A big day of future-securing meetings as Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian touched down in Moscow to sign the awaited comprehensive economic and defense agreement with Putin:
“I can’t think right off the top of my head of anyone,” Col Macgregor said, “who might be less informed about Eastern Europe than Keith Kellogg.” Ouch. He elaborated, saying, “There’s no win for us in Ukraine. We lost the day we involved ourselves there. The systemic corruption is entrenched. It’s an abyss. The U.S. has no leverage in this war. We can’t fix it. It’s beyond our capabilities.”
Lavrov called a truce, a freeze or a ceasefire “a road to nowhere.” Russia is winning and has no incentive to pause the momentum. “There will be no serious conversation,” Lavrov said, “until colleagues in the West comprehend the abnormality of language repressions in Ukraine and the persecution of everything Russian there.” He indicated that Russia is committed to protecting its people in Ukraine.
Commonsensical Lavrov indicated Russia would wait until DJT’s admin actually came into office and began proffering valid proposals in Real Time before getting down to brass tacks. "As Trump himself said during one of his interviews, he will actively work to 'end this bloody mess' as he put it, but he needs to formally take office first. So, he will be inaugurated in three days. After that, we’ll examine proposals that will be on the table," Lavrov said.
Project Ukraine has been the wholesale embrace of a mountain of lies designed to justify perpetual conflict against Russia. Those for whom the outcome of a war w/ Russia means the most are not Americans—they are descended of those who have nurtured Russophobia for more than a hundred years. Europeans are resurrecting old agendas and fighting old grievances. France & the UK, who have boutique limited-action armies, are hankering to station their troops in Ukraine as a purported peace-keeping force, ahem. The leaders of France & the UK don’t want to lose so publicly to Russia, but it’s unavoidable now. They pitched in w/ stupidity: reap what you sow.
Running on empty on Ukrainians, game over. France cannot swallow Napoleons disgraceful defeat in Russia, and Britain will never accept it lost it’s Colonies, they will keep on poking their frustrations no matter what the outcome of any peace treaty.
The worst outcome is a freeze or ceasefire. This needs to end with a lasting security/peace arrangement.
Russia needs a buffer zone and stand clear of the debris of an imploding Europe. The more weapons they destroy and the more utterly defeated NATO is, the better.
It's sickening how the government of my country, which started this debacle, downplays what it actually means that their running out of Ukrainians to die.
The split of 400,000 Ukrainian frontline and 400,000 interior/border guards proves it's a police state.
The Russians take no casualties in their rear areas in the Donbass, as the population is 100% on board with being liberated.
As they move west, there will come a time when they cannot trust all the local people. On the other hand, leaving a large remaining Ukraine that festers with terrorists and malcontents, like a European Somalia, is a poor option.
Perhaps they need to take the entire place, and then negotiate a settlement before withdrawing from the region west of the Dnepr to the western borders. Keep Odessa and Kharkov and Trasnistrya.
I hail your emphasizing the fact that "400,000 interior/border guards proves it's a police state." The Ukrainian population is held hostage in what amounts to a detention camp the size of Texas.
S referenced the Rada member, Begula, who keeps poking around in this matter.
These western Ukies are willing hostages, hating Russia and Russians to the core, but at the same time they see this as a losing cause now and do not want to send their sons and daughters to be annihilated by Russian forces. I have no sympathy for these assholes being on the same genetic order as israeli fascists.
Once again Russia has ordered its forces to win in order to give the impression that they are not losing. We must pearl-clutch and equivocate over this illegal and environmentally unfriendly practice.
"British troops can lead Ukraine..." to pardon, where LOL? The same British troops that were fixing their submarine with superglue and shopped for the Admiral on LinkedIn?
I meant have they found anyone through that ad? I just can't imagine potential candidates in the military looking on LinkedIn for promotions. Maybe they will hire a non naval person if they are the 'right' colour, gender, sexual bent. As NZ did with the dyke that crashed a warship in to Samoa and converted it in to a submarine.
After being ridiculed, they removed this ad. But to even imagine for the ROYAL NAVY to stoop as low as advertising on LinkedIn, meaning there were no internal candidates to fit the bill, whatever it was. For a maritime ex-power, it's as bad as it gets.
Trump should sell the UK our own Admiral Rachel (former Richard), and a pediatrician to boot.
The arrogance is amazing. Why would anyone accept their “leadership”? Ukrainian officers are likely far more competent than British. After all, they have experienced three years of war. But the British press just trots out this outdated line that the woke UK military is awesome. I am English by the way, but am shocked by the attitudes of so much of my country.
Englishman here also, the hubris of the British ruling class (from which the majority of military officers are drawn) knows no bounds. Totally divorced from reality.
Many people in the U.S. do not want to admit it, but look at our politicians who claim a "military" background such as the esteemed Lindsey "sugarboots" Graham. We have a ruling class in the U.S. but we lack the courage to name it correctly.
Delusion includes regression into some "good old times". Where will they lead to? The answer is found in music. Road to Mandalay (with Robbie Williams wearing "sharp" sunglasses).
Obviously this interregnum, as Joe off-ramps & DJT on-ramps, has lasted w-a-a-a-a-y too long...
>>
We've got more retread fiction incoming from Bloomberg: Moscow and Kiev hold “limited talks” in Qatar on shielding nuclear power plants from attack. The purported negotiations are focused on preventing threats to nuclear facilities amid the ongoing conflict between the two neighbors, Bloomberg has claimed. This, a repeat of a short story Bloomberg first fashioned in August 2024, cites anonymous sources on the Russian side. Recall last August that the Kursk Incursion preempted the alleged talks. Neither Russia nor Ukraine ever verified that the talks had taken place.
According to Zakharova, however, Moscow and Kiev have not engaged in any talks since spring 2022 when peace talks collapsed, which Russia blamed on Western interference. Vaguely, noncommittally, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman, Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari said that Qatar has always pursued a policy aimed at “reaching peace.” The spokesman also stated, hazily, perhaps glancing down quickly at the notes before him, that Doha supports all the efforts aimed at achieving a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
Like the purported *prior* talks in Qatar, all sources are unnamed—and it is not possible to verify Bloomberg’s claims. The media propagandists *plant* the lie, then other propagandists follow-up on the lie, embellishing it w/ odd ‘peculiar’ details which stick in the mind. After that, pundits weight in, speculating. It’s like a game of hack-sack. Last August, the media propagandists may have expected to get a bit more traction from the lie, but the Kursk Incursion occurred, sucking all the oxygen from the room. Cheated last August in exploiting the ruse fully, they’ve brought the it back for 2025.
That was a very sparse welcoming committee for Kier Starmer at the Kiev train station..
Also, I think diplomatic protocol requires that when two leaders of the same rank meet (President - Prime Minister) the host should receive the visitor at the airport or train station. Only if they are of lower status (President - Ambassador) do they have to travel to the official residence to be met there.
But that's life during wartime I suppose.
I don't think Moscow would Kinzhal / Iskander the Prime Minister of the U.K., but for Zylensky's presidential motorcade they just might.
Once again, the theatrical air-raid sirens sounded in Kiev during the visit by a foreign dignitary, this time Keir Starmer. It used to make great PR but now it's just getting old.
Dignitaries visiting Kiev when air-raid sirens sounded (failed de-capitation strikes!):
The pace of both wars—in Gaza, in Ukraine—depended on the run-up to the U.S. presidential election, w/ Collective Biden finessing the rhythm of both conflicts in order to ensure that Joe would win a 2nd term. For example, the ceasefire deal DJT and Collective Biden just swung w/ Bibi was identical to the deal on the table back in May, but Collective Biden had to gentle the negotiations forward, not pressing too hard or making demands, always conscious of the fact that the Israel Lobby viewed a ceasefire as capitulation, an unforgivable outcome after the shock of 7 October.
