Curious how strongly they will object and how much the rest of the alliance will pressure them to back down on this.
My personal opinion is that they are using this as a bargaining chip to use on some or various other issues. I’m the end the Turks will extract something or improve their negotiating position on some issues, and they will sign off on the expansion of NATO to include these two Nordic nations.
"Government at its best is a necessary evil, and at it�s worst, an intolerable one." Thomas Paine (from "Common Sense" 1776)
"The time for war has not yet come, but it will come and that soon, and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." Gen. T.J. Jackson, March 1861
...For months, Russian officials have warned against the two countries taking this decisive step, but now that it has actually happened, Putin appears to be doing his best to diminish the significance of the act.
"As for the expansion of NATO, including through new members of the alliance which are Finland, Sweden — Russia has no problems with these states,” Putin said Monday at a summit of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, a military alliance composed of several post-Soviet states. Putin plays down the threat
For months, Russian officials have been saying that should Finland and Sweden join NATO, Russia would receive it as a threat, and respond by building up its military capabilities in the Baltic Sea. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev even suggested in April that nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles could be deployed. Just last week, Putin warned that Finland joining NATO would be a “mistake,” and suggested that Russia would interpret it as an act of aggression.
But Putin signaled on Monday that Finland and Sweden’s decision to join NATO is one of relative unimportance, and does not constitute a danger to Russia....
French ex-soldier Adrien Bocquet spent three weeks in Ukraine and what he saw there will be etched on his mind forever, he said. Once back home he was dismayed to learn that the media keep inviting "experts" who have not been to Ukraine and have no idea what is going on there.
Published: May 14, 2022, 12:55 pm
Read more
'Russia has no refugee camps' A Swede who survived the Russian attack on a NATO training camp speaks out 'Majority of the Ukrainians don’t support neo-Nazi Azov Battalion' All Ukrainian media are now controlled by Zelensky and his oligarch benefactor Dutch journalist reports on 'unprecedented NATO arsenal' in Ukraine Canadian sniper: 'The war is a terrible disappointment'
Courbevoie
Speaking to French radio station Sud Radio, Adrien Bocquet said he had witnessed “a lot of war crimes“. All those war crimes were committed by Ukrainian soldiers and not by Russian soldiers, he pointed out. Bocquet is therefore enormously alarmed that Europe is sending weapons to Ukrainian neo-Nazis. They wear all kinds of Nazi symbols on their uniforms. They do not hide these symbols. What is more, they boast about them, he said.
“I worked with them and gave them medicine. Do you know what they said? That they would skin Jews or blacks if they had the chance.” This certainly does not align with the mainstream narrative of saving “democracy” and “our values” in Ukraine.
“People can say whatever they want. I was there. I saw what happened there,” emphasised Bocquet, who says he has made many dozens of videos of war crimes. He saw in a barn Russian prisoners of war who had been beaten and tied up. “Fighters from the Azov battalion asked them who the officers were. Each Russian soldier was shot in the knees with a Kalashnikov. I have videos that prove it, otherwise I would not dare to say such a thing.”
Officers were immediately shot in the head. “That’s how it goes, at least in the Azov battalion,” the French ex-marine said.
He went on to say that he had seen an American cameraman blatantly staging footage and the Ukrainian army hiding ammunition in homes at night without informing civilians.
"The time for war has not yet come, but it will come and that soon, and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." Gen. T.J. Jackson, March 1861
Re: Developing Eastern European Crises
[Re: Navarro]
#178224 05/28/202211:27 AM05/28/202211:27 AM
In Stunning Shift, WaPo Admits Catastrophic-Conditions, Collapsing-Morale Of Ukraine Front-Line Forces
by Tyler Durden Friday, May 27, 2022
With Russia's war in Ukraine now in its fourth month, mainstream media consumers have been treated to seemingly endless headlines and analysis of Russia's extensive military losses. At the same time Ukrainian forces have tended to be lionized and their battlefield prowess romanticized, with essentially zero public information so far being given which details up-to-date Ukrainian force casualties, set-backs, and equipment losses.
But for the first time The Washington Post is out with a surprisingly dire and negative assessment of how US-backed and equipped Ukrainian forces are actually fairing. Gone is the rosy idealizing lens through which each and every encounter with the Russians is typically portrayed. WaPo correspondent and author of the new report Sudarsan Raghavan underscores of the true situation that "Ukrainian leaders project an image of military invulnerability against Russia. But commanders offer a more realistic portrait of the war, where outgunned volunteers describe being abandoned by their military brass and facing certain death at the front."
As many careful and less idealistic observers suspected the whole time, a steady stream of both wartime propaganda and one-sided social media feeds where it seems the only tanks being blown up are Russian ones has served to present a very skewed portrayal of the battlefield to the Western public. While it's perhaps easier to get sucked into this pro-Ukraine bias based on the innumerable so-called open source intelligence self-anointed 'experts' on Twitter, this is less so if one wades into Telegram, where a flood of uncensored videos from both sides gives a truer picture, as the fresh report seems to also suggest.
The Washington Post report belatedly admits the avalanche of propaganda based in a pro-Kiev, pro-West narrative from the outset: "Videos of assaults on Russian tanks or positions are posted daily on social media. Artists are creating patriotic posters, billboards and T-shirts. The postal service even released stamps commemorating the sinking of a Russian warship in the Black Sea."
The report then pivots to the reality of an undertrained, poorly commanded and equipped, rag-tag force of mostly volunteers in the East who find themselves increasingly surrounded by the numerically superior Russian military which has penetrated almost the entire Donbas region. "Ukraine, like Russia, has provided scant information about deaths, injuries or losses of military equipment. But after three months of war, this company of 120 men is down to 54 because of deaths, injuries and desertions," the report reads as it follows one particular battalion.
The report's sources speak out despite threat of being court-martialed amid a heavily controlled information flow:
“War breaks people down,” said Serhiy Haidai, head of the regional war administration in Luhansk province, acknowledging many volunteers were not properly trained because Ukrainian authorities did not expect Russia to invade. But he maintained that all soldiers are taken care of: “They have enough medical supplies and food. The only thing is there are people that aren’t ready to fight.”
The report references a video widely circulating online this week wherein a group the size of a platoon declares they simply can't fight for lack of weaponry, ammunition, food and proper command support:
“We are being sent to certain death,” said a volunteer, reading from a prepared script, adding that a similar video was filmed by members of the 115th Brigade 1st Battalion. “We are not alone like this, we are many.”
Ukraine’s military rebutted the volunteers’ claims in their own video posted online, saying the “deserters” had everything they needed to fight: “They thought they came for a vacation,” one service member said. “That’s why they left their positions.”
In the wake of the video, the Ukrainian troops featured are being accused of 'desertion':
Additional videos have surfaced that are similar: units complain even of being left to fight in already impossible conditions with WWI and WWII-era rifles, which can do little up against Russia's far superior firepower.
The stunning WaPo report further documents volunteer groups of men who were previously oil well technicians, salesmen, or other ordinary jobs like farmers being sent to front line positions in the south and east - even though they thought they were first bound to simple security posts in much less intense environs like Lviv.
“We shot 30 bullets and then they said, ‘You can’t get more; too expensive,’” one volunteer described. And more: “When we were coming here, we were told that we were going to be in the third line on defense,” Lapko said. “Instead, we came to the zero line, the front line. We didn’t know where we were going.”
The situation has gotten more dire as even water is in short supply amid the most intense Russian push to surround Ukrainian positions in the Donbas to date:
And in recent weeks, he said, the situation has gotten much worse. When their supply chains were cut off for two days by the bombardment, the men were forced to make do with a potato a day.
They spend most days and nights in trenches dug into the forest on the edges of Toshkivka or inside the basements of abandoned houses. “They have no water, nothing there,” Lapko said. “Only water that I bring them every other day.”
Meanwhile the very noticeable shifting rhetoric issued from prominent officials and pundits of late has strongly suggested not all is well for Ukraine's military...
The WaPo further includes the following devastating testimony and assessment:
“Many got shell shock. I don’t know how to count them,” Lapko said.
The casualties here are largely kept secret to protect morale among troops and the general public.
“On Ukrainian TV we see that there are no losses,” Lapko said. “There’s no truth.”
Many of the casualties suffered by the above referenced volunteer unit were due to lack of logistics available to transport the wounded to hospitals behind the front lines. The report emphasizes that the entirety of the catastrophic conditions of frontline forces has led to officers and enlisted increasingly refusing to follow orders from higher command.
With this fresh and unexpected Washington Post report, the mainstream seems to now belatedly be admitting what only weeks ago could get a person banned from Twitter...
"Lapko and his men have grown increasingly frustrated and disillusioned with their superiors. His request for the awards has not been approved," the report finds. "His battalion commander demanded that he send 20 of his soldiers to another front line, which meant that he couldn’t rotate his men out from Toshkivka. He refused the order."
"The time for war has not yet come, but it will come and that soon, and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." Gen. T.J. Jackson, March 1861
The globalists want nuclear war with Russia and China. Their satanic spokesman George Soros advocated for war with Russian and China in his recent speech to the globalists in Davos Switzerland.
Soros is a satanic lying damn globalist. Putin will nuke the US before he lets Russia be defeated and the Chi-Com are readying to attack us too. The ocean shipping delays of goods from China is becasue the Chi-Coms are loading munitions on ships instead of consumer good for an attack on us.
The Chi-Coms can't feed their people so they plan to attack us and take our farmland. For over 36 years the faggot Chi-Coms killed 400 Million female infants with their one child per family policy. Now the Chi-Coms who aren't faggots don't have enough women so they want to attack us, murder all US males, and rape our females.
That traitor fake president Biden will be glad to surrender the US to the Chi-Coms. Soros and the globalists want to destroy the US and kill off most of the population with a nuclear World War III. Many of the ultra-rich have moved to the Southern Hemisphere to avoid the nuclear blasts and the radioactive fallout.
Ukraine needs to surrender all the Ukrainian territory that has already been lost to Russia and make peace with Russia. Biden is severely depleting our munitions which take years to replace, bankrupting the US, and is causing hyper inflation by giving 40 Billion Dollars to the Ukrainians who cannot win their war with Russia.
The 90-year-old Hungarian financier claimed that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine may have marked the “beginning of the Third World War” and delayed the WEF’s Great Reset agenda. “Other issues that concern all of humanity — fighting pandemics and climate change, avoiding nuclear war, maintaining global institutions — have had to take a back seat to that struggle,” Soros said Tuesday. “That’s why I say our civilization may not survive.” “Therefore, we must mobilize all our resources to bring the war to an early end. The best and perhaps only way to preserve our civilization is to defeat Putin as soon as possible. That’s the bottom line,” he added. Soros claimed that Putin and Xi have made “mind-boggling mistakes” in pursuing their separate national interests for which the world is now paying the price. “They are tied together in an alliance that has no limits. They also have a lot in common. They rule by intimidation, and as a consequence they make mind-boggling mistakes,” Soros said. “Putin expected to be welcomed in Ukraine as a liberator; Xi Jinping is sticking to a Zero Covid policy that can’t possibly be sustained.” Soros claimed that Putin must also be swiftly defeated because his military operation in Ukraine has put the WEF’s climate change initiatives on the back burner, which he said also threatens civilization. “While the war rages, the fight against climate change has to take second place. Yet the experts tell us that we have already fallen far behind, and climate change is on the verge of becoming irreversible. That could be the end of our civilization,” he said. But Ukrainian forces face an uphill battle because the war has reached “a new phase” where they must confront Russian forces on open terrain, where the former Soviet nation can leverage its “numerical superiority” on the battlefield. “The invasion of Ukraine has now entered a new phase which is much more challenging for the Ukrainian army,” Soros said. “They must fight on open terrain where the numerical superiority of the Russian army is more difficult to overcome.”
