Let NATO just try it.
Russia says the US engineered World War II and the rise of Hitler to destroy Russia….they say much more but they are promising that before one NATO solider crosses the Russian border the temperature in Washington, London, Los Angeles and Berlin will read 10,000 “in the shade.”  
It doesn’t matter if it is Celsius or Fahrenheit when you are vaporized. 

Posted by: Andrew B. | Apr 17 2022 19:50 utc | 104

Andrew B. | Apr 17 2022 19:45 utc | 103
The Chechen’s really are something. Like the dogs of war unleashed. A bit of R&R.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/g0y0XMy5W458/

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 17 2022 19:51 utc | 106

Really too bad people are as biased here as those who comment on MSM. I thought people here might be more thinking. Im afraid not

Posted by: Mark | Apr 17 2022 19:55 utc | 108

virgile @ 62
Zelinski is advised by the western advisors and they want the foreigners trapped in Azrovstal to die as martyrs. That would inflame the social media and play in the hands of the USA and Europe’s propaganda om Russian’s “cruelty”
The other side of the optics is that they are paraded around as having surrendered which causes more units to surrender. Also, less voices spoken at Russia’s planned war crimes tribunal.
ptb @ 70
10 years is nothing. Once things stabilize and the country is split in a form that makes Russia happy then the war will continue in the minds of the NATO planners. It will devolve into a type of struggle like Israel v Palestine or Israel v Syria. Any attempt to rearm will be hit with a missile. Any attempt at a small scale attack will be punished severely.
Once those ground rules are set then it is up to the other side to accept or continue being pawns in global struggle. No fuel for the other side, no bridges over the chasms, no industry, power supplies restricted, and so on. They can learn to live in a post CO2 world if that is even possible being is is an essential gas in the atmosphere.

Posted by: circumspect | Apr 17 2022 19:57 utc | 110

Sundial | Apr 17 2022 18:08 utc | 82
Republicofscotland | Apr 17 2022 17:59 utc | 79
Thanks for your response. Sadly deadly, carcinogenic and mutagenic, radioactive materials do not respect borders and when used in wars can effect all peoples of the world. DU rounds with non fissionable Uranium burns on impact and creates uranium Oxide. If Uranium could be light it is as an Uranium oxide ash. It can and will be given freely by the wind to all people of the world.
As such it is a war crime. It is not limited to combatants but is a weapon that effects non combatants as well and does leave the battle field to affect others not even involved in that conflict.
I want to thank you b for this great blog. It is a very fine collection of articles and a store house of knowledge from both you and commenters.
Thanks.
The Dodgy Bodger

Posted by: dodgy Bodger | Apr 17 2022 20:03 utc | 112

Posted by: Perimetr | Apr 17 2022 19:47 utc | 104
Short answer is No. Few people will change their opionion on who is right in the conflict. Russia hase been already demonized to an absurd degree, so nothing will change further than that and the effect will be short lived. Moreover, NATO is not going to put boots on the ground in Ukraine under any pretext, their big moves are starting elsewhere.

Posted by: Boo | Apr 17 2022 20:08 utc | 114

Posted by: Mark | Apr 17 2022 19:55 utc | 109 “Really too bad people are as biased here as those who comment on MSM. I thought people here might be more thinking. Im afraid not”
Most can have a discussion or argument. It seems you spit the dummy and walk off in a snoot if you don’t find agreement. Go back to your MSM and be part of the crowd.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 17 2022 20:17 utc | 116

Another attempt to lift the ukie and foreign leaders caught in Azovstal? What is wierd is that Baraniuk was supposedly killed trying to flee on foot with a video posted earlier showing the attempt. Confusing info from DNR/RF.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin/43163

[Forwarded from Donbass decides]
[ Video ]
The helicopter shot down near Mariupol (https://t.me/donbassr/16645 ) – the result of the work of the DNR air defense.
This was announced by the official representative of the NM DNR Eduard Bassurin.
The Mi-8 helicopter was supposed to evacuate the commander of the 36th brigade Baranyuk and the commander of the Azov* Prokopenko from the territory of the Azovstal plant.
They did not have time to abandon their personnel and escape from Mariupol. 5 kilometers from the coastline, the helicopter was destroyed.
*A criminal case has been opened against his fighters in the Russian Federation
@donbass

