German-Scandinavian paganism. In this scenario, the destruction of the world and its subsequent rebirth will come. The worship of the idea espoused in this myth must take the form of religious fanaticism. This is the only way an idea can penetrate into the inner sanctum of a person’s character and bring about what Dontsov calls a radical revolution in the human psyche.

Aggression towards bearers of other views should be engendered in adherents to this idea, allowing them to reject universal morality and ideas about good and evil. The new morality should be anti-humanist, based only on the will to take power. Personal interests must submit to the common good, anything that makes the nation stronger should be considered ethical, and everything that prevents this should be declared immoral.

Dontsov’s concept is completely elitist. To him, the people are just an inert mass with no independent will. The masses are deprived of the ability to develop their own ideas; they can only passively absorb them. The main role is reserved for the active minority, that is, a group capable of formulating an idea for the unconscious masses that is easy to understand and motivates them to engage in the struggle. The active minority should always be at the head of the nation, according to Dontsov.

What the Azovites took from the German Nazis was their strategy of attaining power. They tried to create a shadow ‘state within a state’ that was supposed to take control of all government institutions at a time of acute political crisis. A huge network of civil organizations has grown up around the Azov regiment over the eight years of its existence. These include book publishers, educational projects, scouting clubs, gyms, and other associations. It even has its own political party, the National Corps, with a paramilitary wing dubbed the National Militia. The regiment’s veterans play a key role here.

With the help of these organizations, recruits have been enlisted for both the regiment itself and Azov’s civil movement. Azov veterans have also actively joined Ukraine’s Armed Forces and law enforcement agencies, including its police, Army, and Security Service, where they continued to spread Azov’s ideology of integral nationalism.

A serious ritual component permeates all aspects of life within the Azov regiment itself and its civil movement. The three swords now depicted on the chevrons of the ‘new’ Azov are actually a reflection of a quite tangible symbol. A ceremonial complex with three wooden swords was built at Azov’s main base in the city of Urzuf near Mariupol, where almost all of the regiment’s rituals were carried out. The most significant of these is the commemoration of fallen comrades. During the ritual, the Azovites stand holding wooden shields and torches. The shields bear the regiment’s main symbols – the ‘black sun’ and Wolfsangel, as well as the names of fallen members. The master of the ceremony calls out each of their names, after which a soldier with the corresponding shield lights a memorial light and says “We remember!” to which the others answer, “We will take revenge!” This ritual is not an original invention. The Azovites borrowed it from the Italian fascists of the 1920s, who called it Presente! This and other rituals were developed by a special ideological unit within Azov, the ‘Standard-Bearer’ service.

In fact, the choice of the three swords as a new symbol is telling. A new generation is coming into Azov’s top positions. These are no longer the rowdy football fans who once created the battalion and for whom sporting SS symbols and spouting Nazi ideology was a form of protest. Now, the show is being run by people who were brought up within the Azov system with Azov’s ideology of integral nationalism. Ties with the European ultra-right, the so-called ‘white nationalist’ movement, are no longer as important to them. The center of their worldview is Ukrainian statehood and the Ukrainian nation, doomed to fight against both Russia and the liberal values of the West. Of course, for the Azovites, the best part of the Ukrainian nation is themselves.

The surrender of the main part of the regiment at Azovstal has only crystallized the Azov ideology. For the Azovites, the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict has become the very eschatological ‘final battle’ depicted in Wagner’s opera. It is to be waged against the Russians and the liberal West, which does not want to provide enough military assistance or enter into an open clash with Moscow. If necessary, it will even be waged against its own government, which promised to evacuate the defenders of Azovstal but did not keep its word. The last battle must be fought to the end, and the Azovites could not care less how many Ukrainian citizens will burn in its fire in the name of imposing their ‘National Idea.’

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... n-a-state/

The Fantasy of Fanaticism
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 27, 2022
Scott Ritter

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Despite what some “defense analysts” may be telling Western media, the longer the war continues, the more Ukrainians will die and the weaker NATO will become.

For a moment in time, it looked as if reality had managed to finally carve its way through the dense fog of propaganda-driven misinformation that had dominated Western media coverage of Russia’s “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine.

In a stunning admission, Oleksandr Danylyuk, a former senior adviser to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and Intelligence Services, noted that the optimism that existed in Ukraine following Russia’s decision to terminate “Phase One” of the SMO (a major military feint toward Kiev), and begin “Phase Two” (the liberation of the Donbass), was no longer warranted. “The strategies and tactics of the Russians are completely different right now,” Danylyuk noted. “They are being much more successful. They have more resources than us and they are not in a rush.”

“There’s much less space for optimism right now,” Danylyuk concluded.

In short, Russia was winning.

Danylyuk’s conclusions were not derived from some esoteric analysis drawn from Sun Tzu or Clausewitz, but rather basic military math. In a war that had become increasingly dominated by the role of artillery, Russia simply was able to bring to bear on the battlefield more firepower than Ukraine.

Ukraine started the current conflict with an artillery inventory that included 540 122mm self-propelled artillery guns, 200 towed 122mm howitzers, 200 122mm multiple-rocket launch systems, 53 152mm self-propelled guns, 310 towed 152mm howitzers, and 96 203mm self-propelled guns, for approximately 1,200 artillery and 200 MLRS systems.

For the past 100-plus days, Russia has been relentlessly targeting both Ukraine’s artillery pieces and their associated ammunition storage facilities. By June 14, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that it had destroyed “521 installation of multiple launch rocket systems” and “1947 field artillery guns and mortars.”

Even if the Russian numbers are inflated (as is usually the case when it comes to wartime battle damage assessments), the bottom line is that Ukraine has suffered significant losses among the very weapons systems — artillery — which are needed most in countering the Russian invasion.

But even if Ukraine’s arsenal of Soviet-era 122mm and 152mm artillery pieces were still combat-worthy, the reality is that, according to Danylyuk, Ukraine has almost completely run out of ammunition for these systems and the stocks of ammunition sourced from the former Soviet-bloc Eastern European countries that used the same family of weapons have been depleted.

Ukraine is left doling out what is left of its former Soviet ammunition while trying to absorb modern Western 155mm artillery systems, such as the Caesar self-propelled gun from France and the U.S.-made M777 howitzer.

But the reduced capability means that Ukraine is only able to fire some 4,000-to-5,000 artillery rounds per day, while Russia responds with more than 50,000. This 10-fold disparity in firepower has proven to be one of the most decisive factors when it comes to the war in Ukraine, enabling Russia to destroy Ukrainian defensive positions with minimal risk to its own ground forces.

Casualties

This has led to a second level of military math imbalances, that being casualties.

Mykhaylo Podolyak, a senior aid to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, recently estimated that Ukraine was losing between 100 and 200 soldiers a day on the frontlines with Russia, and another 500 or so wounded. These are unsustainable losses, brought on by the ongoing disparity in combat capability between Russia and Ukraine symbolized, but not limited to, artillery.

In recognition of this reality, NATO Secretary General Jen Stoltenberg announced that Ukraine will more than likely have to make territorial concessions to Russia as part of any potential peace agreement, asking,

“what price are you willing to pay for peace? How much territory, how much independence, how much sovereignty…are you willing to sacrifice for peace?”

Stoltenberg, speaking in Finland, noted that similar territorial concessions made by Finland to the Soviet Union at the end of the Second World War was “one of the reasons Finland was able to come out of the Second World War as an independent sovereign nation.”

To recap — the secretary general of the trans-Atlantic alliance responsible for pushing Ukraine into its current conflict with Russia is now proposing that Ukraine be willing to accept the permanent loss of sovereign territory because NATO miscalculated and Russia —instead of being humiliated on the field of battle and crushed economically — is winning on both fronts.

Decisively.

That the secretary general of NATO would make such an announcement is telling for several reasons.

Stunning Request

First, Ukraine is requesting 1,000 artillery pieces and 300 multiple-launch rocket systems, more than the entire active-duty inventory of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps combined. Ukraine is also requesting 500 main battle tanks — more than the combined inventories of Germany and the United Kingdom.

In short, to keep Ukraine competitive on the battlefield, NATO is being asked to strip its own defenses down to literally zero.

More telling, however, is what the numbers say about NATO’s combat strength versus Russia. If NATO is being asked to empty its armory to keep Ukraine in the game, one must consider the losses suffered by Ukraine up to that point and that Russia appears able to sustain its current level of combat activity indefinitely. That’s right — Russia just destroyed the equivalent of NATO’s main active-duty combat power and hasn’t blinked.

One can only imagine the calculations underway in Brussels as NATO military strategists ponder the fact that their alliance is incapable of defeating Russia in a large-scale European conventional land war.

But there is another conclusion that these numbers reveal — that no matter what the U.S. and NATO do in terms of serving as Ukraine’s arsenal, Russia is going to win the war. The question now is how much time the West can buy Ukraine, and at what cost, in a futile effort to discover Russia’s pain threshold in order to bring the conflict to an end in a manner that reflects anything but the current path toward unconditional surrender.

The only questions that need to be answered in Brussels, apparently, is how long can the West keep the Ukrainian Army in the field, and at what cost? Any rational actor would quickly realize that any answer is an unacceptable answer, given the certainty of a Russian victory, and that the West needs to stop feeding Ukraine’s suicidal fantasy of rearming itself to victory.

Enter The New York Times, stage right. While trying to completely reshape the narrative regarding the fighting in the Donbass after the damning reality check would be a bridge too far for even the creative minds at the Gray Lady — the writing equivalent of trying to put toothpaste back in the tube. But the editors were able to interview a pair of erstwhile “military analysts” who cobbled together a scenario that transformed Ukraine’s battlefield humiliation.

‘Military Analysts’

They described a crafty strategy designed to lure Russia into an urban warfare nightmare where, stripped of its advantages in artillery, it was forced to sacrifice soldiers in an effort to dig the resolute Ukrainian defenders from their hardened positions located amongst the rubble of a “dead” city — Severodonetsk. [Ukraine forces withdrew from the city Friday.]

According to Gustav Gressel, a former Austrian military officer turned military analysts, “If the Ukrainians succeed in trying to drag them [the Russians] into house-to-house combat, there is a higher chance of inducing casualties on the Russians they cannot afford.”

According to Mykhailo Samus, a former Ukrainian naval officer turned think-tanks analyst, the Ukrainian strategy of dragging Russia into an urban combat nightmare is to buy time for rearming with the heavy weapons provided by the West, to “exhaust, or reduce, the enemy’s [Russia’s] offensive capabilities.”

The Ukrainian operational concepts in play in Severodonetsk, these analysts claim, have their roots in past Russian urban warfare experiences in Aleppo, Syria and Mariupol. What escapes the attention of these so-called military experts, is that both Aleppo and Mariupol were decisive Russian victories; there were no “excessive casualties,” no “strategic defeat.”

Had The New York Times bothered to check the resumes of the “military exerts” it consulted, it would have found two men so deeply entrenched into the Ukrainian propaganda mill as to make their respective opinions all but useless to any journalistic outlet possessing a modicum of impartiality. But this was The New York Times.

Gressel is the source of such wisdom as:

“If we stay tough, if the war ends in defeat for Russia, if the defeat is clear and internally painful, then next time he will think twice about invading a country. That is why Russia must lose this war.”

And:

“We in the West…all of us, must now turn over every stone and see what can be done to make Ukraine win this war.”

Apparently, the Gressel playbook for Ukrainian victory includes fabricating a Ukrainian strategy from whole cloth to influence perceptions regarding the possibility of a Ukrainian military victory.

Samus likewise seeks to transform the narrative of the Ukrainian frontline forces fighting in Severodonetsk. In a recent interview with the Russian-language journal Meduza, Samus declares that:

“Russia has concentrated a lot of forces [in the Donbass]. The Ukrainian armed forces are gradually withdrawing to prevent encirclement. They understand that the capture of Severodonetsk doesn’t change anything for the Russian or the Ukrainian army from a practical point of view. Now, the Russian army is wasting tremendous resources to achieve political objectives and I think they will be very difficult to replenish…[f]or the Ukrainian army, defending Severodonetsk isn’t advantageous. But if they retreat to Lysychansk they’ll be in more favorable tactical conditions. Therefore, the Ukrainian army is gradually withdrawing or leaving Severodonetsk, and upholding the combat mission. The combat mission is to destroy enemy troops and carry out offensive operations.”

The truth is, there is nothing deliberate about the Ukrainian defense of Severodonetsk. It is the byproduct of an army in full retreat, desperately trying to claw out some defensive space, only to be crushed by the brutal onslaught of superior Russian artillery-based firepower.

To the extent Ukraine is seeking to delay the Russian advance, it is being done by the full-scale sacrifice of the soldiers at the front, thousands of people thrown into battle with little or no preparation, training, or equipment, trading their lives for time so that Ukrainian negotiators can try to convince NATO countries to mortgage their military viability on the false promise of a Ukrainian military victory.

This is the ugly truth about Ukraine today — the longer the war continues, the more Ukrainians will die, and the weaker NATO will become. If left to people like Samus and Gressel, the result would be hundreds of thousands of dead Ukrainians, the destruction of Ukraine as a viable nation-state, and the gutting of NATO’s front-line combat capability, all sacrificed without meaningfully altering the inevitability of a strategic Russian victory.

Hopefully sanity will prevail, and the West will wean Ukraine off the addiction of heavy weaponry, and push it to accept a peace settlement which, although bitter to the taste, will leave something of Ukraine for future generations to rebuild.

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

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CIA and Western special ops commandos are in Ukraine, directing proxy war on Russia

The CIA and special operations forces from Britain, France, and Canada are physically in Ukraine, helping direct the proxy war on Russia, overseeing weapons, training, and intelligence. Some Ukrainian fighters have US flag patches.

ByBenjamin NortonPublished2 days ago

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Ukrainian soldiers artillery warUkrainian soldiers firing artillery

The CIA and special operations forces from NATO members Britain, France, Canada, and Lithuania are physically in Ukraine, helping direct the proxy war on Russia, according to a report in The New York Times.

These Western forces are on the ground training and advising Ukrainian fighters, overseeing weapons shipments, and managing intelligence.

[youtube]https//youtu.be/R3szI4GRmqU[/youtube]

At least 20 countries are part of a US Army-led coalition, guiding Ukraine in its fight against Russian troops.

Some Ukrainian combatants are even using US flag patches on their equipment.

This is all according to a June 25 report in The New York Times, titled “Commando Network Coordinates Flow of Weapons in Ukraine, Officials Say.”

The Times is a de facto organ of the US government. Although technically private, the paper closely follows the line of the CIA and Pentagon. Its report is based on statements by top US officials.

This is the strongest evidence yet that the conflict in Ukraine is not just a battle between neighbors, but rather a Western proxy war on Russia, with the direct involvement of NATO forces from several nations.

The Times acknowledged that Ukraine “depends more than ever on help from the United States and its allies — including a stealthy network of commandos and spies rushing to provide weapons, intelligence and training.”


The chief of US Army Special Operations Command, Lieutenant General Jonathan P. Braga, boasted of an “international partnership with the special operations forces of a multitude of different countries” that “have absolutely banded together in a much outsized impact” to help wage the proxy war on Russia.

The Times noted that, “even as the Biden administration has declared it will not deploy American troops to Ukraine, some C.I.A. personnel have continued to operate in the country secretly, mostly in the capital, Kyiv, directing much of the vast amounts of intelligence the United States is sharing with Ukrainian forces.”

The US Army has a “coalition planning cell in Germany to coordinate military assistance to Ukrainian commandos and other Ukrainian troops,” the newspaper reported.

At least 20 countries are part of this US-led cell providing military assistance to Ukraine, “which was modeled after a structure used in Afghanistan,” the newspaper added.

And the 20-nation coalition “is part of a broader set of operational and intelligence coordination cells run by the Pentagon’s European Command to speed allied assistance to Ukrainian troops.”

In a battle in the eastern Donbas region, “a group of Ukrainian special operations forces had American flag patches on their gear and were equipped with new portable surface-to-air missiles as well as Belgian and American assault rifles,” the Times noted.

This is one of many reports proving CIA support for anti-Russian forces in Ukraine.

Ever since the United States sponsored a violent coup d’etat that overthrew Ukraine’s democratically elected government in 2014, CIA agents have been active in the country, training fighters to kill Russian-speaking independence supporters in the east.

Yahoo News published an investigation in March, titled “Secret CIA training program in Ukraine helped Kyiv prepare for Russian invasion,” which revealed that “CIA paramilitaries” began traveling to Ukraine in 2014, and a “covert CIA training program run from Ukraine’s eastern frontlines” was teaching Ukrainians “irregular warfare” tactics.


Another report released in Yahoo News in January, a month before Russia invaded Ukraine, admitted that the CIA had since 2015 been “overseeing a secret intensive training program in the U.S. for elite Ukrainian special operations forces and other intelligence personnel.”

A former CIA official stated openly, before Russia sent its troops in, “The United States is training an insurgency,” in order “to kill Russians.”

https://multipolarista.com/2022/06/26/c ... ar-russia/

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UKRAINIAN MILITARY PLANNED TO TURN AIRPORT IN SEVERODONETSK INTO NATO MILITARY BASE NEAR RUSSIAN BORDER

Ukrainian Military Planned To Turn Airport In Severodonetsk Into NATO Military Base Near Russian Border


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On June 27, the assistant to the head of Chechnya in the power unit Mr Alaudinov claimed that Russian-led forces found evidence that the Severodonetsk airport should be turned into a large military base of NATO.

He claimed:
We have all the information and evidence that the airport of the city of Severodonetsk was being prepared for a NATO base. It was supposed to become the main airport in the area that is adjacent to the territory of the Russian Federation, to our borders. Large camps with planes, weapons, and military equipment were to be deployed there. In fact, probably to prepare an attack on the Russian Federation.
This is another proof that if we hadn’t stopped them, they would hardly have left us alone. Their attack on our territory would only be a matter of time.

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In 2020, the former Minister of Defense of Ukraine Andriy Zagorodnyuk claimed that the Kiev regime planed to create two bases in Severodonetsk and Mariupol according to NATO standards.

Since the beginning of 2015, the airport has been owned by the Luhansk Regional Administration which was under Kiev’s control. Since the Lugansk airport was completely destroyed as a result of the fighting and is located on the territory beyond the control of the Ukrainian authorities, it was decided to create a new regional airport on the basis of Severodonetsk.

Today, the airport as well as the city of Severodonetsk and nearby settlements are under control of the Luhansk People’s Republic.

https://southfront.org/ukrainian-milita ... an-border/

BREAKING: RUSSIAN MINISTRY OF DEFENSE REVEALED HOW CIVILIAN HOUSE IN KIEV WAS HIT ON JUNE 26

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On June 27, the Russian Ministry of Defence commented on the recent strikes at the Ukrainian capital, which targeted the military plant Artyom located in the center of Kiev. As a result of the attack, a civilian house was damaged. The Russian Ministry of Defence revealed the detail of the incident:

On June 26, the Russian Aerospace Forces struck four high-precision air-launched missiles at the workshops of the Artyom Rocket Construction Corporation in the Shevchenko district of Kiev. This enterprise produced ammunition for Ukrainian multiple rocket launchers.

According to objective control, all four missiles reached the target. The object was hit. The civilian infrastructure of the city of Kiev was not affected as a result of the use of precision weapons.

The Kiev regime attempted to intercept Russian high-precision missiles with anti-aircraft weapons stationed in the city. Ukrainian calculations of the S-300 and Buk-M1 anti-aircraft missile systems used more than 10 anti-aircraft missiles.

Due to the lack of coupling of air defense systems and radio equipment launchers located in urban areas, two S-300 anti-aircraft missiles were shot down in the air by Ukrainian Buks. Presumably one of the downed anti-aircraft missiles fell on a residential building.
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The footage from the spot shared by Ukrainian media confirmed that the destruction caused to the civilian building was likely not caused by the direct strike of the Russian precise missiles. If Russia intentionally struck the building, it would be completely destroyed. In fact, only a few apartments were seen destroyed and others were damaged by the blast.

According to Yuriy Ignat, a Ukrainian Air Force spokesman, Kiev was hit with Russian Kh-101 missiles from Tu-95 and Tu-160 aircraft which took off from Astrakhan and the launch of missiles took place over the Caspian Sea. The report of the Russian Ministry of Defence do not contradict the claims of the Ukrainian official.

Russian Kh-101 air-launched cruise missile carries a conventional 450 kg warhead, and can be equipped with high explosive, penetrating, or cluster/submunition warheads.

https://southfront.org/breaking-russian ... n-june-26/
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Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV

Post by blindpig » Tue Jun 28, 2022 11:21 pm

While Biden Gives Ukrainian Army “The Most Lethal Weapon,” War Profiteer BAE Systems Stock Soars
By Jeremy Kuzmarov - June 27, 2022 1

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Ukraine service members fire a shell from a M-777 Howitzer from Ukrainian position in Peski toward Donetsk. [Source: reuters.com]
Sending Ukraine a $300 million shipment of powerful M-777 howitzers is a lobbying triumph for BAE Systems, one of the many war industry corporations fattening on the death and destruction of the Ukraine war
On June 15, the Biden administration announced that it was providing an additional $1 billion in military aid to Ukraine in a package that includes shipments of M-777 howitzers, ammunition and coastal defense systems.
While that announcement was being made, the Ukrainian army was shelling Donetsk, the capital of the Donetsk People’s Republic, with the U.S.-supplied howitzers along with French guns, according to The Donbass Insider, killing five civilians and wounding seven firefighters.

