Russian engineering remote mining system “Agriculture” in the Kharkov region.
https://avia-pro.net/news/na-ukraine-vpervye-zamechena-rabota-noveyshey-sistemy-distancionnogo-minirovaniya-zemledelie

Posted by: Kim | Mar 27 2022 21:46 utc | 104

Announcement of Lavrov’s interview with Serbian media tomorrow @11:30am, I’m assuming Moscow time. Nothing new at the Kremlin website.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 27 2022 21:49 utc | 106

Posted by: Arioch | Mar 27 2022 20:55 utc | 91
Re: utube videos, they want personal info / data to access their videos. Long past time to volunteer anything.

Posted by: bubbles | Mar 27 2022 21:53 utc | 108

@Arioch | Mar 27 2022 21:02 utc | 93
“checker board is 10×10 ;-)”
@farm ecologist | Mar 27 2022 21:11 utc | 95
“So all these years I’ve been playing checkers on a chessboard?”
The secret is to play chess on a checker board, using the extra flank spaces to put your opponent in a cauldron. 🙂

Posted by: Vintage Red | Mar 27 2022 22:05 utc | 110

https://twitter.com/politblogme/status/1507975823290216448
Very distressed to report this video, of Russian P O W being shot, which would be why Zelensky chose to state that Ukraine adheres to Geneva Convention at this particular time.
Might be removed soon as it’s Twitter

Posted by: Ben | Mar 27 2022 22:12 utc | 112

Too much of a coincidence. Russia shifts focus away from Kiev to concentrate on Donbass, and suddenly videos appear where Russian soldiers are tortured – exactly what would be needed to motivate a push towards Galicia. Someone really wants Russia to stay.

Posted by: Passerby | Mar 27 2022 22:14 utc | 114

Russian fighters response to the Ukrainian torture of POW’s. They won’t be resorting to torture in return as they will not be taking prisoners. For the Ukrainians now it is run or die.
https://twitter.com/linok_ua/status/1508136590467493888?cxt=HHwWgMCruaKP_e0pAAAA

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 27 2022 22:27 utc | 116

Wrong year, wrong city, wrong army

Posted by: Olivier | Mar 27 2022 19:24 utc | 75
Dr.Tara:
“The commander of the Mariupol neo-Nazis tried to escape with his troops in disguise, which was captured by Russia and turned into a city where the Russian-speaking people beheaded and beheaded for their crimes.
I said you might want to see some Russian propaganda lies alongside the true news of Western sympathizers.”

The commander is not from the Azov Battalion but a lieutenant colonel of the Ukrainian army. The place is not Mariupol, but the city of Donetsk. The time is early 2015. The context is the battles for the Donetsk International Airport. Givi’s group had captured some ten Ukrainian solders. There is a video where Givi says some choice words to lieutenant colonel at the airport.
On the same day an artillery shell had hit a trolley bus in the center of Donetsk, killing sone 20 people. The location is near to where the Toscha-U killed some 10 civilians this month. The lieutenant colonel was taken to see the results of the massacre.
The tweeted video does not show the destroyed bus. There is one body seen lying on the street at the end of the video.
The misattributed video was also shown on some Greek news show.

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Mar 27 2022 22:31 utc | 118

“We used to make things. Now we make believe. And we can’t tell the difference.” – Comment by Larry A at A Martyanov’s site

Posted by: spudski | Mar 27 2022 22:33 utc | 120

https://youtu.be/Y4I9YIF5ELY
Of course since it shows Russian Soldiers being mistreated thus far it has not been censored by YT.
It would appear that Ukrainian Army Personnel have captured Russian Army Personnel.
Now that the Russians are Prisoners of War the Ukrainian Army Soldiers summarily shoot each Russian Soldier with a single high velocity round in the upper thigh…at point blank range.
From my personal experience such an injury will cause catastrophic damage that without immediate medical treatment will kill them through rapid blood loss. If they are lucky to survive their injuries an above knee amputation is highly likely.
The presence of bright, thick clotting red arterial blood indicates traumatic & rapid blood loss from the major arteries & vessels within the upper leg. You can already see the prone casualties are in deep traumatic shock & only rapid intervention with the application of a Combat Application Tourniquet (CAT), emergency infusion with some IV fluids, warmth & immediate & rapid movement to a Role 1 medical facility will save them.
May the bright light shining in the eyes of those poor men forever shine down on their poor families.
I only have one word for those responsible – motherfuckers.
If I were a single man & not at home protecting my family (my primary purpose in life now) I would have been in the the LNR/DPR for years by now & putting these people down.

