Ukraine Open Thread 2022-158
Only for news & views directly related to the Ukraine conflict.
Please stick to the topic.
The current open thread for other issues is here.
Posted by b on September 26, 2022 at 16:41 UTC | Permalink
next page »Once the referenda are completed and the Duma houses welcome the Oblasts into the Russian Federation, we might anticipate a notice from the Kremlin that the NATOstani puppet regime in Kiev is on notice to evacuate all their forces from the R.F.
The tacit message will likely be ignored. Consequences will follow and will be followed by all interested parties.
Will a false-flag nuclear attack occur within the lands of the Ukrainian sock-puppet? The possibility is nearing probability. The regime in the Di$trict of Corruption needs another 911 Inside Job in order to not face loss of the Democrat majority in at least one house of Congre$$. Not that the Repubs are significantly preferable, but a bit of offsetting balance should be a plus.
Posted by: aristodemos | Sep 26 2022 17:17 utc | 3
Orgy planned among the Kiev residents if Russia delivers a nuclear strike. 5000 participants so far on party's telegram channel.
Posted by: rk | Sep 26 2022 17:18 utc | 4
Patrick Lancaster talking with people about the vote.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE2J0leMgdU&list=LL&index=2&t=6s
Posted by: jo6pac | Sep 26 2022 17:26 utc | 5
Impressive video (view on a PC) of the Iranian drones now used in Ukraine.
A closer look at Iran's kamikaze drones Shahed-136 (Geranium-2)
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/10299
Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 26 2022 17:40 utc | 6
Jo6pac no.5
I just watched that. I like his reporting. Shame more stupid europeans don't see these things.
Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Sep 26 2022 17:42 utc | 7
Izhevsk school shooter was a Pro-Ukrainian Nazi
From Telegram:
An organization of pro-Ukrainian terrorists claimed responsibility for the shooting of schoolchildren in Izhevsk - they run a Telegram channel dedicated to shootingA certain RAMP (Russian amoral murder portrait) community, which claimed responsibility for the shooting of schoolchildren in Izhevsk, has been sending messages about false mining since September in schools all over Russia and in the Donbass, each time mentioning that the liberated territories of Ukraine are occupied.
The RAMP community has many Telegram channels, one of them is dedicated to svatting (false message of danger), deanon (disclosure of personal data) and columbine. The description of the channel says that its official language is Ukrainian.
Whether the Izhevsk killer Artem Kazantsev has anything to do with this channel is still unknown, the terrorist shot at least 13 people, including children, who were registered in a psychoneurological dispensary with a diagnosis of dementia.
The shooter was wearing a black shirt with a red swastika on it.
There was a school shooter in Izhevsk Russia today. the total number of deaths is 13 people, including 7 children. The animal was liquidated on the spot. Tell me if you see something that stands out on this POS.
Reuters confirms:
Swastika-wearing ex-pupil kills 15 in Russian school shootingMOSCOW, Sept 26 (Reuters) - A gunman with a swastika on his teeshirt killed 15 people, including 11 children, and wounded 24 at a school in Russia on Monday before committing suicide, investigators said.
The attacker, a man in his early thirties who was named by authorities as Artem Kazantsev, killed two security guards and then opened fire on students and teachers at School Number 88 in Izhevsk, where he had once been a pupil.
Posted by: Petri Krohn | Sep 26 2022 17:50 utc | 8
@ Jo6pac 5
Lancaster's a traitor to Anglo-Zionist regimes . . . . which makes him a hero to the rest of us.
Posted by: WTFUD | Sep 26 2022 18:01 utc | 9
Did the "coalition of the willing" build new housing for the people in Iraq?
Did NATO build new housing for the broken statelets of Yugoslavia?
Or did the survivors wake up one day to find their currency worthless?
And no new levis jeans or rock and roll?
I can't remember.
Posted by: Chaka Khagan | Sep 26 2022 18:21 utc | 10
According to RT all referenda have passed the required 50% mark.
Posted by: Bob | Sep 26 2022 18:30 utc | 11
Yes. Results from today: Kherson 63.58%, Zaporozhye 66.43%, LPR 83.16%, DPR 86.89%
Posted by: rk | Sep 26 2022 18:47 utc | 12
Is there any hard evidence that the "Ukrainian offensive" east of Kharkov was anything other than a small attack?
I can't even find a single estimate of the number of Ukrainian tanks involved.
Doesn't anyone here know?
Surely someone here knows. Surely?
It seems no one knows. No one seems to have any idea.
Posted by: Jack | Sep 26 2022 18:50 utc | 13
Preliminary turnout according to the results of the four-day referendum in the Liberated Areas:
LPR - 83.61%
DVR - 86.89%
Zaporozhye region - 66.43% of the region
Kherson - 63.58%
The referendum is considered valid if more than 50% of the voters have cast their vote. The final day of voting is tomorrow, September 27th.
Posted by: Mo3 | Sep 26 2022 18:52 utc | 14
Several comments I'd read yesterday, mention the real fact that the Western prop-media now strongly pushing a new/best narrative of possible RU-nukes strikes.
But where those "nukes" may then going from where to whome on which targets ..? - Okay first assumed, all is nonsense about. But why those MSM are claiming - just starting now - repeatedly that by its MSM' media?
I'm a 'radical thinker', pls. follow:
Okay let's assume - the RU has now been stopped so far for a while by the very strong mouth-shouting US-NATO media to start any 'nuclear power' nukes against UKR. What's then? : nothing then .. no harm .. even NP-station near the front-lines would be partially destroyed.
My thinking - sometimes :
To avoid US/NATAO/EU newly proclaimed RU-Nues fear, RU should declare not to use anything of that lacal nukes,
But instead: They (RU) would declare and practise some strikes of shots of NAPALM made-by-RU to cover some rainfall on some open fields of UR-Nazis.
Those NAPALM actions could help even the MSN to deny any further nuclear activities by RU-nukes, and also had been a good proof by the US-Army in Vietnam-Families surroundings and their children burning! But now, those're targeted "only" to a human UKR-Nazi-Soldiers on open-fields. Good excuse? .. to do that ? .. I'm not sure .. but would be a solution, the 1000km+ frontline have to be "cleared" by NAZI-insects, after having evacuated all civilians!
Crazy thinking - but may have excused/allowed when thinking the day-by-day deadly current shelling on DNR/LNR polls stations, nowadays ..
