Ukraine's Mystic Kherson Offensive Did Not, And Will Not Happen
There has been much talk in 'western' media about a Ukrainian offensive in the southern Kherson region. However most of the claims made about it seem to be divorced from the observable realities on the ground. The detailed look below provides that there is no such offensive and that there is little chance that there will ever be one.
The purported offensive has for months been a core talking point:
- Ukraine Battle Expands as Kyiv Launches Counteroffensive - New York Times - May 29, 2022
- Ukraine Regains Some Territory in Counter-Offensive in Kherson Area - Defence Ministry - Reuters - Jun 9, 2022
- Near Kherson, Ukrainians regain territory in major counteroffensive - Washington Post - Jun 29, 2022
- Ukraine prepares a counter-offensive to retake Kherson province - Economist - Jul 3, 2022
- Kherson cut off: Ukrainian counter-offensive gaining momentum in southern city - Fox News - Jul 29, 2022
Lets look at the map of the Kherson area and how it has changed over time. LiveUAmap, the source used here for these maps, is know to be more in favor of Ukrainian claims than Russian ones. The red parts are held by Russian forces.
This is the Kherson area as depicted on May 13, 2022:
Source LiveUAmap 13.5. - bigger
This is the Kherson area as depicted on May 14, 2022:
Source LiveUAmap 14.5. - bigger
We see that the maintainers of LiveUAmap kept the front line as it was, but added a gray zone on the Ukrainian side. I am not sure what it is supposed to show. It may designate the extend to which forward Russian reconnaissance units had been observed during their February-March offensive in the area. Since then the gray area has for some become the 'success' of a 'Ukrainian counter-offensive'. But Russian forces had never held onto that gray zone nor was there any significant fighting about it.
This is the Kherson area as depicted today, August 12, 2022:
Source LiveUAmap 12.8. - bigger
I see two small differences between the May 14 map and the current one. On the west side the minor settlement of Pravdyne and the fields around it have changed hands.
Source LiveUAmap 14.5. - bigger
Source LiveUAmap 12.8. - bigger
Another change happened around a small river at the norther part of the front line south of Kvkaz. The May 14 front line there was simplified as being straight. The real front line ran along the winded Ingulets river in that area.
Source LiveUAmap 14.5. - bigger
At the beginning of June Ukrainian forces crossed the river around the towns Davydiv Brid, Bilohirka and Adriivka only to get slaughtered by Russian artillery. The area has since been no man's land.
Source LiveUAmap 12.8. - bigger
One small town retaken and a failed river crossing attempt is all the much vaunted Kherson offensive has achieved since May.
That may well be because, despite the noise, there has been and will be no Ukrainian Kherson offensive. For the Ukrainian leaders in Kiev that offensive is only a joke.
On August 9 Zelenski advisor Mikhail Podolyak talked with a Ukrainian language BBC outlet. The Ukrainian Ctrana online news site reported about it (machine translation):
Podolyak called the words about the counterattack on Kherson "part of the information and psychological operation"Reports of counteroffensives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the southern direction are part of the "information-psychological special operation."
This was stated by adviser to the head of the OP Mikhail Podolyak in an interview with the BBC.
"Was it the IPSO? Of course, today all public comments are part of the IPSO. We need to demoralize the Russian army. They must understand that there will always be a territory of fire," he said.
Nevertheless, Podolyak clarified that "the events on the Antonovsky bridge show that it is essential for us to liberate Kherson" (as the only regional center that was under the occupation of the Russian Federation after February 24).
"And therefore, our army is already taking certain actions for this today," he said.
That news did not reach the Washington Post propagandist David Ignatius. On August 11 he still lauded the non-existing 'southern offensive':
A southern offensive opens in the Ukraine war
The grinding war of attrition in Ukraine might be entering a new phase as the Ukrainian military prepares an offensive to recover occupied land in the southern region surrounding Kherson, and Russia escalates its rhetoric by charging that the United States “is directly involved in the conflict.”Ukraine appears to have begun its new southern campaign with a bold attack Tuesday on a Russian air base in Crimea, along the Black Sea coast.
...
With its long-anticipated southern offensive, Ukraine evidently hopes to regain momentum against Russian forces that have suffered heavy losses of soldiers and equipment since they invaded on Feb. 24. At a time when Russia is strained and vulnerable, Ukrainian leaders want to show that they can reclaim lost ground and ultimately prevail.
On August 12, a day after the Ignatius screed was published, four Washington Post reporters painted a different picture:
On the Kherson front lines, little sign of a Ukrainian offensive
MYKOLAIV REGION, Ukraine — On the front line in southeast Ukraine, there is little sign that a major counteroffensive is brewing.For weeks, Western intelligence and military analysts have predicted that a Ukrainian campaign to retake the strategic port city of Kherson and surrounding territory is imminent. But in trenches less than a mile from Russia’s positions in the area, Ukrainian soldiers hunker down from an escalating onslaught of artillery, with little ability to advance.
...
The progress Ukrainian forces had made here in recent months — recapturing a string of villages from Russia’s control — has largely stalled, with soldiers exposed in the open terrain.The roads that soldiers zip along among the scorched wheat fields at the front lines are pockmarked with craters from previous strikes, guided by Russia’s Orlan drones that allow them to pick and choose targets.
“There is nowhere to hide,” said Yuri, who has fought here without a break since the beginning of the war, and like other soldiers did not give his last name, in line with protocol. His unit has a hodgepodge stock: modern antitank weapons and a Soviet machine gun manufactured in 1944, and the focus here is holding the line.
Ukrainian military officials are tight-lipped on any timeline for a wider push, but say they need more supplies of Western weapons before one can happen. Ukraine lacks the capacity to launch a full-scale offensive anywhere along the 1,200-mile front line, one security official conceded.
The area north of Kherson is flat land with open fields. There is no place where one could securely assemble a force big enough to punch through the frontline. Ukrainian units went into hiding in Mykolaiv (Nikolaev in Russian writing) where they have dispersed among the civilian population after several of their concentrations had been attacked by Russian missile forces:
One woman took me to see her daughter’s school, smashed by Russian missiles. Through the broken concrete you could see a shelf of library books exposed to the sun and rain. Instead of blaming Russia for firing missiles at the school, she blamed Ukraine for quartering soldiers there. (..)When I asked her about Putin’s aims, she said: ‘I don’t know. He must have his reasons for what he’s doing.’ Did she think what he was doing was right? ‘I never get involved in politics.’ She mentioned that salaries in Russian-annexed Crimea were higher than in Ukraine. She’d been angry, earlier on in the fighting, when Russian troops were approaching Mykolaiv, about how close Ukrainian armoured vehicles were to her house. She was Russian-born. She was unhappy that Russian language teaching was disappearing from Ukraine. She said people were punished for using Russian.
...
Another well-informed man told me what most locals would not say, that after a devastating strike on a Mykolaiv barracks in March, which killed scores and perhaps hundreds of marines, the authorities adopted a policy of dispersal, with small groups of Ukrainian personnel spending the night in a wide array of buildings, including schools.
The above quoted LRB piece, which mostly takes the Ukrainian side, details the difficulties the Ukrainians have in launching any offensive. (Sorry for the length of the quote but the details matter as they confirm the take above):
When Sasha’s company got to Posad-Pokrovske, they spent the first night in a school. The next day it was flattened in an air strike. They spent the next three and a half months living in concrete pipes under a bridge. ‘I’m already used to it,’ he said. ‘A typical day is they shell and bomb us from morning to night. Mum says, “Where are you?” and I say: “I’m home.” It’s our home now. People say, “We’re looking forward to you coming home,” and we say: “We are home.”’Bodies of dead civilians have been lying unburied in Posad-Pokrovske for months. The soldiers aren’t allowed to collect them; since they’re civilians, it has to be done by the police, and the police don’t come.
...
A handful of villages have been liberated in the north of the Russian bridgehead, and Ukraine has won a toehold on the hostile side of a smaller river, the Ingulets. But mainly the two sides remain a few miles apart, with more lines of artillery further back. In the flat, open landscape, with little cover except the trees along the roads, any attempt by one side to breach the other’s lines is subject to withering fire from anti-tank missiles and guns, or shelling. Both sides launch drones to spy out artillery targets; when the artillery fires, it becomes the target for the other side’s artillery.Russia has an overwhelming advantage in all these areas. It has more artillery guns and rockets than Ukraine, by a large margin. It has more attack planes and helicopters. It has more anti-aircraft missiles to shoot down Ukrainian drones, and a crushing advantage in electronic warfare systems to jam them. ‘It’s easier for them,’ Sasha said. ‘They haul in shells by rail, by the wagonload. They unload them with cranes. They dig shelters with bulldozers. They shoot rockets from morning till night as if they came out of a machine. It’s shameful to admit – they have drones flying over us 24/7 and we have one. Sometimes we can see what they’re up to ... but it’s embarrassing. We don’t have the capability.’
Ukraine has been good at hiding its military, but even so, the absence in Mykolaiv and the surrounding countryside of the signs of a build-up of equipment, troops and supplies that you might expect for a counter-offensive is striking. There’s only so much you can move by night. If Ukraine is using its much vaunted mobilisation to expand its army with new units to retake Kherson, it’s being done with extraordinary stealth – or it’s simply taking a long time to integrate a chaotic array of foreign weapons and untrained recruits. Sasha was coy about his unit’s losses, but he did say they hadn’t been replaced.
No new weapons are coming into the Mykolaiv area. Front line units are depleted and have not been rotated out since March. Russian forces have overwhelming material superiority in the area.
There is no Ukrainian Kherson offensive. There will be no Ukrainian Kherson offensive.
If there will be an offensive in the general area it will be launched by the Russian side which will overrun the few exhausted Ukrainian forces which hold that frontline.
The few Ukrainian operations, missile strikes on bridges that are easily replaced by ferries, sabotage acts on a Crimean air base, are minor pin pricks to the Russian side. They will not change the imbalance of forces or the outcome of the war.
Posted by b on August 12, 2022 at 10:17 UTC | Permalink
next page »counter offensive on Kherson haha what a joke. They've moved on to Crimea now, Kherson is yesterdays news:)
Posted by: Night Tripper | Aug 12 2022 11:16 utc | 2
Summary of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the progress of a special military operation on the territory of Ukraine (12082022)
As a result of the offensive actions of the Allied forces in the Soledar area, the losses of the 14th mechanized brigade of the AFU amounted to more than 2000 people. The remnants of the brigade's personnel were withdrawn by the Ukrainian command to the rear areas.
