What Biden thinks, or BoJo thinks or Ursula thinks, or even if Sweden or Finland joins the NATO is a minor matter, when compared to the future of the Russian speaking people of former Ukraine, their welfare and their children’s welfare. That’s what the Russian SMO in Ukraine means.

Posted by: ostro | Jun 12 2022 21:17 utc | 204

And, have a look at a new supermarket opened in Kherson today, https://youtu.be/NW4EKItT12g

Posted by: ostro | Jun 12 2022 21:21 utc | 206

@ostro | Jun 12 2022 21:08 utc | 199
Thanks for those, I checked them out. Nice to see the cleanup going on in Mariupol. Simferopol looks rather different then I recall. Dingy was my recollection, and the airport was bad/run down. I know it was re-done or rebuilt (airport). Nice roads too – at least the main highway.

Posted by: the pessimist | Jun 12 2022 21:25 utc | 208

fx: I went to your link to Judge Napolitano and Scott Ritter for only a few seconds. All I had to listen to was the introductory remarks by Napolitano about ‘Putin’s war crimes’ as a given in his view, and I knew this would be garbage. My only question is why Ritter would associate himself with a crank like that. Please spare an otherwise thoughtful discussion the time and energy we should spend on truly informing ourselves by not posting links to this.
Posted by: Oakland Pete | Jun 12 2022 20:20 utc | 183

I don’t agree with the emphasized dictat. If someone we previously respect starts going to the dark side, we shall document it in detail.

Posted by: Ricardo Ramirez | Jun 12 2022 21:31 utc | 210

@Joe6pack #70
kremll.info/o-primenenii-su-57-na-ukraine/
“On the use of the Su-57 in Ukraine.
During a special operation in Ukraine, Russia used a link of four Su-57 fighter jets connected in a single information network to destroy air defense, an informed source said. “As part of the SVO, the Russian Aerospace Forces conducted an operation to identify and defeat the air defense systems of Ukraine with the involvement of a flight of four new Su-57 multi-role fighters. The aircraft were integrated into an information network through automatic communication systems, data transmission, navigation and identification in real time,” the source said.
He noted that “combining aircraft in a single information space increases the effectiveness of identifying and hitting targets.” The source also clarified that as a result of the operation, it was possible to confirm the low radar visibility of the Su-57.
Recall that in May it became known about the use of Su-57 in a special operation in Ukraine. The newspaper VZGLYAD reported that the special military operation in Ukraine has become a testing ground for the latest Russian weapons, including Su-57 fighters.
1. For the Su-57, this is the first serious war. Previously, it was tested in Syria, but the full-fledged premiere took place in Ukraine.
2. The total order of such vehicles for the Russian Aerospace Forces is 76 units, which will be delivered in the coming years with the option of further increase.
3. Ukraine, like Syria earlier, has become a testing ground for testing promising weapons in real combat conditions.”

Posted by: Karl Friedrich | Jun 12 2022 21:34 utc | 212

https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Foreign_Affairs _Defence_and_Trade/Joint_fighter/Submissions (Submission 35)

We also simulated Joint Strike Fighter against Russian fighter aircraft where we flew two against two.
In the forenoon I and the Danish test pilot was flying Joint Strike Fighters against two Russian fighters. In
the afternoon we swapped, so we flew Russian fighter aircraft against the Joint Strike Fighter.
In the afternoon the first thing the test pilot and I noticed was that the Russian fighters was not loaded with the best air-to-air missiles as the Russians have in real life. We therefore asked about getting some better.
It was denied us. We two pilots complained but it was not changed.
My test pilot and I decided in our simulated Russian combat aircraft to fly “line abreast”, but with 25 nautical miles distance. Then at least one of us could with radar look into the side of the Joint Strike Fighter and thus view it at long distance. The one who “saw” the Joint Strike Fighter could then link the radar image to the other. Then missiles could be fired at long distance at the Joint Strike Fighter.
It was also denied us, although we protested this incomprehensible disposition

The F-35 only has a small radar signature when its nose is pointed at the radar. Two overlapping radars will see it as one radar at least will be off to one side.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jun 12 2022 21:39 utc | 214

Posted by: Karl Friedrich | Jun 12 2022 21:34 utc | 212
——————
What matters is what Russia uses to win the people over, but not the equipment it uses to demilitarize the Ukie/NATO army. If and when needed Russia will use the necessary weapons. The SMO is to denazify the west(ern Ukraine), not the people.