Posted by: Boo | Apr 17 2022 20:22 utc | 118

Posted by: anon2020 | Apr 17 2022 20:19 utc | 118
My understanding is that the report is fake from an imposter Telegram channel or Web site, I forget which. I sincerely doubt Russia cares about Musk’s Internet service.
RSH

Posted by: CharlesLutherThanos | Apr 17 2022 20:24 utc | 120

Current briefing from Russian MoD Telegram channel…

Briefing by Russian Defence Ministry
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation in Ukraine.
During the day, high-precision air-based missiles destroyed 1 fuel and ammunition storage facilities near Barvenkovo and Dobropolie.
Operational-tactical and army aviation hit 44 military assets of Ukraine. Among them:
2 command posts and 1 locator for illumination and targeting of S-300 missile system near Avdeevka;
3 missile and artillery weapons depots near Zavgorodnee and Protopopovka;
23 areas of the Ukrainian manpower and military equipment concentration near Krasniy Liman, Novoselovka, Rubezhnoe, Ugledar, Popasnaya, Prishyb and Gusarovka.
Missile troops and artillery hit 113 assets, including 4 command posts, 4 artillery batteries, 2 fuel depots and 103 enemy strong points and areas of manpower concentration.
Russian air defence means shot down 2 Ukrainian MiG-29 aircraft near Fedorovka and Zavody in Kharkov Region as well as 1 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle near Preobrazhenskoe, Pavlograd region.
In total, 136 aircraft, 471 unmanned aerial vehicles, 249 anti-aircraft missile systems, 2,308 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 254 multiple launch rocket systems, 998 field artillery and mortars, as well as 2,171 units of special military vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed during the operation.
#MoD #Russia #Ukraine #Briefing
@mod_russia_en

RSH

Posted by: CharlesLutherThanos | Apr 17 2022 20:29 utc | 122

Posted by: Bea | Apr 17 2022 13:40 utc | 7
You’d’ve done better to argue with the pigeons:
One cannot reason with the irrational.

Posted by: Jphn Kennard | Apr 17 2022 20:35 utc | 124

This may have been posted earlier but I must highly recommend this youtube video update on the current situation by three excellent analyists https://youtu.be/vrMJoRDfRFI

Posted by: Oh | Apr 17 2022 20:39 utc | 126

Have there been any more details of what did or did not happen at the Maricopol theater, beyond the Grayzone article from a few weeks ago? Patrick Lawrence talked to a local person who said that it had been evacuated, but I have not seen anything else.

Posted by: schmoe | Apr 17 2022 20:43 utc | 128

Dont be scared you wont find answers like this anywhere else. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kX5k__R3u0

Posted by: Dom | Apr 17 2022 20:47 utc | 130

From Rybar Telegram channel… https://t.me/rybar/31371 If you want to see how massive this steel plant area is… Also shows the sort of damage done to buildings in the area.
RIA Novosti drone operator filmed first bird’s-eye footage of Azovstal’s territory in Mariupol, where Ukrainian militants are blocked.
I’ve uploaded the video (43 seconds, 18MB) to my Google drive here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rrTqSfZ0ZRTUYnTTvt-2oyfppD0VdoYx/view?usp=sharing

Posted by: CharlesLutherThanos | Apr 17 2022 20:52 utc | 132

@Olivier, they are holding Russian troops from moving north. Buying time.
Posted by: Mark | Apr 17 2022 14:19 utc | 17
Prisoners also need Russian troops to care about them. Today the buffoon could claim that Mariupol is not taken… yet.
Not sure that some Ukrainians soldiers on other fronts will appreciate it.

Posted by: Olivier | Apr 17 2022 20:59 utc | 134

Gonzalo Lira is missing!
http://thesaker.is/gonzalo-lira-is-missing/
George Galloway video announcing Lira’s failure to appear for the scheduled interview on his show. Calls on Chile to investigate. 2 minutes, 13 seconds.

Posted by: CharlesLutherThanos | Apr 17 2022 21:01 utc | 136

I’ve no clue if so-called ”depleted” uranium has been utilized in the Ukraine, but I been meaning to explain that this so-called ”depleted” uranium does not exist in any battlefield context. Supposedly it punctures tanks and burns up inside there by consuming oxygen, but there can’t be all that much oxygen to burn inside a tank. More tellingly, it was supposedly used all over Iraq, even after there were no more tanks left. And other kinds of explosives would have been just as effective, and without the radiation problems. Further, true depleted uranium would not have been radioactive enough to cause the very extensive radiation harms and mutations that occurred in Iraq.
So the so-called ”depleted” uranium conspiracy narrative has always been just a giant lie. This weapon was not utilizing any ”depleted” uranium at all. It was based on ENRICHED uranium, and it actually functions as a ‘micro’ nuclear fission bomb. Time to get real.