The attacks were being carried out from Ukrainian positions in Peski, a village not far from Donetsk airport.

According to a video produced by journalist Patrick Lancaster, a U.S. naval veteran who has reported on the war in eastern Ukraine over the last eight years, there were no military targets in the areas shelled by the Ukrainian army, only civilians.

See video here: https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday/745

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Patrick Lancaster [Source: celebkura.com]

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[Source: amazon.com]

Bringing Ukraine Closer to Victory?

Consistent with a society that used military technologies to subdue the native populations, most Americans subscribe to the belief that new superweapons can deliver salvation in wars.[1]

They ignore the dictum of German theorist Karl von Clausewitz that war is “politics by other means,” meaning that victory can only be achieved by aligning with the right side—which does not appear to be the case for Ukraine.

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Karl von Clausewitz [Source: wikipedia.org]

The New York Times characterized the M-777 howitzer—which made its debut in Afghanistan in 2005—as “the most lethal weapon the West has provided [to Ukraine] so far.”

Highly portable by land, air and sea, it can fire as far as 40 kilometers away or 25 miles—further than Russia’s primary artillery system—and is capable of striking within 10 meters of a target when coupled with the M982 Excalibur precision guided munition, which Canada has sent to Ukraine.[2]

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Ukrainian soldier checks sights on the M777 howitzer. [Source: coffeeordie.com]

The flat, rolling plains of the Donbas are particularly suited for artillery fire compared with the shoulder-mounted Javelin missiles that were effective in neutralizing enemy forces in the first months of the war when Russia was targeting densely populated cities like Kyiv, senior U.S. defense officials have said.

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A stack of 155mm shells sits in a wooded area near a base in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. [Source: nytimes.com]

The American Legion reported that the United States had already sent 108 M-777 howitzers to Ukraine before the most recent aid package was signed by President Biden.

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Soldiers with Ukraine’s 55th Artillery Brigade clean and carry out maintenance on a howitzer. [Source: nytimes.com]

The Pentagon claimed that the howitzers had an immediate impact upon their arrival on May 8, enabling the Ukrainians to “go on the counter-offensive in the Donbas” and “take back some towns the Russians had taken in the past.”

Colonel Roman Kachur, commander of Ukraine’s 55th Artillery Brigade, told The New York Times that “this weapon [the howitzer] brings us closer to victory. With every modern weapon, every precise weapon, we get closer to victory.”

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Roman Kachur [Source: abovetopsecret.com]

However, The New York Times reported on June 20 that Russian forces “appeared poised to tighten the noose around thousands of Ukrainian troops near two strategically important cities in the Donbas,” mounting an “assault on Ukrainian front lines.”[3]

So a Ukrainian victory appears far off.

The Russian Interior Ministry reported that it had destroyed U.S.-made howitzers through use of attack drones.

Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter wrote that Ukrainian dependence on Western artillery they were unfamiliar with resulted in a ten-fold disparity in firepower with Russia which was destroying Ukrainian defensive positions with minimal risk to its troops.

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Satellite image of Russian attack drone taking out M777 howitzer near the settlement of Podgornoye. [Source: farsnews.ir]

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that the Ukraine War could “last for years,” meaning we are looking at another Vietnam.

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M777 howitzers bound for Ukraine. Will they make a difference in the war? [Source: eurasiantimes.com]

Merchants of Death

The M-777 howitzer is made by the U.S. division of BAE Systems, the largest arms manufacturer in Europe, which has supplied Ukraine with 400,000 rounds of munitions, anti-tank guided missiles and armored vehicles equipped with anti-aircraft missiles.

Former CIA Director Gina Haspel, who observed waterboarding at a CIA black site, sits on the company’s Board of Directors.

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“Bloody” Gina Haspel [Source: basesystems.com]

In March, BAE Systems ironically bankrolled an arms fair in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where sanctioned Russian weapons makers showed off some of the weapons they were using in Ukraine, including tanks, helicopters and drones.

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Profit has no national loyalty: Arms bazaar hosted by BAE in Riyadh in March where sanctioned Russian firms showcase miniature tanks and other weapons used in war in Ukraine. [Source: opendemocracy.net]

During the 2020 U.S. election campaign, BAE Systems donated $569,202 to Democratic Party candidates, and $452,594 to Republicans, according to opensecrets.org.

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Standing with Ukraine has been good for Joe’s pocket-book—it was something donors like BAE Systems expected. [Source: cnn.com]

Additional recipients of BAE’s largesse included such anti-Russia hawks as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA—$7,373); Steny Hoyer (D-MD—$10,000), Chuck Schumer (D-NY—$5,605); Liz Cheney (R-WY—$3,259 and another $5,500 in 2022); Jamie Raskin (D-MD—$4,089); Adam Schiff (D-CA—$8,036); Mitch McConnell (R-KY—$9, 289), James Inhofe (R-OK-$13,300) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC-$11,383).[4]

So far this year, BAE Systems has spent $940,000 on lobbying Congress; in 2021, it spent $3.63 million.[5]

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[Source: cityam.com]

This amounts to chump change for the company: Shares in BAE Systems have reached an all-time high since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, rising by 28 percent over ten weeks to give BAE a stock market value of £24 billion and putting it among the largest 25 companies in the Financial Times Stock Exchange.

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[Source: corpwatch.com]

In a blatant conflict of interest, a number of Tories in England’s Upper House of Parliament—notably Lord Glendonbrook, Viscount Eccles and Lord Sassoon, and unaffiliated peers Lord Lupton and Lord Gadhia—each own shares of at least £50,000 in BAE Systems.[6]

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Prince Charles addresses Britain’s Upper House of Parliament in May. Numbers of Tories in the chamber who support the war in Ukraine own shares in leading war profiteer BAE Systems. [Source: english.alarabiya.net]

Samuel Perlo-Freeman, research coordinator for the campaign against the arms trade, said that BAE Systems “like other major world arms companies, are seeing their share prices soar in response to the war on Ukraine, as European countries prepare to massively rearm, doubling down on the very militarism that has created so much death and suffering in Ukraine, Yemen and elsewhere.”[7]

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Dr. Charles Woodburn [Source: basesystems.com]

In May, BAE Systems’ CEO, Dr. Charles Woodburn, told investors: “We see opportunities to further enhance the medium-term outlook as our customers address the elevated threat environment.”

Which really means that, by antagonizing the Russians, great profits can be made in the Ukraine War and any compromise or diplomatic solution that might end the war should be rejected.


See H. Bruce Franklin, War Stars: The Superweapon and the American Imagination (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007). ↑

The howitzers are equipped with a digital fire control system that ensures outstanding accuracy. According to a senior defense official speaking at a Pentagon news briefing, Canadian forces trained the first Ukrainian artillerymen, followed by Florida National Guardsmen who taught additional Ukrainians how to handle the howitzers. ↑

Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Vivian Yee and Andrew E. Kramer, “Russia Tightens Its Grip Around Pivotal Cities in Ukraine’s East,” The New York Times, June 20, 2022, A6. ↑

Other recipients of BAE Systems largesse in 2020 included: Dianne Feinstein, Rafael Warnock, Jon Ossoff, James Risch, Dick Durbin, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, Bernie Sanders, Patrick Leahy, Tammy Duckworth, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Adam Smith, Elizabeth Warren, and Amy Klobuchar. All voted for billions in arms shipments to Ukraine since the war started. 2020 Presidential candidates Pete Buttgieg and Andrew Yang also took money from BAE Systems. ↑

20 out of 29 BAE Systems lobbyists in 2021 and 17 out of 26 in 2022 previously held government jobs—an excellent example of the so-called revolving door. The bill that the lobbyists pushed for the most was H.R.4350: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, which promoted $777 billion in military spending. ↑

Adam Bychawski, “Revealed: Ukraine war makes Lords members richer through arms investments,” Open Democracy, March 17, 2022, https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-m ... e-systems/

***

1.See H. Bruce Franklin, War Stars: The Superweapon and the American Imagination (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007). ↑

2.The howitzers are equipped with a digital fire control system that ensures outstanding accuracy. According to a senior defense official speaking at a Pentagon news briefing, Canadian forces trained the first Ukrainian artillerymen, followed by Florida National Guardsmen who taught additional Ukrainians how to handle the howitzers. ↑

3.Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Vivian Yee and Andrew E. Kramer, “Russia Tightens Its Grip Around Pivotal Cities in Ukraine’s East,” The New York Times, June 20, 2022, A6. ↑

4.Other recipients of BAE Systems largesse in 2020 included: Dianne Feinstein, Rafael Warnock, Jon Ossoff, James Risch, Dick Durbin, Marco Rubio, Tom Cotton, Bernie Sanders, Patrick Leahy, Tammy Duckworth, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Adam Smith, Elizabeth Warren, and Amy Klobuchar. All voted for billions in arms shipments to Ukraine since the war started. 2020 Presidential candidates Pete Buttgieg and Andrew Yang also took money from BAE Systems. ↑

5.20 out of 29 BAE Systems lobbyists in 2021 and 17 out of 26 in 2022 previously held government jobs—an excellent example of the so-called revolving door. The bill that the lobbyists pushed for the most was H.R.4350: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, which promoted $777 billion in military spending. ↑

6.Adam Bychawski, “Revealed: Ukraine war makes Lords members richer through arms investments,” Open Democracy, March 17, 2022, https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-m ... e-systems/

7.Bychawski, “Revealed.” ↑

https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/0 ... ock-soars/

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NEOCONSERVATIVE THINK-TANKS CARRY BIDEN POLICY IN UKRAINE
Jun 27, 2022 , 7:05 p.m.

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An American airman prepares ammunition, weapons and other equipment for Ukraine at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware (Photo: Mauricio Campino / US Air Force)

In Joe Biden's Washington, it is the self-described national security "community of experts" that steers the helm and drives the administration's Ukraine policy.

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

The letter says, in part:

"The United States and Europe must avoid the urge to encourage kyiv to negotiate a ceasefire that fails to meet Ukraine's goals and could relegate millions of Ukrainians to Russia's control."

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

Among the most prominent signatories of the letter are long-time neoconservative ideologues, such as John Hopkins SAIS professor Eliot A. Cohen; Eric S. Edelman, also of SAIS at Johns Hopkins; Paula Dobriansky of the foreign-funded Atlantic Council; unsuccessful congressional candidate and executive director of the McCain Institute, Evelyn N. Farkas; John Herbst, also of the Atlantic Council; former adviser to John McCain, David J. Kramer; and, of course, former MSNBC ambassador and regular Michael McFaul.

The Russian gains and the severe, perhaps insurmountable, Ukrainian losses do not appear to have been enough to change the prevailing calculus in Washington, which remains to finance Ukraine with more than $40 billion and hope for the best.

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

To find out, just look at David Ignatius's latest column in The Washington Post .

Ignatius, a longtime and indefatigable carrier pigeon from Langley, informed readers on June 14 that "Russian military advances in eastern Ukraine this month have prompted growing concern in the West that the scales of the war are tipping to Moscow's favor. But Biden administration officials believe 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're not going to tell the Ukrainians how to negotiate, what to negotiate and when to negotiate... They're going to set the terms by themselves.

Three days later, on June 17, the Washington Post 's Missy Ryan, who did so much to lay the groundwork for an endless US intervention in Syria, reported:

"The United States and its allies are making preparations for a protracted conflict in Ukraine, the officials said, as the Biden administration attempts to deny victory to Russia by increasing military aid to kyiv, while striving to alleviate the destabilizing effects of the war on world hunger and the global economy".

The report notes that Ivo Daalder, a former US ambassador to NATO who now heads the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, said the United States faces "a stark choice: continue to help Ukraine maintain a potentially bloody status quo , with the devastating global consequences that this entails; or stop the support and allow Moscow to prevail.

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

Handing over US representation to Volodymyr Zelensky - which is what Kahl and Daalder and the rest are essentially proposing on the issue of a war that threatens to engulf both NATO and the US - is the height of irresponsibility.

Yet the Biden administration remains unwisely clinging to a failed policy of rejecting negotiations in favor of arming Ukraine to the teeth.

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

https://misionverdad.com/traducciones/l ... en-ucrania

Google Translator

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UKRAINE WAR DIVIDES EUROPE
Posted by MLToday | Jun 27, 2022

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BY HORST TEUBERT
June 21. 2022 German Foreign Policy



A foreign policy think tank expects dissipating support for Ukraine war and warns of polarization in the EU. Those favoring rapid peace already the majority.

Berlin/Rome – A Europe-wide think tank, headquartered in Berlin, warns of a long-lasting polarization in the EU caused by the Ukraine war. As the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) acknowledged in its evaluation of the results of its survey, conducted in ten European countries, it is possible to identify already today, two clearly distinct opinion spectrums within the population.

Whereas one of these insists, Russia must be defeated at all costs, the other urges a rapid peace settlement, even if this means Ukraine must make concessions. This is due to fears that the war will have negative consequences on the living standards throughout Europe and even threatens to escalate into a nuclear conflict. The ECFR considers that if the Ukraine war continues, the pendulum could swing in favor of those favoring peace, possibly endangering the cohesiveness of the EU. Declining support for arms deliveries to Ukraine had already been registered in Germany in May. In Italy, public protests opposing them are even spreading.


POLARIZED POPULATIONS

The results of the survey conducted by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) published last week, reveal that on the issue of the Ukraine war, a rift has formed in the populations of the European countries. As the ECFR writes, the results place Europeans into two opposing groups. The think tank labeled one of these “Justice” – focusing on striving to see Russia defeated and advocating, in its majority, for prioritizing arms deliveries, even at the expense, if necessary, of hefty reductions in the health and education budgets. This group is strongest anchored in Poland; however, it represents, in the ten countries of the survey, only 22 percent of the population. This group is contrasted by the spectrum that the ECFR labels the “Peace” group. It also accuses Russia of having started the war and makes a plea, in its majority, for economic disengagement from Russia. Supporters of the Peace camp want peace now, even at the cost of Ukrainian concessions to Russia. According to ECFR this spectrum represents around 35 percent of the population. It has its strongest constituency in Italy.

GROWING PRESSURE

In the results of their survey, alongside these two spectrums, the ECFR has identified a third category that it labels “swing voters,” which makes up 20 percent of the population. The Swing voters are as tough, if not tougher, than the “Justice” camp in their criticism of Russia. However, they do not share the Justice camp’s “moral outrage” and “escalatory goals.“Instead, they fear that a protracted war will be too costly for Europe and its population. On the questions of sending additional arms to Ukraine and to what extent Europe as a whole should rearm, they are situated closer to the “Peace” spectrum. With their fears, the “swing voters” represent around three-fifths of the population: 61 percent fears that the war could escalate into a nuclear war; 61 percent is worried that the costs of living, especially energy prices, will continue to increase. The ECFR considers that, on the one hand, pressure will rise on the “Swing Voters” to get off the fence, and on the other, it is not unlikely that if the feeling grows that the fierce economic sanctions on Russia are failing to bring results, while, creating more hardships for Europe, they will turn toward the “Peace spectrum.”

GROWING GAP

With regards to the still dominant advocacy of war in politics and media, the ECFR warns of a “growing gap between the stated positions of many European governments and the public mood in their countries.” As the conflict in Ukraine turns into a long war of attrition, the dividing line between a “Peace” camp and a “Justice” camp risks becoming the key dividing line on the European continent. In light of the foreseeable strain the war and, above all, the sanctions will have on the population, the think tank predicts, the “resilience of European democracies” will mostly depend “on the capacity of governments to sustain public support for policies that will ultimately bring pain to different social groups.” If they do not succeed, Europe is in danger of becoming so deeply polarized that the EU will be immobilized by its own divisions. The Ukraine war could signal the permanent marginalization of Europe on the world stage.

INCREASING PROTESTS

Perhaps the most evident signs of tendencies of polarization can be witnessed in Italy, where already in March, dock workers and airport employees protested against arms deliveries to Ukraine and refused to load war material on ships and planes. (german-foreign-policy.com reported.) According to the ECFR survey, already around 45 percent of the Italian population are opposed to – and only 33 percent in favor of – arms deliveries to Ukraine. The think tank also notes that Italy is the first European nation where the “Peace” spectrum already has a majority of the population (52 percent) on its side, with only 16 percent on the side of the “Justice” spectrum. Thus, Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who, last week, visited Kiev alongside Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and France’s President Emmanuel Macron, is under growing pressure. Senators of the Cinque Stelle Party, which includes Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, are preparing a resolution calling for the halt of arms deliveries. At a demonstration on the weekend, the CGIL (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro) trade union association also demanded that weapons exports be halted.

GROWING INSECURITY

In Germany, as well, approval for the delivery of heavy weapons is declining. A poll taken at the beginning of May showed that only 46 percent of the Germans were in favor of the delivery of “offensive and heavy weaponry” to the Ukrainian armed forces.A month earlier, it had been 55 percent. Inversely, the proportion of those who flatly reject these deliveries has risen from 33 to 44 percent. The staunchest proponents for supplying heavy weapons to Ukraine are supporters of the Green Party, the party representing a particularly affluent sector of the society, as German-foreign-policy.com has reported. At the end of May, a survey conducted by the Bertelsmann Foundation indicated that feelings of insecurity in Germany have considerably increased; around four-fifths of the population no longer feels secure, 67 percent fear that the Ukraine war could spread to Germany. With a diminishing feeling of security, ebbs the willingness to furnish heavy weapons to Ukraine or, for example, to impose tougher sanctions on Russia, explains the foundation. This essentially corresponds to the findings of the current survey conducted by the ECFR.

https://mltoday.com/ukraine-war-divides-europe/

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G7 Pledges Continued Support for Ukraine Against Russia

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2022 G7 summit is being held in the Bavarian Alps, Germany. Jun. 27, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@toot5000

Published 27 June 2022 (10 hours 36 minutes ago)

The G7 pledged to continue supporting Ukraine against Russia at the summit being held June 26-28 in Germany.

"We will continue to provide financial, humanitarian, military, and diplomatic support and stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes," the Group of Seven (G7) said.



The host of the summit, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said via Twitter that "as G7 we stand united on Ukraine's side and will continue our support. For this, we all have to take tough but necessary decisions," he said, adding that looking for an end to the conflict "we will continue to increase pressure on Putin."

According to a G7 source, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on world leaders to do everything possible to end the current conflict in Ukraine before the end of the year.

In a video-link conversation with the group, Zelensky said it is necessary "not to lower the pressure" regarding punitive sanctions imposed by Western and European allies on Russia.

In addition, the Ukrainian president said that currently, it is not the time to negotiate with Russia. "Ukraine will negotiate when it is in a position to do so, that is, when it has basically re-established a position of strength," French President Emmanuel Macron's office said.

The G7 countries also referred to grain exports, on which they said Moscow should allow grain shipments to leave Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly said it is not blocking Ukrainian grain exports. Moscow guarantees safe passage for grain shipments if Kiev clears its mines' ports.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/G7- ... -0022.html

Ukraine Sets Deadline to Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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Zelensky calls for an end to the Russia-Ukraine conflict before the end of the year. Jun. 27, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@kohanewsinfo

Published 27 June 2022 (9 hours 14 minutes ago)

Addressing to the leaders of the Group of Seven (G7), the Ukrainian President said that the Russia-Ukraine conflict must be finished by the end of the year.

On Monday, the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, said that the current armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine must reach peace by the end of the year. Zelensky's comments came during his address to the G7, calling the states members to continue sanctioning Moscow.

During the session via video link, the Ukrainian President commented on the hard time Ukrainian troops would have fighting against Russian forces once the winter conditions take hold. He urged the G7 to join efforts to end the conflict before the year ends; at the time, Zelensky asked for anti-aircraft defense systems and security guarantees.

The Ukrainian leader suggested stricter sanctions against Russia recalling how necessary it is "not to lower the pressure." The U.S. President Joe Biden's national security advisor, Jake Sullivan said that Zelensky pretends to gaining the upper hand over Russia as quickly as possible.

"He was very much focused on trying to ensure that Ukraine is in as advantageous a position on the battlefield as possible in the next months as opposed to the next years because he believes that a grinding conflict is not in the interest of the Ukrainian people," said Sullivan.


Zelensky, at the G7 Summit, asked for air defense systems and tougher sanctions against the Russian Federation.

During the three-day G7 Summit in the Bavarian Alps, with the agenda mainly directed at the armed conflict in Ukrainian territory, a draft communique was issued where reportedly the West's top economies will soon announce indefinite support for Kiev in its fight against Moscow.