Posted by: ostro | Jun 12 2022 21:40 utc | 216

“…why the hell are the poor wretched brown people coming here when they can go to Mehico. Why are they not claiming asylum in a neighboring country but heading straight for US?..” Bobolinski@196
It depends: if they are from Guatemala their country has been wrecked and the lives of peasants either ruined or liquidated by US installed dictators and US financed Death squads since 1954 (at the latest.)
If they are from Honduras their country is still being slowly delivered from the clammy hands of US backed dope dealers and military thugs trained and financed in the States and installed by Hillary and Obama in 2009.
If they are from Nicaragua–they won’t be from Nicaragua because despite the best efforts of successive US governments, and after a century of Uncle Sam gifted dictators, ending up with the notorious contras (no US apology needed- we know it is just your nature)- the government there is finally erasing the worst legacies of US sponsored tyranny.
Shall I go on? In America, as in Europe, millions of people have been and are being forced out of the homes that they love and the lands of their birth, by US terrorism: Libya, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan, Mali, Ethiopia, Eritrea… drive people out of their homelands, steal their livelihoods, kill their agriculture, hunt them down as Communists, eject the leaders that they choose and replace them with gangsters and don’t be surprised if a tiny percentage of them survives long enough to turn up at your doorstep and offer to work for food.
In the meantime keep your mouth shut on the subject of “illegal immigration” until you and the sadistic thieves you support learn to leave people alone in their own countries to live as they choose. Oh, and don’t steal their land either.
Americans don’t seem to realise that, being generally protected by two oceans, most of the people they impoverish and drive from their homes never make it to America- instead, ask the Turks or the EU, they drift into Europe.
You are right about one thing though Bobo- mine’s a ‘left wing’ point of view. And yours is a right wing viewpoint.

Posted by: bevin | Jun 12 2022 21:49 utc | 218

are – all
too bad i am not smart enough to use the preview option here, lol..

Posted by: james | Jun 12 2022 21:56 utc | 220

Joe6pack et al–
Seems many missed reading this outstanding article about the Su-57 and why it’s being deployed to Ukraine. No excuses as it’s in English.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 12 2022 22:04 utc | 222

In the meantime keep your mouth shut on the subject of “illegal immigration” until you and the sadistic thieves you support learn to leave people alone in their own countries to live as they choose. Oh, and don’t steal their land either.

Bevin@218
Who do you imagine supports these policies? Who supported Britain’s policies of famine in Ireland or its treatment of mill workers and farm hands? Or maybe you’re French and you supported actions in Algeria? Germans in Namibia? Belgians in Congo? NO country or people has the moral high ground in these matters.
Illegal immigration is a toxic to US workers. It is a deliberate policy to drive down wages and force downward convergence between the US economy and feudal regimes in Latin America. To tell people to shut up about it is rank hypocrisy.

Posted by: VtObserver | Jun 12 2022 22:07 utc | 224

Sushi @ 104
I will agree to all that. But especially the last two sentences.

Posted by: oldhippie | Jun 12 2022 22:23 utc | 226

I think the battle between the F-35 and Russian air defences will be a sideshow. Russia has quite an array of missiles that range from difficult to impossible to intercept and that can reach every air base and port in Europe from behind Russian air defences.
The weakness of aircraft like the F-35 is they need an enormous amount of maintenance and specialized equipment to fly. Russia can end that capability in hours.
Russia didn’t need to use a Kinzhal missile to attack that building in Odessa a month ago. It was a demonstration to show the sceptics at NATO that they have accurate, working, hypersonic missiles that can reach 10 Downing Street or the US carrier in the Adriatic from the same launch point behind Russian air defences as they used to attack Odessa.

Posted by: HB-Norica | Jun 12 2022 22:38 utc | 228

bevin @218–
Guatemala began in 1948.
///////
Here’s one that needs telling, “West wants to ‘absolve’ itself from its own crimes – Serbia”:

In an interview with the newspaper Novosti published on Sunday, Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin said that throughout history, Serbs have always been “expected to do something for others” and to neglect their own interests.
“It is not in Serbia’s interest to participate in the conflicts of the greats, and it is not in Serbia’s interest to diminish the closeness and cooperation with Russia and its leadership,” the minister said.
He claimed that when Western countries ask Serbia to impose sanctions on Russia, they know it would not mean much for Russia from an economic perspective, but would serve as a significant moral blow.
“Those who bombed us know that the moral greatness of Serbia is disproportionate to its firepower, and that is why they need that little tormented Serbia, that brave victim, to be with them,” he said.
In his opinion, the US and its allies “have everything but morals” and so they want Serbia “to absolve them of the crimes they have committed and to absolve them of the sins of violating international law.” [Emphasis Original]

It would be good to see other Europeans gather their courage and stand up to tell the Truth.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 12 2022 22:54 utc | 230