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
Re: Developing Eastern European Crises
[Re: Navarro]
#178241 05/29/202209:53 AM05/29/202209:53 AM
Just before the beginning of Ukraine’s war with Russia, Vladimir Putin uttered a key phrase, the meaning of which was that Russia could not allow Ukraine to reacquire even tactical nuclear weapons and that Kiev was literally one step away from creating them. It was this emphasis that immediately fell out of the public spotlight amid claims of “denazification” and “demilitarization”. What is a dirty nuclear bomb and how likely is Kiev to have one?
The classic nuclear charge has a monstrous destructive power, but the effect of using such weapons is relatively short-lived. Yes, indeed, during a nuclear explosion extremely dangerous isotopes are formed, including strontium-89, strontium-90, cesium-137, zinc-64 and tantalum-181. These isotopes, once in the body, accumulate there, causing severe and often incurable diseases. For example, radioactive iodine accumulates in the thyroid gland, cesium in muscles, strontium in bones and so on.
At the same time, the affected area of a nuclear explosion denuclearizes rather quickly, i.e. actively loses radioactivity. Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the only cities in the history of mankind to have been nuclear bombed, are a case in point. The masses were under the impression that they left a scorched desert for decades, which is not true. As early as August 1949, the Hiroshima Peace Memorial City Construction Law was passed, which gave an immediate start to the total reconstruction of the city. That is, little more than four years had passed since the nuclear strike.
The principle of the dirty bomb is different. This type of munition is much simpler in its construction and does not require complex technical solutions. In fact, it is simply a delivery vehicle (missile, bomb or artillery shell) to which a container with radioactive filler is attached. One of the potentially most effective and therefore dangerous applications in general involves simply spraying radioactive dust from an airplane or any other aircraft.
Dangerous isotopes with long half-lives are deposited on the surface of the earth, plants, and further into the ground and aquifers, making the area dangerous to live in for many decades. To a man to develop radiation sickness it is enough to get just one sievert dose (Sv), a dose of 3 to 5 Sv leads either to death in a couple of months or to the development of cancer, 6 to 10 Sv is a guaranteed death as the irreversible death of bone marrow begins. Ukraine Was Building Dirty Bomb. Advance Of Russian Troops Reveals New Circumstances
The consequences of the Chernobyl explosion are close to a dirty bomb explosion
The issue of the possibility of Ukraine, which renounced nuclear missile weapons as part of the Budapest Memorandum, creating a dirty bomb has been repeatedly considered by various experts. Most of them agreed that it is impossible for a number of reasons.
First, for political reasons: Western allies will not give the unpredictable government in Kiev such a bargaining chip. Second, Ukraine does not have the appropriate technical capabilities, no centrifuge capacity for uranium enrichment, and no suitable means of delivery. Some experts do not agree with the latter assertion, because a large amount of equipment and specialists capable of creating such means has been preserved since the Soviet Union days.
Ukraine currently holds a large amount of spent nuclear fuel that has not been removed from the territory of Ukraine since 2020 and that has been stored on the territory of nuclear power plants awaiting the construction of a nuclear fuel storage facility in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone.
In addition, the Kiev regime had accumulated 30 tons of plutonium and 40 tons of enriched uranium at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. This was reported by Wall Street Journal journalist Lawrence Norman, citing IAEA Director General Raphael Grossi. The head of the international nuclear watchdog agency noted that although the nuclear power plant is under Russian control, it is run by Ukrainian reactors. That is why the IAEA needs to urgently send its experts to assess the situation and find out whether there are stocks of uranium and plutonium missing (alas, earlier Kiev has lost Javelins, bulletproof vests, etc.).
Ukraine Was Building Dirty Bomb. Advance Of Russian Troops Reveals New Circumstances
Laurence Norman’s post
In response, Ukraine’s Energoatom announced the IAEA head’s words as a fake and tried to explain that plutonium and enriched uranium are only in fuel assemblies (tubes) at nuclear power plants, while spent nuclear fuel is present at every nuclear power plant.
“This is a sly thing. If the state has sufficient competence to dismantle fuel assemblies, the spent nuclear fuel can be used to make weapon-grade isotopes. And for sure, in order to fill a missile warhead with it, a subversive charge, to arrange a dirty bomb, when the territory is contaminated without a nuclear explosion. And the activity of such a bomb will be higher than that of a cobalt bomb by one and a half times,” said the expert.
“Let’s take the Bushehr nuclear power plant in Iran as an example – the whole Western world demanded from Russia to close the project at first, and then they agreed – Russia takes the spent nuclear fuel so that Iranians would not accidentally start using it illegally for weapons-military purposes. For some reason it was scary in Iran, it was a stumbling block, but with Ukraine it is not frightening”.
As for the creation of delivery vehicles, nothing is impossible. The legendary Yuzhmash plant of the past is really going through a period of total decay today, while, remember, for many decades it has produced a fairly wide range of products for the space industry, including fuel modules. In other words, both the documentation and some of the production facilities that make it possible to assemble a hull of especially durable metals, where a load of spent nuclear fuel could be placed, are likely to have remained in place. Nor would it have been a matter of delivery vehicles. If the Neptun missiles of their own production failed, the allies are full of their own much more powerful and long-range counterparts. Arms deliveries to Ukraine did not open with the start of the Russian special operation. And there have been serious discussions about supplying Kiev with heavy weapons.
In conclusion, the threat of Kiev creating a dirty bomb is serious. This is confirmed, albeit indirectly, by statements by experts, journalists around the world, and Russian officials. Despite the revelation that a large amount of spent nuclear fuel is stored at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, no one knows reliably how much is stored at other nuclear power plants. We can only hope for the remnants of the adequacy of the Ukrainian government. Otherwise, it could do irreparable harm not only to Russia and Belarus, but also to their neighbours.
"The time for war has not yet come, but it will come and that soon, and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." Gen. T.J. Jackson, March 1861
Russia is “suffering huge losses” and losing hard-fought ground in the Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk after invading units started retreating from the key industrial center, Ukrainian officials asserted Saturday.
The dramatic turnabout, which could not be independently confirmed, represented a rare successful counter-offensive against Russian forces, which had recently been steadily advancing in Ukraine’s eastern territories.
It was the first time Ukraine claimed to have conducted a large counter-attack in Severodonetsk, a city of 100,000 and the last major municipality in the disputed Luhansk oblast under Ukrainian control, after days of losing ground in the country’s embattled east.
Russia had “previously managed to capture most of the city,” Sergiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region said in a televised address Saturday, The Guardian reported. “But now our military has pushed them back.”
Later Saturday, Oleksandr Stryuk, the head of the city’s military operations, said that Ukrainian forces were able to build a line of defense in Severodonetsk, according to The Kyiv Independent.
Both sides of the war have claimed to have inflicted huge casualties in the fighting for the city — a battlefront that military experts believe could determine which of the two countries has the momentum for a prolonged war of attrition in coming months.
Haidai — who oversees the territory where Severodonetsk is located — said he expects the new supply of US-made weapons to seal the deal in gaining back control of the city....
Screw the damn controlled news media New York Post and screw $5 per gallon gasoline. Soon food prices will be doubling. The US Government needs to quit wasting our munitions on the Ukrainian Nazis. The Russian Commie Rats are getting ready to attack NATO countries if Russia keeps loosing their war with the Ukrainian Nazis. It will start a nuclear WWIII in which Biden will quickly surrender the USA to the Chi-Coms.
Everyone who wants war can buy a plane ticket to Ukraine to join the war but don't promote a nuclear war we cannot win.
The damn Demorats know they will loose in the November elections so they want a war to stay in power so the can cancel the elections. The satanic globalists want to kill off billions of people with a nuclear war.
The sorry Ukrainians could easily negotiate peace with Russia if they gave up the Russian speaking areas of Ukraine and promised to stay out of NATO.
The United States is flooding Ukraine with so many weapons that Russia has announced that it must take a more global approach to its “special operation” in Ukraine.
Instead of just dealing with the globalist problem in that country, Russia quickly realizes that all of NATO is its enemy. The axis of evil is much greater than just Ukraine’s puppet government is a simple way of putting it.
“I have some unpleasant news,” said Olga Skabeeva on the Russian state TV program 60 Minutes. “Even though we are methodically destroying the weapons that are being delivered [to Ukraine], the quantities in which the United States are sending them force us to come up with some global conclusions.”
“Perhaps it’s time to acknowledge that maybe Russia’s special operation in Ukraine has come to an end, in a sense that a real war had started: WWIII,” she added. “We’re forced to conduct the demilitarization not only of Ukraine but of the entire NATO alliance.”
These are big words, but ones that have been written on the wall for quite some time now. Many could see that this was moving towards World War III once NATO decided to gang up on Russia for dealing with the Ukraine problem.
Both the United States and Poland, along with other NATO countries such as Germany, have been funneling weapons and other gear into Ukraine as part of a unified front against Russia. This leaves Russia with very little option other than to fight back against the whole shebang.
“Indeed, we need to remember the words of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, who said that anyone who tries to interfere in the special military operation will pay a heavy price,” added Vladimir Avatkov from Russia’s Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Brighteon.TV
“We never forget about these words of Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, but a great number of people are already standing in line, trying to interfere in Russia’s special operation on the territory of Ukraine,” Skabeeva quickly interjected.
“Turns out, we have to act – but we’re yet to figure out how we can act without conducting a nuclear strike.” Russia warns Poland: Mind your own business or your “current borders will be worthless”
During the conversation, Russian parliament member Oleg Matveychev weighed in that if Poland “starts any intervention … its current borders will be worthless,” to which Skabeeva added that it is not just Poland that needs to back off and mind its own business.
“I wasn’t just talking about Poland, but mainly about Great Britain and the United States,” Skabeeva said, adding that “they’re all lined up.”
“No need to rush,” chimed in Avatkov. “There is a line. Everything in its time!”
Poland is simply first in line, according to Russia, because it is said to be moving to seize territories in western Ukraine. The Russian government also claims that Poland is “actively working to dismember Ukraine.”
On Russian state TV, hosts and pundits regularly refer to Ukraine as “the territory formerly known as Ukraine.” They also discuss matters pertaining to the “denazification” of the country, which is one of Russia’s goals with the operation.
“For us, the special military operation is just the first act, an introduction,” said Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Defense Andrey Kartapolov in an interview on Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov.
“The war that is going on right now … it’s not just an economical war and info-war, this war is about our faith. It’s about our right, as the people, to have faith in what we want to believe, to love those we want to love, and to live the way our ancestors would have wanted, on our land and by our birthright.”
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
Turkey agreed Tuesday to lift its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, ending an impasse that had clouded a leaders' summit opening in Madrid amid Europe's worst security crisis in decades, triggered by the war in Ukraine.
After urgent top-level talks with leaders of the three countries, alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that "we now have an agreement that paves the way for Finland and Sweden to join NATO." He called it "a historic decision."