Posted by: Per Terram | Mar 27 2022 22:37 utc | 122

james @ 44
it is very obvious who the puppet master is… however, kids let their imagination carry them in a puppet show.. no concern for who is pulling the strings..
Who is pulling the puppet masters strings? In my mind I see a 100 story building with a puppet master on each level pulling the stings of the sub puppet master below in succession all the way up the building with US dancing on the first floor.

Posted by: cicumspect | Mar 27 2022 22:48 utc | 124

@ PeterAU1 117
Russian fighters response to the Ukrainian torture of POW’s. They won’t be resorting to torture in return as they will not be taking prisoners. For the Ukrainians now it is run or die.
The US went through a similar situation when Obama outlawed CIA torture in 2015 in Afghanistan so ‘suspected terrorists’ were just killed.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Mar 27 2022 23:03 utc | 126

“BlackRock’s Larry Fink, who oversees $10 trillion, says Russia-Ukraine war is ending globalization”
“I believe this has exacerbated the polarization and extremist behavior we are seeing across society today,” Fink said in his 2022 letter to shareholders.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/03/24/blackrocks-larry-fink-who-oversees-10-trillion-says-russia-ukraine-war-is-ending-globalization.html
Apparently Larry, is vexed, truely vexed by the conundrum he, and his mates created.
Everyone has a plan, until they get a punch in the mouth. Mike Tyson
How dare crazy Ivan set all the best laid plans of these mice and men askew?

Posted by: bubbles | Mar 27 2022 23:27 utc | 128

Russian military correspondent, TV host and current Deputy Speaker of Moscow City Duma Andrey Medvedev on the video showing torture of Russian POWs:

People are DMing me “Have you seen this?” and sending a video of Ukrainian military torturing POWs. Our POWs. Shooting their legs. I won’t publish it. Those who want will find it.
I have only one question: does something surprise you? Did you really think that the state media have been lying to you all these years about the cruelty of the Armed Forces of the Ukraine in the Donbass?
Did you think that we were, as they used to say, “working out a propaganda narrative”?
When in our reports or in the studios of large TV shows residents of Donbass or militias were telling how the Armed Forces of the Ukraine are torturing captured civilians or fighters of the republics, did you think that this was all just for show? That that’s not really there?
That is, the terrible shelling of Donetsk and Lugansk, their peaceful neighborhoods, was not evidence of the fierce cruelty of the Armed Forces of the Ukraine? Or when we said that Bandera’s Nazi ideology with all its consequences is being implanted in the Ukraine, did you also think that that’s state propaganda telling tales?
Banderism is exactly that: if you’re not Ukrainian, you’re not human. And if you’re not human, then they can do whatever they want to you. And they can do whatever they want because “Ukrayina ponad use” [“Ukraine above all”, Ukrainian Nationalists’ motto — S]. That is, above morality, God, faith. Banderism is a quasi-religion, a demonic sect. And this hatred for everything non-Ukrainian is implanted from school. And the streets named after Bandera and Shukhevych are the legalization of Banderism—executions, Babiy Yar, the Volyn massacre, the Lvov pogrom, burned Russian and Belarussian villages. Then again, we have talked about this many times as well.
And so I ask a question again: did you really expect something else from them?
And that’s why in Donbass, which the Armed Forces of the Ukraine planned to attack, it would be the same as in the video that everyone is watching on Telegram today. Even worse. There would be massacre and destruction of everything.
So the Special Military Operation began precisely in order to prevent all that. You have long been told—we are at war with the Nazis. The Armed Forces of the Ukraine are largely saturated with these ideas. And the Nazi scum will have to be cleaned out completely.
But we talked about that as well. And compare how the Russian military are treating POWs. That is the answer to all of you, once and for all, on whose side is the Truth.
So do not be surprised at the atrocities. There are Nazis over there. An the operation is being carried out so that they no longer exist. Anywhere. You have been told this many times by my colleagues, the military correspondents of Vesti, the hosts of Vesti.
Just understand, finally, already: many are accustomed to scornfully argue that, they say, there is only propaganda on this TV of yours. Really?
So for 8 years we have been saying that the Ukraine is being molded into an anti-Russian, Nazi project. The video is just one of thousands of proofs of this.
I hope that the commanders of the Russian army will show the video to their subordinates. So that they understand who they are fighting and why.