Posted by: ramsteen_tom | Sep 26 2022 18:54 utc | 15
Name one instance were the Russians have broken through the Ukrainian defensive line and attacked the line from the back.
I don't know of one instance.
You break through the line at some weak point and attack from the back.
Attacking into the teeth of the enemy is a fool's game.
Yet that seems to have been the only strategy employed.
Maybe Putin, or the Russian high command don't really like the Ukrainian rebels in the East.
Their support for the Ukrainian rebels seems really tepid.
The Luhansk & Donetsk People's Republic forces are reported to do most of the close fighting (and dying), etc, etc.
And Putin lets the neo-Nazis go in a prisoner exchange???
Posted by: Jack | Sep 26 2022 18:54 utc | 16
Re P Lancaster (somewhat OT)
Does anybody understand why the other three english-speaking guys independently reporting on the conflict (Bentley, Phillips, Dougan) keep dumping on PL? I consider all of them to be of value in terms of revealing what's going on over there.
Posted by: farm ecologist | Sep 26 2022 18:55 utc | 17
@ ok, you don't know anything about it, you never heard of a cauldron, you never heard of the feint on Kiev...and I bet in another post you will say that losses of Russian soldiers are horrendous...Clearly you are just another troll and I at least will ignore any further comment from you.
Posted by: Anthony | Sep 26 2022 19:12 utc | 18
On Telegram there are reports about a pressure loss in NS1 now. Can't find an official source yet. Vicky must be messing at least one pipe so eu can't change their sanctions even if they want to.
Posted by: rk | Sep 26 2022 19:13 utc | 19
I hear on Military Summary Channel that Russians are in critical situation on the north front. Russians are unable to stabilize the front, says Dima.
It is strange, they 9Russians) do not use their Air force.
Posted by: marko | Sep 26 2022 19:27 utc | 20
One of the main harmful actors in the EU drama is its central bank. I won't reproduce them but Hudson's and Nader's remarks plus the one question asked about the need for the Fed and its answer are critical to understanding how the Money Power exerts essentially dictatorial control over the Outlaw US Empire's economy. The same to an even greater degree is true of the European Central Bank. These two items from Hudson's website will help people understand what happened in the USA so they can see why privatized banking isn't good for themselves or their nation. "Federal Reserve System" and "How the U.S. Treasury avoided Chronic Deflation by Relinquishing Monetary Control to Wall Street". Dr. Hudson has many articles related to the European Central Bank at his website that can be found using European Central Bank as the search term. This long article provides vital historical context, "Banking Wasn't Meant to Be Like This".
Ultimnately, this is psychohistorian's Civilizational War between private finance and humanity. As many are beginning to realize, he's been correct all along. Because their political systems generally are far more democratic than the Empire's, Europeans can more easily elect people that will cater to their interests, which requires leaving the EU and ECB control and returning financial control to government and very restrictive regulation on all aspects of private finance.
Posted by: marko | Sep 26 2022 19:27 utc | 20
I think we have to assume Russia is aware of operative anti-air measures in the area and doesn't want to risk the loss of planes and men. Strange, though, that they don't launch a dozen kinzhals or a drone swarm.
Posted by: WJ | Sep 26 2022 19:36 utc | 22
Here's "Jack" again posting the same drivel that he/she/it has spread over multiple threads (multiple times in some of them). I can't see any downside to banning him/her/it but certainly wouldn't ask b to bother cleaning up his garbage manually if he's reluctant to issue bans in such cases: b does a sufficiently stellar job here that he doesn't need such janitorial diversions.
Posted by: StirThePot | Sep 26 2022 19:49 utc | 23
I hear on Military Summary Channel that Russians are in critical situation on the north front. Russians are unable to stabilize the front, says Dima.
It is strange, they 9Russians) do not use their Air force.
Posted by: marko | Sep 26 2022 19:27 utc | 20
There is nothing to suggest that the Allies don`t use their airforce. The daily hit list et al tell you that they do. That front-line is far off from the main fighting areas, so getting troops there in a meaningful defensive position might be tricky. You would expect that the defence of that area is the "job" of the Luhansk army/troops, so one might put the question to them. As Col. Macgregor said, if you step into the ring, you will get some heavy punches. That doesn`t tell how the fight will end. And since we see troops arriving in the SMO area now, the tide may very well turn. As I said before, much will also depend on how the Ukrainians can sustain the drive with man-material and weapons. Thus far, they seemingly dash forward and around most areas of military concentration. Many if`s and but`s, it will beome clearer in a few days, I'd assume. (All the above just MHO.)
Posted by: CM of Berlin | Sep 26 2022 19:51 utc | 24
@rk | Sep 26 2022 19:13 utc | 19
No coincidence that.
Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 26 2022 19:53 utc | 25
Ukrainian sources report an attack on the airport in Krivoy Rog, the airport is said to have been completely paralysed.
Apparently these kinshawls are needed somewhere else?
Posted by: Mo3 | Sep 26 2022 19:53 utc | 26
They seem to use attack drones in Odessa region almost daily. This evening multiple hits again.
Posted by: rk | Sep 26 2022 19:54 utc | 27
Mo3 | Sep 26 2022 19:53 utc | 26
Ukr say the airport was hit by kh-59 not kinzhal. I doubt we'll see hypersonics in Ukr again. Official number used was 3 I think
Posted by: rk | Sep 26 2022 19:58 utc | 28
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 26 2022 19:31 utc | 21
Wrong thread.
Posted by: Membrum Virile | Sep 26 2022 20:00 utc | 29
Membrum Virile @29--
I beg to differ. What entities are the ultimate sponsors of the events in Ukraine? The Neoliberal Parasites that run the Outlaw US Empire.
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 26 2022 20:04 utc | 30
It says on top of the page:
"views directly related to the Ukraine conflict"
Not ultimately.
Posted by: Membrum Virile | Sep 26 2022 20:09 utc | 31
Also, on Military Summary, Dima says that there are rumors that Russia is going to use one nuclear bomb to slow down western supply of weapons.
Posted by: marko | Sep 26 2022 20:16 utc | 32
Sept 26 (Reuters) - Nord Stream AG, the operator of the Nord Stream 1 undersea gas pipeline from Russia to Germany, said Monday it was looking into causes of a drop in pressure in the pipeline.
"Tonight, dispatchers from the Nord Stream 1 control centre recorded a pressure drop on both branches of the gas pipeline," it said in a statement. "The reasons are being clarified."