Among its many shattering consequences, President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has prompted Sweden and Finland to abandon their long-held nonaligned status and apply to join NATO as protection against an increasingly aggressive and unpredictable Russia — which shares a long border with Finland. Under NATO treaties, an attack on any member would be considered an attack against all and trigger a military response by the entire alliance.
NATO operates by consensus, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had threatened to block the Nordic pair, insisting they change their stance on Kurdish rebel groups that Turkey considers terrorists.
After weeks of diplomacy and hours of talks on Tuesday, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said the three leaders had signed a joint agreement to break the logjam.
Turkey said it had "got what it wanted" including "full cooperation ... in the fight against" the rebel groups.
Stoltenberg said leaders of the 30-nation alliance will issue a formal invitation to the two countries to join on Wednesday. The decision has to be ratified by all individual nations, but he said he was "absolutely confident" Finland and Sweden would become members, something that could happen within months....
Russia has already lost the war. They must be starting to realize that now.
President Joe Biden announced yesterday that the United States would send another $800 million in weapons aid to Ukraine, adding to the multibillion-dollar raft of assistance already sent to the country as it beats back the Russian invasion. The conflict recently entered its fourth month, and though U.S. government officials have been steadfast in asserting that America "will not be directly engaged" in the fight, that claim stands on shaky ground.
Last week, The New York Times cast a light on just how deeply entrenched the U.S. has become in the conflict in Ukraine, describing "a stealthy network of commandos and spies rushing to provide weapons, intelligence and training." Though the Biden administration has repeatedly stressed that it won't deploy American troops to Ukraine, the Times reports that "some C.I.A. personnel have continued to operate in the country secretly, mostly in the capital, Kyiv, directing much of the vast amounts of intelligence the United States is sharing with Ukrainian forces."
Much of what the Biden administration has done to help Ukraine has fallen short of formal involvement in the war, but just barely. American soldiers won't enter the fight, but American spies will. American officials have warned of the escalatory effects of enforcing a no-fly zone over Ukrainian territory, but American weapons are being funneled to Ukraine with regularity. The U.S. hasn't officially declared war against Russia, but it's helped kill Russian generals and sink the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet.
These moves have largely been unilateral, secretive, or both, leaving Americans unaware of just how implicated the U.S. is in the conflict. Government officials themselves lack insight into the effects of American assistance, telling The Wall Street Journal that they have "little direct knowledge" of where equipment goes once it reaches the Ukrainian government. And lawmakers have helped enable this lack of transparency by rubber-stamping massive aid packages, eschewing discussions of financial oversight, and failing to effectively challenge the president on the aims of American assistance.
As Biden announced the latest aid package, he swore that the U.S. would "support Ukraine as long as it takes." It might be a noble statement, but for a president who has rallied against "forever wars," it neglects several key realities. American involvement could very well become protracted if leaders don't establish a clear off-ramp. The sunk-cost fallacy being what it is, politicians may find ways to maintain involvement in the future as a way to justify the hefty financial investments they've already made in the fight. This approach runs the risk of simply helping the war lumber on rather than incentivizing the involved parties to engage in peace talks.
"At the very least, what the United States is doing in Ukraine is not not war," Bonnie Kristian, a fellow at Defense Priorities, wrote in The New York Times. "If we have so far avoided calling it war and can continue to do so, maybe that's only because we've become so uncertain of the meaning of the word."
Kristian correctly points out that "the line between what is war and what is not war has perilously blurred," as technological advances and executive war making have made it easier for presidents "to commit what might otherwise be seen as acts of war." Sporadic drone strikes against terror groups throughout the Middle East, "training" missions in hostile nations that go unauthorized by Congress, weapons and logistical support to Saudi Arabia as it wages a devastating war in Yemen—government officials often paint these as acts short of war, which distorts our understanding of the gravity of conflict.
At some point, Russia may come to view the U.S. as a co-belligerent. American politicians can't be certain of what Russian President Vladimir Putin sees as the uncrossable line. That's why it's so critical for lawmakers and their constituents to know the particulars of U.S. involvement in Ukraine and debate them robustly. Otherwise, America will trend ever closer toward war—even if politicians hesitate to call it that.
I seem to remember a little place called Viet Nam. First it was some money and weapons, then "advisors" and before long thousands of American GI's thrown into a meat grinder.
Hmmmm....
"The time for war has not yet come, but it will come and that soon, and when it does come, my advice is to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard." Gen. T.J. Jackson, March 1861
The Gooks and the Chi-Coms did not have nuclear superiority but the Russians do. The Russians maintained their civil defense fallout shelters while we did not. The Russians still have radios that run by tubes, gasoline engines that run by mechanical ignition points and carbureators and trucks that run by mechanical fuel injection so Russia will still function after an EMP pulse but the US won't.
If Russia starts loosing they will nuke NATO then WW3 will start. The US is lead by an election stealing senile traitor who that knows that without a war the Democrats will be out in the elections this November and Trump will be president in 2024. Putin is dying from cancer and has nothing to loose. The US should not have had bio-weapons labs for Ukraine to use against Russia. Maybe they will run out of Ukrainians who are dying by the thousands each day.
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
The US Department of Defense is providing an additional $820 million package of military aid for Ukraine, including two surface-to-air missile defense systems, Pentagon spokesman Todd Breasseale announced on Friday.
This brings total US security assistance provided to Ukraine to approximately $6.9 billion since the start of Russia’s offensive in late February.
The new deliveries will include ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), two National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), up to 150,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition, and four additional counter-artillery radars.
Breasseale stressed that Washington continues to work with its allies “to provide Ukraine with capabilities to meet its evolving battlefield requirements.”
“In particular, DoD recognizes Norway’s cooperation to enable the historic provision by the United States of modern air defense systems that will help Ukraine defend against Russia’s brutal air attacks,” the Pentagon spokesman said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has responded to the latest military supplies, expressing his gratitude to the US and personally to President Joe Biden for the package which, he stressed, “also includes very powerful NASAMS systems.”
“This is an anti-aircraft missile system that will significantly strengthen our air defense. We worked hard for such a supply,” the Ukrainian leader said.
Russia has repeatedly urged the West not to provide Kiev with weapons, saying it will only prolong the conflict and lead to long-term problems. It has warned that Russian forces will consider any foreign weapons on Ukrainian territory as a legitimate target.
Earlier this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that “pumping up” Ukraine with Western weapons will only lead Russia “to perform more missions on the ground.”
Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”
In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
There will be nuclear war if we stay on this path. Almost every day, we get more news about how both sides are escalating the conflict in Ukraine. If the American people truly understood what was at stake, there would be giant protests in the streets of every major U.S. city right now. But they don’t. Most of us are entirely convinced that our leaders can do whatever they want in Ukraine without sparking a nuclear war. But the Russians see things very differently. On Russian television there are endless discussions about how the war in Ukraine is really a proxy war between the United States and Russia, and pundits openly discuss the possibility that eventually nuclear weapons will be used. In fact, the destruction of specific U.S. cities has even been discussed on Russian television, but most Americans never hear anything about this.
(Article by Michael Snyder republished from TheMostImportantNews.com)
In a nuclear conflict, the side that uses their weapons first has the best chance of surviving, and the Russians understand this very well.
If push comes to shove, the Russians won’t hesitate to strike if they believe that nuclear war has become inevitable.
So we need to stop this madness while we still can.
Unfortunately, our leaders seem to have no interest in ending the conflict in Ukraine. Instead, they just keep doing things to raise tensions even higher.
This week, Joe Biden announced that the U.S. will be sending “thousands more troops” to eastern Europe…
America will deploy thousands more troops to Europe along with fighters, air defences and ships, Joe Biden announced today, as NATO reinforces its eastern flank in a new Iron Curtain to protect the continent from Russia.
Joe Biden, speaking at a NATO summit in Madrid today, announced the creation of a new base for the US Fifth Army Corps in Poland – the first permanent American base in the country – along with 3,000 extra soldiers to be sent to Romania and ‘enhanced’ troop rotations for the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
This commitment from Biden is part of an overall NATO effort to increase the total number of “high readiness forces” in Europe to “well over 300,000”…
NATO will enhance its battle groups in the eastern part of the alliance up to brigade levels, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced Monday.
“We will increase the number of high readiness forces to well over 300,000,” he said at a news conference in Brussels.
This includes “more pre-positioned equipment and stockpiles of military supplies; more forward-deployed capabilities, like air defense; strengthened command and control, and upgraded defense plans with forces pre-assigned to defend specific allies,” Stoltenberg added.
To the Russians, this looks like a potential invasion force.
Of course the Russians continue to do things to escalate the conflict as well. For example, Vladimir Putin just announced that the Russians will be putting “nuclear-capable ballistic missiles” in Belarus…
Russia plans to place nuclear-capable ballistic missiles in Belarus, a NATO-neighboring Russian ally that housed the forces that invaded Ukraine and attacked Kyiv.
That missile placement would continue a trend of Russian President Vladimir Putin subordinating Belarus to his vision of a “union-state” led by the Kremlin while sending an ominous signal to NATO — perhaps especially Poland and Lithuania, whose borders separate Belarus from Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave near the Baltic Sea.
“Our decision has been made: We will hand over a number of tactical missile systems Iskander-M to Belarus within the next few months,” Putin said during a meeting with Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko. “They can fire ballistic and cruise missiles with conventional and nuclear warheads.”
The Russians have also suggested that Cuba may be a good location for missiles as well.
If you know your history, that should set off some alarm bells.
So much is happening right now, but most Americans are not paying attention.
At this point, the U.S. is providing more funding for the war in Ukraine than anyone else, more weapons for the war in Ukraine than anyone else, and more intelligence for the war in Ukraine than anyone else.
The Ukrainians are providing the dead bodies, but it is the U.S. that is really running the show.
And thanks to the New York Times, we have learned that CIA operatives have been secretly operating on the ground in Ukraine all throughout the war…https://archive.ph/X6JQb
As Russian troops press ahead with a grinding campaign to seize eastern Ukraine, the nation’s ability to resist the onslaught depends more than ever on help from the United States and its allies — including a stealthy network of commandos and spies rushing to provide weapons, intelligence and training, according to U.S. and European officials.
Much of this work happens outside Ukraine, at bases in Germany, France and Britain, for example. But even as the Biden administration has declared it will not deploy American troops to Ukraine, some C.I.A. personnel have continued to operate in the country secretly, mostly in the capital, Kyiv, directing much of the massive amounts of intelligence the United States is sharing with Ukrainian forces, according to current and former officials.
But despite all the help that Ukraine has been getting from the United States, the Russians continue to take more ground just about every single day.
Instead of admitting that the Ukrainians are in a fight that they can’t possibly win and looking for a peaceful way out, our leaders just keep upping the ante instead.
And at this point, Congress is going to give the Pentagon and the CIA literally everything that they want for the war in Ukraine…
“I don’t think people realize that right now the spigot from Congress is fully open. Money, weps, intel, whatever they need,” tweeted Jack Murphy, journalist and Iraq/Afghanistan vet. “The American public is not being appropriately informed about what our government is up to as basically every single op DOD/CIA proposes is getting the green light.”
The only way that an overwhelming Russian victory can be prevented at this point would be for the United States to get far more involved in the war.
But if we keep getting deeper and deeper into this conflict, at some point the United States and Russia will start shooting at one another.
And once we reach that juncture, things could go nuclear very rapidly.
You may be thinking that there is no point in being concerned about a nuclear war because if one happens we will all be dead anyway.