Appreciate your comments regarding Churchill, it has always mystified me why the UK makes of him someone to emulate.
Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 12 2022 15:13 utc | 39
One factor many may be overlooking is that Churchill by trade was a very successful author, indeed so successful that he lived like a lord on income from sales both of books and cards featuring his paintings. As an author enamored of British history and coming as he did from the illustrious Ashley/Wellesley/Marlborough line and being born in their palace at Blenheim which rivaled anything the Royal Family had, he also had the gift of the gab and was an extremely readable, entertaining and impactful writer. In short, he got to paint England as victorious in a way – as an ex wartime Prime Minister – that nobody else could possibly have done.
He gave Britain what they wanted: a glorious sense of a splendid existence in the past, in the here and now and in the hereafter. He was far more effective at this than any official propaganda organs. So in creating this splendid myth he also posited himself as one of the more resplendent planets in that system and indeed many ended up seeing him as the Sun itself, as the greatest Briton in generations shining in the firmament summoned into being by his own creative powers.
I think this was possible both because of his ‘great man’ qualities and because of his considerable skills as a writer and also that Britain deeply yearned to perceive herself as glorious to avoid facing the wartime atrocities – making it hard to see oneself as the ‘good guys’ – and terrible mistakes made which essentially lost the Empire making the marvelous Commonwealth an irrelevance (though still colourful to this day), and plunging the country into a financial trough which took decades to clamber out of finally as a second string power.
Everything came together so that he got to write the history the British needed to get through a very depressing time without having to face it head-on.
As a young boy I remember walking to school about a mile from home along Sloane St before accessing which were various squares with many smaller streets to cross over. Many a day there were ‘pea souper’ fogs so thick that you actually couldn’t see your hand stretched out in front. Car headlights would loom through the dark only a few feet away. That in many ways was the real state of the Empire. In such gloomy times Churchill’s prose felt like a godsend and he attained a mythic status quite separate from the general disdain many of his parliamentary peers felt for him.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 12 2022 23:01 utc | 232

@ karlof1 | Jun 12 2022 22:39 utc | 229
I just took a look at a few civics questions. It was amusing.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 12 2022 23:14 utc | 234

@Petri Krohn | Jun 12 2022 15:35 utc | 53
“Most people here see no point in negotiations with NATO. But let’s put the question in another way. What countries will Russia invite to Kiev to sign the Articles of Surrender?
I believe all Western countries that are part of this war need to be invited. This includes all countries that are supplying weapons. If they do not sign, then the state of war will continue forever.”
Posted by: the pessimist | Jun 12 2022 15:54 utc | 59
FWLIW here’s a possible scenario:
1. RF finishes the kinetic operation once X territory is stabilized, probably the Russian-speaking sectors from Odessa-Transnistria to Ludansk, but possibly more including even Kiev. Whatever it is the people will have indicated their desire to be under RF protection either as independent republics or as RF oblasts etc. Then some sort of proclamation of fact on the ground will be made both by those territories themselves and also by RF. No need for ‘negotiations’ up to this point.
2. NATO either accepts this or does not. If they do, end of story. If they don’t (most likely) then RF may or may not elect to continue the SMO in order to prevent deadly attacks against RF citizens or protected republics as per the current SMO. There is no need for negotiation at this point either.
3. Any time NATO wants to come to the table for negotiations the demand is for 1997 status viz weapons/missiles etc. If NATO accepts then a treaty can be made. If as is most likely NATO refuses then a state of mutual hostility will exist.
4. If a state of mutual hostility exists then the sanctions regime will continue indefinitely but Eurasia’s unity of position will grow and their various postures stiffen such that increasingly the West will find that Eurasia has turned its back on them limiting both import and export trade – perhaps even boycotting it altogether. The longer the West refuses to drop its aggressive ways that much firmer the Eurasian bloc’s response will be. If there is a real break between the two blocs, either NATO goes to war over this in ways that will almost certainly lead to nuclear confrontation which everyone will lose but especially major European and US power centers or NATO essentially becomes irrelevant. RF/Eurasia will not attempt to invade Europe so either NATO will be invading Eurasia or NATO will be doing nothing.
5. The increasing separation between the blocs will hit the Western nations much harder and at some point they will have to refashion their polity, i.e. their entire socio-political configuration. This will be a long process.
Just as an ideal solution with Ukraine right now is a peoples’ revolt backed by military coup after which follows a new constitution and elections (or whatever), so also something like that will be needed in the West. If not the military than a genuine Union or Coalition wartime type government which suspends party politics indefinitely until a new way of doing things – from top to bottom – is determined.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 12 2022 23:26 utc | 236