In the areas of the settlements of Opytne and Nevelskoye of the Donetsk People's Republic, as a result of high-precision strikes by the Russian Aerospace Forces, the losses of the 56th Motorized Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in manpower exceeded 70 percent of the list number.
The personnel of the 23rd battalion of the brigade in full force voluntarily left their combat positions and left for the rear areas.
A high-precision strike by the Russian Aerospace Forces on the temporary deployment point of the 28th mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of the settlement of Novogrigoryevka in the Mykolaiv region destroyed up to 100 militants and nine units of military equipment.
As a result of concentrated fire strikes on the combat positions of Ukrainian nationalists in the Marinka area of the Donetsk People's Republic, the losses of the 3rd battalion of the 66th Mechanized Brigade in manpower amounted to more than 50%.
In addition, as a result of the defeat of the stronghold of the 58th Motorized Infantry Brigade, up to 40 nationalists and five units of automotive equipment were destroyed in the area of the settlement of Zaitsevo of the Donetsk People's Republic.
During the day, five control points were hit, including the 4th tank Brigade in the area of the settlement of Zaliman, Kharkiv region, the 103rd Territorial Defense Brigade in the area of Nikolaevka, Donetsk People's Republic, as well as manpower, weapons, military and special equipment in 157 districts.
Destroyed: a fuel depot for Ukrainian military equipment in the Kurakhovo district of the Donetsk People's Republic, six ammunition depots in the districts of Velikoye Artakovo, Mykolaiv region, Zaliman, Kharkiv region, Kramatorsk, Zaitsevo, Krasnogorovka and Avdiivka of the Donetsk People's Republic.
In the area of the settlement of Chas Yar of the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed an AN/MPQ-64 counter-battery radar station supplied by the US to the Kiev regime.
As part of the counter-battery struggle, four platoons of Grad multiple launch rocket systems were suppressed in the areas of the settlements of Serebryanka, Soledar of the Donetsk People's Republic, Shirokoe and Velikaya Alexandrovka of the Kherson region.
In addition, two artillery platoons of Acacia guns and four platoons of D-30 howitzers were hit at firing positions in the areas of the settlements of Georgievka, Konstantinovka, Novgorodskoye, Veseloye, Andreevka and Dzerzhinsk of the Donetsk People's Republic.
Russian air defense means destroyed five Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles in the areas of the settlements of Egorovka, Spartak of the Donetsk People's Republic, Archangelovka and Volkhov Yar of the Kharkiv region during the day.
In addition, two Haimars multiple rocket launchers were shot down in the air in the area of Novaya Kakhovka and four Alder MLRS shells in the area of Chernobayevka, Kherson region.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 267 aircraft, 146 helicopters, 1,732 unmanned aerial vehicles, 365 anti-aircraft missile systems, 4,293 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 797 multiple rocket launchers, 3,290 field artillery and mortars, as well as 4,844 units of special military vehicles have been destroyed.
Posted by: Summary | Aug 12 2022 11:16 utc | 3
"They shoot rockets from morning till night as if they came out of a machine."
maybe because they did? where does this genius think munitions come from? do you plant a bag of mortar seeds and water it daily?
again...everyone kept whining at the start of the SMO about "russia losing the psyops war" and yet all the ukies have done is put out "clickbait" and then fail to follow up on any of it. same with some people arguing that china is "horrible at propaganda" as if "they suck at producing stupid bullshit" is a valid criticism.
the best "propaganda" is facts on the ground. western MSM can whine about bucha and "derp the poor wiggers in jenny jang" but when someone actually goes to those places - as opposed to "this is johnny CNNtard reporting from berlin" - it's the complete opposite.
but what do you expect from the country where a guy in a dress is a "woman" and elon musk is a "genius" whose electric go-kart company is "worth" more than GM. listening to anything from the US at this point is like giving credence to the crazy guy on the corner covered in his own shit holding a sign about "the end is nigh" or "lizard people molested my dog".
Posted by: the pair | Aug 12 2022 11:19 utc | 4
We see that the maintainers of LiveUAmap kept the front line as it was, but added a gray zone on the Ukrainian side. I am not sure what it is supposed to show. It may designate the extend to which forward Russian reconnaissance units had been observed during their February-March offensive in the area.
Correct it does exactly that (the maximum extend LiveMap itself acknowledged, that is).
Posted by: qqtf | Aug 12 2022 11:31 utc | 5
Whoa amazing overview b, you're absolutely right. The Ukrainians are reduced to hiding by day with depleted and demoralized recruits, and trying to reposition by night, otherwise they get targeted and wiped out. Any staging for an offensive would get smashed to pieces I actually saw a video about that several weeks ago it was just brutal, with massive parallel bombing runs. Their armor is already mostly in ruin, their commanders are too scared to stay with the troops and are hiding, or dead God knows how many command posts have been wiped out. A good chunk of their general staff at least in the air force have been wiped out, it's a bloody massacre at this point. And for what? So the bloody Americans can try and hurt their old adversary. This was supposed to be their big move, destroy the Russian economy with the financial nuclear option that they were conviently threatening for years, then do major provocation, smash the Russian army against the Donbass fortifications, and poof regime change in Moscow. These Neocons are so delusional its scary, and I'd be amazed if Biden can navigate his way to breakfast, never mind analyzing the realpolitik of what's happening.
Posted by: Atreides | Aug 12 2022 11:32 utc | 6
I don't usually repost stuff but this needs to be known...
From Russell "Texas" Bentley on telegram, reposted from "Ukraine Exposed ZOV" also on telegram....
Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, the “second Chernobyl” and innocent Ukraine
Panic reigns in the world media because of the shelling of the largest Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in Europe: the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (sic!) want to arrange a nuclear catastrophe and do not allow the Armed Forces of Ukraine to save the world. The fact that the strikes are being carried out by the Ukrainian side does not bother anyone.
The @rybar team decided to analyze and explain whether a new catastrophe awaits the world, who is to blame and why what is happening is happening.
*Depressurization of reactors
Fans of the series "Chernobyl" are well aware of the reactors, rods, shell damage and other horrors that accompanied the catastrophe of the last century.
*Shelling does not pose a threat to the reactors themselves.
The outer shell of the reactor is one and a half meters of steel and concrete. To destroy it, it is necessary to use tactical nuclear weapons. And the reactor lid can withstand a blow of 20 tons at a speed of 200 km/h.
*But now the Armed Forces of Ukraine are hitting power lines. If the reactors are disconnected from consumers, an emergency shutdown will occur - the ZNPP will not be able to generate electricity.
To stop the reactor is a matter of 10 seconds. But then it needs to be cooled down for another two or three years: to drive water through it so that it does not overheat, since secondary decay of nuclear fuel will occur.
*AFU strikes can lead to a permanent shutdown of the reactor.
It is enough just to disrupt the process of water supply after the failure of the power line. It will no longer be possible to cool down the disconnected reactor. There will be a red-hot air-cooled metal barrel that cannot be started back.
*There will be no threat of a nuclear catastrophe, but with the Zaporizhzhya NPP you will get the classic "then may you not belong to anyone."
Posted by: A.L. | Aug 12 2022 11:33 utc | 7
They have a name for it!
First time I read that Ukrania is fighting an IPSO, Information Psichological Special Operation.
It was clear that one side was battling in the real world and another in Twitter-verse.
"You guys hold the line while we do our major psyops" seems to be the US/UK/Ukro mantra till now.
Posted by: Ricardo Ramirez | Aug 12 2022 11:39 utc | 8
A.L. | Aug 12 2022 11:33 utc | 7
Why not stop all 4 npps? It's not like they're going to let nazis use them and sell power to EU for cheap?
Also, nato is shooting at the used fuel storage. They hope to explode it and get the results of a dirty bomb.
Posted by: rk | Aug 12 2022 11:41 utc | 9
They're saying up to 50 airmen were injured in the strike/sabotage on Saki air base. Satellite images show significant damage to aircraft on aprons.
Posted by: Gerry Bell | Aug 12 2022 12:08 utc | 10
So much for the Kherson offensive.
I had understood that the reason for it in the first place was that Washington needed some action before the midterms. Action that kept the illusion of a Kiev victory alive and thus justified Washington's policy of backing Kiev for a little longer.
I had further understood that Kiev moved forces, particularly artillery, from the Donbas in order to prepare for this "Kherson offensive". And that that weakened the defences opposite Donetsk and allowed the Allied forces to break through.
Suppose I'll find out later whether that understanding was correct. But the key point that I took from the article was the statement from Mikhail Podolyak. On "information-psychological special operations.":-
"Was it the IPSO? Of course, today all public comments are part of the IPSO. We need to demoralize the Russian army. They must understand that there will always be a territory of fire," he said.
In other words, information put out by Kiev is for PR purposes only. It need have no basis in fact. This was conceded in the American press a while ago, though grudgingly. and justified with the assertion that it helped the Ukrainian cause.
And it's mostly that information from Kiev that gets through to the public here, through the MOD, which is unashamedly partisan in any case, and then to the journalists.
I believe more and more are beginning to smell a rat, particularly in what I regard as the central county in the conflict, Germany. The idea that Europe can be regarded merely as an involuntary appendage of Washington is common enough, particularly in the States, but Europe is key to the sanctions war and Germany the central player in that war.
I'm waiting to see what happens when the average German finds out that Scholz and Habeck - and UvdL too - have sold them a pup on the Ukrainian war. And that their politicians and media have been, in the main, merely a conduit for that IPSO coming out of Kiev. Could be interesting.
Posted by: English Outsider | Aug 12 2022 12:10 utc | 11
"There will be a red-hot air-cooled metal barrel that cannot be started back" uh... this is not factually correct. Without cooling water it winds up breaching containment. More Fukushima than Chernobyl (which lost control of its reactor during testing causing an explosion).
Posted by: Goldhoarder | Aug 12 2022 12:19 utc | 12
@English Outsider | Aug 12 2022 12:10 utc | 11
Schlitz said today that Germany will have new infrastructure for gas by mid-2023, but at higher prices. Not a problem then, go for it Schlitz.
from Sputnik today: The APU fired from HIMARS at the Kakhovskaya HPP. Most of the missiles were shot down. There are a few hits, but they are not critical.
