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April 2, 2022
Ukraine Open Thread 2022-39
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Jewish Group Endorses Nazis In Ukraine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHnteimq15Q
Posted by: librul | Apr 2 2022 15:48 utc | 1
russian troops handed chernobyl back to the ukies who managed it. from what i read i got the vibe it was a “okay no azov let’s GTFO of this place while we can still have kids” situation.
Posted by: the pair | Apr 2 2022 15:59 utc | 2
@Posted by: librul | Apr 2 2022 15:48 utc | 1
Martin Niemöller wrote the famous poem
which you have probably seen and heard everywhere.
It is permanently big and large on the wall at the Holocaust Museum in Washington.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/martin-niemoeller-first-they-came-for-the-socialists
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
But today the ADL protects Nazis by minimalizing them and making clear that they are
not (yet) attacking Jews or Jewish institutions in Ukraine.
Got that?! Do people never learn?
First they will ethnically cleanse the ethnic Russians
and then tomorrow they will cleanse someone else.
Wake the F up!
Posted by: librul | Apr 2 2022 15:59 utc | 3
From http://www.strategic-culture.org, but very haunting and chilling, and worth a read or two:
Alexander Pushkin: And, Frankly, You Are Hating Us
In 1831 Alexander Pushkin wrote ODE TO DEFAMERS OF RUSSIA. It was his response to some voices in the French parliament calling for armed intervention on the side of Polish insurgents against the Russian army (up to 1917 Poland was part of Russia). In the poem Pushkin explained why the quarrels between Slavs must be decided between Slavs themselves. He called on Europeans not to interfere and made it very clear why they hate Russia. True as it ever was. Enjoy reading and make your own opinion about it.
What’s that you’re trumpeting about, calumniators?
How come you threaten us with excommunication?
What has enraged you? Lithuanian unease?
Forget it: this is Slavic beef among their kindred,
Domestic ancient squabble, fate has long since figured,
A puzzle, you don’t have whatever chance to read.
These here contiguous tribes already
Have long been feuding up to now;
Each party, be it ours or theirs,
Bent under gathering storm clouds.
Who’ll stand the ground when odds are heavy:
A haughty Lech? A faithful Russ?
The question is if Slavic floods will ever
Blend in the Russian sea or it’ll reduce.
Leave us alone: you’re unacquainted
With suchlike bloody sacred tablets;
This family, domestic feud
Is alien, obscure to you;
For all you care, Prague or Kremlin;
Instead, you’re foolishly entranced
By daring courage of a melee –
And, frankly, you are hating us…
Why? On the grounds that, on the ashes
Of blazing Moscow, we refused
To buy the power of the brash, who
You trembled underneath, subdued?
Respond: because we sent the idol,
Who’d been predominating kingdoms, to abyss,
Thus having paid with our lifeblood
For Europe’s freedom, state and peace?..
To hear you talk, you’re tough; then test yourselves in action!
As if an aged hero, calm in relaxation,
Can’t fix his Ismailian bayonet to a gun;
As if the word of Russian tsar is but a trinket
Or brawls with Europe any different
Or Russians out of form to overcome.
As if we’re few; as if from Taurida to Perm reels,
From ardent Caucasus to Finnish chilly skerries,
From Kremlin, shaken to the core,
Up to the walls of quiescent China
The Russian soil will never rise up
And scintillate with her steel thorns.
Then send your bellicose descendants,
Defamers, over to our place!
There’s room enough, in Russian grasslands,
Among deserving of them graves.
Alexander Pushkin, 1831
Posted by: bjd | Apr 2 2022 16:02 utc | 4
“Bottom line, Gasprom bank cannot keep euros outside of euro zone banking system.”
Posted by: RJB | Apr 2 2022 10:51 utc | 229
I did not know that. But it is evident. Besides cash and physical gold any foreign account or bond exists only because of and as far as the emitting central bank (FED, EZB) recognizes it as an obligation.
So the idea:
Why did naive Putin leave his dollars in nyc?! is naive itself.
The answer is:
Because you simply cannot bring your €-or $-„money“ home. Every dollar asset is worthless if the empire declares it.
Posted by: njet | Apr 2 2022 16:08 utc | 5
GAZPROM HAS STOPPED DELIVERIES OF RUSSIAN GAS TO GERMANY VIA YAMAL-EUROPE PIPELINE
Instead of flowing toward Germany and the EU, gas supplies on Friday and Saturday started flowing in the opposite direction, according to Gascade, the network operator.
Posted by: Kim | Apr 2 2022 16:09 utc | 6
If you are interested, here is a paper describing the origin of the poem by Martin Miemoller:
The Origin and Reception of Martin Niemöller’s Quotation
“First they came for the communists …”
by Harold Marcuse, University of California, Santa Barbara
Version July 31, 2014
https://marcuse.faculty.history.ucsb.edu/projects/niem/articles/Marcuse2014NiemoellerQuote147gWeb.pdf
You may have noticed that the Holocaust Museum version of the poem is different from the one
you remember. This I find most ironic, but not unique.
Indeed, there are numerous versions of this quotation in circulation today, some of them set in
stone, with varying claims of legitimacy. For example, visitors to the New England Holocaust
Memorial on Boston’s Freedom Trail find this version, inscribed in 1995:3
They came first for the Communists,
But I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then They came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
This version substitutes Communists for Socialists, moves Jews up before Trade Unionists, and
adds Catholics as a persecuted group
Posted by: librul | Apr 2 2022 16:12 utc | 7
interesting table data from “dragon” , sourced to RF MoD,
https://dragon-first-1.livejournal.com/56544.html (Russian language)
* Looks like most of the localities listed turned green in the second week of the war, with limited resistance at that time. Perhaps goes to the debate about merits — from military point of view — of approaching Kiev
* After that, some contested towns, esp. around the southern “corner” of LOC made the list repeatedly over periods of 5-10 days
* Note absence of detail from the North (ie Chernigov/Chernihiv to Kharkov) – while plenty of signs pointing to heavy activity there
Posted by: ptb | Apr 2 2022 16:12 utc | 8
This courageous video is valuable for convincing anyone who drank the Kool-Aid. It’s in French, so best for French buveurs de Kool-Aid. She is a Russian who works in France and is aware her career in France is on the line, but she says the truth regardless. It’s a very convincing video and there are very useful links below it. MOST IMPORTANTLY FOR EVERYONE, at 25:19 she shows a video clip interview (in Ukrainian) from 2018 with a senior Ukrainian official who said “it’s 99.9% certain that Ukraine will attack Russia,” and he was very eager for that war.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCoIAlpvGbU
Posted by: JessDTruth | Apr 2 2022 16:21 utc | 9
How to?
How does one buy Rubles? Let’s say one was interested in expanding his/her portfolio to include Rubles. Did a quick search; other than some exchanges that don’t currently have Rubles available, some other bs popped up.
Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Apr 2 2022 16:23 utc | 10
“So far, the UK is the only country to have imposed sanctions on Russia’s Gazprombank, through which payments for Russian natural gas are made. The measure effectively denies Britain the ability to pay for the commodity, and has forced Gazprom to walk away from the sales and trading arm. In accordance with Putin’s decree that Russian gas be paid for in rubles, Gazprom has set up foreign-currency accounts for customers where their currencies can be converted into rubles on the Moscow exchange”.
The UK imposed sanctions on GazpromBank
So Shell claimed they “couldn’t pay this month because of sanctions”.
So Russia cut off the gas to the UK.
QED, it doesn’t pay to be a smart alec at the moment.
Posted by: Stonebird | Apr 2 2022 16:27 utc | 11
@Posted by: librul | Apr 2 2022 16:12 utc | 7
Was inspired by the great number of self-serving versions (or revisions)
of Martin Niemöller’s famous poem.
They came first for the Communists,
But I didn’t speak up because I was a socialist.
Then they came for the socialists,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Jew.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Catholic.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for the Protestants,
and I didn’t speak up because they were cancelled.
Then they came for me.
Posted by: librul | Apr 2 2022 16:28 utc | 12
So, I am hearing rumors here and there on the Internets that some of the dead people found in the wreckage of the helicopter which tried to exfiltrate Azov personnel in Marioupol may have been French intelligence officers.
Is there anything concrete confirming or denying these rumors?
Posted by: Lemming | Apr 2 2022 16:30 utc | 13
Sputnik has a story about the Mariupol hospital attack.
Posted by: the pessimist | Apr 2 2022 16:41 utc | 14
JessDTruth @9
Love it when Russians are masquerading as objective observers. True Russians are not ashamed of being Russian…..
Posted by: georgeg | Apr 2 2022 16:43 utc | 15
Posted by: JessDTruth | Apr 2 2022 16:21 utc | 9
She says the Polish authorities won’t let Ukrainians who were evacuated in Poland cross the frontier into Belarus to join their families in Russia. What is the legal basis for Poland to deny people access to the Belorus customs?
Posted by: Richard L | Apr 2 2022 16:47 utc | 16
The Fate of Europe
Today we are witnessing the European Union’s abeyance of the freedom and independence it once believed in and upon it was originally founded. What we are increasingly seeing at this time, is the utter submission of European self-determinism to the dictates of the United States and Britain. Neither of those countries are members of the European Union, but ironically as members of NATO, both are currently dictating the foreign, economic, and energy-related policies of the EU as if they owned it.