Once DJT thumpingly crushed Collective Biden’s candidate for the presidency, and a chance to remain Major Players was gone for good, Collective Biden was freer to Move Fast & Break Things. So they could press harder on the ceasefire, knowing they would not pay a political cost. Leveraging the Orange Heifer, as if in a china shop, helped. The soon-to-be 47th president knew how to Get Stuff Done—besides which he could lean on Bibi because DJT doesn’t have to care about the *next* election cycle: he’s not running again. Unleashing The Witkoff was a no-brainer.
The “run-up” to the U.S. election does not encompass the 5 months or so prior to the actual vote—it starts two years before, if not sooner. Project Ukraine was already ‘in harness’ by November 2022, tightly held & led & nurtured along by Collective Biden, who would continue to parcel the weaponry out in tantalizing bits over the next 2 years—cluster munitions here, an ATACMS snack over there—always careful to pace the warfare in such a way as to seal the deal for Joe’s 2nd term. Peaking too soon might kill the buzz. Lagging so much that Russia made a big splash might harsh everybody’s mellow.
Right. I know.
But you have to understand that *they* believed if they made the appropriate moves @ the appropriate times they would indeed stay in power. Military strategies took a backseat to their ambitions. Battlefield doings were only nominally a priority. Flooding Ukraine w/ weapons was important only in so far as doing so would nail a 2nd term for Joe. So the trajectory of the war was throttled & managed. *Winning* meant reelection. Disposable Ukrainian meat was subordinate to that.
BTW: While being forcibly removed from Tony B’s final press conference @ the State Department, Max Blumenthal hurled invective @ Bloodstained Lincoln, excoriating him for a legacy of genocide and for “destroying our religion, Judaism.”
Before being shoved out of the room, Max asked Tony B “Why did you keep the bombs dropping when we had a deal in May?”
And since we're on the topic of the State Department: DJT's team overseeing State's transition to the new admin has requested that Dereck Hogan, Marcia Bernicat and Alaina Teplitz leave their posts.
A certain eau de blob has wafted about all three: "These officials have worked in both Democratic and Republican admins throughout the years, including as ambassadors."
Are these people political appointees? Trump should demand resignations of virtually all such people. And I understand that he has figured out a way to rid the government of professional civil servants as well - it will be interesting if he can follow through on that.
They're part of Permanent Washington, forming a backdrop for the agitating anti-DJT bureaucrats, sort of like the painted frieze of a stage play creates the illusion that the action happening before it is real or credible.
Marcia Bernicat, for instance, was our U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh during its recent coup. Now she's gone. Buh-bye, Felicia
The key point I guess is that none of Americas wars really matter to America. They are not existential threats to the Homeland. They generate a huge money go round and justify well heeled careers but have no real impact on the homeland. So internal US politics drive the whole thing. Ultimately, the regime will want to move on to the next war as if nothing ever happened. As they did with Afghanistan, which is pretty much forgotten about now. It’s an evil system driven by lots of high status people maximising their own careers.
The ceasefire in Israel has nothing to do with Biden "pressing harder". He has no ability to press when he is about to leave.
All the coercive power (cut off the munitions, weapons, money, ISR info, block UN resolutions unfavorable to Israel and keep the ICC from getting hold of Netanyahu) now rest with Trump.
FJB cutting them off for a few days would not have bothered Israel in the least -- IF they had expected Trump to reverse the decision.
FJB could have done this a year ago. He didn't. He was under Zionist control.
Trump has done it before taking office, using a blunt, non-diplomatic, Jewish NY developer as the instrument to hit Netanyahu and his evil crew over the head until they understood what was really going to happen if they do not follow what Trump wants.
Israel's American backers need to realize that denying the Palestinians their legitimate political rights & their autonomy has not made Israel safe, and those who have lobbied hardest for "unwavering" U.S. backing have ultimately nurtured Israeli and Palestinian extremism, inflicting immeasurable hardships on the country that they purport to support.
Is everyone clear now that Israel doesn't and never did rule America but that it's typically convenient for American politicians to foster that appearance?
Exactly my thoughts. I would cut out all the oil, gas and anything else that mean energy or something else to my enemy. The west provided weapons, men, sanctions, blocked money from Russia's accounts, now they're stealing etc, but Russia does almost nothing. Also they allowed the Ukrainian government to exist, to kill their civilians (journalists etc), army generals, and to send more troops to the front lines.
I'm in doubt of this is an real war or just an WEF agenda in which our attention is distracted by these wars while they're doing things behind our backs to enslave humanity. Let's not forget that Putin was named as one of the WEF young leaders at some point
The WEF agenda war has crossed my mind numerous times. People were saying that the next thing the PTB would bring us would be war and right on Q it happened.
Biden has crossed Putin’s red lines countless times and killed many Russians and yet Putin is still selling him oil?
Plus Europe is buying even more oil and gas from Russia since the start of the war.
The WEF program of young leaders consisted of a 2 week jolly and some Zoom meetings- it was not a James Bond style mind altering induction program- whether Putin attended one or not.
The covid scam wasn't orchestrated by Klaus Schwab Square pants and his little club of hypocrites and rich greenwashers- it was a coup by Pfizer and AZ, organised gangs of criminals at the WHO and blackmailed or bribed politicians.
You are befuddled because you are trying to make the facts fit your theory, which they don't. Drop the theory. There is no globalist plot. It was invented by Imperialism and big oil to protect their profits.
The dead Ukrainians and Russians are 'real' enough. As are the profits of Lockheed Martin.
I am amused by our being distracted by watching the meat grinder in action while evil villains do something 'really' dastardly behind our backs. 'He's behind you!" That's exactly what the WEF agenda is- a pantomine villain to distract us from the cartels ruling the West.
Syria didn't have 'the shit blasted out of them' till the Israelis launched there bombing campaign after the Syrian government fell. The SAA basically stood down due to 2 factors. 1) Being paid a pittance compared with the HTS/SNA. A Syrian general was getting $40 a month. The rebels were paying grunt fighters $2000 per month. 2) Assad gave up the fight almost as soon as it starts, having ignored warnings and offers of assistance for years.
I still don't understand why Russia doesn't wipe out the Ukrainian government. They would give people a chance to stop this war. By letting the juice being in charge in Kiev, the war will continue and more lives will be lost.
The west always attack the head of the state, while Russia is fighting in trenches with average Ivan, kidnapped from the streets, while his bosses laugh on their millions.
If this is not all just an WEF agenda to destroy economies and liberties all over the world, I don't know what is.
If they really want the head of the snake, they need to go after Lviv. That's where the real enemies are operating, mostly Westerners. Zelensky is a nobody puppet.
You really think the West wages "war" in a more moral or egalitarian manner than Russia?
They may go after "the head of state", but that doesn't mean they won't ass-blast the entire country to do so, then rape the smoldering remains.
As for "fighting in trenches with average Ivan, kidnapped from the streets, while his bosses laugh on their millions", the West is no different, except their gear is also shit.
Possibly, although that's no guarantee they would.
But note that I said if you kill ALL the incompetents, not just the incumbent incompetent. I was responding to the suggestion that Russia adopts a policy of killing the head of the snake, when the head is monstrously incompetent.