Posted by: S | Mar 27 2022 23:50 utc | 130

After the Malmedy Massacre during the Battle of the Bulge, the US Army no longer took SS prisoners. So if the Russians no longer take Ukrainian Nazi prisoners, that would not be without precedent.

Posted by: Lysias | Mar 28 2022 0:22 utc | 132

Per Terram | Mar 27 2022 23:50 utc | 132
“The 7N6 uses a boat-tail design to reduce drag and there is a small lead plug crimped in place in the base of the bullet. The lead plug, in combination with the air space at the point of the bullet, has the effect of moving the bullet’s center of gravity to the rear; the hollow air space also makes the bullet’s point prone to deformation when the bullet strikes anything solid, inducing yaw.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5.45×39mm
Nasty rounds. Looks like they are designed to deform and tumble similar to the – or some of the – America rounds.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 28 2022 0:35 utc | 134

More evidence of Nazi war crimes is emerging…
Members of the Banderite “Azov” death squad tortured and murdered a woman in one of their “bases” (in the basement of a school in Mariupol):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LQSYmda0Sc
Here is another video showing a woman from Mariupol explaining how the Banderites used her as a human shield:
https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/mariupol-refugee:b

Posted by: Nate | Mar 28 2022 0:53 utc | 136

@138 It may be a good idea. If ordinary Ukrainian soldiers don’t like what’s going on they are in a good position to do something about it.

Posted by: dh | Mar 28 2022 1:17 utc | 138

Posted by: circumspect | Mar 27 2022 16:27 utc | 42
That video is up on Canadian Prepper’s channel. I’ve been having an argument with Nate (the “Canadian Prepper”) about Pry. I claim the guy is a tame scientist for some Republican politicos who want to start a war with North Korea, Nate thinks he’s right about “EMPs” – a congenital prepper obsession, which I think is 90% bullcrap. I just downloaded the video, I’ll watch it and let Nate what I think. Nate’s OK, but his job is to sell prepper merchandise, so he occasionally goes off the deep end with the conspiracy theories.
Nate is also supposed to have a video up from some military guy with their take on Ukraine. Haven’t seen that yet.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 28 2022 1:27 utc | 140

@140 Doesn’t have to mean fragging. They could make videos. Take names. I’m not optimistic either.

Posted by: dh | Mar 28 2022 1:32 utc | 142

Peter AU1 | Mar 28 2022 0:35 utc | 135
Yes, modern military ammunition is designed to create catastrophic damage, but not necessarily a fatal wound; a casualty is more effective since it will in theory require 4 men to evacuate one from the point of wounding.
That eats up one full fire team plus one further one rendering a full section manoeuvre unit out of action during a casualty evacuation since the three remaining men from the team of four who took the casualty will be giving cover assistance.
But this effect is designed by the scientists & ballistics experts to be effected at “Battle Ranges” – circa 300 metres or so.
At 300m the kinetic energy of the round has reduced as has the muzzle velocity.
All the statistics I gave & those available online are generally measured at the muzzle – where the kinetic energy & muzzle velocity are at their highest.
In the footage the weapons were being fired into the POWs at point blank range. Unless those rounds struck anything significant they would pass right through the body instantaneously.

Posted by: Per Terram | Mar 28 2022 1:50 utc | 144

@ Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 28 2022 1:36 utc | 144
You see Richard, that is my point.
We point at Ukraine, but there is a reason they are being tolerated – because facists are gaining foothold in western politics.
Its not just in Brazil, but Greenwald talks about the problem thier. We always point out the problems of others.

