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Ukraine – The Bear Caught The Kraken By Using This Trick
This is the map that shows the historic development of Ukraine.
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Russia is, in my opinion, aiming at taking the pink and yellow parts which have predominantly Russian speaking populations. The most north- western pink oblast is Kharkov which is also the name of the oblast's main city.
On March 1 the city was already under attack.
Source: LiveUAmap – bigger
There were a number of artillery impacts (red dots) on military targets in and around the city.
But the situation soon stagnated. The current mayor or Kharkov Igor Terekhov was on the side of the Zelenski regime. The rowdy soccer fans of the city's main club had formed the original Azov regiment. A militia group that split from them at the start of the war were the Kraken:
The Kraken unit was formed by Azov Battalion veterans on the day Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, a military spokesman said. That makes the Krakens something like a kid brother to the older Azov unit, whose fighters achieved world renown status last month for their epic last stand inside Azovstal, a sprawling steel complex in the port city of Mariupol.
Like the Azov fighters, whose name comes from the Sea of Azov, the regiment's name and insignia evoke a different maritime theme: the kraken, a mythical sea monster resembling a giant squid.
Their commander is Konstantin V. Nemichev, a political and military figure in Kharkiv. The son of a schoolteacher and an electrician, Nemichev, 26, launched a political career in the right-wing National Corps party before he graduated from college, including an unsuccessful bid last year to become Kharkiv's mayor. He drew heavily on the support of rowdy young soccer fans, many of whom now serve in his unit.
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The Kraken unit operates somewhat in a gray zone — a force that answers to the Defense Ministry but is not part of Ukraine's armed forces. Soldiers in Ruska Lozova say the unit has about 1,800 soldiers. The military spokesman declined to say how many serve in the unit.
The Kraken follow, like Azov, a fascist ideology. The mayor and the Kraken units had prepared for fighting within and around the city. They had fortified areas and took positions in houses that faced the Russian lines.
The Russian attackers did not want to destroy the city and its Russian inhabitants. They never were ordered to launch an all out attack. Over several months the positions on either side hardly changed. This is the map of the situation on May 1.
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The western side of the map the Russian held territory had been given up after the move on Kiev had been reversed. On the eastern side they had gained the area around Iizum. But the fighting around Kharkov had continued for more than two months with nearly unchanged lines.
Then something curious happened. In an orderly move the Russian forces around Kharkov began to pull back. Here are the positions on May 15.
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The Ukrainian military and the Kraken felt victorious. They had 'defeated' the enemy. They left their prepared positions in and around the city to pursued the Russian forces which continued to move back. They did not smell the trap.
Here is the situation on May 31.
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The defenders of Kharkov were now in small towns or the open country side. Since the end of May the map showed few changes but daily heavy bombardment of Ukrainian units.
On June 5 Stars & Stripes reported:
The Kraken unit — which in recent weeks has helped take back villages north of Kharkiv — filled its ranks with "gym rats," bouncers and "ultras," the professional soccer fans who sometimes showed their love for Kharkiv's Metalist team with riotous behavior.
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But their unit also draws veterans from the regular army, battle-tested paramilitary fighters from Donbas and other volunteers who range in age from 25 to 60.
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By the time the Kraken unit liberated this suburban village of about 5,000 people at the end of April, many had fled. Maleev estimated Tuesday that only 200 or so remained in what amounted to a newly liberated ghost town. Few here even stepped outside as Ukrainian and Russian forces continued to trade mortar fire.
Much of the village has also been damaged or destroyed, including the Church of St. Nicholas, the village council building and a small hospital. Elsewhere, a tidy row of beehives stood in a field near houses whose heavy wooden roof beams had been snapped and charred.
The report mentioned that there were several Russian drones in the air above the unit. The soldiers hide from them. It is not the only one that has been drawn out of Kharkov city and received such treatment.
Since the end of May Russian artillery as well as aerial bombing has been raining down on them day by day. It achieved the desired results. The Ukrainian militia had significant losses.
On June 26 the Russian Defense Ministry mentioned the Kraken in its daily report:
Attack launched by Russian artillery near Pitomnik (Kharkov region) has resulted in the elimination of up to 100 militants from Kraken Nazi group and about 10 units of combat equipment. Commanders of the militants have decided to abandon the positions and to withdraw the rest of this unit to Kharkov.
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High-precision attacks launched by Russian Aerospace Forces have resulted in the elimination of 4 command posts, including those of Kharkov-1 and Kharkov-2 Territorial Defence battalions near Kharkov, as well as a training base of mercenaries deployed near Nikolayev.