The military and economic fiasco we are experiencing here in Europe at this time are the effects and consequences of the “diktat” of a supposedly “defensive” military alliance, namely NATO, instead of clearly defined and structured European policies for the areas described above, based upon an independent European decision-making process.
Thus, clearly recognizable military structures are imposing their policies upon civilian governments. Instead of following orders, these collective militaries are now issuing their orders throughout Europe.
Accordingly, Europe has effectively become a military dictatorship. One can attempt to paint a different lipstick on that pig, but it isn’t going to change things much. What this continent, the cradle of so many cultures, languages and so much incredible depth has now been reduced to is an utter disgrace.
In the long run, because that is what these things always come down to, one can be sure that the “actors” directly responsible for this tragedy will pay a heavy price. The blowback will be severe, and things will never be the same again.
Posted by: GreyRaven | Apr 2 2022 16:48 utc | 17
My guess as an old soldier is that things are going to be relatively quiet this week (but I recognize my own fallability). Russia needs to rest the troops, rotate units that need rotating, do repairs, etc., etc.
Having been on the grunt end of the elephant, I would guess that the folks carrying the AK-12’s probably could do with some rest.
Posted by: Degringolade | Apr 2 2022 16:55 utc | 18
Re: Lemming @13,
I’ve heard it was a mix of French, British, Turkish and American military advisors, however no one has provided any proof aside from some flag patches, but those are just patches, anyone could sew them on to their clothes (indeed a lot of the foreign mercenaries in Ukraine do sew their native flag on their fatigues even though they are not part of the official military). Unless the Russians actually captured them alive (and supposedly there were a couple survivors from one of the crashes) and feel like revealing the truth we’ll probably have to wait another 150 yrs or so before the French or Americans declassify the records. Whoever were helping the Nazis in Mariupol, regardless of what nation they were from, official or not, I hope they died screaming, the world is better off without them.
Posted by: Kadath | Apr 2 2022 16:57 utc | 19
Must read interview at RT (sorry but can’t link), “Gold-backed ruble could be a gamechanger (INTERVIEW),” with precious metals analyst Ronan Manly at BullionStar Singapore. Just one excerpt before I head out the door:
What does that mean for the price of gold?
By playing both sides of the equation, i.e. linking the ruble to gold and then linking energy payments to the ruble, the Bank of Russia and the Kremlin are fundamentally altering the entire working assumptions of the global trade system while accelerating change in the global monetary system. This wall of buyers in search of physical gold to pay for real commodities could certainly torpedo and blow up the paper gold markets of the LBMA and COMEX.
The fixed peg between the ruble and gold puts a floor on the RUB/USD rate but also a quasi-floor on the US dollar gold price. But beyond this, the linking of gold to energy payments is the main event. While increased demand for rubles should continue to strengthen the RUB/USD rate and show up as a higher gold price, due to the fixed ruble – gold linkage, if Russia begins to accept gold directly as a payment for oil, then this would be a new paradigm shift for the gold price as it would link the oil price directly to the gold price.
For example, Russia could start by specifying that it will now accept 1 gram of gold per barrel of oil. It doesn’t have to be 1 gram but would have to be a discounted offer to the current crude benchmark price so as to promote take up, e.g. 1.2 grams per barrel. Buyers would then scramble to buy physical gold to pay for Russian oil exports, which in turn would create huge strains in the paper gold markets of London and New York where the entire ‘gold price’ discovery is based on synthetic and fractionally-backed cash-settled unallocated ‘gold’ and gold price ‘derivatives.
Lemming @ 13
So, I am hearing rumors here and there on the Internets that some of the dead people found in the wreckage of the helicopter which tried to exfiltrate Azov personnel in Marioupol may have been French intelligence officers.
Is there anything concrete confirming or denying these rumors?
https://t.me/BellumActaNews reported that they found patches from…
🇲🇦🧑🚀 — A Military Patch of Kingdom of Morocco
🇹🇿🧑🚀 — A Military Patch of United Republic of Tanzania, an Nilotic-speaking East African Country
🇿🇦🧑🚀 — A Military Patch of with the Modern days flag of Republic of South Africa
In another post they also reported…
🇬🇧🧑🚀 — Alongside the Patches of 🇺🇦 Ukrainian National Flag and the Patch of 🟥⬛️ Ukrainian Insurgent Flag (the well-known symbol of Ukrainian Nationalists), two other Flag Patches were also seen on the trophies captured by DPR Forces.
– A 🇬🇧 Union Jack Patch, the flag of United Kingdom of Great Britain
– A 🇨🇦 Maple Leaf Patch, the Modern flag of the Canada
Such findings suggest that UK and Canadian nationals would be on the front lines of the Ukrainian Eastern Front alongside the JFO Ukrainian Forces.
Mercenaries? Volunteers? Trainers? Intelligence conduits? Bullshit? If true, the Moroccans were probably posted by the Israelis as they have a very close relationship in that type of work. Who knows
Posted by: circumspect | Apr 2 2022 17:14 utc | 21
Finland wants to join the gangster club (Nato) without a referendum.
“The president of Finland, which borders Russia, says the widespread support for NATO expressed in recent opinion polls could pave the way for joining the US-led military bloc without a referendum. The attitude of the Finns towards NATO membership took a U-turn following Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
“NATO needs to know that there is popular support. We already have that, in my view,” Sauli Niinisto told Yle on Wednesday.
He added that, given the favorable polls, the country would not need a referendum on joining the bloc if it receives supermajority support in parliament.”
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 2 2022 17:16 utc | 22
Interesting official U.S. semantics referring to the bio-labs in Ukraine. The initial spin was firm denial that the labs produced “bioweapons” (i.e. they were public health laboratories). That has now been corrected and updated with an additional qualifier (“offensive”):
Pentagon official: “I can say to you unequivocally there are no offensive biologic weapons in the Ukraine laboratories that the United States has been involved with.”
US Defence Department $200 million program since 2005 for 44 labs in Ukraine.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/no-offensive-biologic-weapons-in-ukrainian-biolabs-us-assisted-pentagon-says
Posted by: jayc | Apr 2 2022 17:16 utc | 23
Is there a US chemical attack false flag op on the horizon in Ukraine, like the one they tried to pull off in Syria.
“The US is bracing for the possibility that Russia might use chemical or biological weapons against Ukraine, providing equipment and supplies that could be used to save lives after such an attack, White House press secretary Jen Psaki has claimed. She didn’t explain why Moscow might resort to such measures, especially given its military superiority, both in terms of available manpower and materiel.
Psaki disclosed the aid effort on Friday, without giving details on what exactly is being sent to Kiev. She added that supplying Ukraine won’t compromise American preparedness for similar attacks.”
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 2 2022 17:20 utc | 24
@19
2 reported survivors from that gruesome wreckage. Both described as Ukrainian. One badly beat up, talking on video, the other shown in photo looking completely shell shocked with what looked like burned hair, blanket covering from neck down.
No surprise whatsoever if UA sent in some of their remaining helo’s on a suicide mission to evacuate the VIP’s (ie mercenaries/trainers from high status countries). Also would fit with my long standing speculation that oligarch Akhmetov chipped in to hire some of the more exotic security personnel, hoping to shield select portions of his industrial real estate.
Posted by: ptb | Apr 2 2022 17:21 utc | 25
Kim | Apr 2 2022 16:09 utc | 6
Poland had ended contract for delivery gas from Gazprom —- they get delivery from more sources such as Norway and LNG tankers. By shortage, the gas flows from Germany into Poland via Yamal. Nothing unusual … baby it’s cold outside.
https://www.eurotrib.com/story/2021/12/21/16254/014
Sakineh Bagoom | Apr 2 2022 16:23 utc | 10
“How does one buy Rubles?”
Depends on how you want your rubles. Real cash in your pocket, cash in an account or some complicated stuff in some portfolio?
Real cash is the easiest way for mortals like us. Find an exchange office nearby and swap your local currency there, in person. You might also find an online exchange office in your country. There’s one in Germany I know of. With them you can order foreign currencies online and have it brought to you by messenger. The fees involved are of course juicy, plus you’ll get the worst possible rate. Some banks cash out foreign curreny as well, but likely only to existing costumers, if you already do your banking with them.
If you’re interested in cash in an account, there are some banks that offer foreign currency accounts. However, as an individual, they may just turn you down, because they may offer this only to businesses. Fees will be substantial here too, and not only one-time fees like with the exchange office, but recurring fees as long as you have the account. Exchange rates will be better though, than with cash over the counter.
As for the third option, bonds, stocks and what not – I have absolutely no idea.
Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Apr 2 2022 17:22 utc | 27
Briefing of the Russian Ministry of Defense (02.04.2022)
▫️Units of the Luhansk People’s Republic, developing an offensive against the positions of the Ukrainian 57 motorized infantry brigade, are blocking the settlement of Borovskoye from the east and south. Up to 30 Ukrainian nationalists and five armored vehicles were destroyed.
