Re: Footnotes from the Ukrainian "Crisis"; New High-Points in Cynicism Part IV
Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2022 11:51 am
The role of the UK
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 09/07/2022
Yesterday the change of leadership in the British authorities was completed and, as had been expected for weeks, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Liz Truss replaced Boris Johnson at the helm of the Government in a substitution that, in matters of international relations, is not going to mean any change in the political line of the country. Recent statements by the new prime minister and her interventions over the last few months confirm this. That is also the feeling conveyed by the Russian government, for which Truss evokes the memory of the uncomfortable meeting held between the then Foreign Minister and Sergey Lavrov just a few days before the Russian recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics.
In a visit to Moscow that sought to increase his profile in view of the race to succeed the already questioned Boris Johnson, Truss was photographed in Moscow evoking Margaret Thatcher and attended a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation without great intention of dialogue or great knowledge on the matter. Faced with the constant repetition that the West would never accept any Russian annexation and annoyed by a unilateral speech without the intention of listening to contrary arguments, Sergey Lavrov asked Liz Truss if the West accepts the Russian sovereignty of Rostov and Voronezh. Whether it was simply a sarcastic comment or a small verbal ambush to make the minister fall into a beginner's mistake,
Since then, Truss, a close ally of Boris Johnson, has been one of the pieces of a machine that has made the United Kingdom one of Ukraine's main partners in military, political, diplomatic and economic terms. A few weeks ago, a confused Truss defended in Parliament the need to replace autocratic Russian oil with the apparently less autocratic Saudi oil and has been part of one of the governments that has imposed the most sanctions against Russia and its citizens, sanctions that have come even to the veto of Russian and Belarusian citizens in sporting events as important as Wimbledon.
In his last conversation before the transfer of power, Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the now former British prime minister for his unconditional support for Ukraine, which he hopes will continue with the new prime minister . In reality, continuity is guaranteed, not only because Truss has participated in the construction of the machinery of military, political and diplomatic support, but also because that machinery, already in motion, is difficult to stop given the certainty that there will be no negotiation of no peace, more confrontational positions than ever, and the state of war has become chronic. Western countries, the UK among them, have overinvested in their proxiesUkrainians, so a change in position is unlikely despite even the severe energy crisis that European countries are facing this winter.
In these six months, although the multimillion-dollar US military supply has made more and more headlines, the role of the United Kingdom in this war, which can be described as a proxy war or a proxy war, has gained great importance.against Russia. It is no coincidence that the UK intelligence report is one of the publications commented on daily by the Ukrainian press. Always in line with the official Ukrainian discourse - the British role in the communication strategy of the Ukrainian Government seems as clear as its participation in the preparation of the military strategy - British intelligence speaks daily of Russian failures, of the lack of the troops and from every mishap and only belatedly and underestimating the losses reports the Ukrainian defeats. Despite being an interested party involved in the conflict, albeit indirectly, these intelligence reports have become in recent months one of the main sources of the Western press to "inform" about the conflict.
British involvement in the war is not limited to communication strategy, delivery of intelligence data in real time or constant supply of weapons and financing to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. During Johnson's term, and it is likely to continue with Truss's term, the United Kingdom has become the training and instruction center for Ukrainian recruits who are later sent to the front, a key aspect when it comes to replacing those units that were decimated in the first months of hand-to-hand combat against Russia and the People's Republics. That instruction not only involves training in the use of weapons, but also in trench warfare and urban guerrilla warfare, an important aspect considering the type of war Ukraine has chosen to wage. As Mijailo Podoliak openly admitted in an interview with Western media, the city offers a series of defenses that the open countryside of the steppe does not favor. Among those advantages is, as has been shown in battles like the one in Mariupol, the possibility of hiding behind the human shields of the civilian population. On Monday, British media reported that 4,700 soldiers have already undergone British training - possibly seeking to use that formation in the current offensive in Kherson or in the nascent offensive in the Kharkov region, where in places like Izium the fighting is likely to reach the urban battle - and it is expected that tens of thousands will do so in the coming months.
The last week has also talked about the important role that Boris Johnson played, or said he played, in sabotaging a political resolution to the war between Russia and Ukraine last March. An article recently published in Foreign Policy , more related to the Russian vision of history than to the present, briefly mentions an agreement in principle between Moscow and Kiev last April, an agreement that, according to this version, fell apart due to the intervention of Boris Johnson, who traveled to Kiev to guarantee Zelensky long-term support in pursuit of a military victory against Russia. As published then by Ukrainian media such as Ukrainska Pravda, Johnson's intervention sought to let the Ukrainian president know that, although Ukraine could accept an agreement, the West would not, an evident way of pressuring kyiv to continue a war that had already cost thousands of lives and enormous destruction. Since then, both the number of civilian and military casualties and the destruction have multiplied and the chronification of the war in conditions of extreme political and economic confrontation between Russia and Ukraine's Western partners means that any risk to Western plans for Ukraine to fight a war to the end has disappeared.
Despite Johnson's willingness to give himself a more relevant role, the reality of the moment in which that negotiation took place made it clear that the agreement was unfeasible. Vladimir Medinsky's optimism after the meeting in Istanbul, in which the Turkish head of state even took part, who announced a road map for the end of the war that implied the Russian abandonment of all territory outside Donbass and the resignation of Ukraine to NATO in favor of a neutrality with security guarantees from third countries, was quickly destroyed by Mijailo Podoliak. Faced with what was suggested by Medinsky, who wanted to see Ukraine's willingness to recognize the loss of Crimea and Donbass in the principle of agreement, Podoliak quickly responded by recalling that kyiv would not make any territorial concessions. As was mentioned at the time, the deal was unworkable for several reasons. On the one hand, Russia and Ukraine could not negotiate security guarantees from third countries that, like the United States, they had already leaked to the press that they would not accept. On the other hand, the Russian will to believe that Ukraine would accept the loss of territories was guilty of excessive naivety that left the entire negotiating team sent by Moscow in doubt.
Boris Johnson's intervention was nothing more than the representation of the infeasibility of an agreement. However, the presence of the then British Prime Minister in kyiv, the first high-level figure to arrive in the Ukrainian capital since February 24, meant a temporary recovery of the figure of the questioned Johnson and a boost for Zelensky, already reaffirmed by the weapons supply guarantee.
Although perhaps in the shadow of its ally in Washington, the role of London has been key in propping up the Zelensky government and maintaining the combat capacity of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In this war, which goes far beyond the trench warfare in Donbass, the Novaya Kajovka bombings or the Kherson-Kharkov counter-offensive, London's role is not limited to sabotaging impossible negotiations, but is involved in the day-to-day of military and communication strategy and provides invaluable diplomatic support that translates into the media loyalty of the powerful British press. In this context, the change of leadership is nothing more than a change of faces at the forefront of official communications.
https://slavyangrad.es/2022/09/07/25453/#more-25453
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Ukraine - A Second 'Counteroffensive' Contrary To U.S. Advice - IAEA Report
The Ukrainian 'counteroffensive' in the southern Kherson region has made little progress and binds a lot of Ukrainian resources and available units.
Despite that, and against advice from the U.S. military, Ukraine has now launched a second 'counteroffensive' in the north-eastern Kharkiv region of Ukraine.
AZ 🛰 @AZmilitary1 - 13:06 UTC · Sep 6, 2022
AFU has launched an offensive on Balakleya, heavy fighting started is underway
For more than a month, the AFU pulled together reserves and created a strike force in the Kharkiv direction.
Now, after a powerful artillery preparation, they have gone on the offensive, throwing forward armored vehicles, fighting is going on on the outskirts of the city.
The artillery and aviation of the Russian army are hitting the sprawling advancing enemy forces.
Allied forces blew up bridges to obstruct the AFU's advance.
Armored vehicles work in battles on the outskirts.
Allied reserves are being tightened.
The Russian Aerospace Forces struck the headquarters of the operational command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Chuguev
The offensive in the south is not a distraction, it's just that the enemy has planned and launched several offensive operations, and attempts to break through are also continuing in the Kherson region
There is no panic. In Balakleya there are mostly mobilized. Now reserves are going to Balakleya. The barrel and rocket artillery are working. Aviation is actively working.
There is no talk of a deep breakthrough. The situation + is similar to the Nahtsee counteroffensive in the Kherson direction.
Balakleya (Balaklya, Balakliia) originally had 25,000 inhabitants, many of whom will likely have departed by now. On March 3 it was taken by Russian forces without much fighting.
Here is an overview of the area. Balakleya is in the middle of the map, southeast of Kharkiv and northwest of Izium.
Here are more details. West and south of the city are various rivers and streams but also some woods where troops can assemble and hide until they get called up.
Attacking across a river is always dangerous as supplies and the way of retreat can easily be cut off.
A satellite view of the city. To the north-northeast of the city, where the above map shows a rail yard, was once a very large ammunition depot. In March 2017 it famously blew up (vid). Back then the city was evacuated. Lots of houses got damaged (vid).
West of the former strategic ammunition depot is the village of Verbovka where fighting is currently ongoing.
I do not understand why the Ukrainian military decided to attack in Balakleya. A medium size city is relative easy to defend. The rivers on the Ukrainian approach make it difficult to keep the supplies going. The bridges can be bombed any time. The city is not really near to any significant supply route between Russia and Izium which was the target of previous offensives in the area (all failed). The strategic value of the city is thus dubious.
A week ago it was reported that the U.S. military had urged Ukraine to not launch several 'counteroffensives':
In the buildup to the current Ukrainian counteroffensive, the US urged Kyiv to keep the operation limited in both its objectives and its geography to avoid getting overextended and bogged down on multiple fronts, multiple US and western officials and Ukrainian sources tell CNN.
Those discussions involved engaging in "war-gaming" with Kyiv, the sources said -- analytical exercises that were intended to help the Ukrainian forces understand what force levels they would need to muster to be successful in different scenarios.
The Ukrainians were initially considering a broader counteroffensive, but narrowed their mission to the south, in the Kherson region, in recent weeks, US and Ukrainian officials said.
Its really hard to understand why the Ukraine is launching two operations with the main effort in both involving a river crossing. They bind resources that will likely soon be needed in the south of the Donetsk region where the Russian 3rd Corp is preparing for an attack.
The latest Rybar report on the situation near Balakleya says (machine translation):
The situation in the Kharkov direction as of 17.00 September 6, 2022
After several days of artillery preparation, the Armed Forces of Ukraine launched an attack on Balakleya, which had been occupied back in March. The Ukrainian command has been preparing an offensive for a month and daily transferring equipment and personnel to the city: the last large column passed through Andreevka, located to the north-west, just yesterday.
Ukrainian units advanced from the village of Prishib in the direction of Verbovka to the north of the city. Local resources reported that bridges across the Balakleyka and Extreme Balakleyka rivers were blown up in order to prevent further advancement of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, while some of the overpasses were allegedly put out of action in advance in the previous few days.