Never interrupt your enemy while he's making a mistake.
please read what Simplicius has written, Ukrainian state apparatus has half of the armed forces, 400 000 as a state police. State apparatus is under CIA MI6 control. You would create a new Bandera out of Zelensky. And CIA MI6 would produce a new government.
Keeping the same people who provoked war, refused negotiations in 2022, at the helm is the only way to make them face the consequences.
Do not worry, if at any moment CIA calculates that Zelensky is more valuable as a dead hero, he will be eliminated by his own bodyguards.
Pot calling the kettle: Joe lamented the sad, terribly sad, no good, awful influence of oligarchs in our American politics, but peculiarly he gave the Medal of Freedom to two oligarchs—George Soros and David Rubenstein—and let’s face it: the Big Guy was never shy about speaking @ those $100,000-a-head dinners strictly to gain donations from high rollers, many of whom were oligarchs. Indeed, Joe so believed in oligarchs he set his son up w/ some in Ukraine @ the energy company Burisma. Joe’s son returned the favor by including Joe in numerous lucrative business deals w/ oligarchs from China and Kazakhstan. Although Joe is not an oligarch, he, a humble public servant from Scranton, Pennsylvania, enriched himself shamelessly for a decade @ the hand of obsequious oligarchs, who were eager to make it rain for Joe.
Billionaires run the state-sponsored media. Billionaires direct the Israel Lobby. Billionaires steer the Ukraine Lobby. Billionaires guide our governmental policy. Billionaires like Larry Fink invest in our wars. Billionaire WEF-ers gather @ Davos and in Aspen each summer for The Atlantic Council summit. If you sneeze in Washington, a billionaire gets a cold.
The next thing you are going to propose is that billionaires run the West and that democracy is a sham (or 'scam', if you are truly cynical). Surely you are not positing such a thing!
To my mind the most interesting thing is the approaching point where the allied forces can cross the border from Donbas into Dnipro. From 'Donbas States' to 'Kiev States'. Until now with the exception of Kupyanks in Kharkiv, I think, there has been absolutely no 'invasion' of Kiev Ukraine, meaning American Ukraine, meaning nazi ethnic cleansing Ukraine by the allies.
And Kharkiv is a bit of a special case. The Russians promised to return, I remember. But now it does not seem to figure in the proposed oblasts they will 'settle for'. So I don't know.
But apart from that little exception it has been and is wholly an exercise in repelling Kiev Ukraine invaders, not an exercise in invasion.
Despite the msm narrative which altmedia adopts the language, lexicon, style of.
If this thing ever gets human face in the media sphere then this human fact will be of great importance. To humans who is invading whom and why and how is very important.
Of course I expect this 'human face' is the norm on the ground amongst the poor bloody people suffering from all this.
I have seen interviews - such as patrick lancaster's - where Donbas soldiers tell of being in the trenches continually for the past 10 years. One can easily imagine the struggle for one's own land and the driving out of invaders is as much a bred in mindset to them as, say, catholism is to catholics - or any religion taught to the very young.
So that is one thing and a very big thing, I think, despite being ignored by all the media, msm or alt or whatever.
Should this 'human face' of the conflict ever break out onto the scene, onto the 'world stage' in all our media we'd instantly get very large numbers of suddenly enlightened people wholly on the side of the humans in Donbas.
All to the good. Very powerful. To date Russia and Donbas itself, in English at least makes no or very minimal effort to pursue that line: that truth, that PR exercise. None at all that I can see.
They don't try to help themselves at all. Not at all. I find it very surprising considering the wit and literary flair and traditions of the Russians and I suppose the Ukrainians, too, then, being really the same people.
I do see how incredibly skilful at PR Zelensky is. You must, you should, concede he is the most plausible, effective public liar we have ever seen. He's promoted a backyard civil war to almost global catastrophe. He has hijacked the narrative so that words totally lose their meaning or have their meanings reversed: or even mean two things at once.
Russia is 'an invader' where actually it is invited into Donbas land by Donbas people.
The armed forces opposing the (american/nato) Kiev forces are 'Russians', wholly. Everything they do is 'Russians did it'. Yet at the same time all the Donbas people are 'Ukrainian' and will be held to account by the law of the land once Kiev reconquers the place.
Kiev Ukraine is a 'democracy'' with no free speech, no freedom of religion, press ganging into the military, absolute rule by one man etc and Russia with none of that is a 'dictatorship' .
Fighting 'for' the people will be to the very last of the people. This is a 'win' for the people. This is a 'path of glory'. That they all die for.. what? The right to torment their fellow Ukrainians in the Donbas. The regime tells them they either get this right of they can all die trying. That's what 'the right' means in the lexicon of those lunatics. And all the west swallows it without demur at all.
It is a nonsense but a nonsense, never ending stream of vicious lying dribble that is faithfully echoed with total belief by the whole of the msm, the whole of the western govts and even by the alt media very nearly wholly.
Yes. You have to hand it to Zelensky. He's even better at it than Biden and he was special.
In the face of all that Russia and Donbas do not fight back on that ground, in that sphere, at all. Not at all.
BUT: it could happen. It could happen overnight. That's the media world we live in now. Overnight could come a wave of understanding of human truths and a wave of expression of these human truths. A wave moving as quickly and as persuasively as news of the new 'best movie' or best pair of shoes, for god's sake or any other of the trivia that periodically sweeps across the world and occupies all heads.
And at that time the current position, as I say, is a great asset, displaying hard fact truth: Donbas Ukraine occupied for 10 years, fighting to free itself. Could win world wide sympathy, understanding and support overnight.
BUT let the allied armies bypass Pokrovsk and reach the border and plunge ahead with a Kursk like invasion of Dnipro and it could go entirely the opposite way. This being seen as total proof positive that Putin intends to conquer the whole of Europe or some similar lunatic fear.
Yep. That's all people talk. Not much sign of people being of any importance anywhere as yet is there. But maybe, some time in the future. So just saying...
The West doesn't want people to hear what Putin, Lavrov, or other Russians say, so they don't report on it. If they report at all, it's the media's version of what they said, not a transcript.
It's pathetic when you have to completely block out what the other side is saying, because you know it takes away all credibility of what you are doing. You have to lie to make yourself look good.
More people are realizing that the old media is full of lies. It's a slow process, but Russia has been as patient as possible, refusing to be being manipulated into reacting, and speaking of things once common in America, such as patriotism, respect for family and the innocence of children, and most of all expressing love God and the belief that He is on their side.
I see the day coming soon, especially if Trump truly listens to what Russia has to say, when Russia will be greatly admired, as it should be.
WaPo had 114mn readers in the entire month of November 2020. That number dwindled to 53mn digital visitors by November 2024.
The paper has lost around $100mn in subscription & ad revenue in 2024. That’s a $100mn financial plummet in 11 months. As a result, the WaPo plans to lay off 4% of its workforce by early February 2025.
Meanwhile, a WaPo cartoonist, Darrin Bel, was arrested in Sacramento, California on child pornography charges for uploading and sharing AI-generated videos depicting illicit acts w/ minors. It’s the first case in Sacramento County for possession of AI-generated child pornography under a new law which came into force on 1 January.
With the resignation of another WaPo cartoonist out of protest against Jeff Bezos’s cozying up to DJT (Bezos owns the WaPo) one wonders who will provide the outlet w/ humor & snark.
The legacy media has been sawing the branch it’s sitting on for years.
But I am sure I would like to be immersed in a sea of my peers that do know the truth and I would like an MSM and an alt media and a clerisy that helped bring that about.
So that's a bit selfish. All about what I want.
But I'd also much like the suffering of the Donbas people who've been at war for 10 years to be recognised for the martyrdom it is. That's maybe not so selfish.