💥 On the afternoon of April 2, high-precision air-launched missiles in the areas of the Lozovaya and Pavlograd railway stations destroyed: armored vehicles, ammunition and fuel tanks sent to reinforce the grouping of Ukrainian troops in the Donbass.
💥 Also, the Mirgorod military airfield in the Poltava region was disabled and several Ukrainian combat helicopters and an aircraft found in its camouflaged parking lots, as well as storage facilities with fuel and aviation weapons, were destroyed.
💥 As a result of a high-precision strike by the Iskander tactical complex on the defense headquarters in the city of Kharkov on Thursday, March 31, the destruction of more than 100 nationalists and mercenaries from Western countries was confirmed.
💥During the day, operational-tactical aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces hit 28 military facilities of Ukraine. Among them: two depots of rocket and artillery weapons and ammunition, as well as 23 areas of concentration of military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
#Ministry of Defense #Russia
Posted by: Kim | Apr 2 2022 17:22 utc | 28
So Japan has sanctions against Russia, but its desperate to stay in projects with Russia and buy Russia fuels. Japan is classed as a hostile country for imposing sanctions, what makes it leaders think that Russia will make an exception for it.
“Japan has no intention of withdrawing from its oil and natural gas projects in Russia’s Far East, Economy Minister Hagiuda Koichi told reporters on Friday.
“Japan has stakes in both [oil and gas] projects and has secured long-term supplies. The projects provide our country with energy at below-market prices, and soaring energy costs are making the projects even more important,” the official emphasized.
Koichi also said that while Japan imports about 90% of its crude oil from the Middle East, Russia’s Sakhalin-1 project is viewed in Tokyo as an important energy source outside that region. He added that the Sakhalin-2 project, in turn, accounts for about 9% of his country’s imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG). Moreover, the minister stressed that Japan will also stick to agreements on another LNG development project in the Russian Arctic.”
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 2 2022 17:27 utc | 29
Hey,does anyone know what would happen to your shares if the foreign company that you invested in is delisted from the stock exchange where you hold those shares?
Posted by: Kim | Apr 2 2022 17:27 utc | 30
Posted by: JessDTruth | Apr 2 2022 16:21 utc | 9
She’s quite courageous cause Youtube is a business for her, as she’s a russian-french eTeacher. She takes the risk (as it can be seen in the YT commentaries) to make a significant part of its audience quite mad. Truth is a heavy burden.
As a frenchie, some of the few things I know in russian language comes from her.
I’ll see how I can support her and I deeply encourage every national roaming in MoA to do the same.
Posted by: HerrHesser | Apr 2 2022 17:30 utc | 31
Follow on to KIm @ 6
and despite President Biden’s promise to bolster to exports to the EU (although he stipulated that not all of this additional capacity would come from the US), researchers at Goldman Sachs have already shown that US exports of LNG are already at capacity.
This implies that there is no immediate surplus of LNG available to Europe.
It also imlies that countries desperate for LNG for electricity, industrial, and domestic uses will proceed to bid up the price of the resource.
This in turn implies that countries unable to match the high bid will go without.
It may take up to a year to increase the US NG supply. Norway and Australia are wild cards at this moment and Qatar is a question mark.
Posted by: Sushi | Apr 2 2022 17:34 utc | 32
The EU and the US will impose new freeze and seize sanctions on Russia and Russian oligarchs.
“Together with the US, we in the EU have set up a Freeze and Seize task force, which aims to deal with the assets of [Russian] oligarchs and the conversion of rubles, to prevent [previously introduced] sanctions from being circumvented,” he explained, adding that most recently, the US suggested the next round of restrictions to target technology and supply chains connected to Russia’s military industry, “and this is a path the EU may also follow.”
Both Brussels and Washington introduced several rounds of sanctions against Russia after it launched a military operation in Ukraine last month. The measures largely target Russia’s economy, supposedly aiming to reduce the country’s ability to fund the operation.”
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 2 2022 17:34 utc | 33
russian gas can also be bottled up,
made portable and sold on retail market easily providing alternative revenue streams. this would distribute ru gas to many many more countries around the world that really need it breaking monopolies and price controls.
changing your automobile to be dualuse gasoline and natural gas can be accomplished also providing more heating and cooking usecases
Posted by: scv | Apr 2 2022 17:37 utc | 34
Lemming@13 – I have seen only vague and conflicting reports including some that say several helicopters in the second attempt were successful in escaping. Perhaps after the complete liberation of the city additional information will come out.
poster “Nightvision” over at Saker site has a new sit report.
As I have found him to be one of the more informed and sensible people commenting on the Ukraine threads over there I recommend it.
Posted by: the pessimist | Apr 2 2022 17:38 utc | 35
Meanwhile, non-stop cheerleading for Ukrainian everything, here in the empire. Had the U$A not intervened in 2014, maybe someone there would’ve noticed the Azov regiment was actually a group of friggen Nazis. They didn’t, and the Nazi movement grew, and began killing ethnic Russians in the East of Ukraine, and moving offensive weapons closer to the Russian borders. This was also occurring in the other NATO countries surrounding Russia. Putin noticed, and alerted the U$A/NATO.
He was ignored, and there we go, Russia invaded Ukraine to stop the murder of ethnic Russians in Ukraine’s East.
As I’ve said many times here, and where I live; This war didn’t have to happen, IMO opinion, U$A/NATO, and their minions WANTED this war to happen.
Peace isn’t as profitable as war. Period!!!!
Posted by: vetinLA | Apr 2 2022 17:47 utc | 36
Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Apr 2 2022 17:22 utc | 27
Thank you for your reply Scotch. I was trying to research as I said in my post (for a friend in US). The search showed that of the exchanges on-line none had any Rubles available. Not sure if she wants to show up with cash to a physical exchange office looking for Rubles, as that, nowadays, may have other ramifications amid all the Russophobia.
Posted by: Sakineh Bagoom | Apr 2 2022 17:48 utc | 37
Posted by: librul | Apr 2 2022 16:28 utc | 12
Was inspired by the great number of self-serving versions (or revisions)
of Martin Niemöller’s famous poem.
They came first for the Communists,
But I didn’t speak up because I was a socialist
…
If he spoke up he would be taken too, straight away.
The only difference he would make by that act is it would happen to him sooner than later.
When you are facing evil you do not speak up. You flee or you fight.
Unless, of course, you are armed to the teeth and 10x stronger than them.
Then you can speak up, sure. For fun and for posterity. And smash them afterwards.
Posted by: hopehely | Apr 2 2022 17:59 utc | 38
@GreyRaven (17)
Never have wiser words been written down. Thank you for your eloquence. What you write is precisely what was going through my head after I woke up today.
Posted by: bjd | Apr 2 2022 18:04 utc | 39
I’m a compulsive religious tourist. Completely unrelated to world events, I stumbled into readings on Orthodoxy by way of investigating Denys the Areopagite, the “pious fraud”. From that acquaintance, Dostoevsky’s epitaph (also the epigraph of his final novel) strikes me as most profoundly Orthodox: “Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” John 12:24
The following is from a diary entry worth reading in whole — because it’s chock full of passages prone to extraction out of context:
Russia must seriously prepare herself to watch all these liberated Slavs rushing rapturously off to Europe to be infected by European forms, both political and social, to the point where their own personalities are lost; and so they will have to undergo a whole long period of Europeanism before comprehending anything of their own significance as Slavs and their particular Slavic mission among humanity. These little countries will be eternally quarreling, eternally envying one another and plotting against one another.
Of course, the moment there is any serious disaster they will certainly turn to Russia for help. No matter how much they may spread hatred, gossip, and slander against us in Europe as they flirt with her and assure her of their love, they will always instinctively feel (in a moment of disaster, of course, but not before) that Europe is the natural enemy of their unity, that she always was and always will be, and that if they exist in the world it is naturally because there is a gigantic magnet, Russia, irresistibly drawing them all to her and so maintaining their integrity and unity. There will even be moments when they will be capable almost consciously of agreeing that were it not for Russia, the great center of the East and the great attracting force, their unity would collapse in an instant and fly into fragments and their very nationality would disappear into the European ocean, just as a few drops of water disappear into the sea.
Fyodor Dostoevsky, On the Slavic Question, Nov 1877
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Apr 2 2022 18:05 utc | 40
Posted by: Kim | Apr 2 2022 17:27 utc | 30
Hey,does anyone know what would happen to your shares if the foreign company that you invested in is delisted from the stock exchange where you hold those shares?
You will receive a mail. Nice large envelope.
You will open it, pull out the document and read it. It will be some lists or tables there.
You will find the line with your name and a bunch of numbers next to it.
Next year, in your tax return, you will punch in those numbers as your capital loss.
You might get some tax break. Maybe.
Posted by: hopehely | Apr 2 2022 18:13 utc | 41
First they came for… The Origin and Reception of Martin Niemöller’s Quotation
I have tried, but as anyone been able to find the original in the German language? If not we can simply file it in the Museum of Post-WW2 mythology along with the Anne Frank Diaries and 1000’s of other dubious but politically useful “artifacts”.