* * *
So, on the same day as NordStream 2, an absolutely new pipeline, begins to inexplicably leak and loses from 105 bar to 7 bar of pressure, NordStream 1 also fails for the same reason?
I believe Germany’s “best friend” has been working both overtime and seriously underestimates the intelligence of the rest of the world. Completely sabotaging all of Europe with “no way back” is really not the way to win the “hearts and minds” of Europe.
The U.S. must be incredibly desperate at this point and actually, if I were the Russian Federation, I would simply put America out of it's bloody misery right now, without any further discussion.
Game over.
Posted by: GreyRaven | Sep 26 2022 20:22 utc | 33
The UK’s chief of defence staff hosted talks with the Russian defence attaché at the Ministry of Defence in London.
Admiral Sir Tony Radakin and Colonel Maxim Elovik met as part of ongoing efforts to “strengthen military to military channels of communication” with Russia.
More horse-trading, then.
Posted by: Night Tripper | Sep 26 2022 20:24 utc | 34
@19 rk
isn't it ns2? That would make more sense. ns1 is basically at a standstill anyway. I assume that some of the turbines were sabotaged by the US. Germany must have been "secretly" negotiating with Russia over using ns2, and the yanks got wind of it and sent some navy seals in.
Be interesting to see what happens if Germany insists on ns2 going into operation anyway, Gazprom then repairs the pipe and positions russian marines to protect it.
Posted by: grippo | Sep 26 2022 20:25 utc | 35
Also, on Military Summary, Dima says that there are rumors that Russia is going to use one nuclear bomb to slow down western supply of weapons.
Posted by: marko | Sep 26 2022 20:16 utc | 32
.
.
That's rubbish !
This does not require nuclear weapons!
It only needs Belarus for that
All you need is Lemberg
All you need is Odessa
It would only take ships from Romania to be destroyed
All you need to do is destroy airports
All that was needed was to destroy railway lines
For this it would only take next to destroying the power plants of the nuclear power plants
It would take idiots like you to believe it!!
Posted by: Mo3 | Sep 26 2022 20:25 utc | 36
@marko | Sep 26 2022 20:16 utc | 32
Also, on Military Summary, Dima says that there are rumors that Russia is going to use one nuclear bomb to slow down western supply of weapons.I always thought there was something odd about him. Might be right.
Posted by: Norwegian | Sep 26 2022 20:28 utc | 38
#32
I can't imagine that at all. After they made such an effort to protect civilians, they will not send a nuke to Ukraine now. Also because the fallout might hit Belarus, Hungary or Russia itself. One never really knows where the wind blows.
What rumors are they talking about? Washington keeps brabbling about nukes all the time, already months ago. Just like they were talking about China's involvement again and again, until one military guy admitted they just spread that rumor on purpose without any evidence.
Posted by: Nico | Sep 26 2022 20:28 utc | 39
Hahaha I doubt using a nuke to stop weapons supplies is anywhere on Russian Nuclear Doctrine books.
I would think the 500+ Russian planes could halt weapon supply channels for months. Not to mention the destruction of all Ukranian roads/bridges and rails. Maybe also communications. They could do thid in case the situation turn Red Alert.
That Military Summary Channel sounds like a bunch of real idiots.
If Russia uses nukes at this point it would be suicide as whole world would go against them. Including China and India.
Posted by: Comandante | Sep 26 2022 20:32 utc | 40
Nord Stream 1
Perhaps Reuters screwed up, as usual, and it was a just a 22-year-old journalism intern keeping us accurately informed, just as we expect to be for the money we pay.
Posted by: GreyRaven | Sep 26 2022 20:32 utc | 41
Related to NS2 - Tass - Danish Maritime Authority reported a gas leakage not far from the island of Bornholm.
NS1 pressure problem was confirmed. So both NS are gone. Considering sanctions, any repair is not possible. Who would pay for it anyway? What Russian pipeline goes boom next?
Posted by: rk | Sep 26 2022 20:33 utc | 42
America's warning that, if Russia uses a nuke against Ukraine, then the US will react "immediately and decisively." But I wonder, what exactly does the US mean?
Maybe someone here can explain what America's threatening to do. I honestly don''t get it.
Think about it: if Russia fires a nuke at Ukraine, would it make sense for the US to respond by nuking part of the RF, or even Russian troops in the war zone? I don't think so. That's because the Kremlin would have absolutely no remaining option except to counter the US/NATO nuke by firing another Russian nuke, this time at the US or the EU.
Can anyone shed some light on specifically what the deranged neocons are telling Russia?
Posted by: Rudi | Sep 26 2022 20:34 utc | 43
The NS pressure drops on both pipelines is suspicious indeed.
An explosion would have been noticed. It takes a huge explosion to damage those massive pipelines.
I have read various theories.
I think for Russia it doesn't really matter, they have all but stopped sending any gas. But I suppose they still get money from Germany as if they were still shipping gas, because of those contracts.
Also, in one article they spoke about a pressure drop on the German side, implying that there was none on the Russian side. I know that Russia uses a part of NS2 for their internal distribution. But that doesn't seem to be affected.
Posted by: Nico | Sep 26 2022 20:35 utc | 44
How it is possible that neocons and US elite is not afraid of nuclear war?
Posted by: marko | Sep 26 2022 20:39 utc | 45
Rudi | Sep 26 2022 20:34 utc | 43
There is no logic in Blinky. He talks to hear himself talking. And to erase the memory of lizzy trussy's nuke threats or zely's demand of nukes to hit Russia.
Posted by: rk | Sep 26 2022 20:41 utc | 46
#43
That's just Americans desperately trying to force themselves into the news based on fake stories and fabricated rumors.
Posted by: Nico | Sep 26 2022 20:44 utc | 47
Posted by: farm ecologist | Sep 26 2022 18:55 utc | 17
Yes over the top but I like him and I don't know the others
Posted by: jo6pac | Sep 26 2022 20:48 utc | 48
Posted by: marko | Sep 26 2022 20:39 utc | 45
they've fallen for their own propaganda about Putin being weak and backing down. they are in an echo chamber consisting of themselves and people they have convinced, or paid to be convinced.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Sep 26 2022 20:50 utc | 49
Norwegian @ 38
Also, on Military Summary, Dima says that there are rumors that Russia is going to use one nuclear bomb to slow down western supply of weapons. I always thought there was something odd about him. Might be right.