Posted by: blues | Apr 17 2022 21:05 utc | 138

Sometimes I re-watch an old movie and I can’t remember why I ever enjoyed such crap (Terminator or Dirty Harry movies, for instance). My taste in cinema seems to flip with alarming alacrity, to the point I hardly like anything anymore. So I was pleasantly surprised to still very much enjoy the movie version of Jonathan Safran Foer’s heartfelt loveletter to Ukraine, Everything is Illuminated. Given that the subject matter concerns Jews, Ukrainians, and Nazis, it’s a miracle we can still enjoy this unique masterpiece.
Another signal masterpiece, in the vicinity of Ukraine: Sergei Eisenstein’s incomparable Battleship Potemkin (the 1925 silent classic with the baby-carriage tumbling down the Odessa steps). In contrast to modern films of such narrative coyness audiences are hard-put to figure out what’s going on, Eisenstein’s inventive skill with complex narrative might be unparalleled to this day.
A peculiar double-feature recommended, perhaps, for your Easter evening…

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Apr 17 2022 21:07 utc | 140

@119 Boo
t.me/boris_rozhin said Mi-8 was suppposed to take both commander of 36th marines (Baranyuk) and commander of Azov (Prokopenko) … t.me/dobmassr referred only to commander of Azov …
whenever possible, go to the upstream source (RF MoD)

Posted by: ptb | Apr 17 2022 21:12 utc | 142

blues | Apr 17 2022 21:05 utc | 139
Tungsten was the metal of choice for armour piercing rounds. It is expensive and in short supply for hillbilly nations like the US. Depleted uranium is a waste product and cheap as chips. Slightly higher density than tungsten.
You must be american to crap on like that.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 17 2022 21:12 utc | 144

@36 DakotaRog:
Glad to see your opening salvo on re-thinking the design of the ag economy. Moving toward decentralized ag production makes sense on a number of levels, including nutrient cycling, food security, reducing wealth concentration, etc. Not saying it’s a slam-dunk, as big-scale ag has very significant cost advantages in the current situation. Also causes big problems, too.
Similar logic applies to energy, transportation, mfg’g, materials sourcing sub-systems of our economy. These subsystems are nearly, or actually obsolete, and need re-design yesterday. Not happening top-down, so… need some bottom-up.
This is off-topic on this thread, so I’ll stop here. Hopefully this issue will get some play here at MOA in the months to come.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Apr 17 2022 21:15 utc | 146

Posted by: ptb | Apr 17 2022 21:12 utc | 143
I’m refering specifically to the video posted earlier that had the description of DNR destroying ukie forces leaving on foot claiming that Baraniuk was killed in that fight. Obv. MoD is the ultimate source, but the DNR guys who released the video are contradicting Bassurin, or vice versa. The DNR messaging is/was confusing.

Posted by: Boo | Apr 17 2022 21:18 utc | 148

I believe that Kyiv wants to force Russia to use chemical weapons to evict the underground combatants, something they could then crow about.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 17 2022 14:40 utc | 21
No reason to use chemicals weapons especially when Russia destroyed all of them. Tear gas could be a possibility, but they have said that they will use thermobaric bombs. Trapped underground the nazis have no chance. In a closed space, it will be devastating. Remember what happened on the 911 with the bones of some people when the explosives were detonated. It could be enough to seal the entrances and watch them and let the nazis starve. Without water it would not last long. Unless some will drink the blood of their bed fellows.

Posted by: Olivier | Apr 17 2022 21:19 utc | 150

If you want to see all the videos posted on telegram channels, but dont want to bother installing it, this website collects a lot of them + some I have not seen posted on telegram:
https://voenhronika.ru/
The site is commercial so sometimes they put cheesy photos that have nothing to do with the actual topic, but the videos are legit.

Posted by: Boo | Apr 17 2022 21:23 utc | 152

Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 17 2022 20:06 utc | 114
Brandon may die from natural cause …

Posted by: Greg Galloway | Apr 17 2022 21:25 utc | 154

A lot (slight majority?) of the vids that end up on telegram can also be found at tvzvezda.ru and anna-news.info
the individual correspondents have telegrams as well, but most are now ’embedded’ with RF or DNR units and now managed in a way analogous to how US had been doing it. RF is making an much more serious effort than in 2014 to shut down amateur reporting, for security reasons.