Some 100 dead and four command post on one day is quite a bit. But those were not the only attacks that day and the campaign ran for over 30 days. President Putin's order to 'demilitarize' and 'denazify' the Ukraine gets executed well.
Here is the situation on June 30.
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After a full month of such artillery preparations, which heavily diminished the units that originally had been protecting Kharkov, the Russians are again on the move.
The person who runs the excellent Military Summary And Analysis channel reported today (vid) that today several towns on the Kharkov frontline had been retaken by the Russians. (That is not yet reflected in the pro-Ukrainian LiveUAmap we both are using here.) He painted arrows on the map that show the future Russian movements he anticipates to happen.
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It is another pincer move on Kharkov. A third arrow could probably be pointed from the Izium area southeast of Kharkov which the Russians have under their control.
The Russian trick to catch the kraken has worked. For more than two month they had been trying to take Kharkov without destroying it. The fortified positions in and around the city had made that impossible.
The controlled move back to the border area drew the defenders of Kharkov out into open fields where the Russian artillery then had a full month time to hunt them down. Now, as the enemy has been decimated, the Russian move towards Kharkov can be renewed.
As Martyanov says, amateurs versus professionals, plus an added dose of believing your own propaganda. In essence, friendly fire killed the Kraken. And as I continue to write, Russia’s in no hurry and aims to preserve as much of its troops and limit civilian casualties and infrastructure damage.
Everyday Russia, China and the Global South get stronger while the Outlaw US Empiere and its vassals get weaker. Yesterday Lavrov met with his Belarus counterpart and President Lukashenko and pressers followed. The transcripts are both available in English. The first, Lavrov’s comment for the Belarusian media following talks with President of the Republic of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko, followed a review of the current situation and summation of his talks with Lukashenko and shows that neither Russia or Belarus are in any hurry to solve their issues with the West:
Question: During the meeting, you said that building a European security model would be impossible without Belarus and Russia. Is the West beginning to wake up to this fact? Will they be ready to engage in equal dialogue one day?
Sergey Lavrov: In this context, some reasonable voices have been piercing the Russophobic chorus, with calls to keep in mind that one day they will have to resume dialogue and cooperation. We are ready and we never avoid any contacts. However, we know what the obligations the West assumes are worth, considering the bitter experience with all the lies we have witnessed over the past 30 years, related to European security. We are always open to dialogue. So let us hear what the West has to offer.
This position was reiterated at the second presser. Here’s a segment of Lavrov’s statement prior to the Q&A:
We are seriously concerned about NATO’s activities in close vicinity to our borders, primarily in the Baltic states and Poland. We share the opinion that these activities are openly confrontational and tend to lead to more tensions, as well as the division of the European security and cooperation space, that is, they are producing the results which the establishment of the OSCE was supposed to help prevent. Now they are dismantling all this with their own hands, waiving, among other things, the principle of indivisible security, which was publicly declared at the highest level in the OSCE in the late 1990s and in 2010, when it was said that no country should enhance its security at the expense of others. The West’s actions have buried this principle.
In the light of the manifestly unfriendly steps taken by the United States and its satellites towards our countries, we reaffirmed that we are firmly determined to further preclude any attempts by the West to interfere in our domestic affairs. We agreed to continue to join efforts to oppose illegitimate unilateral actions by Washington, Brussels and their allies in the international arena.
IMO, this was the most important of the Q&As:
Question: Will it be possible to restore more or less acceptable political and diplomatic relations with EU countries in the future? Will there be another Iron Curtain? Do we have a bloc like NATO or the EU?
Sergey Lavrov (adding after Vladimir Makei): I agree with almost all of that. As for our relations with the EU, Russia has not had them since 2014. Brussels swallowed the humiliating move by the opposition forces which perpetrated a coup in Ukraine in defiance of EU guarantees. In response, the Crimea residents refused to live in a neo-Nazi state. Ukraine’s eastern regions did the same, and the European Union failed to muster enough courage to talk sense into the putschists who carried out an illegal power grab, and in fact began to support them in their attack, including physical, on the people of Crimea and eastern Ukraine. When the referendum took place in Crimea and the DPR and the LPR were proclaimed, the European Union, instead of pushing for compliance with the agreements between President Yanukovych and the opposition it had co-sponsored, sided with the ultranationalist and deep down neo-Nazi regime which proclaimed fighting the Russian language and culture as its goal. In the years that followed, the regimes led by Poroshenko and Zelensky proved Kiev’s loyalty to this particular course.