"We will continue to provide financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support and stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes," according to a draft of the leaders' statement.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ukr ... -0025.html

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Another Zelensky Lie Debunked - White House Says Ukraine Must Give Up Territory

Yesterday I mentioned the burning shopping center in Kremenchuk, Ukraine, of which the Ukrainian president Zelensky falsely claimed that thousand people had been inside.

I asked:

Satellite pictures show that the shopping center is right next to the large Kredmash machine plant. Was that the real target of the attack with the shopping center being an unintended casualty?

It has now been confirmed that the answer to my question is 'yes'.

Today's report on the war by the Russian Defense Ministry says:

On June 27, in Kremenchug (Poltava region), Russian Aerospace Forces launched a high-precision air attack at hangars with armament and munitions delivered by USA and European countries at Kremenchug road machinery plant.
High-precision attack has resulted in the neutralisation of west-manufactured armament and munitions concentrated at the storage area for being delivered to Ukrainian group of troops in Donbass.

Detonation of the storaged munitions caused a fire in a non-functioning shopping centre next to the facilities of the plant.


Ahhh - "don't trust the Russians!" you say. Well, don't trust anyone I say, just scrutinize the facts.

The Ukrainians have published surveillance video from a park catching the moments of the two explosions. A large flash appears and people are running away as some debris falls down.

The park is around an artificial lake with an island in the middle that can be reached by a bridge. There is a small round building on the island.

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Here is a Google satellite view of the whole scene.

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The light gray shopping center roof can be seen south of the large Kredmash machine plant in the center. The small park from which the surveillance videos come is directly north of it. Google has marked it in green as some special recreational space. The factory has direct rail access at its southern side with several rail tracks for loading and unloading machinery. Rail access makes it an ideal space for preparing or repairing heavy weapons. It seems that the railway area was one of the two targets.

Still not convinced? Well, here is video from a Ukrainian TV station taken on the factory grounds. It is showing a crater and the debris of the factory. The areas where it was hit are pretty much destroyed.

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According to the Ukrainian emergence services the attack has caused the death of 16 people and wounded 59. So most of Zelensky's 'thousand' people inside the shopping center must have either survived or never existed at all with the later being the more likely case.

The shopping center was obviously as empty as its large empty parking space I mentioned yesterday. It somehow came on fire after the factory next door was bombed. Those who died were most likely soldiers or factory workers who were preparing 'western' weapons for delivery to the front.

Zelensky's lie has been debunked just as the other horror fictions he has told about Russians.

Meanwhile the White House is preparing for a retreat from Ukraine. CNN headlines:

Biden officials privately doubt that Ukraine can win back all of its territory

The piece is by the 'deranged conspiracy theorist and scandal plagued CIA propagandist' Natasha Bertrand. That makes it an official administration position.

(CNN) - White House officials are losing confidence that Ukraine will ever be able to take back all of the land it has lost to Russia over the past four months of war, US officials told CNN, even with the heavier and more sophisticated weaponry the US and its allies plan to send.

Advisers to President Joe Biden have begun debating internally how and whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky should shift his definition of a Ukrainian "victory" -- adjusting for the possibility that his country has shrunk irreversibly.

US officials emphasized to CNN that this more pessimistic assessment does not mean the US plans to pressure Ukraine into making any formal territorial concessions to Russia in order to end the war. There is also hope that Ukrainian forces will be able to take back significant chunks of territory in a likely counteroffensive later this year.


That 'counteroffensive later this year' seems very unlikely to me. When the Russian forces see any buildup for one they will destroy it before it can take off.

The Ukraine will not regain any of the territory that the Russians do not want it to regain. It isn't in the position to do so militarily nor through negotiations. It will simply have to accept defeat and give up on the east and south and accept the loss of the source of 70-80% of its former GDP.

All this was completely foreseeable since the very first day of the war.

Posted by b on June 28, 2022 at 14:30 UTC | Permalink

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

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About the tactics of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
June 28, 19:43

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In addition to https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7705872.html

About UAF tactics

What else can be said about the tactics of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. They are trying to protect the personnel units by putting up barriers of reservists in plantings along the roads, among the inhabitants.

As familiar scouts said, during the assault on the next village, such a barrier missed the "armor", but when the infantry went, they opened fire on it from small arms literally from every window of the inhabitant. The infantry had to roll back, and subsequently the artillery literally burned that square. Those few from the "barrier" who survived, threw down their weapons and tried to leave, having changed into a "citizen". This was later told by the captured scouts themselves. They had no option to retreat from their positions - they would simply be shot by their own.

I remember something similar in Syria on campaigns against ISIS and al-Nusra (both organizations are banned in the Russian Federation). Whether it was an advance in the desert or a battle for some inhabitant, after the assault, government forces always expected the appearance of a "jihad-mobile" with a suicide bomber at the wheel. Often such a vehicle was camouflaged in advance, sometimes letting the troops go forward, and sometimes the Arab "kamikaze" tried to swoop into the area of ​​​​an unattached unit. And, unfortunately, not always the death could meet the exposed ATGM or tank. I lost several of my friends because of such attacks. The terrorists conducted reconnaissance from a drone and corrected the route of the infernal machine, simultaneously filming all this for their propaganda stories. There, in the east, their own "cult of death" was created. Those who prepared especially in "ISIS" (banned in the Russian Federation). Most of the suicide bombers, according to my observations, I remember with them. especially in "ISIS" (banned in the Russian Federation). Most of the suicide bombers, according to my observations, I remember with them.

In Ukraine, of course, the scale and specifics are different. Here, instead of the "jihad-mobile", artillery inflicts damage on the attackers, and they try to tie them down with "live meat". But the task is absolutely identical in its essence. Yes, and brainwashing as religious fanatics is not necessary. If a bitter hangover sets in after a cocktail of Ukrainian propaganda, the fear of being shot by a "blockade detachment" simply acts.

S. Shilov

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7706275.html

On the strategic reserve of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the real goals of the war
June 28, 19:00

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On the strategic reserve of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the real goals of the war

On the South Wind channel @south0wind, the authors spoke ( https://t.me/south0wind/2750 ) about the training of strategic reserve brigades from among the mobilized citizens of Ukraine in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

But we have questions about the effectiveness of these compounds.

▪️Of course, it will be possible to form and staff reserve brigades: it is not in vain that specially trained teams round up men aged 18 to 60 throughout Ukraine.

But it's not the Middle Ages now. It is not enough just to catch the peasants, give them pikes and halberds, put hired cavalry behind them so that the peasants do not run away, and drive the army against the enemy. This tactic has never been justified - in the realities of the XXI century and even more so.

▪️On the example of the untrained and unmotivated units of the territorial defense thrown to the front line, it is perfectly clear what awaits such brigades in the future.

As soon as the territorial defense units are separated from the detachments, a mass flight from positions begins, dressing in civilian clothes and surrendering. Forcibly mobilized residents of Western Ukrainian villages and cities do not want to die either for the Donbass or for Great Ukraine.

▪️Weakly motivated infantry is not the biggest problem of the strategic reserve brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Modern warfare is a technology war. The use of military equipment requires training and practice, maintaining the equipment in a combat-ready state - a serious organization and a full-fledged logistics system. Basic training of an artilleryman or a driver takes at least six months. And this is true even for outdated Soviet equipment, not to mention high-tech Western weapons.

▪️What brigades can be quickly prepared by the Armed Forces of Ukraine by August?

Let's try to imagine the appearance of a typical armored personnel carrier as part of a new brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine by the fall.

several companies from the victims of recruitment;
a pair of platoons of nationalists, performing the functions of a convoy of recruits and a detachment on the battlefield;
poorly trained mechanized and artillery groups;
the motley equipment in service, mainly from the former countries of the Warsaw Pact, produced in the 70s - 80s;
lack of a normal full-featured rembat;
a platoon of foreign mercenaries to control nationalists and guard NATO military specialists who exercise real control over the military unit.

How many such brigades can fight? No.

For the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the situation at the front will develop as it is now, only worse. Motivated regular military personnel and Ukrainian nationalists with combat experience will be destroyed in the Donbass by that time.

No matter how strange it may sound, the main military goal of the West in this war is to inflict maximum damage on the enemy, to destroy as many Russians as possible both by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

It is in this case that the method of warfare chosen by the Armed Forces of Ukraine becomes clear: capturing and sending the inhabitants of Ukraine under escort for disposal. They will die themselves and as a bonus, at least in a ratio of 1 to 10, they will take with them the fighters of the RF Armed Forces.

And the enemy for NATO troops is not only the RF Armed Forces, but also Ukraine - as a potential resource of the enemy, which cannot be mastered on its own and therefore must be destroyed.

It is not the brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine recruited for the mobilization of the Armed Forces that should be feared, but the prolongation of the war.

https://t.me/rybar/34557 - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7705872.html

Das sowjet paradies
June 28, 10:49

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Das Sowjetparadies

An anti-Russian exhibition "The Invincible Army" is being prepared in Warsaw, but its creators have forgotten that such an event has already been held by the Third Reich in Berlin in 1942.
( Collapse )

The implementation of the most successful, but also the most stupid idea, should be preceded by a check for parallels that it had in the past or may have today. In order not to make mistakes and not screw up. As it turned out, for the Russophobes of Warsaw, hatred of Russia and the desire to show the Muscovite his place is more important than the most ordinary caution. So, in Warsaw, games are being prepared for the dark people, according to the Roman slogan "Bread and circuses!"

By agreement between the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, an exhibition / circus called "The Invincible Army" will be held on Zamkova Square in our capital, the purpose of which is a propaganda strike against Russia, and above all a mockery of its armed forces. The event was discussed and agreed upon by the Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov and the head of the Office of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers Michal Dvorchik. Dvorchik said that with the help of the exhibition, “on the one hand, we show the horror of the military actions of the Russian army in Ukraine, and on the other hand, the heroic defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the consequences of these battles, that is, the destroyed equipment.” The exhibition will also be presented in Madrid and Lisbon.

The idea, of course, belongs to the category of base, but the most interesting thing is different. This exhibition is nothing more than a repetition of the Hitler idea and the German exhibition of the Third Reich called "Soviet Paradise" ("Das Sowjetparadies"), which took place in Berlin from May 8 to June 21, 1942, when the Wehrmacht was still victorious. Exhibition, prepared by the Propaganda Ministry of the Third Reich and accompanied by a specially filmed film.The "Soviet Paradise" displayed at Berlin's Lustgarten Square reportedly attracted 1.3 million visitors.In addition to written propaganda and photographs, the exhibition also featured artefacts brought from the eastern front, led by tanks, cannons, planes and other military equipment, as well as, for example, huts from Belarusian villages along with utensils. All this was supposed to demonstrate the poverty and criminality of the USSR (of course, exaggeratedly) and the failures of the Red Army against the backdrop of the superior military power, civilization and culture of Germany. Of course, without any mention of the scale of the crimes committed by the armed forces of the Third Reich in relation to the population of the occupied territories of the USSR and the prisoners of the Red Army. The exhibition was also shown in Vienna and Prague.

We do not believe our eyes. Ukraine, however, should not be surprised: it follows the path of Bandera, Shukhevych, Lebed - since the pre-war times, friends and agents of Germany. But stupid people from Warsaw? In recent years, we have already encountered the fact that Putin's face and the word Russia were inserted into Hitler's SS symbols, which was done with pleasure by state and private media, making a program background out of this creativity. Local blockheads, with ecstasy, reworked the anti-Soviet propaganda posters of Joseph Goebbels from 1944-45 in the manner of modern ones. But this exhibition breaks all records with the scale and participation of the Polish government. The mediocre Polish politicians again make it possible to accuse Poland of imitating the Third Reich. It remains only to throw up our hands over such stupidity, lack of insight, understanding of what and in what context can be sold, even in the form of primitive entertainment for talkers! I would like to believe that this is just evidence of a lack of knowledge, simple ignorance, so typical of our time. But I'm not sure about that either.

And as for the dark people, the organizers should also invite a special group of provocatively dressed, pretty young ladies distributing free beer. Full house will be guaranteed. Maybe even more people will come than in Berlin in 1942!

(c) Adam Laughter

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7705074.html

Google Translator

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From Cassad's Telegram account:

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forwarded from
Rybar

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❗️Offensive on Donbass: the situation in the east of Ukraine
by the end of June 28, 2022

▪️At night, a Ukrainian army drone was shot down in the Sevsky district of the Bryansk region , bordering Ukraine . Another Ukrainian UAV was destroyed in the vicinity of Kursk .

▪️A unit of the 127th troop brigade was deployed to the north of the Kharkiv region to deter Russian attacks, and a tank platoon of the 92nd brigade was deployed to Slatino.
➖In Kharkov , missile strikes were carried out on the positions of the 92nd OMBR and the Azov National Regiment. More than 100 Ukrainian servicemen and foreign mercenaries have been eliminated.

▪️In the Donbas , the Allied Forces continue to push the enemy.
➖On the southern outskirts of Lisichansk , there are clashes in the industrial zone and the village of Belaya Gora.
➖Allied forces continue fierce fighting for the territory of the Lisichansk Oil Refinery and Maloryazantsevo .
➖To the west of Lisichansk, the RF Armed Forces crossed the Seversky Donets in the Privolye region and entrenched themselves in the occupied bridgehead.
➖On the outskirts of Bakhmut and Soledar, Ukrainian units are setting up echeloned defensive positions in anticipation of the offensive of the allied forces.
➖The Ukrainian command expects an attack by Russian troops on Semigorye to encircle the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of ​​the Uglegorsk TPP and control the section of the Debaltsevo-Bakhmut road.
➖NM DPR conducts positional battles near Ugledar.

▪️In Dnepropetrovsk, objects of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were hit on the territory of the Dneprovsky Electric Plant and warehouses near the railway station "Baza Vtorchermet" .

▪️In the Zaporozhye direction , the RF Armed Forces attacked enemy positions in Orekhovo and Zaliznychny .

▪️Mutual shelling continues in the Krivoy Rog direction . Russian artillery hit AFU facilities in Zelenodolsk and Shirokovskiy district .

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forwarded from
MediaKiller
1:00
Les Echos, the most authoritative economic publication in France, like the Financial Times in Britain, published a story in which it analyzes why Ukraine will never join the EU, despite the status of a candidate.

Scholz, Charles Michel, Ursula von der Leyen congratulated Ukraine on obtaining the status of an EU candidate.

Not all EU countries are positive about this step: if Ukraine joins the EU, it will "pull" subsidies from other countries as the poorest state.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre de Crue: "This is an important symbolic signal, but it is clear that for Ukraine it will be a long journey with huge reforms that will take a long time"

Candidate status is the first but symbolic step towards joining the European Union, Bloomberg also wrote. Turkey was granted this status at the end of 1999, but it never joined the EU.

EU leaders have put forward a number of conditions related to the rule of law, corruption and the judiciary. Ukraine will not be able to fulfill all the requirements in the near future.

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Сolonelcassad
Briefly on the question "How did Ukraine still have attack aircraft"?

1. A few more pieces remain from the original quantity.
2. They restore old vehicles, for which they supply components from Europe (mainly from the warehouses of the Department of Internal Affairs in Eastern Europe and from the stocks of the armies of Eastern Europe).
3. They also restore old cars by cannibalizing other old cars.
4. They receive vehicles from Eastern Europe, which act under the guise of Ukrainian ones (back in May there was information that one of the downed attack aircraft was piloted by a mercenary from the Baltic states).

It is worth recalling that, according to official data, in 1992, 3 (!) Air armies (somewhere around 1100-1200 different aircraft) were transferred to Ukraine at the disposal of there was a certain supply of technically non-combat-ready machines that they are trying to restore.

***

forwarded from
Destination in Ukraine
The Ukrainian General Staff reports for the second day in a row that Russian troops are improving their tactical position in the area of ​​the city of Balakliya (Kharkiv region).

As indicated in the reports, the offensive is taking place in the areas of the settlements of Zaliman, Dovgalevka and Yavorskoye. It is noteworthy that since the beginning of April, the main efforts in the Balakleya zone of the Russian Armed Forces have been concentrated on holding occupied lines.

Apparently, the transition to offensive operations indicates that the Russian troops have restored their combat capabilities. At the same time, a large Ukrainian group that was in this zone, on the contrary, noticeably decreased due to the transfer of units to other areas, as well as large losses among personnel.

***

forwarded from
Militarist
Serious such results of the last week in the Kherson direction. APU in the period 20-26 lost here:

🇺🇦more than 820 people killed and wounded;

🇺🇦7 152-mm self-propelled guns 2S19 "Msta-S";
🇺🇦3 152-mm howitzers "Msta-B";
🇺🇦5 122-mm D-30 howitzers;
🇺🇦5 155-mm howitzers M-777;
🇺🇦12 "roaming" mortars;
🇺🇦8 anti-tank missile systems;

🇺🇦about 50 MLRS military vehicles located in the hangars, including foreign-made ones;
🇺🇦8 tanks;
🇺🇦one MTLB;
🇺🇦6 armored vehicles;
🇺🇦20 military trucks;
🇺🇦5 combat vehicles MLRS "Grad";
🇺🇦13 pickup class military vehicles;

🇺🇦attack aircraft Su-25;
🇺🇦21 UAVs;
🇺🇦14 Tochka-U operational-tactical missiles and 19 rockets (air defense shot down);

🇺🇦5 command and control posts;
🇺🇦7 strongholds (4 company and 3 platoon);
🇺🇦a base for the deployment of foreign mercenaries;
🇺🇦3 ammunition depots;
🇺🇦49 tanks with fuel for military equipment;
🇺🇦3 bases for the repair of armored vehicles.

https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin

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

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

Post by blindpig » Wed Jun 29, 2022 1:40 pm

Minsk as an argument
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 06/29/2022

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The end of the meeting of the Heads of State and Government of the G7 countries in Germany has given way to the preludes to the NATO summit, in which Spain hopes to demonstrate its staunch defense of the Alliance and its values . The leaders of the member countries began arriving in Madrid yesterday for a summit that will be monopolized by the military situation in Ukraine. Coinciding with the start of the summit, yesterday the use of US HIMARS sent to Ukraine, which have already arrived on the Eastern Front, was verified for the first time.

With a front that covers hundreds of kilometers and where all kinds of military targets are found, kyiv decided to use its new weapons by firing at the town of Perevalsk, located in the rear of Lugansk long before the start of the Russian intervention in February 2022 and even further from the front now. The objective of the bombardment, which apparently did not cause great material or personal damage, is nothing more than a show of force by Ukraine, which has thus wanted to underline that, despite its setbacks on the battlefield, it is still capable of reaching cities that they had not been a target of its artillery since the signing of the Minsk agreements in 2015.

With the support of its partners, kyiv wants to make it clear that it is still pursuing a military victory against Russia in Ukraine. Only yesterday, Oleksiy Arestovich perfectly demonstrated this position when explaining the Ukrainian withdrawal from Severodonetsk. In his view, Ukraine's job is to inflict the greatest possible losses on the enemy while maintaining offensive potential. Only then will Ukraine be able to fight back, hence the losses - Arestovich describes them as temporary, but some losses last for eight years - of cities are not a factor to be taken into account when determining the outcome of the war. Ukraine thus presents itself as an army whose sole objective is to exhaust the Russian Army, with the complete destruction of cities and infrastructures that this strategy implies.

Yesterday, Boris Johnson ceded part of the leading role to Liz Truss, the minister who, in the days before the start of the Russian intervention, told Sergey Lavrov that the West would never accept Russian sovereignty over Rostov and Voronezh, confusing the two Russian regions with Donetsk and Lugansk. and making clear his aggressiveness and his lack of preparation. The experience of these months has not changed the opinion of Truss and her government, who continue to insist that there is no need to seek an early peace or, as Boris Johnson called it last week, a shitty peace . In an interview granted to the German medium Weltpublished yesterday, Truss defined Ukraine's victory as the march of all Russian troops from Ukraine. “That's what it means and that's what I wrote in my joint article with Dmitro Kuleba. What we cannot have is an unstable peace in which Russia is still present in Ukraine," the British minister said.

In a similar line -although without giving up the idea of ​​a negotiation in a position of strength- Emmanuel Macron was shown yesterday, who in the context of a NATO summit that intends to show Moscow as the main enemy of the Alliance, stated that "Russia cannot and will not win." But just as Truss does not define exactly what the departure of Russian troops from Ukrainian territory means - if that territory includes Crimea, the West would be looking for an open war of much greater danger than the current one -, the French president did not define what I would consider in the chancelleries of the European Union a Russian defeat.

The margin of definition of victory and defeat in this war is wide, especially considering that the situation on the front lines seems to be heading for an inconclusive outcome. Any result that does not involve the capture of kyiv can be presented by Western governments and media as a defeat for Moscow. However, that idea would be less convincing now than it was last March, especially if Russia consolidates control of Donbass, Kherson and the land corridor to Crimea. The possibility that Ukraine will have to modify its definition of victory is something that, according to what CNN published yesterday , is raised even in the circle close to US President Joe Biden.

Despite these doubts and internal differences that undoubtedly exist, the NATO summit will stage the continuity of the current situation: unconditional financial and political support for Ukraine and a constant flow of weapons in search of a decisive victory for Ukraine, even if they are not capable of really define what that victory consists of.