Posted by: ptb | Apr 17 2022 21:29 utc | 156

“Airy proclamations we could feed ten times current population are that – air. The breakdown of the biosphere is advanced, electric cars and windmills are purely a distraction.”
Quick search which revealed the term I couldn’t remember, ‘RSI’:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/farming-technique-using-drastically-less-water-is-catching-on_n_5af41876e4b0859d11d0ae35
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2014/may/13/miracle-grow-indian-rice-farmer-sri-system-rice-intensification-record-crop
Don’t trust such uber-liberal publications but there you go, there is tons of material going back many years now. You are right that using current big-ag methods we cannot feed more. But big-ag methods are atrocious despite the positive press they give themselves in a socio-political environment where science has been destroyed by the merchant classes as any fool could have predicted at the outset of the industrial revolution. If, however, sane methods of production – including sane related social structures in rural areas around them – are used, then indeed we can easily feed ten times the current population.
If the degradation is already as bad you you say – though I suspect pollution is a bigger issue than soil depletion which can almost certainly be rescued in a generation or less due to the primordial fecundity of the microbial kingdom – then you might be right but I doubt it. It comes down to political will. If the necessary improvements are made along with remediation, the whole thing can go forward swimmingly even with population growth. If we keep on the same path, then no doubt famine is in the picture – which it most likely is next year for millions due to war, but that’s another story.
No shoveling in a while though putting in garden in new property next month once we get up there (goat cheese country, fresh air, cool nights, stunning views), but my impression is that the worm business is best for small lot gardening not commercial farmers like those using RSI methods in India and elsewhere.

Posted by: Scorpion | Apr 17 2022 21:31 utc | 158

Peter AU1 | Apr 17 2022 21:12 utc | 145 (et al)
an ex-friend of mine, MD-PhD, used to be a cytopathologist in the US VA (Veteran Affairs) system (he’s now in private practice.) Now what is the function of people like this when they know nothing beyond generalities about the combat conditions of troops in places like Iraq? how easy it is to blame Sodom Who-sane for the burn pits and everything else. how you gonna find DU when you ain’t looking for anything like that? in the case of this guy, he almost never sees patients himself, only tissue under various scopes.
With blindness masquerading as knowledge, medical authority is used to deny the criminality of the USG against its guinea pigs in the USM. I’m not suggesting every VA doc is like this, but they are fighting against the system, which is. and there is very little or nothing military personnel can do about it. there’s a gigantic conspiracy going on, a conspiracy of silence.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Apr 17 2022 21:34 utc | 160

What happens to the EU balance if Le Pen wins in a week?
[…]
We are living in very interesting times.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 17 2022 20:06 utc | 114

It would of course be an earthquake.
And an extraordinary change for peace and Special Op in Ukraine.
But the probability is very low, below 5%.
The totality of the political parties, including socialist, communist, extreme left, ecologist, democrat [Christian and secular], the artists, the sportsmen, the academics, the economists, the employers and the trade unions… call to bar the road to Marine Le Pen.
It is a general and international mobilization against the popular expression, it is a question of forcing to abstention the majority of the young people and the working classes and to make elect Macron by the retired pensioners and the rentiers.
The campaign to free FRANCE from Macron go underground. ” je croise les doigts”
A very well done appeal to evict Macron, French independent anti-EU politician, Frexiter for 15 years
In French
Ytube -NCaw5hLDIs

Posted by: La Bastille | Apr 17 2022 21:46 utc | 162

@Peter AU1
After much consideration, i have decided im wrong. Russian forces can sit at Mariuple weeks, maybe months before they move north. Nothing will happen adverse to them. No Ukrainian reinforcements or supplies or weapons from US and NATO will arrive, no friends will dissappear like Gonzalo Lira. There will be no further entrenchments by UAF. The MSM will not continue to bear the war drum Russia can wait for, well forever. Its all a good.