In 2014, when it all happened, the EU, feeling powerless and aware of its own inability to enforce implementation of its own proposals, said the Russian Federation was to blame. It imposed sanctions on our country and cancelled the Russia-EU summit planned for June 2014, destroyed every other mechanism that it took us decades to create, such as biannual summits, annual meetings between the Russian Government and the European Commission, four common spaces that underlay four road maps, 20 sector-specific dialogues, including a dialogue on visa-free travel and much more. All of that was ruined overnight. Relations have been non-existent since then. There were occasional technical contacts, but nothing major. No wonder there are no relations now, but we never close ourselves off. From now on, we will never trust the Americans or the EU. We are doing our best not to depend on them in the sectors that are critically important for survival of the state, the people and our security. When and if they get over their obsession and come back with some kind of a proposal, we will see what exactly it is about. We will not play along with their self-serving plans. If it comes to resuming the dialogue, we will push for a level playing field for everyone and a focus on balancing the interests of all participants on an equal footing.
With regard to the Iron Curtain, it is already on its way down. They should make sure they don’t get anything caught in it as it goes down. In all other matters, we have a straightforward position: we are for things being fair.
In 2014, our “partners” refused to hold a summit amid serious events, including a coup, a referendum in Crimea, and a radical change in the situation in the Black Sea region. If you were serious about searching for solutions, this meeting was the way forward. It could have been used to have a candid discussion about the complaints and the counter questions the partners in the Russian Federation had for the EU. The withdrawal from all contacts that took place after March 2014 only goes to show that the EU is not interested in a dialogue, and does not want to understand our interests or listen to what we have to say. What it wants is for everyone to agree with the Brussels’ decisions which are a carbon copy of the decisions made in Washington. We have been able to see that in recent years. [My Emphasis]
And so, it ought to be easy to see why Russia’s in no hurry as it wants to make the force of events and reality cure Europeans politicos of “their obsession” that will in turn free them from their bondage to the Outlaw US Empire. It’s been eight years already, but Russia will wait eight more if that’s what’s required. By then several fait accomplis will have occurred altering the previous status quo. IMO, it won’t be another eight years given the economic impact of the illegal sanctions on Europe. I give it two years.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 1 2022 18:27 utc | 19
Posted by: karlof1 | Jul 1 2022 18:27 utc | 19
The quote you give at 19. It leaves me quite at sea. Lavrov says – “As for our relations with the EU, Russia has not had them since 2014. Brussels swallowed the humiliating move by the opposition forces which perpetrated a coup in Ukraine in defiance of EU guarantees.”
That is quite at variance with the part the EU actually played in Ukrainian affairs pre- and during 2014. Setting aside all else – and there was plenty else – the Nuland tape showed that Brussels was involved in the pre-coup activity as well as the US. The Ashton tape also showed EU involvement in Ukrainian internal politics.
On pre-2014 EU activities, these went hand in hand with intended NATO expansion in the pre-2014 period and were fully as significant. On that, the English EU authority, Dr Richard North, was explicit.
In this article Dr North writes on the comprehensive free trade agreements that were part of the Association agreement:-
http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.php?blogno=85045
Extract from the above:-
“There should thus be no mistake. These (EU) agreements are not about increasing trade in sunflower seeds and walnuts. They are an attempt by the EU to become a regional force that can project power, right up to the Russian border. Just don’t expect the BBC or other British media to tell you.
“The Daily Telegraph, for instance, also omits the defence pact details. It simply reports on the “landmark economic trade pact”, the signing prompting “a furious response from the Kremlin”. Even the US press doesn’t get it. It talks of an “economic pact” and then has Grigory Karasin, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, warning in rather vague terms of “serious consequences”.
“The Russian news agency, ITAR-TASS, however, is more informative. It has the Russian Foreign Ministry stating that: “the EU counterparts failed to prove the association agreements’ advantage”, expressing concerns that “the rupture of trade and economic relations with our neighbours can damage the Russian economy”.”
A further article looked at EU expenditure on the project:–
http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.php?blogno=84781
Extract from above:-
“The extent of funding to the Eastern Partnership is colossal. Between 2011 and 2013, just EU spending on Ukraine was €389 million with €13,524,357 given to single beneficiaries in 2012. As much again was given to multiple recipients. But even more sinister is the way money was parcelled out to NGOs in relatively small packages, making a little go a long way.””