The Alliance will not participate in the unblocking of Ukrainian ports and there is no fast track to NATO as required by kyiv, but Ukraine will continue to be a tool in the strategic objectives of the Alliance, focused on punishing Moscow militarily and economically. That objective is enough to justify not only the continuation of an increasingly destructive war, but also the suffering that the effect of sanctions against Russia may cause in member countries. "It's the price the allies have to pay," Stoltenberg said.

The publication of the transcript of the conversation held by Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin on February 20 has once again highlighted the centrality that the Minsk agreements had for seven years on the political agenda of the Ukrainian conflict. Macron's incoherence and his lack of knowledge about the process and the agreements themselves show what the publication of the diplomatic correspondence between the chancelleries of Berlin, Paris and Moscow already revealed: there was no intention among Western countries to put pressure on kyiv. to fulfill its commitments. The seven years of blockade and the complete absence of political results reaffirm the failure of the Minsk process. Always seeking to replace the format of the Minsk Contact Group, in which the People's Republics did have a voice, Through the Normandy Format, Ukraine tried to rewrite the agreements in order to impose the vision of the text that Emmanuel Macron reflected in his conversation with Vladimir Putin. For seven years, the People's Republics of Donbass tried to maintain, at the request of Russia, a constructive position in the Minsk process, despite the constant declarations of Ukrainian officials, who reaffirmed their intention not to comply with the political points: amnesty, resumption of economic ties, linguistic and cultural rights and special status.

Unable to resolve the conflict between Ukraine and Donbass, the Minsk agreements remain useful to Western officials. In his statements to Welt, Liz Truss referred to them as an argument against the negotiation. "It will not work. We already know what happened in 2014 with the Minsk agreements, in the end Russia regrouped and came back for more afterwards, so we cannot allow that situation to happen again.” The defeat at Ilovaisk forced Ukraine to sign the first Minsk agreements, a first ceasefire that was broken from day one and was used by the parties to regroup in view of an inevitable resumption of hostilities. A more favorable way of buying time for those who had been defeated and were at serious risk of military collapse than for those who stopped their offensive with the ceasefire, in a process that resembles that agreement currently sought by Emmanuel Macron.

The presence of the Russian Army on the ground in Donbass, Kherson, Kharkov and Zaporozhie makes it impossible to compare the current situation with that first ceasefire in September 2014, which was never such. However, forgetting and ignoring what happened between September 2014 and February 2022, the Minsk process is easily manipulated in order to blame the Russian invasion for the outbreak of this war that began, not in February 2022, but in April 2014.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/06/29/minsk ... more-24929

Google Translator

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Turkey greenlights Sweden, Finland's NATO bid, internal conflicts remain
Xinhua | Updated: 2022-06-29 07:05

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This handoput photograph taken and released on June 28, 2022 in Madrid by Turkish Presidential press office, shows (From L) Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg , Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Finland's President Sauli Niinisto, Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde posing for pictures after signing a memorandum during a NATO summit in Madrid. AFP PHOTO /HANDOUT/TURKISH PRESIDENTIAL PRESS OFFICE

MADRID -- Turkey changed its position and agreed to support Sweden and Finland's NATO membership applications on Tuesday during the ongoing NATO Summit in Madrid, while conflicts within the military bloc still remain.

After an extended meeting among leaders from the three countries together with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday afternoon, a trilateral memorandum addressing Turkey's security concerns was agreed and signed, paving the way for the two Nordic states' NATO membership applications.

"I am pleased to announce that we now have an agreement that enables Sweden and Finland's membership in NATO," said Stoltenberg at a press conference on Tuesday night, explaining that the deal includes agreements on arms exports and a joint fight against terrorism.

"This will strengthen NATO, and it will also strengthen Sweden and Finland", said Stoltenberg, adding that now is the time for the 30 different parliaments to make a decision. According to NATO, all 30 members must approve a country's bid for it to be accepted into the alliance.

Although several NATO countries have already approved the two Nordic states' bid in mid-May to join the military alliance, the process has proven not to be as straightforward, as Turkey soon raised objections, citing Swedish and Finnish ties with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Syria's Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) Turkey labels as terrorist groups. Ankara has also voiced dissatisfaction with the Swedish arms embargo on Turkey.

Rounds of talks have been held in the past weeks at both Ankara and NATO headquarters in Brussels which aimed to resolve differences among the two Nordic states and Turkey.

Despite Turkey's green light on Tuesday, the NATO head admitted that conflicts within the military bloc still remain.

"There will still be conflicts within the defense alliance, but we have shown the strength of our alliance ..." Stoltenberg concluded.

http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20220 ... 691e8.html

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Russian Ops in Ukraine (June 28-29, 2022): West Copes with Ukrainian Losses
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 28, 2022



Update on Russian Military Operations in Ukraine for June 28-29 2022:

– Russia continues advances in Donbas; – Severodonetsk now completely under Russian control;

– Lysychansk is being encircled;

– Western media begins discussion on Ukraine’s inevitable, permanent loss of territory;

– West also admits limits to support it can provide Ukraine;

References:

US Department of Defense – Senior Defense Official Holds a Background Briefing JUNE 27, 2022: https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcri

ABC (Australia) – Ukraine’s ‘tactical realignment’ in the east isn’t a sign it’s losing the war against Russia: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-2

Sky News – Is Russia now winning the war in Ukraine? Experts have their say: https://news.sky.com/story/is-russia-

CNN – Biden officials privately doubt that Ukraine can win back all of its territory: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/28/po

Guardian – ‘The enemy is planning something’: Kharkiv fears new Russian attack: https://www.theguardian.com/world/202

Reuters – Missiles strike Ukraine shopping mall, G7 vows to keep pressure on Russia: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... an-losses/

NATO Announces Plan for Massive European Land Army
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 28, 2022
Andre Damon

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In what NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called the “biggest overhaul of our collective deterrence and defense since the Cold War,” the US-led NATO alliance has announced plans to build a massive standing land army in Europe, numbering in the hundreds of thousands.

Stoltenberg said NATO would increase its “high readiness forces” sevenfold, from 40,000 to 300,000, deploying tens of thousands of additional troops, as well as countless tanks and aircraft, directly to Russia’s border.

The move will entail a massive diversion of social resources to NATO’s ongoing war with Russia and planned war with China, draining treasuries throughout Europe and North America and fueling demands for the elimination of social services, the slashing of wages, and the gutting of workers’ pensions.

Stoltenberg said the creation of this massive fighting force was a response to the “new era of strategic competition” with Russia and China.

He called the plan “a fundamental shift in NATO’s deterrence and defense,” embracing not only the war with Russia, but “the challenges that Beijing poses to our security, interests and values.”

As a part of this massive expansion of its fighting force, NATO will increase the numbers of troops stationed in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to the “brigade” level, meaning approximately 3,000 to 5,000 troops.

The Financial Times reported, based on an interview with Stoltenberg, that the plan will “include new structures in which Western NATO allies, such as the US, UK and France, would pledge their ships, warplanes and a total of more than 300,000 troops to be ready to deploy to specific territories on the alliance’s eastern flank, with graded response times starting from the opening hours of any attack.”

Instead of troops deployed to the Baltics serving as a “tripwire,” the new plan would envision NATO fighting a war against Russia directly on the borders of these countries on NATO’s eastern battlefront.

Stoltenberg boasted that “2022 will be the eighth consecutive year of increases across European Allies and Canada,” adding that NATO’s target of two percent of economic output going to military spending will be “considered a floor, not a ceiling.”

That same day, US officials previewed yet another massive weapons shipment to Ukraine, including the NASAMS medium-to-long-range surface-to-air missile defense system created by Raytheon.

In addition to “advanced medium- and long-range air defense capabilities for the Ukrainians,” the US would also provide “ammunition for artillery and counter battery radar systems,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said.

Members of the NATO alliance, meanwhile, are openly using the language of war. In his first public speech as the chief of the general staff, General Sir Patrick Sanders will, according to the Telegraph, declare that the UK army must be ready to “fight and win” against Russia.

Simultaneously, the US and its allies are intensifying the economic embargo against Russia. Over the weekend, participants in the G7 summit announced plans to ban imports of gold from Russia and are finalizing plans to try to put price caps on oil and gas sold by Russia.

On Monday, Russia officially defaulted on its foreign debt payments, after European payments clearinghouses refused to process payments from the country. Russian officials insist that they have the funds available to make the payments, but that it has been effectively cut out from the European financial system and hence forced to carry out an artificial default.

Regardless, this would be the first time Russia has defaulted on its debts since 1918, when the Bolshevik government, in the wake of the 1917 revolution, repudiated the foreign debts of the Tsarist regime.

NATO’s massive military escalation comes as the official position of the United States and NATO—that they are not at war with Russia—becomes increasingly untenable.

This weekend, the New York Times reported that US forces are secretly operating on the ground in Ukraine, as well as forces from several other NATO countries, despite the denials of Biden and other NATO leaders.

“But even as the Biden administration has declared it will not deploy American troops to Ukraine, some C.I.A. personnel have continued to operate in the country… directing much of the vast amounts of intelligence the United States is sharing with Ukrainian forces,” the Times wrote.

The newspaper reported that dozens of special forces from the UK, Canada, France and Lithuania have been operating inside the country.

The revelation, the report continued, “hints at the scale of the secretive effort to assist Ukraine that is underway and the risks that Washington and its allies are taking.”

The Times report is only the latest piece of evidence documenting the extent of US involvement in the war. Earlier this year, NBC and other media outlets reported that the United States was directly involved in Ukrainian targeted killings of Russian generals, as well as the sinking of the Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet.

Ukrainian commanders, according to these reports, are provided intelligence extracted from satellites “which they can call up on tablet computers provided by the allies. The tablets run a battlefield mapping app that the Ukrainians use to target and attack Russian troops.”

Despite the massive degree of US involvement in the war, Ukrainian losses are surging, rivaling the number of US combat deaths at the deadliest point of the Vietnam war. On some days, Ukrainian forces have suffered between 500 and 1,000 casualties.

Russia now controls more than 90 percent of the Donbass in East Ukraine and a total of one fifth of the entire territory of Ukraine. But despite the disastrous series of battlefield setbacks, the United States and its NATO allies are massively intensifying their involvement in the war, no matter the cost in Ukrainian lives or the trillions of dollars diverted from vital social programs.

Russian officials are drawing the conclusion that open war between NATO and Russia is all but inevitable. In remarks last week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said: “Hitler rallied a significant part, if not most, of the European nations under his banner for a war against the Soviet Union… now, the EU together with NATO are forming another—modern—coalition for a standoff and, ultimately, war with the Russian Federation.”

The deadly logic of the spiraling conflict raises the prospect that the proxy war in Ukraine will rapidly metastasize across the European continent, triggering the deadliest global military conflict since the Second World War. This reality makes clear the urgent necessity for the working class to intervene in the crisis, aiming to unite the struggles against the surging cost of living and attacks on democratic rights with the struggle against war.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... land-army/

Europe Under Foreign Domination
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 28, 2022
Hugo Farías Moya

It is curious what is happening in Europe today. The old continent, as some call it. The continent that spread around the world what some authors call: Western Christian culture. Today, for the first time in history, it is under the exclusive dominion, not of another continent, but of an imperial country like the United States.

Europe is not even an ally of the United States, it is simply a lackey and slave continent. What has happened to Europe throughout its long history of invasions, genocides, plundering, massacres and extermination of the continents it has invaded?

Let us start with the invasion and genocide of America. Some historians no longer call it: The meeting of two worlds, (what a euphemism for the discovery of America) they simply call it the invasion of America.

The trail of suffering, murder and plundering by the Spanish Crown is sometimes unknown, but if anyone is curious, they can read the book: The Open Veins of Latin America by Eduardo Galeano, which was published back in 1971. That is, more than 50 years ago.

The corsair Christopher Columbus set foot on the land of the continent of Abya Yala, as the indigenous people called it, more than 500 years ago, and it was the beginning of the end for this vast region of America by the Spanish invader.

Hernán Cortés conquered, destroyed and wiped out the Aztecs. Francisco Pizarro, for his part, finished off and bled the Inca empire. Pedro de Valdivia, the executioner of La Araucanía, was the only governor to die at the hands of the local Indians.

The Arauco War has more than 500 years of history and not 300 as some mongers say. In Mexico, in Central America, in South America, this sad story was always repeated. The reason for the invasion was to plunder the gold, the minerals, the land. In the end they bequeathed us the language and the religion. Regarding the latter, it was the misnamed “evangelisation of America” that was never introduced by persuasion, but rather by terror. Do you become a Christian or do we cut off your head? That was the choice for the native inhabitants. Well, we know the response.

Just as Spain bled and exterminated the American continent, Portugal did the same to Brazil, because according to the Treaty of Tordesillas, the kings of Portugal and Spain divided the new continent as booty.

The Portuguese Empire controlled the Azores, Madeira, Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe on the coast of Africa; Cochin, Goa and Colombo on the Indian subcontinent; Macau and Nagasaki in East Asia; Mozambique and Angola in Africa. With all these colonies it produced as much, if not more, terror than the Spanish Crown.

Belgium, for its part, controlled two colonies during its history, the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) from 1908 to 1960, and Rwanda-Burundi, from 1922 to 1962. It also had a small concession in China and was co-administrator of the Tangier International Zone in Morocco. Belgium had the distinguished patriot and father of the Congolese homeland, Patrick Lumumba, assassinated and his body and those of his comrades disappeared. In reality, the Belgian Congo was just another estate of King Leopold. The atrocities committed by the colonists on the aborigines are unspeakable.

Another European invader, France, at its peak (1680s), spread over 10 000 000 km², the second largest empire in the world at that time behind only the Spanish Empire. The “second colonial empire” began with the conquest of Algiers in 1830. At its peak, it was one of the largest empires in history: including metropolitan France, the total amount of land under French sovereignty reached 13 500 000 km², with a population of 150 million people in 1939.

Famous are the atrocities committed by that band of murderers and mercenaries called: The Foreign Legion. In fact, France had territories in Africa, South America, the Middle East and Asia.

Similar or worse was England. The most wicked empire in the history of mankind, it is only surpassed by the present empire of the United States. It had colonies in North America, Canada and the USA: in South America, British Guyana and the Falkland Islands; in Africa, it took over Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanganyika, South Africa. In Asia it took over India and Indonesia and in Oceania Australia and Papua New Guinea, among others.

There is no reason to be proud of how they brought “civilisation” to the lands they invaded to tame the “savages”. According to the most lucid historians, Europe’s conquest of these territories by far exceeds 600 million inhabitants.

How did Europe, the world’s first imperial power, come to be dominated by another country?

After the Second World War, the United States became, together with the Soviet Union, the great victorious and occupying powers. The other countries danced to their music. As a result, and for ideological reasons, two major ideological blocs were formed: the countries united in NATO and the second, under the Soviet influence of the Warsaw Pact. Although strictly speaking, the former USSR contributed 80% (22 million of its children) of the dead from the liberation of Europe from Nazi fascism.

NATO was formed by 12 European nations and from 1949 to the present day, afterwards several waves of expansion have taken it to 30 countries. Strictly speaking, it was formed to counterbalance the power of Russia, but afterwards, after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1990, NATO lost its raison d’être. But US expansionism did not end; on the contrary, Russia was encircled by the former Warsaw Pact countries. In short, the countries that Russia liberated from Nazi Germany became its enemies.

After Vladimir Putin warned in all tones that NATO would not be allowed to expand further and place its missiles on the Ukrainian border, NATO continued its dangerous game. Now that Russia has invaded Ukraine, to stop this US warmongering madness, everyone is crowing. In other words, they are not taking responsibility for their reckless actions.

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

LCI Gives the Floor to French Neo-Nazi Mercenary Fighting for Ukraine
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 28, 2022
Christelle Néant

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On 24 June 2022, LCI published an interview with a French, Karel, who has signed up as a “volunteer” (a real mercenary) with the International Ukrainian Legion. Small problem: this French who fights for Ukraine is a neo-Nazi, already arrested in France and probably on the S list.


In 2014,« Elle » magazine interviewed a young Ukrainian woman, who later turned out to be a neo-Nazi. “Elle” will apologise for promoting a neo-Nazi in this way, saying that there was no indication of this when they did the interview.

Is LCI going to give us the same excuse, when it was not difficult to trace back several of the information I found with the full name of the clown? Indeed, this Frenchman presented by LCI as a simple volunteer wanting to “defend Europe” is in reality called Karel Cherel-Salzburg, and he is a neo-Nazi mercenary who has already been arrested in France for acts of violence.

In 2019, he was arrested for the attack on a bar in Nantes, along with two other men, all of them far-right. The attack was aimed at antifas, and one of the bar’s customers was seriously injured by a baton blow to the head. Ouest-France reports that of the three, two are on the S list for belonging to a far-right group.

And although Karel Cherel-Salzburg claimed at the time not to be far right, his social networking pages tell a different story.

Let’s start with his VK account (the age and name match), which reveals photos that leave little doubt about Karel’s political orientation. Among the latest photos is a clear poster of the Right Wing Resistance organisation, whose links to Ukrainian neo-Nazis I had pointed out after the Christchurch bombing. The symbolism of the organisation is all the more Nazi: wolfsangel, numbers 14 and 88, totenkopf, etc. And the other images speak for themselves, I think. Now little Karel is going to have a hard time trying to convince us that he is not far-right…

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But the best part is his Instagram. The name of the account alone is a poem: frenchbanderiste (which means banderist – follower of Stepan Bandera, Ukrainian collaborator of the Nazis during the Second World War – French). There are videos and photos where you can see the whole face of this sad man, and hear his voice (which confirms that it is him) and more evidence that this French fighter in Ukraine is a neo-Nazi!
compte Instagram du néo-nazi français
photo du néo-nazi français devant un drapeau de la Misanthropic Division
Among the photos, one shows the French fighter giving a Hitler-like Nazi salute in a jumper displaying “the white race” on his chest, and posing with a flag of the Misanthropic Division, a Ukrainian neo-Nazi unit!

In another photo obtained via a Telegram group of the Misanthropic Division, the French neo-Nazi fighter can be seen on the left. He is wearing the same keffiyeh as in the interview with LCI, and in both photos he is wearing the same cap with the same chevron.
néo-nazi français avec le drapeau de la Misanthropic Division
To end on a high note, at one point in the report, the rafters of the French neo-Nazi unit are partially visible: the Vovkodav battalion.
bataillon VovkodavThe chevron of this battalion of the Ukrainian International Legion represents the wolf Fenrir (a giant wolf from Norse mythology) with the hand of the god Tyr in its mouth (a hand that the god had placed there as a token while the others tied up the huge wolf with a magical bond making him believe that he was safe, and that Tyr loses when Fenrir understands that he has been fooled and chained up) For information, Fenrir is one of the major actors of the camp of chaos during the Ragnarök (the equivalent of the apocalypse in Norse mythology to simplify). Quite a program…

With all this found in just a few hours, I would like my confreres at LCI to explain to me how they could give the floor to a French neo-Nazi, presenting him as a simple “volunteer” who came to fight in Ukraine to defend Europe? Wasn’t what happened with “Elle” magazine in 2014 enough for you? Didn’t Claire Cambier (the journalist who did the interview) learn at Sciences Po Lille and the French Press Institute to do the usual checks before an interview? Or did she know this and hope that by hiding the surname and face of this French neo-Nazi the truth would not be revealed?

Anyway, this interview is another monumental failure that shows what the French media is worth. If the Russians ever want to know where this French neo-Nazi mercenary is, his unit is stationed near Kharkov…

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... r-ukraine/

Behind the Tin Curtain: BRICS+ vs NATO/G7
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 28, 2022
Pepe Escobar

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Once upon a time, there existed an Iron Curtain which divided the continent of Europe. Coined by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, the term was in reference to the then-Soviet Union’s efforts to create a physical and ideological boundary with the west. The latter, for its part, pursued a policy of containment against the spread and influence of communism.

Fast forward to the contemporary era of techno-feudalism, and there now exists what should be called a Tin Curtain, fabricated by the fearful, clueless, collective west, via G7 and NATO: this time, to essentially contain the integration of the Global South.

BRICS against G7

The most recent and significant example of this integration has been the coming out of BRICS+ at last week’s online summit hosted by Beijing. This went far beyond establishing the lineaments of a ‘new G8,’ let alone an alternative to the G7.

Just look at the interlocutors of the five historical BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa): we find a microcosm of the Global South, encompassing Southeast Asia, Central Asia, West Asia, Africa and South America – truly putting the “Global” in the Global South.

Revealingly, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s clear messages during the Beijing summit, in sharp contrast to G7 propaganda, were actually addressed to the whole Global South:

– Russia will fulfill its obligations to supply energy and fertilizers.

– Russia expects a good grain harvest – and to supply up to 50 million tons to world markets.

– Russia will ensure passage of grain ships into international waters even as Kiev mined Ukrainian ports.

– The negative situation on Ukrainian grain is artificially inflated.