If that is what you think, you are dead wrong.
Studies have determined that only about 20 percent of all Americans would be immediately killed by a full-blown nuclear exchange. Here is one example…
This full-scale nuclear war was estimated to cause 770 million direct deaths and generate 180 Tg of soot from burning cities and forests. In the US, about half the population would be within 5km of a ground zero, and a fifth of the country’s citizens would be killed outright.
But that doesn’t mean that most of us would survive. https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2022/03/what-the-science-says-could-humans-survive-a-nuclear-war-between-nato-and-russia/#:~:text=This%20full%2Dscale%20nuclear%20war,citizens%20would%20be%20killed%20outright.
Ultimately, the vast majority of the population would slowly starve to death.
A full-blown nuclear exchange would cause a “nuclear winter” and very little food would be able to be grown for an extended period of time…
A subsequent study, published in 2019, looked at a comparable but slightly lower 150 Tg atmospheric soot injection following an equivalent scale nuclear war. The devastation causes so much smoke that only 30-40 percent of sunlight reaches the Earth’s surface for the subsequent six months.
A massive drop in temperature follows, with the weather staying below freezing throughout the subsequent Northern Hemisphere summer. In Iowa, for example, the model shows temperatures staying below 0°C for 730 days straight. There is no growing season. This is a true nuclear winter.
So it could be argued that those that are wiped out during a future nuclear exchange will actually be the lucky ones.
Could you imagine the horror of watching your family slowly starve to death in a world that has gone completely mad?
We must not let things get to that point.
We need to try to find a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine while we still can.
Unfortunately, Joe Biden has surrounded himself with the worst foreign policy team in U.S. history, and they seem to have ruled out trying to find a way to have peace with the Russians.
So we continue to steamroll toward a nuclear cataclysm, and very few of us even seem interested in changing course.
Read more at: TheMostImportantNews.com
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
Ukraine's loss of Lysychansk, the last city it controlled in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine, doesn't seem to have dampened the country's willingness to fight the Russian invaders, though it does bolster expectations of an extended war. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy promises to fight on, with the apparent support of his people. But Americans have turned pessimistic about the underdog's chances and western Europeans are wavering in their support as Russia retaliates against punitive sanctions with an escalating energy embargo. The situation speaks well of the Ukrainian people's resolve but may not bode well for their fate.
"If the command of our army withdraws people from certain points of the front where the enemy has the greatest fire superiority, in particular this applies to Lysychansk, it means only one thing: we will return thanks to our tactics, thanks to the increase in the supply of modern weapons," Zelenskyy vowed on July 3. "Ukraine does not give anything up."
By all accounts, Zelenskyy has the support of the vast majority of his people. A June poll of 1,005 Ukrainian adults by The Wall Street Journal-NORC found 89 percent of them rejecting the idea of achieving peace "by granting Russia control over some parts of Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia after February 24th" when the current war began. A similar 81 percent opposed ceding land occupied earlier, namely Crimea, which was seized by Russia in 2014. About 78 percent supported Zelenskyy's handling of the war.
But recent fighting has been a tougher slog for Ukraine's forces than the encouraging early days when Russian troops were turned back from Kyiv. The early shock at defenders unexpectedly destroying invading tanks and repelling invading troops has given way to the reality of a bloody slugfest with no end in sight. "Ukraine needs modern missile and air defense, and you have these systems," Zelenskyy told NATO summit attendees last week. The continuing flow of such weapons from the West keeps Ukraine in the fight. But it means significant commitments for countries that in many cases, such as that of Germany, started out with underfunded and underequipped militaries with little to spare for somebody else's defense.
That has also meant some disappointment in the West, where people removed from the fighting hoped for a quick underdog victory based on Ukraine's successes at the beginning of the conflict. In the United States, early enthusiasm has been replaced by pessimism as the war bogs down. By mid-June, more Americans believed that Russia was winning (25 percent) than gave the edge to Ukraine (19 percent), according to Economist/YouGov polling, a perception that has continued since. The fact that a majority of respondents (54 percent) fear the conflict is at least somewhat likely to lead to a wider war in Europe doesn't help.
For Europeans, supporting Ukraine means costs beyond their military budgets. Heavily dependent on Russian natural gas, much of Europe has proven highly vulnerable as the aggressor in the war retaliates against punitive economic sanctions by closing the valves on pipelines.
"Germany's natural-gas crisis, which is being caused by Russia as it takes revenge for sanctions, may get so bad that cities have to ration hot water," Fortune noted this week. "Germany's main importer of Russian gas, Uniper, is now only getting 40% of what it contractually ordered from Russia, and the stratospheric cost of substituting for those flows has pushed it into crisis."
Europeans are preparing for Russia to completely end the flow of gas as early as next week. Out of necessity, Germany has already turned to old-school coal-fired power plants despite the country's high-profile commitment to green energy.
As a result, there's waning enthusiasm in Europe for prolonged conflict in Ukraine, no matter the consequences for the people of that country. "Research shows that, while Europeans feel great solidarity with Ukraine and support sanctions against Russia, they are split about the long-term goals," the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) announced in mid-June. "They divide between a 'Peace' camp (35 per cent of people) that wants the war to end as soon as possible, and a 'Justice' camp that believes the more pressing goal is to punish Russia (22 per cent of people). In all countries, apart from Poland, the 'Peace' camp is larger than the 'Justice' camp."
"Supporters of the Peace camp want peace now even at the cost of Ukrainian concessions to Russia," ECFR added.
Fear of higher energy prices and a rising cost of living, as well of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia, were the biggest concerns cited by respondents to the poll.
Of course, "concessions" are exactly what Zelenskyy rejects when he says "Ukraine does not give anything up." They're also off the table for his people when they give a thumbs-down to "granting Russia control over some parts of Ukrainian territory." But western pessimism about the underdog's chances, and, especially, fears of a cold, dark, and expensive winter to come may undercut support for the military and economic assistance the aggrieved country needs to keep fighting invading forces. What Russia hasn't been able to win on the battlefield it may come closer to achieving by squeezing westerners already hurting from the after-effects of pandemic lockdowns and inflation fueled by government-spending sprees. No matter their spirit, Ukrainians will have difficulty continuing their defense in the absence of a continued flow of money, weapons, and ammunition.
Everybody loves a good David and Goliath story in which the little guy prevails over the big bully, and the Russo-Ukrainian War is ready made for such an interpretation. But those stories are best enjoyed in the past tense, after David wins the fight. It's a lot less pleasant to live through the battle when the outcome is uncertain and as Goliath lashes out at David's friends as well as at the underdog himself. Then, the onlookers have to worry that they might be next, and that they'll suffer some wounds of their own along the way to the conflict's ultimate conclusion.
Ukrainians give every appearance of being willing to fight on. But it's not clear that they'll permanently enjoy enough international support to continue the defense of their country through what promises to be an extended and painful war.
It looks like the long-awaited Kherson counteroffensive may have begun Ukraine troops are reported to have hit the occupied Kherson Oblast, in the Russian rear:
Quote
...Machine-building factory in Beryslav that was used as a Russian base
Russian army post near the North Crimean Canal
River crossing in Lvove, Beryslav district
Ammunition depot in Havrylivka, Beryslav district
You should take any war news coming from these sources with a huge grain of salt. But if true, the outcome of this battle could well determine how this war ends.
Ukrainian hackers created fake online profiles of women to honey-trap Russian soldiers into revealing their location, Financial Times has reported.
The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has thrown some innovative ways of fighting a war. We know how Ukrainian forces have used commercial drones as well as civilian drone pilots in their fight back against the Russian might. While the West has supported Ukraine with weapons and drones, Ukrainian soldiers have also been adapting to changing needs on the ground- and this includes innovation to add more bite to their firepower.
In what would seem almost a different world altogether, groups of computer professionals in Ukraine have turned into hackers to put to use their skills to fight off the Russian aggression. Once accustomed to swanky offices, these people are now working out of secret locations to keep themselves safe while fighting for their country.
Using the dark web against the enemy
The Financial Times spoke to one such Ukrainian group led by Nikita Knysh. Before the Russian invasion, 30-year-old Knysh worked as a cyber security expert, preventing hackers from succeeding. The onset of the Russian assault in February changed everything, and Knysh wanted to serve the country with his skill set.
He approached an old mentor and one of Ukraine's wealthiest men, Vsevolod Kozhemyako, looking for a Starlink internet connection that Elon Musk was shipping to Ukraine. Knysh had assembled a crew of 30 like-minded people huddled in a cheap hostel in Vinnytsia. Dubbed Hackyourmom, the group took the attack to Russia using their cyber skills and the free internet provided by Starlink.
Knysh told FT that his group was involved in the fake bomb threats on Russian-bound airplanes, which saw dozens of flights delayed or canceled altogether. Their sparkling success, however, was tricking Russian soldiers into revealing their locations.
Honey-trapping Russian soldiers
Knysh claims that his group of hackers posed as attractive women on several social media platforms, including Telegram, and contacted Russian soldiers in Melitopol. The group knew that the Russian soldiers wanted to boast about being warriors and urged them to send their pictures.
The pictures sent by the soldiers were used to identify their location, the remote military base in occupied Melitopol. These details were then passed on to Ukraine's military. It was only a matter of days before the group saw the base blown up by Ukrainian artillery, Knysh told FT.
Ukraine's military refused to comment on the role of hackers in the attack. Still, Knysh claims that the group was also involved in other hacks, such as those involving Russian TV stations or exposing databases of Russian military contractors. The group has now disbanded from the hostel but keeps working remotely.
Last week, we reported how hackers also succeeded in disrupting everyday life in Moscow. This happened as Russia attempted to disconnect communications in Ukraine at the beginning of the conflict using cyber warfare. One thing is for sure, conflict is no longer limited to physical locations and arms. It's digital, too, and has gone up to a whole new level.
Scenes from a Russian rout. The Russians seem to be leaving behind more military stuff than we ever gave them. This is anything but an orderly withdrawal.
The Russian Commie Rats are sore losers. They are claiming that missiles were fired from a NATO country and Russia is likely to declare war on NATO and launch tactical nukes according to Mike Adams here: "Situation Update, Sep 12, 2022 - Ukraine's cities go DARK; Russia poised to declare WORLD WAR" https://www.brighteon.com/9d2517c9-d88c-4df7-94cc-76e9712af121
The US and NATO should stop helping the Ukraine Nazis before it starts WWIII.
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
I would be highly suspicious of such claims from the Russians. They have a hard time admitting that their much smaller neighbor (with western support) is able to withstand their prolonged assault and to now turn the tables. The mythology of the invincibility of the vaunted red army is being proven to be just that… a myth. The only way in their distorted sense of inflated ego this is possible is if it s not the Ukrainians doing it.
"Government at its best is a necessary evil, and at it�s worst, an intolerable one." Thomas Paine (from "Common Sense" 1776)
The Russian Commie Rats sent troops into Ukraine on February 24th, because the Ukrainian Nazis failed to abide by the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian president Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.” In February 2022, Russia recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc.
But the sorry damn globalists want to reduce the human population by arming the Ukrainian Nazis to start a Nuclear World War III. The sorry damn Democrats want to start World War III so they can't be voted out in the November elections.
The Russians are not using their first rate troops in Ukraine. They are holding their first rate troops in reserve in case World War III starts. And they are letting their second rate troops get some combat experience. Russia has been fighting a limited war in Ukraine. Russia could have bombed every power plant, destroyed every airport, every highway, every rail line, and every water treatment system in Ukraine.