Posted by: jared | Mar 28 2022 1:57 utc | 146

Fro Russian MFA Telegram channel…

#Opinion by María Zakharova:
BioBiden
We can get a rough idea of the US political elites’ involvement in the military biological activity in Ukraine if we rely on open sources as well as leaked documents. Below is an attempt to reconstruct the chronology of this involvement, though not a comprehensive one. There are many gaps in this truly diabolical plan that are still to be filled.
1991 – the US launches the Nunn-Lugar programme for the former Soviet countries to control/eliminate Soviet weapons of mass destruction including bioweapons. The Pentagon’s Defence Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) was named as the programme’s main executor.
1993 – the Ukraine-US Agreement on the Prevention of Proliferation of WMD is signed.
2005 – an additional protocol is signed to the agreement between the Ukrainian Health Ministry and the DTRA on the prevention of the proliferation of technologies, pathogens and know-how that can be used to develop bioweapons. This is the start of the transfer of the Ukrainian military biological potential into US specialists’ hands.
2000s – large US military-industrial companies are engaged in military biological activity in Ukraine.
2005-2014 – Black & Veatch Special Projects, a DTRA contractor, builds and upgrades 8 biolabs in Ukraine instead of eliminating military biological infrastructure, as was originally claimed. One of the facilities, a biolab in Odessa, has been financed since 2011 for the study of “pathogens that can be used in bioterrorism attacks.”
2007 – US DoD employee Nathan Wolfe founded Global Viral Forecasting Institute (subsequently – Global Viral), a biomedical company. The mission stated in the charter is non-commercial study of transborder infections, including in China.
2009 – Rosemont Seneca Partners is established by former US Secretary of State John Kerry’ stepson Christopher Heinz and incumbent US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden.
2014 – anti-constitutional coup d’etat in Ukraine.
2014 – Hunter Biden joins the Board of Directors of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company.
2014 – Metabiota, a private commercial organisation specialising in the study of pandemic risks is detached from Global Viral. Neil Callahan and John DeLoche, employees of Hunter Biden’s company Rosemont Seneca Partners are appointed to the board of Metabiota. Global Viral and Metabiota begin to get funding from the US Department of Defence.
2014 – Metabiota shows interest in Ukraine and invites Hunter Biden to “assert Ukraine’s cultural & economic independence from Russia”.
2014 – Metabiota and Burisma Holdings begin cooperation on an unnamed “science project in Ukraine”.
2014 – Metabiota, Global Viral and Black & Veatch Special Projects begin full-fledged cooperation within the US DoD programmes.
2014-2016 – Implementation of Metabiota and US DoD contracts, including a $300,000 project in Ukraine.
2016 – US citizen Ulana Nadia Suprun, a descendant of Ukrainian Nazis, is appointed Acting Health Minister of Ukraine. The US DoD and Ukraine’s Health Ministry cooperation programme is greatly expanded.
2016 – an outbreak of swine flu among Ukrainian Defence Ministry personnel guarding a biolab in Kharkov, Ukraine; 20 dead. The incident is hushed up.
2016 – former US Assistant Secretary for Defence Andrew Weber is appointed head of Metabiota’s global partnerships department.
2016 – EcoHealth Alliance, a Global Viral founder Nathan Wolfe’s structure, is engaged in the study of bat-transmitted coronaviruses at the research centre in a Wuhan laboratory, China.
2016 – the DTRA and Ukraine’s Health Ministry extend the contract after getting approval from the Ukrainian Defence Ministry.
2019 – the COVID-19 mutated bat coronavirus pandemic begins with an outbreak in Wuhan.
February 24, 2022 – launch of the Russian Army’s special operation in Ukraine.
February 24-25, 2022 – rapid elimination of strains in biolabs in Ukraine.
March 8, 2022 – US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland openly acknowledges the existence of cooperation between the US and Ukraine in pathogens.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 28 2022 2:33 utc | 148