– The sharp increase in inflation around the world is the result of the irresponsibility of G7 countries, not Operation Z in Ukraine.

– The imbalance of world relations has been brewing for a long time and has become an inevitable result of the erosion of international law.

An alternative system

Putin also directly addressed one of the key themes that the BRICS have been discussing in depth since the 2000s — the design and implementation of an international reserve currency.

“The Russian Financial Messaging System is open for connection with banks of the BRICS countries.”

“The Russian MIR payment system is expanding its presence. We are exploring the possibility of creating an international reserve currency based on the basket of BRICS currencies,” the Russian leader said.

This is inevitable after the hysterical western sanctions post-Operation Z; the total de-dollarization imposed upon Moscow; and increasing trade between BRICS nations. For instance, by 2030, a quarter of the planet’s oil demand will come from China and India, with Russia as the major supplier.

The “RIC” in BRICS simply cannot risk being locked out of a G7-dominated financial system. Even tightrope-walking India is starting to catch the drift.

Who speaks for the ‘international community?’

At its current stage, BRICS represent 40 percent of world population, 25 percent of the global economy, 18 percent of world trade, and contribute over 50 percent for world economic growth. All indicators are on the way up.

Sergey Storchak, CEO of Russian bank VEG, framed it quite diplomatically: “If the voices of emerging markets are not being heard in the coming years, we need to think very seriously about setting up a parallel regional system, or maybe a global system.”

A “parallel regional system” is already being actively discussed between the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) and China, coordinated by Minister of Integration and Macroeconomics Sergey Glazyev, who has recently authored a stunning manifesto amplifying his ideas about world economic sovereignty.

Developing the ‘developing world’

What happens in the trans-Eurasian financial front will proceed in parallel with a so far little known Chinese development strategy: the Global Development Initiative (GDI), announced by President Xi Jinping at the UN General Assembly last year.

GDI can be seen as a support mechanism of the overarching strategy – which remains the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), consisting of economic corridors interlinking Eurasia all the way to its western peninsula, Europe.

At the High-level Dialogue on Global Development, part of the BRICS summit, the Global South learned a little more about the GDI, an organization set up in 2015.

In a nutshell, the GDI aims to turbo-charge international development cooperation by supplementing financing to a plethora of bodies, for instance the South-South Cooperation Fund, the International Development Association (IDA), the Asian Development Fund (ADF), and the Global Environment Facility (GEF).

Priorities include “poverty reduction, food security, COVID-19 response and vaccines,” industrialization, and digital infrastructure. Subsequently, a Friends of the GDI group was established in early 2022 and has already attracted over 50 nations.

BRI and GDI should be advancing in tandem, even as Xi himself made it clear during the BRICS summit that “some countries are politicizing and marginalizing the developmental agenda by building up walls and slapping crippling sanctions on others.”

Then again, sustainable development is not exactly the G7’s cup of tea, much less NATO’s.

Seven against the world

The avowed top aim of the G7 summit in Schloss Elmau at the Bavarian Alps is to “project unity” – as in the stalwarts of the collective west (Japan included) united in sustainable and indefinite “support” for the irretrievably failed Ukrainian state.

That’s part of the “struggle against Putin’s imperialism,” but then there’s also “the fight against hunger and poverty, health crisis and climate change,” as German chancellor Scholz told the Bundestag.

In Bavaria, Scholz pushed for a Marshall Plan for Ukraine – a ludicrous concept considering Kiev and its environs might as well be reduced to a puny rump state by the end of 2022. The notion that the G7 may work to “prevent a catastrophic famine,” according to Scholz, reaches a paroxysm of ludicrousness, as the looming famine is a direct consequence of the G7-imposed sanctions hysteria.

The fact that Berlin invited India, Indonesia, South Africa and Senegal as add-ons to the G7, served as additional comic relief.

The Tin Curtain is up

It would be futile to expect from the astonishing collection of mediocrities “united” in Bavaria, under de facto leader of the European Commission (EC), Fuehrer Ursula von der Leyen, any substantial analysis about the breakdown of global supply chains and the reasons that forced Moscow to reduce gas flows to Europe. Instead, they blamed Putin and Xi.

Welcome to the Tin Curtain – a 21st century reinvention of the Intermarium from the Baltic to the Black Sea, masterminded by the Empire of Lies, complete with western Ukraine absorbed by Poland, the Three Baltic Midgets: Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Czechia and even NATO-aspiring Sweden and Finland, all of whom will be protected from “the Russian threat.”

An EU out of control

The role of the EU, lording over Germany, France and Italy inside the G7 is particularly instructive, especially now that Britain is back to the status of an inconsequential island-state.

As many as 60 European ‘directives’ are issued every year. They must be imperatively transposed into internal law of each EU member-state. In most cases, there’s no debate whatsoever.

Then there are more than 10,000 European ‘rulings,’ where ‘experts’ at the European Commission (EC) in Brussels issue ‘recommendations’ to every government, straight out of the neoliberal canon, regarding their expenses, their income and ‘reforms’ (on health care, education, pensions) that must be obeyed.

Thus elections in every single EU member-nation are absolutely meaningless. Heads of national governments – Macron, Scholz, Draghi – are mere executants. No democratic debate is allowed: ‘democracy,’ as with ‘EU values,’ are nothing than smokescreens.

The real government is exercised by a bunch of apparatchiks chosen by compromise between executive powers, acting in a supremely opaque manner.

The EC is totally outside of any sort of control. That’s how a stunning mediocrity like Ursula von der Leyen – previously the worst Minister of Defense of modern Germany – was catapulted upwards to become the current EC Fuhrer, dictating their foreign, energy and even economic policy.

What do they stand for?

From the perspective of the west, the Tin Curtain, for all its ominous Cold War 2.0 overtones, is merely a starter before the main course: hardcore confrontation across Asia-Pacific – renamed “Indo-Pacific” – a carbon copy of the Ukraine racket designed to contain China’s BRI and GDI.

As a countercoup, it’s enlightening to observe how the Chinese foreign ministry now highlights in detail the contrast between BRICS – and BRICS+ – and the imperial AUKUS/Quad/IPEF combo.

BRICS stand for de facto multilateralism; focus on global development; cooperation for economic recovery; and improving global governance.

The US-concocted racket on the other hand, stands for Cold War mentality; exploiting developing countries; ganging up to contain China; and an America-first policy that enshrines the monopolistic “rules-based international order.”

It would be misguided to expect those G7 luminaries gathered in Bavaria to understand the absurdity of imposing a price cap on Russian oil and gas exports, for instance. Were that to really happen, Moscow will have no problems fully cutting energy supply to the G7. And if other nations are excluded, the price of the oil and gas they import would drastically increase.

BRICS paving the way forward

So no wonder the future is ominous. In a stunning interview to Belarus state TV, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov summarized how “the west fears honest competition.”

Hence, the apex of cancel culture, and “suppression of everything that contradicts in some way the neoliberal vision and arrangement of the world.” Lavrov also summarized the roadmap ahead, for the benefit of the whole Global South:

“We don’t need a new G8. We already have structures…primarily in Eurasia. The EAEU is actively promoting integration processes with the PRC, aligning China’s Belt and Road Initiative with the Eurasian integration plans. Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are taking a close look at these plans. A number of them are signing free trade zone agreements with the EAEU. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is also part of these processes… There is one more structure beyond the geographic borders of Eurasia.”

“It is BRICS. This association is relying less and less on the Western style of doing business, and on Western rules for international currency, financial and trade institutions. They prefer more equitable methods that do not make any processes depend on the dominant role of the dollar or some other currency. The G20 fully represents BRICS and five more countries that share the positions of BRICS, while the G7 and its supporters are on the other side of the barricades.”

“This is a serious balance. The G20 may deteriorate if the West uses it for fanning up confrontation. The structures I mentioned (SCO, BRICS, ASEAN, EAEU and CIS) rely on consensus, mutual respect and a balance of interests, rather than a demand to accept unipolar world realities.”


Tin Curtain? More like Torn Curtain.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... s-nato-g7/

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G7: cracks in Western unity on Russia

The summit exposed that the existing sanctions against Russia have gone beyond most Western policy makers’ pain threshold. The European leaders are discovering now that there is a price to be paid for further sanctions

June 29, 2022 by M.K. Bhadrakumar

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A show of unity, as G7 and European Union leaders met, Schloss Elmau, Bavaria, Germany, June 27, 2022
Ottoman Sultan Abdulmejid spared no expense to build the sumptuous Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul during 1843 and 1856, which was constructed to impress the world. It had the largest Bohemian crystal chandelier ever installed and 14 tonnes of gold to gild the ceilings.

In subaltern history, that splash, which the Sultan could ill afford, was necessitated partly by the desperate need to confuse creditors who suspected that late Ottoman Empire might be drowning in problems, near bankruptcy, disrupted by inflation, compounded by imperialism.

The three-day gathering of the G7 leaders in Elmau Castle in the Bavarian Alps from Sunday through Tuesday in a fairy-tale setting calls to mind the analogous past of the Ottoman decline. There is much public criticism that such an opulent spectacle is no longer in keeping with the times and an example of how out of touch, even decadent, these politicians have become.

The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, in his capacity as the host, made a final appearance before the media on Tuesday with a somewhat sombre atmosphere that reflected his message to the assembled journalists, “A time of uncertainty lies ahead of us. We cannot foresee how it will end.”

Scholz was referring to the Ukraine crisis and its consequences. Scholz spoke of a “long haul” and of consequences for everything and everyone. Gone was the triumphalist Western narrative about the “cancel Russia” strategy.

Indeed, the main point of contention among the G7 countries was how to deal with Russia. The G7 countries see that they have failed to isolate Russia and, perhaps, it is not even in their interests to entirely fall out with Moscow for economic reasons.

The summit barely agreed to discuss a batch of new sanctions against Russia, but the deliberations underlined the limits of using economic tools to punish Russia. The Western strategy is in logjam — Russia is winning the war despite the US’ massive weapon deliveries to Ukraine; sanctions failed to deter Russia and are possibly hurting Europe more than Russia; and, ideas have run out.

There was no sign of dissent on public display, but even as the G7 leaders pledged their unwavering support to Ukraine, it weighed on their mind that the unprecedented sanctions against Russia implemented by the G7 and the European Union —targeting Moscow’s economy, energy exports and central-bank reserves—have caused global market volatility and raised energy costs

The Wall Street Journal reported, “Now high inflation, slowing growth, and the specter of energy shortages in Europe this winter are damping the West’s appetite for tougher sanctions against Moscow. Divergences among the leaders of the US, Canada, Britain, France, Italy and Japan prevented them from agreeing on concrete new sanctions, with the group only agreeing to start work on measures ranging from a price cap on Russian oil purchases to a gold embargo. With most immediately available options for punishing Russia largely exhausted, only more complicated and more controversial alternatives remain on the table.”

The G7 communique read: “We will consider a range of approaches, including options for a possible comprehensive prohibition of all services, which enable transportation of Russian seaborne crude oil and petroleum products globally. We task our relevant Ministers to continue to discuss these measures urgently, consulting with third countries and key stakeholders in the private sector, as well as existing and new suppliers of energy, as an alternative to Russian hydrocarbons.”

The G7 leaders also discussed a US proposal, which provides that buyers of Russian oil themselves determine the maximum price they are willing to pay for it. In the end, no concrete decisions were made against the backdrop of the European Union’s reservations. The US proposal will make sense only with the full participation of all EU countries, as well as China and India, who are unlikely to support such a decision. In fact, some EU countries are almost 100% dependent on Russian oil and if Russia does not agree to supply oil at a reduced price, then these countries risk being completely without raw materials.

One main reason to invite India, Indonesia, South Africa, Senegal and Argentina to the G7 summit was to expand the global alliance against Russia, but the ploy didn’t work. According to the Journal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Scholz at a bilateral meeting that India couldn’t join any efforts against Russia, and also publicly defended the oil purchases from Russia.

Similarly, a second area where the G7 hopes to reduce Russia’s income is by stopping the import of Russian gold. Even here, consensus was lacking. Scholz wanted the US proposal to be first discussed at EU level. But the head of the European Council Charles Michel was skeptical: “As for gold, we are ready to discuss the details and see if it is possible to hit gold in such a way as to hit the Russian economy and not hit ourselves.”

The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was openly dismissive: “The precious metals market is global, it is quite large, voluminous and very diverse. As with other goods, of course, if one market loses its attractiveness due to illegitimate decisions, then there is a reorientation to where these goods are more in demand and where they are more comfortable and more legitimate economic regimes.”

The low-key performance of US President Joe Biden at the G7 summit speaks for itself — he was content to let other leaders do most of the talking. On the final day of the summit, as the sun disappeared and dark clouds settled over the imposing mountain backdrop behind Schloss Elmau, Biden pleaded an impending thunderstorm to make a hurried departure for Munich airport, abandoning a speech he’d planned to deliver.

Indeed, the disconnect is almost surreal. At the last G7 summit under the German presidency in 2015, the Western leaders had pledged to free 500 million people from hunger by 2030, whereas, the numbers have only been rising since 2017, and in 2022, there are over 150 million more people suffering from malnutrition. Climate is another example.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz has come under criticism for trying to water down agreements on international climate protection at the G7 summit. Because of the energy crisis, Germany is trying to reverse its voluntary commitment to phasing out public financing of fossil fuels by the end of 2022.

Without doubt, this year is an important one for the climate. The international community has promised to update the national climate plans and adapt them to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius target ahead of the UN climate conference in Egypt in November, and for this to happen, the G7 should set a good example.

On the contrary, Germany is stepping up its imports of coal due to uncertainties over Russian gas supply. The G7 stressed the role of increased deliveries of liquefied natural gas, adding they “acknowledge that investment in this sector is necessary in response to the current crisis.” Scholz, again, warned of the real risk of energy shortages in German economy and a Lehman-like domino effect. No doubt, this is a blatant reversal of climate strategy.

Fundamentally, what all this highlights is that the G7 is clueless how to navigate a way out of their “sanctions from hell” against Russia. The summit exposed that the existing sanctions against Russia have gone beyond most Western policy makers’ pain threshold. And the European leaders are discovering now that there is a price to be paid for further sanctions.

To be sure, there is an urgent need to decide on a new Western strategy in case of a prolonged economic confrontation with Russia, and educate the voters about the possible consequences. Germany’s government warned last week of potential gas shortages that could trigger closure of factories and possible rationing of gas supplies to homes.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/06/29/ ... on-russia/

Thousands take to streets against upcoming NATO summit in Madrid, Spain

Protesters claimed that NATO was responsible for various wars, from Yugoslavia to Libya, and is pushing for an arms race across the globe. They demanded that NATO be disbanded to ensure peace and stability in the world

June 27, 2022 by Peoples Dispatch

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(Photo: UJCE)

Thousands of people took to the streets of Madrid, Spain, on Sunday, June 26, in opposition to the upcoming summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the city. Protesters called NATO a threat to global peace and demanded its dissolution.

The organizers stated that close to 30,000 people participated in the protest, holding banners and posters with slogans such as “No to NATO, Not to War, For Peace”. They also raised slogans against US military bases in Spain and asked for their removal.

The protest was organized by a set of groups including the Communist Youth, the youth wing of the Communist Party of Spain, as well as Platform for Peace, World Federation of Democratic Youth, and others.


Anti-NATO protests in Madrid earlier today 🚫🚩 https://t.co/w6tsEGgITI

— Young Communist League of Britain (@yclbritain) June 26, 2022


The organizers also held a two-day peace summit in Madrid on June 24-25, at the conclusion of which, a joint declaration was issued asserting that “NATO is a serious threat to world peace, having left a trail of destruction from Yugoslavia to Afghanistan.”


#YESToPeaceNOToNATO | Here is the agenda of the public actions that WFDY will organise this weekend against the NATO Summit.

We invite you all to participate and we encourage you to share it on your social media and with your friends. pic.twitter.com/72dbe8XKLp

— WFDY-FMJD (@wfdy1945fmjd) June 23, 2022


The joint declaration demanded the “dissolution of NATO,” claiming that it violates the UN charter and is intensifying a “new cold war against China and Russia.” It also underlined the fact that NATO is acting against “progressive governments throughout the global south” and encouraging a global arms race, which “goes against the real needs of people: education, health, housing, social security and an effective energy policy.”

NATO, whose agenda is dominated by the US, has a combined military budget of over USD 1 trillion and accounts for over 57% of the world’s total military expenditure. The grouping has recently tried to encourage all its members to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense as accepted in its summit meeting in 2014.

One of the protesters, Concha Hoyos, said, “I am fed up with this business of arms and killing people. The solution they propose is more arms and wars and we always pay for it. So, no NATO, no army bases, let the Americans go and leave us alone without wars and weapons,”Al-Mayadeen reported.


"[…] let the Americans go and leave us alone without wars and weapons."
Thousands of protesters marched in #Madrid against a #NATO summit that will take place in the #Spanish capital next week. pic.twitter.com/pVEl1DoqJv

— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) June 26, 2022

Similar protests were held in different cities across Europe, including in London recently, where thousands took part. More such protests are scheduled globally in the coming days.

Fearing further protests against the NATO summit in the country, the Spanish government has issued a blanket ban on all protests until Wednesday citing security reasons.

NATO summit

The NATO summit is scheduled for two days, June 29-30, in Madrid. Apart from its organizational issues, the 30-member transatlantic military alliance will also focus on the war in Ukraine and the membership bid of two new countries, Finland and Sweden. Speaking to the press on June 22, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg claimed that strengthening the alliance is the priority in the face of growing danger from Russia and China.


JUST IN:#NATO chief Stoltenberg says the new Strategic Concept, the 10-year plan to be approved in Madrid, will describe Russia as the "most significant and direct threat" to alliance security.

China will be mentioned for the 1st time as one of NATO's challenges for the future. pic.twitter.com/Jl5TXx24xi

— Teri Schultz (@terischultz) June 27, 2022


The summit will be attended by Ukrainian president Vlodomyr Zelensky, who has been demanding that NATO play a more active role in his country’s defense against the ongoing Russian attack. His bid is strongly backed by US President Joe Biden and others, despite the fact that Ukraine is not a NATO member. The US has already pledged billions of dollars of weapon supplies to Ukraine.

Russia has said that NATO’s support to Ukraine proves its claim that the West and NATO are using the country in a proxy war against it. Russia started its military operation inside Ukraine in February after the US and NATO refused to discuss its security concerns vis-a-vis Ukrainian membership to the group and proposals of heavy weapons deployment.


Apart from Russia-Ukraine, NATO members are also going to discuss the membership bid of two Scandinavian countries, Sweden and Finland, who dumped their decades-old neutrality recently. Their bid for membership is opposed by Turkey, which has accused these countries of supporting Kurdish groups that it alleges are involved in terrorist activities within its borders. Russia has termed their membership bid another provocation by the West.

Sweden and Finland’s membership in NATO would mean deployment of Western forces and weapons in these countries, which either share borders with Russia (Finland) or lie in close proximity.

Formed in 1949 as a collective security organization of pro-US countries in Europe during the Cold War against the Soviet Union, NATO’s membership has increased from 12 to 30. It has added 14 new members since the end of the Cold War. NATO’s eastward expansion in Europe has been a contentious issue that has faced active Russian opposition.

Activists have accused NATO of extending its mandate by actively getting involved in wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya, and other countries to pursue the imperialist interests of the US and its allies. It has also been a partner in the US-led war in Iraq.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/06/27/ ... rid-spain/

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CP of the Workers of Spain, Big Demonstration Against the NATO Summit in Madrid
6/28/22 3:05 PM

Big Demonstration Against the NATO Summit in Madrid



Last Sunday, June 26, the Communist Party of the Workers of Spain (PCTE) and the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) participated in the massive demonstration against the NATO Summit to be held in Madrid. Under the slogan “No to NATO, No to the imperialist war”, hundreds of communists shouted “No to NATO” in the streets of Madrid, denouncing with their slogans the imperialist war in Ukraine as well.

The Government of social democratic coalition by PSOE and Unidas Podemos is hosting in Madrid this NATO Summit. The Atlantic organization aims in this Summit to formulate a new “strategic concept”, which in practice means to deepen in the defense and security model of the Alliance as well as the assurance of its aggressiveness against the peoples in the world.

In Spain, this anti-NATO demonstration has come together with the suspension of basic rights and freedoms by the Government in order to shield Madrid for the Summit, which will be held on June 29-30, due to the largest police deployment in the recent history of our country. This is why we also denounce that: you are with NATO or you are with the working class. The Government of social democratic coalition by PSOE and Unidas Podemos is very clear on which side it is with for a long time, as it represses the workers&#39; answer to the imperialist summit, and places our country in a situation of higher risk in case of a possible generalized imperialist war.

Of course, this NATO Summit is also being held in the context of imperialist war in Ukraine. Therefore, the joint bloc of PCTE and KKE denounced the imperialist war during the demonstration as well as the role of the Governments of both countries in such war through the delivery of weapons and military resources, and underscored that the working class has nothing to win in the clash between imperialist powers. Their capitalist wars are our dead, the working class&#39; deaths.