Posted by: rk | Aug 12 2022 12:25 utc | 13
The barrage of propaganda coming from Zelensky’s narcotics-distorted face on my screen brings to mind very unkind thoughts...Gilbert Doktorow
Posted by: rp | Aug 12 2022 12:27 utc | 14
The Saker in his post on the 10/08 explained why the UAF cannot withdraw in an orderly manner nor counterattack:
The Ukrainian forces in the eastern Ukraine have no hopes for an orderly retreat anymore, so they will be destroyed. How soon? I don’t know, that depends on the folks in the trenches and how strong a grip the Nazis have over that force.Will there be a Ukrainian counter-attack towards Kherson? I sure hope not.
Why? Because currently the Ukrainian forces are dug in inside the city of Nikolaev, and if they decide to attack, they will not only have to get into their pre-battle order formation outside the protective confines of the city, but then they will also have then cross a mostly empty plain. In other words, it will be a massacre.
Posted by: Down South | Aug 12 2022 12:39 utc | 15
With the dog days of summer burning and Palestinian children daily dying along with every other atrocity that we in the Collective Waste are condoning with our silence, I am taking fewer ‘prisoners’ and not inclined to play with bullshit rules and start saying it as I mean it.
The Cable streets of social and msm or the real streets and towns of England, name the date and place, time to beat sense into fascists AGAIN.
If it’s true that U.K. missiles , probably operated by U.K. forces and other nato weapons expertly being operated by nato forces are now openly in play - as in the , Muskovy and Crimean attacks and the dam and nuke power plant , then it seems there will be escalation rather than the opposite of inevitable quick capitulation. It comes down to the European populations ability to eat shit. How much more can we readily have stuffed down our open throats? Like so many geese lining up? Do we really believe that these Russians who rid us of Nazis 80 years ago are now not doing the same AGAIN? This time they haven’t waited to be invaded first.
Fuck the Nazis and all who support them. That’s all the media Barbies and Ken’s too.
Them nato Yankee bases that have been occupying and expanding across Europe since 1945, planning the next attempt at taking Russia need to be told to go home. Or die die die in their bunkers. What are they going to do? Release nukes? Seriously??
Posted by: DunGroanin | Aug 12 2022 12:39 utc | 16
3
"two Haimars multiple rocket launchers were shot down in the air"
Wrong spelling and it sounds impossible.
Posted by: Nico | Aug 12 2022 12:51 utc | 17
It is clear from the Ukrainian actions that they have no expectation of reclaiming any of the lost territory since they seem to be intent in destroying every part from which they have been evicted. Any radiation due to damage to the NPP or its spent fuel will render the area uninhabitable to anybody.
Posted by: Pancho Plail | Aug 12 2022 12:51 utc | 18
Before the thread gets too long, I'd like to make an observation. There have always been posters here that take more moderate positions, and recently these posters have acquired the title "concern trolls". The problem is, the US/ZATO/WEF/Rothschild-class have taken up extreme positions, forcing harsh retaliation from Russia, China and at some point, the people of the world.
Therefore, the "middle ground" is no longer available or tenable, no matter how much we all wish it was. Think on the US's favourite saying about anyone they oppose pushing back in a way the US can't counter: "We don't negotiate with terrorists". Given we now know that the US/ZATO ARE internationally recognized AS the terrorists, those who promote the "middle of the road" are either lacking understanding about what the modus operandi of the Rothschild-class is, or are intending to deceive.
As but one example, the Canadian courts decided Rebel News IS a legal news organization and forced Trudy to allow them into press conferences. When WEFer Trudeau was asked a direct question by a Rebel News journalist, he simply refused to acknowledge or answer the question. Literally turned, faced the rest of the room and carried on. There is no "negotiation" with the WEF pronouncements (emphasis mine): "You WILL own nothing, rent everything and you WILL be happy". The soft delivery and repetition are supposed to intellectually disarm and confuse the masses. "They don't REALLY mean that" I have been told. Actually, yes they do mean EXACTLY that... and that is the thin edge of the wedge. The velvet glove slipped a little more now that the WEF has decreed that ALL private vehicles MUST be eliminated. Not just internal combustion vehicles, ALL private vehicles. There was even a poster here spouting "environmental" support for that very decree, while in other posts decrying the carnage in Ukraine. Do people not see these are merely different manifestations of the same "do it or else" authoritarianism?
This why Russia and China, even still, keep the negotiation door open, just how open depends on how psychotic the US/ZATO decided to be. The US/ZATO is purposely killing Ukrainian soldiers and civilians by putting/keeping them in the way of the Russian offensive. Any sane person would have looked at the death tolls and found some shred of humanity to quit while they are behind. But not the US/ZATO and their WEF/Rothschild-class overlords.
Becasue straight-up trolling is now easily recognized and countered, "concern trolls" were trained and released to buy more time to cause chaos and destruction in as many places as possible. Including destroying reasonable conversation ON ANY TOPIC.
Notice how the "nuclear power" concern trolls disappeared once it became clear some of us here at MoA have a practical background in that field. It is one thing for a strongly anti-nuke poster to overpower an pragmatically pro-nuke poster who never worked in the industry, but when there are knowledgeable people taking experienced positions, the concern trolls retreat, to look for another crack to wedge.
Similarly the endless argument over which "military analyst" sites/authors to believe. The line is "surely the Ukie-nazis and the MSM wouldn't lie THAT badly about their losses". Well, yes they will and have. Because the uncertainty buys time.
The WEF stealth coup of all the US/ZATO countries was supposed to be completed by now. Covid, CO2/climate change and proxy war fearmongering was supposed to confuse and paralyze the masses. Their 2030 objectives are now pretty much unobtainable, and so the task has begun of rotating in a new set of WRFers into the positions surely to be challenged as elections roll around. The Ukie/Taiwan situations were intended to be such grave "emergencies" that elections MUST be postponed... forever.
Bojo is already gone, WEFer Truss seems to be the next loonie in the UK PM chair. So elections, particularly in the ZATO vassal states are critical for the Rothschild-class to retain control. If (when?) the Canadian people turf out all known WEFers in the next election, who will enact the Emergencies Act to attack truckers, farmers, gun owners and freeze peaceful supporters' bank accounts, who will send weapons and train Ukie neo-nazis? Not a majority Parliament led by Poileivre, Bergen, Baber and Lewis.
Things are turning against the Rothschild-class and their US/ZATO minions. Hopefully the Ukie-nazi slaughter of innocent civilians and cannon-fodder soldiers ends sooner than later. But that easy path to that decision rests with psychopaths.
But even those psychopaths want the earth in good order to be ruled by them. A nuclear wasteland inhabited by 1 billion people is of little use to even the most insane.
Posted by: Old canadian | Aug 12 2022 13:05 utc | 19
'The barrage of propaganda coming from Zelensky’s narcotics-distorted face' ... its a condition known as severe psychotic verbal diarrhoea ... please someone find him a pill to cure it. Permanantly os gwelwch yn dda
Posted by: Geraint ap Iorwerth | Aug 12 2022 13:06 utc | 20
In other news. Goggle's truly pathetic ailing losing users by the day Susan Woj's censor-me-tube. Turned into fairyland fantasy reporting on the front page.
Is now placing fake voted-up dumb/dumber video game footage depicting AI-free robo-slaughter fantasies of destroying/shootdown current gen RF military equipment. The recorded footage is like shooting static ducks in a fish pond. Something any no-brainer fool could do blindfolded! The idiotic mentally defective brainwashed septic USSA computer gamers. Living in their own fantasy land of complete nonsense! Have completely lost the plot.
As for country 404 media reporting of the war. AFU MOD shed all credibility. On the day AFU reported on the heroic death of thirteen dead fairies defending "Snake Island".
Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Aug 12 2022 13:07 utc | 21
Yesterday I read a very interesting document, a real eyeopener.
It is in Dutch, but Google produces a decent translation:
https://geopolitiekincontext.wordpress.com/2022/08/09/de-realiteit-rond-de-oorlog-in-oekraine/
Posted by: Nico | Aug 12 2022 13:08 utc | 22
If artillery was withdrawn to the Kherson/Odessa area by Ukr. then IMHO it was/is to fortify the Odessa area, where the Ukr and NATO which will be the main event in this war. So far, I must say the Russians seem to be making the same error that Germany did in 1940-1942 where they did not seem to take the war seriously enough.
What kind of morons does Russia have in charge in the Black Sea area allowing the Moscva to be sunk, and the Crimea airfield become a much greater disaster than it had to be by poor OPSEC?? Good Grief!
Posted by: Simplicius | Aug 12 2022 13:14 utc | 23
Sorry, in the last I meant UKR/NATO will make a concerted defense at Odessa when Russia takes back the Donbass... (or finally sets its sights on Odessa/Nikolaiev
Posted by: Simplicius | Aug 12 2022 13:17 utc | 24
What kind of morons does Russia have in charge in the Black Sea area...?
Posted by: Simplicius | Aug 12 2022 13:14 utc | 23
--
The type, who is making you pay more for electricity, gas, fuel and other communal services in the unfriendly country you live in...😏
Posted by: rp | Aug 12 2022 13:19 utc | 25
@b
All western media is pushing by instructions from above the Ukrainian toponyms, to the hilt, even when the geographical names are deeply related to Russia, like Nikolaev so named by the founder of The Black Sea Fleet Prince Potyemkin. That battle they'll lose too, in spite of Google and all the rest.
Posted by: Paco | Aug 12 2022 13:20 utc | 26
When I was 20 I had 2 importent dreams. I'll tell you about the other one later. This one was of German Nazi officers sitting and lying in laquered caskets casually throwing grenades--the ones with the slender throwing stems--toward each other in ennui, listlessly.
The geographic location of Zaporozhye NPP is the perfect place for the negative Nazi mind to create a modern super-hell. Much better than their own nghtmarish self-immolation.
After all if they must give up the territory where it now (tremblingly) still stands, so much the better. Poison and yield that area, and destroy more Russian speaking men, women and children.
Let's wait and follow a slow, incremental plan (humane!) and permit this holocaust and manic Nazi evil. That's the smart thing to do.
Posted by: Elmagnostic | Aug 12 2022 13:23 utc | 27
"Things are turning against the Rothschild-class and their US/ZATO minions. Hopefully the Ukie-nazi slaughter of innocent civilians and cannon-fodder soldiers ends sooner than later. But that easy path to that decision rests with psychopaths. But even those psychopaths want the earth in good order to be ruled by them. A nuclear wasteland inhabited by 1 billion people is of little use to even the most insane."