Posted by: Mark | Apr 17 2022 21:57 utc | 164

@ Peter AU1 | Apr 17 2022 21:24 utc | 154
https://youtu.be/lw3mDJ0qdp0?t=25
Thanks much for the link you share, to Alexander Kott’s “Brest Fortress” (2010) (also called “Fortress of War”). Defenders fighting invading Wehrmacht forces in the opening stages of Operation Barbarossa. What goes around…

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Apr 17 2022 22:02 utc | 166

Re; Lira
If the Russians could pinpoint UA mercenaries by them using their cellphones how is it that the entire spying capacity of Nato didn’t know all along exactly where Lira was?

Posted by: K | Apr 17 2022 22:05 utc | 168

On 13th April I first saw a video on a Telegram channel that appeared to show Colonel General Roger L. Klutjea (Roger L. Cloutier), handcuffed and being led into a building. I don’t think anyone here has mentioned it. Could it be valid?

Posted by: Italanon | Apr 17 2022 22:06 utc | 170

Posted by: Italanon | Apr 17 2022 22:06 utc | 170
Somebody used a video of a Crimean Tatar terrorist capture by FSB to pass it as gen. Cloutier being captured. Total fake.

Posted by: Boo | Apr 17 2022 22:08 utc | 172

Peter AU1, ptb
If it were a matter of sustaining a guerilla conflict, sure. Five bullets a year, a piece of wire, a knife, an occasional bag of groceries or cigarettes and you can keep a fighter going. Armies use enormous amounts of materiel. Michaelj72 @ 132 helpfully supplies a link I should have searched for but will repeat here
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-04-14/russia-ukraine-war-u-s-is-running-out-of-weapons-aiding-kyiv
By that account Kiev is using a weeks worth of deliveries each day. So yeah small arms and bullets will flow, but the current level of conflict cannot be sustained.
I’ve some idea what is involved in making a bullet. Knew a couple old folks who made shell casings at Schwinn Bicycle back in WWII. Had a couple ex-friends who claimed to be pacifists until they were offered good wages for making M-16s during Vietnam. Simple stuff. Which mostly gets done in China these days. Ramping up on something as simple as 7.62 bullets or 120mm mortar rounds would be a daunting task if it had to be domestic production. It would not happen quickly. Recall how difficult it was to make bleeping face masks. That got done the old fashioned way, the task was jobbed out to sweatshops in the Orient. In meantime the stockpiles are going down fast.
Pickup trucks and sedans will work for light stuff like Javelins or NLAW. Which are already oversupplied and stacked like cordwood. Light vehicles get overloaded quick carrying ammo. Still have to get gas in the tank. Still have to evade Russian surveillance.
And then you try to get it where it is needed and not just where it was easy to deliver. The logistics are too complex to be run by satellite phone from Rzeszów and Uke no longer has a general staff. And then there is the problem of delivering food. Perishable and must go everywhere, regularly. Again, look at the captured and surrendered. They look thin. Limits to how far that can be pushed.
The political side of the fighters are all middle class and heavily Germanic. Official propaganda from the militants says real Ukrainians are of German or Swedish ancestry. Makes it much harder to get undeniably Slavic looking kids as recruits. Azov has been a club for the cool kids. It ain’t going to be cool to be a Nazi. The diehards will move to Alberta. I don’t think something like Syria is likely to happen.
Puzzled that there are zero fresh arrivals from Uke in Chicago. Were they here they would be feted. Have the feeling they are purely wanted as cannon fodder.
There was no way we would not have heard the story that Russia was logistically helpless. The gas station masquerading as a country obviously could not move fuel to its own border. Look at any vid, tanker trucks are everywhere. Seen a Uke tanker on vid? They would show that if they could. I will take the showcase field kitchen and laundry service from the Larry Johnson piece posted by b at top as mostly propaganda. No corresponding Uke propaganda.

Posted by: oldhippie | Apr 17 2022 22:12 utc | 174

From Martyanov’s blog:

Vladislav Shurigin Speaks To…
…. Russian senior marine officer. While US generals who spew BS on Russian operation in 404 continue to parade themselves as nothing more than propagandists, here is a good glimpse by Vladislav Shurigin (a famed Russia military journalist) into what is going on in reality.

