Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV
Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 12:17 pm
To Ugledar
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 08/23/2022 ⋅ LEAVE A COMMENT
Original Article: Dmitry Steshin / Komsomolskaya Pravda
I marvel again at the volume, size and area of the liberated territories of Donbass. The journey from Donetsk to the battle zone takes almost an hour and a half if we start counting from the Elenovka checkpoint, destroyed by artillery. Endless fields pass along the asphalt and, as if trying not to attract attention, you can see the tails of the Smerch multiple rocket launchers, burned or destroyed cars and some armor so battered that it is unrecognizable. It was getting dark quickly and the farmers were coming back from the fields almost in the dark, occupying a lane and a half.
At the Vostok headquarters I was offered a place on the floor of the house where our aerial reconnaissance - my old friends from the Khazar front , Tosha and Zhenya - are temporarily staying. A whole aerial reconnaissance unit appeared in Vostok many years before the start of the special operation. The command was far-sighted and guessed where the development of military art was heading. And what is more crucial, they were able to find and attract technical people obsessed with small aerial devices. The serial drones did not work, the aerial reconnaissance needed more capacity in the batteries, the ability to receive and transmit, etc. They were even made with a 3D printer to print the necessary parts. Of level.
Tosha waved to me from the porch and rushed over to help me. First we covered my car with a camouflage tent and then we put up a net: the car was covered like a tree, turned into a shapeless object, no matter where you looked from it. A standard security measure. In the village there were arrivals (this is how the artillery is called in Donbass) at intervals of one or two hours. Chaotic in terms of the area. Before, with the targets identified, everyone had learned to be smarter.
From there I began to smell a familiar aroma. Khazar was welding something microscopic in size. He proudly showed me his capabilities: a remote-controlled antenna. It had two objectives: now the operator will be able to work under cover or hide the antenna to one side as long as the cable, which is long, allows it. And if something comes in the direction of the radio signal, aerial reconnaissance will have a better chance of surviving.
It was night. Tosha excitedly explained to us the technology battle that was clearly visible to all: “Something weird happened to the drone today. The “exit” point, as planned, was moved 500 meters into the field, to the side. I was flying and all of a sudden the drone starts to fail, the connection drops and I realize the motor has died. It is falling, but not very far, it continues to rotate and just above the ground we see that the part that cut the control with us has fallen. I put it on manual control and as soon as it gets to the “out” point and Boom! Three mines. Normally five minutes pass and they immediately attack.”
At that moment, a bomb exploded somewhere on the edge of the village. I shivered thinking that it had been in our house. Most of the windows are broken and there is a nasty shell hole in my bedroom ceiling. You can see how he got in and the direction until he was stopped by the brick wall. It seemed that we were sitting in the street, although covered by an improvised wall of cement blocks, a more psychological than real protection that only helps against the shrapnel and the shock wave. Another shell whizzed past us. I was relieved: "It's not ours, in ours you can't hear the buzz."
At that moment, behind the black woods, our Grads began to roar, unleashing a full charge. A series of explosions ensued. A few minutes passed, and only a single Ukrainian cannon roar returned in response. And then the silence.
I asked the guys what they knew about technical innovations, what is drone production. Has anything interesting turned up? Jazar told me about the Volk Interceptor, which can throw two or three nets and catch an enemy drone. According to the inventors of it. Jazar , an intelligent man, hesitates: “I wonder if those who developed it didn't do it in peace instead of war. Have they really tried to catch drones in the air? Have they achieved it? We do not. You can't play with what you have but develop attack drones. Write, let them know that there are those who are flying them at the front.”
By midnight, the sky had disappeared and the temperature had dropped noticeably. Autumn is inexorably approaching. The boys in the woods comment that it has started to get cold at night.
In the morning, with the rotation, I went out to the front with them. “This is tougher than Mariupol”, the Vostok soldiers and commanders had unanimously told me. He still didn't get it. I did not understand how you can compare the chaos of Azovstal, the Vostochny neighborhood of Mariupol apartment buildings and these pastoral landscapes: already yellowed fields, beautiful forest plantations always ready to hide an exhausted soldier from the heat and being view of the enemy. The first thing they taught me was the forward position approach. In the city or in the factory, go a meter, turn around, jump into the basement and you're home. Here, going to the front equals a battle. And it is not easy to get out of a front position.
The soldiers explained to me how, in thirty degree heat, it took hours to remove the wounded comrades, who died in the evacuation and had to drag the bodies already swollen from the heat. How during the attacks they had come across something terrible, fortified points built exactly according to Soviet theory. In the Great Patriotic War, intelligent commanders silenced those supports with artillery and calmly walked around waiting for the Germans to abandon them on their own so as not to end up surrounded. Here they also fight against the Germans , for the first time I heard that new name that has been given to the enemy. If you think about it, there are many hidden meanings in that name.
We move forward for a long time. First in trucks, then in armored vehicles, which took us almost to the front. It remained to walk a few kilometers. I was in the group led by Rossiya , a gray-haired man dressed in an old camouflage uniform before the most modern ones. Rossiya is an example of the Donbass type, in which intelligence and industrial toughness of the worker engaged in hard and complex production are equally mixed.
We advanced along the bottom of a hill that protected us from the enemy. But that doesn't mean anything, the area is usually covered by machine gun, grenade launcher and mortar fire. Rossiya lengthened our chain so that there were at least ten or fifteen meters between us, a guarantee that not everyone would go down with a single projectile. We arrived at a nice forest and Rossiya ordered: “Drone. Quick, everyone under the trees.”
For a minute, everyone listened intently to the sky. I put on my headphones and turned on reconnaissance mode , which allows you to hear a buzz from hundreds of meters away. We listen in turns. Noises were heard in the air - this is what Ukrainian drones sound like, dropping projectiles on our positions. But the drones can also direct the 60mm artillery that is in the area. The enemy uses Polish LMP-2017 mortars. Their projectiles are light, weighing two kilos, their range is one kilometer and they are considered "silent". “These shells are rubbish,” Rossiya explained to me . “It breaks right here, in the treetops. Most of the injuries are in the neck and back.
I searched for clarification: “Are you sure they are Poles? Or Americans? One of the soldiers interrupted: "Commander, it is not good that we accumulate so many people here." An intelligent commander always listens to the good advice of his subordinates. Rossiyahe ordered us to split up in a chain and move forward. I was about to step on a mine that was right there, on the side of the road. Behind it was another explosive device with a grenade and a fishing line hanging from another branch. Suddenly, the forest stopped looking welcoming. We were in a hole in the ground facing the enemy. I watched as German machine guns cut through the treetops and bullets buzzed a little higher. The operator was trying to crush us, but he couldn't get the barrel down low enough to grab us. When you shoot you lose your fear, but you couldn't shoot there. Rossiya warned me and I understood.
In those seconds, a group returning from the positions crossed an open part. The first guys got through without a problem, but then the Germans woke up. I didn't know how we could get a wounded man out of that field, but I kept quiet and kept those doubts to myself. Rossiya calmly leaned against a natural wall, took out a foil and knew exactly where the enemy was firing from: 200-300 meters. The commander contacted the men in charge of the mortar and gave the coordinates. Rossiya showed me the map: “Look, we got it from Azov, from the captured maps they had from NATO. Look, there are no marks but there are the important points of the land, rivers, roads, forests”.
The card looked like a rolled cake in a huge box. Rossiya continued: “We have divided the forest plantations into squares of about 90 meters and we have given each one a name. You say Pinocchio, frame five. And he is already”.
“Do you speak openly on the radio?”
Rossiya shrugged. “No, there are those who invent codes: I've been walking the dog . And ten minutes later: the dog has arrived safely ”.
Everyone around us was smiling and trying not to think about the guys lying on the ground right now, especially considering that a grenade launcher had been attached to the machine gun and every once in a while a sniper would act. His position is more comfortable, he could reach us. I pressed the wall tighter and hid a little more.
Finally, the mortar began to act, which fired three projectiles. The radio came on and I heard: “Abort”. The mine had not come out of the canyon. Rossiya routinely uses mortar cover, but a few shells proved to be enough and the Germans fell silent. The soldiers began to come towards us, out of breath and sweating. But they didn't drink, they didn't ask for water, they were aware that there was plenty left. I recognized Bereza 's smile, the commander of the assault group with which he had occupied building number 35 in Azovstal. He didn't remember if he does, so I asked him if he smokes. With the ingenuity of a soldier, he replied: "There are no cigarettes." I gave him a whole pack of Russian cigarettes, which are highly prized around here. I told him it was a gift. Our little hole began to tremble with laughter. It was the laughter of those who have just escaped death. Possibly the funniest laugh.
Someone made a comment: "Well, go tomorrow, first heavy artillery, a bucket of earth in the face, then grenade launchers." They all laughed again. An older man with a mustache and a particularly friendly face made a trench joke: "Ugledar, Ugledar, he walked for a long time and then he fell." He came from the town of Ugledar, he went to the front in 2014 and in this time his “good neighbors” have dismantled his house brick by brick: “There is nothing left. If I could get to my town, I would immediately form a construction team with the neighbors. Until I get to kyiv, they will have to leave everything as it was." There was no malice in his words.