While back I made the comment that Scott Ritter is an expert that acts like a kid and Dima is a kid that acts like an expert but sadly no one commented on how clever I was 🙁 So I get to make it again 😊
If Dima proves right it’s purely by happenstance. It’s asinine to think Putin and Shoigu would let slip the slightest clue over something like this. Dima isn't even acting like a 15y/o kid but a 10y/o one. The very few people making these decisions on both sides won’t be leaking it, which is why all this nuke discussion all of a sudden is rather reassuring. I’m with Dmitry Orlov on this, if a message needs to be given on the RF side it won’t be “rumors” it’ll be an above ground test in violation of the Partial Test Ban Treaty in Novaya Zemlya. That should shock everyone awake, if it doesn't...
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Sep 26 2022 21:01 utc | 50
Posted by: grippo | Sep 26 2022 20:25 utc | 35
“isn't it ns2? That would make more sense. ns1 is basically at a standstill anyway.”
* * *
Originally it was only NordStream 2.
With the apparent sabotage of NS 1 as well, we can now expect some serious “accidents” to occur somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico. I don’t believe that the U.S. public has any idea how deeply hated it has already become, nor what their government has been really perpetrating throughout the world over the past several decades.
However, with both pipelines out of operation in the foreseeable future, the coming winter for Europe looks increasingly bleak.
The time for the EU has clearly come to throw NATO entirely out of Europe, just as Charles de Gaulle rid France of that same pestilence not long after WWII.
Posted by: GreyRaven | Sep 26 2022 21:01 utc | 51
@ Rudi | Sep 26 2022 20:34 utc | 43
America's warning that, if Russia uses a nuke against Ukraine, then the US will react "immediately and decisively." But I wonder, what exactly does the US mean?
The US doesn't mean anything exactly, and is simply making the point that the US as the world hegemon can decide at any time to do any thing, exercising its authoritative ability to enforce its rules-based international order.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Sep 26 2022 21:10 utc | 52
Nukes wouldn't do much damage to troops. Just wipe out towns and cities.
The rumour is just that. Propaganda. BUT, The use of a UK/US false flag is not to be eliminated.
***
What we do know or has been signaled. Kadharov is closing in as new Chechen troops have been signaled on the road to Ukraine. (Plus their own new mobilization). I assume he knows what is planned as he has stopped being rude about the SMO.
The 3rd "new" army grouping must be somewhere near Rostov-on-Don. Signaled at some 60'000?
They are so visibly NOT visible that their whereabouts is being deliberately hidden.
I assume that the Russian reinforcements will only make an appearance after the result and corresponding "legal" acceptation of the 4 oblasts into Russia itself.
ie. Friday, or the day after the results and inclusions are announced, about the 30 September.
****
The US and Poland are desperately trying to take as much ground as possible before the Russians take over the battlefield. A lot of arms and armour has been signaled rushing in.
****
Airforce? My guess; Waiting for the new Ukie arms shipments to be delivered to railway stations and other marshalling points - where larger calibre missile and bombs could be used. They did take down two more Uke Migs possibly armed with HARMS anti-radar missiles, two days ago.
Against this the Russians do seem to be using cheaper missiles and drones where possible. Saving the larger stuff for concentrations or valuable targets.
****
Alternative; That the sabotaging of the NS2 and probably the NS1 signals that someone was about to break ranks and ask for more Gas. Precipitating a collapse of the 1000 plus sanctions nasty self inflicted destruction for Europe.
***
Outside war? why have there been so many unusual deaths of CEO's of Arms manufacturers and other industry top dogs. (Fall off boat, out of window etc. suicided with family etc.) Sold in the MSM as Putin both putting them in place and him now eliminating them. Surely both cannot be true? No explanation has been given by the FSB. Even denouncing assassination squads could have been expected, but there is a total silence even within Russia.
Posted by: Stonebird | Sep 26 2022 21:13 utc | 53
LightYearsFromHome | Sep 26 2022 21:01 utc | 50
There is a big trial being organized near Novaya Zemlya for their nuclear powered intercontinental missile.
There are clear indications that Russia is preparing to test the nuclear-powered Burevestnik (NATO: SKYFALL) missile. The test site at Pankovo on Novaya Zemlya in the Russian Arctic is extremely remote.
Source; HI Sutton, Covert Shores.
Posted by: Stonebird | Sep 26 2022 21:21 utc | 54
With the apparent sabotage of NS 1 as well, we can now expect some serious “accidents” to occur somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico
As well as perhaps an unfortunate collision of torpedo into the hull of an LNG freighter headed for Europe.
Posted by: Chris | Sep 26 2022 21:23 utc | 55
Gee, no outbursts aimed at others OT?!? Yet another troll.
Crooke's SCF essay is out, "Unpacking the Ukraine ‘Game Change’; Is a Major Conflict Inevitable?", and it builds on the lines forwarded in his al-Mayadeen column. Crooke leads with this:
Russia is preparing for an escalation in this war. She is augmenting her forces to the minimum level that could deal with a major NATO offensive. This decision was not precipitated by a significant attrition in the existing force. The facts are clear: The militias of Donetsk and Luhansk represent the majority of the Russian allied forces fighting in the Donbas. The militias have been reinforced by contract soldiers from the Wagner Group and Chechen fighters however, rather than by regular Russian forces.But this is about to change. The number of Russian regulars fighting in Ukraine will rise dramatically. However, the referenda in the Ukrainian oblasts come first; and those will be followed by the Government of Russia and the Duma accepting the results and approving the annexation of these territories. After that is concluded and the territories assimilated into Russia, any attack on the new Russian territories would be treated as an act of war against Russia. As former Indian diplomat, MK Bhadrakumar, notes, “The accession of Donbass, Kherson and Zaporozhye creates a new political reality and Russia’s partial mobilisation on parallel track is intended to provide the military underpinning for it”.
Clearly, we – the world – are at a pivotal moment. ‘Collective Russia’ has concluded that the former low-intensity war is no longer viable:
Unimaginable flows of western $ billions; too many NATO fingers in the Ukraine pie; too wide a ‘Ho Chi Minh Trail’ of ever more long-range and advanced weaponry; and too many ‘delusions’ that Kiev can still somehow win – effectively have undercut any ‘off-ramp solution’ and portend inexorable escalation.