Despite the bravura statements of Ukrainian resources, units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not enter Balakleya. All battles are currently taking place in the area of the village of Verbovka and the 65th arsenal located there. Reinforcements of the RF Armed Forces were sent to the city and its environs.
The Russian Aerospace Forces attacked the headquarters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Chuguev, from where the leadership of the attack on Balakleya was going. In order to camouflage, the Ukrainian command set up a false command post in the city, but the RF Armed Forces did not fall for the trick and hit the target.
At the same time, unconfirmed information appeared about the advance of Russian troops in the north of the Kharkiv region in the direction of the village of Shestakovo and the capture of the settlements of Bayrak and Peremoga.
In other news the IAEA has published its report (pdf) on nuclear safeguards in Ukraine. As expected the report does not say that the Ukraine army is shelling the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant (ZNPP), which the IAEA recently visited. It also does not say that Russia is shelling the plant (which it does not). The shells and the damage the IAEA has seen during its visit just somehow must have appeared from the sky.
It reports that the personnel on the site is working under nearly normal shift conditions and is not under pressure from Russia. The Ukraine had falsely claimed that the reactor crews were under duress.
Posted by b on September 6, 2022 at 15:58 UTC | Permalink
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/09/u ... .html#more
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IAEA Report on Zaporozhye NPP Mentions “Mysterious Shelling” 52 Times, Doesn’t Name Culprits
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 6, 2022
Ilya Tsukanov
The United Nations nuclear energy watchdog sent a high-level delegation of experts to the massive nuclear power plant last week. Moscow accused Kiev of trying to sabotage the mission via a botched offensive, and of engaging in “nuclear terrorism” by repeatedly attacking and shelling the facility with mortars, drones, and artillery.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has released a much-anticipated report on the security situation at Ukraine’s nuclear facilities.
The 52-page document summarizes “preliminary nuclear safety and security findings” from last week’s expert mission to the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant and missions to the Chernobyl NPP from earlier this year, and provides an update on the country’s other nuclear plants.
The report outlines “seven pillars” for nuclear safety, including the need to maintain the physical integrity of nuclear facilities, the continued functioning of safety and security systems at all times, the fulfillment of safety and security duties by nuclear plant staff, reliable off-site power supply from the grid in case of an emergency, reliable logistics and transport supply chains, radiation monitoring, and “reliable communications with the regulator.”
Mysterious Shelling
The report contains a Ukraine-biased approach in discussing the “physical integrity” of the country’s nuclear facilities, particularly as concerns the Zaporozhye plant, citing “Ukrainian reports” on the alleged deployment of Russian military equipment at the ZNPP, and dangers said to arise from Russian cruise missiles flying overhead.
The report mentions shelling attacks on the ZNPP 52 times, but does not say who is responsible (Ukrainian and Western media have previously reported that the plant was being shelled by Russian forces – the same Russian forces which have controlled the facility since March. Russia has blamed the Ukrainian military).
The document expresses the IAEA’s “concern” with the impact that shelling may have had on “safety-related structures, systems and components,” and, citing agency director Rafael Grossi’s remarks following his return from last Thursday’s inspection, stresses “that while past events had not yet triggered a nuclear emergency, they represented a constant threat to nuclear safety and security because critical safety functions (containment of the radioactivity and cooling in particular) could be impacted.”
The IAEA’s recommendation to ensure the continued physical integrity of the ZNPP is as follows:
“The IAEA recommends that shelling on site and in its vicinity should be stopped immediately to avoid any further damages to the plant and associated facilities, for the safety of the operating staff and to maintain the physical integrity to support safe and secure operation. This requires agreements by all relevant parties to the establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the ZNPP.”
The report also mentions the presence of Rosatom specialists at the ZNPP, saying that the IAEA fears that their involvement “could lead to interference with the normal lines of operational command or authority and create potential frictions when it comes to decision-making.” The document at least admits that the plant’s regular management and staff continue to work as normal, but cites anxieties and pressures they have faced, including from shelling incidents (the culprit of the shelling is again not named), as well as problems stemming from staff shortages.
Additionally, the document provides a summary of the IAEA’s findings from their April visit to the defunct Chernobyl NPP, mentioning “extremely stressful and tiring conditions” experienced by staff during spring, particularly after the loss of regular offsite power and the turn to reliance on emergency diesel generators while the plant was under Russian control. The document does not attribute responsibility for the attacks on the plant’s external power sources. The Russian military said Ukrainian forces were responsible. Russian troops withdrew from Chernobyl at the end of March in a bid to calm the situation.
The watchdog’s report concludes with a congratulatory self-pat on the back, boasting that “despite the very challenging current circumstances, the IAEA has continued to implement safeguards in Ukraine.”
The ZNPP is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, and ordinarily accounts for nearly half of all electricity generated by Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, and 20 percent of the country’s annual power production. The Russian military has held the facility and its six reactors since March, and and Moscow and local authorities have repeatedly accused the Ukrainian military of attacking the plant throughout the past five-and-a-half months and threatening to spark a nuclear catastrophe.
The ZNPP was built by the Soviets in the late 1980s, and has faced several emergency nuclear close calls over the past decade in the aftermath of the 2014 Euromaidan coup. In 2014, a technical fault caused one of the plant’s reactors to shut down, contributing to rolling blackouts faced across the country that year and in early 2015. In 2020, Ukrainian nuclear industry workers sounded the alarm about the situation across their sector, warning of the dangers of “another Chernobyl” caused by lax safety standards, a critical shortage of finances, incompetent management, and the switchover to the use of American-made nuclear fuel rods.
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... -culprits/
Winter is Coming: Prague’s 70,000-Strong Protest Shows What’s in Store for Europe
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 6, 2022
Bradley Blankenship
Around 70,000 people gathered in Prague’s Wenceslas Square on Saturday to demand the resignation of their government in response to what they see as a failure to address the ongoing energy crisis. The protesters were also explicitly against the two foremost Western institutions that the formerly Eastern-aligned nation is a part of, namely the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
If you ask Prime Minister Petr Fiala of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) what the problem is, he’d simply say that these tens of thousands of people are just unknowing pro-Russian stooges. To quote him verbatim, he said “the protest on Wenceslas Square was called by forces that are pro-Russian, are close to extreme positions and are against the interests of the Czech Republic.” He reiterated his stance on Monday after criticism, calling the organizers of this protest a “Russian fifth column.”
Some commentators have even gone a step further, suggesting the protestors want to literally rejoin the Warsaw Pact and return to the communist era. Having lived in the Czech Republic for some time, I can say that this entire line is absurd. By and large, Czechs want to be Western. They want their country to be an open and free society, as opposed to the virtual dungeon that was the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.
Due to the way history is framed in the country, as well, even the most liberal of Czechs can’t help but feel a tinge of resentment against Russia and even Russians. That is, in my opinion, entirely by design as the Western turn of the country has correlated almost directly with an anti-Russian sentiment. The more the Czech political establishment embraces the West, the more Czech people are whipped up to hate Russia.
Given this, I find it very unlikely that so many people took time out of their day to rally in support of the Russian state. On the contrary, what actually drew 70,000 people to the streets on Saturday is to do with the fact that the cost of living is rising tremendously, real wages are falling and the government is insisting on a foreign policy line that is exacerbating the problem. It is all perfectly logical and does not require a conspiracy.
In fact, Czech union leaders called for a demonstration on October 8 at the same location as the Saturday protest over the exact same issues. Does the prime minister actually believe that the Russians have infiltrated the Czech labor movement? Given the prevalent enmity against Russia and Russians in Czech society, this seems extraordinarily unlikely.
Again, we are only left with the conclusion – as bizarre as it might sound to the political elite – that the concerns that people addressed reflect exactly how they feel. Life is becoming unaffordable and Czechs don’t want to live a life of destitution and precarity to prop up the Ukrainian government. That is a matter of pure self-preservation and says nothing about purported “values” and ideals.
What happened in Prague is only a glimpse of what’s to come for Western countries if they continue on the same path – and you can take that to the bank. There are already signs of social unrest all over the continent due to the rising cost of living, especially energy prices, and we haven’t even arrived at the official end of summer yet.
If we take September 1 as the de facto beginning of autumn, just days after that 70,000 demonstrated in Prague. The question is, how will things look when the cold months set in and heating becomes too expensive? How many people have to take to the streets before the likes of Prime Minister Fiala admit there’s a problem and don’t just pin social unrest on a Russian conspiracy?
We have already seen the degree to which people will not sacrifice their own self-interest, or even simply their convenience, for some idea of the greater good during the COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus revealed that such ideals are utterly useless in rallying Western populations. People are too individualistic and stubborn. The greater good is not good enough, apparently.
With this in mind, does anyone actually believe that EU citizens are willing to fall into poverty for Vladimir Zelensky and his government? Highly unlikely. Europe is looking at a very difficult cold season this year if the current foreign policy line stays in place. First Prague, next Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid and so on.
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... or-europe/
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From Cassad's Telegram Account:
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Colonelcassad
Izyum Front : situation near Balakleya by the end of September 6, 2022
Due to its geographical position, without control over Balakleya, it is difficult to secure the northwestern flank of the group based in Izyum. In addition, if someday the RF Armed Forces again pay attention to Kharkov itself , a convenient route runs from Balakliya through Zmiev to the Slobodskaya and Industrialny districts of the regional center.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine, after inflicting massive fire damage on mobilized militiamen from the DPR, who were on the defensive in the nearest forests, entered the village of Verbovka .
From there, the only route to the territory of the 65th arsenal and Balakleya itself is still preserved through the Srednyaya Balakleyka River . The bridge across the river is intact, fighting is underway for control over it.
From Verbovka, the Armed Forces of Ukraine developed success towards the village of Yakovenkovo , trying to advance towards Volokhov Yar and completely block Balakleya from the north.
Now the road Volokhov Yar - Balakleya is under the fire control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The bridges located to the south across the Balakleyka and Extreme Balakleyka rivers have been blown up, so communication with the central regions of Balakleya is now interrupted. The Ukrainian formations did not enter the Camp
area , located on the western bank of the Balakleyka River to the north of its tributary ( Lyakhovaya River ) . There is also no confirmation of the presence of the RF Armed Forces in this area.
There were reports that the RF Armed Forces were moving south of the village of Bayrak and expanding the zone of control towards Gusarovka . But so far there are no facts that could confirm this.
At the moment, Balakleya is in operational encirclement and in the zone of fire destruction of Ukrainian artillery. All entrances are cut by fire.