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Apr 2 2022 18:42 utc | 42
Having been on the grunt end of the elephant, I would guess that the folks carrying the AK-12’s probably could do with some rest.
Posted by: Degringolade | Apr 2 2022 16:55 utc | 18
Five weeks is a serious amount of combat time.
Something not realised in media world.
Posted by: Jpc | Apr 2 2022 18:44 utc | 43
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Apr 2 2022 18:42 utc | 42
In reply to your query, Opport Knocks:
Quote: Martin Niemöller
„Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Kommunist.
„Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.
„Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
habe ich nicht protestiert;
ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.
“Als sie die Juden holten,
habe ich geschwiegen;
ich war ja kein Jude.
„Als sie mich holten,
gab es keinen mehr,
der protestieren konnte.“
Translation:
“First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
“Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
“Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
“Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.”
* * *
This will always remain the final price for remaining silent.
Kind regards
Posted by: GreyRaven | Apr 2 2022 18:53 utc | 44
Seems clear Western democracies and their uber rich Gulf oil dictators promote and use extremists as cannon fodder because they can’t rally the homeboys to offer life and limb for the Billionaires quests any longer.
Young people’s reaction in the US to the Vietnam war and it’s hard dose of realism to the American Military Industrial Complex and their many bought and paid for US legislators. Many young American’s brought up on sock hops, doo wop, drive ins and cruising the strip weren’t one bit interested in the patriotic cause to fuck up some folks in a country they had never heard of, nor had any interest in.
The late great Muhammad Ali once said, “no Viet Cong ever called me ni@ger.” With that one statement, I understood completely where he was coming from. He was a great sage in his own right.
So America learned that drafting young people for it’s geopolitical ambitions had reached a point of no return, and more important, no benefits. So a new plan had to be crafted.
War by other means. Using the ultimate enemy of the Free World, Al Qaeda to do America’s and the Great Colonials Empire of England’s dirty work. Then ISIS was born out of all this great planning, and Washington, the NY times, Wapo et al, weeped crocodile tears for the victims.
So now, it would seem Nazi’s are good to go, our once upon a time ultimate enemy.
Me Da fell tae a German’s gun.. so I have bias.
but no matter in today’s vicious Western scheming. They’s just Good Ole Boys don’t cha know?
Something that eludes my ongoing search for rationale is why have western leaders been so focused on attacking Russia for so long? Is it simply a matter of the old men with their withered fingers simply can’t accept they may not be able to control and dictate to the whole world? If so, it begs the question who is truly the obsessed psychopaths?
Wise old Swahili Chief once said:
“When Elephants fight, it’s the grass the suffers most”.
And Jesus wept.
Posted by: bubbles | Apr 2 2022 19:01 utc | 45
This will always remain the final price for remaining silent.
Kind regards
Posted by: GreyRaven | Apr 2 2022 18:53 utc | 44
That is just the German version of the English version. It appears it was simplified from an earlier version of his speech.
In 1976, Niemöller gave the following answer in response to an interview question asking about the origins of the poem. The Martin-Niemöller-Stiftung (“Martin Niemöller Foundation”) considers this the “classical” version of the speech:
“There were no minutes or copy of what I said, and it may be that I formulated it differently. But the idea was anyhow: The Communists, we still let that happen calmly; and the trade unions, we also let that happen; and we even let the Social Democrats happen. All of that was not our affair.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_…
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Apr 2 2022 19:06 utc | 46
@35 – pessimist
Saker site is evolving, that’s good. This guy’s style is a move in the right direction. Less rant, more content.
Regarding the preparations for fighting remainder of DNR… There’s logic there, but then again, would a high speed be any less bloody? UA certainly isn’t going to come out and do a giant armored-vehicle melee. If they did one in the North earlier, the results were costly enough for both sides that they decided not to talk about it in detail. So in my unprofessional bulls#itter’s opinion, it would still be town after town of used-to-be-motorized infantry + artillery + small drones + human shields. Only more density of everything, and increasing further. The terrain to the west of the LOC has half a dozen tributary rivers too, shaping the road network into obstacles and pinch points.
I said this a few weeks ago and it wasn’t super well received, but sticking with it… looking at 15k/50k (RF+DNR)/(UA) casualties if the UA defense is determined.
Posted by: ptb | Apr 2 2022 19:08 utc | 47
Zelinksi’s offers to propose a change to the Constitution to accept neutrality and allow Russian language is totally bogus.
“Too doubtful, too little, too late”
Russia will not accept such ridiculous and hypothetic concessions.
Russia wants total demilitarization of Ukraine, it wants all the Russophone areas to be cut off Ukraine permanently, that means Crimea, Dombass and Lugantz. Then Zelinski can keep forbidding Russian language in what is left of Ukraine
Less than that Russia will continue destroying more of Ukraine
Posted by: virgile | Apr 2 2022 19:10 utc | 48
Posted by: the pessimist | Apr 2 2022 17:38 utc | 35
Agreed, Nightvision started those sitreps only a few days ago and they’re top-notch, detailed but more neutral in tone compared to the increasingly unhinged rants against Europeans & Americans by the Saker. Not that we don’t deserve the criticism but I’m more interested in the “facts on the ground” reports.
Posted by: circumspect | Apr 2 2022 17:14 utc | 21
Posted by: Kadath | Apr 2 2022 16:57 utc | 19
Thanks for the info! indeed, if only patches were found it doesn’t say much, any merc could have ordered morale patches from the Internet (sites like patchpanel.ca) before going to fight in the Ukraine.
Posted by: Lemming | Apr 2 2022 19:15 utc | 49
highly noted, mutual nuclear destruction is a lie:
-russia has built bomb shelters for ALL its citizens deep underground!
-usa refused to tell its citizens, slaves hide under the desk
aftermath nuke exchange would result in:
hundreds of millions russians surviving
versus
usa a few thousand elite rich crying
conclusion, capitalism sacrificed its own people for profit- only rich get shelter/protection methodology
Posted by: scv | Apr 2 2022 19:15 utc | 50
bubbles @ 45
The late great Muhammad Ali once said, “no Viet Cong ever called me ni@ger.” With that one statement, I understood completely where he was coming from. He was a great sage in his own right.
So America learned that drafting young people for it’s geopolitical ambitions had reached a point of no return, and more important, no benefits. So a new plan had to be crafted.
I knew a guy during that era who told the draft board, “there is no guarantee I will not shoot one of my officers”. They dropped him immediately. The military was happy to get rid of the draft and go back to recruiting.
Muhammad Ali walked away at the height of his career. It cost him millions. People like that do no exist in the era. Quite the opposite is true.
Posted by: circumspect | Apr 2 2022 19:19 utc | 51
Zelinksi’s offers ,
Posted by: virgile | Apr 2 2022 19:10 utc | 48
Blinken dictates on behalf of State.
Think that is one thing that’s clear by now. Ukraine’s version of Reagan, actors reading their lines.
Posted by: bubbles | Apr 2 2022 19:22 utc | 52
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Apr 2 2022 19:06 utc | 46
There are apparently several “original versions” and numerous translations. I believe that superseding the “purity” of the first version or any translation, is the understanding of these five stanzas. Usually, anyone reading them immediately comprehends the message which is being conveyed.
Here is a translation of all five stanzas which I just completed, and it serves me more than adequately:
“When the Nazis came for the Communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a Communist.
“When they locked up the Social Democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a Social Democrat.
“When they took the trade unionists,
I didn’t protest;
I was not a trade unionist.
“When they took the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.
“When they came for me,
there was no one left
who could protest.”
* * *
Let us simply be grateful that M. Niemöller wrote these words and that despite trying times, we continue to understand what they mean.
This should not be taken for granted.
Posted by: GreyRaven | Apr 2 2022 19:31 utc | 53
Karl Marx
“Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please; they do not make it under self-selected circumstances, but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the living.”
Posted by: Tom_12 | Apr 2 2022 19:34 utc | 54
@librul | Apr 2 2022 15:48 utc | 1
The ADL is pro the oppressed in the same sense America/NATO is pro-democracy.
Posted by: Sundial | Apr 2 2022 19:36 utc | 55
We seriously underestimated Russia and our own propaganda is killing us.
Remember when American analysts painted a very specific picture of the Russian armed forces, and it was proven completely wrong? The media seems to have memory-holed literally everything we’ve said about Russia for the past eight years, but I remember.
The Russians (according to NATO) before Feb. 24:
-Capable of defensive and limited offensive operations
-Heavily dependent on railways
-Any large-scale offensive would need to be paused after three days due to logistical limitations.
-A hypothetical Russian invasion could be defeated by a combination of air power and guerrilla warfare.
Here’s a [quoted] segment written by Alex Vershinin for War on the Rocks last November. This is the example I chose, and almost every other NATO analysis I read more or less matches up with this one – they were all based on the same wargames and studies by RAND.