The economic sanctions against Russia have put them in a better economic situation while the stupid socialist Europeans will be freezing and their economy will be collapsing since Russian pipelines into Europe have been shut down.
It doesn't matter if what Russia claims is true or not because if Ukraine attacks into Russia then Russia will use tactical nukes on the Ukrainians which will start a Nuclear World War III.
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
Russian propagandists are having a hard time putting any sort of positive spin on the latest news. And now, support for Putin seems to be on the decline. it will be interesting to see what happens when the magnitude of these losses become known to ordinary Russians.
Long, and the whole article is worth a read. here's a part of it:
Quote
... Whether more “psychological blows” in Ukraine will significantly damage Putin’s standing is, of course, the big question of this conflict. Even before the Ukrainian offensive scored its stunning victories, two small-scale and doomed but nonetheless remarkable challenges to Putin were reported from within Russian political structures.
On September 7, a group of municipal representatives in the Smolny district of St. Petersburg sent an official letter to the Duma asking it to initiate treason charges against Putin and remove him from office. The letter noted that, as a result of the “special military operation” in Ukraine, “combat-ready divisions of the Russian army are being destroyed . . . and young, working-age citizens are being killed or left disabled”; “the Russian economy is suffering” because of sanctions and the brain drain; “the NATO bloc is expanding eastward”; and instead of demilitarizing, Ukraine was receiving new armaments.
So far, the only response has been to charge the five deputies who voted to approve the letter with discrediting the Russian armed forces—for now, as a civil violation with a maximum fine of 50,000 rubles ($823) for first-time offenders; subsequent offenses could lead to criminal prosecution and prison terms.
Nonetheless, members of another urban municipal council—this one in the Lomonosovsky district in Moscow—followed suit the next day: they approved an appeal to Putin demanding his resignation. While the Moscow deputies’ appeal was less confrontational than that of their St. Petersburg colleagues—they did not mention treason and praised Putin’s early policies—their conclusions were still uncompromising:
Quote
Studies show that in countries with regular transfers of power people generally live better and longer than in countries in which the leader only leaves office feet first. … The rhetoric you and your subordinates use has long been saturated with intolerance and aggression, which had ultimately thrown our country back into the Cold War era. Russia is once again feared and hated, and we are once again threatening the whole world with nuclear weapons.
In consideration of the above, we ask you to vacate your post due to the fact that your views and your model of governance are hopelessly outdated and hinder the development of Russia and its human potential.
Both municipal councils apparently have a reputation for rebelliousness, which has been somewhat tolerated in Putin’s Russia on the local level; thus it is hard to tell whether their defiance will nudge other political bodies to speak out. That may depend on how many more “sensitive psychological blows” Russia will be dealt, both on the battlefields of Ukraine and in the domestic sphere where Russia’s industries are starting to feel the bite of sanctions. If the scope of the military losses becomes clear within Russia, the monstrosity of Putin’s declaration that “we haven’t lost anything”—and his claim that the war has only strengthened Russia’s sovereignty—will be much harder to deny....
Onward and upward, airforce
Re: Developing Eastern European Crises
[Re: Navarro]
#178902 09/14/202211:19 AM09/14/202211:19 AM
The Kremlin acknowledged its defeat in Kharkiv Oblast, the first time Moscow has openly recognized a defeat since the start of the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Kremlin officials and state media propagandists are extensively discussing the reasons for the Russian defeat in Kharkiv Oblast, a marked change from their previous pattern of reporting on exaggerated or fabricated Russian successes with limited detail.[1] The Kremlin never admitted that Russia was defeated around Kyiv or, later, at Snake Island, framing the retreat from Kyiv as a decision to prioritize the “liberation” of Donbas and the withdrawal from Snake Island as a “gesture of goodwill.”[2] The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) originally offered a similar explanation for the Russian failure in Kharkiv, claiming that Russian forces were withdrawing troops from Kharkiv Oblast to regroup, but this false narrative faced quick and loud criticism online.[3] The Kremlin’s acknowledgment of the defeat is part of an effort to mitigate and deflect criticism for such a devastating failure away from Russian President Vladimir Putin and onto the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) and the uniformed military command.
Kremlin sources are now working to clear Putin of any responsibility for the defeat, instead blaming the loss of almost all of occupied Kharkiv Oblast on underinformed military advisors within Putin’s circle.[4] One member of the Kremlin’s Council for Interethnic Relations, Bogdan Bezpalko, even stated that military officials who had failed to see the concentration of Ukrainian troops and equipment and disregarded Telegram channels that warned of the imminent Ukrainian counter-offensive in Kharkiv Oblast should have their heads ”lying on Putin’s desk.”[5] ISW has previously reported that the Kremlin delayed Putin‘s meeting with Russian defense officials immediately after the withdrawal of troops from around Kharkiv, increasing the appearance of a rift between the Kremlin and the Russian MoD.[6] The Kremlin’s admission of defeat in Kharkiv shows that Putin is willing and able to recognize and even accept a Russian defeat at least in some circumstances and focus on deflecting blame from himself.
Several members of the Russian State Duma expressed concern about the dire situation on the frontlines in Ukraine during the Duma’s first plenary meeting of its autumn session on September 13. Leader of the Russian Communist Party Gennady Zyuganov stated that Russia needs to announce full mobilization because the Russian “special military operation” is a war.[7] Zyuganov said that one can end a “special military operation” at any time, but that a war can end only in victory or defeat, and “we have no right to lose” this war. Leader of the “Fair Russia—For Truth” Party Sergey Mironov called for social “mobilization,” in which regular Russians would pay attention more to the war in Ukraine, rather than for full military mobilization. Leader of the Russian Liberal Democratic Party Leonid Slutsky also noted that Russia will continue to fight in the geopolitical “scrum” with the West. All three MPs had publicly advocated for Putin to recognize the independence of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics (DNR and LNR) before the February invasion and were instrumental in setting information conditions for the invasion itself.[8] The MPs also discussed a December date for the next hearing on a bill that will simplify the delivery of the semiannual conscription notices.[9] The bill, which is likely to pass, will allow Russian military recruitment centers to send out conscription notices via mail instead of presenting them in person and will oblige men who have not received a notice in the mail to show up at the local recruitment center anyway.[10]
The Kremlin is likely seeking to use the defeat in Kharkiv to facilitate crypto mobilization efforts. Zyuganov’s, Mironov’s, and Slutsky’s statements could be aimed at raising concern and patriotism among Russians to encourage them to get more involved in the war. The bill could further facilitate the ongoing crypto mobilization campaign, which aims to promote recruitment into contract service via deception, coercion, or promised financial rewards. Recruitment centers throughout Russia have been delivering unofficial summonses that look like conscription notices via mail and phone calls, but many men are aware that Russian law requires military recruitment centers to issue conscription notices in person.[11] Russian men who have responded to the unofficial summonses have recounted recruiters attempting to persuade or pressure them into signing a military contract. The bill legalizing mailed conscription notices will facilitate this dishonest practice. Both the bill and MPs’ statements may evoke fear of general mobilization among men, which could incentivize some to sign military contracts and receive financial bonuses for volunteering, as opposed to being conscripted and forced to serve without such compensation.
Nothing in the Duma bill suggests that Putin is preparing to order general mobilization, and it is far from clear that he could do so quickly. Large-scale conscription would very likely overwhelm the Russian MoD’s ability to induct, train, and equip new soldiers, particularly since the Russian training base appears to be strained in preparing the limited numbers of volunteer battalions currently being fielded. Russia would likely first have to expand its training base significantly, a time-consuming process, and then find and prepare for combat sufficient equipment to kit out large numbers of new units before it could even begin to handle a large influx of new conscripts. Widely-reported Russian materiel shortages suggest deep failures in the Russian military industry that would make generating the necessary equipment, ammunition, and supplies for a large conscript army very difficult. ISW has not identified any indicators that preparations for such activities have been ordered or are underway.
The Kremlin has adopted narratives that echo longstanding milblogger demands and complaints, suggesting that Putin seeks to appease and win back the critical milblogger community rather than censor it. Russian milbloggers have long complained about the Russian MoD and the military high command, and now the Kremlin state media is openly expressing dissatisfaction with the progress of the war and the lack of situational awareness of events on the ground.[12] Milbloggers are advertising Telegram channels covering frontline developments 24/7 and urging readers to subscribe if they “believe” in Putin.[13] Kremlin-controlled and Kremlin-influenced media are now openly calling for an intensive missile campaign against Ukrainian civilian critical infrastructure and transit routes, an idea with broad support among many milbloggers.[14] These new calls are a stark departure from the Kremlin‘s previous line claiming that Russian forces did not target civilian infrastructure, and this new narrative is earning the Kremlin public support among milbloggers. Slutsky’s statement at the Duma meeting pointing to the disinterest of most Russian civilians in the war echoes frequent milblogger complaints about the harmful side effects of conducting a limited war.[15]
Russia’s defeat in Kharkiv Oblast is causing panic among Russians in occupied Ukrainian territories, servicemen, and milbloggers. The Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence (GUR) reported that Russian authorities in Crimea urged their families to flee to Russia, while employees of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) are selling their homes on the peninsula and are urgently evacuating their families due to Ukrainian counter-offensives.[16] The Ukrainian General Staff reported that forcibly mobilized proxy units are suffering low morale and psychological problems.[17] Russian milbloggers are increasingly worrying about Ukrainian counter-offensives in different areas along the Donetsk-Zaporizhia Oblasts frontline, and preemptively identifying vulnerable Russian positions.[18] ...
Many Russians appear eager to leave the country to avoid becoming soldiers. The only problem is that they can't easily get out.
On Tuesday, in advance of a speech that Russian President Vladimir Putin was slated to give about the invasion of Ukraine, Google searches in Russia for information about how to leave the country spiked, Latvian newspaper Meduza reported.
In his speech on Wednesday morning, Putin outlined plans to call up military reservists for active duty. Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu later clarified that about 300,000 individuals with military training would be immediately called up for service out of a pool of about 25 million Russians who could be eligible for conscription.
Not coincidentally, one-way plane ticket prices for flights leaving Russia have skyrocketed or largely sold out. Flights to the few available destinations—like Belgrade, Serbia, and Istanbul, Turkey—were already sold out for the coming days, NPR reported on Wednesday morning. The few tickets remaining were selling for the equivalent of nearly $10,000.
One of the problems facing those trying to flee is that there aren't many countries where Russians can enter without a visa, and few airlines still fly to Russia since the European Union imposed a flight embargo in response to the war in Ukraine.
It's unclear whether the Russian government will close the border to able-bodied men of military age, but it's hard to blame anyone in Russia for not sticking around to find out. Military drafts are moral evils, and even the specter of one is enough to send people running.
There's been an ongoing exodus of people from Russia since the war in Ukraine began, but the sudden rush for the border highlights one of the flaws in how western governments have responded to Putin's war. By making it harder, rather than easier, for Russians to emigrate, the European Union and others are only helping Putin trap Russian citizens in the country. It would be better to let them freely leave on European and American planes than lock them inside the country and leave them vulnerable to conscription.
As has been the case since the war began, the United States and other governments opposed to Russia's invasion could do a better job of punishing Putin by throwing open their doors to his critics. Holding average Russians accountable for a tyrant's decisions doesn't win hearts or minds.