Well, ‘Collective Russia’ has decided to ‘get ahead of the curve’, and to bring the affairs of Ukraine to the crunch. It is a risk; that is why we have reached an inflection point. The $64 thousand dollar question is, what will be the studied reaction of western political leaders to Putin’s speech? The next weeks will be crucial. [My Emphasis]
Indeed, how will those "leaders" interpret Putin's vow that nobody wants to touch or repeat:
"It is in our historical tradition, in the fate of our people, to stop those who are striving for world domination, who threaten to dismember and enslave our Motherland, our Fatherland. We will do it now, and so it will be." [My Emphasis]
Crooke then provides a rather select review of events since 2015 and discusses Russia's geopolitical strategy. After mentioning the SCO Samarkand Summit, he writes cryptically--"mindful of the SCO’s 2001 founding charter"--which in his column he expressed as "the ‘Three ‘No’s’: No alliance; no confrontation and no targeting of any ‘third party.’" Crooke continues:
Yes, China and India are opposed and sensitive to secessionism, but both accept that the Ukrainian attack upon the DLRP was contrived. However, the transition as outlined clearly by Putin “to terrorist attacks is a serious matter". Putin warned: "In fact, it is about using terrorist methods. We see this in the killing of officials in the liberated territories, we even see attempts at perpetrating terrorist attacks in the Russian Federation, including – I am not sure if this was made public – attempts to carry out terrorist attacks near our nuclear facilities, nuclear power plants in the Russian Federation. I am not even talking about the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant”.Both China and India in fact are more concerned about terrorism even, than secession. This ‘turn’ paradoxically, has had the effect of hardening their support for Russia. [My Emphasis]
And the #1 Terrorist nation and global supporter of Terrorism is the Outlaw US Empire/NATO. So, we might see the reversal of the War OF Terror to become a genuine War ON Terrorism's most prolific practitioner and sponsor. Indeed, the CSTO is also formulated as an anti-terrorist Bloc. And after Lavrov's UNGA performances, anyone doubting the Outlaw US Empire's use of terrorism isn't paying attention or is ideologically blinded. Putin also again directly accused the Outlaw US Empire of using terrorists against Russia and of currently employing terrorist tactics. Altogether Putin used Terror five times in his Mobilization Speech, which Crooke partially repeated above. And we'd all likely agree that war is organized terrorism, and the only reason it isn't called that is historic precedent, although numerous literary sources have referred to the terror of war through the centuries.
It should also be quite clear that Outlaw US Empire Neoliberal Parasites want to destroy the Shanghai Spirit that forms the basis for the SCO and BRI. So, if China doesn't become directly involved in conflict with the Empire over Europe than it likely will over Taiwan, which the Empire will try and turn into an Anti-China similar to Ukriane.
So, by October the oblasts will be Russian, and NATO will then be directly attacking Russia whether it recognizes the new facts or not. And there's no way NATO can claim to be acting in defense as it's already a party to the conflict as Lavrov explained.
Aside from the usual propaganda added via edit, this is an interesting reminder of cooler heads prevailing. If the US/NATO continue on their current path, we will be hoping for others to act in Petrov's spirit.
https://www.vox.com/2018/9/26/17905796/nuclear-war-1983-stanislav-petrov-soviet-union
On September 26, 1983, the planet came terrifyingly close to a nuclear holocaust.The Soviet Union’s missile attack early warning system displayed, in large red letters, the word “LAUNCH”; a computer screen stated to the officer on duty, Soviet Lt. Col. Stanislav Petrov, that it could say with “high reliability” that an American intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) had been launched and was headed toward the Soviet Union. First, it was just one missile, but then another, and another, until the system reported that a total of five Minuteman ICBMs had been launched.
“Petrov had to make a decision: Would he report an incoming American strike?” my then-colleague Max Fisher explained. “If he did, Soviet nuclear doctrine called for a full nuclear retaliation; there would be no time to double-check the warning system, much less seek negotiations with the US.”
Reporting it would have made a certain degree of sense. The Reagan administration had a far more hardline stance against the Soviets than the Carter, Ford, or Nixon administrations before it. Months earlier President Reagan had announced the Strategic Defense Initiative (mockingly dubbed “Star Wars,” a plan to shoot down ballistic missiles before they reached the US), and his administration was in the process of deploying Pershing II nuclear-armed missiles to West Germany and Great Britain, which were capable of striking the Soviet Union. There were reasons for Petrov to think Reagan’s brinkmanship had escalated to an actual nuclear exchange.
But Petrov did not report the incoming strike. He and others on his staff concluded that what they were seeing was a false alarm. And it was; the system mistook the sun’s reflection off clouds for a missile. Petrov prevented a nuclear war between the Soviets, who had 35,804 nuclear warheads in 1983, and the US, which had 23,305.
A 1979 report by Congress’s Office of Technology Assessment estimated that a full-scale Soviet assault on the US would kill 35 to 77 percent of the US population — or between 82 million and 180 million people in 1983. The inevitable US counterstrike would kill 20 to 40 percent of the Soviet population, or between 54 million and 108 million people. CTD...
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Sep 26 2022 21:50 utc | 57
There are clear indications that Russia is preparing to test the nuclear-powered Burevestnik (NATO: SKYFALL) missile. The test site at Pankovo on Novaya Zemlya in the Russian Arctic is extremely remote.
Source; HI Sutton, Covert Shores.
Posted by: Stonebird | Sep 26 2022 21:21 utc | 54
That's encouraging. I was getting concerned about the lack of atomic doomsday superweapons.
Alternative; That the sabotaging of the NS2 and probably the NS1 signals that someone was about to break ranks and ask for more Gas. Precipitating a collapse of the 1000 plus sanctions nasty self inflicted destruction for Europe.
***
Posted by: Stonebird | Sep 26 2022 21:13 utc | 53
Could be that Uncle Sam wanted a little insurance policy in case the Germans don't decide to freeze to death this winter like they're supposed to.
Posted by: ZX | Sep 26 2022 21:53 utc | 58
@ Rudi | Sep 26 2022 20:34 utc | 43
America's warning that, if Russia uses a nuke against Ukraine, then the US will react "immediately and decisively." But I wonder, what exactly does the US mean?
It means in reality, Ukraine is a de facto member of NATO
Posted by: Night Tripper | Sep 26 2022 21:55 utc | 59
That's encouraging. I was getting concerned about the lack of atomic doomsday superweapons.