No to NATO!

No to the imperialist war!

Communist Party of the Workers of Spain


http://solidnet.org/article/CP-of-the-W ... in-Madrid/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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

Post by blindpig » Wed Jun 29, 2022 11:07 pm

US Preparing to Buy Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System for Ukraine

Officials told the media the US will a send Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS)
by Dave DeCamp Posted onJune 27, 2022

US officials said Monday that the Biden administration is preparing to purchase a Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) for Ukraine as part of a new weapons package that will likely be announced this week.

The NASAMS is an advanced air defense system with a range of over 100 miles and is used to protect airspace around the White House and the Capitol Building in Washington. The NASAMS is a joint project between the Norway-based Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace and Raytheon, the US arms maker that previously employed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin as a board member.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters that the administration plans to finalize a package this week that will give Ukraine “advanced” air defense capabilities and other weapons without specifying the type of system.

“We do intend to finalize a package that includes advanced medium and long-range air defense capabilities for the Ukrainians, along with some other items that are of urgent need, including ammunition for artillery and counterbattery radar systems,” Sullivan said.

The fact that the US is planning to purchase the NASAMS suggests the administration will use funds from the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which gives the president the authority to purchase arms for Ukraine. The $40 billion Ukraine aid bill President Biden recently signed into law includes $6 billion for the USAI.

https://news.antiwar.com/2022/06/27/us- ... r-ukraine/

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The West’s Plan B: Secure the Realm
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 28, 2022
Fadi Lama

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Having failed in preserving the unipolar order, the west will resort to Plan B – reviving a bipolar world based on the ‘civilized’ west and the ‘barbarian’ rest.

Plan A: Global Hegemony

By the late 1990s, it was clear that a China-led Asia would be the dominant economic, technological and military power of the 21st century.

The late Polish-American diplomat and political scientist Zbigniew Brzezinski spelled out in 1997 that the way to control Asian growth, and China’s in particular, was to control global energy reserves.

The attacks on 11 September 2001 provided the “catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor” to set military intervention plans in motion. As noted by US General Wesley Clark, “in addition to Afghanistan, we’re going to take out 7 countries in 5 years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran.”

Energy reserves of these countries – in addition to those already controlled by the west – would result in western control over 60 percent of global gas reserves and 70 percent of global oil reserves.

However, the west’s direct military intervention wars failed, and subsequent proxy wars using assorted Al Qaeda-affiliated Islamists failed as well.

Rise of the ‘RIC’

In the two decades since Brzezinski laid out his strategy and the west immersed itself in failed wars, the Eurasian sovereignist core of Russia, Iran, and China (RIC) were heavily focused on national development in all arenas, including the economic, technological and military fields, and physical and social infrastructure development.

By 2018, it was clear that plans for western control of global energy reserves had failed and that the RIC had overtaken the west in many, if not most, of the aforementioned sectors.

As a result, the RIC were able to project power, protecting sovereign nations from western interventionism in West Asia, Central Asia, South America and Africa. In Iran’s case this also involved a direct military response against US forces, following the assassination of the late General Qassem Soleimani. Making matters worse, the gap between the west and the RIC is widening, with little chance for the former to catch up.

The impossibility of sustaining western global hegemony had become evident amid continuous erosion of western power and global influence, which coincide with a commensurate expansion of RIC global influence, both of which necessitated an alternative strategy: a Plan B, as it were.

Plan B: Securing the realm

In view of the irreversible widening of this gap, and the growing global influence of the RIC, the only feasible strategy for the west would be to ‘terminate the competition’ by splitting the world into two regions, one in which the west has ironclad control, where western “rules” reign, and is divorced from the RIC-influenced region.

The current geostrategy of the west is the imposition of an Iron Curtain with the inclusion of as many resource rich nations as possible. Only by realizing the west’s actual geostrategic objective is it possible to understand the reason behind its apparently self-defeating actions, specifically:

Imposition of draconian sanctions on Russia that hurt the west far more than Russia.
Increasing tensions with China and Iran whilst engaged in a proxy war with Russia.
While the world is fixated on the conflict in Ukraine, the geostrategic objective of the west is being steadily advanced.

Sanctions: the catalyst of crises and coercion

The widely accepted explanation is that the west imposed draconian sanctions with the expectation that it would turn the ruble into “rubble,” create a run on banks, crash the Russian economy, weaken President Vladimir Putin’s grip on power, and pave the way for a more amenable president to replace him.

None of these expectations materialized. On the contrary, the ruble strengthened against the dollar and the euro, and the Russian economy is faring better than most western economies, which are witnessing record inflation and recessionary indicators. To add insult to injury, Putin’s popularity has soared while those of his western counterparts are hitting record lows.

The west’s after-the-fact explanation that sanctions, and their repercussions, were not well thought out, do not hold water.

Often overlooked though, has been the devastating impact of these sanctions on the Global South. US economist Michael Hudson argues that the Ukraine war is merely a catalyst to impose sanctions that would result in global food and energy crises – allowing the US to coerce the Global South to be “with us or against us.”

Indeed the impact of these crises are compounded by the earlier detrimental impact of Covid lockdowns. Food, energy and economic crises are further exasperated by the US Federal Reserve raising interest rates which directly impact the debt servicing ability of Global South countries, placing them on the edge of bankruptcy and at the mercy of the western-controlled World Bank and International Monetary Fund — the instruments for effectively locking these nations within the western realm.

Thus, despite the very negative impact of sanctions on western countries, these nevertheless fit perfectly with the strategic objective of locking in as many Global South countries within the western sphere of influence.

Tensions with China and Iran:

Driving a wedge between Eurasian powers has been an axiom of western geostrategy, as expressed eloquently by Brzezinski: “The three grand imperatives of imperial geostrategy are:

to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals,
to keep tributaries pliant and protected, and
to keep the barbarians from coming together.”

In this regard, raising tensions with Beijing and Tehran, while the west is involved in a proxy war with Russia, appears contradictory.

However it starts to make more rational sense when contextualizing the strategy as one aiming to establish an “Iron Curtain” that separates the world into two: one is the western Realm, and the other is Brzezinski’s ‘Barbaria,’ at the core of which are the RIC.

Two worlds

The western realm will continue on its path of neoliberalism. Yet due to significantly smaller populations and resources under its control, it will be significantly impoverished compared to present, necessitating imposition of police states for which Covid-19 lockdowns provide a glimpse into the socio-political future of these states.

Global South countries under the western realm will continue down a path of increased poverty, requiring management by dictatorial governments. Political turbulence is expected as a result of deteriorating socioeconomic conditions.

‘Barbaria,’ as reflected in the very diverse political and economic models of the RIC, will have a variety of development models, reflecting the civilizational diversity within this realm and the mutually beneficial cooperation which currently exists between the RICs, and between the RIC and others.

What about the Global South?

Facing the perfect storm of food, energy, inflation and debt servicing crises, many Global South countries will be in a very weak position and may be readily coerced into joining the western realm. This will be facilitated by the fact that their economic, and consequently, political elites, have their interests aligned with the western financial construct – and will thus wholeheartedly embrace joining the west.

The inability of west to provide effective solutions to these crises, coupled with their colonial past, will make joining Barbaria more attractive. This can be further influenced by the RIC providing support during this crisis period.

Russia has already offered to assist in the provision of food to Afghanistan and African countries, while Iran notably provided gasoline to Venezuela during its fuel crisis. Meanwhile, China has a successful track record of infrastructure development in Global South countries and is spearheading the world’s most ambitious connectivity project, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

As Russian economist and Minister of Integration for the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) Sergey Glazyev already hinted when describing the emerging alternative global financial network: “Countries of the Global South can be full participants of the new system regardless of their accumulated debts in dollars, euro, pound, and yen. Even if they were to default on their obligations in those currencies, this would have no bearing on their credit rating in the new financial system.”

How many Global South nations can the western realm realistically expect to hold onto when Barbaria offers a clean slate, with zero debt?

Where does this leave West Asia?

The Axis of Resistance will be further aligned with Barbaria; however, political elites in Iraq and Lebanon favor the western realm. Thus, a politically turbulent period is expected in such countries. Due to the inability of west to offer economic solutions, coupled with the clout of local Resistance parties in these countries, the end game for Iraq and Lebanon is ultimately to join Barbaria, along with the de-facto government of Yemen.

Oil sheikhdoms of the Gulf are creations of the west and therefore belong in the western realm. However due to events of the past two decades, this may not necessarily be where they all line up. The west’s debacles in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen have convinced the sheikhdoms that the west has lost its military edge, and is no longer able to offer long term protection.

Furthermore, unlike the west, Barbaria has a track record of not directly meddling in the internal affairs of nations, a factor of significance for the sheikhdoms. Recent diplomatic tensions with the west have been evidenced by Saudi and UAE leaders rejecting the oil production demands of the US administration – an unprecedented development. If offered convincing protection by Barbaria, oil sheikhdoms may decide to join it.

End of an Era

Retrenchment of the west marks the end of a long era of western expansionism and oppression. Some date this era back six centuries to the start of European colonization in the fifteenth century. Others date it even further back to the Great Schism and the subsequent Crusades.

The latter are supported by a statement attributed to British Field Marshal Edmund Allenby on entering Jerusalem in 1917: “only now have the crusades ended,” and the fact that church bells chimed worldwide in celebration of the occupation of Jerusalem.

During this era, hundreds of millions all over the globe were massacred, civilizations were wiped out, billions suffered and still suffer. To state that we are living in epochal times is a gross understatement.

Naturally the end of such an era cannot happen peacefully; the wars of the past 30 years are witness to this.

The regression of western initiated wars from direct military intervention (Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq) to wars by proxy (Syria, Iraq, Ukraine) augurs well, as it reflects the realization by the west that it is no match militarily to the RIC. Had there been any lingering doubts, the war in Ukraine has put them to rest. Thus it can be concluded that the worst is over.

Internal instability in some Global South countries will exist in the near future; a consequence of the struggle between diverging interests of populations and neoliberal ruling elites. Decline and impoverishment of the west vs. the rise of RIC will favour the resolving these struggles in favour of the peoples and alignment with RIC.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... the-realm/

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Ukraine Could End the Conflict Right Away - Peskov

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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Jun. 28, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@BreezyScroll

Published 28 June 2022 (14 hours 19 minutes ago)

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian-Ukrainian conflict could end immediately if Ukraine lays down arms.

The Russian diplomat referred to recent comments by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the conflict must end by the end of the year.

"The Ukrainian side can stop everything before the end of today. There has to be an order for the nationalist battalions and Ukrainian soldiers to lay down their arms. Russia's demands must also be met," Peskov said Tuesday in a conference call.

In conversation with G7 leaders, Zelensky said the ongoing conflict must be resolved before the end of the year before the harsh winter makes fighting harder for Ukrainian troops. He also called on the group's nations to continue imposing sanctions on Russia and supplying weapons to Kiev.

According to French President Emmanuel Macron's office, Zelensky also said that "Ukraine will negotiate when it is in a position to do so, that is when it has basically re-established a position of strength," noting that currently, it is not the time to negotiate with Russia.


Dmitry Peskov said that #Ukraine could achieve a cessation of hostilities before the end of the day if its leaders ordered the army and Nationalist units to lay down their arms and agreed to abide by Russia's terms.

That favorable position could be reached by the end of August following the conduct of "counter-offensive operations in certain areas," Ukraine's chief negotiator, David Arakhamia, said last week.

Talks between Russia and Ukraine are currently stalled after the last attempt by both sides in March to settle the conflict at Türkiye negotiating tables.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Ukr ... -0017.html

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War in Ukraine. Summary 06/30/2022
June 30, 0:27

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War in Ukraine. Summary 06/30/2022

1. Lisichansk.
Today, the Lisichansk Oil Refinery has been taken, fighting continues in Verkhnekamenka, in the area of ​​Belaya Gora, Privolye (there are reports of the withdrawal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine), as well as in Lisichansk itself. The enemy is partially withdrawing to Seversk, where a new line of defense is being built.

2. Artemovsk.
Fighting continues in Klinovoe, our troops have advanced in the village. Pokrovsky has no special changes. The enemy also holds supply lines to the Novolugansk and Uglegorsk TPPs.

3. Soledar.
Fighting continues near Nikolaevka, in Belogorovka and Berestovo. The enemy is still holding the front, but soon the Armed Forces of Ukraine will have to solve the problem of the offensive of the RF Armed Forces from the north, after the completion of the liberation of Lisichansk, the main pressure will be on Seversk and Soledar.

4. Slavyansk.
Battles near Bogorodichny, Krasnopolye, Prishib, Sidorovo. The pace of progress towards Slavyansk is still low.

5. Kharkov.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have ousted the Armed Forces of Ukraine from Dementievka and are intensifying the fire destruction of enemy positions on the outskirts of Kharkov. Opportunities for advancement are being felt in the area of ​​the Upper Passages, Uda, Tsupovka. The processing of the Zolochevsky fortified area is also underway.

6. Avdiivka.
On the front line without significant changes. Artillery shelling of Donetsk became less intense after the intensification of counter-battery work.

7. Carbon.
After recent attempts at an offensive near Pavlovka, Yegorovka and Shevchenkovo, the enemy, having suffered heavy losses, was forced to reduce his activity, and the battles here are again developing in a positional manner. In the area of ​​Novomikhailovka and Marinka, no changes.

8. Zaporozhye.
On the line Kamenskoye-Orekhov-Gulyaipole-Velikaya Novoselovka without significant changes. In the Kamenskoye area, the largest exchange of prisoners of war since the beginning of the SVO took place - they changed 144 to 144 people. Among those exchanged from the Ukrainian side were 43 wounded Azov militants. Among ours are several pilots.

9. Nikolaev.
At the front without significant changes. In the Nikopol direction, the enemy is trying to crush in the Potemkino area. Nikolayev continues to be subjected to intense missile strikes. Activation in this direction is quite possible in July.

10. Odessa.
Ukraine continues to prepare for attempts to attack the island of Serpents as part of the political task. In the coming weeks, this will certainly result in shelling of the island from the MLRS and OTRK, as well as attempts to strike from the air. The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the Black Sea Fleet are also preparing for these attempts. Ukraine needs at least some kind of victory against the background of the retreat in the Donbass. In addition, the US and Britain are trying to challenge the control of the Black Sea Fleet in the northwestern part of the Black Sea.

https://t.me/boris_rozhin/55609 - zinc

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7709334.html

Released Lisichansk Oil Refinery
June 29, 22:31

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Our troops liberated the Lisichansk Oil Refinery. Military commissars Kharchenko and Shilov have already entered the territory of the enterprise today.
There are a few kilometers left before the closing of the Lisichansk boiler. Fighting also continues in Lisichansk itself.

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https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7709027.html

Google Translator

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From Cassad's Telegram account:

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forwarded from
Vladislav Coal
Summary of hostilities on June 29, 2022 from

Vladislav Coal

🎯Kharkov direction - in the north of Kharkov, the liberation of Dmentievka was confirmed. Fighting continues in the area of ​​Tsupovka-Prudyanka, as well as near Verkhniy Saltov. In the Chuguev area - no changes. Active artillery work continues between Balakleya and Izyum, there is no objective control data at the moment.

🎯PAVLOGRAD ARCH:

🏹The northern flank of the arc (from Izyum to Popasnaya) - in the region of Izyum and Slavyansk - unchanged. Fighting continues for Privolye and Shipilovka in the area of ​​the Seversky Donets crossing north of Lysichansk. In Lisichansk itself , fighting is underway in the southern part of the city: in the area of ​​the RTI plant, advancement from Volcheyarovka along Oktyabrskaya Street and in the area of ​​​​the village of the Matrosskaya mine along Heroes of Stalingrad. To the west, the Lisichansk Oil Refinery was liberated, fighting continues near Maloryazantsevo, Topolevka, Verkhnekamenik, and Disputed.

🏹The central front (from Popasnaya to Marinka) - the Russians entrenched themselves in Klinovoe southeast of Artemovsk . Insignificant progress towards the Uglegorskaya thermal power plant north of Svetlodar . In the area of ​​Gorlovka, Avdeevka, Marinka - no changes.

🏹The southern flank of the arc (from the Dnieper River to Maryinka) - the front line is unchanged.

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

***

Сolonelcassad
In Ukraine, they say that for the restoration of Ukraine at the end of June, 1 trillion is required. dollars. For 4 months from the beginning of SVO. Remember this number. The total amount of all Russian assets blocked around the world is 350 billion dollars. That is, even if you fantasize that everything to the last cent will be handed over to Ukraine out of some kind of fright, then it still needs to find 650 billion dollars to restore it.

Move on. As they explain to us in Washington, the war will definitely go on until the end of the year. That is at least another 6 months. With current trends, this will mean that by the end of the year, Ukraine's losses will amount to 2 trillion or more trillion. dollars. With the further continuation of hostilities, losses will continue to increase accordingly.

To understand the scale - after the defeat of the Islamic Caliphate in Iraq, the fighting against which was carried out from 2014 to 2018, the Iraqi government estimated the country's losses at 88 billion dollars for restoration, but did not even receive them.

Of course, no one will ever give such money to Ukraine for restoration (especially in the context of the current global economic crisis), just as Syria, Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan have not received such money for a full restoration. They will give money for the war, since the strategy of "war to the last Ukrainian" does not work for free.

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Сolonelcassad
The NATO Secretary General said that NATO has been preparing for a confrontation with Russia since 2014. No one actually doubted it, especially after the support from the US and NATO for a coup d'état in Ukraine in order to establish a puppet government there and use Ukraine as a tool against Russia. The times of "no alternative" Minsk agreements were used to prepare for the current proxy war, in which NATO, with the help of its Ukrainian tool, is at war with the Russian Federation.

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Сolonelcassad
Official commentary by the head of the DPR Pushilin on the exchange in the Zaporozhye region.

"Today, we are returning home 144 soldiers of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Russian Federation who were captured by the enemy. We handed over to Kyiv the same number of prisoners from the armed formations of Ukraine, most of whom were wounded. Several of them are ordinary nationalist battalions, their condition is deplorable: wounded severe, with amputation of limbs and other complications. At the same time, our main task is to rescue the soldiers who took part in the liberation special operation. The enemy turned out to have very valuable military personnel. Among the liberated there are mobilized people who were captured under various circumstances. Most of them were wounded and urgent qualified medical assistance is needed. I wish them a speedy recovery"

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forwarded from
Rybar
🇬🇧🇺🇦For our part, we confirm the information: the inmates from Azovstal, including those guilty of crimes, were returned to the Ukrainian side.

The solution is complex.

Russian officers and pilots are extremely reluctant to extradite. We practically do not touch upon this topic in the information field: a huge block on the dissemination of information about torture and abuse of Russian prisoners of war. For the residents of Donbass, an explanation in the spirit of “but they returned the Russian guys in exchange for neo-Nazi cannon fodder” will not work from the word “absolutely”.

In Ukraine, they will now score another “goal” for Russia and tell about the successful extraction procedure , saying that everything happened as it should. And the world media will disperse.

On the other hand, we understand very well that after the “Azovites” are used by the media, they will then be sent to a meat grinder, where no one will take them prisoner for the second time.

But we, ordinary bloggers, understand this. We do not have to explain such things to the population, right?

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Сolonelcassad
It is reported that as a result of a morning strike on Nikolaev, the headquarters of the Operational Command "South" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which was responsible for operations in the Kherson direction, was destroyed on the territory of the Okean plant. 2 generals, more than 20 officers and a significant number of privates were killed.
Previously, similar targeted strikes were already inflicted on the headquarters of the Operational Command "South" in Voznesensk and the Southern Bug.

***

Сolonelcassad
On the topic of prisoners of war.

1. According to Ukrainian statements, at the beginning of May they had up to 500-600 people in captivity, some of them from the DPR and LPR. Judging by the latest exchanges, more than a third of this number have already been changed in the last couple of months.

2. The absence of photos/videos from ongoing exchanges indicates that the parties have reached an agreement not to publish the materials of the exchange process.

3. Exchanges took place in Zaporozhye, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions.

4. The Russian Federation has many times more prisoners of war, which Ukraine simply has no one to exchange at the rate of 1 to 1. Accordingly, most of the Ukrainian prisoners of war will remain in captivity until the end of the war. Therefore, they are trying to choose from this heap more valuable from a media point of view, trying to change the Nazis from Azov or foreign mercenaries.

***

forwarded from
real colonel
#urgent information🔥According to the data received from our intelligence, as a result of radio interception in the period from June 27 to 29, 2022, it was established that a detachment of the Foreign Legion (mercenaries) was operating in the offensive zone.

In particular, in the areas of Severodonetsk, Mirnaya Dolina, and the southern outskirts of Lisichansk, up to two groups Georgian battalion and one of the groups of Polish mercenaries (total numbering up to 120 people).

As a result of the fighting in Severodonetsk, the losses of the Georgian legion have already been confirmed - 7 wounded. Subsequently, this unit moved to Mirnaya Dolina, where, as a result of fire damage from the Allied forces, they suffered irretrievable losses in the amount of 15 people and 30 wounded, incl. and unit leader! In the southern part of Lisichansk, mobile units with a total strength of up to 20 people in pickup trucks (10 vehicles) with ATGMs and 60-caliber mortars were found.