Posted by: Old canadian | Aug 12 2022 13:05 utc | 19
I think I understand what is meant by 'concern trolls' but still not sure. I suspect the main type disliked here is anyone expressing criticism or doubt regarding RF or its SMO.
It seems to me that although the military outcome is fairly certain and b and many others have been calling it right from the get-go that RF is very good at not providing much information about how things are going with their own troops (KIA etc) nor reporting in detail about anything bad that happens to them. This is quite normal, of course, but still I don't think if people speculate about various scenarios that might explain a blown up airfied or a bridge that necessarily should be regarded as failing some sort of loyalty test.
Because having such tests, even if never officially acknowledged, is the vanguard of group think. Which in a situation like this - people sharing comments - is never a good thing. Many of us have learned to pay attention to peer pressure and often respond to it sub-consciously. It might be nice to feel like one is fitting in, but the price is that you no longer think what you think rather think what you think others will like you thinking. Doesn't mean that you can't come up with original points of view or well-written rants etc. but still there will be a reduced set of scales in which such improvisations will roam.
b seems to have some guidelines for things which are unacceptable. I haven't managed to figure out what they are since once a post is scrubbed obviously you cannot see it so I don't know what was scrubbed except a couple of my own once in a vax conversation a few days ago on an open thread. I have seen many other comments on that topic here so have no clue as to what was especially wrong with that particular interchange involving quite a few posters.
Personally, I wish to respect b's limitations so will avoid that topic but apart from that I don't see any reason why encouraging group think will benefit anyone. One of the features of this cyber-group-whatever is the wide range of unusually well informed opinion. Since most here are generally anti-Empire if you are going to come in and start defending it against such well informed people you are going to have to bring some good weapons, in which case no doubt all will learn from the interchange. If you don't have them, you will soon be shot down.
That's happened to me a few times here when I have a different view about the causes or characteristics of Empire than some and am unable to back up my opinion with good argument or references. Fair enough and probably that principle holds true for all comments. But I don't see why there should be one accepted anti-Empire view and indeed I hope there never will be because no matter how fancy and well tied together it will corral the truth into too narrow a paddock.
Truth is multi-faceted, even multi-dimensional. It has many different chakras as the yogis might say, coexisting in one overall being. So also should opinions be freely expressed and openly considered or refuted. In that way, we can enjoy round after round together without anyone getting so heated that they storm out or need to be taken away in a paddy wagon.
Of course some people want to just come in an 'troll' for negative reactions but it seems this website has a far lower quotient of such types than any other I've seen. Maybe because there are so many very sharp knives in the drawer here which make quick work of them! Ouch! No fun!
On the subject of PSYOP in Ukraine
In my opinion, the German news program "Tagesschau" has managed to present a prime example of ideological illusion.
Atomanlage Saporischschja "Dies ist eine ernste Stunde"
Stand: 12.08.2022 04:22 Uhr
Von Anne Schneider, ARD-Studio New York
The report on the UN Security Council meeting, requested by Russia, avoided any apportionment of blame for military attacks on nuclear reactors. The question "Who´s?" artillery fired in the direction of nuclear reactors was scrupulously avoided, with reference to : Blah,Blah....statements on the course of the war, shelling and casualties ..... cannot... be directly verified by independent authority.
What is likely to be more probable ? :
that 1.) a nuclear power plant in a conflict area is attacked militarily and reconnaissance units and spy satellites cannot clearly prove who is responsible for the shelling ?
or 2.) that representatives of the circle of friends "Democracy, Human Rights and Ukraine" do not publicly pursue questions about the shelling of nuclear power plants, because that could include the possibility of condemning Ukrainian acts of war ?
The, in the report quoted, statement of the U.S. representative, Bonnie Jenkins, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control is pure distraction. "Russia continually scatters falsehoods to distract from reality and now claims that Ukraine is responsible for the situation at the nuclear plant," she said. "This completely distorts the facts - namely, that Russia is illegally at the plant " ...... using the Zaporizhzhya plant as a kind of shield.
She can't condemn the attacks on the nuclear plant if Ukraine was responsible, that would probably be considered decomposition of military power and Russian propaganda in her circles, so let her talk about pink elephants.
The "Tagesschau" cannot condemn the attacks on the nuclear power plant if Ukraine would be responsible, because of Wehrkraftzersetzung, Russian propaganda etc, so they talk about blah, blah unclear facts and pink elephants.
The question is, what is more dangerous for the rest of the world, that Bonnie Jenkins, Tagesschau and President Lewinsky think their pink elephants are real beings, or that they are aware of talking about pink elephants?
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Posted by: marquessatheressa | Aug 12 2022 13:42 utc | 29
It took me much too long to understand that Obama's Islamic State driving US 4 x 4 new Toyotas through Turkey from Jordan training grounds was a psyops.
One day we flew from Birmingham UK to Sulaimaniyah and there was a group of long bearded English in 3/4 length trousers sitting at the back of the plane. On arrival they were met by other cockney speakers in good spirits. One assumes they
were to be ferried to Mosul for photo ops.
The head of Kurdish Intelligence was interviewed on US TV , telling his female interviewer that his country was battling against islamist terror by itself, battling to get the best price for German modern weaponry and brand new cars from their Daesh customers.
All US war is corporate BS, designed to scare the natives into giving up hope of using or selling their own oil or land resources.
The question remains unanswered whether Putin is in on this scam, or heroically battling against USUKIS psyops jokers. Is he fighting agaibst or alongside USUKIS to carve up Ukraine together? Sorry but in this cynical financial world they are probably working together.
Posted by: Giyane | Aug 12 2022 13:45 utc | 30
UAF should be commended in having the foresight to dig their own graves, 3km long trenches.
Posted by: WTFUD | Aug 12 2022 13:54 utc | 31
Now I know!!!!!
This montage has US media talking heads all saying Kiev will fall… maybe in 24hours. This^ nonsense gets thrown around the internet still. Of course… it was never the Russians who said this. It was US media…. And now it’s US media who lead the mocking chorus that Russia “failed” in the Siege of Kiev, failed to take Kiev in 24 hours.
Defense of Ukraine. @DefenceU. Ukraine government organization
Freedom Is Our Religion!
https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1557990004097433601?cxt=HHwWgoCy3e7pi58rAAAA
Posted by: Melaleuca | Aug 12 2022 14:04 utc | 32
There needs to be some apologia in regard to Russian manpower requirements. AP is claiming that they are recruiting prisoners and offering big bonuses for contracts.
So the current narrative is that Russia can only crawl forward, if at all, because it needs more soldiers. The NK offer ( if true) might support that idea.
OTOH, there are reports of gathering Ukrainians from occupied areas/Donbass to fill the gaps.
I think there has been enough disproof of the Yale effort to claim that Russia can't go on economically. They are adapting rapidly as the headlines show everyday. The manpower issue needs some response.
Posted by: Eighthman | Aug 12 2022 14:12 utc | 33
@Melaleuca | Aug 12 2022 14:04 utc | 32
They already started using the same method for Taiwan. They're estimating 48-72h, I don't remember. Somehow they forget it took many months of carpet bombing for nato before the first soldier arrived.
It's basic propaganda. Invent something then say it works or fails, depending on what you want. The himars advertising is the same method. Before that it was javelin and nlaw. This advertising works in Pooland, they want to buy 300 himars.
Posted by: rk | Aug 12 2022 14:18 utc | 34
The manpower issue needs some response.
Posted by: Eighthman | Aug 12 2022 14:12 utc | 33
It might simply be what many of their officials, including Putin, say namely that they are doing all they can to minimize casualties on their own side.
More importantly no doubt, it also helps - though they won't say so out loud - that the longer the sanctions war goes on, the weaker the West becomes and the more likely it is that at some point they will have so much internal turmoil to deal with that finally they stop trying to bully the rest of the world into being enchained by their Funny Money.
One day we flew from Birmingham UK to Sulaimaniyah and there was a group of long bearded English in 3/4 length trousers sitting at the back of the plane. On arrival they were met by other cockney speakers in good spirits. One assumes they were to be ferried to Mosul for photo ops.
Posted by: Giyane | Aug 12 2022 13:45 utc | 30
Neat story! US wars are shakedowns. No doubt most of the funds from Congress end up in the pockets of MIC and security operations in Tel Aviv!
One other propaganda trick, which I noticed even in the James Meek article, is to label as Russians all those fighting with Russia. I don't think I've seen a Western media report which seeks to show the motivation of the Ukrainians of the Donbass fighting alongside Russian forces.
The propaganda machine wants us to think they don't exist. A battle between Russia and Ukraine is much easier to sell whilst a civil war might cause confusion in a public that is used to being told to see everything as black and white.
Posted by: Jeremn | Aug 12 2022 14:33 utc | 37
35
I think it must be a concern in the Kremlin that they have made a disturbing 'bet' on the outcome of the war. They must eliminate Ukrainian males to such a degree that resistance is ended permanently - as treaties in the West mean nothing (Minsk II). This must precede capturing the large cities they need - Kharkov, Odessa, etc. - as big casualties can't be permitted. Very limiting..... The collapse of the West might push Ukraine into an armistice but Russia still may need to link up with Transnistria and grab Odessa to control the situation. It looks very onerous but not impossible. All war is a gamble.
Perversely, Ukraine is obediently pushing its future into slaughter as Western nations command, as if Russia and the West were in agreement on killing off Ukraine man by man.
Posted by: Eighthman | Aug 12 2022 14:36 utc | 38
Reference "A.L. 7"
It is enough just to disrupt the process of water supply after the failure of the power line. It will no longer be possible to cool down the disconnected reactor. There will be a red-hot air-cooled metal barrel that cannot be started back.
*There will be no threat of a nuclear catastrophe, but with the Zaporizhzhya NPP you will get the classic "then may you not belong to anyone."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
This is the classic argument against Pressurized Water Reactors (PWR). AL is pretty much correct. However, I am a big booster for nuclear power, using the so-called LFTR (Lithium Fluoride - Thorium Reactor). They have a fail-safe mode that addresses AL's concern. Largely developed in the US, China is just finishing their first full scale LFTR. Check it out!