See more here:
https://readingjunkie.com/2022/04/02/we-seriously-underestimated-russia-our-own-propaganda-is-killing-us/
Posted by: Ian Kummer | Apr 2 2022 19:40 utc | 56
@ bubbles 45
why have western leaders been so focused on attacking Russia
The US and friends have not been focused on attacking Russia militarily and are not doing so now. Instead they have provoked Russia to attack by encouraging Ukraine to kill ethnic Russians in Ukraine. What the US has long wanted is to maintain Russia as a threat to support the Pentagon budget, while weakening and controlling Europe.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 2 2022 19:41 utc | 57
Posted by: Tom_12 | Apr 2 2022 19:34 utc | 54
Well cited, Tom_12.
Thank you.
Posted by: GreyRaven | Apr 2 2022 19:41 utc | 58
@ 57 . . .and also provoke Russia with NATO expansion to its borders.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 2 2022 19:42 utc | 59
Muhammad Ali walked away at the height of his career. It cost him millions. People like that do no exist in the era. Quite the opposite is true.
Posted by: circumspect | Apr 2 2022 19:19 utc | 51
He was an extraordinary man in so very many ways. It’s not easy to take on the system and come out on the far end with your personal mission, statement, and pride, intact. But he did.
No Vietcong ever called me Ni@ger. A statement that makes me remember MLK’s Mountain top speech, and the raw passion he conveyed.
Yet here we are, in old Joe’s time..Russia Russia Russia. Must always have someone to hate.
Posted by: bubbles | Apr 2 2022 19:43 utc | 60
“..Something that eludes my ongoing search for rationale is why have western leaders been so focused on attacking Russia for so long?…” bubbles@45
It’s their last chance. If this trap does not work and Russia reverses this slo-mo Barbarossa, the fate of eurasia will be sealed, for the foreseeable future.
None of the Empire’s tactics, bribery of elites, colour revolutions, parliamentary coups, protests after election losses, proxy terrorist militias, will work any more. And the way will be clear for peaceful development and a proper valuation of human life, including the establishment of minimum standards of shelter, nutrition and healthcare to protect the most vulnerable from the unregulated market.
The oligarchs are fighting desperately to preserve the absolute freedom of action that their control of “liberal’ states affords them. On Monday the CIA plot to replace Imran Khan in Pakistan with some West Point/Sandhurst stooge will reach its penultimate stage in Islamabad’s Parliament. But the opportunity to mount such attacks on independent minded states is running out.
In Colombia the NATO allied government describes the unarmed victims of the latest massacre as “guerrillas.”
In Mexico:
“International experts investigating the disappearance of 43 Mexican college students have uncovered astonishing new evidence about the case in secret archives of the Mexican military, according to a report released Monday.
“In a press conference held March 28 to present their findings, the Interdisciplinary Group of Independent Experts (Grupo Interdisciplinario de Expertos Independientes—GIEI) revealed new details about the events of September 26-27, 2014, when police and drug traffickers attacked and kidnapped the young men as they rode in buses through the town of Iguala, Guerrero. The newly discovered records show that the government tracked the students continually during the hours of police gunfire and even intercepted live text messages between the kidnappers while the students were being held but never moved to rescue them. GIEI said the government intentionally falsified information and withheld critical leads that could have helped to clarify what happened to the 43 students.
“The records also reveal that Mexican authorities launched a cover-up following the students’ disappearance that went far beyond what was understood previously. Central to that cover-up was the Mexican Navy, which had previously been only marginally associated with the Ayotzinapa case…”
Any doubts that the killing and burning of the 43 student teachers was carried out by the US allied government of the day and covered up by US forces are withering away. This is going to lead to a crisis. It is too much to hope that it will lead to a Chinese or Russian airbase a gew minutes flying time south of LA.
Posted by: bevin | Apr 2 2022 19:45 utc | 61
Posted by: hopehely Apr 2 2022 18:13 utc
Sure, this can happen. But not yet, and not so easy.
Firstly, the related equities, maybe either stocks or bonds of Russian origin, are trade-suspended by any stock exchange in Germany since March, which I know for sure. That means you cannot buy or sell any piece of that equity suite. It depends on your bank/broker to which course it will be noticed in your account, but that is not relevant for the time being. In real it is stuck and you cannot handle it until further notice.
Secondly, the freezed items are still there and will have beyond their intrinsic worth an entitlement on dividends (stocks) or interest (bonds). If the first will come to fruitition under the prevailing circumstances I do not speculate over fullfilling (Putin decreed cancellation payment of all dividends abroad), but the latter has a certain twist because with bonds any default of payment will have serious consequences on the whole construct. So, as happened some days before there will be payment on bonds for sure. (Imagine Wall St. did not sell all their Russian assets in war-speculation against the Rubel they will undergo gruesome losses on the remaining.)
Thirdly, that is to say that all expectations on stocks have to take into account the fact that all western investors do not posess any stock of Russian origin but mere hold a construct called ADR (American depository Receipts) or GDR (Global Depository Receipts) which is a certain relation of stocks of a Russian enterprise guaranteed by mainly the Mellon Bank of New York and others. Now guess what can happen when not even the Russian Central Bank is not secured of brazen robbery by the Empire of Lies.
Fourthly, not so easy. Sounds like an easy prey, but just recall lovely Gazprom which is a real giant that can cope easily with US multinationals has about 16% of its shares sold by ADRs into the West. So this won’t go easy to strip all this shareholders off their assets.
Conclusively, I would recommend to calm down in this respect. There is a good chance there will be a life after all that hysterical Russia-bashing in the Western hemisphere. And I am sure all our accounts in banking will maybe a bit harmed but not at all closed.
Maybe sometime later you may direct your investment to a commodity-based currency and then it will be a fortune if you had some tiny Rubles in your pocket.
My two cents.
Posted by: Piepenbrink | Apr 2 2022 19:48 utc | 62
“I’m a compulsive religious tourist. Completely unrelated to world events, I stumbled into readings on Orthodoxy by way of investigating Denys the Areopagite, the “pious fraud”. From that acquaintance, Dostoevsky’s epitaph (also the epigraph of his final novel) strikes me as most profoundly Orthodox: “Verily, Verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” John 12:24”
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Apr 2 2022 18:05 utc | 40
The A fellow traveler, I see. Dostoevsky’s take on the Catholic Church as told through Father Zozimov in “The Brothers Karamazov” is extremely impactful. His conclusion is that because the Catholic Church involves itself in the problems of the secular world, it acts as if it owns the souls in its flock. As such, if Jesus were to return the Catholics would crucify Him again.
But then the whole theme of the book is that a soul detached from the physical world can do no material good. Instead it falls into mysticism. Effectively condemning the Orthodox Church too.
And a Church too entangled in the secular world loses its ability to lead morally (many Protestant faiths) because it becomes a tool of short term political interests.
Posted by: VtObserver | Apr 2 2022 19:53 utc | 63
Somebody may find these US patents interesting:
https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/ba/7f/d5/151c0f5f7a1e86/US8967029.pdf (TOXIC MOSQUITO AERIAL RELEASE SYSTEM)
https://ge2018.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/sabotage-cartridge-with-toxic-agent-patent.pdf (SABOTAGE CARTRIDGE WITH TOXIC AGENT)
(both were shown on the Russian MOD slides a couple of days ago).
I understand that you cannot patent an idea, but you can patent an implementation.
But as soon as you implement something like the above two, you are possibly in violation of the various international treaties.
Posted by: bjd | Apr 2 2022 20:04 utc | 64
Posted by: librul | Apr 2 2022 15:59 utc | 3
That’s NOT what Niemoller wrote!!!!
The actual quote reads thus:
“First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out.
And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.” — Pastor Martin Niemoller
Posted by: Barofsky | Apr 2 2022 20:09 utc | 65
When Zelensky indicated an intention to reacquire nuclear weapons in his speech at the Munich Security Conference in the presence of Kamala Harris on Feb. 19, that was the last straw. Russia had to respond.
Posted by: Lysias | Apr 2 2022 20:18 utc | 66
Posted by: GreyRaven | Apr 2 2022 16:48 utc | 17 and bevin’s posts from yesterday and today…
Some of the best comments in recent memory. Thanks to you both for adding so much valuable context to the “big picture” for those of us who aren’t as well versed in history as the two of you apparently are. Hats off to you both.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 2 2022 20:18 utc | 67
Posted by: Piepenbrink | Apr 2 2022 19:48 utc | 62
Have you heard of paragraphs?
Posted by: bubbles | Apr 2 2022 20:20 utc | 68
Posted by: Ian Kummer | Apr 2 2022 19:40 utc | 56
Thanks, Ian, for the excellent analysis and sources. You can rest assured, that based upon the performance of the Russian Federation armed forces in the Ukraine since February 24th, a large number of US/UK military analysts are suffering from seriously puckered anuses at this time.
This is what happens when one believes one’s own “spin and bullsh*t” and is no longer able differentiate between the lies comprising one’s “pretended universe” and reality. The phenomenon appears to have become a seriously spreading malaise in the U.S. today and will presumably be considered a major contributor towards its ultimate downfall by future historians, when all that remains of the country is just dust.
Thus went Rome.
Very sad.
Posted by: GreyRaven | Apr 2 2022 20:21 utc | 69
A major reason the Biden administration provoked Russia to the extent that it did was domestic partisan politics. Biden and the Democrats were doing so badly in polling that they were desperate to find a way to change the subject.