And perhaps objectively speaking I'd like to see the Russian 'side', Russia and Donbas, manifest that kind of expertise, acumen and do it well. It doesn't seem at all right that they don't: like something missing in the equation.
Expect a rash of lurid commentary about Ukraine's successes, europe's intentions to put boots on the ground- AGAIN- all in the wake of the midnight Trumpian change phenomenon- and designed to create a 'narrative'- here we go again- that by sheer pressure of words Russia will be forced into concessions, even retreat. Hell, the UK is in this right next to its ally FOR THE NEXT 100 YEARS, shades of the thousand year Reich.
The west tried telling Russia how it was going to mow it down in Ukraine with that counter offensive that so dramatically face planted, and since then has struggled with the power of the 'word'- but if you lack the will and-or the manpower to actually fight on the ground and are running out of any remote weaponry that either works or that you can realistically use, what else is there than another story?
Meanwhile, in the real world Russia continues its advance.
As for sanctions, we have a new word-salad sanction promulgated through the mouth of the UK ex defence secretary, Ben Wallace, that should Russia (heaven, forfend) not actually, errh... (dare he even say it!) ... be .defeated on the ground, the world must throw a big sulk and send Russia to Coventry as we say in the UK, meaning refuse to say the word Russia in public anywhere except in derogatory language, burn all Russian books, refuse to play any Russian music and excise its legacies from all western accounts... blah blah. What do you do with this stuff? This is how an Order built on words collapses- into a big word-heap.
Your mentioning Ben Wallace's odious stance puts me in mind of Lithuania's December embargo of "The Nutcracker Suite."
To deny kids the joy of Tchaikovsky during their most formative years is a shameful negligence: hiding cultural underpinnings from them is mendacious. This is not just Russia Abuse. It is the abuse of a fledgling generation.
For winter holidays away from school, kids need to delight in Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” and enjoy a chocolate truffle during the Intermezzo while fellow revelers circulate in the grand hall under glittering chandeliers, everybody anticipating Act 2 and zinging w/ the lively sort of spirit which ballet uniquely instills in its audiences—and Tchaikovsky did not shirk when it came to spirit.
Forbidding Russian literature will create a deficit in one's understanding of human nature, for those who comply--but also create a backlash Black Market among those who rebel.
The one who’s trying to silence others is the liar.
"I said before, Russia has done this also to an extent—but, it was clarified by at least one person in the know that Russia only sent what was essentially “surplus” or redundant units which were not needed in their air wings—since the Russian airforce is vastly larger than the Ukrainian one, and thus logically has far more ‘idle’ and ‘extraneous’ units."
I have to wonder, if the Russian forces are so dominant, why would they have to do this in the first place? These troops, in excess or not, are specialty trained - thus it is a major thing when they are required to be reapportioned to the infantry, is it not? Why would this be?
It has always been a sign of dire situations whenever dedicated forces are diverted to entirely different tasks. You dont see that much Ka-52 creating havoc anymore. And I think the Ukrainian writing about the taking of Pokrovsk, with ” it would take a combined arms army ” to just accomplish the left wing hook around Pokrovsk/Mirnograd, revealed the real problems for Russia.
My completely unwarranted predictions: 1)Trump will pull the plug on Ukraine ASAP and blame it on Biden, Zelensky and the Europeans. No super sanctions. 2) There will be no war with Iran. Iran, Russia and China do not want war and Iran's power has already has been sufficiently demonstrated. The Pentagon knows Iran's capabilities and will brief Trump. Trump will restrain Israel vis-a-vis Iran. 3) Trump will throw Europe under the bus and negotiate a security architecture with Russia to focus on China and the Western hemisphere.
Trump understands the weakness of the US position in Ukraine - he is ambitious & wants to achieve goals elsewhere. It's an unwanted diversion.
The same with Iran.
'America First' is compatible with a redoubled enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine, Manifest Destiny & free navigation of the seas - most of our endeavors on continental Europe, Asia & Africa are a strategic waste of time.
Sounds probable enough. Especially with British leadership what it is today. They are practically ready to declare war on England what with that utter penis Starmer and his cronies. And the US see Scholz, Von der Leyen the sane way. I do see a Trump/Austria/Slovakia/Hungary thing forming though. That would be cool. A kind of Austro Hungarian empire but with grilled brisket and juicy half pound ground beef cheeseburgers instead of gulash.
If Trump intends to cut Ukraine off then there would certainly be some selling in the stocks of those who are creaming the most from this conflict. Who's selling Lockheed and Raytheon?
“I can’t think right off the top of my head of anyone,” Col Macgregor said, “who might be less informed about Eastern Europe than Keith Kellogg.” Ouch. He elaborated, saying, “There’s no win for us in Ukraine. We lost the day we involved ourselves there. The systemic corruption is entrenched. It’s an abyss. The U.S. has no leverage in this war. We can’t fix it. It’s beyond our capabilities.”
Lavrov called a truce, a freeze or a ceasefire “a road to nowhere.” Russia is winning and has no incentive to pause the momentum. “There will be no serious conversation,” Lavrov said, “until colleagues in the West comprehend the abnormality of language repressions in Ukraine and the persecution of everything Russian there.” He indicated that Russia is committed to protecting its people in Ukraine.
Commonsensical Lavrov indicated Russia would wait until DJT’s admin actually came into office and began proffering valid proposals in Real Time before getting down to brass tacks. "As Trump himself said during one of his interviews, he will actively work to 'end this bloody mess' as he put it, but he needs to formally take office first. So, he will be inaugurated in three days. After that, we’ll examine proposals that will be on the table," Lavrov said.
Project Ukraine has been the wholesale embrace of a mountain of lies designed to justify perpetual conflict against Russia. Those for whom the outcome of a war w/ Russia means the most are not Americans—they are descended of those who have nurtured Russophobia for more than a hundred years. Europeans are resurrecting old agendas and fighting old grievances. France & the UK, who have boutique limited-action armies, are hankering to station their troops in Ukraine as a purported peace-keeping force, ahem. The leaders of France & the UK don’t want to lose so publicly to Russia, but it’s unavoidable now. They pitched in w/ stupidity: reap what you sow.
Yep, and to be blunt, fuck them.
Better jet, Oresnyk all of them!
Running on empty on Ukrainians, game over. France cannot swallow Napoleons disgraceful defeat in Russia, and Britain will never accept it lost it’s Colonies, they will keep on poking their frustrations no matter what the outcome of any peace treaty.
Proponents of Forever Wars equate victory w/ never permitting the conflict to end.
It's never about 'winning' in the usual sense, but about continuing profitable weapons flow and draining the other side of economic strength.
Britain recreates The Charge of the Light Brigade with Ukrainians as tin soldiers.
The worst outcome is a freeze or ceasefire. This needs to end with a lasting security/peace arrangement.
Russia needs a buffer zone and stand clear of the debris of an imploding Europe. The more weapons they destroy and the more utterly defeated NATO is, the better.
It's sickening how the government of my country, which started this debacle, downplays what it actually means that their running out of Ukrainians to die.
The split of 400,000 Ukrainian frontline and 400,000 interior/border guards proves it's a police state.
The Russians take no casualties in their rear areas in the Donbass, as the population is 100% on board with being liberated.
As they move west, there will come a time when they cannot trust all the local people. On the other hand, leaving a large remaining Ukraine that festers with terrorists and malcontents, like a European Somalia, is a poor option.
Perhaps they need to take the entire place, and then negotiate a settlement before withdrawing from the region west of the Dnepr to the western borders. Keep Odessa and Kharkov and Trasnistrya.