Posted by: Anonymous | Aug 12 2022 14:47 utc | 39
Posted by: Old canadian | Aug 12 2022 13:05 utc | 19
News to me, when did WEF make public pronouncements that private cars will not be allowed? Is it only in their blurb on their site?
Posted by: Brother Ma | Aug 12 2022 14:50 utc | 40
Won't talk about Ukraine anymore, which as a term is redundant. Instead one might replace it as "US actions in the territory constituting Ukraine".
Therefore it is probable that the expectations of US military planners and reality on the ground do not match. US military planners expect that large shipments of weapons can result in a counter-attack conducted by their local subjects. aka. Zelensky admin. But Zelensky admin too has lost control of many front line units.
Another problem is that shipping weapons is not easy, so many will not reach the front line. Some portion will disappear to other "markets".. Meanwhile morale in new green conscripts keeps dropping as there is no prospect of counter attack and especially a successful one, there is only prospect of waiting in a trench for the shell with ones name on it.
Contrary to western media thinking, Russia does not have to "conquer more area" to win. Since February 2022 operation has only been a more-or-less natural continuum of the situation since 2014. Granted, this operation requires a lot more resources to sustain than earlier, but it is designed to provide a long term solution. Nato is trickling in some this-or-that "advanced" weapon, but Russia can also keep trickling in more advanced weapons to take out Nato weapons. Iran, China and India just might join in too to test some of their stuff.
Unfortunately there probably won't be any peace until Nato decides so, which they most likely won't. So the real end date depends on how much longer locals buy into EU/Nato bs. Or until those who want to immigrate to Poland etc have done so. To be honest having to chase people across country side, streets and beaches for forced conscription is an indicator that the "recruitment campaign" and motivation is running on its last legs.
Posted by: unimperator | Aug 12 2022 14:56 utc | 41
Posted by: Simplicius | Aug 12 2022 13:14 utc | 23
Russians utilize traditional Soviet military doctrine, which is to hang back and bomb-bomb-bomb (primarily with cheap-but-inefficient indirect fire systems, but today also mixed with some expensive direct fire systems). Russia is also not so rich as the US, which has displayed its very expensive, cool-techie abilities on its many battlefields (aka MIC proving grounds) over the last 30 years; and so the huddled masses of the world think this is the norm for the big, bad "Sovereigns." But Russia simply cannot afford the weaponry to surgically end Ukraine. It could "wipe out" Ukraine relatively quickly with an all-out invasion, but Putin wanted an SMO. Okay, well, today only the USA--with all its cool tech--can pull off an SMO, and then, if history is judge, still only 50%-ish of the time. An SMO is inherently weak precisely because it is half-assed--it allows the enemy to regroup and facilitates guerilla operations. This results in freak setbacks like sunken boats and airfield bombings.
But consider that this is acceptable to Putin because his true objective is to drag out the war as long as possible to keep energy prices high. So far, I don't think anyone but the Russian government can estimate how much the cost of the SMO is offset with increased energy revenues, but it seems to be close to or better than 100%, or otherwise we'd see the Russian SMO disintegrate or morph desperately into a more traditional invasion. Since that is not happening, yet, we can only guess that Putin's strategy is working, especially since the US and NATO countries' economies are currently approaching collapse--and they're not even combatants in this "poorly" executed war!
Posted by: Tom SteChatte | Aug 12 2022 15:01 utc | 42
@Eighthman | Aug 12 2022 14:36 utc | 38
I think Russia made the mistake at the beginning to think that disabling the entire military infrastructure in the first days would bring Ukr puppets to negotiating table (actually the second mistake, the first was letting Maidan happen). But nato switched to full scale terrorism and I'm sure their long term plan is to continue like this for decades. They have money to support Ukr costs and weapons, they won't have any people left to do it very soon, only mercenaries.
This is probably why they're forcing the Baltic puppets to be so angry, maybe Russia does something about them militarily. Estonia said today they would like the Gulf of Finland to be closed for Russia, they're "working" with Finland on this issue. This is hilarious but it's the current intellect of the puppets. Let's not forget Lithuania's fight with China, that is even more hilarious. Won't be long before Finland/Sweden are activated in suicide mode.
Posted by: rk | Aug 12 2022 15:04 utc | 43
I think it must be a concern in the Kremlin that they have made a disturbing 'bet' on the outcome of the war. They must eliminate Ukrainian males to such a degree that resistance is ended permanently...
Perversely, Ukraine is obediently pushing its future into slaughter as Western nations command, as if Russia and the West were in agreement on killing off Ukraine man by man.
Posted by: Eighthman | Aug 12 2022 14:36 utc
Intentional or not, this is EXACTLY the kind of muddying of the issue that earns the "concern troll" label.
A POSSIBLE major reason Russia is remaining largely geographically static in the face of wave upon wave of cannon fodder is so that it is the Ukie-nazi/ZATO command that sends the unfortunate soldiers and holds citizens in the kill zones.
Russia is not forcing the Ukies/ZATO to do this, it is the Ukie-nazi/ZATO CHOICE. Just like it was the Ukie-nazi/ZATO CHOICE to send snipers to kill both protesters and police at the Maidan.
Russia will stop killing on the front lines as soon as the Ukie-nazis CHOOSE to stop trapping civilians and sending untrained fodder to the front lines.
This could all stop TODAY, but that is not within Russia's power. Russia knows 100% that if they withdrew or even stopped shooting now, the Ukie-nazi/ZATO would not stop at the Ukraine/Russian border, or even at the doorstep of Moscow.
Russia has drawn a line, which they will move as far through Ukraine (at least) as required to stop the Ukie-nazi/ZATO agenda.
None of "schmucks on the farm" want this.
All wars are banker's wars.
Posted by: Old canadian | Aug 12 2022 15:09 utc | 44
Ummm theres absolutely no way USA can pull off this type of SMO. US military is built to fight sandal wearing cave dwelling ak47 toting insurgents. The entire US military would need to be rebuilt. And even then US public would revolt if we start sending americans to die by the hundreds in that meatgrinder.
No amount of technological weapons can achieve what Russia is doing on the ground in Ukraine. The Russian artillery force and blood of its soldiers is something no other country can spare, except with maybe North Korea.
Posted by: Comandante | Aug 12 2022 15:10 utc | 45
Posted by: Tom SteChatte | Aug 12 2022 15:01 utc | 42
Putin's admin made a herculean effort with Nato to avoid this to no avail. Instead Nato chose to plan their attack in Donbass which forced this escalation. It's now an existential crisis. Zelensky doesn't care about Ukraine, only Vogue, the Miami villa and several hundred million$.
Precisely because Nato is trying to switch to "partisan mode" is the reason Russia is hunkering back and just bombarding the stuff endlessly thrown at them. Also keep lines as short as possible, while destroying enemies rail and bridges further west and making it harder for him to ship new weapons. It's a war, there will be sabotage events. The goal is to minimize them to nuisances. Russia is dealing with the whole combined Nato here, so it might not always be possible.
What the Zelensky admin is also trying to do is murder residents in east Ukraine to "prove" that Russia can't "protect" them. That may or may not work, so far it seems to cause heavy blowback in terms of volunteers and secession votes. The Zelensky response has been to simply target, and threaten to blow up the places of voting.
Posted by: unimperator | Aug 12 2022 15:12 utc | 46
@ the pair | Aug 12 2022 11:19 utc | 4
LOL! Well put!
Posted by: Figleaf23 | Aug 12 2022 15:15 utc | 47
Russia simply cannot afford the weaponry to surgically end Ukraine
Tom SteChatte | Aug 12 2022 15:01 utc | 42
Russia has used more guided missiles than nato in its entire history. I think they have the money and resources it's just that they have other plans (no one knows exactly what). Some of the idiotic news that Russia ran out of weapons after 2 months were not 100% propaganda, they really thought they have only a few missiles. Sure, when you specialize in diversity hire, those "experts" are just retards, but that's what they have.
Posted by: rk | Aug 12 2022 15:16 utc | 48
News to me, when did WEF make public pronouncements that private cars will not be allowed? Is it only in their blurb on their site?
Posted by: Brother Ma | Aug 12 2022 14:50 utc
Well then you are either incapable of using a search engine, or you are just being purposely obtuse.
https://www.westernstandard.news/business/wef-save-the-planet-give-up-your-car/article_9a225e54-09c5-11ed-ba08-37b5d3f028c0.html
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191011-what-happens-when-a-city-bans-car-from-its-streets
Did the WEF say "You will own nothing, EXCEPT PRIVATE VEHICLES?"
Owning NOTHING in WEF parlance means owning NOTHING, including cars, houses, EVEN THE CLOTHES ON YOUR BACK.
No wonder you are confused when a simple word like NOTHING gets misunderstood.
Posted by: Old canadian | Aug 12 2022 15:17 utc | 49
It took me much too long to understand that Obama's Islamic State driving US 4 x 4 new Toyotas through Turkey from Jordan training grounds was a psyops.Posted by: Giyane | Aug 12 2022 13:45 utc | 30
The Apache helicopters escorting the convoy was a big clue. FYI you cannot drive "though Turkey from Jordan" except first through Syria or Iraq.
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Aug 12 2022 15:19 utc | 50
@ Gerry Bell | Aug 12 2022 12:08 utc | 10
Who is "they"?
Link please.
Posted by: Figleaf23 | Aug 12 2022 15:19 utc | 51
unimperator | Aug 12 2022 15:12 utc | 46
It'll be online, just like in America!
All regions might vote to join, the rumors say. Then attacks on them will be attacks on Russia directly. Let's see how that works for nato
Posted by: rk | Aug 12 2022 15:22 utc | 52
@19 "Do people not see these are merely different manifestations of the same "do it or else" authoritarianism?"
Yes, it's just different marketing campaigns for the same product. That product being the grand reopening of the dying American empire under the same incompetent management. Anyone pushing 'the empire is winning' or 'the Imperial anti-Russian hysteria is a ruse, and they're really working together' narratives can immediately be dismissed as a shill.
Posted by: Jesrad | Aug 12 2022 15:25 utc | 53
Posted by: Old canadian | Aug 12 2022 13:05 utc | 19
From one Old Canadian to another
massive civil disobedience will be required
I can see the beginnings
Posted by: ld | Aug 12 2022 15:26 utc | 54
A.L. #7
the complete Rybar thread available at News from Slavyangrad
Posted by: annie | Aug 12 2022 15:30 utc | 55
We really should call it the "Army Group Steiner Kherson Offensive".