Posted by: Lysias | Apr 2 2022 20:23 utc | 70
bubbles @60
When MLK gave that speech he knew he was going to die. He opposed the war. DOD MI was involved in his murder from the best anyone can surmise. It was a terrible time that changed the course of history. The die had been cast already for the most part. They just had to knock off a few usurpers.
Who is they? Follow the money and the religions and you will find the answer.
Posted by: circumspect | Apr 2 2022 20:25 utc | 71
Bubbles Apr 02 2022 20:20 utc
Appreciate your hint.
Are we on Twitter here?
Are you not capable understanding an argument longer than 140 clicks?
Poor me. I will snowflake to the rest of my life.
Posted by: Piepenbrink | Apr 2 2022 20:35 utc | 72
Col. Cassad has reports of horrific brutality by the Ukrainians against Russian POWs. (Yandex or Edge should be able to translate.)
https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7535185.html
Posted by: Victor | Apr 2 2022 20:39 utc | 73
During the Cold War and even after, Niemoeller’s words were often distorted to demote the Communists from their position as the first group that the Nazis went after (as in historical fact they actually were). I have even seen versions that put the Jews first.
If Niemoeller had complained about the attack on the Communists when it happened right after the Reichstag Fire, it might well have had some effect. Niemoeller was a hero for the German right as a U boat captain in World War One, pastor of a prominent Protestant church in Berlin/Dahlem, and author of a book that welcomed Hitler’s coming to power.
Posted by: Lysias | Apr 2 2022 20:40 utc | 74
Addressing issues from the last thread here… So comment IDs refer to the last thread…
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Apr 2 2022 12:58 utc | 240
Posted by: Abe | Apr 2 2022 13:51 utc | 250
If The Saker is accurate on that, it’s also what I’ve been saying. Russia is supposed to have gone into this operation with 200-250,000 men against Ukraine’s 250,000 (plus 300,000 reserves, which Scott Ritter counts but I don’t since we don’t know how many reserves actually made it to the battlefield or their level of training).
The obvious conclusion if Saker is right is that Russia has only committed between one fifth and one fourth of its forces! That would explain the reports that large amounts of armor are still sitting inside Russia on the Ukrainian border.
If that is true, then there is a logical reason for that. Either they’re there purely as reserves, or they’re there to guard against NATO intervention (which I doubt as any NATO intervention is highly unlikely to be on the ground or timely enough to require those reserves) – or they’re there waiting for a further phase of the operation. I think they’re there either to take part in the reduction of the Donbass forces as soon as they are fully encircled and/or for a big push across the rest of Ukraine after Donbass has been reduced.
The number of Ukrainian troops in the Donbass has been estimated all over the place from 35,000 to 100,000. Which means no one knows. The fact that Russia’s X thousand – whether it’s 50,000 or 100,000 – has been able with the LDR forces to hold them in place and now threatens their destruction means that Russia assumed the force so far employed would be sufficient to accomplish this. But it’s possible that Russia doesn’t think it can reduce them quickly enough with that force. So the reserve force is there to refresh its initial force and commit enough power to destroy the Ukrainian force more efficiently.
Afterwards I expect it, along with the existing force and the LDR forces, to push across the rest of Ukraine against a vastly weakened Ukrainian army, which should still number, after an estimated 20-30,000 losses, minus the Donbass 50-100,000, at least another 100,000. But since most of their armor and resources were in Donbass and much of the rest of their infrastructure has been destroyed, they will be very hampered in dealing with a full 150,000 Russian armored force. This will look like the blitzkreig everyone expected at the start.
In other words, the actual invasion has not yet begun!
Posted by: comandante | Apr 2 2022 14:19 utc | 252
Debka is an Israeli front. I wouldn’t trust them. There does not appear to be any “retreat” from the Kiev front, but a repositioning of unnecessary forces to assist in the Donbass reduction. Perhaps they underestimated the number of forces needed to close the Donbass cauldron and are making an adjustment. Naturally any positions abandoned by the Russians would be seized by the Ukrainians, with bleats of “defeats” and “capturing” which would be totally bogus.
Posted by: Bruised Northerner | Apr 2 2022 15:32 utc | 261
Bunkers are big. I follow Canadian Prepper on Youtube and he’s had several interviews with the main bunker manufacturers. It’s a good business.
Posted by: Stonebird | Apr 2 2022 16:03 utc | 266
Does this guy who is cited who says Russia made big mistakes in the beginning have a military background? Because I don’t see any evidence of that. His bio is that he was an editor at Russia Insider. If he doesn’t have a military background, his comments are worthless without actual evidence.
He says the Kiev units are being pulled. What I’ve heard is that no more than 20% are being moved and those are mostly the airborne troops who went in at the start. The Russians have dug in and intend to wait out the war around Kiev in defensive positions until what I call the “big push” comes from the east once Donbass is reduced. Unless we see evidence of the Russian positions being forced to retreat over the next couple weeks, I call BS on a Kiev “retreat”. Remember, those dug-in Russian positions are also supported by air power. If the Russians get in trouble, which I doubt, they can always call in air support. They can pinpoint the Ukrainian pressure and call in missile strikes. I don’t see the Ukrainians pushing Russia away from Kiev. I can see Russia abandoning positions they don’t need in order to preserve their forces until reinforced. This doesn’t make Ukrainian claims true.
This is especially likely since there is ZERO evidence that Russia ever intended to take Kiev. Most analysts now believe the sole function of the Kiev operation was to pin Ukraine forces in that region there so they could not reinforce Donbass. That situation remains in force. This idiot decides that’s not true. What he forgets is that it was quite possible that Ukraine might give up once Russian forces were there. The fact that they didn’t does not make the operation a “failure”. Russia remains there, putting pressure on Kiev and tying up forces that could be used to reinforce the Donbass Ukraine front.
He also says nothing useful about the conscripts. Russia may be releasing the conscripts drafted last year, and he thinks this is somehow significant? Does he have any direct knowledge of how many conscripts are involved in this operation inside Russia (and not in Ukraine because conscripts can not be in Ukraine under Russian law – the few that were there by mistake were withdrawn?) Doesn’t seem so. If he did, we’d hear it. So it’s a random comment with no value.
His entire article is speculative at best – just like almost everyone else’s, including mine. But it’s asserted as fact. When I make assertions, I base them on what I believe is the most logical course to ensure the achievement of Russia’s stated security objectives: “If they want to do this, they need to do this.” This guy asserts them as “everything is a failure but now they’re doing it right.” And he does this without any evidence based on just the moves done in the last few days. It’s strictly his interpretation of those moves.
In other words, my opinion is just as good as his since I don’t have extensive military background any more than he does. The difference is that I listen to people who do, while he trashes Scott Ritter with no evidence his opinion is anything more than that.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Apr 2 2022 20:40 utc | 75
https://twitter.com/MJ_Lennox/status/1510340726575583235?cxt=HHwWhsC-lfC45_UpAAAA
This map shows Russian withdrawal from Kiev, while Chernigov, Sumy and Kharkov axes still being retained. That is an indication for me that Russia’s first goal wasnt to split Ukraine, but get a quick decapitation victory in Kiev and keeping Ukrain together minus Donbass and Crimea. But since this didnt materialize, I think Russia’s new plan is partition along the Dnepr and Black Sea, cutting off rump Ukraine’s access to the sea. If Russia only wanted to free Donbass, it wouldnt need the Chernigov and Sumy axes. Keeping them in place, tells me something about the new plans for partition. In this way, while Ze will retain Kiev and Western support, he will lose the “valuable” parts of Ukraine to Russia.
Posted by: Arne Hartmann | Apr 2 2022 20:49 utc | 77
Posted by: Lysias | Apr 2 2022 20:40 utc | 74
What is it about those five Niemöller stanzas that you fail to understand? What is your issue?
Posted by: GreyRaven | Apr 2 2022 20:53 utc | 78
@Arne Hartmann (77)
The forces around Kiev were meant to pin down the Ukie forces there. Now that Phase 2 is coming on steam, parts of these Russian forces (or their replacements) are quickly maneuvering roughly towards the contact lines in the Donbass. Izyum I read will be one of the focal points.
Posted by: bjd | Apr 2 2022 20:56 utc | 79
When America decided ISIS needed to be routed in the city of Raqqa, they gave friendly Kurd / SDF fighters a radio so they could call in airstrikes. So of course the Kurd’s used those radios to call in US air strikes on any perceived ISIS targets. Didn’t matter if civilians were in the buildings, what mattered to the Kurds was they wouldn’t have to go house to house to house to kill the ISIS fighters.
Perfectly understandable from a Kurd’s point of view. Any Soldiers point of view for that matter.
Fast forward to today’s Western MSM coverage and Ukraine / Mariupol. Why, said media are now suffering from an extreme lack of fulfilling their pledge to the public they claim to serve. They fail in the most basic tenants of journalism, the 5 w’s.
Who, What, Why, Where and When. And the Russians have been gentle in Mariupol compared to the US in Raqqa, and Mosul too I think. Maybe Yankee PNAC’ers shouldn’t have sent Collin to the UN with that vial filled with white powder, what ever was in it?