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Colonelcassad
Special operation, 6 September. The main thing from RIA Novosti :
Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed up to 100 militants of the Ukrainian 65th mechanized brigade in the Zaporozhye region
Russian troops are inflicting precision strikes on units and reserves of Ukrainian troops, which continued their attempts to attack in separate areas in the Nikolaev-Kryvyi Rih direction during the day
Ships of the Russian Navy hit a large Ukrainian fuel storage facility in the Dnepropetrovsk region, which supplied fuel to a grouping of Ukrainian troops in the Nikolaev-Krivoy Rog direction, with a Caliber strike.
The Russian military with high-precision air-launched weapons destroyed up to 250 military Ukrainian 54th and 93rd mechanized brigades in the DPR, and Russian air defense systems shot down 11 shells of Ukrainian HIMARS MLRS in the area of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station
Two residents of Kharkiv Izyum, including a 95-year-old veteran of the Great Patriotic War, died as a result of massive shelling, RIA Novosti was told in the press service of the regional administration
Kyiv fired 15 times at Energodar and the Zaporizhzhya NPP, 20 shells were fired from the area of the settlement of Marganets in the Dnepropetrovsk region, including three on the territory of the station, Ukrainian artillery units were suppressed by return fire from the Russian military
The IAEA published a report on the results of the inspection at the Zaporozhye NPP. The report states that it is necessary to stop all hostilities that may affect the power supply systems of the station, and an agreement is also needed by all parties to create a protective zone around the Zaporizhzhya NPP in order to avoid damage.
The head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Leonid Slutsky, commenting on the report, said that all calls for a ceasefire should be directed strictly towards Kyiv
Volodymyr Rogov, a member of the main council of the administration of the Zaporozhye region, said that the IAEA delegation turned a blind eye to the situation with the shelling of the ZNPP by Ukraine and retired from their official duties
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Colonelcassad
The situation in the Soledar direction
by the end of September 6, 2022
Detachments of "PMC Wagner" established full control over the village of Kodema. Fierce battles for him have been going on since mid-summer.
The liberation of Kodema will allow developing in the direction of Zaitsevo from the south to reach the southern approaches to Bakhmut, which in the future will make it possible to storm the city from several directions simultaneously.
The front line in Soledar has not changed significantly: clashes continue on the southern outskirts of the city and in the adjacent village of Bakhmutskoye.
The allied forces continue to carry out artillery strikes on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in settlements along the line of contact, as well as on the places of concentration of enemy manpower and equipment.
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forwarded from
Voenkor Kitten Z
Military expert Boris Rozhin on the course of the special military operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine on December 20, 09/06/2022, specially for the Voenkor Kotenok channel Z @voenkorKotenok :
1.
Raisin.
The enemy launched an offensive on Balakleya and started fighting for the village of Verbovka to the north-west of Balakleya.
The fighting took on a positional character, at least 2 bridges were blown up in the city. Both sides are actively using artillery and MLRS. The Russian Aerospace Forces are working.
In Chuguev, the headquarters of the Ukrainian group was destroyed.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine launched rocket attacks on Izyum and Kupyansk.
Balakleya - under artillery fire.
Highway Volkhov Yar - Balakleya and the arsenal under the control of the RF Armed Forces.
2.
Kharkov.
The enemy here has not yet been able to go on a full-fledged offensive, both in the Uda region and near Borshcheva.
The RF Armed Forces are crushing the enemy in the area of Rubezhnoye, Verkhny Saltov, Bayrak and Peremoga. There are unconfirmed reports of progress towards Shestakovo.
The Chuguev area is being actively processed by artillery and aviation. There are arrivals in Kharkov.
The enemy continues shelling the border settlements of the Russian Federation.
3.
Kherson.
In most areas, the fighting took on a positional character. The enemy continues to try to expand the bridgehead on the Ingulets River near Andreevka. There are battles near Kostroma and Sukhoi Stavka. The crossings of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Ingulets were again broken.
The enemy strikes at Novaya Kakhovka, the outskirts of Kherson and in the area of Berislav.
The Russian Armed Forces destroyed a large oil depot in Krivoy Rog, and also carried out traditional strikes in the Nikolaev region.
4.
In the area of Vysokopolye , the enemy continued to attempt to advance south in the direction of Berislav, fierce battles continue here with significant losses on both sides.
In fact, it is the Nikopol direction that is now creating the most significant problems.
On Nikolaevsky, the enemy has already run out of steam, on Krivoy Rog, he is running out of steam.
5.
Avdiivka.
Our troops started fighting on the outskirts of Pervomaisk, and also cleared the seed station near Sands, drove the enemy away from two bridges on the ring road.
In the area of Avdiivka itself, there are no significant changes, as well as in Marinka with Ugledar.
6.
Artemovsk.
PMC "Wagner" took the Code. Enemy counterattacks with the use of armored vehicles were repelled.
The loss of the Codema complicates the position of the Armed Forces of Ukraine southeast of Artemivsk.
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Colonelcassad
The battle for Kherson: the situation in the Andreevsky sector
as of 18.00 on September 6, the
Andreevsky sector of the front in the Nikolaev-Krivoy Rog direction remains a zone of active fighting.
Throughout the night and early morning, the Armed Forces of Ukraine transferred reinforcements to the south coast, trying to expand the bridgehead. And if the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not succeed in advancing further than Sukhoi Stavka, then today efforts were concentrated on the direction of Belogorka .
In the first half of the day, the Russian Aerospace Forces put out of action all three crossings that were functioning today. Artillery fire prevented the pontoon-bridge park of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from building a new crossing.
To the south-east of Bereznegovatoy in a forest plantation, the Smerch MLRS destroyed the reserves of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which were planned to be transferred to the south. In the village of Krasnopolye , two Ukrainian self-propelled guns were put out of action . By evening, the Armed Forces of Ukraine transferred two 152 mm Giacint-B guns to Bereznegovatoe.
The infantry of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, having crossed Ingulets at night, dispersed along the Plotnitsky tract and began advancing towards Belogorka from the northwest. Around 13.00 Moscow time, the offensive was thwarted: Russian bombers destroyed the enemy grouping on the northwestern outskirts of the village.
In the area of Sukhoi Headquarters and Andreevka , the RF Armed Forces continue to destroy scattered enemy groups with artillery fire and bombing strikes of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
On the northern bank of the Ingulets, reserves in manpower and equipment are still preserved. There are no more new tanks: basically, they are throwing BMP-1s and lightly armored vehicles of Western production.
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forwarded from
Older than Edda
By Balakleya. The Armed Forces of Ukraine, as many warned, went on the offensive in this sector of the front. Enough forces were brought up, including tanks and artillery. In the morning they caught on the outskirts of the city, but the main direction of impact is still the Balakleya-Kupyansk highway, where they are trying to break through. At the moment, there are fights, the AFU did not succeed in cutting off Balakleya. It is necessary to take this offensive with all seriousness, and not try to shower it with caps and bravura statements.
https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin
Google Translator
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Ukraine: How British Intelligence Globalized Online Trolling
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 6, 2022
Kit Klarenberg
Since the conflict in Ukraine began, numerous commentators have drawn attention to the blatant weaponization of social media in service of the proxy war.
Legions of users on Facebook, Twitter, and other major platforms, many anonymous and recently registered, have relentlessly propounded pro-intervention, pro-Ukraine propaganda, viciously attacking all those deviating even slightly from established Western narratives. It has created an unprecedented situation, which writer Caitlin Johnstone calls “the most aggressively trolled war of all time.”
Of course, this hostile informational milieu didn’t abruptly emerge when Russia intervened in Ukraine on February 24th. For many years, public spaces online have been subject to an ever-intensifying blitzkrieg both by dedicated state-run bot and troll networks, and apparently grassroots initiatives. In respect of the latter, the one that started it all was the Lithuanian Elves, back in 2015.
An ostensibly informal collective of concerned citizens banding together to rebut Russian “fake news”, its activists have been praised effusively in the mainstream for their troll-busting prowess, and repeatedly held up as a paragon Western states must follow in order to effectively battle purported “disinformation”.
Unsurprisingly though, none of the countless glowing media profiles of the movement published to date have recognized that the movement has all along benefited from the sponsorship and promotion of British intelligence.
Covert operatives in London immediaely seized upon the Elves concept, then exported its model globally, in the process constructing a clandestine network of operatives to sway debate, influence policy, and distort perceptions the world over.
‘21st century resistance fighters’
References to this spectral background are, perhaps predictably, absent from an official biography of the Elves, provided in a chapter contributed to an academic handbook on “Disinformation and Fake News” by Giedrius Sakalauskas, one of the movement’s founders. Nonetheless, revealing – if romantic – insight into the group’s modus operandi is forthcoming.
There are; “debunkers” seeking to identify and expose “hostile propaganda”; “troll killers” mass reporting perceived malign actors and bot accounts to social media platforms, so they’re deplatformed; “motivators” spreading “positive news” about Lithuania, the EU and NATO “in order to make people proud of their own country”; and operatives “fighting trolls and their information using humor, irony, and sarcasm as a weapon.”
Oddly, Sakalauskas contradicts himself on the number of people involved, first stating “it is not easy to calculate how many Elves we have today, as there are different tribes,” but later on asserting Lithuania’s Elf chapter alone comprises “over 4,000 activists who participate as needed.”
They are mobilized via groups on social media and chat platforms, some of which are labeled “secret”. Elves “do not know each other’s real names or meet up in person; more often than not, they remain anonymous, in order to avoid being identified by the other side. But when we have a target, we are together [emphasis added].”
Sakalauskas goes on to describe a series of orchestrated actions by the Elves, in the process admitting their activities are anything but reactive – indeed, they avowedly subscribe to the philosophy that “the best defense is offence.”
For example, a number of Elves mounted a campaign against Russian state-owned outlet Sputnik, relentlessly spamming its Facebook page with negative comments and memes, and decreasing its ‘rating’ from 4.3 to 2.6 out of five in just six days.
Sakalauskas outlines #StopAdidas campaign
Then, in the lead up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the Elves targeted Adidas after the international sportswear giant produced a range of t-shirts bearing the Soviet hammer and sickle, prompting a deluge of negative media coverage the world over. In just two days, the company bowed to the harassment and withdrew offending products from sale. Markedly, Sakalauskas states that a “group of likeminded Ukrainian activists joined in on the action.”
The Elves repeated the effort later that year, this time targeting Walmart for its own assortment of Communist-themed garments, and once again emerging victorious in short order. A core component of both campaigns was sarcastically suggesting the target companies create dedicated lines of totalitarian-themed attire – a meme bearing the inscription “Walmart, why not swastika?” was widely circulated, as were corresponding hashtags on Twitter.
The Lithuanian Elves at work
These efforts are rather chilling, given for many years Vilnius has keenly embraced and perpetuated the dangerous, duplicitous myth of “double genocide” – namely, that Nazi liquidation of Lithuania’s population, in particular its Jews, during World War II is absolutely equal to political repression practiced during subsequent decades of Soviet occupation.