PeterAU1 @ 117
The Russian soldier’s video saying they won’t resort to torture but will increase the lethality of battle so Ukrainian soldiers have only choice to fight or run – is understandable emotional response. But it is bad tactics and illegal as well. Under the Geneva convention, armies must accept surrender of enemy combatants.
The bad tactics is this tit for tat about killing prisoners or just not taking them means both sides will increase ferocity of battle. It undermines Russian strategy of encouraging Ukrainian regular (non-NAZI) troops to surrender. I think the Russian commanders will issue orders to reign this in. A message like:
“We know what you did to some of our men when they surrendered. We will not do the same. All Ukrainian POWs will be treated humanely according to the Geneva Convention. However, any Ukrainian soldiers who we have proof of torturing POWs or inflicting atrocities on civilians will be punished as war criminals.”
Maybe leave it hanging as to how and when such punishment would be meted out.

Posted by: PJB | Mar 28 2022 2:58 utc | 150

@5 civil war
Nope.
Not in my mind.
The politicians who constructed this shit are becoming the
common enemy.
Maybe……MAYBE if those corrupt politicians can convince enough people through racist diatribe.
But I think that time is passing.
All Americans are suffering economically.
Economic hardship cuts through all tribal lines, imo.
So, no. I don’t think there is a civil war in the US coming.
I think there is an overthrow of the existing oligarchic, so called democracy coming.
But not as a war between right and left, black and white, etc.
I think the next biggie in the states is a massive economic shutdown, depression
Wherein politicians are hanged and mobs dig oligarchs out of their compounds and
Shoot them.

Posted by: Cadence calls | Mar 28 2022 3:14 utc | 152

PJB | Mar 28 2022 2:58 utc | 150
I said Russian soldier because that was the blurb on the video. the bloke had a beard but I did not think he was a Chechen. So likely from DPR or LPR
“But it is bad tactics and illegal as well.” The Ukrainian regular forces are fighting alongside of and for extremists and US/UK. They have also been subject to eight years propaganda/ brain washing.
It is a fairly sure thing that if they go over to Russia or ethnic Russian lines before a firefight starts, they would still be treated as prisoners of war. the barbarianism of OUN historically documented, has returned and been ongoing for the last eight years.
Look up UN designated AQ and ISIS terrorists. Any one working with them or assisting them becomes a terrorist and is treated the same.
The give up before the fight begins, fair enough. The mob in front of donbass haven’t got much time because Russian thermobaric will destroy them in their bunkers. If there are any survivors of that, they will be extremely lucky to survive the mopping up by some very pissed off people.
Fascist or Islamic or any ideological/religious extremist, nobody is interested in taking them alive unless to extract information.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 28 2022 4:09 utc | 154

Posted by: krypton | Mar 27 2022 20:34 utc | 87: “What contingency plan could Russia in store have to counter what will be front page news around thew world?”
The abyss yawned. Next question.

Posted by: Laurence | Mar 28 2022 4:17 utc | 156

PJKar | Mar 28 2022 3:14 utc | 151 “Some like CNN say the Russians are starting to run low on munitions. Could that be possible? Also they keep hyping that the Russians are way behind their timeline?”
Tell me what is the timeline. Russians make all that shit public so you should know.
You’re either mind dead or a troll. Russians running out of ammo? Fuckwit.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 28 2022 4:19 utc | 158

I was watching Lira today when he commented that Africans and certain south American peoples are lazy and had no motivation but the Ukrainians were “very hard working”. This is blatantly racist language and assumptions. Is this not similar to NazI ideology? A belief that some races are superior by birth or genetics? I just turned it off at that point.
I’ve been on the fence about this guy since the beginning and I do not think it is accidental that he is dropping these kinds of tropes as he meanders his way through very long winded stories. I feel he is doing a kind of programming, call me suspicious but I just feel as if I’m being manipulated.
Maybe it doesn’t matter for the sake of the information, but it irks me. He seems to be telling the truth about the war but I am wondering more about what he isn’t saying.
I’m not trying to convince anyone or slander him, am just posting it in case others are having similar misgivings.