And they foolishly set themselves up for a major PR failure, because if Russia actually launches a reasonably successful offensive there, going back to Nikolaev suburbs or going straight for Krivoy Roh, the credibility of Ukrainian leadership and military will be severely hurt. Maybe that's actually the plan, so that the West can find an easy way to disengage...
Posted by: Clueless Joe | Aug 12 2022 15:33 utc | 56
Rough Estimate on timing: Phase 2 - Liberation of DPR and LPR appears to be complete maybe mid-Sept. The implications are that Phase 3 (liberation of Odessa Oblast ?) will not begin in full until Early Spring 2023. Phase 3 might take 6 months or even longer which takes us into early Autumn 2023.
Fellow Barflies; This going to be a long war. If Phase 3 takes basically all of 2023, then there will still be significant fighting in 2024.
Posted by: Exile | Aug 12 2022 15:37 utc | 57
People need to stop thinking the US/ZATO military is now designed to "win". It is designed to cause destruction and chaos, as every "police action" or direct war or proxy war since WW2 has shown. Korea and Vietnam gave the Rothschild-class Deep State the idea they could lose wars and still advance their agenda. It wastes US/ZATO country tax dollars, therefore weakening their economies by debt inflation and general lowering of living conditions. Ditto for "plandemics", Climate Change (tm) and boomerang sanctions.
The objective of "hybrid war" is not to win and rebuild. It is to destroy, destroy, destroy so the Rothschild-class will be begged by the masses to transport us to their utopian WEF nirvana where we will own nothing, rent everything (from the Rothschild-class and their minions) and be happy, or else Trudy-clones worldwide will freeze your bank account or in the US, send some of the 87,000 new ARMED IRS "auditors" to your door.
Oh wait, SAVINGS and bank accounts are property, which you will not not allowed to own. They have made it abundantly clear, you don't matter, especially if you are not going to surrender to them on the chance that you and your descendants are in the 1 billion that will be "saved". Y'know there's just too many people on the planet... ignore the fact that demographers have long figured out that world population would have levelled and begin to drop anyway.
Not enough women willing to keep the baby-production at 20th century levels. Given them control of their bank accounts, birth control, tvs and cell phones. The women will make their choice and it is NOT to remain barefoot and pregnant in front of the stove.
What is happening in Ukraine is population reduction by the crudest of methods, which only serves the Rothschild-class CONTROL agenda.
Posted by: Old canadian | Aug 12 2022 15:39 utc | 58
Posted by: Clueless Joe | Aug 12 2022 15:33 utc | 56
Let them mass for their counter attack and then quash it with mass artillery, drones and guided weapons when it starts. Tho as the author presented, there is little sign of buildup for a counter-attack from Nikolaev towards Kherson. Albeit the reason for this could well be that there is no troops to build up, everything being tied in Bakhmut, Slavyansk, Kharkov etc.
Posted by: unimperator | Aug 12 2022 15:39 utc | 59
just distraction mostly, noise for the sake of noise. The real challenges will be US sponsored ISIS style terrorist attacks like today in Melitopol
Meanwhile the empire of lies preparing Ukraine scenarios in Tatarstan, Tadjikistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and inside Russia
In Fachrabad joint military exercises are beeing held with military personnel from USA, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kirgistan, Pakistan, Mongolia,.....
They are already busy working on the escalation spiral
https://idel-ural.org/archives/svobodnyj-idel-ural-opublikoval-proekt-sobstvennogo-sankczionnogo-spiska/#more-11836
Inside Russia their agents also hardly working against
Posted by: Chessmaster | Aug 12 2022 15:47 utc | 60
57
Actually, that's another topic that hasn't been examined in detail. Winter Is Coming. Oddly, the over the top, "Monty Python - Black Knight" rhetoric about defeating Russia seems to evaporate when this subject comes up. Zelensky and Co. admit they must win before winter for some reason. It scares them. (??)
Why? I don't know what difference it makes. Does Russia fight better in winter? (they are experienced in that). Or does it have to do with the Ukraine economy and energy - facing freezing to death and starving while EU goes broke? So, maybe the Kremlin is counting on that, too.
Posted by: Eighthman | Aug 12 2022 15:47 utc | 61
Posted by: Eighthman | Aug 12 2022 15:47 utc | 61
It probably has quite a bit to do with the fact that basically 100% and more of state funding comes from the US and EU, which already is standing on clay foots. EU has already been reluctant to send their promised tranches of loans.
Posted by: unimperator | Aug 12 2022 15:50 utc | 62
From one Old Canadian to another
massive civil disobedience will be required
I can see the beginnings
Posted by: ld | Aug 12 2022 15:26 utc
Let's get the Trudy Cabal to face the ballot box first, and if THAT doesn't happen or work, you are correct.
JFK once said words to the effect: If you prevent peaceful change, you provoke violent revolution.
For all their warts, Russia and China driving the BRIC/SCO/etc. hopefully will stymie the Rothschild-class power-grab long enough for what remains of democracy worldwide to limit the destruction.
Posted by: Old canadian | Aug 12 2022 15:51 utc | 63
Posted by: Chessmaster | Aug 12 2022 15:47 utc | 60
Update your info, those imperial wet dreams from the 90's with the RF dividing itself into different republics is old stuff, with flags, emblems, constitutions and even printed money, all the attributes of a state, if there was a chance back then of anything like it happening the chances now a days are close to nil and getting tighter. Recently the self proclaimed president of Tatarstan was quitelly refered to in official documents as head of republic, just like the rest of them, president in Russia there is only one and everybody knows perfectly who he is.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ru/a/aa/1000_Ural_Franc_A.jpg
Posted by: Paco | Aug 12 2022 16:03 utc | 64
Two things requiring time that Russia has achieved in its SMO.
Firstly, it has persisted through a dense fog of propaganda, unprecedented in its intensity, which has now largely dissipated. The russophobic, Putin demonising campaigns have had their effects but they can no longer be renewed.
And, when you put the propaganda, as we must, in the context of at least 80 years of anti-soviet campaigning it becomes clear that it really was much ado about nothing: the idiots who rely on the Daily Mail, the NY Times and the BBC for their opinions already knew that Russia was bad and its enemies good.
The net result of the intensive propaganda is that it is almost impossible for people not to understand that the media is dominated, controlled and under the direct dictation of the imperial government. And that in the 'Free World' it is permissible only to voice official opinion.
Secondly, it has become crystal clear that this is not a war between big bullying Russia and plucky little Ukraine-Democracy's stronghold- but a war between the United States and Russia. There might have been doubt in February that Ukraine was anything more than a flimsy front for NATO which is a front for the United States, on a mission to full spectrum domination.
But there can be none now.
It seems that, with the sad exception of trenches and sewers full of aging conscripted cannon fodder (that's how you spell 'cannon', friends) and their rotting rations, the entire 'Ukrainian' war effort is run by NATO personnel, mercenaries and seconded 'trainers.' Every long range artillery attack on Russian, including Crimean targets is clearly the work of Washington. Just as every shell and rocket is stamped with the Imperial logo.
Deniability is no longer plausible. It is laughably lame.
In a word the SMO has shown the world that despite its litany of denials, the US is intent on carving Russia up, as it has been for more than a century. And that it can no longer be seriously doubted that the NATO is nothing more than a means of augmenting US military force without having to pay US prices-Polish soldiers probably earn a fifth of their US equivalents, and the neo-Nazis fight for the fun of it.
As to the world-it appears to be sitting back and waiting for a victory in which they, perhaps surreptitiously, are very likely to take considerable pleasure. The insulted and humiliated nations have waited a long time to see Uncle Sam and his euro-cousins soundly beaten and they are likely to be relishing every stripe and welt of it.
Posted by: bevin | Aug 12 2022 16:07 utc | 65
on the topic of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, imho the purpose, to get the international community behind intervention in the operation. most thinking people understanding it's ukraine shelling the plant, not russia attacking itself within the plant. none the less zelensky is begging intervention
Speaking at a meeting of the UN Security Council in New York City on Thursday, Mr Grossi again called for his International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to be allowed in to inspect the plant."This is a serious hour, a grave hour and the IAEA must be allowed to conduct its mission to Zaporizhzhia as soon as possible," he said.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Guterres earlier warned: "Urgent agreement is needed at a technical level on a safe perimeter of demilitarisation to ensure the safety of the area".
In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that "only the complete withdrawal of Russians from Zaporizhzhia guarantees the restoration of nuclear safety for the whole of Europe".
so there you have it. zelensky wants the sovereignty over the plant guaranteed, which amounts to asking nato/US guarantee ukraine's sovereignty over the region, and might as well throw in kherson and crimea while they're at it. to come in and rescue ukraine, to save europe and the world from nuclear disaster. that's the point of Ukraine shelling the Zaporizhzhia plant.
Posted by: annie | Aug 12 2022 16:08 utc | 66
Posted by: rk | Aug 12 2022 15:16 utc | 48
Sure, and Russia considers a SCUD a guided missile. Also, NATO is not the US Armed Forces. It is a military force only on paper. The US provides 99.9999% of the military deterrent to evil ole USSR's never-ending threat to the beloved pagan fiefs of the West. Uh, at some point someone really needs to update that mission statement, but I digress. No, I don't think Russia is out of money or materiel--not if it continues to fight these hilariously anachronistic artillery duels. Indeed, I posited the exact opposite, that Russia is likely generating wealth from this war. What I said was that Russia doesn't have the existing wealth to fight a modern war (modern insomuch as the US set the standard for modern). Sure, it has smart scientists who invent (and competent spies who steal) cool tech, but it hasn't the wealth to mass produce it, yet. This is why it relies mostly on cheap artillery. Russia's GDP is one-twelfth of the USA's. For more perspective, during a time of conflict, US annually spends the same amount on its military as Russia's entire GDP. (Don't even get me started with all the fake money the US can print with reckless abandon because the pathetically dependent rest of the world has no choice but to let it!) With such massive cash, the US can mass produce cruise missiles, strike aircraft, cool lasers, satellites etc., and sustain resupply for several "wars" simultaneously. Maybe the PRC could, too, if ever challenged, but Russia cannot...yet. I'm not criticizing Russia, just stating mathematical reality. I'm actually very impressed with Putin's cunning, given his fiscal limitations. He is daily punking the In-Decline USA, contributing generously to that decline, and earning international underdog status in the process.