The last soldier ran to our hiding place, it was the legendary Lis . He dropped his backpack and took a deep breath. Everyone knows that Lis is a joker and a cheerful man and everyone was waiting for his performance: “How I ran, how I ran. And how I fell and died, like in a movie, Marvel style, but there wasn't enough music." The soldier sank slowly into the hole, forced by an enemy bullet. I lay down and protected myself with my backpack while the one-eyed man (the sniper) attacked us again.
They all stopped laughing. Rossiya looked at us with a pointed look: “What are you all doing sitting there? Get out quickly, two more groups are on the way.” We went out. The reconnaissance team put us in the tank, showed us how to proceed and explained that we had to go very, very fast. Falling from an armored car is a guaranteed hospital. The driver joked by placing the backpacks in such a way that they would not bother: "420 rubles round trip, with a discount for those who are afraid."
The soldiers shouted: “Boss, to Donetsk, please”. “I to Slavyansk”. Everyone started naming their cities and towns. Many of them, unfortunately, are still a long way from the front lines. And it will take a long time to walk, fall and get up to reach them. But for now, our iron box was filled with temporary happiness. They were all alive, there were no injuries. Now there would be plenty of water, food, cigarettes, and a good nap. It may be possible to call family, those who are hoping and praying.
https://slavyangrad.es/2022/08/23/hacia ... more-25339
Google Translator
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On the proposal to steal Russian gas
August 23, 12:39 p.m
Regarding proposals in Ukraine to steal Russian gas, which goes to Europe through the Ukrainian GTS.
Such proposals can only be welcomed - the sooner they start stealing Russian times from the pipe, the sooner gas will be pumped to Europe through the Ukrainian GTS and it can either be left to rust as unnecessary, or additionally recalibrated to make ends meet. And underground gas storage along the way. And the Europeans, if they want to receive gas, can try to negotiate the pumping of gas through Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2. Or disagree. So go ahead!
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7817972.html
Bulgaria's gas principle
August 23, 10:35
After the opposition overthrew the government of the "Canadian Bulgarian" Petkov (who blamed the Russian ambassador and Russia in general for his fall), the Bulgarian opposition continues to look for ways to resume negotiations with Russia on gas supplies to Bulgaria.
Bulgaria was one of the first to refuse to buy gas for rubles through Gazprombank. And it was promptly turned off.
At the same time, most EU countries chose the path of cooperation with the administration, pretending that they pay for gas in euros, although they had to open ruble accounts at Gazprombank upon request.
Accordingly, they are now with gas, and those who refused are sitting without gas and are forced to buy it on the spot market at "democratic" prices.
Now Bulgaria wants to join this scheme, which is complicated for Bulgaria not only by the previous refusal, but also by Bulgaria's actions to supply weapons to Ukraine and the expulsion of Russian diplomats by the Petkov gang.
In the current conditions, it will no longer be possible to pretend that "this is not important, let's just buy gas for rubles, like the rest of you." Russia will certainly want to get something else for its consent. The Bulgarians understand this, which is why they are already declaring that "negotiations will not be easy." Well, what to do - winter is coming, and gas is already starting to break through the mark of 2900-3000 dollars per 1000 cubic meters.
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7817475.html
Google Translator
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Ukraine - Dugina Killer Identified - War Of Attrition Continues
It seems that Russian authorities have found the killer of Darya Dugina.
The killer, one Natalya Vovk, is associated with the Azov Nazis of Ukraine. So is her brother. Both are in Ukraine right now but will probably flee elsewhere.
Yelensis has details that point to willful murder of Darya Dugina:´
[A]n important clarification was already delivered by the experts: As to the question whether the bomb was on a timer or remote control, the answer already came in: Remote control. This fact has huge ramifications. WarGonzo blogger Semyon Pegov points out that the person who pressed the remote-control button to ignite the bomb, would have been in visual contact with the car and its occupant: “In other words, the terrorists who were supposedly out to blow Dugin up in his own car, would have observed, how Darya got into the car instead. Not the original target. And then they would have had to make a decision: To blow up, or not to blow up? And they took the decision: Go ahead and blow up the daughter. So, Darya became the new target. And this is, it goes without saying, an entirely new level of terrorism. Not even your average ISIS terrorist would take such a low step.”
Aleksandr Dugin, Darya's father, as well as his daughter had been threatened:
The Ukrainians threaten and blacklist everybody in the world who doesn’t give them full and unconditional support.
Dugin, however, is a special case, and particularly hated by the West and their proxies. Both Dugin and his daughter are on American/British “sanctions” lists. Dugin has been the recipient of non-stop hate-speech for years now. Westies hate and demonize him because of his philosophical ideas and anti-Liberal ideology. Darya herself has a degree in Political Philosophy and shared her father’s ideology. Both were strong supporters of the Russian “Special Military Operation” against the Ukraine. Which would have made them “fair game” according to the usual Ukrainian standards. However, nothing has been proved yet, so we shall just have to wait and see.
In the continuation of this story, we will discuss Dugin’s “harmful” ideas, some interesting history of his political career; and how the Westie press is inhumanely revelling in his grief.[/i]
You can catch Yelensis' writings at Awful Avalanche.
Meanwhile the fighting in Ukraine continues with recent Russian offenses launched on all fronts. In the north the slow move to Karkiv continues. The Russian forces in the south move towards Mykolaiv (Nikolaev). In the east attacks against Soledar and Bakhmut continue. All these moves are supported by intense strikes on every Ukrainian headquarter and troop concentration the Russian military intelligence can find. This hunting down and killing of complete battalions and brigades behind the immediate frontline is costing a lot of Ukrainian soldiers' lives and is preventing any Ukrainian countermoves. This is on top of the daily massive artillery use against Ukrainian frontline positions.
In a recent interview Colonel Markus Reisner of the Austrian army described the situation (in German). Some excerpts:
If you look at the battles in detail, you can see one thing from a military point of view: the western arms deliveries are having an effect, but still not in a resounding and sustainable form. The result must be measurable. Only when the Russian attacks are completely stopped or when the Russian troops retreat (similar to the situation around Kyiv in March 2022) can one actually speak of a turning point in the war from a sober, objective and military point of view. The western arms shipments that have arrived so far mean that the Ukrainian armed forces have "too much to die and too little to live". If the 16 HIMARS multiple rocket launchers delivered from the USA so far have achieved understandable success, the question arises: Why is the USA not delivering more?
May be because it does not have more to give but more likely is that the U.S. wants to prolong the conflict at a near stalemate as long as possible.
Can Ukraine win this war?
If the West does not deliver increased numbers of state-of-the-art weapons (including above all artillery and multiple rocket launchers, but also long-range anti-aircraft defense systems) to Ukraine in the coming weeks, Ukraine will not be able to win this conflict. It is therefore in the hands of the West how this war will continue. As long as Ukraine cannot protect its airspace against Russian cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, any regional military rearmament seems illusory. But this is necessary if Ukraine wants to regain possession of the lost land. Those areas that you need to be able to survive economically.
It is highly unlikely that the Ukraine will ever regain the former Russian territory that in 1922 Vladimir Ilʹich Lenin, for whatever reason, gave to Ukraine and that Russia is currently taking back. A war of attrition, which Russia with its industrial capability to sustain endlessly, can not be won by Ukraine. Even more massive support from the 'west' would be insufficient.
But the war will be won on a different front:
Modern warfare is above all a war of minds. The image we have of a conflict decisively shapes our opinion on it. It determines whether we perceive a conflict as "just" and whether we are willing to support it. At the moment, in the conflict in Ukraine, this support begins in our communications and ends in the delivery of weapons. It is therefore always the aim of the opponents to influence the respective other side. The military calls this approach "cognitive warfare." A comprehensive war of attrition is rarely decided on the battlefield, but often in the minds of the population in the hinterland.
For the Russian side, the decisive point of attack is therefore the West's willingness to continue to support Ukraine. Russia is therefore trying to weaken this willingness in all available domains (especially in the cyber and information space). Extraction of raw materials and threats of nuclear weapons are the weapons used here to achieve an effect. The West, on the other hand, is trying to hit the cohesion of Russian society. Sanction packages and economic punitive measures are intended to exert pressure. The Russian economy is already taking a serious hit. The question is, will these bring about a change in behavior or not? At the moment, decisive success cannot be measured either on the battlefield or on the home front, which makes it clear that the guns in Ukraine are far from silent.
The extremely stupid European sanctions against Russian energy have caused severe damage to European economies. This is already breaking the 'western' will for further support of Ukraine. During July none of the bigger European countries has promised and delivered more heavy weapons to Ukraine.
On August 24 Ukraine has some independence holiday. Zelensky and his team will likely want to present some 'success' for that day. A nasty incident around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which the Ukraine continues to shell, or elsewhere can therefore be expected to happen over the next few days.
Posted by b on August 22, 2022 at 14:46 UTC | Permalink
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/08/u ... .html#more
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From Cassad's Telegram Account:
Сolonelcassad
the situation in the east of Ukraine
by the end of August 22, 2022
There are no significant changes in the front line in the Kharkiv region . Russian troops launched several missile strikes on the objects of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kharkov, artillery duels are underway near the line of contact.