In 2010, the UK ambassador to Vilnius was lead author of a joint diplomatic letter expressing grave concerns about this push – he was forced out of the post not long after. That same year, Vilnius passed legislation significantly restricting public discourse about the Holocaust, and apportioning blame for mass slaughter of Jews exclusively to the Nazis. In reality, Lithuanians began carrying out this genocide before Axis forces had even reached the country.
Once they arrived, many citizens were actively complicit in large-scale pogroms, resulting in 90 percent of Lithuania’s estimated 250,000-strong Jewish population being exterminated. In all, more Jews were killed, in both percentage terms and total number, than in the far larger and more populous Germany.
A core component of this Holocaust revisionism is deification of the Forest Brothers, a band of anti-Soviet resistance fighters who for over a decade following World War II fought an ill-fated insurgency against Communist authorities across the Baltics. It is an established historical fact that overwhelmingly, these individuals were former Waffen SS collaborators and/or had been part of ‘stay-behind’ battalions created by Nazis as they prepared to evacuate the region, in advance of the Red Army’s arrival.
Yet, Lithuania – along with neighboring Estonia and Latvia – is committed to whitewashing the Brothers’ true nature, instead presenting them as courageous freedom fighters. Disturbingly, this bunkum has now been overwhelmingly accepted by Western governments and power structures, despite the vast readily available evidence to the contrary.
For example, the EU’s official position is that any suggestion the Brothers were “Nazi collaborators, criminals and terrorists” is Russian “disinformation”. Even more shockingly, in 2017 NATO released a slick film reinforcing this grossly distorted reading of history.
There are good reasons to believe production of that sordid propaganda, and in turn Western endorsement of “double genocide”, was heavily influenced by the Elves – with, as we shall soon see, the assistance of British intelligence.
Tantalizingly, Sakalauskas rounds out his chapter by revealing that the Lithuanian military’s Stratcom – information warfare – division serendipitously “noticed the Elves and was impressed.” As he tells it, the Elves’ exploits were then publicized at a 2015 NATO summit in Latvia, with resultant conference discussions about the movement unexpectedly “leaked” to media outlets across the Baltic states.
“It was a big shock that the world’s largest military alliance had discovered the Elves,” Sakalauskas excitedly records. “The coverage gave the Elves a chance to promote themselves in the public sphere and spread the message about [the] Elves movement internationally.”
‘Sponsoring a network of Elves’
The proposition that Lithuania’s Armed Forces just so happened to fortuitously stumble upon the Elves is difficult enough to accept on its own terms, but is rendered especially implausible given the contents of leaked files documenting the internal workings of Integrity Initiative, a covert Foreign Office intelligence operation.
These papers show that in 2015, at the same time as the Elves were being touted by NATO, the Initiative forged a “close link” with the Lithuanian Armed Forces Stratcom division. Several passages dotted across the trove strongly suggest there is little meaningful distinction between this unit and the Elves.
Integrity Initiative diagram of its Lithuanian operations
For example, the Initiative initiated a direct line between the Stratcom team and British Army online psyops battalion 77th Brigade, which resulted in the Brigade “adopting Lithuanian techniques.” In turn, the organization received sizable sums from the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense to arrange monthly trips abroad for its Stratcom staff, so further internet armies explicitly based on the Elves model could be taught in “infowar techniques” practiced by the group.
“Lithuania has become particularly important in our network due to its expertise in dealing with Russian malign influence and disinformation,” one document states. “We are sponsoring a network of ‘Elves’, set up to counter Russian trolls.”
The Foreign Office funded the construction of this “network”, which Integrity Initiative delivered by establishing an “Elves academy”, where scores of participants from all over the EU were routinely whisked to Vilnius for four-day workshops, and received “practical lessons and training” in the fine art of trolling. Participants subsequently received in-country follow up visits from “Elves instructors”, to ensure their local networks “[developed] effectively.”
Excerpt from Integrity Initiative file
“The Elves provide necessary knowledge for the development and implementation of an effective civic response,” an Initiative document declares. “Civic activists and volunteers [become] actively engaged in cyber resistance and digital resilience.”
By early 2018, the Dutch, Norwegian and Spanish defense ministries had also received direct training from the Elves and 77th Brigade, resultantly creating corresponding “units within their own ranks.”
Comparable divisions will have inevitably been created elsewhere in the years since. The organization had grand plans to circulate these and other meddling methods to the US, and a separate chapter in the aforementioned Disinformation and Fake News handbook moreover indicates former British colony Singapore has taken lessons from the Elves in tackling online “disinformation”.
There are clear indications too that Integrity Initiative was involved in the production of NATO’s Forest Brothers promotional clip. One file notes the organization is in receipt of “funding from NATO HQ for educational video films,” and been provided a camera team free of charge by the military alliance for the purpose, at precisely the time the clip was published. Two years later, it published an essay criticizing “Kremlin disinformation” regarding the Brothers on its now-defunct website.
Excerpt from Integrity Initiative file
‘Intentionally false and defamatory’
In his handbook chapter, Sakalauskas incongruously concedes the risk of his Elves movement being “hijacked” by “local extremist groups” would “always exist”, although dismissed the prospect’s significance on the bizarre basis that new recruits “having [their] heart in the right place” would be “enough” to ensure the project wasn’t malignly infiltrated.
A cynic might query whether extremism was hardwired into the Elves and their foreign counterparts from the very beginning. A leaked Foreign Office-commissioned assessment accuses the group of “fomenting anti-Russian prejudice and spreading falsehoods.” The same appraisal was even more scathing of Propastop, a similar endeavor funded by the Estonian Ministry of Defense, which has likewise been endorsed by the EU, NATO, Western think tanks, and the media, and is often characterized as a regional ‘sister’ of the Elves.
Foreign Office-funded assessment of the Lithuanian Elves
Propastop was said to be linked to “neo-fascist groups” and have incited violence against Estonia’s Russophone minority – “its reporting is widely considered to lack credibility and they have published a number of intentionally false and defamatory articles about Russian media outlets.” Eerily, Propastop content rebutting claims of discrimination against Estonia’s Russian-speaking population has been widely shared on social media since the war in Ukraine began.
Foreign Office-funded assessment of Propastop
Furthermore, Integrity Initiative “linked directly” Lithuania’s Stratcom team – and thus inevitably the Elves – with Kiev’s StopFake, “to exchange practical experience.” The Kiev-based organization has received sizable US and UK government funding, and serves as one of Facebook’s dedicated in-country factcheckers for Ukraine, despite its lengthy history of whitewashing neo-Nazism, and cohering ties to white supremacist elements.
StopFake is far from the only entity determined to sanitize Kiev’s open, state-level embrace of fascism. Numerous Western media outlets have declared this demonstrable reality fake news, while legions of web activists stand ever-poised to malign anyone and everyone daring to acknowledge the truth – the most prominent and belligerent example of this phenomenon being NAFO – the self-styled “North Atlantic Fellas Organisation”.
A vast online nexus identifiable by “doge” profile photos, they independently and in coordination counter “disinformation” about NATO and Ukraine – and its alleged disseminators, who are derisively labeled “vatniks” – with an inexorable blend of absurdity, ad hominem, memes, and ridicule, all while raising money for Kiev.
NAFO has claimed responsibility for chasing a Russian diplomat offline, and endlessly mass reporting accounts and tweets until offending users are temporarily or permanently suspended. Such trolling also has a real-world component.
On August 4th, Amnesty International published a report on Kiev endangering its population by basing forces and weaponry in residential areas, including schools and hospitals, which constitutes a war crime. Three days later, CBS broadcast a program revealing only 30 percent of Western arm shipments to Ukraine reach the frontline. NAFO took a lead role in harassing the two organizations subsequently, and corralling bulk submissions of complaints to official bodies over their output.
What impact these coordinated actions may have had in isolation is difficult to quantify – they were just one component of a much wider on and offline backlash against Amnesty and CBS for highlighting the realities of Ukraine’s war effort, which in sum proved highly effective in crushing dissent.
Amnesty issued an apology for the “anger and distress” its factual reporting may have caused, while CBS pulled its documentary, and an accompanying promotional trailer and article, from the web outright. It has since been “updated” to claim “the situation has significantly improved” since the documentary was filmed, and “a much larger quantity now gets where it’s supposed to go.” Which is reassuring.
High-level support for NAFO is clear. For example, Paul Massaro, US government foreign policy advisor and two-fisted cheerleader for Kiev, has referred to the ensemble as “one of the most effective counter-disinformation campaigns in history.” The Economist, Politico and Washington Post all published fawning billet doux to the Fellas within 24 hours as August became September. Their actions have even inspired a range of branded merchandise.
Accusations NAFO is sponsored or directed by intelligence actors abound, to the extent its members have transformed charges to that effect into an in-joke meme – they claim they cannot possibly be supported by the CIA, because “there is no CIA.”
Given the palpable similarities between NAFO and the Lithuanian Elves, such denials could well be sincere – after all, the effort’s nucleus might lie in London, rather than Washington DC.
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... -trolling/
Kherson: What Happens Next? – Russian Ops in Ukraine Update September 6, 2022
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 6, 2022
Update on Russian military operations in Ukraine for September 6, 2022
– While fighting continues around Kherson, it remains positional, signifying the end of Kiev’s long-planned offensive;
– Western sources continue citing factors they believe limit Russian operations consistent with flawed Western thinking regarding Russian military capabilities stretching back to 2014-2015;
– Elements of Ukraine’s Kherson offensive appear inspired by lessons “learned” from fighting in the Donbass in 2014-2015;
– Fighting around Kherson depends on pontoon bridges on both sides, affording neither a clear advantage in terms of the means of logistics;
– Ukrainians involved in the “offensive” note they do not have the armor, artillery, or airpower to succeed;
References:
UK Ministry of Defense – Latest Intelligence Update, September 6, 2022 (Twitter): https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/…
Institute for the Study of War – RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, SEPTEMBER 5: https://www.understandingwar.org/back…
Moon Over Alabama – Kherson ‘Counteroffensive’ – Zelenski Is Going For Broke: https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/09…
Alex Christoforou – Kherson, 3rd & 4th waves. Macron, Scholz warn Vucic. Erdogan warns Greece. In Liz we Truss. Update 2: https://youtu.be/BCnQHhqN8X8
Alexander Merouris – Kherson Offensive at Standstill, US Weapons Stocks Depleted, EU Throws Money at Gas Crisis-Inflation: https://youtu.be/-JBqM2g4tFw
Al Jazeera – Ukraine claims counteroffensive success to ‘starve the Russians’: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9…
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... er-6-2022/
POSTED BY @NSANZO ⋅ 09/07/2022
Yesterday the change of leadership in the British authorities was completed and, as had been expected for weeks, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Liz Truss replaced Boris Johnson at the helm of the Government in a substitution that, in matters of international relations, is not going to mean any change in the political line of the country. Recent statements by the new prime minister and her interventions over the last few months confirm this. That is also the feeling conveyed by the Russian government, for which Truss evokes the memory of the uncomfortable meeting held between the then Foreign Minister and Sergey Lavrov just a few days before the Russian recognition of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics.