Don Bacon @234–
Thanks for your reply. I see the format’s been changed since I last looked at practice tests in 2018. It appears that the new format is easier. During the course of my education, I took three civics/PolySci courses, and none of them taught what it means to be a citizen, that a citizen has certain responsibilities to itself and its fellows that must occur if proper governance in the interest of ALL citizens is to occur. And of course, one of the nation’s biggest historical mistakes (or the elite’s greatest triumphs) was to keep over half its populace incapable of becoming full-fledged citizens. And then there’re all the other sins. I wonder if Bobolinski stuck around long enough to read my comment to it.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 12 2022 23:37 utc | 238

James.. YouTube censors using algos.. On there, any time I link, even without the .com to.. theyfly.com, FIGU, Billy Meier, my comment automatically deletes. Great cia/nasa control. I get in by saying.. written in reverse. ”moc tod ylfyeht”. Nasa, seti, Govts. do not want you to know, what millions already know, full disclosure. BTW, et monitors the Ukraine war with their 4cu.mm sized mini drones. Their opinions are similar to comments here. See the latest recorded chats under ”Billy’ Contacts” on the site. theyfly.com.

Posted by: Thomas Turk | Jun 12 2022 23:49 utc | 240

Karoff1
I think your off in cuckoo land. Sorry but you don’t live on Mt Olympus. You copy/paste a lot from Russian media and that’s good but you don’t really seem to have a handle on today’s political situation in the US. You need to listen more to the MAGA crowd. We are the future.

Posted by: Bobolinski | Jun 12 2022 23:50 utc | 242

To track a busy week, here’s the weekly increase of enemy-equipment-destroyed tally per RF MoD. Below are differences in the daily briefing figures, from 2022-06-05 to 2022-06-12
aircraft: +12
helicopter: +1
UAV: +74
SAM: +8
armor tanks/bmp/btr: +98
MLRS: +38
artillery/mortar: +92
other specialized military vehicles: +151
Source: https://t.me/s/mod_russia

Posted by: ptb | Jun 13 2022 0:00 utc | 244

Some lighter news for today. Former McDonald’s restaurants in Russia have reopened under local ownership. The chain is now called Vkusno i Tochka (“Just Tasty”).
Here is a video showing the reopening:
https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/McDonalds-rus:8

Posted by: Nate | Jun 13 2022 0:12 utc | 246

Well the West is full of super-girls and wonder-women, so conscripting these will raise invincible armies spreading freedom and democracy world wide.
This is a cosmic destiny that cannot be resisted.

Posted by: bottle | Jun 13 2022 0:13 utc | 248

Scorpion that comment of yours regarding Churchill was perhaps the best, in a literary sense, that I have had the pleasure of reading here.

Posted by: morongobill | Jun 13 2022 0:16 utc | 250

Mr Bobolinsky – here is the thing about your rant against undocumented immigration – this issues is a distraction, a wedge issue to divide working class people, both republican and democrat voters to help prevent them from using their combined power against the fat cats in both parties and those whom they serve. The issues that negatively affect the bottom 70% of the income distribution affect the voters of both parties alike. They need to be allies instead of fighting with each other about peripheral issues like immigration/border problems. Yes, these are real problems for many reasons, but the root causes that bevin and karlof identified cannot be addressed by physical and legal fencing. US foreign policy, social policy, economic policy – all a giant train wreck. Having the plebes warring amongst themselves won’t fix nuttin. The Democratic party is just as bad with their sick sense of priorities as the Republican right with their reactionary bs.

Posted by: the pessimist | Jun 13 2022 0:19 utc | 252

As a young boy I remember walking to school about a mile from home along Sloane St before accessing which were various squares with many smaller streets to cross over. Many a day there were ‘pea souper’ fogs so thick that you actually couldn’t see your hand stretched out in front. Car headlights would loom through the dark only a few feet away. That in many ways was the real state of the Empire. In such gloomy times Churchill’s prose felt like a godsend and he attained a mythic status quite separate from the general disdain many of his parliamentary peers felt for him.
Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 12 2022 23:01 utc | 232
Thank you for your comment, I appreciate it, and I see your point. He did write decent, lucid English, “The Hinge of History” and all, I’ll give him that, and I will refrain from criticizing further, no matter at this point.

Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 13 2022 0:37 utc | 254

A long article by William Mallinson, Professor of Political Ideas and Institutions at Guglielmo Marconi University. A timely reminder that, beneath the cheap propaganda and gutter press sloganising, the Establishment understands exactly what the SMO in Ukraine is all about.
“… From a British viewpoint, geopolitics means keeping Germany and Europe away from Russia, as it has done for at least the last two hundred years, and is currently doing, along with US-controlled NATO. Morality and regard for human life have little to do with geopolitics, whose proponents tend to suffer from inconsistency and hypocrisy…
“…As we start to conclude, bearing in mind our starting point that the current disorder is directly related to the quality of our alleged leaders, who no longer seem to have the space to reflect on reality, let us mention the German Green Party: it has transmogrified from a peace-loving, environment-loving movement to a war-mongering anti-Russian party. It is bizarre that a youngish woman, Annalena Baerbok, is a Green, and German Foreign Minister, doing all she can to promote NATO’s anti-Russia agenda. In this connexion, I wonder if any of you has noticed the increase in the number of youngish women politicians in Europe, presumably in the name of having to be politically correct and wokish. A recent photograph of foreign ministers of the G7 shows four women and four men. The women are all wearing trousers. One is inclined to wonder whether one day some of the men will be wearing skirts or dresses. Even the revered and reviled Margaret Thatcher would wear a dress. Should anyone think that I am tending towards misogyny, think again: one of the most impressive women on the world stage is the Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova. She makes Baerbok look like a small-minded and badly educated child, just as Sergei Lavrov does. Indeed, the quality of Russian officials reflects a superior education and knowledge of history, as well as a sense of decent manners.
“If you have got this far, you may agree that it is time to conclude. As a former diplomat turned historian of diplomatic history, this is what I have gathered, simply put: following the West’s failure to westernise Russia during the Yeltsin years, it was unable to accept this failure, since the NATO business juggernaut had no reverse gear. Once atavistically anti-Russian Poland and the Baltic statelets had jumped on the bandwagon, prodded by the US and EU, it was only a question of time before Moscow would have to react in one way or another. NATO’s eastward expansion continued, for no logical reason. The Maidan coup was the last straw, when the Donbas was attacked. The Kiev regime began to kill Russian-speakers, and despite the Minsk agreements, Kiev did not honour them. Moscow felt morally obliged to help its Russians. To cut a long and tortuous story short, there is now a proxy war between NATO and Moscow. NATO has no reverse gear, and the low-quality western ‘leaders’ are simply not up to the job.
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/ukrainian-stupidity-and-the-death-of-leadership-only-history-exists/

Posted by: bevin | Jun 13 2022 0:43 utc | 256

Remember, Informed Rants are the best rants. Ad Hominin or Straw Man rants go down in flames here as they should.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 12 2022 22:39 utc | 229
Are you by any chance related to the guy creaming himself over the possibility of a nuclear strike on Faslane in Scotland? Roughly six months ago?
Asking as someone living not a million miles away who may be affected by fallout.

Posted by: Cortes | Jun 13 2022 0:46 utc | 258

Posted by: the pessimist | Jun 12 2022 17:46 utc | 114
About IMF loans. At the following link Andrew Cockburn wrote an expose off how Zelensky’s sponsor Igor Kolomoisky stole roughly $1.8 BILLION in IMF loan monies.
Undelivered Goods How $1.8 billion in aid to Ukraine was funneled to the outposts of the international finance galaxy
A local Ukrainian immigrant had a drive to get medical equipment to the Ukraine military. After I read the story it was about how the poor guy and buddies have had sneak the supplies into the country to avoid theft. It could have easily been a story about smuggling drugs into a country.
I assume that any monetary or others types of aids will be stolen by the high level oligarchs or local Nazis and criminal mobs. And yes, everyday Ukrainians will suffer for it.
When I read the story about how USA intelligence has no transparency into Ukraine, made sense to me. It is impossible to track the corruption that runs up and down all Ukrainian institutions. For all we know, the oligarchs and henchmen may be selling M777 for its titanium.

Posted by: Erelis | Jun 13 2022 1:02 utc | 260

@212 Karl Friedrich | Jun 12 2022 21:34 utc
There’s a really good write up about these Su-57s and their link up over at Stalker Zone. The author seems to know not only his military aeronautics but also the progression of the RF testing, and from a professional level.
As you conclude in your point #4, Russia indeed does have a near-peer environment to battle-test its 5th Generation warfare (and the US does not!). You will enjoy this article – and if it hasn’t already been linked here, I recommend this view of how Russia is figuring out its new way of warfare:
NATO Is in Thought: The Russians Are Learning to Walk On Their Heads!
This is the beginning of US air superiority yielding to Russian air superiority – for real, as a generational advance.
According to the article, Shoigu tested linking planes back in 2019, and they passed all their tests. Now in Ukraine a real-time war test has been mounted and has succeeded.
The principle is roughly that of having up to six Su-57s in a battle group, with the group commander able to fire weapons from any and all of the other five. Enemy radar is blinded, numerous drones at various altitudes are destroyed (100%), and enemy planes in the space are destroyed to a 90% probability. With weaponry remaining, ground targets are also taken out.
As the article points out, one such fighter plane can be taken down, whereas two flying together present a very much more difficult proposition. Six of them in a real-time linkage with AI calculations happening across multiple domains: almost impossible to defeat. And, unlike in Syria, the US has no way to engage with this to study it and develop tactical counters.
~~
And further, as stated in the article, the Russians are doing more than simply battle-testing equipment and tactics. They’re redefining for themselves the goals of warfare, the means to achieve those goals, and the geopolitical ramifications of those changes.
A very large thing is happening here, and again I recommend the article at Stalker Zone for a “peek under the hood”.