Original post on VK (in Russian):
https://vk.com/wall-8161590_5172
Google Translation:

White stone Mordor
yesterday at 5:36 am
Extremely wise on the issue of the Ukrainian war.
Vladislav Shurygin.
Vladislav Shurygin
yesterday at 12:16 am
FRONT NOTES
From a conversation with a senior officer of the Black Sea Marine Corps:
about the timing of the operation.
“What are you talking about deadlines? We need to talk about something else! When we are done with Azovstal, we will have ten thousand of the best fighters in the world under arms, hardened by a month of the hardest urban battles, with which we will move on. And Ukraine will receive fifteen thousand corpses of its most stubborn and trained Nazis.
Therefore, today I do not count them dead – this makes no sense. Let’s destroy everyone! Today I, first of all, take care of my fighters. Each of them is worth its weight in gold. And for “Azov” in the Russian army there are enough remote means of destruction. Calmly, methodically and without any glory for them. Urban disinfection of rats…”
About tactics
“… You don’t need to wind yourself up with the inaccessibility of Azovstal. The fact that there are shelters, autonomous life support systems and engineered defenses does not mean anything. Königsberg was no worse fortified! Have taken!
With the help of prisoners, their main lairs were revealed. We know with whom we are fighting, do we know what they have left there? They all are in the same mood as at Hitler’s headquarters before the end. They’re getting married to each other…
Yes, they fight, as they say, with the fury of the doomed. So they are doomed!
… Their defenses have their weak spots. The main one is that they always have to keep most of their forces underground. That is, not all one and a half thousand are engaged in defense, but, at most, a hundred – one and a half, those who are at the top. They are constantly under fire. At the same time, the ring around them is gradually shrinking, and their defenses are reduced to ruins by air strikes and heavy artillery fire. Yesterday there was a well-protected firing point, and in the morning there was a mountain of broken concrete in its place. We need to look for another position, and this is not so easy under fire. We grope for their ventilation system, main and emergency exits. I think that soon we will put into action strategic aviation with “heavy” bombs, and then things will go more cheerfully. It would be ideal to just brick them all up there. But this is already from the section of dreams. I repeat, for us now the main thing is to protect our fighters. The battle for Mariupol is over. Our city! And no one will change that. It remains, as they used to say, to crush the last pockets of resistance … ”
About prisoners
What am I experiencing? Squeamish indifference. There is no hatred. This is already used material. Each of them chose life and threw down their weapons. Everyone is now fighting for this life as best they can. All as one turned out to be drivers, clerks, cooks. Nobody wanted to fight. They betrayed everyone and left the command. I didn’t see the stubborn Nazis. Most likely, they do not survive to captivity.
For us, these are now sources of information and working hands. Everyone on the way to the front line spent the night somewhere, saw something – a headquarters, a warehouse, a barracks, caches, disguised equipment. Everyone heard something from the “brothers”. Now it’s up to our “konriks” to get them talking. And they know their business! Note the increased number and accuracy of our missile and air strikes. They talk like they’re cute! Well, and, of course, after the exchange for all of ours, all the remaining herd, and I think there will be more than one thousand of them – to construction teams and to restore everything that was destroyed. Let them plow until everything is sorted out. At the same time think about what they have done.
About war
“… There is a war going on. We tried a special operation – it did not work. They underestimated the degree of brainwashing of Ukrainians, and the real scale of Ukraine’s preparation for war with Russia. They wanted bloodlessly and quickly. As a result – a huge amount of chaos and confusion in the early days. But we have mostly solved the main tasks of the first stage anyway. The offensive potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was destroyed, all the main army groups were chained to the spot and suffered heavy losses. In most directions, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have gone on the defensive and only in a few are they trying to counterattack.
In the field, they fight poorly. Our superiority in artillery and aviation is immediately evident. They fight steadfastly where they were able to create powerful fortified areas where they can sit out underground. Near the Donbass, they have to be stormed because the fortified area is pressed against the city limits, and they are constantly hollowing out the city. In other places, I think, we will simply bypass and block them, performing the tasks of moving forward, and we will deal with them later according to all the rules of martial art.
The Armed Forces of Ukraine are beginning to experience a shortage of trained personnel. All combat-ready units have been in battle for a long time and suffer losses. Professional soldiers are dying and out of action – contract soldiers and officers, who have been trained and coached for several years, including foreign instructors. Replenishment comes, practically, untrained. If for the infantry this problem can be solved by several weeks of fighting and a high percentage of losses “for study”, then it will not work to compensate for specialists – artillerymen, weapon operators, tankers with such a “form” of training. So far, it has not been possible to build a full-fledged training system in the rear – in the western regions. There is a serious problem with heavy weapons – tanks, self-propelled guns have become scarce. There are no more full-fledged mechanized units. And this means that even the slightest bit of a serious counteroffensive cannot be organized. Especially in the conditions of our complete superiority in the air … ”