In a visit to Moscow that sought to increase his profile in view of the race to succeed the already questioned Boris Johnson, Truss was photographed in Moscow evoking Margaret Thatcher and attended a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation without great intention of dialogue or great knowledge on the matter. Faced with the constant repetition that the West would never accept any Russian annexation and annoyed by a unilateral speech without the intention of listening to contrary arguments, Sergey Lavrov asked Liz Truss if the West accepts the Russian sovereignty of Rostov and Voronezh. Whether it was simply a sarcastic comment or a small verbal ambush to make the minister fall into a beginner's mistake,
Since then, Truss, a close ally of Boris Johnson, has been one of the pieces of a machine that has made the United Kingdom one of Ukraine's main partners in military, political, diplomatic and economic terms. A few weeks ago, a confused Truss defended in Parliament the need to replace autocratic Russian oil with the apparently less autocratic Saudi oil and has been part of one of the governments that has imposed the most sanctions against Russia and its citizens, sanctions that have come even to the veto of Russian and Belarusian citizens in sporting events as important as Wimbledon.
In his last conversation before the transfer of power, Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the now former British prime minister for his unconditional support for Ukraine, which he hopes will continue with the new prime minister . In reality, continuity is guaranteed, not only because Truss has participated in the construction of the machinery of military, political and diplomatic support, but also because that machinery, already in motion, is difficult to stop given the certainty that there will be no negotiation of no peace, more confrontational positions than ever, and the state of war has become chronic. Western countries, the UK among them, have overinvested in their proxiesUkrainians, so a change in position is unlikely despite even the severe energy crisis that European countries are facing this winter.
In these six months, although the multimillion-dollar US military supply has made more and more headlines, the role of the United Kingdom in this war, which can be described as a proxy war or a proxy war, has gained great importance.against Russia. It is no coincidence that the UK intelligence report is one of the publications commented on daily by the Ukrainian press. Always in line with the official Ukrainian discourse - the British role in the communication strategy of the Ukrainian Government seems as clear as its participation in the preparation of the military strategy - British intelligence speaks daily of Russian failures, of the lack of the troops and from every mishap and only belatedly and underestimating the losses reports the Ukrainian defeats. Despite being an interested party involved in the conflict, albeit indirectly, these intelligence reports have become in recent months one of the main sources of the Western press to "inform" about the conflict.
British involvement in the war is not limited to communication strategy, delivery of intelligence data in real time or constant supply of weapons and financing to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. During Johnson's term, and it is likely to continue with Truss's term, the United Kingdom has become the training and instruction center for Ukrainian recruits who are later sent to the front, a key aspect when it comes to replacing those units that were decimated in the first months of hand-to-hand combat against Russia and the People's Republics. That instruction not only involves training in the use of weapons, but also in trench warfare and urban guerrilla warfare, an important aspect considering the type of war Ukraine has chosen to wage. As Mijailo Podoliak openly admitted in an interview with Western media, the city offers a series of defenses that the open countryside of the steppe does not favor. Among those advantages is, as has been shown in battles like the one in Mariupol, the possibility of hiding behind the human shields of the civilian population. On Monday, British media reported that 4,700 soldiers have already undergone British training - possibly seeking to use that formation in the current offensive in Kherson or in the nascent offensive in the Kharkov region, where in places like Izium the fighting is likely to reach the urban battle - and it is expected that tens of thousands will do so in the coming months.
The last week has also talked about the important role that Boris Johnson played, or said he played, in sabotaging a political resolution to the war between Russia and Ukraine last March. An article recently published in Foreign Policy , more related to the Russian vision of history than to the present, briefly mentions an agreement in principle between Moscow and Kiev last April, an agreement that, according to this version, fell apart due to the intervention of Boris Johnson, who traveled to Kiev to guarantee Zelensky long-term support in pursuit of a military victory against Russia. As published then by Ukrainian media such as Ukrainska Pravda, Johnson's intervention sought to let the Ukrainian president know that, although Ukraine could accept an agreement, the West would not, an evident way of pressuring kyiv to continue a war that had already cost thousands of lives and enormous destruction. Since then, both the number of civilian and military casualties and the destruction have multiplied and the chronification of the war in conditions of extreme political and economic confrontation between Russia and Ukraine's Western partners means that any risk to Western plans for Ukraine to fight a war to the end has disappeared.
Despite Johnson's willingness to give himself a more relevant role, the reality of the moment in which that negotiation took place made it clear that the agreement was unfeasible. Vladimir Medinsky's optimism after the meeting in Istanbul, in which the Turkish head of state even took part, who announced a road map for the end of the war that implied the Russian abandonment of all territory outside Donbass and the resignation of Ukraine to NATO in favor of a neutrality with security guarantees from third countries, was quickly destroyed by Mijailo Podoliak. Faced with what was suggested by Medinsky, who wanted to see Ukraine's willingness to recognize the loss of Crimea and Donbass in the principle of agreement, Podoliak quickly responded by recalling that kyiv would not make any territorial concessions. As was mentioned at the time, the deal was unworkable for several reasons. On the one hand, Russia and Ukraine could not negotiate security guarantees from third countries that, like the United States, they had already leaked to the press that they would not accept. On the other hand, the Russian will to believe that Ukraine would accept the loss of territories was guilty of excessive naivety that left the entire negotiating team sent by Moscow in doubt.
Boris Johnson's intervention was nothing more than the representation of the infeasibility of an agreement. However, the presence of the then British Prime Minister in kyiv, the first high-level figure to arrive in the Ukrainian capital since February 24, meant a temporary recovery of the figure of the questioned Johnson and a boost for Zelensky, already reaffirmed by the weapons supply guarantee.
Although perhaps in the shadow of its ally in Washington, the role of London has been key in propping up the Zelensky government and maintaining the combat capacity of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In this war, which goes far beyond the trench warfare in Donbass, the Novaya Kajovka bombings or the Kherson-Kharkov counter-offensive, London's role is not limited to sabotaging impossible negotiations, but is involved in the day-to-day of military and communication strategy and provides invaluable diplomatic support that translates into the media loyalty of the powerful British press. In this context, the change of leadership is nothing more than a change of faces at the forefront of official communications.
https://slavyangrad.es/2022/09/07/25453/#more-25453
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Ukraine - A Second 'Counteroffensive' Contrary To U.S. Advice - IAEA Report
The Ukrainian 'counteroffensive' in the southern Kherson region has made little progress and binds a lot of Ukrainian resources and available units.
Despite that, and against advice from the U.S. military, Ukraine has now launched a second 'counteroffensive' in the north-eastern Kharkiv region of Ukraine.
AZ 🛰 @AZmilitary1 - 13:06 UTC · Sep 6, 2022
AFU has launched an offensive on Balakleya, heavy fighting started is underway
For more than a month, the AFU pulled together reserves and created a strike force in the Kharkiv direction.
Now, after a powerful artillery preparation, they have gone on the offensive, throwing forward armored vehicles, fighting is going on on the outskirts of the city.
The artillery and aviation of the Russian army are hitting the sprawling advancing enemy forces.
Allied forces blew up bridges to obstruct the AFU's advance.
Armored vehicles work in battles on the outskirts.
Allied reserves are being tightened.
The Russian Aerospace Forces struck the headquarters of the operational command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Chuguev
The offensive in the south is not a distraction, it's just that the enemy has planned and launched several offensive operations, and attempts to break through are also continuing in the Kherson region
There is no panic. In Balakleya there are mostly mobilized. Now reserves are going to Balakleya. The barrel and rocket artillery are working. Aviation is actively working.
There is no talk of a deep breakthrough. The situation + is similar to the Nahtsee counteroffensive in the Kherson direction.
Balakleya (Balaklya, Balakliia) originally had 25,000 inhabitants, many of whom will likely have departed by now. On March 3 it was taken by Russian forces without much fighting.
Here is an overview of the area. Balakleya is in the middle of the map, southeast of Kharkiv and northwest of Izium.
Here are more details. West and south of the city are various rivers and streams but also some woods where troops can assemble and hide until they get called up.
Attacking across a river is always dangerous as supplies and the way of retreat can easily be cut off.
A satellite view of the city. To the north-northeast of the city, where the above map shows a rail yard, was once a very large ammunition depot. In March 2017 it famously blew up (vid). Back then the city was evacuated. Lots of houses got damaged (vid).
West of the former strategic ammunition depot is the village of Verbovka where fighting is currently ongoing.
I do not understand why the Ukrainian military decided to attack in Balakleya. A medium size city is relative easy to defend. The rivers on the Ukrainian approach make it difficult to keep the supplies going. The bridges can be bombed any time. The city is not really near to any significant supply route between Russia and Izium which was the target of previous offensives in the area (all failed). The strategic value of the city is thus dubious.
A week ago it was reported that the U.S. military had urged Ukraine to not launch several 'counteroffensives':
In the buildup to the current Ukrainian counteroffensive, the US urged Kyiv to keep the operation limited in both its objectives and its geography to avoid getting overextended and bogged down on multiple fronts, multiple US and western officials and Ukrainian sources tell CNN.
Those discussions involved engaging in "war-gaming" with Kyiv, the sources said -- analytical exercises that were intended to help the Ukrainian forces understand what force levels they would need to muster to be successful in different scenarios.
The Ukrainians were initially considering a broader counteroffensive, but narrowed their mission to the south, in the Kherson region, in recent weeks, US and Ukrainian officials said.
Its really hard to understand why the Ukraine is launching two operations with the main effort in both involving a river crossing. They bind resources that will likely soon be needed in the south of the Donetsk region where the Russian 3rd Corp is preparing for an attack.
The latest Rybar report on the situation near Balakleya says (machine translation):
The situation in the Kharkov direction as of 17.00 September 6, 2022
After several days of artillery preparation, the Armed Forces of Ukraine launched an attack on Balakleya, which had been occupied back in March. The Ukrainian command has been preparing an offensive for a month and daily transferring equipment and personnel to the city: the last large column passed through Andreevka, located to the north-west, just yesterday.
Ukrainian units advanced from the village of Prishib in the direction of Verbovka to the north of the city. Local resources reported that bridges across the Balakleyka and Extreme Balakleyka rivers were blown up in order to prevent further advancement of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, while some of the overpasses were allegedly put out of action in advance in the previous few days.