"I understood the best way to act against Putin's regime would be my emigration from Russia," Yevgeny Lyamin, a 23-year-old Russian immigrant to Great Britain told the BBC in March. More of this, please!
To its credit, the Biden administration has asked Congress to make it easier for Russians with advanced degrees to enter the U.S., but the change has not been approved. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R–Ill.) has claimed that Republican opposition to easing immigration rules is to blame.
That's a shame. Russians trying to flee Putin's war need the opportunity to exit, especially since it's dangerous to use their voices in their home country. Let Russians vote with their feet, and the West can peacefully rob Putin of an army for his illegal war.
Ukraine-based novelist and filmmaker Gonzalo Lira told the Health Ranger Mike Adams that there’s a complete disconnect between the reality on the ground in Ukraine and what is being sold to the general public. Lira, known for his uncensored videos and roundtable discussions https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfUzUq5L9NFv2GMVGbEBgkg/videos on what is truly happening in Ukraine, talked about the three huge offensives by Kyiv that led to the deaths of thousands of Ukrainians. https://www.brighteon.com/63f0b0f4-1628-4b23-a29a-a3328ebb62ac
“These offensives were catastrophic for the Zelensky regime and for the Ukrainian side. They lost over 12,000 men in action in these three offensives and the wounded is likely double that number,” Lira related during the September 16 edition of “Health Ranger Report: Situation Update.” (Related: The economic ANNIHILATION of Europe – Gonzalo Lira and Mike Adams publish epic interview.) https://naturalnews.com/2022-09-16-...lira-and-mike-adams-epic-interview.html#
According to Lira, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces carried out the attacks and exposed their troops in doing so. Russians have an advantage in artillery fire and in aircraft and air defense systems. Lira pointed out that Ukrainian forces no longer have air defense systems because the Russians have destroyed them all.
“Russians don’t care about territory. Their objective is to destroy the armed forces. So for them, this was like Christmas morning because they got to destroy a whole bunch of soldiers who will not be fighting them in the future,” he said.
But at the same time, the Russians are gaining territories. Russia has already captured over 150,000 square kilometers or about a quarter of Ukraine so far. http://russiareport.news
Lira said Ukrainian forces “don’t even make a dent” against the Russian defense. He further cited a recent incursion by Ukrainian troops around the Kurdistan region, where the Russians blew up a dam.
“The Russians didn’t blow up the dam just to harm civilians as they are not interested in destroying civilian infrastructure. When they destroyed the dam, it flooded a river. Now there are 4,000 to 7,000 Ukrainian soldiers there that were cut off,” Lira said, adding that these soldiers were disconnected from reinforcements and unable to retreat. “They’re going to be annihilated.” Izyum being retaken by Kyiv does not matter to Russia
“Izyum is a logistical hub and it’s from there that Russia was supplying its troops that are further east in the Donbas region round places like Kramatorsk and Sloviansk,” the report stated.
This was debunked by Lira. “The Russian troops were able to reroute and make their logistics more efficient. So they didn’t need the eastern Ukraine city,” he said. “Izyum was essential two months ago. The fact that they lost it doesn’t mean anything. Because ultimately, their goal is to destroy Ukrainian forces. It is not to capture territory just to capture territory.”
Lira said the Russians knew exactly what they were doing – they give up territories that were of no military use to them. “And now they’re in a much better position. So from their point of view, this was a win,” he said. “At the end of the day, you don’t win the war on Twitter, you win the war on the ground by defeating the enemy army. That’s the whole point.”
Adams agreed. “It doesn’t matter where they operate geographically. Their goal is to diminish the ability of the Ukrainian forces to wage future actions,” Adams said.
The Health Ranger also mentioned that Russian officials have been warning the U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to stop funneling weapons through Ukraine, training Ukrainian soldiers and essentially running the war for Ukraine as they may face larger counter-attacks by Russia. http://wwiii.news
According to Adams, the Russians are very much prepared for this war. They’re winning not just on the ground.
Adams pointed to the ongoing energy crisis in Europe to support his claim. “Winter becomes almost a weapon. Suicide sanctions initiated by the West have backfired so catastrophically to the point their industry leaders are now warning about ‘permanent de-industrialization of the continent,’ and all [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has to do is wait for winter to kick in,” he said, noting that this season’s chilling weather is even cheaper than artillery costs.
Lira added: “The people in Europe will go cold, dark and hungry and the EU did it to themselves because they were anti-nuclear due to their green parties and climate change narratives.” He also cited the Western sanctions on Russian crude that caused the energy prices to go soaring to record highs while Russia is still making lots of money selling its gas to India and China.
The West has miscalculated the sanctions they placed on Russia as the country is self-sufficient. “They’d be fine because they have the key resources: energy, food and raw materials for industry. They can shut themselves off from the rest of the world and become a hermit country,” Lira said.
Visit UkraineWitness.com for more news on what’s truly happening in Ukraine.
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
In the above video Alex Jones says that Russia is loosing in Ukraine because they are really fighting against NATO. Russia and NATO have always said if they are loosing a conventional war then they will take it nuclear. Putin says he is about to start a nuclear war against all of NATO.
If electrical power is lost then all of the nuclear power plants will melt down. Most of the ultra rich have already moved to the Southern Hemisphere in anticipation of a Nuclear World War 3 that the Globalists are trying to cause to wipe out most of the population of the world.
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
Russia’s recent “partial mobilization” will call up 300,000 military reservists who, over the next few months, will be trained and put into service in the ongoing conflict with Ukraine. It is now well known — although western nations continue to deny the obvious — that Ukraine’s military offensives are being run by NATO troops, using NATO satellites, training and gear. In essence, Russia is already fighting NATO in a continental war, and Russia realizes that western nations will not be satisfied with anything less than the complete obliteration of Russia as a sovereign nation.
Four Donbass region republics are reportedly voting on a referendum to officially become part of Russia. Ukraine’s government is threatening up to five year prison sentences for anyone who even votes in these elections, proving that Ukraine has zero interest in democracy or self-determination of the people. Nevertheless, these votes are taking place, and it’s highly likely that these republics will join Russia, making them part of Russian territory.
Once that is established, Russia will consider that any attack against those newly-joined regions (which were of course once part of the Soviet Union, and where most of the people are ethnic Russians who speak Russian and who actually want to join Russia) is an attack on Russia itself. Such attacks could trigger defensive responses from Russia, and those defensive responses may include every type of weapon available to Russia’s national defense, including nuclear weapons, Putin recently reminded the world. Brighteon.TV
Western media outlets and nations are trying to provoke a first strike nuclear holocaust
Western media, which now lies even more vehemently than Pravda ever did, claims this is Putin threatening the first use of nuclear weapons. That is of course a lie, but it is a convenient lie that’s being used by western media to call for a western preemptive nuclear strike against Russia in order to stop “Russia’s aggression.”
This is a very dangerous development, because if Russia takes such threats seriously, then classical game theory would require Putin to strike first, in order to preempt the anticipated preemptive strike by the West. Thus, we find ourselves in a rapidly escalating feedback loop which could end in nuclear disaster, especially given that the Biden regime appears to be actively trying to start World War III before the mid-term elections, allowing him to declare a national war footing and try to postpone the ballot box lashing that Democrats are sure to endure if the elections take place.
Even worse, while Putin appears to be acting rationally from his own national self-interest, western leaders are behaving like psychopaths who are utterly disconnected from reason and reality. They do not even acknowledge the fact that their own economic sanctions against Russia unleashed the catastrophic economic misery and energy crisis that Western Europe imminently faces (with mass famine and an industrial collapse soon to follow). There seems to be zero recognition among the leaders of Germany, the UK or the USA that provoking Russia into a nuclear exchange will go horribly wrong for the West (and would likely spell the end of Western civilization).
In classical game theory, analysts talk of “two scorpions in a jar,” each capable of striking the other to death even if they are struck themselves. Yet the reality is that We the People are all trapped in that jar with a bunch of psychopathic scorpions who possess powerful weapons but no rationality, intelligence or ethical grounding for managing the use of such weapons.
It’s like we’re all wearing highly flammable clothing at the birthday party of a spoiled brat child, and the parents just give him a flamethrower. What do you suppose happens next? We all get burned.
Translated into reality, we’re already suffering under the economic devastation of the west’s attempted anti-Russian sanctions (known as “suicide sanctions” at this point), and now western media influencers are begging the Pentagon to authorize first-strike nuclear warfare with Russia, a nation that has 20-30 years more advanced anti-air defense systems and ICBMs with hyperglide vehicles that can evade every defensive system currently possessed by NATO nations, including the USA. Provoking Russia into a nuclear exchange while Russia has the best anti-ICBM missile systems is like getting into a gun fight with an opponent who is carrying the world’s best ballistic shield. It’s another suicide wish, yet it’s exactly what western media outlets (and governments) are begging for.
Prepare for nuclear war NOW
At this point, every informed person should be preparing for nuclear war, understanding that it is being desperately provoked by the USA and NATO. Russia doesn’t want nuclear war, and fortunately for humanity, Putin is a far more measured and patient man than any western leader, meaning he won’t irrationally lash out with nuclear weapons for political purposes.
The same can’t be said of western nations and their insane, deranged leaders. They will provoke absolutely anything — including nuclear terrorism or nuclear war — to try to remain in power, even if it means the mass slaughter of millions of innocent people. John Moore (The Liberty Man) explains this in today’s featured interview.
Here’s today’s full podcast, covering Russia, the Texas declaration of war against drug smugglers, the DOJ’s prosecution of 47 people for a massive food fraud operation mostly run by somalis in Minnesota, and much more: Brighteon.com/081433a6-ac61-4e33-a02e-ac8517cabef2
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
World War III has already begun. You simply aren’t being told this because your government and dishonest media outlets are dedicated to keeping you in the dark. After all, they want to use the remaining time to stockpile food, ammunition, medical supplies and precious metals for themselves, and this can only be accomplished by withholding the truth about the situation for as long as possible.
The Prime Minister of Serbia may be an exception to this, as he is now publicly warning that the world is about to experience a “great world conflict” that will likely begin in the next two months.
The full quote from Vucic is: I assume that we’re leaving the phase of the special military operation and approaching a major armed conflict, and now the question becomes where is the line, and whether after a certain time – maybe a month or two, even – we will enter a great world conflict not seen since the Second World War. NATO is already at war with Russia, and Putin is gearing up for a continental battle
What’s happening is that psychopathic western nations have — the real aggressors in this war — have unleashed not just “suicide sanctions” against Russia, but are also running Ukraine’s military operations against Russia. This means NATO is already in the war, even if NATO won’t admit it yet. Worse yet, NATO leaders are openly demanding the complete destruction of Russia and the occupation / exploitation of Russia’s natural resources, which is of course the entire model of global exploitation and pillaging typically carried out by the west. (Disrupt, pillage, control. That’s the CIA model that has been unleashed against other nations for decades…)
Conditions are already long past the point of negotiation or de-escalation between Russia and the west. The psychopathic leaders of the west (Victoria Nuland comes to mind) are russo-phobic Russia haters who are determined to carry out genocide against the Russian people, even if it means destroying their own economies and agricultural supply chains in the process. These psychopaths, Putin has come to realize, can’t be reasoned with or trusted to abide by any agreements whatsoever. Russia realizes it must fight or die. That’s where we are right now.