Solid.
I hail your emphasizing the fact that "400,000 interior/border guards proves it's a police state." The Ukrainian population is held hostage in what amounts to a detention camp the size of Texas.
S referenced the Rada member, Begula, who keeps poking around in this matter.
These western Ukies are willing hostages, hating Russia and Russians to the core, but at the same time they see this as a losing cause now and do not want to send their sons and daughters to be annihilated by Russian forces. I have no sympathy for these assholes being on the same genetic order as israeli fascists.
Fully agree!
Well said.
The Paris Peace Accords of 1973 resulted in a "freeze", for a couple of years at least. That's what most of those in DC think of as a "win".
Excellent.
And once again VVP enters the room like the boss. Supremely confident in himself, his country, his government and it's policies, and it's future.
Once again Russia has ordered its forces to win in order to give the impression that they are not losing. We must pearl-clutch and equivocate over this illegal and environmentally unfriendly practice.
"British troops can lead Ukraine..." to pardon, where LOL? The same British troops that were fixing their submarine with superglue and shopped for the Admiral on LinkedIn?
How did that search on LinkedIn go? I haven't heard.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/05/navy-advertises-on-linkedin-to-hire-nuclear-rear-admiral/
I meant have they found anyone through that ad? I just can't imagine potential candidates in the military looking on LinkedIn for promotions. Maybe they will hire a non naval person if they are the 'right' colour, gender, sexual bent. As NZ did with the dyke that crashed a warship in to Samoa and converted it in to a submarine.
After being ridiculed, they removed this ad. But to even imagine for the ROYAL NAVY to stoop as low as advertising on LinkedIn, meaning there were no internal candidates to fit the bill, whatever it was. For a maritime ex-power, it's as bad as it gets.
Trump should sell the UK our own Admiral Rachel (former Richard), and a pediatrician to boot.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Levine#/media/File:Admiral_Rachel_L._Levine.jpg
Yep it’s as pathetic as Super Glue repairs on a nuclear submarine. A clown show of epic proportions.
That Levine man belongs in a 19th century travelling freak show.
pediatrician? Or 'pedo'?
Pediatrician like in MD, proclivities - who knows...
The post was filled by an ex Captain/Commodore who rejoined for the job.
The arrogance is amazing. Why would anyone accept their “leadership”? Ukrainian officers are likely far more competent than British. After all, they have experienced three years of war. But the British press just trots out this outdated line that the woke UK military is awesome. I am English by the way, but am shocked by the attitudes of so much of my country.
The Ukrainian officers are constantly going on about the inadequacy of NATO strategy and tactics, esp those who have a Soviet background.
Englishman here also, the hubris of the British ruling class (from which the majority of military officers are drawn) knows no bounds. Totally divorced from reality.
Many people in the U.S. do not want to admit it, but look at our politicians who claim a "military" background such as the esteemed Lindsey "sugarboots" Graham. We have a ruling class in the U.S. but we lack the courage to name it correctly.
A Scot here. And we resent British colonial rule and forcing us to host leaky ruskbucket nuclear subs
Delusion includes regression into some "good old times". Where will they lead to? The answer is found in music. Road to Mandalay (with Robbie Williams wearing "sharp" sunglasses).
A reminder: not that long ago, the UK, with help from Germany, lost several wars over fish.
With Iceland.
Obviously this interregnum, as Joe off-ramps & DJT on-ramps, has lasted w-a-a-a-a-y too long...
>>
We've got more retread fiction incoming from Bloomberg: Moscow and Kiev hold “limited talks” in Qatar on shielding nuclear power plants from attack. The purported negotiations are focused on preventing threats to nuclear facilities amid the ongoing conflict between the two neighbors, Bloomberg has claimed. This, a repeat of a short story Bloomberg first fashioned in August 2024, cites anonymous sources on the Russian side. Recall last August that the Kursk Incursion preempted the alleged talks. Neither Russia nor Ukraine ever verified that the talks had taken place.
According to Zakharova, however, Moscow and Kiev have not engaged in any talks since spring 2022 when peace talks collapsed, which Russia blamed on Western interference. Vaguely, noncommittally, Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman, Majed bin Mohammed al-Ansari said that Qatar has always pursued a policy aimed at “reaching peace.” The spokesman also stated, hazily, perhaps glancing down quickly at the notes before him, that Doha supports all the efforts aimed at achieving a peaceful resolution to the crisis.
Like the purported *prior* talks in Qatar, all sources are unnamed—and it is not possible to verify Bloomberg’s claims. The media propagandists *plant* the lie, then other propagandists follow-up on the lie, embellishing it w/ odd ‘peculiar’ details which stick in the mind. After that, pundits weight in, speculating. It’s like a game of hack-sack. Last August, the media propagandists may have expected to get a bit more traction from the lie, but the Kursk Incursion occurred, sucking all the oxygen from the room. Cheated last August in exploiting the ruse fully, they’ve brought the it back for 2025.
I was just explaining to a "main stream media" consumer today that any article citing only anonymous sources was nothing but propaganda.
Some time back I explained to this same person that any article using the phrase "Unprovoked invasion" of Ukraine was propaganda.
So many sheeple!
That person has no capacity to hear you - it's true that it is easy to fool someone but almost impossible to convince them that they have been fooled.
Probably a growing argument building for the termination of the coke boy and his terrorist entourage.
That was a very sparse welcoming committee for Kier Starmer at the Kiev train station..
Also, I think diplomatic protocol requires that when two leaders of the same rank meet (President - Prime Minister) the host should receive the visitor at the airport or train station. Only if they are of lower status (President - Ambassador) do they have to travel to the official residence to be met there.
But that's life during wartime I suppose.
I don't think Moscow would Kinzhal / Iskander the Prime Minister of the U.K., but for Zylensky's presidential motorcade they just might.
They could do Zylensky anytime they wanted - but why interrupt your enemy when he's making mistakes?
Once again, the theatrical air-raid sirens sounded in Kiev during the visit by a foreign dignitary, this time Keir Starmer. It used to make great PR but now it's just getting old.
Dignitaries visiting Kiev when air-raid sirens sounded (failed de-capitation strikes!):
• Anthony Blinken
• Josep Borrell
• Frank-Walter Steinmeier
• Keir Starmer
That clunker of a car he arrived in says it all.
The pace of both wars—in Gaza, in Ukraine—depended on the run-up to the U.S. presidential election, w/ Collective Biden finessing the rhythm of both conflicts in order to ensure that Joe would win a 2nd term. For example, the ceasefire deal DJT and Collective Biden just swung w/ Bibi was identical to the deal on the table back in May, but Collective Biden had to gentle the negotiations forward, not pressing too hard or making demands, always conscious of the fact that the Israel Lobby viewed a ceasefire as capitulation, an unforgivable outcome after the shock of 7 October.
Once DJT thumpingly crushed Collective Biden’s candidate for the presidency, and a chance to remain Major Players was gone for good, Collective Biden was freer to Move Fast & Break Things. So they could press harder on the ceasefire, knowing they would not pay a political cost. Leveraging the Orange Heifer, as if in a china shop, helped. The soon-to-be 47th president knew how to Get Stuff Done—besides which he could lean on Bibi because DJT doesn’t have to care about the *next* election cycle: he’s not running again. Unleashing The Witkoff was a no-brainer.