And a further article examines the implications of the Association Agreement:-
http://www.eureferendum.com/blogview.php?blogno=84766
Extract from above:-
“Go back a little, to December 2011, and you can see the game the EU was playing with its Association Agreement. The aim was, it said, “to accelerate the deepening of political and economic relations between Ukraine and the EU, as well as Ukraine’s gradual integration in the EU Internal Market including by setting up a deep and comprehensive free trade area (DCFTA)”.
“The Agreement was a “concrete way to exploit the dynamics in EU-Ukraine relations, focusing on support to core reforms, on economic recovery and growth, governance and sector co-operation”. It was also seen as “a reform agenda for Ukraine, around which all Ukraine’s partners can align themselves and focus their assistance”.
“Thus the EU saw itself as the spearhead around which western penetration could be organised, including US aid.
“But this was always much more than a series of isolated association agreements with individual countries. It was very much part of a concerted programme to detach Russia from its allies, under a programme called the “Eastern Partnership policy”, encompassing Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.”
One cannot look at all that, in conjunction with NATO expansion in the region, and claim there was no concerted effort to bring the boundaries of the EU – and of NATO – right up to the borders of the RF.
Most of the information and analysis of the Ukrainian war comes from American authorities. As Baud points out, it would scarcely be possible to find one’s way round the subject without those sources. Maybe for this reason there is a tendency to overlook the part Brussels played in the expansion of Western military power and influence to the borders of the RF.
But it was a necessary component of that expansion. NATO and the EU went hand in hand.
How then can Lavrov imply that the EU was not complicit in the events in the Ukraine of 2014? Surely “…Brussels swallowed the humiliating move by the opposition forces which perpetrated a coup in Ukraine in defiance of EU guarantees” does imply that the EU was not complicit, whereas the extracts and references above show quite the opposite.
Posted by: English Outsider | Jul 1 2022 20:25 utc | 38
it fronts on the Indo-Pacific
Posted by: Don Bacon | Jul 1 2022 21:10 utc | 51
NATO (1949 mil): US (CENTCOM, AFRICOM, EUCOM, NORTHCOM, INDOPACOM, SOUTHCOM, SPACECOM), EU-EEA, CA, AU*, NZ*
APEC (1989 FTA): CN, CN-hk, CN-tw, RU, ID, SG, VN, TH, PH, MX, PE, CL, BN, PG, MY, KR; US, AU, JP, NZ, CA
OAS (1978 NGO): AG, AR, BB, BS, BZ, BO, CL, CO, CU, CR, DM, EC, SV, GD, GT, GY, HN, HT, JM, KN, MX, NI, PA, PY, PE, SL, UY, VZ; US, CA
* observer, dialogue, or applicant member
Posted by: sln2002 | Jul 1 2022 22:20 utc | 65
Posted by: ptb | Jul 1 2022 22:52 utc | 78
Grain-laden vessel leaves Ukrainian port – official, Russian escort service
Evgeny Balitsky, the self-described “head of the military-civil administration of Zaporozhsky Region,” made the announcement on his Telegram channel.
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He noted that several Russian Navy warships were providing protection for the vessel. Balitsky also pointed out that the city and its harbor are “completely safe” after the Russian Navy removed mines from there.
MEANWHILE … Uncle Volody’s telethon pivots to South America. APsplains,
The conversations with Alberto Fernández of Argentina and Gabriel Boric of Chile came a little more than two weeks after Zelenskyy spoke with Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso and Guatemalans President Alejandro Giammattei.
At the time, Zelenskyy said in a speech that the conversations with Lasso and Giammattei marked “the beginning of our new policy of restoring relations with Latin America.” […] Zelenskyy wrote that he thanked [Chile Pres Gabriel] Boric for his country’s support in the United Nations and “discussed the possibility of involving Chilean specialists in demining.”
CELAC (2013 NGO): AG, AR, BS, BB, BZ, BO, BR, CL, CL-rn, CO, CR, CU, DM, EC, SV, GD, GT, GY, HN, HT, JM, KN, LC, MX, NI, PA, PY, PE, PR, SR, VC, VZ
OAS (1978 NGO): AG, AR, BB, BS, BZ, BO, CL, CO, CU, CR, DM, EC, SV, GD, GT, GY, HN, HT, JM, KN, MX, NI, PA, PY, PE, SL, UY, VZ; US, CA
Posted by: sln2002 | Jul 1 2022 23:30 utc | 85
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