Posted by: CharlesLutherThanos | Apr 17 2022 22:16 utc | 176

Scott Ritter & Ray on Ukraine: “Russian ‘Incoming’ To Destroy Weapons Coming In”
April 16, 2022
https://raymcgovern.com/2022/04/16/scott-ritter-ray-on-ukraine-russian-incoming-to-destroy-weapons-coming-in/

Scott and Ray discuss Russia’s repeated warnings that sending weapons into Ukraine will have “unpredictable consequences” — warnings that need to be taken seriously.
This neuralgic issue now comes to a head, as the U.S. announces $800 million-worth of weapons for Ukraine, and as Russia prepares to launch a major military campaign in south and eastern Ukraine. Scott notes that the circumspection Moscow has shown up until now, in tolerating the transport of outside weaponry — as well as the travel of senior clowns like Boris Johnson — is not likely to last. The new weapons will be destroyed, with the Boris Johnsons of the West made to look foolish.
China’ role is also discussed at some length, including what Biden’s advisers may finally understand (if the world is lucky) as the possibility of a two-front war. Also: the ramifications of the possible accession to power of Marine Le Pen in France; and whether Chancellor Olaf Scholz may be forced to back down on the snap decisions that reversed decades of German policy on defense, and on sending arms into areas of hostility.

Related:
Obama Did Not Call Putin’s Bluff: Will Biden?
by Ray McGovern Posted on April 17, 2022
https://www.antiwar.com/blog/2022/04/17/obama-did-not-call-putins-bluff-will-biden/

Posted by: CharlesLutherThanos | Apr 17 2022 22:24 utc | 178

james | Apr 17 2022 17:42 utc | 72, sorry I wasn’t clear on my first quote @ 51 – the week of a shutdown in Mariupol coming up coincides with Holy Week for the Orthodox, so today is Palm Sunday. I did post on this at b’s Easter message post.
And Scorpion @ 159, yes, I do composting tubs with worms as my main fertilizer friends, also save every bit of vegetable waste, egg shells. My son only uses the latter plus coffee grounds – grows great heaps of tomatoes just with that. (I’m trying his way for those this year, have two big plants I wintered over; one is manzano, the other a cherry I call ‘sunroom cherry’. They are outside now, so far so good. Tomatoes are great for gathering and storing seeds – the manzano was a truly ancient seed packet,from when I still was working – amazed me it was still able to germinate.

Posted by: juliania | Apr 17 2022 22:31 utc | 180

Posted by: PavewayIV | Apr 17 2022 22:23 utc | 177
Uhm, no. “Move your troops to an underground bunker far enough away, close the blast doors, and let a tactical nuke erase your evils.” Any blast in the underground tunnels would destroy everything in them. No “blast doors” are likely to work; those are intended to assist in deflecting a surface blast that penetrates underground. If the Azov Nazis were motivated to suicide themselves by this means, they probably would have done it before.
In any event, I consider the entire scenario to be more from James Bond than reality. There is zero evidence that Ukraine has any form of nuclear weapon, let alone a functioning “tactical” nuke. If the US imported such into Ukraine, it will not be used at Mariupol because there is no way to get it there. If used elsewhere in Ukraine, radiation signatures would quickly identify it as from somewhere other than Russia.
Finally, extrapolating from all the “chemical weapons” to “nukes” nonsense has resulted in exactly zero “false flags” so far. While it remains a risk, I submit that the Ukrainians are not in a position at this time to do more than atrocities to be blamed on the Russians.
“False flag” speculation is a waste of time.

Posted by: CharlesLutherThanos | Apr 17 2022 22:34 utc | 182

Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 17 2022 18:41 utc | 88
I too saw reports that the UAF were clearing minefields as though they were preparing an attack. I am not sure where I saw it but it was probably in the contributions of Alexander Mercouris or Alex Christophorou or possibly Tass or Global Times.

Posted by: foolisholdman | Apr 17 2022 22:44 utc | 184

I always thought Fareed Zakaria was the diet coke of intellectuals (i.e. cancer causing the more you drink), but he really went above and beyond himself in this asinine “analysis“; basically the US needs to support Ukraine now be imposing a blockade on the Ukraine coast to save the city of Odessa. WHOLE BUNCH OF PROBLEMS WITH THAT IDEA, putting aside the blunt truth that a blockade is a act of war and would mean direct conflict between US/NATO troops and Russia, how would that even work, the US navy has only a handful of ships that could sail in the shallow waters of the black sea; where would these ships be based? How would they even get there? Turkey has closed the straits to military traffic. This idea is inherently unworkable.