The “run-up” to the U.S. election does not encompass the 5 months or so prior to the actual vote—it starts two years before, if not sooner. Project Ukraine was already ‘in harness’ by November 2022, tightly held & led & nurtured along by Collective Biden, who would continue to parcel the weaponry out in tantalizing bits over the next 2 years—cluster munitions here, an ATACMS snack over there—always careful to pace the warfare in such a way as to seal the deal for Joe’s 2nd term. Peaking too soon might kill the buzz. Lagging so much that Russia made a big splash might harsh everybody’s mellow.
Right. I know.
But you have to understand that *they* believed if they made the appropriate moves @ the appropriate times they would indeed stay in power. Military strategies took a backseat to their ambitions. Battlefield doings were only nominally a priority. Flooding Ukraine w/ weapons was important only in so far as doing so would nail a 2nd term for Joe. So the trajectory of the war was throttled & managed. *Winning* meant reelection. Disposable Ukrainian meat was subordinate to that.
BTW: While being forcibly removed from Tony B’s final press conference @ the State Department, Max Blumenthal hurled invective @ Bloodstained Lincoln, excoriating him for a legacy of genocide and for “destroying our religion, Judaism.”
Before being shoved out of the room, Max asked Tony B “Why did you keep the bombs dropping when we had a deal in May?”
And since we're on the topic of the State Department: DJT's team overseeing State's transition to the new admin has requested that Dereck Hogan, Marcia Bernicat and Alaina Teplitz leave their posts.
A certain eau de blob has wafted about all three: "These officials have worked in both Democratic and Republican admins throughout the years, including as ambassadors."
Are these people political appointees? Trump should demand resignations of virtually all such people. And I understand that he has figured out a way to rid the government of professional civil servants as well - it will be interesting if he can follow through on that.
They're part of Permanent Washington, forming a backdrop for the agitating anti-DJT bureaucrats, sort of like the painted frieze of a stage play creates the illusion that the action happening before it is real or credible.
Marcia Bernicat, for instance, was our U.S. ambassador to Bangladesh during its recent coup. Now she's gone. Buh-bye, Felicia
Disposable Ukrainians was the least of concerns. Actually, not a concern in the least.
The key point I guess is that none of Americas wars really matter to America. They are not existential threats to the Homeland. They generate a huge money go round and justify well heeled careers but have no real impact on the homeland. So internal US politics drive the whole thing. Ultimately, the regime will want to move on to the next war as if nothing ever happened. As they did with Afghanistan, which is pretty much forgotten about now. It’s an evil system driven by lots of high status people maximising their own careers.
Hegemon doing hegemon things. Gotta refresh the narrative.
The ceasefire in Israel has nothing to do with Biden "pressing harder". He has no ability to press when he is about to leave.
All the coercive power (cut off the munitions, weapons, money, ISR info, block UN resolutions unfavorable to Israel and keep the ICC from getting hold of Netanyahu) now rest with Trump.
FJB cutting them off for a few days would not have bothered Israel in the least -- IF they had expected Trump to reverse the decision.
FJB could have done this a year ago. He didn't. He was under Zionist control.
Trump has done it before taking office, using a blunt, non-diplomatic, Jewish NY developer as the instrument to hit Netanyahu and his evil crew over the head until they understood what was really going to happen if they do not follow what Trump wants.
Israel's American backers need to realize that denying the Palestinians their legitimate political rights & their autonomy has not made Israel safe, and those who have lobbied hardest for "unwavering" U.S. backing have ultimately nurtured Israeli and Palestinian extremism, inflicting immeasurable hardships on the country that they purport to support.
Is everyone clear now that Israel doesn't and never did rule America but that it's typically convenient for American politicians to foster that appearance?
A partial truth. Not a lie, neither wrong, but not the complete truth.
Here and now, it is clear to all that war cannot go on, as it has been going for the last 6 months.
But Israeli government needed a push to be able to change tactical direction.
Can anyone explain why Russia is still selling oil to America after its put all the sanctions on them?
“ Trump's team is developing a massive sanctions strategy to force a deal between Russia and Ukraine in the coming months.”
And Trump is going to put even more sanctions on them. This gentleman’s war is very befuddling to me.
Or is it because the sanctions raise the price of oil and Russia still comes out ahead in the end?
It just seems an easy way to end the war is to crash the American economy.
Little help is appreciated
Exactly my thoughts. I would cut out all the oil, gas and anything else that mean energy or something else to my enemy. The west provided weapons, men, sanctions, blocked money from Russia's accounts, now they're stealing etc, but Russia does almost nothing. Also they allowed the Ukrainian government to exist, to kill their civilians (journalists etc), army generals, and to send more troops to the front lines.
I'm in doubt of this is an real war or just an WEF agenda in which our attention is distracted by these wars while they're doing things behind our backs to enslave humanity. Let's not forget that Putin was named as one of the WEF young leaders at some point
FFS VVP as a WEF gronk has been debunked more times than I have had hot lunches. He is too old to have been in that program.
Simple research would have told you this. And saved you some embarrassment.
And Russia has done almost nothing? It seems embarrassment isn't a concern of yours.
'that program'- a two week jolly and some Zoom meetings!
The WEF agenda war has crossed my mind numerous times. People were saying that the next thing the PTB would bring us would be war and right on Q it happened.
Biden has crossed Putin’s red lines countless times and killed many Russians and yet Putin is still selling him oil?
Plus Europe is buying even more oil and gas from Russia since the start of the war.
Plus Russia went along with the covid scam.
No wonder I’m so befuddled.
The WEF program of young leaders consisted of a 2 week jolly and some Zoom meetings- it was not a James Bond style mind altering induction program- whether Putin attended one or not.
The covid scam wasn't orchestrated by Klaus Schwab Square pants and his little club of hypocrites and rich greenwashers- it was a coup by Pfizer and AZ, organised gangs of criminals at the WHO and blackmailed or bribed politicians.
You are befuddled because you are trying to make the facts fit your theory, which they don't. Drop the theory. There is no globalist plot. It was invented by Imperialism and big oil to protect their profits.
"Klaus Schwab Squarepants" 🤣🤣🤣
Alex,
what you suggest would help the enemy.
The dead Ukrainians and Russians are 'real' enough. As are the profits of Lockheed Martin.
I am amused by our being distracted by watching the meat grinder in action while evil villains do something 'really' dastardly behind our backs. 'He's behind you!" That's exactly what the WEF agenda is- a pantomine villain to distract us from the cartels ruling the West.
Uncle Sam's money is just as good, if not better than anyone else's.
You're looking at it the wrong way round, if the *U.S.* was actually serious about sanctions, *they* wouldn't be buying Russian oil....
The sanctions are not meant just for Russians but as a means to further subjugate those countries under the economic control of the USA.
In other words, fuck the EU.
Something like that.... ;-)
Because C.R.E.A.M.
Don't worry, though, surely sanctions will work THIS time!
For the first time ever.
Russia did considerable trade with Europe, but far far less with the USA.
US sanctions are largely performative, and don't really impact either country.
EU sanctions OTOH, are more material, but very much a double edged sword.
You've forgotten about the fall of Syria pretty quickly. Iraq also likely fell through a sanctions campaign. I'm sure there are lots more...
Iraq? Syria? WTF you talking about!?! Both of those "fell" by having the shit blasted out of them.
I haven't forgotten anything: there aren't "lots more" more, there are NONE.
Syria didn't have 'the shit blasted out of them' till the Israelis launched there bombing campaign after the Syrian government fell. The SAA basically stood down due to 2 factors. 1) Being paid a pittance compared with the HTS/SNA. A Syrian general was getting $40 a month. The rebels were paying grunt fighters $2000 per month. 2) Assad gave up the fight almost as soon as it starts, having ignored warnings and offers of assistance for years.