Posted by: ZX | Sep 26 2022 21:53 utc | 58
Same. Truly concerning the world doesn't have more civilization ending weapons. /sarc
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Sep 26 2022 21:58 utc | 60
Chris @55--
A large natural event is about to severely trash Florida, likely Tampa, the sort of storm local planners have long feared given the possibility of direct, massive, prolonged storm surge directly into Tampa Bay. The potential for three or four high tide cycles combined with storm surge would relandscape the interior of Tampa Bay and the city.
I remain curious. Who in your opinion would benefit from an attack on an LNG tanker?
I suggest Russia destroy all the US oil installations in Syria, through which the US are stealing Syrian oil.
Posted by: Nico | Sep 26 2022 22:06 utc | 62
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 26 2022 22:00 utc | 61
On the subject of Florida and looming natural disasters, I just happened to be talking to a friend the other day about home insurance in that state. A lot of people who have relocated there over the past 3 years were shocked to learn that getting a homeowner's insurance policy is incredibly difficult. The stated reason that many carriers have abandoned FL is rampant insurance fraud in the RE and insurance servicing industries. The next big hurricane strike will be of calamitous financial proportions with little recourse for homeowners.
https://www.bankrate.com/insurance/homeowners-insurance/florida-homeowners-insurance-crisis/
The crisis in the Florida insurance market Florida has always been a complex home insurance market, but recent issues are pushing the state’s market to the point of collapse. Since 2017, six property and casualty companies that offered homeowners insurance in Florida liquidated. Four more are in the liquidation process in 2022. Other insurance companies are voluntarily leaving the state. Still, more are choosing to nonrenew swaths of home insurance policies, drastically tighten their policy eligibility requirements or request substantial rate increases.
-and-
The biggest issue right now in Florida is home insurance fraud, driven by fraudulent roofing claims. A proclamation from the office of Governor Ron DeSantis notes that, although Florida only accounts for 9% of the country’s home insurance claims, it is home to 79% of the country’s home insurance lawsuits. Many of these lawsuits are fraudulent. ICA Carter explains how the scams work:First, roofers canvas neighborhoods and offer inspections to unsuspecting homeowners. These contractors inevitably “find damage” on the roof and often promise a “free roof” to the homeowner, claiming they can have the home insurance deductible waived.
Homeowners are pressured to sign an assignment of benefits form, giving contractors the right to file an insurance claim on their behalf.
A claims adjuster from the insurance company inspects the alleged damage. The adjuster either finds no damage or far more minimal damage than the contractor found, and the claim payout is less than what the contractor demanded.
The contractor brings legal action against the insurance company, demanding a claim payout for the contractor’s original quote. Remember, the homeowner signed the benefits of the policy to the contractor, so the contractor doesn’t need the homeowner’s permission to do this.
The insurance company now has a choice: it can pay the legal costs to fight the lawsuit or pay the costs to settle out of court. Either way, the insurance company loses money due to the legal action.
ICA Carter notes that “these schemes are real and are happening more frequently,” which puts more and more financial pressure on insurance companies, especially in a state with high claims costs due to weather-related events.According to Mark Friedlander, Director of Corporate Communications at the Insurance Information Institute, “Florida property insurers are projected to post a cumulative underwriting loss of $1.7 billion for 2021” due to these runaway litigation costs. The governor’s office reports that, for two consecutive years, net underwriting losses have exceeded $1 billion. It’s no wonder that so many companies are going insolvent or leaving the state before they reach that point.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Sep 26 2022 22:09 utc | 63
Saw on telegram Putin gave Snowden citizenship today, what’s interesting is that Snowden took it. Granted he has a child born there and this way he can’t be deported and separated which is an imperative for most immigrants. Also with any upcoming war deals like the recent prisoner exchange the USA could say, “throw in Snowden and you have a deal,” and maybe they did. Putin has no love for Snowden and said he considered him a traitor to his country but if it did come down to Putin's decision he did him a kindness. On the other hand Putin may have had little to do w/ it, Snowden applied and it was just a bureaucratic matter.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Sep 26 2022 22:10 utc | 64
The USA is now winning the economic war.
Yet, its hegemony is being seriously challenged by Russia and its allies. In its end the United States Dollar will fall to zero value the hour the USA is nuked by the Russian Bear.
This looks to occur soon after the Donetsk region of the Donbas is 100% in the hands of Russia (Daniel 7:5).
Best to take a long vacation elsewhere in the world if one now resides in the USA.
Posted by: young | Sep 26 2022 22:10 utc | 65
"The wreckage of an American AGM-88 HARM missile that fell in the center of Kramatorsk. Earlier, a similar ammunition fell in Konstantinovka, which may indicate serious technical problems with US-supplied missiles."
https://t.me/voenkorKotenok/40876?single
Pictures show stamps that they were made in 1985. So it looks like U.S. is clearing out their old stocks.
Posted by: MiniMo | Sep 26 2022 22:12 utc | 66
@Karlof1 61
Well, certainly Europe would not benefit. Just pointing out that sabotage works both ways. A less clumsy way to do it would be to put an inside man on the freighter and do it with some plausible deniability. Or arrange for an "accident" at the regasification station. You know, the radical environmentalists did it. That's the ticket.
As for who would benefit, that is a very good question. Aside from Russia, perhaps some ME countries are working on sending gas to Europe via pipelines.
Posted by: Chris | Sep 26 2022 22:13 utc | 67
Posted by: rk | Sep 26 2022 18:47 utc | 12
Posted by: Mo3 | Sep 26 2022 18:52 utc | 14
A few not-G7 journals confirmed international observers. Good to see Kherson got turnout up. Does vote count include displaced?
This weekend I accidently learned from Strana (UA scare quotes) reporting
"Polling stations" will be opened in all regions of the Russian Federation, and several in large cities. For example, in Moscow in every district. They will also work in every major district of the Moscow region. The same applies to the annexed Crimea. Many points for "voting" in the Rostov [RU] region.
[...]
This means that not only refugees from the LDNR and other regions of Ukraine will be able to vote in Russia (according to TASS, more than 4.2 million citizens have arrived in the Russian Federation since February), but also citizens who conditionally moved from Donetsk to Moscow 20 years ago, who have an expired Ukrainian passport
Posted by: sln2002 | Sep 26 2022 22:17 utc | 68
Is there any hard evidence that the "Ukrainian offensive" east of Kharkov was anything other than a small attack?
I can't even find a single estimate of the number of Ukrainian tanks involved.
Doesn't anyone here know?
Surely someone here knows. Surely?
It seems no one knows. No one seems to have any idea.