Fighting continues in the Bakhmut (Artemovsk) direction .
In Soledar , the forces of the People's Militia of the LPR were able to occupy the territory of a gypsum quarry from the Knauf-Gyps enterprise. Clashes are taking place in the area of Zalevsky Street and the refractory materials plant.
The assault on Bakhmutsky in the suburbs of Soledar continues.
After the liberation of the village of Zaitsevo in the suburbs of Gorlovka, the allied forces are fighting for the Mayorskaya railway station.
In the Donetsk direction, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation with the People's Militia of the DPR are advancing in the suburbs of Donetsk , trying to move the front line away from the capital of the republic:
The forces of the NM DPR are moving from the side of Staromikhaylovka towards Nevelskoye.
The 100th brigade of the People's Militia of the DPR, after a long artillery preparation, began to occupy the strongholds of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the Donetsk Ring Road.
Ukrainian formations once again shelled the cities of the Donetsk agglomeration: several civilians were killed, at least 7 people were injured.
In the Zaporozhye region , the parties continued to conduct artillery duels near the contact line: Russian troops attacked the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Gulyaipol, Olginsky, Dorozhnyanka and Malaya Tokmachka.
In the Krivoy Rog direction, the RF Armed Forces hit targets near Shirokoye and Zelenodolsk.
https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin
Google Translator
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FLY LIKE AN EAGLE, DARIA DUGINA
pepe escobar
Aug 22, 2022 , 4:29 p.m.
Whether the Dugina tragedy will become the catalyst that pushes Putin's strategic ambiguity to a whole new level remains to be seen (Photo: File)
Daria Dugina, 30 years old, daughter of Alexander Dugin, an intelligent, solid, exuberant, enterprising young woman, whom I met in Moscow and had the honor to keep as a friend, has been brutally murdered.
As a young journalist and analyst, one could see that she would carve out a brilliant path to wide recognition and respect ( here she talks about feminism ).
Not long ago, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) was directly engaged in disintegrating assassination attempts, organized by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), against Russian journalists, as in the case of Olga Skabaeyeva and Vladimir Soloviev. . It is amazing that Dugin and his family were not protected by the Russian intelligence and security apparatus.
The fundamental facts of the tragedy have already been defined. A Land Cruiser Prado SUV, belonging to Dugin and with Daria at the wheel, exploded on a road near the town of Bolchie Vyazemy, just over 20 kilometers from Moscow.
They were both coming from a family festival, where Dugin had given a lecture. At the last moment, Daria took the SUV and Dugin followed her in another car. According to witnesses, there was an explosion under the SUV, which was immediately engulfed in flames and collided with a building on the side of the road. Daria's body was charred beyond recognition.
The Russian Investigative Committee soon determined that the improvised explosive device - approximately 400 grams of TNT, unencapsulated - was planted under the bottom of the SUV, on the driver's side.
Investigators believe it was a premeditated car bomb attack.
What is not yet known is if the improvised explosive device had a timer or if some thug around pressed the button.
What is already known is that Alexander Dugin was a target of the Myrotvorets list . Myrotvorets is the acronym [in Ukrainian] for the Center for Investigation of Evidence of Crimes against National Security of Ukraine. It works shoulder to shoulder with NATO collecting information on "pro-Russian terrorists and separatists".
Denis Pushilin, the head of the Donetsk People's Republic, was quick to accuse "terrorists of the Ukrainian regime" for Daria's murder. The invaluable Maria Zakharova was much more diplomatic: she said that if the Ukrainian trail is confirmed, it will set up a policy of state terrorism deployed by kyiv.
AN EXISTENTIAL WAR
In several essays - this being probably the most essential - Dugin had made amply clear the enormity of what is at stake. This is a war of ideas. And an existential war: Russia against the West as a whole led by the United States.
The SBU, NATO, or most likely the combo - considering that the SBU takes orders from the CIA and MI6 - did not choose to attack Putin, Lavrov, Patrushev or Shoigu. They focused on a philosopher and ended up murdering his daughter, making it even more painful. They attacked an intellectual who formulates ideas. Proving once again that Western Cancellation Culture seamlessly metastasizes into Persona Cancellation.
It's all very well that the Russian Defense Ministry is about to start production of the hypersonic Lord Zircon while still putting out a bunch of Khinzal Lords. Or that three Mig-31 supersonic interceptors have been deployed to Kaliningrad equipped with Khinzales and put on 24/7 combat duty.
The problem is that the rules have changed, and the SBU/NATO combo, facing an unspeakable debacle in the Donbas, is raising the bar on sabotage, counterintelligence and counter-fun tactics.
They started with the bombing of Russian territory; they were deployed in the Donbas, as in the attempt to assassinate the mayor of Mariupol, Konstantin Ivachtchenko; they even launched drones at the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol; and now - with the tragedy of Daria Dugina - they are at the gates of Moscow.
The point is not that everything mentioned is irrelevant in terms of changing the facts on the ground imposed by the Special Military Operation. The point is that a forthcoming series of bloody psychological operations designed for pure public relations purposes may prove to be extremely painful for Russian public opinion, which will demand crushing punishment.
It is clear that Moscow and St. Petersburg are now primary targets. Ukrainian ISIS is on the march. Of course, its handlers have vast experience in the field, throughout the Global North and South. All the red lines have disappeared.
THE COMING OF THE UKRAINIAN ISIS
The coke-addicted comedian has duly anticipated any Russian reaction, according to the NATO script that feeds him daily: Russia could try to do something "particularly disgusting" this coming week.
That is irrelevant. The real - and burning - question is to what extent the Kremlin and Russian intelligence will react when it is fully established that the SBU and NATO hatched the Dugin plot. That is kyiv terrorism at the gates of Moscow. That screams “red line” in bloody red, and a response linked to the repeated promise, made by Putin himself, to hit the “decision centers”.
It will be a fateful decision. Moscow is not at war with kyiv's stooges, essentially, but with NATO. And vice versa. All bets are on how the Daria Dugina tragedy can eventually speed up the Russian calendar, in terms of a radical overhaul of her hitherto long-term strategy.
Moscow can behead the kyiv fraud with a few hypersonic business cards. However, that is too easy; subsequently, with whom to negotiate the future of the Ukrainian haunch?
By contrast, doing essentially nothing means accepting an imminent and de facto terrorist invasion of the Russian Federation: the tragedy of Daria Dugina on steroids.
In his penultimate Telegram post, Dugin once again framed the stakes. These are the key points.
He asks the Russian rulers for "structural, ideological, personnel, institutional, strategic" transformations.
Based on the evidence - from the increase in attacks against Crimea, to attempts to provoke a nuclear catastrophe in Zaporozhie - he correctly concludes that the NATO sphere "has decided to stay on the other end until the end. You can understand: Russia actually (and this is not propaganda) impugned the West as a civilization."
The conclusion is clear: "So we have to go all the way." This connects with what Putin himself stated: "We haven't really started anything yet." Dugin: "Now we have to start."
Dugin proposes that the current status quo around Operation Z cannot last more than six months. There is no doubt that "the tectonic plates have moved". Daria Dugina will fly like an eagle in an unearthly sky. The question is whether her tragedy will become the catalyst that pushes Putin's strategic ambiguity to a whole new level.
https://misionverdad.com/traducciones/v ... ria-dugina
Google Translator
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6 months on, no clear end seen in conflict
China Daily | Updated: 2022-08-23 07:46
People wait to fill bottles with water on Sunday in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk. A homeowner with a private well allows residents to fill up at his home for two hours each day. The neighborhood hasn't had running water for months. [Photo/Agencies]
Amid grinding battles, car bombing near Moscow brings accusations, and denial
KYIV/MOSCOW-Nearly six months after Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine, the conflict has turned into a grinding campaign of battles with no clear endgame in sight. Amid the daily airstrikes, a car bombing, unusual for Moscow, is likely to aggravate tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
The conflict has created the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. The UN refugee agency said a third of Ukrainians have fled their homes, with more than 6.6 million displaced within the country and over 6.6 million more across the continent. Both sides have sustained losses.
As Ukraine prepared to mark its Independence Day on Wednesday, officials reported more strikes on targets in the east and south of the country.
The fighting near Zaporizhzhia and a missile strike on the southern town of Voznesensk, not far from Ukraine's second-largest atomic plant, have deepened fears of a nuclear accident.
On Sunday, US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron held a phone call stressing the importance of ensuring the safety of nuclear installations.
On Friday, the French presidency said Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed that inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency can visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
In another development, the daughter of an influential Russian political theorist was killed in the car bombing on the outskirts of Moscow, authorities said on Sunday.
The Moscow branch of the Russian Investigative Committee said preliminary information indicated that 29-year-old TV commentator Darya Dugina was killed by an explosive planted in the SUV she was driving on Saturday night.
The bloodshed gave rise to suspicions that the intended target was her father, Alexander Dugin, a Russian philosopher and writer.