“Who do you think is going to trust us the next time we ask?” Matt Daemon, The Green Zone.
Posted by: bubbles | Apr 2 2022 21:00 utc | 80
Posted by: ptb | Apr 2 2022 19:08 utc | 47
“I said this a few weeks ago and it wasn’t super well received, but sticking with it… looking at 15k/50k (RF+DNR)/(UA) casualties if the UA defense is determined.”
This entirely depends on how the attack on the Donbass force is done. Scott Ritter says the casualty count should go down because the attack will be mostly by heavy artillery and air power. The Ukrainians are dug in inside fortified trenches. Russia is not going to waste manpower going into trench warfare. Also, there shouldn’t be too many civilians next to those trenches, even if they go through towns and settlements. So Russia can expend its artillery and air power and still limit civilian casualties. Only inside any settlements should there be any house-to-house like in Mariupol and that will only be if the Russians see civilians in the area.
No one knows current Russian casualties. The official count a couple weeks ago was around 1500 IIRC. Assume it’s double that now, say, 3,000 plus maybe another 5-10,000 wounded. If Russia went in with only 50-60,000 troops, that’s a significant loss. If they went in with 100,000, not so much. If they went in with 150,000, still less so. I doubt we’ll see 15,000 dead over the Donbass operation. When the war is over, it might go that high.
Ukrainians have already lost an estimated 20-30,000. If the Donbass force has 35-100,000, their losses, depending on how many surrender at the end, could be much higher than your 50,000 and the overall total by end of the war will be well over half its reported army of 250,000. And that assumes the remaining 100,000 surrender at some point. If Russia has to, they’ll reduce that 250,000 to 10,000 prisoners.
As Ritter says, this is a serious war. Both sides are going for the throat, although Russian would like to minimize even Ukrainian solder casualties.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Apr 2 2022 21:02 utc | 81
Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 2 2022 17:00 utc | 20
Thanks for posting the excerpt from RT interview with precious metals analyst Ronan Manly at BullionStar Singapore.
BTW, it’s a shame the unrepresentative swill passing as ‘our’ governments don’t trust us to make up our own minds on any issue so they ban alternative views and criminalise dissent.
The financial war is certainly looking like a game changer.
I can hear the screams as the cushioned and protected money changers are being thrown out of their lavish temples. AKA the Synagogs of Satan.
Here is some more on the new commodities backed currency.
https://thecradle.co/Article/columns/8638
Posted by: Paul | Apr 2 2022 21:09 utc | 82
Lemming @ 13, Kadath @ 19:
If you go to previous MoA post “Europe must learn to cheat on its sanctions” and scroll down BTL to Sundial’s comment @ 98, you will see Sundial repeats parts of posts made by Gonzalo Lira and Glen Bazov on Twitter about the crashes of two helicopters in Mariupol, one of them at sea. There seems to be circumstantial evidence that two people on board one of crashed choppers were French. Sundial linked to the actual Twitter posts and you will be able to see more information about one of the choppers used.
That the Ukrainians used no fewer than four choppers on what was a risky mission to rescue fighters stuck in the Azovstal steelworks in the city may be an indication that some of these fighters had to be protected from Russian capture at all costs. Then there has been rumour of French President Macron frantically calling Putin and pleading with him to allow a French-Greek team to go into Mariupol to evacuate people. Not to mention the news of the head of French military intelligence being sacked. These reports may not have any relation to one another but that they have all come almost at once might say something.
Posted by: Jen | Apr 2 2022 21:10 utc | 83
My issue is not with Niemoeller’s words, but with the way they were distorted during and after the Cold War removing the Communists from their historical position as Hitler’s first victims and — sometimes — promoting the Jews to that position.
Posted by: Lysias | Apr 2 2022 21:12 utc | 84
Posted by: Ian Kummer | Apr 2 2022 19:40 utc | 56
The part of that NATO study that missed everything was the technological improvements Russia has made over the last few years. As Martyanov would point out and Scott Ritter has also said it, any fight with NATO would result in total loss of NATO command and control in the first hours, just like Ukraine experienced. This is because of Russia’s supersonic and hypersonic precision missile systems, which NATO can not defend against. Every NATO HQ and airfield and rail head would be eliminated within a couple days. Thirty NATO war games over the last few years have shown Russia defeating NATO even when NATO had the initial advantage.
As for Russia being slow at logistics, analysts have pointed out how slowly NATO could organize its forces just for its NATO exercises in Europe. It takes them weeks to move forces around. In Ukraine there was a report that Russia has been shelling the Donbass Ukrainians nonstop for at least a day with no apparent downtime for artillery resupply. Presumably only the wear and tear on the artillery barrels should slow down the assault.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Apr 2 2022 21:14 utc | 85
bevin #61
Thank you and I grok your closing paragraph.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 2 2022 21:15 utc | 86
@56 Ian Kummer
It would be an important reality check, then!
I mean some of the recent “analysis” is just dumb. Vehicles with a 400km+ range, photographed with fuel trucks by their side, are reportedly out of gas 100km from the Russian border? People will believe anything I guess.
Minor quibble with the title: “We seriously underestimated Russia and our own propaganda is killing us” … at the moment, the fighting is killing overwhelmingly Ukrainians and Russians. Don’t think policymakers in the West are bothered enough by this to consider it a downside.
Also, to be honest, I’m having a hard time imagining much concern among policymakers for gung-ho European allies like UK and Poland. As long as the English royalty stays safe, the rest are equally expendable. By the looks of things, they could easily be persuaded to march into a peacekeeping mission. (which may or may not actually endanger them, but would be designed to extend the war in the East by bolstering Kiev’s willingness to continue – should it be necessary).
Posted by: ptb | Apr 2 2022 21:29 utc | 87
Great site BTW. Im 61, ex military (r we eva ex?). Never seen so much media control, like a heavy fog, hence this site is valuable. My 2 cents worth. Never underestimate Russia, esp when run by team Putin. Dot points. Threat to north / Kiev brilliant magnet for drawing in UA resources away from South East. Divide and conquor, as Ceaser did, then destroy them piecemeal. Social meadia western armchair warriors will look more foolish as time moves on. Western fake news will increasingly reduce western credibility as the reality on the ground emerges. UA morale will fall rapidly like coming off two weeks of meth with only tabacco and vodka availiable. The UA is becoming a broken failed state. This tactic is detroying UA. Identify troop barracks in use, destroy with precision strikes overnight. Same therapy for fuel ammo, bases, supplies, defence industry transit routes i.e. railways. Rinse repeat. Let social media hype the underdog. That merely strengthens Russian resolve. Dont they understand Russians even a little? Meanwhile USA leadership weakness is a real eye opener. The US empire is disinetergrating before it ever became civilized. Negotiations? Russia will be seen to be giving them a go. But UA will be broken up and lucky if it keeps Odessa. Biden let it out that US troops and Poland have a contingency. That is the west gets western UA as a neutered proxy with Nazis and Kiev. It will be kinda like West / East Germany. How this comes about I dont know. With Russian permission for starters and Russias security buffer intact. Bad ending predicted for Zel. Thats my take. Thats if we survive till then. No guarantees esp with team dementia, moron, dementia. 1,2,3 Biden Harris Pelosi. Prediction? Shit always goes down around Easter for some reason. We’ll see
Posted by: Dom | Apr 2 2022 21:32 utc | 88
Posted by: Lysias | Apr 2 2022 21:12 utc | 84
Thank you. I understand.
As you may have noted, in my translation (see above) the Communists were the first to be removed.
We are now often faced with blatant cases of “historical revisionism” by which, according to the U.S. version of the Second World War, for instance, the former Soviet Union and their loss of nearly 30 million civilians and soldiers in their battle against Nazi Germany no longer even appears for some reason.
There is something decidedly pathetic about any “victor”, who is unable to honestly recognize the contributions of other allied forces, which substantially helped to lead “their” victory. Such lapses do look and sound like serious historical “incompetence”, if nothing else.
But we all know that this is called in real life.
Posted by: GreyRaven | Apr 2 2022 21:38 utc | 89
Russia has systematically destroyed Ukraine’s fuel supplies. No spring planting, possibly no crops whatsoever this year in Ukraine. reduced planting in other parts of the world due to fuel and fertilizer costs. I guess major food shortages kick in in about six months time.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 2 2022 21:39 utc | 90
Any doubts that the killing and burning of the 43 student teachers was carried out by the US allied government of the day and covered up by US forces are withering away. This is going to lead to a crisis. It is too much to hope that it will lead to a Chinese or Russian airbase a gew minutes flying time south of LA.
Posted by: bevin | Apr 2 2022 19:45 utc | 61
Appears to me the greater focus is to exploit US and western partners greatest weaknesses and not on individual crimes against humanity. Still, I wonder if the longstanding Western campaign to belittle Russia and Russian wasn’t simply motivated by greed and arrogance perpetrated by US River Boat gambler creed and the arrogant EU old world self appointed aristocrats. The two most unlikely partners really because one thinks of the themselves as self made men whose fortune is determined by their guile, while their partners are the the foremost example of entitlement the so called US Revolutionaries rose up against in 1776.