Despite the bravura statements of Ukrainian resources, units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not enter Balakleya. All battles are currently taking place in the area of the village of Verbovka and the 65th arsenal located there. Reinforcements of the RF Armed Forces were sent to the city and its environs.
The Russian Aerospace Forces attacked the headquarters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Chuguev, from where the leadership of the attack on Balakleya was going. In order to camouflage, the Ukrainian command set up a false command post in the city, but the RF Armed Forces did not fall for the trick and hit the target.
At the same time, unconfirmed information appeared about the advance of Russian troops in the north of the Kharkiv region in the direction of the village of Shestakovo and the capture of the settlements of Bayrak and Peremoga.
In other news the IAEA has published its report (pdf) on nuclear safeguards in Ukraine. As expected the report does not say that the Ukraine army is shelling the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant (ZNPP), which the IAEA recently visited. It also does not say that Russia is shelling the plant (which it does not). The shells and the damage the IAEA has seen during its visit just somehow must have appeared from the sky.
It reports that the personnel on the site is working under nearly normal shift conditions and is not under pressure from Russia. The Ukraine had falsely claimed that the reactor crews were under duress.
Posted by b on September 6, 2022 at 15:58 UTC | Permalink
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/09/u ... .html#more
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IAEA Report on Zaporozhye NPP Mentions “Mysterious Shelling” 52 Times, Doesn’t Name Culprits
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 6, 2022
Ilya Tsukanov
The United Nations nuclear energy watchdog sent a high-level delegation of experts to the massive nuclear power plant last week. Moscow accused Kiev of trying to sabotage the mission via a botched offensive, and of engaging in “nuclear terrorism” by repeatedly attacking and shelling the facility with mortars, drones, and artillery.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has released a much-anticipated report on the security situation at Ukraine’s nuclear facilities.
The 52-page document summarizes “preliminary nuclear safety and security findings” from last week’s expert mission to the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant and missions to the Chernobyl NPP from earlier this year, and provides an update on the country’s other nuclear plants.
The report outlines “seven pillars” for nuclear safety, including the need to maintain the physical integrity of nuclear facilities, the continued functioning of safety and security systems at all times, the fulfillment of safety and security duties by nuclear plant staff, reliable off-site power supply from the grid in case of an emergency, reliable logistics and transport supply chains, radiation monitoring, and “reliable communications with the regulator.”
Mysterious Shelling
The report contains a Ukraine-biased approach in discussing the “physical integrity” of the country’s nuclear facilities, particularly as concerns the Zaporozhye plant, citing “Ukrainian reports” on the alleged deployment of Russian military equipment at the ZNPP, and dangers said to arise from Russian cruise missiles flying overhead.
The report mentions shelling attacks on the ZNPP 52 times, but does not say who is responsible (Ukrainian and Western media have previously reported that the plant was being shelled by Russian forces – the same Russian forces which have controlled the facility since March. Russia has blamed the Ukrainian military).
The document expresses the IAEA’s “concern” with the impact that shelling may have had on “safety-related structures, systems and components,” and, citing agency director Rafael Grossi’s remarks following his return from last Thursday’s inspection, stresses “that while past events had not yet triggered a nuclear emergency, they represented a constant threat to nuclear safety and security because critical safety functions (containment of the radioactivity and cooling in particular) could be impacted.”
The IAEA’s recommendation to ensure the continued physical integrity of the ZNPP is as follows:
“The IAEA recommends that shelling on site and in its vicinity should be stopped immediately to avoid any further damages to the plant and associated facilities, for the safety of the operating staff and to maintain the physical integrity to support safe and secure operation. This requires agreements by all relevant parties to the establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the ZNPP.”
The report also mentions the presence of Rosatom specialists at the ZNPP, saying that the IAEA fears that their involvement “could lead to interference with the normal lines of operational command or authority and create potential frictions when it comes to decision-making.” The document at least admits that the plant’s regular management and staff continue to work as normal, but cites anxieties and pressures they have faced, including from shelling incidents (the culprit of the shelling is again not named), as well as problems stemming from staff shortages.
Additionally, the document provides a summary of the IAEA’s findings from their April visit to the defunct Chernobyl NPP, mentioning “extremely stressful and tiring conditions” experienced by staff during spring, particularly after the loss of regular offsite power and the turn to reliance on emergency diesel generators while the plant was under Russian control. The document does not attribute responsibility for the attacks on the plant’s external power sources. The Russian military said Ukrainian forces were responsible. Russian troops withdrew from Chernobyl at the end of March in a bid to calm the situation.
The watchdog’s report concludes with a congratulatory self-pat on the back, boasting that “despite the very challenging current circumstances, the IAEA has continued to implement safeguards in Ukraine.”
The ZNPP is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, and ordinarily accounts for nearly half of all electricity generated by Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, and 20 percent of the country’s annual power production. The Russian military has held the facility and its six reactors since March, and and Moscow and local authorities have repeatedly accused the Ukrainian military of attacking the plant throughout the past five-and-a-half months and threatening to spark a nuclear catastrophe.
The ZNPP was built by the Soviets in the late 1980s, and has faced several emergency nuclear close calls over the past decade in the aftermath of the 2014 Euromaidan coup. In 2014, a technical fault caused one of the plant’s reactors to shut down, contributing to rolling blackouts faced across the country that year and in early 2015. In 2020, Ukrainian nuclear industry workers sounded the alarm about the situation across their sector, warning of the dangers of “another Chernobyl” caused by lax safety standards, a critical shortage of finances, incompetent management, and the switchover to the use of American-made nuclear fuel rods.
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... -culprits/
Winter is Coming: Prague’s 70,000-Strong Protest Shows What’s in Store for Europe
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 6, 2022
Bradley Blankenship
Around 70,000 people gathered in Prague’s Wenceslas Square on Saturday to demand the resignation of their government in response to what they see as a failure to address the ongoing energy crisis. The protesters were also explicitly against the two foremost Western institutions that the formerly Eastern-aligned nation is a part of, namely the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
If you ask Prime Minister Petr Fiala of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) what the problem is, he’d simply say that these tens of thousands of people are just unknowing pro-Russian stooges. To quote him verbatim, he said “the protest on Wenceslas Square was called by forces that are pro-Russian, are close to extreme positions and are against the interests of the Czech Republic.” He reiterated his stance on Monday after criticism, calling the organizers of this protest a “Russian fifth column.”
Some commentators have even gone a step further, suggesting the protestors want to literally rejoin the Warsaw Pact and return to the communist era. Having lived in the Czech Republic for some time, I can say that this entire line is absurd. By and large, Czechs want to be Western. They want their country to be an open and free society, as opposed to the virtual dungeon that was the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic.
Due to the way history is framed in the country, as well, even the most liberal of Czechs can’t help but feel a tinge of resentment against Russia and even Russians. That is, in my opinion, entirely by design as the Western turn of the country has correlated almost directly with an anti-Russian sentiment. The more the Czech political establishment embraces the West, the more Czech people are whipped up to hate Russia.
Given this, I find it very unlikely that so many people took time out of their day to rally in support of the Russian state. On the contrary, what actually drew 70,000 people to the streets on Saturday is to do with the fact that the cost of living is rising tremendously, real wages are falling and the government is insisting on a foreign policy line that is exacerbating the problem. It is all perfectly logical and does not require a conspiracy.
In fact, Czech union leaders called for a demonstration on October 8 at the same location as the Saturday protest over the exact same issues. Does the prime minister actually believe that the Russians have infiltrated the Czech labor movement? Given the prevalent enmity against Russia and Russians in Czech society, this seems extraordinarily unlikely.
Again, we are only left with the conclusion – as bizarre as it might sound to the political elite – that the concerns that people addressed reflect exactly how they feel. Life is becoming unaffordable and Czechs don’t want to live a life of destitution and precarity to prop up the Ukrainian government. That is a matter of pure self-preservation and says nothing about purported “values” and ideals.
What happened in Prague is only a glimpse of what’s to come for Western countries if they continue on the same path – and you can take that to the bank. There are already signs of social unrest all over the continent due to the rising cost of living, especially energy prices, and we haven’t even arrived at the official end of summer yet.
If we take September 1 as the de facto beginning of autumn, just days after that 70,000 demonstrated in Prague. The question is, how will things look when the cold months set in and heating becomes too expensive? How many people have to take to the streets before the likes of Prime Minister Fiala admit there’s a problem and don’t just pin social unrest on a Russian conspiracy?
We have already seen the degree to which people will not sacrifice their own self-interest, or even simply their convenience, for some idea of the greater good during the COVID-19 pandemic. The coronavirus revealed that such ideals are utterly useless in rallying Western populations. People are too individualistic and stubborn. The greater good is not good enough, apparently.
With this in mind, does anyone actually believe that EU citizens are willing to fall into poverty for Vladimir Zelensky and his government? Highly unlikely. Europe is looking at a very difficult cold season this year if the current foreign policy line stays in place. First Prague, next Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid and so on.
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... or-europe/
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From Cassad's Telegram Account:
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Colonelcassad
Izyum Front : situation near Balakleya by the end of September 6, 2022
Due to its geographical position, without control over Balakleya, it is difficult to secure the northwestern flank of the group based in Izyum. In addition, if someday the RF Armed Forces again pay attention to Kharkov itself , a convenient route runs from Balakliya through Zmiev to the Slobodskaya and Industrialny districts of the regional center.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine, after inflicting massive fire damage on mobilized militiamen from the DPR, who were on the defensive in the nearest forests, entered the village of Verbovka .
From there, the only route to the territory of the 65th arsenal and Balakleya itself is still preserved through the Srednyaya Balakleyka River . The bridge across the river is intact, fighting is underway for control over it.
From Verbovka, the Armed Forces of Ukraine developed success towards the village of Yakovenkovo , trying to advance towards Volokhov Yar and completely block Balakleya from the north.
Now the road Volokhov Yar - Balakleya is under the fire control of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The bridges located to the south across the Balakleyka and Extreme Balakleyka rivers have been blown up, so communication with the central regions of Balakleya is now interrupted. The Ukrainian formations did not enter the Camp
area , located on the western bank of the Balakleyka River to the north of its tributary ( Lyakhovaya River ) . There is also no confirmation of the presence of the RF Armed Forces in this area.
There were reports that the RF Armed Forces were moving south of the village of Bayrak and expanding the zone of control towards Gusarovka . But so far there are no facts that could confirm this.
At the moment, Balakleya is in operational encirclement and in the zone of fire destruction of Ukrainian artillery. All entrances are cut by fire.