The explosion took place as Dugin's daughter was returning from a cultural festival she had attended with him. Russian media reports cited witnesses as saying the SUV belonged to Dugin and that he had decided at the last minute to travel in another vehicle.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin said that Dugina's killing was a "vile crime".
Ongoing investigation
Russia's top counterintelligence agency on Monday blamed Ukrainian spy agencies for organizing the killing.
Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB said that the killing has been "prepared and perpetrated by the Ukrainian special services".
It charged that the killing was perpetrated by a Ukrainian citizen, who left Russia for Estonia after the killing. The FSB said that the suspect, Natalya Vovk, rented an apartment in the building where Dugina lived and shadowed her.
It said that Vovk and her daughter were at the festival that Dugin and his daughter attended just before the killing.
Maria Zakharova, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said on Sunday that if the investigation's trail led to Ukraine, then it would point to a policy of "state terrorism" being pursued by Kyiv.
Denis Pushilin, a prominent official in Donetsk, blamed the blast on "terrorists of the Ukrainian regime, trying to kill Alexander Dugin".
Ukraine has previously denied any involvement in the killing.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, denied Ukrainian involvement, saying: "We are not a criminal state…and definitely not a terrorist state."
Dugin is a prominent proponent of the "Russian world" concept, a spiritual and political ideology that emphasizes traditional values. His daughter expressed similar views.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Chinese embassy in Ukraine on Monday reminded Chinese citizens not to go to Ukraine for now. In a statement released on the embassy's WeChat public account, it also advised Chinese already in Ukraine to strengthen security precautions and contact the Chinese embassy.
http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20220 ... 73a3a.html
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Ukraine uses NATO ammunition in attacks on nuclear power station
By Prensa Latina (Posted Aug 23, 2022)
Originally published: Prensa Latina on August 21, 2022 (more by Prensa Latina) |
Representatives of the civil-military administration of the Zaporozhie region denounced today that Ukrainian troops use artillery with NATO ammunition in attacks on the Energodar nuclear power plant.
Ukraine uses NATO ammunition in attacks on nuclear power station“The latest attacks on Saturday were carried out with 155-millimeter shells of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) with American M739 fuses,” the Ukrainian oblast authorities reported on their Telegram account.
In this regard, the member of the main council of the Zaporozhie oblast administration Vladimir Rogogov confirmed that long-range weapons were used in the aggression from the opposite side of the Dnieper River.
The Russian Defense Ministry warned last Thursday that Kiev troops would stage a provocation to generate a radiation leak, as well as to break the integrity of the nuclear waste repository and put the reactor in an abnormal operating state.
The portfolio specified that the aim of such action would be to create an exclusion zone of up to 30 kilometers and to blame Russia for nuclear terrorism, in order to justify a further escalation of the conflict. Several Western politicians stated that a radiation leak at the Zaporozhie nuclear power plant as a result of the shelling could be a pretext for the Atlantic Alliance to start participating in the fighting in Ukraine.
https://mronline.org/2022/08/23/ukraine ... r-station/
An UAV hit the roof of the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, Sevastopol, Crimea, August 20, 2022
U.S. taunts Russia to escalate in Ukraine
By M. K. Bhadrakumar (Posted Aug 23, 2022)
Originally published: Indian Punchline on August 21, 2022 (more by Indian Punchline) |
In military terms, the crude, locally assembled drone dropping a country-made bomb or two on unguarded sites in Crimea are at best pin pricks in the big picture of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. But it can be profoundly consequential in certain other ways.
For a start, this escalation has Washington’s approval. A senior Biden administration official told NatSec Daily the U.S. supports strikes on Crimea if Kiev deems them necessary. “We don’t select targets, of course, and everything we’ve provided is for self-defence purposes. Any target they choose to pursue on sovereign Ukrainian soil is by definition self defense,” this person said.
But Washington knows–and Moscow knows–that like any sophistry, this one too is a clever argument but inherently fallacious and deceptive. The New York Times has interpreted the drone attack on Crimea as a challenge to the leadership of President Vladimir Putin. The Times wrote that the Crimea attacks “put domestic political pressure on the Kremlin, with criticism and debate about the war increasingly being unleashed on social media and underscoring that even what the Russian government considers to be Russian territory is not safe.”
Times claimed that “as images of antiaircraft fire streaking through the blue Crimean sky ricocheted through social media, the visceral reality of war was becoming more and more apparent to Russians–many of whom have rallied behind the Kremlin’s line, hammered home in state media, that the “special military operation” to save Ukraine from Nazi domination is going smoothly and according to plan.”
The paper quoted a prominent establishment think tanker in Moscow acknowledging that the Crimean attack is a “serious” development insofar as “People are beginning to feel that the war is coming to them.” The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky claimed in a nationwide address on Saturday, “One can literally feel in the air of Crimea that the occupation there is temporary, and Ukraine is returning.”
Once again, while Russia is steadily winning the ground war in Ukraine, the U.S. is determined not to lose the information war. In Washington’s reckoning, in this Internet Age, the war is to be ultimately won in the Russian people’s minds. Therefore, this studied escalation by Washington puts Moscow in a dilemma, since if it is unanswered, Zelensky may target the 19-km long Crimean Bridge connecting the Taman Peninsula of Krasnodar in mainland Russia with the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea.
In fact, it is a near certainty. The point is, the Kerch bridge is “Putin’s bridge” in the Russian people’s consciousness. While formally opening the bridge to car traffic in May 2018, Putin was quoted as telling the workers, “In different historical epochs, even under the tsar priests, people dreamed of building this bridge. Then they returned to this in the 1930s, the 40s, the 50s. And finally, thanks to your work and your talent, the miracle has happened.”
Therefore, there is no better way to puncture the halo around Putin than by despatching at least a bit of the Kerch bridge to the bottom of the Black Sea. Meanwhile, from the U.S. perspective, Kiev’s drone attacks on Crimea already serve three purposes.
First, this is meant to be a blow to the Russian morale. Indeed, Putin’s towering popularity within Russia has become an eyesore for the Biden Administration. Putin’s masterly navigation of the Russian economy out of crisis mode is an incredible feat that defied all logic of power in the American calculus–inflation is steadily falling (in contrast with the European countries and the U.S.); the GDP decline is narrowing; foreign reserves are swelling; the current account is on the plus side; and lo and behold, the Biden Administration’s so-called “nuclear option”–Russia’s removal from the SWIFT messaging system–failed to cripple foreign trade.
Second, both Washington and Kiev are desperately scrambling for “success” stories to distract attention. The Times playing up the story speaks for itself. In reality, Russia’s Donbass offensive has created a new momentum and is steadily grinding the Ukrainian forces. Within the week, Russian forces will have encircled the lynchpin of the Ukrainian defence line, Bakhmut city, which is a communication hub for troop movements and supply logistics in Donbass. Russian forces have reached the city outskirts from the north, east and south. The fall of Bakhmut will be a crushing defeat for Zelensky.
On the other hand, even after two months after Zelensky promised a “counteroffensive” on Kherson near Crimea, it is nowhere in sight. Even his most ardent votaries in the western media feel let down. To be sure, there is growing disenchantment in Europe.
The Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, undoubtedly the smartest European politician today (with an economy registering over 6% growth when the rest of the continent is mired in recession), told German magazine Tichys Einblick in an interview last week that this war marked the end of “western superiority.” Interestingly, he named Big Oil as “war profiteers” and singled out that Exxon doubled its profits, Chevron quadrupled, and ConocoPhillips’ profits have shot up manifold. (Of course, all three are American companies.) Orban’s message was clear: America has weakened the EU. This thought must be troubling many a European politician today.
Third, Washington has thrown down the gauntlet in a measured way. But there is no way the war can be brought into the drawing rooms of the average Americans the way Times says is happening in Russia. Twenty Americans were killed in Kharkiv two days ago in a high-precision Russian missile strike, but there aren’t going to be any body bags returning to Arlington Cemetery; nor does it make headline in the cooperative American media.
The U.S. plans to go further up on the escalation ladder. Escalation is the Biden Administration’s last chance to stall a Russian victory. The American strategic thinker and academic John Mearsheimer has written that the risk of a disastrous escalation is “substantially greater than the conventional wisdom holds. And given that the consequences of escalation could include a major war in Europe and possibly even nuclear annihilation, there is good reason for extra concern.”
Moscow’s preference is to avoid any escalation, since the special military operation is achieving results. Whereas, it is the U.S. that is in some visible despair, and in immediate terms, Russia’s plans to hold referendums in Kherson and Zaporozhye in September must be stalled. Herein lies the danger.
The U.S.’ current build-up over Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant points toward a hidden agenda to intervene in the war at some point directly. Kiev’s attempt to arrange a nuclear explosion in Zaporozhye can only be seen in this light. Moscow seems to anticipate such an eventuality.
Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu disclosed yesterday that Russia has begun mass production of Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missiles and is already deploying them. The U.S. lacks the capability to counter Tsirkon, which is estimated to be 11 times faster than Tomahawk with far superior target-penetration characteristics. Shoigu may have given a stark warning that Russia will not be cowed down if there’s a NATO intervention in Ukraine.
https://mronline.org/2022/08/23/u-s-tau ... n-ukraine/
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 08/23/2022 ⋅ LEAVE A COMMENT
Original Article: Dmitry Steshin / Komsomolskaya Pravda
I marvel again at the volume, size and area of the liberated territories of Donbass. The journey from Donetsk to the battle zone takes almost an hour and a half if we start counting from the Elenovka checkpoint, destroyed by artillery. Endless fields pass along the asphalt and, as if trying not to attract attention, you can see the tails of the Smerch multiple rocket launchers, burned or destroyed cars and some armor so battered that it is unrecognizable. It was getting dark quickly and the farmers were coming back from the fields almost in the dark, occupying a lane and a half.
At the Vostok headquarters I was offered a place on the floor of the house where our aerial reconnaissance - my old friends from the Khazar front , Tosha and Zhenya - are temporarily staying. A whole aerial reconnaissance unit appeared in Vostok many years before the start of the special operation. The command was far-sighted and guessed where the development of military art was heading. And what is more crucial, they were able to find and attract technical people obsessed with small aerial devices. The serial drones did not work, the aerial reconnaissance needed more capacity in the batteries, the ability to receive and transmit, etc. They were even made with a 3D printer to print the necessary parts. Of level.
Tosha waved to me from the porch and rushed over to help me. First we covered my car with a camouflage tent and then we put up a net: the car was covered like a tree, turned into a shapeless object, no matter where you looked from it. A standard security measure. In the village there were arrivals (this is how the artillery is called in Donbass) at intervals of one or two hours. Chaotic in terms of the area. Before, with the targets identified, everyone had learned to be smarter.
From there I began to smell a familiar aroma. Khazar was welding something microscopic in size. He proudly showed me his capabilities: a remote-controlled antenna. It had two objectives: now the operator will be able to work under cover or hide the antenna to one side as long as the cable, which is long, allows it. And if something comes in the direction of the radio signal, aerial reconnaissance will have a better chance of surviving.
It was night. Tosha excitedly explained to us the technology battle that was clearly visible to all: “Something weird happened to the drone today. The “exit” point, as planned, was moved 500 meters into the field, to the side. I was flying and all of a sudden the drone starts to fail, the connection drops and I realize the motor has died. It is falling, but not very far, it continues to rotate and just above the ground we see that the part that cut the control with us has fallen. I put it on manual control and as soon as it gets to the “out” point and Boom! Three mines. Normally five minutes pass and they immediately attack.”
At that moment, a bomb exploded somewhere on the edge of the village. I shivered thinking that it had been in our house. Most of the windows are broken and there is a nasty shell hole in my bedroom ceiling. You can see how he got in and the direction until he was stopped by the brick wall. It seemed that we were sitting in the street, although covered by an improvised wall of cement blocks, a more psychological than real protection that only helps against the shrapnel and the shock wave. Another shell whizzed past us. I was relieved: "It's not ours, in ours you can't hear the buzz."
At that moment, behind the black woods, our Grads began to roar, unleashing a full charge. A series of explosions ensued. A few minutes passed, and only a single Ukrainian cannon roar returned in response. And then the silence.
I asked the guys what they knew about technical innovations, what is drone production. Has anything interesting turned up? Jazar told me about the Volk Interceptor, which can throw two or three nets and catch an enemy drone. According to the inventors of it. Jazar , an intelligent man, hesitates: “I wonder if those who developed it didn't do it in peace instead of war. Have they really tried to catch drones in the air? Have they achieved it? We do not. You can't play with what you have but develop attack drones. Write, let them know that there are those who are flying them at the front.”
By midnight, the sky had disappeared and the temperature had dropped noticeably. Autumn is inexorably approaching. The boys in the woods comment that it has started to get cold at night.
In the morning, with the rotation, I went out to the front with them. “This is tougher than Mariupol”, the Vostok soldiers and commanders had unanimously told me. He still didn't get it. I did not understand how you can compare the chaos of Azovstal, the Vostochny neighborhood of Mariupol apartment buildings and these pastoral landscapes: already yellowed fields, beautiful forest plantations always ready to hide an exhausted soldier from the heat and being view of the enemy. The first thing they taught me was the forward position approach. In the city or in the factory, go a meter, turn around, jump into the basement and you're home. Here, going to the front equals a battle. And it is not easy to get out of a front position.
The soldiers explained to me how, in thirty degree heat, it took hours to remove the wounded comrades, who died in the evacuation and had to drag the bodies already swollen from the heat. How during the attacks they had come across something terrible, fortified points built exactly according to Soviet theory. In the Great Patriotic War, intelligent commanders silenced those supports with artillery and calmly walked around waiting for the Germans to abandon them on their own so as not to end up surrounded. Here they also fight against the Germans , for the first time I heard that new name that has been given to the enemy. If you think about it, there are many hidden meanings in that name.
We move forward for a long time. First in trucks, then in armored vehicles, which took us almost to the front. It remained to walk a few kilometers. I was in the group led by Rossiya , a gray-haired man dressed in an old camouflage uniform before the most modern ones. Rossiya is an example of the Donbass type, in which intelligence and industrial toughness of the worker engaged in hard and complex production are equally mixed.
We advanced along the bottom of a hill that protected us from the enemy. But that doesn't mean anything, the area is usually covered by machine gun, grenade launcher and mortar fire. Rossiya lengthened our chain so that there were at least ten or fifteen meters between us, a guarantee that not everyone would go down with a single projectile. We arrived at a nice forest and Rossiya ordered: “Drone. Quick, everyone under the trees.”
For a minute, everyone listened intently to the sky. I put on my headphones and turned on reconnaissance mode , which allows you to hear a buzz from hundreds of meters away. We listen in turns. Noises were heard in the air - this is what Ukrainian drones sound like, dropping projectiles on our positions. But the drones can also direct the 60mm artillery that is in the area. The enemy uses Polish LMP-2017 mortars. Their projectiles are light, weighing two kilos, their range is one kilometer and they are considered "silent". “These shells are rubbish,” Rossiya explained to me . “It breaks right here, in the treetops. Most of the injuries are in the neck and back.
I searched for clarification: “Are you sure they are Poles? Or Americans? One of the soldiers interrupted: "Commander, it is not good that we accumulate so many people here." An intelligent commander always listens to the good advice of his subordinates. Rossiyahe ordered us to split up in a chain and move forward. I was about to step on a mine that was right there, on the side of the road. Behind it was another explosive device with a grenade and a fishing line hanging from another branch. Suddenly, the forest stopped looking welcoming. We were in a hole in the ground facing the enemy. I watched as German machine guns cut through the treetops and bullets buzzed a little higher. The operator was trying to crush us, but he couldn't get the barrel down low enough to grab us. When you shoot you lose your fear, but you couldn't shoot there. Rossiya warned me and I understood.
In those seconds, a group returning from the positions crossed an open part. The first guys got through without a problem, but then the Germans woke up. I didn't know how we could get a wounded man out of that field, but I kept quiet and kept those doubts to myself. Rossiya calmly leaned against a natural wall, took out a foil and knew exactly where the enemy was firing from: 200-300 meters. The commander contacted the men in charge of the mortar and gave the coordinates. Rossiya showed me the map: “Look, we got it from Azov, from the captured maps they had from NATO. Look, there are no marks but there are the important points of the land, rivers, roads, forests”.
The card looked like a rolled cake in a huge box. Rossiya continued: “We have divided the forest plantations into squares of about 90 meters and we have given each one a name. You say Pinocchio, frame five. And he is already”.
“Do you speak openly on the radio?”
Rossiya shrugged. “No, there are those who invent codes: I've been walking the dog . And ten minutes later: the dog has arrived safely ”.
Everyone around us was smiling and trying not to think about the guys lying on the ground right now, especially considering that a grenade launcher had been attached to the machine gun and every once in a while a sniper would act. His position is more comfortable, he could reach us. I pressed the wall tighter and hid a little more.
Finally, the mortar began to act, which fired three projectiles. The radio came on and I heard: “Abort”. The mine had not come out of the canyon. Rossiya routinely uses mortar cover, but a few shells proved to be enough and the Germans fell silent. The soldiers began to come towards us, out of breath and sweating. But they didn't drink, they didn't ask for water, they were aware that there was plenty left. I recognized Bereza 's smile, the commander of the assault group with which he had occupied building number 35 in Azovstal. He didn't remember if he does, so I asked him if he smokes. With the ingenuity of a soldier, he replied: "There are no cigarettes." I gave him a whole pack of Russian cigarettes, which are highly prized around here. I told him it was a gift. Our little hole began to tremble with laughter. It was the laughter of those who have just escaped death. Possibly the funniest laugh.
Someone made a comment: "Well, go tomorrow, first heavy artillery, a bucket of earth in the face, then grenade launchers." They all laughed again. An older man with a mustache and a particularly friendly face made a trench joke: "Ugledar, Ugledar, he walked for a long time and then he fell." He came from the town of Ugledar, he went to the front in 2014 and in this time his “good neighbors” have dismantled his house brick by brick: “There is nothing left. If I could get to my town, I would immediately form a construction team with the neighbors. Until I get to kyiv, they will have to leave everything as it was." There was no malice in his words.