Unfortunately, the insanity of western nations has escalated this conflict to a condition where whoever launches nukes first has the advantage. This is a very dangerous dynamic, obviously, and it stems from the fact that the west has repeatedly signaled it will not allow the existence of Russia in its “New World Order” vision of planet Earth. With friends like Victoria Nuland calling the shots, who needs enemies? Russia has a 30+ year advantage over the west in terms of nuclear weapons and anti-air defenses
An important realization in all this is that NATO’s nuclear arsenal is ancient — mostly running on designed originally engineered in the 1970s — while Russia’s nuclear capabilities are at least two generations ahead, modernized with hyperglide reentry vehicles, evasive maneuver capabilities for ICBMs, hypersonic cruise missiles which are nuclear capable, and highly advanced anti-air defense systems that can even intercept and take down incoming ICBMs. In addition, Russia possesses secret “doomsday” weapons — far beyond their thermobaric bombs — that the world hasn’t even seen yet. On the current trajectory, those weapons are going to be introduced to the west without any warning whatsoever, resulting in the complete annihilation of Western European governments, currencies and industry.
I have no doubt whatsoever that Russia has already designated the targets of its first strike, and that those targets include London, Paris, Berlin, Warsaw, US naval fleets and virtually all military bases across Western Europe. We are now just one launch away from a civilization-ending event.
The USA and NATO have deluded themselves into thinking they can win a nuclear exchange with Russia, but this is just as delusional as thinking “men can get pregnant” or that money printing doesn’t cause inflation (notably, the brain dead Biden regime insists that both of these absurdities are absolutely true). Over the past two decades — and more recently led by the insanity of wokeism — the west has become fully invested in delusional thinking and fairy tale narratives that have no connection with reality. While the west has been waging a propaganda narrative war, Russia has been engineering the world’s most advanced nuclear weapons. Once the nuclear exchange begins, there’s no question whatsoever about its outcome. Russia will lose a few million people — far less than what they lost in World War II — but they will annihilate Germany, Poland, France and the United Kingdom. Western Europe will be plunged into a generation of despair and darkness, while the U.S. suffers a cascading financial collapse due to exposure to European banks, currencies and debt markets.
Western journalists and kleptocrats are incapable of seeing this reality, and they are similarly incapable of acting to stop it. They are caught in their own delusional world of self-inflicted brainwashing and propaganda, believing (somehow) that they can bully Russia into capitulating to the west’s insane demands. But Russia is no Third World nation. Russia can’t be economically dismantled with western sanctions, and Russia has its own domestic supply chain for literally everything it needs to feed its people, build more weapons and earn a fortune in exports of energy and commodities to willing trade partners like India, China, Turkey and Iran.
Finally, Putin will not back down, and Putin is far more intelligent than any of the cognitively-challenged lunatics running the USA, UK or NATO countries. In a chess match between Putin and Biden, you’d probably see Joe Biden augmented with remote controlled vibrating diapers to send him chess move signals through his rectum, and he still wouldn’t understand the meaning of chess notations anyway. The leaders of western nations are so utterly incompetent that they don’t even qualify as “clowns,” since good clowns are actually intelligent, capable communicators who can make people laugh. Biden, Blinken, and Nuland just make us all want to puke.
The West has already grossly miscalculated with “suicide sanctions” but still won’t admit to their catastrophic errors
As proof of the incompetence of western nations, consider the fact that their “suicide sanctions” against Russia — originally implemented to try to force Russia into a currency collapse — has had the opposite effect. The sanctions are destroying the Euro, not the Ruble, and now all of Western Europe faces a winter of darkness, famine and freezing to death. That’s on top of the “permanent deindustrialization” of European industry that is already well under way, https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-09...-lira-and-mike-adams-epic-interview.html with about 70% of metals smelting and ammonia production already offline. Fertilizer production has ground to a halt, the Nord Stream 1 pipeline has been halted, and to add insult to injury, Belgium is proudly announcing the shutting down of a nuclear power plant, right as Belgium faces an energy scarcity catastrophe. https://www.euractiv.com/section/en...clear-reactor-to-be-shut-down-in-belgium
Germany, meanwhile, is putting another $8 billion into bailing out Uniper, https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/germany-nationalize-struggling-uniper-deepening-energy-crisis a major natural gas provider, and that’s on top of $15 billion already spent trying to prevent Uniper’s collapse. Germany’s industrial base is being wiped out at astonishing speed, and nobody in the German government is telling the German people they won’t have jobs as industry collapses.
Putin must be astonished at the speed of which Western Europe — and Germany in particular — is destroying itself. Recall that Germany destroyed Western Europe twice already: World War I and World War II. Now, Germany (still largely run by Nazis) is leading the way to the total destruction of Europe yet again. At one level, Putin need not launch any nukes at all… he merely needs to wait for winter to kick in and for the laws of thermodynamics and economics to do the rest. The greens must be proud: Entire forests are being clear cut for firewood
Yesterday I spoke with war correspondent Michael Yon who had just traveled through Germany (my interview with him will post tomorrow on Brighteon.com). He told me the forests were being clear-cut everywhere across Germany (at least that he could see) in a desperate effort by the people to stockpile firewood for the coming winter. This is the new “green” agenda on parade: Clear-cutting forests that will take decades to grow back. Will the greenies celebrate all the dead forests because at least Germany didn’t burn fossil fuels? Does anybody realize that a 19th century economy can’t support a 21st century population? Famine is a mathematical certainty.
To stop this crisis, all Germany has to do is apologize to Russia, drop the economic sanctions and beg Gazprom to turn the gas back on, but no, they won’t dare do that, even if hundreds of thousands of German citizens starve to death and die of exposure. In exactly the same way Adolf Hitler threw starving, freezing German soldiers into Russia’s defensive lines at Stalingrad in 1943, today’s German leaders are sacrificing the lives of their own citizens in a desperate bid to try to economically harm Russia … and it isn’t even accomplishing that! In the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet Union surrounded and defeated Germany’s Sixth Army, which surrendered more than 220,000 soldiers to the Russians. Today, Germany is willing to sacrifice millions of its own citizens if necessary, proving that Nazi-style suicide maneuvers remain alive and well in Berlin, even generations after the catastrophic outcome of World War II.
You can beat the Nazis out of Russia, but you can’t beat the Nazi tendencies out of the German political leaders.
Russia, meanwhile, is sitting on massive quantities of low-cost energy, minerals, steel manufacturing, fertilizer production, successful food crops, electronics manufacturing and everything else needed to keep civilization on its feet. Yet to this very day, there isn’t one Western European politician who will admit the truth of where things stand. Too bad propaganda can’t heat homes, or the western media would be the ultimate renewable energy source for the entire planet.
The upshot of all this? Anyone living in Western Europe should prepare for economic collapse, famine and nuclear war.
Those living in North America should prepare for economic collapse and worldwide nuclear fallout that will disrupt crops for years to come.
Those who don’t store food will end up eating radioactive food, if they can find any at all.
Prepare accordingly.
Podcast Situation Update, Sep 23, 2022 - World War III has already begun, but the truth is being withheld from the public Brighteon.com/6fe87c7c-05e5-44b4-a867-e63a6ff088e4
See NuclearWar.news for more coverage of nuclear war risk on planet Earth.
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
It looks like with Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions of Ukraine all voting to join the Russian Federation; Russia will declare those areas to be part of Russia. Then instead of a limited war the Russian Commie Rats will launch an all out war on the Ukraine Nazis blowing Zelensky’s and his headquarters in Kiev to bits and taking down the whole electrical power grid in Ukraine. Unless they have a back up generator the nuclear power plant in Ukraine will totally melt down releasing massive amounts of radiation.
The US and NATO should quit supplying Zelensky's Nazis. Zelensky should negotiate for peace before it is too late. If either side uses tactical nukes it will escalate into Russia nuking all of NATO as well as the USA.
Remember three weeks ago when Putin and the Russian military were on the ropes and the Ukrainian army was steamrolling through Kharkov? That was then and Urkaine’s promised victory failed to materialize. With the benefit of hindsight, it appears that Russia abandoned the strategically meaningless territory in the Kharkov Oblast of Ukraine and re-deployed forces to the Donbas, Zaporhyzhia and Kherson. Why? To be in position for the referendum–i.e., to defend the Ukraine oblasts that would be given the chance to vote whether or not to reunite with mother Russia. Putin’s subsequent announcement of the referenda, which began last Friday, was not a Hail Mary pass nor an act of desperation. The planning for this had been in the works for at least a month, maybe longer.
While Ukraine continued to throw its troops against the Russian lines and launched artillery strikes on civilian targets, it paid a terrible price in terms of human casualties and destroyed tanks and combat vehicles, and failed completely to disrupt the vote. There have been international observers monitoring the vote throughout the four oblasts. I wish at least one reporter would ask these observers when they were first contacted and asked to come to the Russian controlled territory and do the monitoring. That detail would provide some insight into the extent of the pre-planning for the referenda.
It appears that the vote to reunite with Russia will be overwhelming in favor of becoming Russian republics. Once the results are certified the Russian Duma will act to accept the decision and Putin will put the cherry on the sundae and make it official. At that point–this Friday–the special military operation in Ukraine will end and Russia will be in position to defend its new territory.
I expect Putin to speak commemorating the event and will put Ukraine, NATO and the United States on notice that any further attacks on Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporhyzhia and Kherson will be an attack on Russia. Ukraine and the west will be on notice. The ball will be in their court.
This will create an opportunity for what is left of Ukraine to seek peace. I doubt that Ukraine and the west will accept this chance. The attacks on the new Russian population will continue and Russia will act. In contrast to the restraint demonstrated during the course of the last six plus months, Russia is likely to respond with more aggressive tactics that may include turning off the power in Ukraine and attacking command centers, including Zelensky’s headquarters in Kiev. This will lead to a significant escalation in the combat, but Ukraine and NATO will have a limited capacity to respond. Why?
The west no longer has the industrial base to match Russia’s production of war material. This weakness is compounded by the double whammy of inflation and economic collapse that is savaging Europe and starting to hurt the United States. The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the world’s oldest and the UK’s leading defence and security think tank, recently published an important essay detailing this decline:
The war in Ukraine has proven that the age of industrial warfare is still here. The massive consumption of equipment, vehicles and ammunition requires a large-scale industrial base for resupply – quantity still has a quality of its own. The mass scale combat has pitted 250,000 Ukrainian soldiers, together with 450,000 recently mobilised citizen soldiers against about 200,000 Russian and separatist troops. The effort to arm, feed and supply these armies is a monumental task. Ammunition resupply is particularly onerous. For Ukraine, compounding this task are Russian deep fires capabilities, which target Ukrainian military industry and transportation networks throughout the depth of the country. The Russian army has also suffered from Ukrainian cross-border attacks and acts of sabotage, but at a smaller scale. The rate of ammunition and equipment consumption in Ukraine can only be sustained by a large-scale industrial base.