Posted by: Tom SteChatte | Aug 12 2022 16:11 utc | 67
There is odd incongruence of information
1) The Russians are well rested, well organized and have overwhelming advantage in fire power
2) The Ukrainians are tired and demoralized and disorganized and fighters old and untrained and have no ammunition
3) Russia makes slow and steady advance
I do realize that Russia may be in no hurry, but...
And speaking of "offensive", could someone explain what the word khokhol means and why is it used for Ukrainian fighters?
Posted by: jared | Aug 12 2022 16:16 utc | 68
62
In that regard, I think we consider the example of Libya. The Neo Cons and NATO piously announced their policy of having a duty to care in save Libyans from the Evil Khaddafi. Humanitarian bombing commensed. Result was a wrecked nation dominated by jihadis and low level civil war. And all that 'care" evaporated.
It was utterly cynical. Of course, it involved swarthy Middle Eastern people, not white Ukrainians. But I would expect they will be abandoned similarly - especially if they have no further value in the attrition of Russia. All the more so if EU falls apart financially.
Posted by: Eighthman | Aug 12 2022 16:21 utc | 69
@Scorpion | Aug 12 2022 14:24 utc | 35
More importantly no doubt, it also helps - though they won't say so out loud - that the longer the sanctions war goes on, the weaker the West becomes and the more likely it is that at some point they will have so much internal turmoil to deal with that finally they stop trying to bully the rest of the world into being enchained by their Funny Money.Well said, the Russians have time on their side. By going slow they reduce their own casualties, consolidate where they are and invite the west to sanction itself to poverty.
Posted by: Norwegian | Aug 12 2022 16:21 utc | 70
thanks b.... excellent overview... i agree with your conclusion - "There is no Ukrainian Kherson offensive. There will be no Ukrainian Kherson offensive." more fakery..
thanks to many posters today - scorpion, giyane, unimperator, bevin and annie and etc. etc... i appreciate your posts..
@ Old canadian | Aug 12 2022 13:05 utc | 19
you really are fixated on the wef.....i can't square that with your wanting to vote for peirre polliveire though... the cons are skills for the corporations and are no different then the liberals in all this.... on the other hand, i do agree with the first line of your post @ Old canadian | Aug 12 2022 15:39 utc | 58 -- "People need to stop thinking the US/ZATO military is now designed to "win". It is designed to cause destruction and chaos..." i think this is the position many here at moa hold...
@ bevin | Aug 12 2022 16:07 utc | 65
its my thinking that most folks don't have the insight into history to be able to come to the conclusion that you do.. in fact most people have skipped history, or had a revised version presented to them, absent the full scope and context necessary to come to the conclusion you do and to which i share...
as @ exile mentions above and to which i agree - this is going to be a long war... i can't see anyway around this... the only possible change would be for the ukrainian people to speak up in defiance of what the puppet zelensky and his puppet masters in the west... this isn't happening as i understand it...
@ annie | Aug 12 2022 16:08 utc | 66
i think you are right about that... it is my conclusion as well.... it won't work as russia will not go along with any of that... a nuclear accident on the other hand is a very real possibility... the sickos pushing for all of this can't be underestimated in how far they will go to achieve their warped agenda... to them it ain't warped...
i will end with a quote and question from the poster @ Giyane | Aug 12 2022 13:45 utc | 30
"The question remains unanswered whether Putin is in on this scam, or heroically battling against USUKIS psyops jokers. Is he fighting against or alongside USUKIS to carve up Ukraine together? Sorry but in this cynical financial world they are probably working together."
my take is no.. however there will be other forces in russia that would be happy to sell out.. we saw this in the early 90's and i am sure human nature being what it is - there are others that would be willing accomplices to the usa-uk-west agenda here... 64,000 question either way and pure speculation... i am not quite as cynical as you!
Posted by: james | Aug 12 2022 16:25 utc | 71
Is anyone keeping a running list of times the Ukrainian government provably lied? E.g., all the defenders of Snake Island dying, only to be resurrected by the Russians, and later being part of a prisoner exchange?
Would be good for that not to get memory holed.
Posted by: fnord | Aug 12 2022 16:26 utc | 72
According to this there was wee bit of shelling by the Ukrainian forces and it was repulsed.
"The Ukrainian army shelled the territory of the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station in the Kherson region, kirill Stremousov, deputy head of the new military-civil administration of the region, told RIA Novosti.
"There was shelling. Overall, the attack is repulsed. There were hits, but they are not critical. The information is being clarified"
https://ria.ru/20220812/ges-1809172493.html
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Aug 12 2022 16:27 utc | 74
Posted by: Tom SteChatte | Aug 12 2022 16:11 utc | 67
At this rate, god forbid it continues, Ukraine casualties will be the same as US total casualties in the whole WW2 within 2-3 months (something like 400k?). And you say "hilariously anachronistic artillery duels". Even the US afaik used 90% good ol' "dumb gravity bombs" in their first war in Iraq with de-facto no resistance at all in the air. All a turkey shoot. Afghanistan they spent trillions of dollars in smart weapons.
Re. GDP, as has been pointed out in several occasions, it's a very distorted figure since deficit areas such as those in the "collective west" will include retail sales of cheaply manufactured products outside the area at a much higher prices in their GDP figures. Also the external debt ratios between the "collective west" and say Russia, is completely out of different spheres. Yet they still manage to produce more and better weapons than the US with the 1/20 or whatever budget. Also the housing bubble is a huge contributor to GDP through construction, with current population development the GDP numbers might be due for a "small" adjustment". The central banks will prop it up but at some point you simply run out of consumers with enough purchasing power.
Posted by: unimperator | Aug 12 2022 16:29 utc | 75
Apparently no one in the UNSC believes the Ukrainians on the shelling of a NPP.
"At the meeting of the UN Security Council, no one supported the Ukrainian version of what is happening around the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which is regularly shelled by Ukrainian troops, while blaming Moscow."
https://ria.ru/20220812/aes-1809098157.html
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Aug 12 2022 16:29 utc | 76
@ Nico | Aug 12 2022 13:08 utc | 22
forgot to mention - thanks nico for the article... i translated it and thought it was bang on.. cheers..
Posted by: james | Aug 12 2022 16:30 utc | 77
And don't forget ... 'the noose is tightening around Kherson' posted in a blog that is well known by a goo number of readers of MoA.
Posted by: Christian Chuba | Aug 12 2022 16:31 utc | 78
@ annie | Aug 12 2022 16:08 utc | 66
Yes Zelensky is looking for someone to come in and save his bacon. Stage 3 - Desperation.
I read an analysis which made some sense - this entire mess was started bases on assurances from the west so Zelensky has rationale for demanding performance.
Posted by: jared | Aug 12 2022 16:32 utc | 79
simplicious "If artillery was withdrawn to the Kherson/Odessa area by Ukr. then IMHO it was/is to fortify the Odessa area, where the Ukr and NATO which will be the main event in this war. So far, I must say the Russians seem to be making the same error..."
sure, while Ukraine is 'fortifying Odessa' for months AFU is getting slaughtered on the front line elsewhere, currently commanders requesting retreat from Bakhmut and elsewhere. by the time the so-called "main event" happens, how many troops will have been lost since the announcement of this counter offensive?
Posted by: annie | Aug 12 2022 16:34 utc | 80
@ Republicofscotland | Aug 12 2022 16:29 utc | 77
that is refreshing... thanks!
Posted by: james | Aug 12 2022 16:35 utc | 81
More losses for the Ukrainian forces.
" The Ukrainian military lost more than two thousand people in the battles near Soledar, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
"As a result of the offensive actions of the Allied forces in the area Soledara losses of the 14th Mechanized Brigade Mat amounted to more than two thousand people," the department said."
https://ria.ru/20220812/soledar-1809123927.html
Meanwhile.
Ukrainian forces not content with shelling a NPP are now shelling chemical plants.
"Ukrainian troops shelled the chemical concern "Stirol" in Horlivka, Reported mayor of the city Ivan Prikhodko.
https://ria.ru/20220812/gorlovka-1809228216.html
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Aug 12 2022 16:37 utc | 82
Anyone here, who actually can think in Russian, dream in Russian?
Posted by: rp | Aug 12 2022 16:38 utc | 83
Russian forces have destroys US made radar system.
"Russian forces have destroyed a US-made radar system and advanced US-made missiles in eastern Ukraine.
In its daily briefing, Russia's Defense Ministry said on Friday that two High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and AN/MPQ-64 radar systems in use by Ukrainian forces were destroyed in the Donetsk region.
On Wednesday, the ministry said that Russian forces destroyed a German-supplied Gepard anti-aircraft system in use by Ukrainian forces in the Mykolaiv region.
The defense ministry also said it had shot down three Ukrainian warplanes in the Mykolaiv region, as well as seven HIMARS missiles in the neighboring Kherson region.
Russia has repeatedly warned that US and NATO shipments of weapons systems to Ukraine add fuel to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev and could bring unpredictable consequences.
In the meantime, Western countries pledged an additional $1.55 billion in aid to Ukraine's Kiev regime."
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Aug 12 2022 16:45 utc | 84
A search of Donald Trump's home revealed:
⁃ Budenovka;
⁃ Pepesh;
⁃ Parachute straps;
⁃ Bear skin;
⁃ Flag of the USSR;
⁃ Push-button telephone with Russian layout;
⁃ Portrait of Putin on a horse, painted in oil;
⁃ Honey with pepper;
⁃ Hat with ear flaps;
⁃ The second component of the Sputnik V vaccine;
⁃ Encyclopedia about gas pipeline turbines;
⁃ Pushkin's volume in the original;
⁃ TV signal of the Soloviev Live channel;
⁃ Banknote with a face value of 500₽;
⁃ Discount card of the Pyaterochka store;
⁃ Login and password from the personal account of the portal "Gosuslugi"
Posted by: rp | Aug 12 2022 16:45 utc | 85
Zakharova's declarations concerning the Security Council meeting concerning the Zaporozhkaya Atom-Electro-Station, a direct hit on the Secretary General, those social democrats from southern Europe are all the same, Guterres, Solana, Borrell, a bunch of imperial bus boys.