Posted by: Grieved | Jun 13 2022 1:06 utc | 262

VtObserver #224

Illegal immigration is a toxic to US workers. It is a deliberate policy to drive down wages and force downward convergence between the US economy and feudal regimes in Latin America. To tell people to shut up about it is rank hypocrisy.

Just think that the rest of the people on this planet have waited and watched for a long time for USA people to carry out even a pale white revolution let alone a color one!! Only you can control and or change your leaders.
Get on with it or is 6/1 all you can come up with? Where are your yellow vests commando?
Anti trade unionsm, as perfected in the USA, is the opiate of the masses when it is cut with msm mindless spittal.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jun 13 2022 1:15 utc | 264

@ Scorpion | Jun 12 2022 23:01 utc | 232
I agree with those commenting of both the eloquence and substance of your post on Churchill. Being not so well versed in British history I was struck by the humanizing scenes in “The Crown” regarding Churchill’s repeated painting of the fish pond.
…………….
On the peace negotiation issue I will try to more coherently express my sense of how this might end up. If/when Russia takes control of the Black Sea coast and it becomes crystal clear that no one is going to intervene meaningfully on behalf of the remnant state I believe that much of the (remaining) corrupt political elite will flee as they will be unwilling to face the consequences of a Russian imposed peace. Some kind of governmental entity will be formed at this point that will sit down with Russia to work out the details including a new constitution enforcing neutrality, no foreign bases, rights of minorities, denazification, likely federalized oblasts to reduce ethnic rivalries. I believe that this will involve the entire territory of the former Ukraine up to the Polish border. Perhaps DPR and LPR will end up outside, but I think they will be at the table.
Russia does not need/want a failed state on its border and I believe it will obtain the power to impose such a deal. The Ukraine that emerges must be both economically (and politically) viable and non-threatening to Russia. Russia has experience with governing a large and diverse territory. Buryatia and Yakutia are a long way from Moscow, not to mention the five far eastern provinces, and its overall population is quite diverse. The western oblasts will participate and be included, some way or another.
Once this new arrangement is finalized I think all the bordering countries will be ‘invited’ to witness it and guarantee both its neutrality provisions and state borders. This would be Moldova, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Poland, and Belarus. NATO will not be invited and will have no say. Perhaps the guarantee of neutrality will be endorsed in writing by the EU.
This seems like a tall order, but I believe Russia can accomplish it and Ukraine will help them do it – at some point in the not too distant future.
I think the SMO will continue until such a deal is possible.

Posted by: the pessimist | Jun 13 2022 1:41 utc | 266

scorpion
Lord Randolph, Winston’s father, was a son of the Duke of Marlborough, although, when Lord Randolph was born, his father had not yet succeeded to his grandfather’s title. He was only the son of a Marquess in that Marquess of Blandford is the courtesy title of the Marlborough heir.
On his mother, Jennie’s, side Churchill was the grandson of Leonard Jerome who was a very rich businessman of the Gilded Age.
The real aristocrat in the Churchill milieu however was Moreton Frewen, his uncle, a descendant of the oldest family in England (by his own account) a supporter of WJ Bryan in the 1896 Election, a Wyoming rancher and, I suspect, one of the models for Tietjens in FM Ford’s famous No More Parades set of four novels. He was connected to Ukraine by way of being the landlord of Ukraine’s finest novelist: known in England as Joseph Conrad.
I suspect it was to Moreton that oldhippie was referring.
Doctorow in Estonia.
He mentions these astonishing facts. They are precedents for the sort of galloping fascism that led to Ukraine undertaking the anti-Russian policies that it has. And at every stage both NATO and the EU could easily have persuaded the Latvians or Ukrainians to act with more decency. In doing so they would have sdded credibility to their “human rights’ reputations. Instead the bigots, fascists and reactionaries have been welcomed into “Europe” no questions asked. Except one “Will you solemnly swear to do as Washington tells you?” :
“The most egregious violator of the human rights of their Russian speaking residents is Latvia, where the percentage of Russians holding Latvian passports at the time of national independence in 1991 was 40% or more. Latvia then stripped of citizenship all those who had settled in their country after 1939, effectively making 300,000 Russian speakers stateless. They also subjected these Russian speakers to restrictions on their property rights and on employment possibilities, including the levels to which they could rise. Effectively Latvia installed an Apartheid regime which they maintain to this day, whatever mouth honor is given to “European values.” Moreover, Latvia also tolerates fascist parades honoring Nazi collaborators from WWII, similar to the Bandera movement in Ukraine. And it has closed down public and church schools that conduct classes in Russian. Given the country’s shortage of teachers generally, this means that many students learn their lessons in the broken Latvian of their native Russian speaker educators.”