This reality should be a concrete warning to Western countries, who have scaled down military industrial capacity and sacrificed scale and effectiveness for efficiency. This strategy relies on flawed assumptions about the future of war, and has been influenced by both the bureaucratic culture in Western governments and the legacy of low-intensity conflicts. Currently, the West may not have the industrial capacity to fight a large-scale war. If the US government is planning to once again become the arsenal of democracy, then the existing capabilities of the US military-industrial base and the core assumptions that have driven its development need to be re-examined. https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/return-industrial-warfare
This is the work of Lt Col (Retd) Alex Vershinin, a US citizen. He spells out in detail the challenge the United States and its NATO allies face if they dare to engage Russia in a tit-for-tat battle:
Presently, the US is decreasing its artillery ammunition stockpiles. In 2020, artillery ammunition purchases decreased by 36% to $425 million. In 2022, the plan is to reduce expenditure on 155mm artillery rounds to $174 million. This is equivalent to 75,357 M795 basic ‘dumb’ rounds for regular artillery, 1,400 XM1113 rounds for the M777, and 1,046 XM1113 rounds for Extended Round Artillery Cannons. Finally, there are $75 million dedicated for Excalibur precision-guided munitions that costs $176K per round, thus totaling 426 rounds. In short, US annual artillery production would at best only last for 10 days to two weeks of combat in Ukraine. If the initial estimate of Russian shells fired is over by 50%, it would only extend the artillery supplied for three weeks.
Russia, by contrast, enjoys the luxury of defense plants that are operating 24-7 and producing ammunition, vehicles, tanks, drones, missiles and rockets. The west still labors under the delusion that Russia’s economy is barely tottering along. Russia has the minerals, material and qualified personnel required to produce what the Russian military needs to sustain operations; especially intense combat operations.
I do not know if this was the Russian plan from the outset–i.e., conduct operations that would create a de facto disarmament of the United States and Europe–or if this is pure serendipity. Regardless, the west has no viable options, short of nuclear war, of defeating Russia in Ukraine.
The coming weeks will expose fractures in the NATO alliance. Britain, for example, woke up this morning to learn that the once mighty pound Sterling, which once had twice the value of the US dollar, is now worth less than the dollar. That means that the Brits will be paying more for products they import from the United States. Although the United States only accounts for 12% of the UK imports, the price increase will further inflame the inflationary spiral in the UK. Newly minted British Prime Minister Liz Truss already is facing push back from the Tories about her proposed economic plan. The death of Queen Elizabeth put the political problems on a back burner for a couple of weeks. That honeymoon is over and the pressure of domestic politics in the UK will make continued support for Ukraine less certain.
The collapsing economies in France, Germany and Italy also will compel those countries to spend more time trying to quiet growing domestic unrest. When you factor in the energy crisis and Ukrainian military setbacks as winter sets in, the foundation of NATO unity vis-a-vis Ukraine, is likely to crack.
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
"The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines have been leaking natural gas at 3 separate locations in the Baltic Sea, leading to accusations by various governments that the damage was an act of sabotage by Russia or the United States." "Pres. Biden: "If Russia invades...then there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it.""
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
Blowing up the Nord Stream Pipelines will start World War 3. These Globalists controlled Democrats want nuclear war with Russia. They are desperate to stay in power.
"Resident Joe Biden, Russophobic State Department official Victoria Nuland and GOP Senator Ron Johnson are all on the record demanding the Nord Stream pipelines be taken out, implying they will use any means necessary to achieve that outcome." See: https://www.naturalnews.com/2022-09...chestrated-by-ruthless-biden-regime.html
www.TexasMilitia.Info Seek out and join a lawful Militia or form one in your area. If you wish to remain Free you will have to fight for it...because the traitors will give us no choice in the matter--William Cooper
Re: Developing Eastern European Crises
[Re: Navarro]
#178968 09/30/202211:05 AM09/30/202211:05 AM
Who sabotaged those pipelines? There are a few possibilities - including a (remote) possibility it was an accident due to poor maintenance by the Russians. (The two explosions were 17 hours apart - pretty sloppy work for a saboteur.)
Quote
Speculation abounds about who or what could have damaged the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea, a whodunit case that is raising fears about widening the war in Ukraine. The two pipelines—which carry natural gas from their source in Russia to their destinations in Germany—sprung leaks in four separate locations in Swedish- and Danish-controlled international waters earlier this week.
Seismologists say they detected explosions near the pipelines at the time. That and the fact that the leaks happened simultaneously on two separate pipelines that were built at different times has led many to conclude that the damage was likely sabotage.
On Thursday, the North Atlantic Council—the governing body of the 28-member National Atlantic Treaty Association (NATO)—released a statement declaring that the leaks were almost certainly the "result of deliberate, reckless, and irresponsible acts of sabotage."
"Any deliberate attack against Allies' critical infrastructure would be met with a united and determined response," the military alliance said.
The council didn't provide any new information proving sabotage. It also didn't identify who the alliance thought was behind the alleged attacks on the pipeline.
So…who did it?
Emma Ashford, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center (and former Cato Institute scholar), has posted an interesting Twitter thread parsing different possibilities that people have been tossing around, which include sabotage by Russians, Americans, Ukrainians, other Eastern Europeans, or even the Chinese.
Her best guess is that this was done by Moscow, possibly as a way of hurting the West in a war that's going badly, or perhaps even to avoid lawsuits when Russia's state-owned Gazprom fails to fulfill contracts for gas delivery. Russia had already stopped gas exports to Europe through the Nord Stream pipeline in August. Nord Stream 2 hasn't opened for business yet.
The Russian government, for its part, has denied responsibility for the attack. Per The Wall Street Journal, a Russian government spokesperson seemed to suggest that NATO would have had a far easier time sabotaging the pipelines.
That idea has found a supporter in Fox News host Tucker Carlson. On Tuesday, Carlson speculated that the U.S. was behind the attack, pointing to pre-war comments from President Joe Biden that if Russia invaded Ukraine, "there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2. We will bring an end to it."
Fueling some of the speculation that the U.S. was behind the alleged attack was a tweet from Radek Sikorski, a Polish member of the European Parliament, that seemed to thank the U.S. for damaging the pipeline. Sikorski's follow-up comments, however, seem to put the blame back on Russia.
Whoever is responsible, the immediate economic impacts of the pipelines being out of commission are basically zero, given that neither was carrying gas to Europe when they were damaged.
Europe is nevertheless expected to see a recession comparable to the 2009 financial crisis because of a shortage of Russian gas exports generally. Bloomberg is predicting that European GDP could fall as much as 5 percent over the winter. Inflation is at 10 percent in the Eurozone. European governments are expanding aid to help people cope with gas prices. There's even some talk of price caps.
Had an interesting picture come over my e-mail transom this morning, but first: a pictorial explanation of the most common ways a hydrate plug ruptures a pipeline:
That’s from the 1994 edition of CAPP Guidelines for the Prevention and Safe Handling of Hydrates, Canadian Assn. of Petroleum Producers, in case you were wondering.
Anyhoo, the picture in question is actually a map:
Anyone notice anything interesting about the ruptures at 02:03 hours and 19:03 hours?
Assuming that the map accurately represents the course of the pipelines; and assuming that the map accurately represents the location of the ruptures … wah-ho, isn’t that interesting, as Dear Old Dad would say?
Even more interesting is this little tidbit, also via email. Russia was having compressor “issues” on Nord 1, enough that the whole sodding compressor station was “shut down” and a “hazardous production facility”.
Is anyone else getting the twitchies regarding the fact that at least some of the equipment that keeps the pipeline pressurised was off-line? Just me? Oh, well then. Carry on.
Moving on — multiple sources have confirmed that Nord 2 was full of natural gas; that it was full for at least months; and that said natural gas had never moved.
It. Just. Sat. There. For — allegedly — months.
During normal operations of a pipeline, you run a pig through fairly regularly. A “pig” is a bit of equipment pushed by the gas flow, and as it moves along it shoves water and hydrate slurry down to where it can be removed; and it scrapes compounds off the inside walls (hydrogen sulphide, I’m looking at you) that might be is probably eating your pipe.
Note the part above where the pigs are pushed by the gas. The gas in Nordstream 2 never moved. That means no pig ever went down the line to shove water out, move hydrate slurry, or stop H2S from corroding the steel of the pipeline.
As I said in the previous post — and I will continue to say — none of this rules out intentional Acts of War. There are idiots enough in that region that sabotage can’t be discounted.
How-some-ever … hydrate plugs.
With that being said, this sudden publicity is really freaking me out, so I’m probably going dark for a few days. I’ve got writing to do, fish to catch, and maybe a deer trail or two to scout.
Russia’s Ukraine War went from bad to worse over the weekend, as Kyiv’s liberation of Lyman left Russian positions crumbling.
There’s a lot going on, all of it fast-moving. So I’ll avoid the ever-changing details as much as I can, and focus instead for you on the big picture.
Before Saturday, Ukraine’s “August offensive” to recapture Kherson in the south had been a big dud. The Ukraine Army (UA) reportedly took big losses for minimal gains, as Moscow repositioned many of its best forces — or whatever remains of them — to the vital region.
Russian troops had been digging in at Kherson for weeks, and it showed.
But things broke loose on Sunday as UA forces made rapid gains along the right bank of the Dnipro River. Smaller gains further west in Kherson threaten to trap a reported 2,000-4,500 Russian troops.
Or maybe they’ll escape as Russian troops did from Lyman last week.
How bad is the situation, really? Retreating Russian forces in Kherson took to social media — in this case, the Telegram app popular with Russian milbloggers — to beg for airstrikes....
Up north, the UA barely hesitated after liberating Lyman to push into the Luhansk region — officially (and illegally) annexed last week by Putin.
That’s from Neil Hauer, an on-the-ground war reporter with a lot of experience. He adds:
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Others have noted this, but it bears repeating: these offensives don’t enjoy the surprise that the Kharkiv one last month did. Here, the Russians know what is coming, and the Ukrainian army is solidly defeating them day after day. Hard to see how the bleeding stops.
When asked to explain Russia’s apparent collapse in northern Donetsk/eastern Luhansk, Hauer tweeted, “They ran out of men – an issue long predicted and now very acutely felt.”
I’m starting to give more credence to Kyiv’s KIA claims against Russian forces. Before September, claims of 30,000-40,000 Russian dead seemed wild. More conservative estimates — like from the Dupuy Institute — were around 9,000-10,000. If Hauer is right, Russian losses must be at least double Dupuy’s estimate.
At this time, Russia is still trying to plug the gaps with freshly mobilized “mobiks.” Theses men are older, less fit, and barely trained. Russia doesn’t have a reserve system like ours, with National Guard and Army Reserve units staffed with people who work and drill together somewhat regularly. All they have is a list of men who put in a year or two as draftees sometime in the last 30 years — and local “recruiters” don’t always stick to the list.
These mobiks are getting sent to the front against UA troops who are now combat veterans.
About the only place the UA isn’t advancing right now is near Bakhmut, in the center. That could change quickly, though. Russia continues with futile attacks in the direction, squandering their manpower. Bakhmut has held out against Russian attacks for weeks, and continuing to attack when there are genuine crises elsewhere seems like madness.
The New York Times reported two weeks ago that Putin, apparently frustrated with his generals, has “thrust himself more directly into strategic planning for the war in Ukraine in recent weeks.” Former spies turned thug politicians generally don’t make the best battlefield commanders.
Honestly though, given Russia’s recent drubbings, it might not matter much who is giving the orders.
“You go to war with the army you have,” Donald Rumsfeld said almost 20 years ago. The army Putin ordered to war in February was not prepared for a long campaign. The time to mobilize was before starting the Ukraine War — an unpopular political risk Putin was unwilling to take.
But he was willing to risk a war.
Short of full mobilization, then spending the winter resting up and training up for a fresh campaign in the Spring, I’m not sure what options Putin has — short of nuclear weapons — if he wants to end this stupid war he started.
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