The position of the UN Secretary General continues to raise questions. There were no signals to the Ukrainian leadership from his side. He is either unable or unwilling to acknowledge reality. Otherwise, how to explain the lack of will shown by him, bordering on connivance with the Ukrainian attacks on the ZAES? Recall that it was precisely because of the obstruction on the part of the Secretary General and the Secretariat headed by him that an almost coordinated and in all respects prepared international mission of the IAEA failed at the beginning of the summer.
Machine translation.
https://mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/1826000/
Posted by: Paco | Aug 12 2022 16:53 utc | 86
The best thing Russian forces can do in Kherson is to build several pontoon bridges as often as possible. Ukraine forces will attack them with rockets and artillery. Russia rebuilds them, Ukraine re-attacks them.
Valuable Ukraine offensive weapons are being wasted on a river. Russia will have few, hopefully no casualties. Western MSM will have lots of stories how Ukraine is standing up the the Russians, keeping Kherson ready for an assault "any day now".
Russia will in turn hunt the source of the attacks, and destroy them or their supply channels. Russia preserves the 30+ BTGS in the area for a winter offensive from attacks.
Posted by: BroncoBilly | Aug 12 2022 17:00 utc | 87
Posted by: Scorpion | Aug 12 2022 13:36 utc | 28
Of course some people want to just come in an 'troll' for negative reactions but it seems this website has a far lower quotient of such types than any other I've seen. Maybe because there are so many very sharp knives in the drawer here which make quick work of them! Ouch! No fun
I like what you say here.
In fact, there are no trolls except that moron Yenwoda.
The unfortunate term "concern troll" never took off here until Richard Steven Hack started using it to slag off anyone who disagreed with him.
The term is retarded, unfalsifiable, and perhaps worst of all it barely even sounds like natural English (though I accept that it does have an organic origin in English-speaking communities).
Posted by: Herr Ringbone | Aug 12 2022 17:02 utc | 88
Anyone here, who actually can think in Russian, dream in Russian?Posted by: rp | Aug 12 2022 16:38 utc | 84
My domestic partner does, but she does not post here, only on Russian sites. She talks in her sleep in Russian.
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Aug 12 2022 17:04 utc | 89
Dmitry Medvedev
Kiev scumbags and their Western patrons seem ready to arrange a new Chernobyl. Rockets and shells are falling closer and closer to the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant reactor and to the storage facilities for radioactive isotopes.They say it's Russia. This is an obvious, 💯% nonsense even for the stupid Russophobic public.
Even the UN does not believe.
They say it happens purely by chance. Like they didn't want to.
What can I say... We should not forget that the European Union also has nuclear power plants. And accidents might happen there too.
Posted by: rp | Aug 12 2022 17:05 utc | 90
Today at Lavrov's Telegram, Sergie has posted an excellent political cartoon that depicts the situation better than any I've seen--A snarling Uncle Sam firing a machine gun fed with an ammo belt using Ukrainians as bullets. I hope b reads my comment, copies the pic, and posts it as an update for it's priceless. Lavrov writes the following as a caption for the cartoon:
"The results of the work of the Ukrainian propaganda machine are impressive: for example, 98% of Ukrainians are confident of victory in the special operation. Such survey data, commissioned by the Center for Analytical Studies (CISR) of the International Republican Institute (IRI), was published by the Rating group. The regime of Zelensky and his "servants" continues day after day to hang noodles on the ears of the citizens of Independence, who in his political adventure are cannon fodder and the main means of warfare on the principle of 'war to the last Ukrainian'."
Too few barflies seem to understand that with the 2014 coup, Ukraine as an independent nation ceased to exist and was transformed into a de facto colony of the Outlaw US Empire which has guided its "development" ever since in a manner very similar to South Vietnam. The main difference is the lack of significant Imperial combat forces in-country. When looked at closely, there are very clear similarities between South Vietnamese forces and the UAF--their Naziness being one of them. While the nature of the two wars is slightly different, the capabilities of the two proxies isn't--both are inept for much the same reason: They are led by politicized Pentagon and State Department flunkies only interested in Plunder. The result again has the Outlaw US Empire fighting against nationalist forces aiming to liberate their people who have powerful allies supporting their cause. The situations also very similar to what the British did in South Asia by using different proxies to fight each other instead of the Raj while it looked on and continued its plundering unabated.
The policy choice by the Outlaw US Empire to use Ukrainians as an anti-Russia force and to support them until they're totally spent while the Empire continued its plundering opened up a unique opportunity for Russian strategy--Russia would oblige the Outlaw US Empire's policy by ensuring NATO would bleed itself dry of its arms and munitions in supporting Ukraine while Russia went about demilitarizing all Ukraine had to start with plus all that's being sent. And then there were the sanctions, which Russia knew might hurt some but would become a very sharp weapon against the sanctioners that would generate chaos and possibly split the EU/NATO enemy organizations once and for all that would create a blank slate for a new Eurasian security arrangement fashioned mostly by China and itself. The result shows Russia gaining strength while NATO weakens daily to the point where NATO nations will be too poor to finance rearming themselves in the face of vast societal upheaval caused by their policy choices. Talk about Hybrid War!
Then there's the even bigger global picture as the once dominant Plundering Nations now plunder themselves via Neoliberal Parasitism. It's really quite a sight when one takes a moment to review it all. This editorial excerpt dealing with Biden's refusal to cancel the tariffs of Trump's China Trade War despite the fact that it harms the Empire's public far more than China is an excellent example:
"Besides, the US is the only superpower in the world. It has always been the bully, but when has it been bullied by others? In the realistic level of China-US relations, the US has always been the one that provokes China, so where does this 'being soft on China' rhetoric come from? This is a psychological disease in politics that needs to be treated. The endless competition of 'who is tougher on China' will make Washington lose itself and the courage for self-renewal. Moreover, the overall posture the US has shown in front of the world is becoming less and less honorable and more and more erratic."
Is there a touch of sarcasm there? The Global South observes the behavior of the Plundering Nations and snicker to themselves that they're finally getting the karma they so richly deserve. The global paradigm is rapidly changing as the Age of Plunder dies and the nations that benefited from it choke as they plunder themselves by following the diktat of what's rapidly becoming a failed state so deeply addicted to Pleonexia it will very likely die from an overdose while plundering itself. "Self-renewal" can't be done while you're busily plundering your people, which is the political disease at the core of all the Plundering Nations. In one sense they are exceptional nations because they are blind to the fate they are providing for themselves as a result of their addiction.
is it possible we have hit peak propaganda saturation? at no pt in my lifetime have I seen such utter disconnect between news and reality.
while part of it is that we see thru it better than before, but in absolute terms, if you will, the level of psyops everything everywhere has exceeded even my cynical imagination.
yet it can only get worse from here, somehow. there is seemingly no end to this to tunnel and its tunnel vision.
Posted by: mastameta | Aug 12 2022 17:10 utc | 92
@ Posted by: Herr Ringbone | Aug 12 2022 17:02 utc | 89
If Yenwoda is a troll he's a very good one since he stays in everyone's heads rent free, as the kids said a few years ago.
I think sometimes we (as in the human species, altogether) just get mad at people who confidently express opposing viewpoints, especially on life and death matters.
Posted by: fnord | Aug 12 2022 17:14 utc | 93
From Intel Slava...
A source told the official that the largest air military operation in the last thirty years is being prepared in the next few weeks. This is the reason for the sabotage in Novofedorovka, the failed attack on Zyabrovka and the aggressive attempts of the Ukrainians to arrange a man-made disaster at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.
The air operation will be carried out by massive aviation forces in close cooperation with formations and units of other branches of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
My prediction is that this operation will be run in conjunction with the Donbass Arch operation. The whole front is cracking. The release of this information sends a message, leave or get trapped and die between the pincers of an airbone assault and at frontal push.
Posted by: circumspect | Aug 12 2022 17:14 utc | 94
Posted by: fnord | Aug 12 2022 17:14 utc | 94
If...?
Posted by: Herr Ringbone | Aug 12 2022 17:22 utc | 95
The office of Zelensky issued a command to withdraw local administrations, military registration and enlistment offices from Zaporozhye, Nikolaev and the cities and towns of Donbass and take out all the documentation.
Posted by: hmm... | Aug 12 2022 17:28 utc | 96
... The "Tagesschau" cannot condemn the attacks on the nuclear power plant if Ukraine would be responsible ...
Posted by: marquessatheressa | Aug 12 2022 13:42 utc | 29
I think it is important to consider just what your observations might imply.
A mainstream German TV news program (that I myself watched frequently when in Germany), actually the MSM of the entire “west”, is refusing to denounce the known perpetrators of deliberate, ongoing military attacks on the largest NPP in Europe.
I think that, behind the scenes, a new, long-planned, hard-edge, fascism holds sway. In most cases, it is successful concealed by omission and distraction but the RUSSIA DID IT imperative is so extreme that not even the prospect of an imminent European NPP meltdown, of Chernobyl-eclipsing proportions, can take precedent.
I believe that your observation is proof that this new fascist command structure is in power and that the entire western MSM are loyal agents of it.
Posted by: anon2020 | Aug 12 2022 17:38 utc | 97
jared @68: "...could someone explain what the word khokhol means and why is it used for Ukrainian fighters?"
The term is used for Ukrainian men in general, not just military personnel. It just means "topknot" and refers to the peculiar traditional mens' hairstyle in the region. Basically, a small patch of hair at the very top of the head would be allowed to grow quite long while the rest of the scalp is shaved bare. This patch of hair is often greased up to give it something of the appearance of a rat tail sprouting from the crown of the head.
I don't think there is any symbolic meaning to the hairstyle. It is just something that Ukrainian guys seem to like.
The term is not really very offensive. It is kinda like calling a people "flattops" if that were the distinguishing hairstyle for the group.
Now compared that with the pejorative terms the Ukronians have for Russians to see who is the classier bunch.
Posted by: William Gruff | Aug 12 2022 17:49 utc | 99
@Posted by: mastameta | Aug 12 2022 17:10 utc | 93
Is it possible we have hit peak propaganda saturation? at no pt in my lifetime have I seen such utter disconnect between news and reality.
Funny you say that, because what I am experiancing is a complete absense of any news - mainly because I dont subject myself to msm or tv or radio or social networks. Everyday I walk in the park with my dog and chat with the squirrels and they are not saying anything.
Posted by: jared | Aug 12 2022 17:59 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
Excellent summary, b.
Posted by: Pacifica_Advocate | Aug 12 2022 11:15 utc | 1