Why is it that no one here nows anything about the "Ukrainian offensive" east of Kharkov?
Posted by: Jack | Sep 26 2022 22:25 utc | 69
Yuri Podolyak (war blogger/analyst) claims that the Ukrainian offensive N/NW of Lyman lost momentum. Russian mobilization provides gradually more opportunity to pile reserves to block further advances, and attacks on Lyman directly have failed. Ukrainians are on a long narrow corridor. We'll see what happens, in the next week or so.
https://t.me/Zornkrieger/15280
Posted by: unimperator | Sep 26 2022 22:27 utc | 70
It seems like several days since a Russian Ministry of Defence daily briefing on the SMO was posted at MoA. (I'd try to post it if I weren't on a dialup connection.)
Posted by: David Levin | Sep 26 2022 22:32 utc | 71
David Levin -
⚡️ Russian Defence Ministry report on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine
(September 26, 2022)
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.
💥 Massive fire attack launched at the bases of 14th Mechanised and 95th Airborne Assault brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) near Senkovo and Chervony Oskol (Kharkov region) have resulted in causing casualties of over 120 enemy servicemen and 15 units of military equipment.
💥 High-precision attacks launched by Russian Aerospace Forces at the provisional bases of the 'Foreign Legion' and units from nationalist groups near Svyatogorsk (Donetsk People's Republic) have resulted in the elimination of up to 100 militants.
💥 Missile attack launched at a forward command post of 10th Mountain Assault Brigade of the AFU near Chasov Yar (Donetsk People's Republic) during the brigade commanders' conference has resulted in the elimination of up to 25 Ukrainian servicemen and wounding of over 40.
◽️ 8 units of special military equipment have been neutralised.
💥 High-precision attack at a provisional base of 406th Artillery Brigade of the AFU near Ochakov (Nikolayev region) has resulted in the elimination of up to 50 militants, 10 units of military equipment and over 2,000 artillery projectiles.
💥 Operational-tactical and army aviation, missile troops and artillery have neutralised 5 AFU command posts near Kupyansk (Kharkov region), Shchurovo, Kirovo (Donetsk People's Republic), Kamyshevakha (Zaporozhye region) and Vysokopolye (Kherson region), as well as of 56 artillery units, 163 manpower and military equipment concentration areas.
◽️ 3 AFU missile, artillery armament and munitions depots near Zaporozhye, Nikolayev and Kramatorsk (Donetsk People's Republic) have been destroyed.
💥 Fighter aviation of Russian Aerospace Forces has shot down 1 Su-24 airplane of Ukrainian Air Force near Selidovo (Donetsk People's Republic).
💥 Russian air defence facilities have shot down 13 unmanned aerial vehicles near Bobrovy Kut, Zalyony Gai, Ukrainka, Sadok, Novaya Kakhovka, Maksima Gorkogo (Kherson region), Molochansk (Zaporozhye region), Selidovo and Kirillovka (Donetsk People's Republic).
💥 19 projectiles launched by HIMARS and Olkha multiple rocket-launching systems have been destroyed in air near Antonovka bridge (Kherson region), as well as near Svatovo (Lugansk People's Republic) and Novaya Kakhovka (Kherson region).
📊 In total, 302 airplanes and 155 helicopters, 2,087 unmanned aerial vehicles, 377 air defence missile systems, 5,114 tanks and other armoured combat vehicles, 845 combat vehicles equipped with MRLS, 3,417 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 5,904 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.
❗️ Kiev regime continues its provocations near Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.
◽️ AFU artillery had been shelling at Volna suburban settlement located near the nuclear power plant.
◽️ A total of 25 projectiles have been launched from Kiev-controlled areas of Nikopol and Marganets (Dnepropetrovsk region).
◽️ Enemy firepower has been neutralised by Russian artillery's counter-attack.
⚠️ The radiation environment at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant remains normal.
#MoD #Russia #Ukraine
@mod_russia_en
Posted by: ZX | Sep 26 2022 22:40 utc | 72
No pint in succumbing to wishful thinking so far the sweeping fascist victory in Italy's General Elections are concerned. As the leader of the League promised the government- once formed- is likely to last a full five year term.
"...The return of Mussolini’s descendants to direct rule over Italy, for the first time since the end of World War II 77 years ago, is a warning to workers worldwide. The only way forward against imperialist war and social austerity is a break with a bankrupt political establishment and a struggle to mobilize the working class, independently of the existing parties and national trade union bureaucracies, in a struggle for socialism.
"Since the 1991 Stalinist dissolution of the Soviet Union, European governments of all stripes have imposed austerity, bank bailouts for the rich, and waged imperialist wars. In Italy, Rifondazione Comunista and the PD played leading roles in government to impose these anti-worker policies. With the COVID-19 pandemic and the NATO war on Russia in Ukraine, the bourgeoisie is shifting even further to the right. Amid rising working class anger over the global surge of inflation, the ruling class is using Meloni’s populist demagogy to try to build a police state inspired by 20th-century fascism.
"Last night, Meloni began her victory speech by indicating that she saw it as a triumph of the fascist tradition. Meloni, whom official European media euphemistically refer to as “post-fascist,” said, “I dedicate this victory to all those who are no longer here and who deserved to be alive tonight.”
"She insisted that she would lead a “responsible” government and tried to use her gender to give herself a progressive gloss. Demanding “mutual respect” from other political organizations in Italy, she pledged to “concentrate on what unites us rather than what divides us. The time has come to be responsible.”
"Meloni told the press that, as Italy’s first female prime minister, her election was “a step forward. I defined it as breaking the ‘glass ceiling,’ one that still exists in many western countries, not only in Italy, preventing women from achieving important public roles in society.”
"Meloni also sought to calm concerns in ruling circles that she might make nationalist criticisms of the NATO war on Russia or the EU’s multi-trillion-euro bank bailouts for the super-rich. She emphasized that she supported Italy’s position inside the European Union (EU) and the NATO alliance, as well as the war against Russia in Ukraine.
“ 'We will be guarantors, without ambiguity, of Italy’s positioning and of our uttermost support to the heroic battle of the Ukrainian people,' she said. She also backed the surge in EU military spending and the EU’s cut-off of purchases of Russian natural gas: 'If we had an EU more like the one we imagine, we would have developed a more effective defense policy, invested in energy security and maintained short value chains to avoid reliance on other—often untrustworthy—countries for gas, raw materials, commodities, chips and other goods.'..."