"Syria didn't have 'the shit blasted out of them' till the Israelis launched there bombing campaign after the Syrian government fell"
You clearly have not a singular fucking clue.
I swear, the commenters here are some of the most delusional on the interwebs.
Mirror, mirror on the wall. Take a look.
I still don't understand why Russia doesn't wipe out the Ukrainian government. They would give people a chance to stop this war. By letting the juice being in charge in Kiev, the war will continue and more lives will be lost.
The west always attack the head of the state, while Russia is fighting in trenches with average Ivan, kidnapped from the streets, while his bosses laugh on their millions.
If this is not all just an WEF agenda to destroy economies and liberties all over the world, I don't know what is.
If they really want the head of the snake, they need to go after Lviv. That's where the real enemies are operating, mostly Westerners. Zelensky is a nobody puppet.
You really think the West wages "war" in a more moral or egalitarian manner than Russia?
They may go after "the head of state", but that doesn't mean they won't ass-blast the entire country to do so, then rape the smoldering remains.
As for "fighting in trenches with average Ivan, kidnapped from the streets, while his bosses laugh on their millions", the West is no different, except their gear is also shit.
Because if you kill all the incompetents you end up facing someone competent?
Ukraine is a hot bed of Nazism. They could have a lot worse than a puppet like Zelensky.
Possibly, although that's no guarantee they would.
But note that I said if you kill ALL the incompetents, not just the incumbent incompetent. I was responding to the suggestion that Russia adopts a policy of killing the head of the snake, when the head is monstrously incompetent.
Never interrupt your enemy while he's making a mistake.
Alex,
please read what Simplicius has written, Ukrainian state apparatus has half of the armed forces, 400 000 as a state police. State apparatus is under CIA MI6 control. You would create a new Bandera out of Zelensky. And CIA MI6 would produce a new government.
Keeping the same people who provoked war, refused negotiations in 2022, at the helm is the only way to make them face the consequences.
Do not worry, if at any moment CIA calculates that Zelensky is more valuable as a dead hero, he will be eliminated by his own bodyguards.
Pot calling the kettle: Joe lamented the sad, terribly sad, no good, awful influence of oligarchs in our American politics, but peculiarly he gave the Medal of Freedom to two oligarchs—George Soros and David Rubenstein—and let’s face it: the Big Guy was never shy about speaking @ those $100,000-a-head dinners strictly to gain donations from high rollers, many of whom were oligarchs. Indeed, Joe so believed in oligarchs he set his son up w/ some in Ukraine @ the energy company Burisma. Joe’s son returned the favor by including Joe in numerous lucrative business deals w/ oligarchs from China and Kazakhstan. Although Joe is not an oligarch, he, a humble public servant from Scranton, Pennsylvania, enriched himself shamelessly for a decade @ the hand of obsequious oligarchs, who were eager to make it rain for Joe.
Billionaires run the state-sponsored media. Billionaires direct the Israel Lobby. Billionaires steer the Ukraine Lobby. Billionaires guide our governmental policy. Billionaires like Larry Fink invest in our wars. Billionaire WEF-ers gather @ Davos and in Aspen each summer for The Atlantic Council summit. If you sneeze in Washington, a billionaire gets a cold.
" If you sneeze in Washington, a billionaire gets a cold."
Great to know, I'll go there and will sneeze and cough all over and maybe they'll get worse than a cold.
The good thing about Biden being a lying grifter all his life is that it took longer for some to catch on that he now has dementia.
Corruption makes for effective camouflage.
The next thing you are going to propose is that billionaires run the West and that democracy is a sham (or 'scam', if you are truly cynical). Surely you are not positing such a thing!
Suffering from Shameless Blushing Syndrome. Maybe a once-a-month injection of Skyrizi can help w/ that--?!!?
Totally fascinating report - thank you for posting.
To my mind the most interesting thing is the approaching point where the allied forces can cross the border from Donbas into Dnipro. From 'Donbas States' to 'Kiev States'. Until now with the exception of Kupyanks in Kharkiv, I think, there has been absolutely no 'invasion' of Kiev Ukraine, meaning American Ukraine, meaning nazi ethnic cleansing Ukraine by the allies.
And Kharkiv is a bit of a special case. The Russians promised to return, I remember. But now it does not seem to figure in the proposed oblasts they will 'settle for'. So I don't know.
But apart from that little exception it has been and is wholly an exercise in repelling Kiev Ukraine invaders, not an exercise in invasion.
Despite the msm narrative which altmedia adopts the language, lexicon, style of.
If this thing ever gets human face in the media sphere then this human fact will be of great importance. To humans who is invading whom and why and how is very important.
Of course I expect this 'human face' is the norm on the ground amongst the poor bloody people suffering from all this.
I have seen interviews - such as patrick lancaster's - where Donbas soldiers tell of being in the trenches continually for the past 10 years. One can easily imagine the struggle for one's own land and the driving out of invaders is as much a bred in mindset to them as, say, catholism is to catholics - or any religion taught to the very young.
So that is one thing and a very big thing, I think, despite being ignored by all the media, msm or alt or whatever.
Should this 'human face' of the conflict ever break out onto the scene, onto the 'world stage' in all our media we'd instantly get very large numbers of suddenly enlightened people wholly on the side of the humans in Donbas.
All to the good. Very powerful. To date Russia and Donbas itself, in English at least makes no or very minimal effort to pursue that line: that truth, that PR exercise. None at all that I can see.
They don't try to help themselves at all. Not at all. I find it very surprising considering the wit and literary flair and traditions of the Russians and I suppose the Ukrainians, too, then, being really the same people.
I do see how incredibly skilful at PR Zelensky is. You must, you should, concede he is the most plausible, effective public liar we have ever seen. He's promoted a backyard civil war to almost global catastrophe. He has hijacked the narrative so that words totally lose their meaning or have their meanings reversed: or even mean two things at once.
Russia is 'an invader' where actually it is invited into Donbas land by Donbas people.
The armed forces opposing the (american/nato) Kiev forces are 'Russians', wholly. Everything they do is 'Russians did it'. Yet at the same time all the Donbas people are 'Ukrainian' and will be held to account by the law of the land once Kiev reconquers the place.
Kiev Ukraine is a 'democracy'' with no free speech, no freedom of religion, press ganging into the military, absolute rule by one man etc and Russia with none of that is a 'dictatorship' .
Fighting 'for' the people will be to the very last of the people. This is a 'win' for the people. This is a 'path of glory'. That they all die for.. what? The right to torment their fellow Ukrainians in the Donbas. The regime tells them they either get this right of they can all die trying. That's what 'the right' means in the lexicon of those lunatics. And all the west swallows it without demur at all.
It is a nonsense but a nonsense, never ending stream of vicious lying dribble that is faithfully echoed with total belief by the whole of the msm, the whole of the western govts and even by the alt media very nearly wholly.
Yes. You have to hand it to Zelensky. He's even better at it than Biden and he was special.
In the face of all that Russia and Donbas do not fight back on that ground, in that sphere, at all. Not at all.
BUT: it could happen. It could happen overnight. That's the media world we live in now. Overnight could come a wave of understanding of human truths and a wave of expression of these human truths. A wave moving as quickly and as persuasively as news of the new 'best movie' or best pair of shoes, for god's sake or any other of the trivia that periodically sweeps across the world and occupies all heads.
And at that time the current position, as I say, is a great asset, displaying hard fact truth: Donbas Ukraine occupied for 10 years, fighting to free itself. Could win world wide sympathy, understanding and support overnight.