***
Colonelcassad
Special operation, 6 September. The main thing from RIA Novosti :
Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed up to 100 militants of the Ukrainian 65th mechanized brigade in the Zaporozhye region
Russian troops are inflicting precision strikes on units and reserves of Ukrainian troops, which continued their attempts to attack in separate areas in the Nikolaev-Kryvyi Rih direction during the day
Ships of the Russian Navy hit a large Ukrainian fuel storage facility in the Dnepropetrovsk region, which supplied fuel to a grouping of Ukrainian troops in the Nikolaev-Krivoy Rog direction, with a Caliber strike.
The Russian military with high-precision air-launched weapons destroyed up to 250 military Ukrainian 54th and 93rd mechanized brigades in the DPR, and Russian air defense systems shot down 11 shells of Ukrainian HIMARS MLRS in the area of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station
Two residents of Kharkiv Izyum, including a 95-year-old veteran of the Great Patriotic War, died as a result of massive shelling, RIA Novosti was told in the press service of the regional administration
Kyiv fired 15 times at Energodar and the Zaporizhzhya NPP, 20 shells were fired from the area of the settlement of Marganets in the Dnepropetrovsk region, including three on the territory of the station, Ukrainian artillery units were suppressed by return fire from the Russian military
The IAEA published a report on the results of the inspection at the Zaporozhye NPP. The report states that it is necessary to stop all hostilities that may affect the power supply systems of the station, and an agreement is also needed by all parties to create a protective zone around the Zaporizhzhya NPP in order to avoid damage.
The head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Leonid Slutsky, commenting on the report, said that all calls for a ceasefire should be directed strictly towards Kyiv
Volodymyr Rogov, a member of the main council of the administration of the Zaporozhye region, said that the IAEA delegation turned a blind eye to the situation with the shelling of the ZNPP by Ukraine and retired from their official duties
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Colonelcassad
The situation in the Soledar direction
by the end of September 6, 2022
Detachments of "PMC Wagner" established full control over the village of Kodema. Fierce battles for him have been going on since mid-summer.
The liberation of Kodema will allow developing in the direction of Zaitsevo from the south to reach the southern approaches to Bakhmut, which in the future will make it possible to storm the city from several directions simultaneously.
The front line in Soledar has not changed significantly: clashes continue on the southern outskirts of the city and in the adjacent village of Bakhmutskoye.
The allied forces continue to carry out artillery strikes on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in settlements along the line of contact, as well as on the places of concentration of enemy manpower and equipment.
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forwarded from
Voenkor Kitten Z
Military expert Boris Rozhin on the course of the special military operation of the Russian Federation in Ukraine on December 20, 09/06/2022, specially for the Voenkor Kotenok channel Z @voenkorKotenok :
1.
Raisin.
The enemy launched an offensive on Balakleya and started fighting for the village of Verbovka to the north-west of Balakleya.
The fighting took on a positional character, at least 2 bridges were blown up in the city. Both sides are actively using artillery and MLRS. The Russian Aerospace Forces are working.
In Chuguev, the headquarters of the Ukrainian group was destroyed.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine launched rocket attacks on Izyum and Kupyansk.
Balakleya - under artillery fire.
Highway Volkhov Yar - Balakleya and the arsenal under the control of the RF Armed Forces.
2.
Kharkov.
The enemy here has not yet been able to go on a full-fledged offensive, both in the Uda region and near Borshcheva.
The RF Armed Forces are crushing the enemy in the area of Rubezhnoye, Verkhny Saltov, Bayrak and Peremoga. There are unconfirmed reports of progress towards Shestakovo.
The Chuguev area is being actively processed by artillery and aviation. There are arrivals in Kharkov.
The enemy continues shelling the border settlements of the Russian Federation.
3.
Kherson.
In most areas, the fighting took on a positional character. The enemy continues to try to expand the bridgehead on the Ingulets River near Andreevka. There are battles near Kostroma and Sukhoi Stavka. The crossings of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Ingulets were again broken.
The enemy strikes at Novaya Kakhovka, the outskirts of Kherson and in the area of Berislav.
The Russian Armed Forces destroyed a large oil depot in Krivoy Rog, and also carried out traditional strikes in the Nikolaev region.
4.
In the area of Vysokopolye , the enemy continued to attempt to advance south in the direction of Berislav, fierce battles continue here with significant losses on both sides.
In fact, it is the Nikopol direction that is now creating the most significant problems.
On Nikolaevsky, the enemy has already run out of steam, on Krivoy Rog, he is running out of steam.
5.
Avdiivka.
Our troops started fighting on the outskirts of Pervomaisk, and also cleared the seed station near Sands, drove the enemy away from two bridges on the ring road.
In the area of Avdiivka itself, there are no significant changes, as well as in Marinka with Ugledar.
6.
Artemovsk.
PMC "Wagner" took the Code. Enemy counterattacks with the use of armored vehicles were repelled.
The loss of the Codema complicates the position of the Armed Forces of Ukraine southeast of Artemivsk.
***
Colonelcassad
The battle for Kherson: the situation in the Andreevsky sector
as of 18.00 on September 6, the
Andreevsky sector of the front in the Nikolaev-Krivoy Rog direction remains a zone of active fighting.
Throughout the night and early morning, the Armed Forces of Ukraine transferred reinforcements to the south coast, trying to expand the bridgehead. And if the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not succeed in advancing further than Sukhoi Stavka, then today efforts were concentrated on the direction of Belogorka .
In the first half of the day, the Russian Aerospace Forces put out of action all three crossings that were functioning today. Artillery fire prevented the pontoon-bridge park of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from building a new crossing.
To the south-east of Bereznegovatoy in a forest plantation, the Smerch MLRS destroyed the reserves of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which were planned to be transferred to the south. In the village of Krasnopolye , two Ukrainian self-propelled guns were put out of action . By evening, the Armed Forces of Ukraine transferred two 152 mm Giacint-B guns to Bereznegovatoe.
The infantry of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, having crossed Ingulets at night, dispersed along the Plotnitsky tract and began advancing towards Belogorka from the northwest. Around 13.00 Moscow time, the offensive was thwarted: Russian bombers destroyed the enemy grouping on the northwestern outskirts of the village.
In the area of Sukhoi Headquarters and Andreevka , the RF Armed Forces continue to destroy scattered enemy groups with artillery fire and bombing strikes of the Russian Aerospace Forces.
On the northern bank of the Ingulets, reserves in manpower and equipment are still preserved. There are no more new tanks: basically, they are throwing BMP-1s and lightly armored vehicles of Western production.
***
forwarded from
Older than Edda
By Balakleya. The Armed Forces of Ukraine, as many warned, went on the offensive in this sector of the front. Enough forces were brought up, including tanks and artillery. In the morning they caught on the outskirts of the city, but the main direction of impact is still the Balakleya-Kupyansk highway, where they are trying to break through. At the moment, there are fights, the AFU did not succeed in cutting off Balakleya. It is necessary to take this offensive with all seriousness, and not try to shower it with caps and bravura statements.
https://t.me/s/boris_rozhin
Google Translator
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Ukraine: How British Intelligence Globalized Online Trolling
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 6, 2022
Kit Klarenberg
Since the conflict in Ukraine began, numerous commentators have drawn attention to the blatant weaponization of social media in service of the proxy war.
Legions of users on Facebook, Twitter, and other major platforms, many anonymous and recently registered, have relentlessly propounded pro-intervention, pro-Ukraine propaganda, viciously attacking all those deviating even slightly from established Western narratives. It has created an unprecedented situation, which writer Caitlin Johnstone calls “the most aggressively trolled war of all time.”
Of course, this hostile informational milieu didn’t abruptly emerge when Russia intervened in Ukraine on February 24th. For many years, public spaces online have been subject to an ever-intensifying blitzkrieg both by dedicated state-run bot and troll networks, and apparently grassroots initiatives. In respect of the latter, the one that started it all was the Lithuanian Elves, back in 2015.
An ostensibly informal collective of concerned citizens banding together to rebut Russian “fake news”, its activists have been praised effusively in the mainstream for their troll-busting prowess, and repeatedly held up as a paragon Western states must follow in order to effectively battle purported “disinformation”.
Unsurprisingly though, none of the countless glowing media profiles of the movement published to date have recognized that the movement has all along benefited from the sponsorship and promotion of British intelligence.
Covert operatives in London immediaely seized upon the Elves concept, then exported its model globally, in the process constructing a clandestine network of operatives to sway debate, influence policy, and distort perceptions the world over.
‘21st century resistance fighters’
References to this spectral background are, perhaps predictably, absent from an official biography of the Elves, provided in a chapter contributed to an academic handbook on “Disinformation and Fake News” by Giedrius Sakalauskas, one of the movement’s founders. Nonetheless, revealing – if romantic – insight into the group’s modus operandi is forthcoming.
There are; “debunkers” seeking to identify and expose “hostile propaganda”; “troll killers” mass reporting perceived malign actors and bot accounts to social media platforms, so they’re deplatformed; “motivators” spreading “positive news” about Lithuania, the EU and NATO “in order to make people proud of their own country”; and operatives “fighting trolls and their information using humor, irony, and sarcasm as a weapon.”
Oddly, Sakalauskas contradicts himself on the number of people involved, first stating “it is not easy to calculate how many Elves we have today, as there are different tribes,” but later on asserting Lithuania’s Elf chapter alone comprises “over 4,000 activists who participate as needed.”
They are mobilized via groups on social media and chat platforms, some of which are labeled “secret”. Elves “do not know each other’s real names or meet up in person; more often than not, they remain anonymous, in order to avoid being identified by the other side. But when we have a target, we are together [emphasis added].”
Sakalauskas goes on to describe a series of orchestrated actions by the Elves, in the process admitting their activities are anything but reactive – indeed, they avowedly subscribe to the philosophy that “the best defense is offence.”
For example, a number of Elves mounted a campaign against Russian state-owned outlet Sputnik, relentlessly spamming its Facebook page with negative comments and memes, and decreasing its ‘rating’ from 4.3 to 2.6 out of five in just six days.
Sakalauskas outlines #StopAdidas campaign
Then, in the lead up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup, the Elves targeted Adidas after the international sportswear giant produced a range of t-shirts bearing the Soviet hammer and sickle, prompting a deluge of negative media coverage the world over. In just two days, the company bowed to the harassment and withdrew offending products from sale. Markedly, Sakalauskas states that a “group of likeminded Ukrainian activists joined in on the action.”
The Elves repeated the effort later that year, this time targeting Walmart for its own assortment of Communist-themed garments, and once again emerging victorious in short order. A core component of both campaigns was sarcastically suggesting the target companies create dedicated lines of totalitarian-themed attire – a meme bearing the inscription “Walmart, why not swastika?” was widely circulated, as were corresponding hashtags on Twitter.
The Lithuanian Elves at work
These efforts are rather chilling, given for many years Vilnius has keenly embraced and perpetuated the dangerous, duplicitous myth of “double genocide” – namely, that Nazi liquidation of Lithuania’s population, in particular its Jews, during World War II is absolutely equal to political repression practiced during subsequent decades of Soviet occupation.