The last soldier ran to our hiding place, it was the legendary Lis . He dropped his backpack and took a deep breath. Everyone knows that Lis is a joker and a cheerful man and everyone was waiting for his performance: “How I ran, how I ran. And how I fell and died, like in a movie, Marvel style, but there wasn't enough music." The soldier sank slowly into the hole, forced by an enemy bullet. I lay down and protected myself with my backpack while the one-eyed man (the sniper) attacked us again.
They all stopped laughing. Rossiya looked at us with a pointed look: “What are you all doing sitting there? Get out quickly, two more groups are on the way.” We went out. The reconnaissance team put us in the tank, showed us how to proceed and explained that we had to go very, very fast. Falling from an armored car is a guaranteed hospital. The driver joked by placing the backpacks in such a way that they would not bother: "420 rubles round trip, with a discount for those who are afraid."
The soldiers shouted: “Boss, to Donetsk, please”. “I to Slavyansk”. Everyone started naming their cities and towns. Many of them, unfortunately, are still a long way from the front lines. And it will take a long time to walk, fall and get up to reach them. But for now, our iron box was filled with temporary happiness. They were all alive, there were no injuries. Now there would be plenty of water, food, cigarettes, and a good nap. It may be possible to call family, those who are hoping and praying.
https://slavyangrad.es/2022/08/23/hacia ... more-25339
Google Translator
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On the proposal to steal Russian gas
August 23, 12:39 p.m
Regarding proposals in Ukraine to steal Russian gas, which goes to Europe through the Ukrainian GTS.
Such proposals can only be welcomed - the sooner they start stealing Russian times from the pipe, the sooner gas will be pumped to Europe through the Ukrainian GTS and it can either be left to rust as unnecessary, or additionally recalibrated to make ends meet. And underground gas storage along the way. And the Europeans, if they want to receive gas, can try to negotiate the pumping of gas through Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2. Or disagree. So go ahead!
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7817972.html
Bulgaria's gas principle
August 23, 10:35
After the opposition overthrew the government of the "Canadian Bulgarian" Petkov (who blamed the Russian ambassador and Russia in general for his fall), the Bulgarian opposition continues to look for ways to resume negotiations with Russia on gas supplies to Bulgaria.
Bulgaria was one of the first to refuse to buy gas for rubles through Gazprombank. And it was promptly turned off.
At the same time, most EU countries chose the path of cooperation with the administration, pretending that they pay for gas in euros, although they had to open ruble accounts at Gazprombank upon request.
Accordingly, they are now with gas, and those who refused are sitting without gas and are forced to buy it on the spot market at "democratic" prices.
Now Bulgaria wants to join this scheme, which is complicated for Bulgaria not only by the previous refusal, but also by Bulgaria's actions to supply weapons to Ukraine and the expulsion of Russian diplomats by the Petkov gang.
In the current conditions, it will no longer be possible to pretend that "this is not important, let's just buy gas for rubles, like the rest of you." Russia will certainly want to get something else for its consent. The Bulgarians understand this, which is why they are already declaring that "negotiations will not be easy." Well, what to do - winter is coming, and gas is already starting to break through the mark of 2900-3000 dollars per 1000 cubic meters.
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7817475.html
Google Translator
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Ukraine - Dugina Killer Identified - War Of Attrition Continues
It seems that Russian authorities have found the killer of Darya Dugina.
The killer, one Natalya Vovk, is associated with the Azov Nazis of Ukraine. So is her brother. Both are in Ukraine right now but will probably flee elsewhere.
Yelensis has details that point to willful murder of Darya Dugina:´
[A]n important clarification was already delivered by the experts: As to the question whether the bomb was on a timer or remote control, the answer already came in: Remote control. This fact has huge ramifications. WarGonzo blogger Semyon Pegov points out that the person who pressed the remote-control button to ignite the bomb, would have been in visual contact with the car and its occupant: “In other words, the terrorists who were supposedly out to blow Dugin up in his own car, would have observed, how Darya got into the car instead. Not the original target. And then they would have had to make a decision: To blow up, or not to blow up? And they took the decision: Go ahead and blow up the daughter. So, Darya became the new target. And this is, it goes without saying, an entirely new level of terrorism. Not even your average ISIS terrorist would take such a low step.”
Aleksandr Dugin, Darya's father, as well as his daughter had been threatened:
The Ukrainians threaten and blacklist everybody in the world who doesn’t give them full and unconditional support.
Dugin, however, is a special case, and particularly hated by the West and their proxies. Both Dugin and his daughter are on American/British “sanctions” lists. Dugin has been the recipient of non-stop hate-speech for years now. Westies hate and demonize him because of his philosophical ideas and anti-Liberal ideology. Darya herself has a degree in Political Philosophy and shared her father’s ideology. Both were strong supporters of the Russian “Special Military Operation” against the Ukraine. Which would have made them “fair game” according to the usual Ukrainian standards. However, nothing has been proved yet, so we shall just have to wait and see.
In the continuation of this story, we will discuss Dugin’s “harmful” ideas, some interesting history of his political career; and how the Westie press is inhumanely revelling in his grief.[/i]
You can catch Yelensis' writings at Awful Avalanche.
Meanwhile the fighting in Ukraine continues with recent Russian offenses launched on all fronts. In the north the slow move to Karkiv continues. The Russian forces in the south move towards Mykolaiv (Nikolaev). In the east attacks against Soledar and Bakhmut continue. All these moves are supported by intense strikes on every Ukrainian headquarter and troop concentration the Russian military intelligence can find. This hunting down and killing of complete battalions and brigades behind the immediate frontline is costing a lot of Ukrainian soldiers' lives and is preventing any Ukrainian countermoves. This is on top of the daily massive artillery use against Ukrainian frontline positions.
In a recent interview Colonel Markus Reisner of the Austrian army described the situation (in German). Some excerpts:
If you look at the battles in detail, you can see one thing from a military point of view: the western arms deliveries are having an effect, but still not in a resounding and sustainable form. The result must be measurable. Only when the Russian attacks are completely stopped or when the Russian troops retreat (similar to the situation around Kyiv in March 2022) can one actually speak of a turning point in the war from a sober, objective and military point of view. The western arms shipments that have arrived so far mean that the Ukrainian armed forces have "too much to die and too little to live". If the 16 HIMARS multiple rocket launchers delivered from the USA so far have achieved understandable success, the question arises: Why is the USA not delivering more?
May be because it does not have more to give but more likely is that the U.S. wants to prolong the conflict at a near stalemate as long as possible.
Can Ukraine win this war?
If the West does not deliver increased numbers of state-of-the-art weapons (including above all artillery and multiple rocket launchers, but also long-range anti-aircraft defense systems) to Ukraine in the coming weeks, Ukraine will not be able to win this conflict. It is therefore in the hands of the West how this war will continue. As long as Ukraine cannot protect its airspace against Russian cruise missiles and ballistic missiles, any regional military rearmament seems illusory. But this is necessary if Ukraine wants to regain possession of the lost land. Those areas that you need to be able to survive economically.
It is highly unlikely that the Ukraine will ever regain the former Russian territory that in 1922 Vladimir Ilʹich Lenin, for whatever reason, gave to Ukraine and that Russia is currently taking back. A war of attrition, which Russia with its industrial capability to sustain endlessly, can not be won by Ukraine. Even more massive support from the 'west' would be insufficient.
But the war will be won on a different front:
Modern warfare is above all a war of minds. The image we have of a conflict decisively shapes our opinion on it. It determines whether we perceive a conflict as "just" and whether we are willing to support it. At the moment, in the conflict in Ukraine, this support begins in our communications and ends in the delivery of weapons. It is therefore always the aim of the opponents to influence the respective other side. The military calls this approach "cognitive warfare." A comprehensive war of attrition is rarely decided on the battlefield, but often in the minds of the population in the hinterland.
For the Russian side, the decisive point of attack is therefore the West's willingness to continue to support Ukraine. Russia is therefore trying to weaken this willingness in all available domains (especially in the cyber and information space). Extraction of raw materials and threats of nuclear weapons are the weapons used here to achieve an effect. The West, on the other hand, is trying to hit the cohesion of Russian society. Sanction packages and economic punitive measures are intended to exert pressure. The Russian economy is already taking a serious hit. The question is, will these bring about a change in behavior or not? At the moment, decisive success cannot be measured either on the battlefield or on the home front, which makes it clear that the guns in Ukraine are far from silent.
The extremely stupid European sanctions against Russian energy have caused severe damage to European economies. This is already breaking the 'western' will for further support of Ukraine. During July none of the bigger European countries has promised and delivered more heavy weapons to Ukraine.
On August 24 Ukraine has some independence holiday. Zelensky and his team will likely want to present some 'success' for that day. A nasty incident around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which the Ukraine continues to shell, or elsewhere can therefore be expected to happen over the next few days.
Posted by b on August 22, 2022 at 14:46 UTC | Permalink
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/08/u ... .html#more
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From Cassad's Telegram Account:
Сolonelcassad
the situation in the east of Ukraine
by the end of August 22, 2022
There are no significant changes in the front line in the Kharkiv region . Russian troops launched several missile strikes on the objects of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kharkov, artillery duels are underway near the line of contact.