Posted by: K | Mar 28 2022 4:21 utc | 160

Richard Steven Hack | Mar 28 2022 4:18 utc | 157
Richard, I appreciate your reply.

Posted by: PJKar | Mar 28 2022 4:44 utc | 162

Another troll coming here to try and fuck with
bar regulars. If you’re looking for a fight, mate, you’ll find it here.

Posted by: Cadence Calls | Mar 28 2022 4:49 utc | 164

K | Mar 28 2022 4:21 utc | 160
There is a big difference in cultures in what we call the ‘work ethic’. Most western societies have this thing where working your ringer off is something to be admired. to me its a toss up.
Modern day trinkets and baubles are nice but as long as I have shelter from the elements, a bit of firewood, and something to eat is also good.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 28 2022 4:56 utc | 166

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Mar 28 2022 4:45 utc | 163
Yeah Peter, in other words ya can’t answer the questions. That’s OK lotsa others can’t either. If you don’t know you should just say so.

Posted by: PJKar | Mar 28 2022 5:08 utc | 168

Breaking news,
PM Ardern at post-Cabinet briefing: NZDF personnel will travel to Europe following invasion of Ukraine
4:49 pm today
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/464139/pm-ardern-at-post-cabinet-briefing-nzdf-personnel-will-travel-to-europe-following-invasion-of-ukraine

Posted by: Paul | Mar 28 2022 5:11 utc | 170

Peter, sure, I am 74 years old. How about you?

Posted by: PJKar | Mar 28 2022 5:16 utc | 172

Zelenskyy Worried About Western Financial Support After Video Surfaces Showing Ukraine Military Torturing Russian POWs
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/03/27/zelenskyy-worried-about-western-financial-support-after-video-surfaces-showing-ukraine-military-torturing-russian-pows/

Posted by: ΚΓΨ | Mar 28 2022 5:25 utc | 174

@149
I agree. It’s sad the Americans won’t clean up anything.
I’m an American, and I’m ashamed of our foreign policies, our domestic policies, our economic policies, etc.
One of the great nations is committing a slow, highly publicized, and globally impacting death.
It’s sad to see happen.
There is no pick me up coming from the USA.
We are a zombie nation.

Posted by: Cadence calls | Mar 28 2022 5:30 utc | 176

@ ΚΓΨ | Mar 28 2022 5:25 utc | 174
zelensky is just the cia’s stooge.. the cia have had this type of destabilizing agenda for at least the past decade…. zelensky is the least of anyone’s concern… cia will continue to support this kind of shit.. it is what they do.. supporting nazis is more of the same here.. to suggest those paying for this are going to stop here is nuts.. this is all good for the armaments industry..

Posted by: james | Mar 28 2022 5:34 utc | 178

@ PJKar | Mar 28 2022 5:32 utc | 177
thanks.. it is going to play out and although we can follow different websites – i like southfront generally, but don’t follow it – we mostly have to just wait and see how it all unfolds no matter all what we read and all the conjecture that goes with it… i think the best idea would be to take everything with a good grain of salt.. my own subjective take here is i tend to not believe western media and i tend to be a bit more receptive to russias side here – that is my trying for objectivity which i do not claim to have! here is one link i look at once or twice a day – https://t.me/s/intelslava

Posted by: james | Mar 28 2022 5:38 utc | 180

james | Mar 28 2022 5:38 utc | 180
OK James thank you.

Posted by: PJKar | Mar 28 2022 5:48 utc | 182

The why, what, where, when, how is all over the internet PJKar.
The answers are everywhere.
They are just hard to swallow for some of us.
I’ve been coming to grips with it.
Slowly.
The really hard part is the solutions.
Because one man can feel so minuscule and impotent
When facing the reality of the situation.
It can be defeating in its scope.
Keep looking, searching, asking
This is a good place to be for those who seek some answers.
Just be cool to everyone.