In 2010, the UK ambassador to Vilnius was lead author of a joint diplomatic letter expressing grave concerns about this push – he was forced out of the post not long after. That same year, Vilnius passed legislation significantly restricting public discourse about the Holocaust, and apportioning blame for mass slaughter of Jews exclusively to the Nazis. In reality, Lithuanians began carrying out this genocide before Axis forces had even reached the country.
Once they arrived, many citizens were actively complicit in large-scale pogroms, resulting in 90 percent of Lithuania’s estimated 250,000-strong Jewish population being exterminated. In all, more Jews were killed, in both percentage terms and total number, than in the far larger and more populous Germany.
A core component of this Holocaust revisionism is deification of the Forest Brothers, a band of anti-Soviet resistance fighters who for over a decade following World War II fought an ill-fated insurgency against Communist authorities across the Baltics. It is an established historical fact that overwhelmingly, these individuals were former Waffen SS collaborators and/or had been part of ‘stay-behind’ battalions created by Nazis as they prepared to evacuate the region, in advance of the Red Army’s arrival.
Yet, Lithuania – along with neighboring Estonia and Latvia – is committed to whitewashing the Brothers’ true nature, instead presenting them as courageous freedom fighters. Disturbingly, this bunkum has now been overwhelmingly accepted by Western governments and power structures, despite the vast readily available evidence to the contrary.
For example, the EU’s official position is that any suggestion the Brothers were “Nazi collaborators, criminals and terrorists” is Russian “disinformation”. Even more shockingly, in 2017 NATO released a slick film reinforcing this grossly distorted reading of history.
There are good reasons to believe production of that sordid propaganda, and in turn Western endorsement of “double genocide”, was heavily influenced by the Elves – with, as we shall soon see, the assistance of British intelligence.
Tantalizingly, Sakalauskas rounds out his chapter by revealing that the Lithuanian military’s Stratcom – information warfare – division serendipitously “noticed the Elves and was impressed.” As he tells it, the Elves’ exploits were then publicized at a 2015 NATO summit in Latvia, with resultant conference discussions about the movement unexpectedly “leaked” to media outlets across the Baltic states.
“It was a big shock that the world’s largest military alliance had discovered the Elves,” Sakalauskas excitedly records. “The coverage gave the Elves a chance to promote themselves in the public sphere and spread the message about [the] Elves movement internationally.”
‘Sponsoring a network of Elves’
The proposition that Lithuania’s Armed Forces just so happened to fortuitously stumble upon the Elves is difficult enough to accept on its own terms, but is rendered especially implausible given the contents of leaked files documenting the internal workings of Integrity Initiative, a covert Foreign Office intelligence operation.
These papers show that in 2015, at the same time as the Elves were being touted by NATO, the Initiative forged a “close link” with the Lithuanian Armed Forces Stratcom division. Several passages dotted across the trove strongly suggest there is little meaningful distinction between this unit and the Elves.
Integrity Initiative diagram of its Lithuanian operations
For example, the Initiative initiated a direct line between the Stratcom team and British Army online psyops battalion 77th Brigade, which resulted in the Brigade “adopting Lithuanian techniques.” In turn, the organization received sizable sums from the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense to arrange monthly trips abroad for its Stratcom staff, so further internet armies explicitly based on the Elves model could be taught in “infowar techniques” practiced by the group.
“Lithuania has become particularly important in our network due to its expertise in dealing with Russian malign influence and disinformation,” one document states. “We are sponsoring a network of ‘Elves’, set up to counter Russian trolls.”
The Foreign Office funded the construction of this “network”, which Integrity Initiative delivered by establishing an “Elves academy”, where scores of participants from all over the EU were routinely whisked to Vilnius for four-day workshops, and received “practical lessons and training” in the fine art of trolling. Participants subsequently received in-country follow up visits from “Elves instructors”, to ensure their local networks “[developed] effectively.”
Excerpt from Integrity Initiative file
“The Elves provide necessary knowledge for the development and implementation of an effective civic response,” an Initiative document declares. “Civic activists and volunteers [become] actively engaged in cyber resistance and digital resilience.”
By early 2018, the Dutch, Norwegian and Spanish defense ministries had also received direct training from the Elves and 77th Brigade, resultantly creating corresponding “units within their own ranks.”
Comparable divisions will have inevitably been created elsewhere in the years since. The organization had grand plans to circulate these and other meddling methods to the US, and a separate chapter in the aforementioned Disinformation and Fake News handbook moreover indicates former British colony Singapore has taken lessons from the Elves in tackling online “disinformation”.
There are clear indications too that Integrity Initiative was involved in the production of NATO’s Forest Brothers promotional clip. One file notes the organization is in receipt of “funding from NATO HQ for educational video films,” and been provided a camera team free of charge by the military alliance for the purpose, at precisely the time the clip was published. Two years later, it published an essay criticizing “Kremlin disinformation” regarding the Brothers on its now-defunct website.
Excerpt from Integrity Initiative file
‘Intentionally false and defamatory’
In his handbook chapter, Sakalauskas incongruously concedes the risk of his Elves movement being “hijacked” by “local extremist groups” would “always exist”, although dismissed the prospect’s significance on the bizarre basis that new recruits “having [their] heart in the right place” would be “enough” to ensure the project wasn’t malignly infiltrated.
A cynic might query whether extremism was hardwired into the Elves and their foreign counterparts from the very beginning. A leaked Foreign Office-commissioned assessment accuses the group of “fomenting anti-Russian prejudice and spreading falsehoods.” The same appraisal was even more scathing of Propastop, a similar endeavor funded by the Estonian Ministry of Defense, which has likewise been endorsed by the EU, NATO, Western think tanks, and the media, and is often characterized as a regional ‘sister’ of the Elves.
Foreign Office-funded assessment of the Lithuanian Elves
Propastop was said to be linked to “neo-fascist groups” and have incited violence against Estonia’s Russophone minority – “its reporting is widely considered to lack credibility and they have published a number of intentionally false and defamatory articles about Russian media outlets.” Eerily, Propastop content rebutting claims of discrimination against Estonia’s Russian-speaking population has been widely shared on social media since the war in Ukraine began.
Foreign Office-funded assessment of Propastop
Furthermore, Integrity Initiative “linked directly” Lithuania’s Stratcom team – and thus inevitably the Elves – with Kiev’s StopFake, “to exchange practical experience.” The Kiev-based organization has received sizable US and UK government funding, and serves as one of Facebook’s dedicated in-country factcheckers for Ukraine, despite its lengthy history of whitewashing neo-Nazism, and cohering ties to white supremacist elements.
StopFake is far from the only entity determined to sanitize Kiev’s open, state-level embrace of fascism. Numerous Western media outlets have declared this demonstrable reality fake news, while legions of web activists stand ever-poised to malign anyone and everyone daring to acknowledge the truth – the most prominent and belligerent example of this phenomenon being NAFO – the self-styled “North Atlantic Fellas Organisation”.
A vast online nexus identifiable by “doge” profile photos, they independently and in coordination counter “disinformation” about NATO and Ukraine – and its alleged disseminators, who are derisively labeled “vatniks” – with an inexorable blend of absurdity, ad hominem, memes, and ridicule, all while raising money for Kiev.
NAFO has claimed responsibility for chasing a Russian diplomat offline, and endlessly mass reporting accounts and tweets until offending users are temporarily or permanently suspended. Such trolling also has a real-world component.
On August 4th, Amnesty International published a report on Kiev endangering its population by basing forces and weaponry in residential areas, including schools and hospitals, which constitutes a war crime. Three days later, CBS broadcast a program revealing only 30 percent of Western arm shipments to Ukraine reach the frontline. NAFO took a lead role in harassing the two organizations subsequently, and corralling bulk submissions of complaints to official bodies over their output.
What impact these coordinated actions may have had in isolation is difficult to quantify – they were just one component of a much wider on and offline backlash against Amnesty and CBS for highlighting the realities of Ukraine’s war effort, which in sum proved highly effective in crushing dissent.
Amnesty issued an apology for the “anger and distress” its factual reporting may have caused, while CBS pulled its documentary, and an accompanying promotional trailer and article, from the web outright. It has since been “updated” to claim “the situation has significantly improved” since the documentary was filmed, and “a much larger quantity now gets where it’s supposed to go.” Which is reassuring.
High-level support for NAFO is clear. For example, Paul Massaro, US government foreign policy advisor and two-fisted cheerleader for Kiev, has referred to the ensemble as “one of the most effective counter-disinformation campaigns in history.” The Economist, Politico and Washington Post all published fawning billet doux to the Fellas within 24 hours as August became September. Their actions have even inspired a range of branded merchandise.
Accusations NAFO is sponsored or directed by intelligence actors abound, to the extent its members have transformed charges to that effect into an in-joke meme – they claim they cannot possibly be supported by the CIA, because “there is no CIA.”
Given the palpable similarities between NAFO and the Lithuanian Elves, such denials could well be sincere – after all, the effort’s nucleus might lie in London, rather than Washington DC.
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... -trolling/
Kherson: What Happens Next? – Russian Ops in Ukraine Update September 6, 2022
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 6, 2022
Update on Russian military operations in Ukraine for September 6, 2022
– While fighting continues around Kherson, it remains positional, signifying the end of Kiev’s long-planned offensive;
– Western sources continue citing factors they believe limit Russian operations consistent with flawed Western thinking regarding Russian military capabilities stretching back to 2014-2015;
– Elements of Ukraine’s Kherson offensive appear inspired by lessons “learned” from fighting in the Donbass in 2014-2015;
– Fighting around Kherson depends on pontoon bridges on both sides, affording neither a clear advantage in terms of the means of logistics;
– Ukrainians involved in the “offensive” note they do not have the armor, artillery, or airpower to succeed;
References:
UK Ministry of Defense – Latest Intelligence Update, September 6, 2022 (Twitter): https://twitter.com/DefenceHQ/status/…
Institute for the Study of War – RUSSIAN OFFENSIVE CAMPAIGN ASSESSMENT, SEPTEMBER 5: https://www.understandingwar.org/back…
Moon Over Alabama – Kherson ‘Counteroffensive’ – Zelenski Is Going For Broke: https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/09…
Alex Christoforou – Kherson, 3rd & 4th waves. Macron, Scholz warn Vucic. Erdogan warns Greece. In Liz we Truss. Update 2: https://youtu.be/BCnQHhqN8X8
Alexander Merouris – Kherson Offensive at Standstill, US Weapons Stocks Depleted, EU Throws Money at Gas Crisis-Inflation: https://youtu.be/-JBqM2g4tFw
Al Jazeera – Ukraine claims counteroffensive success to ‘starve the Russians’: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9…
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... er-6-2022/