Posted by: bevin | Jun 13 2022 1:53 utc | 268

several professionally made frontline pieces (i.e. understand it’s filtered to a degree by some authorities). correspondents of the FAN news agency. vids all Russian, text can be auto-translated.
Personal-interview vignettes with some mostly older fellas, in a DNR unit holding position still, for now, near Ugledar
https://riafan.ru/23481141-_vsushniki_borzeyut_no_mi_ih_nakazivaem_reportazh_fan_s_peredovoi_v_donbasse
More conventional reporting, unit near Izyum facing more intense fighting
https://riafan.ru/23475080-legenda_o_besstrashii_korrespondent_fan_rasskazivaet_o_rabote_otryada_don_na_peredovoi
And from the cat video unit
https://riafan.ru/23478807-ukrainskii_kot_pod_popasnoi_pereshel_na_storonu_rossiiskih_dobrovol_tsev

Posted by: ptb | Jun 13 2022 1:59 utc | 270

Posted by: njet | Jun 12 2022 22:00 utc | 221
The French are suffering from their meaningless and minor role in the US geopolitics and strategies, but never dared to broke with the USA (because of US controlled media, of course, hahaha).
Is that actually your answer ? Are you sure you tried to understand what I had written? You even quoted it in that comment #221 of your, before nonsensically answering.
Look at it. I would like to not repeat it one more time :
for almost half a century, France stayed outside of NATO (approximately from 1960 to 2010).
Ho, for your information, “of course, hahaha” is not an evidence or a point, only a strong cue of lacking thereof.

Posted by: Parisian Guy | Jun 13 2022 2:18 utc | 272

This seems like a tall order, but I believe Russia can accomplish it and Ukraine will help them do it – at some point in the not too distant future.
Posted by: the pessimist | Jun 13 2022 1:41 utc | 266
Not a tall order at all but the most realistic and feasible resolution of the problem. I am sure the majority of people of Ukraine (except the extremists) would welcome such an arrangement.

Posted by: Pagan | Jun 13 2022 2:41 utc | 274

MarkU@271
You are absolutely correct in my opinion. And right to correct mine. The answer of course is a political campaign that draws the links between the callous treatment of workers and peasants elsewhere- Iraq, Colombia?- and the same attitude of mind towards working people- “We can get Syrian refugees who will work twice as hard for half as much”- in the metropole.
So far as the Democrats are concerned their real hypocrisy is in their refusal to take measures to reverse the destruction of Trade Unions. A refusal which is probably supported by the bosses of all the powerful Unions, who fear nothing more than the sort of mass organising movement which the current economy is making inevitable.
In that sort of situation mass immigration becomes a positive boon to the working class by bringing new energy and desperation to the struggle.

Posted by: bevin | Jun 13 2022 2:47 utc | 276

@266 A scene from the ‘The Gathering Storm’ may be of interest..
https://youtu.be/BvaVh6WGPE0

Posted by: dh | Jun 13 2022 2:55 utc | 278

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 12 2022 20:02 utc | 178
“I am reading the Ukraine will be granted access to the NATO umbrella as early as next week”
What “NATO umbrella”? Links, please.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Jun 13 2022 3:09 utc | 280

Once this new arrangement is finalized I think all the bordering countries will be ‘invited’ to witness it and guarantee both its neutrality provisions and state borders. This would be Moldova, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Poland, and Belarus. NATO will not be invited and will have no say. Perhaps the guarantee of neutrality will be endorsed in writing by the EU.
This seems like a tall order, but I believe Russia can accomplish it and Ukraine will help them do it – at some point in the not too distant future.
I think the SMO will continue until such a deal is possible.
Posted by: the pessimist | Jun 13 2022 1:41 utc | 266
I think that point about NATO not being involved is probably going to prove right, certainly in terms of Ukraine if it doesn’t simply cease to exist as such at some point or reform with a new constitution etc.
But if so then Russia will be in no position to dictate what NATO does or doesn’t do which many here are saying has to be addressed so that they go back to 1997 status.
Geopolitically, however, the name of the game is to prostrate the West. That should knock the stuffing out of NATO. I suspect one main goal is to get the US out of Europe. After that they can begin to work on getting the Germans to do what’s right for their people at which point the German people might be willing to ensure it happens too.
Time will tell.