Posted by: Cadence Calls | Mar 28 2022 6:06 utc | 184

PJKar | Mar 28 2022 3:14 utc | 151
I don’t think that any time frame has ever been given by Russia. The only date I ever saw given was a Western media estimate of the start of the “Russian invasion” which was supposedly dictated by the fact that the ground in February would be hard enough for tanks because it was frozen solid.
I now think that was actually the date that the Ukrainians wanted to start their attack on the Donbass, probably for exactly the same reason.
Someone mentioned in a comment I read that May 9th, Russia’s Victory Day might be a good timeline for them to aim at. The way things are headed the Ukrainians will be fresh out of armed forces by then. More importantly it will have become obvious that they have no hope of winning with mass surrenders likely occurring.
Zelensky will have no opportunity to dictate the surrender terms which are most likely going to see Ukraine broken into tiny pieces. I’m already seeing signs that new “independent republics are forming at Kherson and Kharkiv. Zelensky wants to have a vote on the future of Ukraine. I’m sure those people will want to have a say in it.

Posted by: Cyberhorse | Mar 28 2022 6:08 utc | 186

@24, Re: “What Trump would do” is moot, Trump had no power in foreign policy for 4 years, yet no one reminds him of this. In early 2017 it was clear the Pentagon ignored him. To pretend it was his decision, in spring 2017 he publicly announced he was relinquishing his Commander in Chief role, giving wonderful Pentagon 100% authority. More humiliating, in summer 2017 an almost unanimous House and Senate agreed to remove all foreign policy decisions relating to Russia from him and give them to the Senate. People at 2018 NATO meeting knew of this. In Aug. 2017 Trump went on tv to say that, contrary to a main plank for which he had been elected of stopping endless Mid East wars, he now thinks these wars are good. The Trump who won in Nov. 2016 immediately ceased to exist. He became nothing but a front man, first for Jared who was de facto pres. Then he became a vicious, screaming neocon front man. Today he remains only a front man for the lucrative revenue streams of the new Trump Kushner family business of politics.

Posted by: susan mullen | Mar 28 2022 6:18 utc | 188

Is there any truth in this story? https://www.afr.com/world/europe/zelensky-accuses-west-of-cowardice-20220328-p5a8gd?post=p53j5b

Posted by: Objective Observer | Mar 28 2022 7:01 utc | 190

HerrHesser #56
Governments do not need to “buy” roubles. They can “borrow” them from the Russian CB. (“borrow” in quotes because they are created in the act of creating the debt). Then the EU govts have to sell smthg to Russia to get roubles to pay back the debt. That is how money works.

Posted by: Tim Glover | Mar 28 2022 7:07 utc | 192

@190 and 193 not 160
I will stop posting. Sorry. It’s too late

Posted by: Objective Observer | Mar 28 2022 7:11 utc | 194

Posted by: Objective Observer | Mar 28 2022 7:01 utc | 190
Based on the rest of the crap at that site, assume it isn’t. He did accuse the west of cowardice in his latest begging for tanks and jets. He also said the defenders of Mariupol were courageous and all that other pro-neo-Nazi crap. Listen, absolutely NOTHING that Zelensky says is worth repeating or noticing. Read my lips. NOTHING. Most of what he says which is coherent is scripted by the CIA and the rest comes from whether he’s high on cocaine or not.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 28 2022 7:16 utc | 196

@115 Passerby: “Russia shifts focus away from Kiev to concentrate on Donbass,”
Untrue. The Russian focus was always on Donbas, but they took great care to ensure that the Ukrainian General Staff were fixated on Kiev.
What you are seeing now is that UKRAINIAN focus suddenly shifting over to Donbas as they realize they have been played for a fool.
The realization has come much too late, but that is their fault, not Russia’s.

Posted by: Yeah, Right | Mar 28 2022 7:23 utc | 198

Over Half of Americans Say US Will Be—or Is—at War With Russia: Poll
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/over-half-of-americans-say-us-will-be-or-is-at-war-with-russia-poll/ar-AAVy36q?ocid=EMMX
The most ridiculous part is that 16% of Americans think we’re already at actual physical war with Russia. LOL Technically they’re correct, but I doubt they understand that. Read the poll, especially the continued lowering of Biden’s approval rating. The more he rants about Russia, the lower his rating goes.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 28 2022 7:31 utc | 200