Suppose that’s a case of what Kissinger called ‘Real Politic’… In other words, greedy pricks cutting a deal. Much like Organized Crime bosses do when the need arises.
Posted by: bubbles | Apr 2 2022 21:44 utc | 91
@bubbles | Apr 2 2022 19:43 utc | 60
Yet here we are, in old Joe’s time..Russia Russia Russia. Must always have someone to hate.
Is it not fundamentally a question of resource extraction?
A couple of months ago, Alexander Mercouris mentioned that some state records relating to the Crimean War had just been released and that there was correspondence about the British Empire’s goals once the Russian Empire had been defeated. It was a question of exploiting the land, minerals and raw materials and it still is.
Think Goebbels June 22nd 1941, the day of the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, “This is not a war for the throne and the altar. This is a war for grain, iron, ore, coal and raw materials. This is a war for a well-fed table for the German worker.” For 2022, that third sentence should probably read “This is a war for a well-fed table for the 1%.” Madeleine Albright put it more bluntly with “Russia has too much natural wealth. It’s not fair”and “Russia has too much wealth for one country.”
Having had a very successful history of resource extraction covering most continents over two centuries, the USA and its vassals got the chance to plunder Russia’s resources in the 1990s. That plan was thwarted thanks to the hard work and skill of President Putin and his team. More unfairness – hence the hatred expressed.
Posted by: cirsium | Apr 2 2022 21:46 utc | 92
Posted by: Lysias | Apr 2 2022 21:12 utc | 84
I am definitely with you, Lysias, in this respect.
My grandfather was involved in this Kulturkampf in 1932/33 seriously. My files are telling.
Lets bury that issue in this thread because there is no real connection to that infamous olive-green involvement into something that brings the whole German Green intention to absolute absurdity!
My two cents, really
Posted by: Piepenbrink | Apr 2 2022 21:46 utc | 93
Arne Hartmann #77
bjd #79
I see the Russian strategy as immediately arresting the eastern assault by Ukraine for the past seven years, taking rapid control of the entire Ukrainian seaboard, besieging the national capital. This is a simultaneous crushing of national confidence in the governing bodies specifically the nazi supremacist elite. That is what they did. Besieging Kiev just shattered the entire facade of Zelensky and co legitimacy, not even an airport to do photo ops in.
The Russians and patriots have assessed their own battle weaknesses and measured the opposition capacity, tested the remnant defenses, designed a strategy for the next phase and importantly can give the vanguard a break. If they have achieved this with an inconceivably small force, as some suggest, then that is an excellent thing and it demonstrates the paucity of conventional western military imagination and the superiority of Russian military capacity.
Releasing the grip a little around Kiev is inconsequential IMO. The goal is achieved, Kiev leadership is in ruins and the city in good shape. Later it will surrender – Mariupol is the stark reality they have when considering consequences. The east and south and all lands therein (not just the perimeter) will now be brought under the jurisdiction of the liberating forces. There is no rush.
The nazi Ukrainian regime is defeated and the worthless fools are parading at the behest of their western sponsors. Meanwhile the international western oligarchy/empire is eclipsed.
Its good news week.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 2 2022 21:52 utc | 94
bubbles@91
I’m only predicting a crisis in Mexican-US relations. A crisis that has been brewing for many years. AMLO has been very patient, frustratingly so for some of his supporters but the ducks are lining up on this issue which is a big one in Mexico. And most of the ducks involved seem to have unmistakably US connections.
Matters are reaching a crisis point everywhere. Things are changing, the idiots running Finland, for example, having maintained a very profitable neutrality since 1945 seem to have chosen the moment before the fall of the US Empire to join up with NATO, presumably in order to enjoy the descent. Its like ski jumping for politicians.
But AMLO is wiser. (We hope.)
Posted by: bevin | Apr 2 2022 21:58 utc | 95
@Posted by: Barofsky | Apr 2 2022 20:09 utc | 65
It appears that you had not reached my comment @7 yet.
Opport Knocks and GreyRaven also had comments about
Martin Niemöller’s poem.
@Posted by: librul | Apr 2 2022 16:12 utc | 7
I gave a link to a research paper on the origins of the poem.
https://marcuse.faculty.history.ucsb.edu/projects/niem/articles/Marcuse2014NiemoellerQuote147gWeb.pdf
One thing the paper has to say is this:
Indeed, there are numerous versions of this quotation in circulation today, some of them set in
stone, with varying claims of legitimacy.
(emphasis is mine)
I note that many versions are not just historically unfounded
but are self-serving. What could be more ironic than that?
A poem about putting others’ interest’s first is subsequently used
to put one’s own interests first.
Several versions are self-serving.
However, if one stands back and thinks about the original poem objectively,
it is actually about being selfishly unselfish.
That is, Martin Niemöller was saying that if you don’t
have concern for others it will come back at you eventually,
so look out for yourself by looking out for others.
Selfishly unselfish.
So, perhaps what we see today actually captures the true essence of the poem
and the selfishness and self-interest of humans.
—
I have an additional beef with the version found at the New England Holocaust
Memorial on Boston’s Freedom Trail, inscribed in 1995.
(Which, by the way, differs from the version found at the Holocaust Museum in Washington.)
They came first for the Communists,
But I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then They came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
This one is found outside of Boston, which is heavily Catholic.
And this version is divisive, likely to stir up anger when
read by a Catholic. Would a Jew *try* to stir up hatred between
Catholics and Protestants? I think not, so what happened here?
Most all versions use the formula throughout:
“I didn’t speak up for X”
“because I was not a X”
This Boston version uses the same formula but
with one exception:
“Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.”
That is divisive, particularly in Boston.
—
Note also that Jews were put second in the Boston version.
There is a logic to this rather unique ordering.
The Jews, by coming second in this version, only showed lack of concern for the Communists.
(And who cares about Commies in America?)
While the Trade Unionists did not speak up for the Jews and the Communists.
The Catholics showed no concern for the Jews, Communists and Trade Unionists.
And the Protestants, because they came last, ignored the plight of all of the above.
Posted by: librul | Apr 2 2022 22:02 utc | 96
It’s hard to figure out how the war is developing militarily.
My take:
a) The Russian stand-off weapons are working excellently. I sure
wouldn’t want to be at the receiving end of a Kinzhal.
b) But the ground war is going poorly for Russia though I expect them
to succeed eventually. It seems clear that Russia would like to link
forces from the North and South creating a Donbass cauldron. They are
making very slow progress on this.
Posted by: Nick | Apr 2 2022 22:03 utc | 97
Is it not fundamentally a question of resource extraction?
Posted by: cirsium | Apr 2 2022 21:46 utc | 92
Yes of course it’s about Russia’s bountiful resources and the greedy bastards who salivate over the chance to exploit it. Thus their organized campaign to make the uneducated hate Russia / Russians.
“Yet here we are, in old Joe’s time..Russia Russia Russia. Must always have someone to hate.”
I’m sick of my betters telling me who I should hate. I will make up my own mind on that score and my betters tell me that is a guaranteed right .. heh…but they talk out of both sides of the mouths don’t they? I really don’t think of them as my betters, just more devious than me.
Posted by: bubbles | Apr 2 2022 22:07 utc | 98
Interesting story on Intel Slava Z
🇷🇺🇺🇦 Azov member Yevgeny Pozdnyakov was detained in the Leningrad region. He arrived in Ivangorod under the guise of a refugee, after which he planned to escape to Estonia.
Pozdnyakov left Mariupol along the humanitarian corridor organized by the Russian military. How the man got in, whose body is covered with Nazi tattoos, is a question, because at the checkpoints of men they carefully check their presence.
In the phone of the detainee, the security forces found confirmation that Pozdnyakov was a member of Azov.
https://t.me/intelslava/24235
The photos show show at least three swastikas on his body. The guy does not look like a fighter. More like loser.
This is what I fear most. Europe will be totally nazified by the end of this operation. The Nazi influence will last for decades, maybe a century.
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Apr 2 2022 22:07 utc | 99
Peter AU1 #90
Russia has systematically destroyed Ukraine’s fuel supplies. No spring planting, possibly no crops whatsoever this year in Ukraine. reduced planting in other parts of the world due to fuel and fertilizer costs. I guess major food shortages kick in in about six months time.
Perhaps but also consider the Russian mind for meticulous planning. The phosphate exports were embargoed a month ago, Belarus had its nitrates embargoed and had to stockpile while looking for new markets. It is spring. If the entire eastern Ukraine gets pacified and cleansed in the next few weeks then behind the front lines, agriculture can be supplied with essential fertilisers and seed.
I cannot imagine Russia is not prepared for this and to assist the liberating Ukrainian patriots to win the remainders hearts and minds by feeding them. In these climates spring planting IS survival.
When the Maoist liberation army moved across China, the villages were rapidly reorganised and agriculture urgently supported. I guess the same happened in the lands of Russia as the fascist forces with and Germany etc were swept away and spring came. The commencement of government in waiting at the district level is undoubtedly awaiting the clearances of both troops and unexploded ordinance.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Apr 2 2022 22:12 utc | 100