Posted by: Scorpion | Jun 13 2022 3:20 utc | 282

keeping russia outside the ”european umbrella” works against europe…its a design flaw straight from usa-uk… europe is too thick to pick up on it though..

Posted by: james | Jun 13 2022 3:44 utc | 284

Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 13 2022 3:21 utc | 283
Joining the EU is not the same as being in NATO – it provides no “NATO umbrella”.
And even if it did, NATO isn’t going to do squat in Ukraine. The politicians may not be aware of losing thirty NATO-Russia war games, but the military certainly is.
Not to mention that this is Zelenskyy talking – and absolutely nothing he says is to be taken seriously.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Jun 13 2022 3:54 utc | 286

sln2002 | Jun 12 2022 23:53 utc | 243
Do you now anything about titanium production? Sponge is meaningless. Its turning the sponge into titanium plate, sheet, forgings, then there is the machining. All Boeing forged and machined parts came from Russia. Plate sheet and tube would be easy to replace but not the production lines for forging and machining. Not to mention extra capacity required for converting extra sponge to solid metal.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Jun 13 2022 4:05 utc | 288

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mr Macron pushed even harder for an EU Army, saying the bloc could no longer rely on NATO or the United States for protection. The French President has also called on EU members to make themselves available to act independently of the US and NATO, stating: “Europe has to accept it must pay the price for peace.” Mr Macron said in March: “We cannot let others defend ourselves; whether on land, at sea, under the sea, in the air, in space or in cyberspace… Our European defence must take a new step”.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 13 2022 4:10 utc | 290

Posted by: Parisian Guy | Jun 13 2022 2:18 utc | 272
France stayed outside of NATO (approximately from 1960 to 2010).
For a Parisian, (and I assume French), you’re astonishingly uninformed or you assume we are.
France was a founding member of Nato and was always a member. de Gaulle removed France from Nato’s integrated command because he couldn’t stand the thought of the American Generals (as a French General himself) commanding France’s military and most importantly, he didn’t want American “oversight” of Frances’ nukes. That would nullify any and all claims to French Independence.
Removing France from Nato’s integrated command simply meant that French politicians, not American ones, got the final say whenever the French military (and nukes) were deployed.
So while France wasn’t in Nato’s miltary command hierarchy, it certainly was in Nato.
So pls spare us the uninformed blabber. (Being charitable here and not saying you’re lying!)

Posted by: KyleKoffler | Jun 13 2022 4:46 utc | 292

Putin always wanted to be part of Europe and rightfully so. It explains a lot of his kowtowing to the west over the years.
They never forgave him for taking back Russia from the evil financial predators of the west, under Gorbachev & drunken yelstin.
The only way this world has any future is to rid the world of Zionist capatialism. Here’s hoping.

Posted by: Karl luck | Jun 13 2022 5:05 utc | 294

I believe that Putin spelled out everything they wanted in the weeks leading up to crossing the line. Independent Donbas, Luhansk and Donetsk. Secure travel to Crimea. Ukraine neutral and not in NATO.
I don’t think that Russia wants the headache or the cost of occupying Ukraine. Let it collapse into a unstable republic and use it as rump state buffer against NATO.
Maybe send in advisors and engineers to help rebuild the infrastructure and assist in the war crimes trials against the government members and those in the National Guard (at least three units were militia units that preached racial cleansing and white supremacy, the “Nazis” about which Putin spoke.)
A significant group of loans, to keep the both the EU and “Belt and Road” off Russian turf. maybe assuming full control over the three pipelines running through the Ukraine.
Reductions in the Ukraine military, some supervision over government.

Posted by: JHW | Jun 13 2022 5:13 utc | 296

Karl luck | Jun 13 2022 5:05 utc | 294
“Putin always wanted to be part of Europe and rightfully so.”
You’re half right.

Posted by: Flying Dutchman | Jun 13 2022 5:22 utc | 298

Bottom line: Ukraine has no “umbrella” and won’t get one.
The entire narrative is collapsing. Within a couple months, everyone will be bailing out and throwing Ukraine and Zelenskyy under a bus to save their own (economic) skins.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Jun 13 2022 5:34 utc | 300