Fighting continues in the Bakhmut (Artemovsk) direction .
In Soledar , the forces of the People's Militia of the LPR were able to occupy the territory of a gypsum quarry from the Knauf-Gyps enterprise. Clashes are taking place in the area of Zalevsky Street and the refractory materials plant.
The assault on Bakhmutsky in the suburbs of Soledar continues.
After the liberation of the village of Zaitsevo in the suburbs of Gorlovka, the allied forces are fighting for the Mayorskaya railway station.
In the Donetsk direction, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation with the People's Militia of the DPR are advancing in the suburbs of Donetsk , trying to move the front line away from the capital of the republic:
The forces of the NM DPR are moving from the side of Staromikhaylovka towards Nevelskoye.
The 100th brigade of the People's Militia of the DPR, after a long artillery preparation, began to occupy the strongholds of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the Donetsk Ring Road.
Ukrainian formations once again shelled the cities of the Donetsk agglomeration: several civilians were killed, at least 7 people were injured.
In the Zaporozhye region , the parties continued to conduct artillery duels near the contact line: Russian troops attacked the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Gulyaipol, Olginsky, Dorozhnyanka and Malaya Tokmachka.
In the Krivoy Rog direction, the RF Armed Forces hit targets near Shirokoye and Zelenodolsk.
https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin
Google Translator
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FLY LIKE AN EAGLE, DARIA DUGINA
pepe escobar
Aug 22, 2022 , 4:29 p.m.
Whether the Dugina tragedy will become the catalyst that pushes Putin's strategic ambiguity to a whole new level remains to be seen (Photo: File)
Daria Dugina, 30 years old, daughter of Alexander Dugin, an intelligent, solid, exuberant, enterprising young woman, whom I met in Moscow and had the honor to keep as a friend, has been brutally murdered.
As a young journalist and analyst, one could see that she would carve out a brilliant path to wide recognition and respect ( here she talks about feminism ).
Not long ago, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) was directly engaged in disintegrating assassination attempts, organized by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), against Russian journalists, as in the case of Olga Skabaeyeva and Vladimir Soloviev. . It is amazing that Dugin and his family were not protected by the Russian intelligence and security apparatus.
The fundamental facts of the tragedy have already been defined. A Land Cruiser Prado SUV, belonging to Dugin and with Daria at the wheel, exploded on a road near the town of Bolchie Vyazemy, just over 20 kilometers from Moscow.
They were both coming from a family festival, where Dugin had given a lecture. At the last moment, Daria took the SUV and Dugin followed her in another car. According to witnesses, there was an explosion under the SUV, which was immediately engulfed in flames and collided with a building on the side of the road. Daria's body was charred beyond recognition.
The Russian Investigative Committee soon determined that the improvised explosive device - approximately 400 grams of TNT, unencapsulated - was planted under the bottom of the SUV, on the driver's side.
Investigators believe it was a premeditated car bomb attack.
What is not yet known is if the improvised explosive device had a timer or if some thug around pressed the button.
What is already known is that Alexander Dugin was a target of the Myrotvorets list . Myrotvorets is the acronym [in Ukrainian] for the Center for Investigation of Evidence of Crimes against National Security of Ukraine. It works shoulder to shoulder with NATO collecting information on "pro-Russian terrorists and separatists".
Denis Pushilin, the head of the Donetsk People's Republic, was quick to accuse "terrorists of the Ukrainian regime" for Daria's murder. The invaluable Maria Zakharova was much more diplomatic: she said that if the Ukrainian trail is confirmed, it will set up a policy of state terrorism deployed by kyiv.
AN EXISTENTIAL WAR
In several essays - this being probably the most essential - Dugin had made amply clear the enormity of what is at stake. This is a war of ideas. And an existential war: Russia against the West as a whole led by the United States.
The SBU, NATO, or most likely the combo - considering that the SBU takes orders from the CIA and MI6 - did not choose to attack Putin, Lavrov, Patrushev or Shoigu. They focused on a philosopher and ended up murdering his daughter, making it even more painful. They attacked an intellectual who formulates ideas. Proving once again that Western Cancellation Culture seamlessly metastasizes into Persona Cancellation.
It's all very well that the Russian Defense Ministry is about to start production of the hypersonic Lord Zircon while still putting out a bunch of Khinzal Lords. Or that three Mig-31 supersonic interceptors have been deployed to Kaliningrad equipped with Khinzales and put on 24/7 combat duty.
The problem is that the rules have changed, and the SBU/NATO combo, facing an unspeakable debacle in the Donbas, is raising the bar on sabotage, counterintelligence and counter-fun tactics.
They started with the bombing of Russian territory; they were deployed in the Donbas, as in the attempt to assassinate the mayor of Mariupol, Konstantin Ivachtchenko; they even launched drones at the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol; and now - with the tragedy of Daria Dugina - they are at the gates of Moscow.
The point is not that everything mentioned is irrelevant in terms of changing the facts on the ground imposed by the Special Military Operation. The point is that a forthcoming series of bloody psychological operations designed for pure public relations purposes may prove to be extremely painful for Russian public opinion, which will demand crushing punishment.
It is clear that Moscow and St. Petersburg are now primary targets. Ukrainian ISIS is on the march. Of course, its handlers have vast experience in the field, throughout the Global North and South. All the red lines have disappeared.
THE COMING OF THE UKRAINIAN ISIS
The coke-addicted comedian has duly anticipated any Russian reaction, according to the NATO script that feeds him daily: Russia could try to do something "particularly disgusting" this coming week.
That is irrelevant. The real - and burning - question is to what extent the Kremlin and Russian intelligence will react when it is fully established that the SBU and NATO hatched the Dugin plot. That is kyiv terrorism at the gates of Moscow. That screams “red line” in bloody red, and a response linked to the repeated promise, made by Putin himself, to hit the “decision centers”.
It will be a fateful decision. Moscow is not at war with kyiv's stooges, essentially, but with NATO. And vice versa. All bets are on how the Daria Dugina tragedy can eventually speed up the Russian calendar, in terms of a radical overhaul of her hitherto long-term strategy.
Moscow can behead the kyiv fraud with a few hypersonic business cards. However, that is too easy; subsequently, with whom to negotiate the future of the Ukrainian haunch?
By contrast, doing essentially nothing means accepting an imminent and de facto terrorist invasion of the Russian Federation: the tragedy of Daria Dugina on steroids.
In his penultimate Telegram post, Dugin once again framed the stakes. These are the key points.
He asks the Russian rulers for "structural, ideological, personnel, institutional, strategic" transformations.
Based on the evidence - from the increase in attacks against Crimea, to attempts to provoke a nuclear catastrophe in Zaporozhie - he correctly concludes that the NATO sphere "has decided to stay on the other end until the end. You can understand: Russia actually (and this is not propaganda) impugned the West as a civilization."
The conclusion is clear: "So we have to go all the way." This connects with what Putin himself stated: "We haven't really started anything yet." Dugin: "Now we have to start."
Dugin proposes that the current status quo around Operation Z cannot last more than six months. There is no doubt that "the tectonic plates have moved". Daria Dugina will fly like an eagle in an unearthly sky. The question is whether her tragedy will become the catalyst that pushes Putin's strategic ambiguity to a whole new level.
https://misionverdad.com/traducciones/v ... ria-dugina
Google Translator
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6 months on, no clear end seen in conflict
China Daily | Updated: 2022-08-23 07:46
People wait to fill bottles with water on Sunday in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk. A homeowner with a private well allows residents to fill up at his home for two hours each day. The neighborhood hasn't had running water for months. [Photo/Agencies]
Amid grinding battles, car bombing near Moscow brings accusations, and denial
KYIV/MOSCOW-Nearly six months after Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine, the conflict has turned into a grinding campaign of battles with no clear endgame in sight. Amid the daily airstrikes, a car bombing, unusual for Moscow, is likely to aggravate tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
The conflict has created the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. The UN refugee agency said a third of Ukrainians have fled their homes, with more than 6.6 million displaced within the country and over 6.6 million more across the continent. Both sides have sustained losses.
As Ukraine prepared to mark its Independence Day on Wednesday, officials reported more strikes on targets in the east and south of the country.
The fighting near Zaporizhzhia and a missile strike on the southern town of Voznesensk, not far from Ukraine's second-largest atomic plant, have deepened fears of a nuclear accident.
On Sunday, US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron held a phone call stressing the importance of ensuring the safety of nuclear installations.
On Friday, the French presidency said Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed that inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency can visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
In another development, the daughter of an influential Russian political theorist was killed in the car bombing on the outskirts of Moscow, authorities said on Sunday.
The Moscow branch of the Russian Investigative Committee said preliminary information indicated that 29-year-old TV commentator Darya Dugina was killed by an explosive planted in the SUV she was driving on Saturday night.
The bloodshed gave rise to suspicions that the intended target was her father, Alexander Dugin, a Russian philosopher and writer.
The explosion took place as Dugin's daughter was returning from a cultural festival she had attended with him. Russian media reports cited witnesses as saying the SUV belonged to Dugin and that he had decided at the last minute to travel in another vehicle.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin said that Dugina's killing was a "vile crime".