The total number of mercenaries includes Georgians, Balts and Poles - there are many of them. Also, French speech was noticed. All of them are scattered around the city and move by 5-6 people in large jeeps. Americans were seen yesterday at school number 2, there are about 10 pickups and they are the most “important”. Everyone runs to them to report. Also, Asians or Arabs were seen, but there are not many of them, about 5-6 people.

Pravoseki with the local "police" go into every house and check everyone's phones, give people nightmares, forbid moving around the city. And all this in the good old traditions, under the threat of execution ...

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Сolonelcassad
The LPR reports that a grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, numbering up to 500 people, was able to crawl away from Lisichansk to Seversk through Belogorovka with losses.
This reminds us that there is still no full-fledged boiler near Lisichansk and it is still quite possible to leave the city, even if this is associated with great risks of falling under the fire of Russian artillery. As Lysichansk is liberated and an immediate threat of cutting the Seversk-Lysichansk road is created, the enemy will obviously seek to pull the most combat-ready units from Lisichansk to Seversk (most likely they will sacrifice the Volkssturm) in order to create a defensive line in the Seversk region and meet the offensive of the RF Armed Forces and the LPR army after how Lisichansk and adjacent cities and towns will be cleared.

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Сolonelcassad
Russian President Boris Yeltsin, having left Crimea and regions with a Russian population to Ukraine, deprived 12 million Russian people of legal guarantees, Chairman of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation Valery Zorkin said at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum.

"In Belovezhya, during the dissolution of the USSR, Boris Yeltsin left behind Ukraine both the Crimea, and the legendary Sevastopol ("diamond of Russian military prowess"), and several regions that are actually Russian both in terms of population and history. That is, up to 12 million Russian people were left without any - any legal guarantees of their national and cultural identity and, as it turned out, were deprived of the right to their native language by the Nazi regime " (c) Zorkin

We should not forget about Gorbachev, who actively destroyed one large country and allowed the revival of Banderaism on the territory of the USSR and created the conditions for the Belovezhskaya gang to dismember the USSR into many limitrophes and bantustans, which our "Western partners" successfully used for 30 years and continue to use.

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forwarded from
Go and look
⚠️The Nazis from the "Kraken" are located in the very center of Kharkov. Ukrainian militants set up positions in residential areas

According to "Come and See", the regular units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were stationed on the northern outskirts of Kharkov, mainly in Saltovka and Alekseevka.

“It is these forces that are fighting in the north of the Kharkiv region, working as raids and hiding in the Kharkiv residential area,” the source of the channel said.

In the center of the city, the administrative buildings turned into warehouses and barracks for the Ukrainian Nazis.

“The center was given to the nationalists from the Kraken detachment. It was there that their forces were located, and the training of personnel was carried out, ”the source of the channel noted.

According to him, the "krakens" used the Kharkiv ODA, the Nikolsky shopping center and gymnasium No. 9 for their own purposes, after the defeat they moved to other buildings. Thus, with its mere presence, the Kraken destroys the city center.

We see confirmation of this in their Telegram communities, where in the photo our sources often recognize their native places, and also buses and vehicles with characteristic “Kraken” stickers shine in the central Kharkov courtyards.

Sources of "Come and See" personally checked the gymnasium No. 9. Now it is empty, there are only a few white cars. The Ukrainian militants left there on purpose or deliberately used the gymnasium for a photo - it will remain a mystery for future interrogations.

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 » Thu Jun 30, 2022 1:29 pm

"Is everyone in their seats?"
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 06/30/2022

Original Article: Egor Voronov

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“Is everyone in their seats?” the minibus driver asks, raising his voice a little as he turns to look at the passengers. “We are not going for Universitetskaya. There are bombings. We will stop at Artyom and as soon as possible we will turn to Universitetskaya”. None of the passengers are upset. Almost everyone is completely silent when we turn to Shakhtyorskaya Square. "We are not going to stop. There were impacts about ten minutes ago”. We continue. Ten seconds, twenty, thirty, forty. A few hundred meters behind, there is an explosion. It is not clear where, but it has been very close. The echo still hurts my ears.

“For the liberation of Donbass, please stop,” says a woman with exultation in her voice as she gets up to leave near the Donetsk City stop. "Yes, please, please." Tram cables hang over the asphalt. The windows of the shops on the ground floor are an empty space. The facades of the administrative buildings are chipped and those of the residential buildings have large holes in the form of broken windows. There are branches and remains of passenger cars on the road. The central street of Donetsk did not look like itself, but a street of Kirovsky, Kuibyshevsky or Petrovsky. “Ma'am, sit down. We'll stop at the traffic lights." We leave for Universitetskaya. I'll have to get off soon, we got to work. Suddenly, the idea of ​​walking through the streets of the city with a bulletproof vest does not seem so crazy.

The next day, the shells are out. Something powerful. Only one. Peski? Avdeevka? Opinion? I begin to learn the addresses of Donetsk. A buzz is heard. The projectile passes over our heads. Before exploding, another passes. Explode the first. Buzz. Pass the third. Burst. Buzz. The shells pass over the central districts of the capital. And they also explode in Kievsky, which for Donetsk is also a central district. That's how it was considered at least when I worked there ten years ago.

People around me go out for water with six or ten liter bottles and are unfazed by the explosions. They don't look at the sky. They do not seek refuge. By local standards, explosions are far away. Although they can be clearly heard reflecting in the apartment buildings and with the shock wave through the patios. They feel both inside and out. Here is already the third day of morning battles.

In the center, workers repair the pavement on Universitetskaya. Rubble is cleared near the Zvezdochka cinema as passers-by see a large hole in the third or fourth floor of a residential building. The Druzhba hotel tries to hide the holes in its brown facade and its broken windows. It doesn't look so impressive anymore. "They squeeze a lot, Sasha," says a passing woman on the phone. "I can not anymore. They've been bombing for a week. We have to go somewhere. No one here knows when he can die." I look at the phone, the summary of the bombing in Gorlovka.

"They have bombed the Donbass Arena area." "An impact near the Vishnevsky hospital." "They damaged the monument to the Red Guard." One more day in which the phones are not silent. Dozens of people have miraculously avoided death. A woman died, there are dozens of wounded. There are columns of smoke coming out of the city. I don't want to read the news. Before my eyes is Shakhtyorskaya Square, with its peeling facades. It is already night and, on the way back from work, in the silence of the streets, the driver tells stories about the bombings. For. We have to go out. From the back seat I take the backpack with 16 liters of water. Rumble. The surrounding walls reinforce the echo and carry it up to the evening sky. I crouch down a bit. A shell hits at 120-130 meters. "Listen, maybe I'll take you to the door of the house", says the man behind the wheel. "Yes, I think so," I reply, trying to sit back down with the water bag. We continue. An exit projectile. And other. And more.

The next day I find out that the projectile did not explode. I get on the bus. "Is everyone in their seats? We are not going for Universitetskaya. There are bombings. We will stop at Artyom and as soon as possible we will turn to Universitetskaya”.

https://slavyangrad.es/2022/06/30/24940/#more-24940

This has been going on, sporadically and now again more intensely, for eight years. But most do not know and some don't even care if it crosses some theoretical line.

Theory must adjust to reality or it ain't worth spit.

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"Goodwill Gestures"
June 30, 12:34

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The RF Ministry of Defense announced https://t.me/boris_rozhin/55644 that as part of a "goodwill gesture" it will withdraw troops from Zmeinny Island to unblock Ukrainian ports for the withdrawal of grain.
Negotiations on this matter continued in Turkey for more than a month.

With regard to the withdrawal of troops from the Serpent's Island, which is presented as a "step of good" will, all this is seen as part of behind-the-scenes agreements on the export of grain from Ukraine, negotiations on which have been dragging on for a long time in Turkey and progress on which was announced through the UN.
Goodwill here As for the military component of leaving Zmeinoye, which is hiding behind agreements in Turkey to unblock the export of grain, it is quite obvious that the attacks on the island (using Western guns and issues of ensuring the retention of the island (from the last, which was stated, a hit from the Pantsir air defense missile system last week).
It is obvious that this "goodwill gesture" will be presented as the success of the NATO weapons that have been fired at Zmeinny since May and, accordingly, serve as a motivation for further increasing supplies in order to achieve new "goodwill gestures" - the wording is, of course, complete atas.

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7709720.html

Google Translator

Seeing as Snake Island had nothing to do with the lack of grain shipments out of Ukraine, that being accomplished by the Ukrainian mining of the harbors, this seems strange. Perhaps the Russians didn't want to waste resources for a worthless bit of land, it's military value can be accomplished elsewise, or mebbe it is a goodwill gesture for the Global South, cementing the overall pro-Russian sentiment prevalent there. I dunno, but the Ukes will trumpet this, as Boris relates.

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Ukraine Is The Latest Neocon Disaster
By Jeffrey Sachs | 19 hours ago

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Photo by DonkeyHotey

The war in Ukraine is the culmination of a 30-year project of the American neoconservative movement. The Biden Administration is packed with the same neocons who championed the US wars of choice in Serbia (1999), Afghanistan (2001), Iraq (2003), Syria (2011), Libya (2011), and who did so much to provoke Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The neocon track record is one of unmitigated disaster, yet Biden has staffed his team with neocons. As a result, Biden is steering Ukraine, the US, and the European Union towards yet another geopolitical debacle. If Europe has any insight, it will separate itself from these US foreign policy debacles.

The neocon movement emerged in the 1970s around a group of public intellectuals, several of whom were influenced by University of Chicago political scientist Leo Strauss and Yale University classicist Donald Kagan. Neocon leaders included Norman Podhoretz, Irving Kristol, Paul Wolfowitz, Robert Kagan (son of Donald), Frederick Kagan (son of Donald), Victoria Nuland (wife of Robert), Elliott Abrams, and Kimberley Allen Kagan (wife of Frederick).

The main message of the neocons is that the US must predominate in military power in every region of the world, and must confront rising regional powers that could someday challenge US global or regional dominance, most importantly Russia and China. For this purpose, US military force should be pre-positioned in hundreds of military bases around the world and the US should be prepared to lead wars of choice as necessary. The United Nations is to be used by the US only when useful for US purposes. This approach was spelled out first by Paul Wolfowitz in his draft Defense Policy Guidance (DPG) written for the Department of Defense in 2002. The draft called for extending the US-led security network to the Central and Eastern Europe despite the explicit promise by German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher in 1990 that German unification would not be followed by NATO’s eastward enlargement. Wolfowitz also made the case for American wars of choice, defending America’s right to act independently, even alone, in response to crises of concern to the US. According to General Wesley Clark, Wolfowitz already made clear to Clark in May 1991 that the US would lead regime-change operations in Iraq, Syria, and other former Soviet allies.

The neocons championed NATO enlargement to Ukraine even before that became official US policy under George W. Bush, Jr. in 2008. They viewed Ukraine’s NATO membership as key to US regional and global dominance. Robert Kagan spelled out the neocon case for NATO enlargement in April 2006:

"[T]he Russians and Chinese see nothing natural in [the “color revolutions” of the former Soviet Union], only Western-backed coups designed to advance Western influence in strategically vital parts of the world. Are they so wrong? Might not the successful liberalization of Ukraine, urged and supported by the Western democracies, be but the prelude to the incorporation of that nation into NATO and the European Union -- in short, the expansion of Western liberal hegemony?"

Kagan acknowledged the dire implication of NATO enlargement. He quotes one expert as saying, “the Kremlin is getting ready for the 'battle for Ukraine' in all seriousness." After the fall of the Soviet Union, both the US and Russia should have sought a neutral Ukraine, as a prudent buffer and safety valve. Instead, the neocons wanted US “hegemony” while the Russians took up the battle partly in defense and partly out of their own imperial pretentions as well. Shades of the Crimean War (1853-6), when Britain and France sought to weaken Russia in the Black Sea following Russian pressures on the Ottoman empire.

Kagan penned the article as a private citizen while his wife Victoria Nuland was the US Ambassador to NATO under George W. Bush, Jr. Nuland has been the neocon operative par excellence. In addition to serving as Bush’s Ambassador to NATO, Nuland was Barack Obama’s Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs during 2013-17, where she participated in the overthrow of Ukraine’s pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych, and now serves as Biden’s Undersecretary of State guiding US policy vis-à-vis the war in Ukraine.

The neocon outlook is based on an overriding false premise: that the US military, financial, technological, and economic superiority enables it to dictate terms in all regions of the world. It is a position of both remarkable hubris and remarkable disdain of evidence. Since the 1950s, the US has been stymied or defeated in nearly every regional conflict in which it has participated. Yet in the “battle for Ukraine,” the neocons were ready to provoke a military confrontation with Russia by expanding NATO over Russia’s vehement objections because they fervently believe that Russia will be defeated by US financial sanctions and NATO weaponry.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a neocon think-tank led by Kimberley Allen Kagan (and backed by a who’s who of defense contractors such as General Dynamics and Raytheon), continues to promise a Ukrainian victory. Regarding Russia’s advances, the ISW offered a typical comment: “[R]egardless of which side holds the city [of Sievierodonetsk], the Russian offensive at the operational and strategic levels will probably have culminated, giving Ukraine the chance to restart its operational-level counteroffensives to push Russian forces back.”

The facts on the ground, however, suggest otherwise. The West’s economic sanctions have had little adverse impact on Russia, while their “boomerang” effect on the rest of the world has been large. Moreover, the US capacity to resupply Ukraine with ammunition and weaponry is seriously hamstrung by America’s limited production capacity and broken supply chains. Russia’s industrial capacity of course dwarfs that of Ukraine’s. Russia’s GDP was roughly 10X that of Ukraine before war, and Ukraine has now lost much of its industrial capacity in the war.

The most likely outcome of the current fighting is that Russia will conquer a large swath of Ukraine, perhaps leaving Ukraine landlocked or nearly so. Frustration will rise in Europe and the US with the military losses and the stagflationary consequences of war and sanctions. The knock-on effects could be devastating, if a right-wing demagogue in the US rises to power (or in the case of Trump, returns to power) promising to restore America’s faded military glory through dangerous escalation.

Instead of risking this disaster, the real solution is to end the neocon fantasies of the past 30 years and for Ukraine and Russia to return to the negotiating table, with NATO committing to end its commitment to the eastward enlargement to Ukraine and Georgia in return for a viable peace that respects and protects Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

https://www.tikkun.org/ukraine-is-the-l ... -disaster/

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US to send $1.3 billion in aid to Ukraine

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The US insists that the aid is intended so that Ukraine can sustain its economy and defend itself from Russian troops. | Photo: DW
Published June 30, 2022

The aid package to Ukraine involves sending weapons, ammunition, advanced rocket systems for kyiv to deal with Russian forces.

The US Treasury Department confirmed on Wednesday that it will send Ukraine the amount of 1.3 billion dollars to assist its economy, as part of the aid promised by US President Joe Biden last May.

In an official statement, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stated that with this economic assistance, her country reaffirms its commitment to the people of Ukraine as they defend themselves from the Russian military operation in the east of the country and collaborate in their economic rebound.

The aid package includes sponsorship of artillery and ammunition, advanced rocket and anti-ship defense systems for Ukraine to deal with Russian forces that have gained territory in Donbass.


The World Bank (WB) will be in charge of this transfer, which is part of an economic aid of 7,500 million that Biden will give Ukraine as an emergency credit.

Janet Yellen insisted that the US would join with certain partners to "impose additional sanctions in response to Russia's war against Ukraine" in order to degrade Vladimir Putin's defense industry.

As reported by the World Bank, Ukraine will suffer a 45 percent contraction of its economy due to the budget deficit of 5,000 million dollars that it faces every month.

Due to the conflict it maintains with Russia, the country perceives a drop in income due to the paralysis of production and little access to external funds.

The armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine has led the agenda of the G7, held in Bavaria, Germany, due to its global impact and the international dispute over arms interests.


Although the European Union and the G7 itself promised to deliver 29.6 billion to Ukraine, it has been the White House that has directed two 500 million dollar grants to kyiv to confront the "unprovoked war" that is taking place in their country.

Since the beginning of the invasion, it has delivered more than 6 million dollars in military aid, always insisting on the need to eliminate Russian troops from the territory.

On May 19, the US Senate decided to send an aid of 40,000 million dollars to Ukraine, after a vote with 86 votes in favor and one against.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/eeuu-env ... -0009.html

The Biden regime is making sure there is no money for the progressives agenda, as inadequate as it was it was still too much for the guy who promised the ruling class there would be no change on his watch.

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

Conversation with American Mercenary, DPR POW: “Be Better Informed”
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 29, 2022
Jim “Fergie” Chambers

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Alexander John-Robert Drueke, 39, seen here on the Appalachian trail. Photo from the Telegram UK

My conversation with American mercenary in Ukraine turned DPR POW, Alexander John-Robert Drueke


NEW YORK, JUNE 28TH, 2022- Last week, two Americans who came to fight for the Ukrainian International Legion were widely reported as having been captured by the forces of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the breakaway republic in Eastern Ukraine which is allied with Russia in the ongoing conflict in the region. Alexander John-Robert Drueke, 39, and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, both residents of Alabama, were apparently captured amidst fighting in the outskirts of Kharkov, and to this point, had not had any contact with American press.

This afternoon, my phone rang as I was driving home out in Eastern Long Island, and a Russian number appeared on my Caller ID. It was a number that had previously been used by British POW Aiden Aslin to contact me, as the DPR administration had my information from my time reporting in Donbass. Mr. Aslin, a British national who had been living with a family in Ukraine and was a regular in the Ukrainian marines, was sentenced to death in the DPR, for the crimes of being a mercenary and killing civilians, and is currently waiting to see if a prisoner exchange can be facilitated for his release, though current reports do not look good for him. The DPR, unlike the Russian Federation, has not banned capital punishment, and per my discussions with Mr. Aslin, the lack of footwork on his behalf on the part of Ukrainian and British authorities is the reason his exchange has not been prioritized.

This time, however, when I answered, the caller identified himself as Alexander John-Robert Drueke, accompanied by his DPR state-provided lawyer, from his captivity site in Donetsk, DPR. Alexander is from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and served 12 years in the U.S. army reserve, including two deployments to Iraq, though neither put him into active combat. Above all, he is similarly seeking a prisoner exchange, but he described to me in relative detail how he ended up in his current predicament, and some of his perspective on the situation.

He said that early this year, he had extensively watched American and other western news reports on the developing conflict in Ukraine, and was particularly affected by images of Ukrainians fleeing their homes. He is retired, was living on VA benefits, and he said that he felt that he “had to do something to help, not necessarily fighting, but whatever I could do.” He had no prior arrangements with the Ukrainian Armed Forces or the regime in Kiev, before flying to Warsaw, Poland from Atlanta, GA on April 12th of this year, hoping to find his way to Ukraine.

On the 15th of April, he rode by bus over the border into Lvov, Ukraine without incident. There, he was quickly interviewed by the Ukrainian International Legion, who signed a contract with him to work in a training role with a unit in Lvov, an arrangement which only lasted 8 days. Alexander said he was “dissatisfied” with this unit, for reasons he’s not at liberty to share, due to a Non-Disclosure Agreement he signed in his contract, and by early June, he had signed paperwork to transfer to a recon unit across the country, in Kharkov. This unit was presumably overseen by the SBU, the primary Ukrainian Intelligence agency. Alexander and his friend, Mr. Huynh, arrived in Kharkov on June 7th, and on June 9th, they were sent into a combat mission, something Alexander said he didn’t expect to happen, and separated from the rest of their unit. They were both apprehended by a DPR patrol, and brought back to Donetsk for detainment; they have not been officially charged as of yet, but Alexander understands they are to be charged with being mercenaries, and presumably eligible to face the death penalty, though their charges are likely to be less severe than their British counterparts.

Mr. Drueke’s captivity, as he described it, has been calm, and he has been well-treated, given the obviously uncomfortable broader context. He says he has been provided with food and water regularly, is in a cell by himself, and has not had any contact with his fellow American POW or any other prisoners, though for over a week now he has had access to phone calls, including to his mother, Lois Drueke, and has been contact with his lawyer every other day. He maintains a very close relationship with his mother, and she appears to be working tirelessly on his case; I have reached out to her for her comment, and have yet to hear back.

The DPR authorities, per Alexander, are extremely willing to negotiate for his release in a prisoner exchange, and are generally motivated to secure safe return for their own people. While he has been in contact with the U.S. State Department (he named one Michael Abbott as his contact; I was not able to track this person down), and while the U.S. government has told Alexander and his mother that they are “doing what they can,” he told me that “the U.S. is not technically a combatant in this fight, and they have no one to exchange with the DPR, so what they can do is limited to pressuring Kiev.” Whether the Ukrainian authorities were working on his case was not clear to him, and he has had no contact since his capture with anyone in the Kiev government.