Posted by: Kadath | Apr 17 2022 22:49 utc | 186

Kadath | Apr 17 2022 22:49 utc | 186
The Black Sea is very deep. Sea of Azov is shallow.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 17 2022 23:02 utc | 188

Of course, could be fake, so large grain of salt…

Posted by: Boo | Apr 17 2022 23:05 utc | 190

Take social media with a good dose of epsom salts. Shit happens in war but there are also many Kiev Ghosts.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 17 2022 23:17 utc | 192

Posted by: Boo | Apr 17 2022 23:04 utc | 189
There are no launchers on the side. Fake.
Real Moskva looks like this (right and left side views):
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Russian_cruiser_Moskva.jpg (right side)
https://www.rferl.org/a/moskva-missile-cruiser-damaged/31802678.html (left side)

Posted by: CharlesLutherThanos | Apr 17 2022 23:20 utc | 194

From Glazyev’s April 10 article, “The Results of American Aggression That Are Positive for Russia”:
“Objectively, the main rivals of the US and the EU are China and India, whose development rates are many times higher and which form the core of a new world economic order, already producing and exporting more products. But the subjective ruling elite of the US and the EU seek to crush Russia, traditionally viewing it as their main geopolitical adversary. At the same time, they chose Ukraine as the direction of the main blow, again in accordance with their geopolitical ideas of past centuries. Here they clearly follow the precepts of Brzezinski, Hitler, Bismarck, as well as the Austrian and English crowns, who for two centuries have been trying to tear Ukraine away from Russia, tearing the Russian world into antagonistic parts with the aim of its subsequent annihilation in an internecine war. But, today, trying to inflict maximum damage on us in order to maintain their global hegemony, they are significantly strengthening the position of China, in favour of which the exploitation of Russian natural resources and the EAEU market are shifting. This catastrophic for Ukraine geopolitical mistake of Western leaders sharply accelerates the change of world economic structures and the rise of Southeast Asia in relation to the North Atlantic alliance.”
A POV we rarely get to read. India, China, ASEAN, etc., are the “objective rivals” of the Outlaw US Empire and its vassals, not Russia. That evaluation allows Glazyev to state the Outlaw US Empire committed a geopolitical error of vast proportions that it furthers by escalating the Ukraine crisis. This error I’ve already characterized as a huge Own Goal:
“In a fit of Russophobia, they have already played their ace of trump against Russia – the issue of world currency. After the ‘hellish sanctions’ imposed against Russia, with the arrest of all Russian assets in dollars, euros, pounds and yens, these currencies automatically lost their status as world reserve currencies.”
The problem I have with Glazyev is his unfortunate need to engage in I Told You Soisms–If you had listened to me in 2014, we could have avoided this hybrid war. His angst is understandable but is unproductive and even off-putting at this point. He’s not the only voice screaming from the wilderness about the need to dedollarize. Glazyev must put that behind him as he works to help formulate the new reality.
I’m also shocked of his ignorance of the very longstanding CIA involvement with OUN inside Ukraine and its diligent remaking of the Ukrainian mind. Thankfully, he gets into the business of telling us the positive. I can see why Putin assigned him to the EEU. Glazyev’s too smart to be a mere bank director.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 17 2022 23:23 utc | 196

Republicofscotland | Apr 17 2022 17:59 utc | 79
Agree. The use of DU at all by anyone is a sick war crime. It’s use causes horrible human deformities. Sadly many citizens of countries that the USA plays with do not know of the use of DU rounds and what DU does so they continue having deformed children thinking it’s about them and the next one will be okay.
Dodgy Bodger

Posted by: dodgy Bodger | Apr 17 2022 23:26 utc | 198

karlof1 “The problem I have with Glazyev is his unfortunate need to engage in I Told You Soisms”
Yep. His piece on changing Russia internally – he does not take into account human character. The total confusion that would arise from a sudden change. The change of thought required for the bureaucracy in the regions.
He does seem to be though the architect of the change in global trade currency. Until just a few days ago, I did not understand why Russia was not implementing economic sanctions on the west.
It is a transition, with for the moment, the US dollar as the standard to measure national currencies and goods against.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 17 2022 23:36 utc | 200