Ongoing investigation
Russia's top counterintelligence agency on Monday blamed Ukrainian spy agencies for organizing the killing.
Russia's Federal Security Service, or FSB said that the killing has been "prepared and perpetrated by the Ukrainian special services".
It charged that the killing was perpetrated by a Ukrainian citizen, who left Russia for Estonia after the killing. The FSB said that the suspect, Natalya Vovk, rented an apartment in the building where Dugina lived and shadowed her.
It said that Vovk and her daughter were at the festival that Dugin and his daughter attended just before the killing.
Maria Zakharova, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said on Sunday that if the investigation's trail led to Ukraine, then it would point to a policy of "state terrorism" being pursued by Kyiv.
Denis Pushilin, a prominent official in Donetsk, blamed the blast on "terrorists of the Ukrainian regime, trying to kill Alexander Dugin".
Ukraine has previously denied any involvement in the killing.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, denied Ukrainian involvement, saying: "We are not a criminal state…and definitely not a terrorist state."
Dugin is a prominent proponent of the "Russian world" concept, a spiritual and political ideology that emphasizes traditional values. His daughter expressed similar views.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Chinese embassy in Ukraine on Monday reminded Chinese citizens not to go to Ukraine for now. In a statement released on the embassy's WeChat public account, it also advised Chinese already in Ukraine to strengthen security precautions and contact the Chinese embassy.
http://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/20220 ... 73a3a.html
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Ukraine uses NATO ammunition in attacks on nuclear power station
By Prensa Latina (Posted Aug 23, 2022)
Originally published: Prensa Latina on August 21, 2022 (more by Prensa Latina) |
Representatives of the civil-military administration of the Zaporozhie region denounced today that Ukrainian troops use artillery with NATO ammunition in attacks on the Energodar nuclear power plant.
Ukraine uses NATO ammunition in attacks on nuclear power station“The latest attacks on Saturday were carried out with 155-millimeter shells of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) with American M739 fuses,” the Ukrainian oblast authorities reported on their Telegram account.
In this regard, the member of the main council of the Zaporozhie oblast administration Vladimir Rogogov confirmed that long-range weapons were used in the aggression from the opposite side of the Dnieper River.
The Russian Defense Ministry warned last Thursday that Kiev troops would stage a provocation to generate a radiation leak, as well as to break the integrity of the nuclear waste repository and put the reactor in an abnormal operating state.
The portfolio specified that the aim of such action would be to create an exclusion zone of up to 30 kilometers and to blame Russia for nuclear terrorism, in order to justify a further escalation of the conflict. Several Western politicians stated that a radiation leak at the Zaporozhie nuclear power plant as a result of the shelling could be a pretext for the Atlantic Alliance to start participating in the fighting in Ukraine.
https://mronline.org/2022/08/23/ukraine ... r-station/
An UAV hit the roof of the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, Sevastopol, Crimea, August 20, 2022
U.S. taunts Russia to escalate in Ukraine
By M. K. Bhadrakumar (Posted Aug 23, 2022)
Originally published: Indian Punchline on August 21, 2022 (more by Indian Punchline) |
In military terms, the crude, locally assembled drone dropping a country-made bomb or two on unguarded sites in Crimea are at best pin pricks in the big picture of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. But it can be profoundly consequential in certain other ways.
For a start, this escalation has Washington’s approval. A senior Biden administration official told NatSec Daily the U.S. supports strikes on Crimea if Kiev deems them necessary. “We don’t select targets, of course, and everything we’ve provided is for self-defence purposes. Any target they choose to pursue on sovereign Ukrainian soil is by definition self defense,” this person said.
But Washington knows–and Moscow knows–that like any sophistry, this one too is a clever argument but inherently fallacious and deceptive. The New York Times has interpreted the drone attack on Crimea as a challenge to the leadership of President Vladimir Putin. The Times wrote that the Crimea attacks “put domestic political pressure on the Kremlin, with criticism and debate about the war increasingly being unleashed on social media and underscoring that even what the Russian government considers to be Russian territory is not safe.”
Times claimed that “as images of antiaircraft fire streaking through the blue Crimean sky ricocheted through social media, the visceral reality of war was becoming more and more apparent to Russians–many of whom have rallied behind the Kremlin’s line, hammered home in state media, that the “special military operation” to save Ukraine from Nazi domination is going smoothly and according to plan.”
The paper quoted a prominent establishment think tanker in Moscow acknowledging that the Crimean attack is a “serious” development insofar as “People are beginning to feel that the war is coming to them.” The Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky claimed in a nationwide address on Saturday, “One can literally feel in the air of Crimea that the occupation there is temporary, and Ukraine is returning.”
Once again, while Russia is steadily winning the ground war in Ukraine, the U.S. is determined not to lose the information war. In Washington’s reckoning, in this Internet Age, the war is to be ultimately won in the Russian people’s minds. Therefore, this studied escalation by Washington puts Moscow in a dilemma, since if it is unanswered, Zelensky may target the 19-km long Crimean Bridge connecting the Taman Peninsula of Krasnodar in mainland Russia with the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea.
In fact, it is a near certainty. The point is, the Kerch bridge is “Putin’s bridge” in the Russian people’s consciousness. While formally opening the bridge to car traffic in May 2018, Putin was quoted as telling the workers, “In different historical epochs, even under the tsar priests, people dreamed of building this bridge. Then they returned to this in the 1930s, the 40s, the 50s. And finally, thanks to your work and your talent, the miracle has happened.”
Therefore, there is no better way to puncture the halo around Putin than by despatching at least a bit of the Kerch bridge to the bottom of the Black Sea. Meanwhile, from the U.S. perspective, Kiev’s drone attacks on Crimea already serve three purposes.
First, this is meant to be a blow to the Russian morale. Indeed, Putin’s towering popularity within Russia has become an eyesore for the Biden Administration. Putin’s masterly navigation of the Russian economy out of crisis mode is an incredible feat that defied all logic of power in the American calculus–inflation is steadily falling (in contrast with the European countries and the U.S.); the GDP decline is narrowing; foreign reserves are swelling; the current account is on the plus side; and lo and behold, the Biden Administration’s so-called “nuclear option”–Russia’s removal from the SWIFT messaging system–failed to cripple foreign trade.
Second, both Washington and Kiev are desperately scrambling for “success” stories to distract attention. The Times playing up the story speaks for itself. In reality, Russia’s Donbass offensive has created a new momentum and is steadily grinding the Ukrainian forces. Within the week, Russian forces will have encircled the lynchpin of the Ukrainian defence line, Bakhmut city, which is a communication hub for troop movements and supply logistics in Donbass. Russian forces have reached the city outskirts from the north, east and south. The fall of Bakhmut will be a crushing defeat for Zelensky.
On the other hand, even after two months after Zelensky promised a “counteroffensive” on Kherson near Crimea, it is nowhere in sight. Even his most ardent votaries in the western media feel let down. To be sure, there is growing disenchantment in Europe.
The Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, undoubtedly the smartest European politician today (with an economy registering over 6% growth when the rest of the continent is mired in recession), told German magazine Tichys Einblick in an interview last week that this war marked the end of “western superiority.” Interestingly, he named Big Oil as “war profiteers” and singled out that Exxon doubled its profits, Chevron quadrupled, and ConocoPhillips’ profits have shot up manifold. (Of course, all three are American companies.) Orban’s message was clear: America has weakened the EU. This thought must be troubling many a European politician today.
Third, Washington has thrown down the gauntlet in a measured way. But there is no way the war can be brought into the drawing rooms of the average Americans the way Times says is happening in Russia. Twenty Americans were killed in Kharkiv two days ago in a high-precision Russian missile strike, but there aren’t going to be any body bags returning to Arlington Cemetery; nor does it make headline in the cooperative American media.
The U.S. plans to go further up on the escalation ladder. Escalation is the Biden Administration’s last chance to stall a Russian victory. The American strategic thinker and academic John Mearsheimer has written that the risk of a disastrous escalation is “substantially greater than the conventional wisdom holds. And given that the consequences of escalation could include a major war in Europe and possibly even nuclear annihilation, there is good reason for extra concern.”
Moscow’s preference is to avoid any escalation, since the special military operation is achieving results. Whereas, it is the U.S. that is in some visible despair, and in immediate terms, Russia’s plans to hold referendums in Kherson and Zaporozhye in September must be stalled. Herein lies the danger.
The U.S.’ current build-up over Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant points toward a hidden agenda to intervene in the war at some point directly. Kiev’s attempt to arrange a nuclear explosion in Zaporozhye can only be seen in this light. Moscow seems to anticipate such an eventuality.
Defence Minister Sergey Shoigu disclosed yesterday that Russia has begun mass production of Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missiles and is already deploying them. The U.S. lacks the capability to counter Tsirkon, which is estimated to be 11 times faster than Tomahawk with far superior target-penetration characteristics. Shoigu may have given a stark warning that Russia will not be cowed down if there’s a NATO intervention in Ukraine.
https://mronline.org/2022/08/23/u-s-tau ... n-ukraine/