BUT let the allied armies bypass Pokrovsk and reach the border and plunge ahead with a Kursk like invasion of Dnipro and it could go entirely the opposite way. This being seen as total proof positive that Putin intends to conquer the whole of Europe or some similar lunatic fear.
Yep. That's all people talk. Not much sign of people being of any importance anywhere as yet is there. But maybe, some time in the future. So just saying...
The West doesn't want people to hear what Putin, Lavrov, or other Russians say, so they don't report on it. If they report at all, it's the media's version of what they said, not a transcript.
It's pathetic when you have to completely block out what the other side is saying, because you know it takes away all credibility of what you are doing. You have to lie to make yourself look good.
More people are realizing that the old media is full of lies. It's a slow process, but Russia has been as patient as possible, refusing to be being manipulated into reacting, and speaking of things once common in America, such as patriotism, respect for family and the innocence of children, and most of all expressing love God and the belief that He is on their side.
I see the day coming soon, especially if Trump truly listens to what Russia has to say, when Russia will be greatly admired, as it should be.
!—the Post is toast—!
WaPo had 114mn readers in the entire month of November 2020. That number dwindled to 53mn digital visitors by November 2024.
The paper has lost around $100mn in subscription & ad revenue in 2024. That’s a $100mn financial plummet in 11 months. As a result, the WaPo plans to lay off 4% of its workforce by early February 2025.
Meanwhile, a WaPo cartoonist, Darrin Bel, was arrested in Sacramento, California on child pornography charges for uploading and sharing AI-generated videos depicting illicit acts w/ minors. It’s the first case in Sacramento County for possession of AI-generated child pornography under a new law which came into force on 1 January.
With the resignation of another WaPo cartoonist out of protest against Jeff Bezos’s cozying up to DJT (Bezos owns the WaPo) one wonders who will provide the outlet w/ humor & snark.
The legacy media has been sawing the branch it’s sitting on for years.
Yes. That's all true.
My point is that Putin etc. simply do not mount a campaign aimed at the hoi polloi, written in 'demotiki' so to speak.
Arthur. I'm not sure public opinion matters in a Plutocracy.
As long as the Russians support Putin he's fine.
Ukraine isn't existential for the West, we'll lose interest and wander off in due course.
Yes, I'm not sure either.
But I am sure I would like to be immersed in a sea of my peers that do know the truth and I would like an MSM and an alt media and a clerisy that helped bring that about.
So that's a bit selfish. All about what I want.
But I'd also much like the suffering of the Donbas people who've been at war for 10 years to be recognised for the martyrdom it is. That's maybe not so selfish.
And perhaps objectively speaking I'd like to see the Russian 'side', Russia and Donbas, manifest that kind of expertise, acumen and do it well. It doesn't seem at all right that they don't: like something missing in the equation.
Expect a rash of lurid commentary about Ukraine's successes, europe's intentions to put boots on the ground- AGAIN- all in the wake of the midnight Trumpian change phenomenon- and designed to create a 'narrative'- here we go again- that by sheer pressure of words Russia will be forced into concessions, even retreat. Hell, the UK is in this right next to its ally FOR THE NEXT 100 YEARS, shades of the thousand year Reich.
The west tried telling Russia how it was going to mow it down in Ukraine with that counter offensive that so dramatically face planted, and since then has struggled with the power of the 'word'- but if you lack the will and-or the manpower to actually fight on the ground and are running out of any remote weaponry that either works or that you can realistically use, what else is there than another story?
Meanwhile, in the real world Russia continues its advance.
As for sanctions, we have a new word-salad sanction promulgated through the mouth of the UK ex defence secretary, Ben Wallace, that should Russia (heaven, forfend) not actually, errh... (dare he even say it!) ... be .defeated on the ground, the world must throw a big sulk and send Russia to Coventry as we say in the UK, meaning refuse to say the word Russia in public anywhere except in derogatory language, burn all Russian books, refuse to play any Russian music and excise its legacies from all western accounts... blah blah. What do you do with this stuff? This is how an Order built on words collapses- into a big word-heap.
Your mentioning Ben Wallace's odious stance puts me in mind of Lithuania's December embargo of "The Nutcracker Suite."
To deny kids the joy of Tchaikovsky during their most formative years is a shameful negligence: hiding cultural underpinnings from them is mendacious. This is not just Russia Abuse. It is the abuse of a fledgling generation.
For winter holidays away from school, kids need to delight in Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” and enjoy a chocolate truffle during the Intermezzo while fellow revelers circulate in the grand hall under glittering chandeliers, everybody anticipating Act 2 and zinging w/ the lively sort of spirit which ballet uniquely instills in its audiences—and Tchaikovsky did not shirk when it came to spirit.
Forbidding Russian literature will create a deficit in one's understanding of human nature, for those who comply--but also create a backlash Black Market among those who rebel.
The one who’s trying to silence others is the liar.
Spend some time w/ Chekhov, Ben.
The UK stance is worthy of the nuttiest, inept, tinpot totalitarian regimes, and this is what the UK has become.
Signing a one hundred year pact sums it up. Pure PR. Not the work of serious diplomats.
Exactly Stephen.
It's all pretend.
Well said .... again
Well said Jullianne.
"I said before, Russia has done this also to an extent—but, it was clarified by at least one person in the know that Russia only sent what was essentially “surplus” or redundant units which were not needed in their air wings—since the Russian airforce is vastly larger than the Ukrainian one, and thus logically has far more ‘idle’ and ‘extraneous’ units."
I have to wonder, if the Russian forces are so dominant, why would they have to do this in the first place? These troops, in excess or not, are specialty trained - thus it is a major thing when they are required to be reapportioned to the infantry, is it not? Why would this be?
Good question. Maybe the redundant units aren't of a highly technical speciality, low skill types; armament loaders for example?
Good questions! Simplicius owes you an answer.
It has always been a sign of dire situations whenever dedicated forces are diverted to entirely different tasks. You dont see that much Ka-52 creating havoc anymore. And I think the Ukrainian writing about the taking of Pokrovsk, with ” it would take a combined arms army ” to just accomplish the left wing hook around Pokrovsk/Mirnograd, revealed the real problems for Russia.
My completely unwarranted predictions: 1)Trump will pull the plug on Ukraine ASAP and blame it on Biden, Zelensky and the Europeans. No super sanctions. 2) There will be no war with Iran. Iran, Russia and China do not want war and Iran's power has already has been sufficiently demonstrated. The Pentagon knows Iran's capabilities and will brief Trump. Trump will restrain Israel vis-a-vis Iran. 3) Trump will throw Europe under the bus and negotiate a security architecture with Russia to focus on China and the Western hemisphere.
I can see it.
Trump understands the weakness of the US position in Ukraine - he is ambitious & wants to achieve goals elsewhere. It's an unwanted diversion.
The same with Iran.
'America First' is compatible with a redoubled enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine, Manifest Destiny & free navigation of the seas - most of our endeavors on continental Europe, Asia & Africa are a strategic waste of time.
We shall see
Sounds probable enough. Especially with British leadership what it is today. They are practically ready to declare war on England what with that utter penis Starmer and his cronies. And the US see Scholz, Von der Leyen the sane way. I do see a Trump/Austria/Slovakia/Hungary thing forming though. That would be cool. A kind of Austro Hungarian empire but with grilled brisket and juicy half pound ground beef cheeseburgers instead of gulash.
If Trump intends to cut Ukraine off then there would certainly be some selling in the stocks of those who are creaming the most from this conflict. Who's selling Lockheed and Raytheon?