When I asked him about his perspectives on the conflict now, versus when he made the decision to come over, his repeated emphasis was that he had been “extremely uninformed” when he was still in Alabama and relying on the narrative being spun by western media. “I can tell you that I was very surprised to see most women and children still at home and living normally in all the major Ukrainian cities I went to, and when I was detained here in Donestk, it was the first time I had been able to speak to any Russians or Russian-speakers from Donbass. There’s a side of the story that we’re not getting in America.” He noted that even from his cell in Donetsk, he had been hearing constant explosions, every day, coming from Ukrainian shelling of the city, something he had never anticipated, adding that “nothing in the western media shows you that this is a Civil War, and one that’s been going on a long time.” He didn’t go as far as disavowing the Ukrainian state, or endorsing the Russian Special Operation, but he repeatedly said to me, “if I had known the truth about what was going on over here, I would never have made the decision to come. I regret it.”

While feelings of sympathy for a man in a life-and-death predicament, who at face value seems to have been duped into his decision, above all else, are completely understandable, some on the Donestk side of the conflict aren’t shedding many tears for him, or similar detainees. Russell “Texas” Bentley, an American-born veteran of the DPR armed forces since 2014, and a resident of Donetsk, shared with me his thoughts on Mr. Drueke and those like him: “Yeah, a lot of these punks were just too big for their britches, and that’s almost forgivable, but what they wanted to do was come here to kill, and if the shoe had been on the other foot, they wouldn’t have hesitated. I was behind Ukrop [Ukrainian] lines twice, and didn’t fire a shot either time. Every single battle I was ever in was defensive. We held a position, and the Ukrops came to attack us, and they’d have killed us all if they could have. So, it will be an educational experience for them, hopefully give them a bit of a head start in their next life.”

My inquiries to the U.S. State Department and Ukrainian Military press contacts have yet to yield any responses; Alexander remains adamant that the DPR is eager to arrange his release, and hopeful that his government is trying to facilitate that, but says that “time is starting to run out.” Portuguese journalist Bruno Carvalho, with whom I worked in Donetsk, and who remains there on assignment, suggested that one of the hold-ups in these prisoner exchanges with DPR may be that a foreign government, such as the UK or US, agreeing to negotiate such an exchange might be tantamount to a recognition of the Republic, which on a diplomatic level, could have major ripple effects. After all, Russian President Putin’s recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics proved to be the great harbinger of the recent escalation in what many see as a western proxy war against Russia.

Before we hung up, I assured Alexander that I would at the very least write about our conversation, and I asked him what he might say to others who were caught in the fever of U.S. propaganda, and might have the same instincts to fly across the ocean and sign-up to fight for Ukraine.

“As I said, I did not have a full understanding of what was going on, and if I had, I wouldn’t have made the decision that I did. What would I say to someone else? Do your research, look at sources outside of the West—be better informed.”

[youtube]https://youtu.be/V6br5MR2LHM[/youtube]

A Serbian Colleague and friend of mine, Miodrag Zarkovic, is also in Donestk, and was given access to do a full interview with Mr. Drueke, and his co-captive and fellow American Andy Huynh. It can be found in English on his Serbian YouTube channel, HelmCast, here:(?)


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

Dmitry Polyanskiy at UNSC Briefing on Maintenance of Peace and Security in Ukraine
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 28, 2022

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Statement by First Deputy Permanent Representative Dmitry Polyanskiy at UNSC Briefing on Maintenance of Peace and Security in Ukraine



Mr.President,

Before I start, let me make the following remark.

We are seriously concerned over the stance of the Albanian Presidency with regard to participation of President Zelensky of Ukraine in this meeting. There have been no consultations with all Council members on this issue. The delegations were confronted with this fact at the last moment. This violates the existing practice and working methods of the Security Council.

President Zelensky was once given an opportunity to address the Council by means of exception and, as Great Britain in its capacity as President of the Council claimed, without creating any precedent. We see no reason why such an exception should be made again. We all repeatedly reiterated our understanding that representatives of states willing to address the Council need to be physically present in the Security Council chamber.

The Security Council should not turn into a platform where President Zelensky, though remotely, can angle for more NATO weapons. This erodes the authority of the Council as a body responsible for collective decision-making in the interests of maintenance of international peace and security. The Ukrainian side, supported by our Western colleagues, seeks to undermine this authority and use UNSC members as audience at its performances.

Let me also underscore than a week ago Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Central African Republic was denied an opportunity to address the Council via VTC. Security Council must not use double standards, acting in the interests of the Ukrainian side and its Western sponsors and discriminating African states. No exceptions must be made here.

Mr.President,

From the early days of the special military operation that is called to put an end to the 8-year-long war that the Kiev regime has been waging on peaceful people of Eastern Ukraine, we saw that the situation on the frontline was not the main concern of Ukrainian authorities. They were rather interested in other aspects, namely the situation on the information front, to which they got down (together with Western PR, propaganda, and staging experts) with great devotion.

If one sets a goal of counting all Ukrainian fakes, those will be numerous enough to make a heavy printed volume, or even a series of them. Suffice it to mention an appealing yet totally fake story about courageous defenders of Zmiinyi Island refusing to surrender to a Russian navy ship and paying the ultimate price for that. President Zelensky awarded them with titles of Heroes of Ukraine post mortem. It turned out later though that the entire Ukrainian garrison of the island stayed alive, having surrendered to Russian troops. No one bothered to rewrite the legend, so in Ukraine one can still come across post stamps praising this patriotic story.

Another fake is the famous ace “The Ghost of Kiev” who allegedly struck fear into Russian air forces, having downed dozens of Russian jets. The fact that his acts of heroism were illustrated with fragments from video games or old footage from the web did not seem to disturb anyone. Later even Western journalists had to acknowledge reluctantly that it had been a made-up story. Yet some Ukrainian propaganda makers still exploit this “ghost legend”.

Video clips is a separate topic. At the initial stage of the special operation, density of Ukrainian video fakes on the Internet was so high, that it terrified even the British BBC. As time went by, BBC and other Western media started to take those fakes easy and even make some of their own, pretending that buildings in Donbas that had been destroyed by the Kiev regime were actually located in Kiev.

Ukrainians and their Western sponsors realized quickly that in a digital era, the developments on the ground do not matter. What does matter is how those developments are covered in Western Media. Making use of the voluntary retreat of Russian troops from the Kiev and Chernigov Regions, Kiev’s and Western propaganda experts carried out a provocation in Bucha, which was monstrous by both scale and performance. Despite flagrant irregularities, many in the West still believe in it, as we heard today, and the Kiev authorities take all foreign guests to the spot where the provocation was enacted, which is only a short ride from Kiev. They use this ominous marketing tool to push their sponsors to deliver more weapons to Ukraine. As far as Western military deliveries, Bucha was a game changer, which is exactly what Ukrainian authorities had wanted. They admitted to it themselves. As Foreign Minister Kuleba said in an interview to BBC on 4 April, “the Bucha massacre should remove any kind of hesitation and reluctance in the West to provide Ukraine with all necessary weapons”.

Once warmed up, those Kiev-based successors to the “White Helmets” endeavored to do something just as big. This is when they came up with an idea of targeting a railway terminal in Kramatorsk which was supposed to convince the global community that Russian troops committed terrible atrocities. Yet this fake was so uncouth and unconvincing that it is rarely recalled these days. The involvement of Ukrainian Armed Forces was far too obvious.

After that, Ukrainian propaganda got inspired by Goebbels-style methods and started instilling in public conscience an image of Russian soldiers as barbarians, rapists, and pillagers – the way fascists did at the final stage of WW2. And then Russian soldiers went around pillaging, raping, and terrorizing everyone with their unthinkable cruelty – so the story goes according to Ukrainian propaganda. We all remember too well a representative of the Kiev regime sitting at this very table and making a point about our soldiers stealing Ukrainian washing machines and toilets – something they had never had in their households back in Russia. His supporters went even farther and modified this ridiculous story. Now they say that Russians steal electric kettles, but leave behind their power bases, not knowing how to use those. Lies about stolen Ukrainian grain, which we also heard today, fits into this logic perfectly well.

And many in the West believed in that, and they felt pity for Ukrainians, and they wholeheartedly hated Russians. And they did not hurry to double check on facts. And they accurately supplied Kiev with much-wanted weapons.

But at some point everything went off the rails. On social media, there appeared more evidence and more reasons to blame Ukrainian soldiers and neo-Nazis for committing atrocities and war crimes, pillaging, tortures, rapes, purposeful shelling of residential quarters and deploying heavy weapons there, as well as using civilians as a human shield. Such testimonies did not come in dozens, but rather in hundreds and thousands, and spread quickly on social networks. In particular, this is how the legends about Russian troops bombarding a maternity hospital and a drama theatre in Mariupol collapsed. Then more than 2,500 Azov nationalists, who have already been elevated to the rank of martyrs and heroes, surrendered and had to let go of hundreds of civilian hostages who shared the truth about what they had been through.

Another failure came from Ukrainian Ombudsperson Denisova, who went too far savoring and depicting rapes allegedly committed by Russian soldiers. By the way, our Western colleagues caught up on what she had said and eagerly repeated it, i.a. in this room. Once fired, she had to admit that the had lied on purpose – to make sure that Ukraine kept being weaponized. And then it turned out that Western states had no proofs other that Denisova’s lies.

Add to this video footage coming from the liberated cities of Donbas that were caught under heavy bombardments, where people said that they only blamed Ukrainian forces and Western sponsors who had supplied Ukraine with long-range artillery that could reach previously unavailable areas. Add to this military failures, caused i.a. by incompetence and treachery of Ukrainian commando leaving behind soldiers (including newly admitted recruits) nearly armless, and not letting them surrender to save their lives, because anti-retreat units would prevent them, or else – shoot them in the back. Such video reels made by Ukrainian soldiers have lately become very numerous. And there have been hundreds if not thousands those willing to surrender.

This was getting harder to conceal from the Ukrainian and global audience, especially as thousands of soldiers got trapped in a “cauldron” around Severodonetsk and Lisichansk. Then a NATO summit was just around the corner, where Ukrainian officials knew the issue of further arms deliveries to Ukraine would be raised. They also knew that those arms could be used in combat, but also sold to third parties and then written off as military losses.

It became clear that if Ukraine wanted the already fading attention of the global community back, it needed a new provocation “a la Bucha”. The problem was, Russian troops had not been retreating anywhere. So planting some dead bodies or shooting civilians was not an option – it would have made sense only in territories won back by the Kiev regime.

Apparently, this is when Kiev came up with an idea of a new style of a provocation – alleged strike on a shopping mall in Kremenchug. In reality, the mall had not been hit. Russian troops launched a high precision strike against warehouses with American and European arms and ammunition that were located next to the Kremenchug road-building machinery plant. Those arms and ammunition were going to be dispatched to the Ukrainian troops in Donbas, where they would target residential areas of Donetsk, Lugansk, and other cities. Russian strikes prevented it. Long-range artillery that the West delivers to Ukraine gives UAF an opportunity to hit rear areas of Donbas without any combat logic – just for the purposes of revenge and intimidation of local people. On 15 June, UAF launched such strikes from 155-mm Caesar howitzers that had arrived from NATO. Those strikes killed 6 civilians and injured 30 more. Dozens of deaths and injuries add to this statistic weekly. Yesterday was the first time the UAF used M142 HIMARS systems against the city of Pervalsk in the LPR. Neither Ukrainian nor Western colleagues mentioned these attacks on civil facilities and population of Donbas today. You do not care about it, as you did not care all those 8 years during which Ukrainian troops have been systemically annihilating the people of DPR and LPR.

Back to Kremenchug. The strikes did not impact Amstor shopping mall that stands at some distance. Footage from CCTV cameras proves this. If a missile had hit the mall, it would have been completely destroyed. Videos shot by Ukrainian bloggers show that the blast wave did not even damage the goods that were on sale in Amstor. Everything remained in its places without even falling to the floor. Adjacent buildings were not affected either, even windows remained intact. This is only possible when a projectile explodes at a considerable distance. Ammunition that was stored in the warehouses detonated upon impact, starting a fire which then spread to the mall.

Dear Western colleagues,

I provided a detailed account of the work of Ukrainian propaganda machine hoping you would realize how clumsy and unconvincingly you look when spreading the Ukrainian propaganda narrative, which includes not only fakes and staged provocations that I mentioned, but also claims that Russia allegedly prevents Ukrainian grain exports. The only thing Kiev wants from you is your money and your weapons. You must realize that the arms you deliver, as we warned you from the very start, are our legitimate military targets, just like mercenaries coming from our countries. Facilities where those weapons are stored and mercenaries deployed also become our legitimate military targets. The warehouses at the Kremenchug road-building machinery plant were exactly such targets. The Kiev regime deliberately stores weapons in central areas of Ukrainian cities, next to residential quarters, putting lives of civilians at risk and turning people into a human shield. And you try to not notice it, and in doing so, you depreciate the values you claim to be promoting.

No matter how hard you try to prove the opposite, we did not and do not target civil and non-military facilities. If you do not trust us – look at testimonies of eye-witnesses, and listen to opinions of military experts. They will confirm that the residential building in Kiev that was mentioned today had not been hit by a Russian cruise missile but had been damaged by two Ukrainian air defense units that downed Ukrainian surface-to-air missiles right above this building. Your unwillingness to recognize this does not change the truth.

By supplying your weapons, you only prolong the agony of the criminal Kiev regime that is ready to sacrifice its own population. The sooner you realize this, the sooner Ukrainian leadership comes to a negotiations table with a realistic position rather than pompous slogans and phantom pains.

We started a special military operation in order to put an end to bombardments of Donbas by Ukraine, and also to make sure that this country (that Western states helped to turn into an anti-Russia) and its nationalist leadership stop posing a threat to both Russia and people living in Ukraine’s southern and south-eastern areas. The special operation will continue until these goals are achieved.

Thank you.

In response to the representative of Great Britain:

Mr.President,

I won’t take much of our time. Let me just say that such claims sound very “convincing” when pronounced by someone representing a country that introduced to the world such provocations as “the Skripals case” and “the Litvinenko case”, as well as many other cases that made it to the world’s annals and handbooks as examples of blatant provocations and false-flag operations. Please keep this in mind next time you decide to give us a lecture.

Thank you.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/06/ ... n-ukraine/

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Putin’s invasion of Ukraine didn’t cause the food crisis. Capitalism did
Small farmers are the world’s primary suppliers of food. It’s imperative we listen to them, not the big corporates

Adele Walton
24 June 2022, 3.48pm

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The world’s average agricultural production is predicted to be diminished by more than a fifth by 2030 | DPA picture alliance / Alamy Stock Photo

“Most farmers can no longer produce adequate food for their families,” says Vladimir Chilinya. “Profit-making entities control our food systems… including the production and distribution of seed.”

Chilinya is a Zambian coordinator for FIAN International, an organisation that campaigns for the democratisation of food and nutrition.

Worsening harvests, infertile soil and increasing food poverty are affecting the majority of small farmers across the globe, especially in the Global South. Wheat prices have surged by 59% since the start of 2022.

Last month, UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned that the number of people living in famine conditions has increased by more than 500% since 2016, and more than 270 million people are now living in extreme food insecurity.

While Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has exacerbated this crisis (Russia and Ukraine account for 30% of the world’s wheat exports, constituting 12% of traded calories), climate change and capitalism are the primary engines behind this global food emergency.

The IPCC has estimated that by 2030, global warming will have diminished the world’s average agricultural production by more than a fifth. In Zambia, the maize harvest for 2021/22 is expected to be down by a quarter, thanks to droughts and flash floods between 2019 and 2021, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.

Meanwhile, India and Pakistan experienced their highest recorded temperatures in March and April since records began 122 years ago. India has since banned wheat exports (after the government failed to buy enough wheat to cover its food security programme), which has further exacerbated the global wheat shortage and soaring global food prices.

But the climate and food crises are not isolated phenomena. They are the result of a global capitalist system – and a neoliberal agenda – that has prioritised big corporate agricultural profits over people and the planet.

Corporatisation of agriculture

This process really took shape during the so-called “Green Revolution” in India in the late 1960s. This movement was a collaboration between India and the US (with USAID and the Ford Foundation being key actors) and was dependent on agrochemical usage and intensive plant breeding.

High-yielding hybrid crops were introduced – the main one being IR8, a semi-dwarf rice variety – alongside the use of fertilisers, pesticides and lots of groundwater (these high-yielding crops required a lot more water). Calorific food was valued over nutrition, and these foods had costly inputs.

This shift towards big agriculture and more profitable monocultures made small farmers more dependent on expensive chemical fertilisers, forcing them into ever greater levels of debt. In India, 10,677 agricultural workers were reported to have taken their own lives in 2020, many of them farmers trapped by mounting debts resulting from the high costs of these farming inputs.

Unfair terms of trade and global lending – enforced by multilateral financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – are also to blame.

Structural adjustment programmes (SAPs), introduced by the World Bank following the debt crisis across Latin America and Africa after the 1979 oil crisis, coerced poorer countries into privatising their public sectors and reducing their welfare mechanisms.

Adhering to strict policy packages in nearly every key sector – from agriculture to education and healthcare – became compulsory in exchange for any future loans from the bank or the IMF.

SAPs meant indebted countries across the Global South had to convert from prioritising indigenous crops that the local population depended on, to producing cash crops for export. As a result, local populations and farmers became more vulnerable to food scarcity – due to the negative ecological effects and decline in food accessibility.

Zambia: seed privatisation

In Zambia, for example, the structural adjustment agenda included the privatisation and liberalisation of the seed system. It began with the liberalisation and deregulation of ZAMSEED in the mid-1990s, which led to a decline in support for farmer cooperatives. In addition, the priority of maize as a cash crop has led to a decline in crop variety, meaning the local population has fewer food sources available.

“Under recent policy changes, priority is given to maize production. This is one of the key drivers for monocropping, which is responsible for the reduction in varieties of available foods in Zambia,” Chiliniya from FIAN told openDemocracy.

FIAN is documenting how the corporate control of agriculture is weakening food security. Seed systems have gone from being cooperative-led (which gives farmers more agency and fair prices) to being corporate-led (which prioritises profits).

“Farmer-managed seed systems have been replaced by commercial seed systems,” Chilinya said. “Most smallholder farmers are unable to purchase seeds at the commercial price and hence they cannot grow any food.”

These commercial seeds are also more vulnerable to extreme weather conditions. “Most people focus on cash crops at the expense of other crops that are more resilient to extensive weather changes. In the wake of extreme weather changes like those experienced in 2020 and 2021, the country falls into a food shortage,” added Chiliniya. According to the World Food Programme (WPF), 48% of the Zambian population is unable to meet minimum calorie requirements.

Kenya: food crisis

openDemocracy also spoke with food justice activists in Kenya, which is experiencing a severe food crisis. “Land degradation is affecting food production in Kenya because of the overuse of chemical fertilisers,” said Leondia Odongo, co-founder of social justice organisation Haki Nawiri Afrika.

As in Zambia, the disastrous legacy of SAPs is to blame. In 1980, Kenya was one of the first countries to receive a structural adjustment loan from the World Bank. It was conditional on reducing essential subsidies for farmer inputs, such as fertilisers. This process instigated a shift towards farming cash crops for export, such as tea, coffee and tobacco, instead of farming key staples for the local population, such as maize, wheat and rice.

“Agricultural inputs that were previously provided to farmers free of charge went into the hands of private entities under the guise of efficiency,” Odongo explained. “This has resulted in smallholder farmers being abandoned to the mercy of transnational corporations in the seed and agrochemical industry, which dupe farmers with information about seeds and chemicals.”

The disastrous legacy is… a shift towards farming cash crops for export instead of key staples for the local population

A recent report by Save the Children and Oxfam found that 3.5 million people in Kenya are already suffering crisis levels of hunger – and this is likely to rise to five million. Meanwhile, only 2% of the $4.4bn required in humanitarian aid (for Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia) has been funded.

Structural adjustment has made Kenya into a food exporter. In the country, malnutrition remains concerningly high, with 29% of children in rural areas and 20% of children in cities being stunted. Despite experiencing deficits which threaten its population’s food security, Kenya remains a vital food exporter, with major exports in tea, coffee, vegetables and cut flowers.

Keep it small and local

Despite occupying less than 25% of the world’s farmland, small-scale farmers provide 70% of the world’s food. In Kenya, Haki Nawiri Afrika is resisting the corporatisation of agriculture by assisting local farmers with technical knowledge. Teaching smallholder farmers practical skills allows them to reclaim agency over their land and crops.

In Zambia, FIAN is helping small farmers return to indigenous farming practices and seeds to build resilience and improve food security. By diversifying food systems and abandoning monocultures, small farmers can continue to provide enough food for their communities, and at lower costs.

These small farmer movements are up against ‘Big Philanthropy’, such as the controversial Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which is replicating the Green Revolution corporate-first strategy.

Still, they hope their struggle to decommodify and rebuild a sustainable relationship with the land can help realise the UN’s second sustainable development goal: ending hunger by 2030.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/oureco ... a-ukraine/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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