So that's All In with their fellow fascists in Ukraine. And fully committed to an EU which sanctions Russia and mirrors NATO's militarism.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/09/26/tlgq-s26.html
Posted by: bevin | Sep 26 2022 22:45 utc | 73
I am guessing but here is my take on the pssible russian thinking
As i have written several times, russian strategy chages dramatically when they change phases.
When the SMP started they sought to pressure Ukraine into a reasonable peace treaty-independence for the two breakaways plus withdrawal from NATO. When this did not work they withdrew from Kiev and focused on securing Luhansk, Donetsk and Kherson/Zapororishia, with a smaller but real effort around Kharkov and Odessa/Nikoleyev.
With the total withdrawal of Western Europe from Russian gas, there is no longer any hope of peace, nor is there any value any longer in pumping gas through Ukraine - Other than perhaps to support Hungary.
Russia has now shifted focus again and will fully incorprate the four provinces. This is dramatic, and it means I think a complete break with western Europe. I think Russia has decided that it is not worth fighting for kharkov, because without any gas supplies, the cold winter will deliver them to Russia in 2 years anyway. When the residents see the other provinces flourishing in a warm gas filled environment, with their industries closed for lack of fuel, Kharkov will return anyway. After all you can be sure the NAZI troops/enforcers will flee back to the west, where at least there will be some gas via the occasional LNG tanker. None of it will reach Kharkov. They may have some gas resources, but who will finance this project.
Posted by: watcher | Sep 26 2022 22:48 utc | 74
watcher | Sep 26 2022 22:48 utc | 74
Hungary started getting its gas via Turkstream in late 2021 after signing their new long term l;ow cost contract..
Posted by: JohninMK | Sep 26 2022 22:53 utc | 75
"...Ultimately, this is psychohistorian's Civilizational War between private finance and humanity. As many are beginning to realize, he's been correct all along. Because their [Europe's] political systems generally are far more democratic than the Empire's, Europeans can more easily elect people that will cater to their interests, which requires leaving the EU and ECB control and returning financial control to government and very restrictive regulation on all aspects of private finance."
Posted by: karlof1 | Sep 26 2022 19:31 utc | 21
Indeed it is that, karlof1, and isn't now the position of Europe exactly like what happened when the banks were withholding other countries legitimate funds, a looming, enlightening evil?
Exactly like what is happening to Ukraine as even the land itself is being terrorized. Now it is Europe's turn. The worsened statelessness of Ukraine shifts seamlessly to the dark misanthropic terror that private finance has become. This is also that.
Again and again in speeches the Russians delineate how it began, for Ukraine, with terrorism, and how it is now ending, in terrorism. We have seen that other places as well. What we haven't realized perhaps is that terrorism manifests itself in many different forms. Maybe now we shall.
Posted by: juliania | Sep 26 2022 22:54 utc | 76
Posted by: ZX | Sep 26 2022 22:40 utc | 72
Thank you!
Posted by: David Levin | Sep 26 2022 22:55 utc | 77
karlof1 @ 61
Tom_Q_Collins @ 63
Re: Florida, the con that keeps on giving, going on a century now -
Cocoanuts (Marx Brothers) - hilarious auction scene
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Sep 26 2022 22:57 utc | 78
Posted by: bevin | Sep 26 2022 22:45 utc | 73
Amid rising working class anger over the global surge of inflation, the ruling class is using Meloni’s populist demagogy to try to build a police state inspired by 20th-century fascism.
Rather overdone, I think.
Contra WSWS, there's little sign of the ruling class becoming populist demagogues (unpopulist, surely) and it's over 2 years too late to worry about the authoritarian police state.
Most likely outcome is Mrs Meloni farts around for a couple of years before getting caught up in some scandal (real or concocted) or typical Italian infighting that ends her career and leaves many of her followers disillusioned. Then Italy will vote in its next unconventional savior.
On her foolish Ukraine views, I'm starting to wonder if the over-the-top campaign to remove Jeremy Corbyn from the Labour leadership had 2022 in mind. If he was Prime Minister the Ukraine war might never have started.
Posted by: ZX | Sep 26 2022 23:03 utc | 79
Marko @32
Watched Dima's video. He appears to be getting a bit unhinged on the nuke issue. Long before nukes, Russia has other options such as hyperbarics...nasty stuff, but not outlawed by Geneva conventions.
Question: Has Dima been getting "donations" or threats from interested parties?
Posted by: aristodemos | Sep 26 2022 23:06 utc | 80
The more that Blinken, Winken and Nodd, on behalf of the U$$A Department of $tate keep hollering about Russia using nukes when they are well ahead of the game and about to knock Ukraine for a loop; the growing possibility is that they are prepping the Great Overwashed (American suburban overeducated idiots living the Rat-Race) for a false-flag attack.
So will the upcoming "October Surprise" be 911 Inside Job #2? All this hype by the Khazarian Mafiosi running the U$$A foreign service, indicates that the Democraps are getting extremely nervous about the November elections and will do all they can to fool most of the idiotized once again.
Posted by: aristodemos | Sep 26 2022 23:15 utc | 81
One general about another:
MOSCOW, September 27 - RIA Novosti. Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov is an unsurpassed military strategist, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhny said in an interview with Time.
“I grew up on Russian military doctrine and still believe that all military science is in Russia. I studied with Gerasimov. I read everything he ever wrote. He is the smartest of people,” the Ukrainian military leader said.
https://ria.ru/20220927/prevoskhodstvo-1819671590.html
Posted by: JB | Sep 26 2022 23:23 utc | 82
Had the same thought about an "accident" sinking one of those LNG tankers. Then I thought it over and decided that the fuss would be less, but the lesson still learned, if the vessel was returning to the Gulf of Mexico for another filling.
No big boom and less danger to the crew. No bleeding hearts on the mass media bemoaning the evil deed. They would still squawk all right, but the level of pathos would not be nearly as extreme.
Posted by: aristodemos | Sep 26 2022 23:27 utc | 83
karlof1 @ 61
Tom_Q_Collins @ 63
LightYearsFromHome | Sep 26 2022 22:57 utc | 78
Carl Hiassen has long been the comic bard of Floridian sleaze, although the political system he gleefully skewers obtains mutatis mutatis across America and around the world.
Reading his novels in chronological order is best, due to recurrence of characters, especially a Vietnam vet who was elected governor but flipped out from the sleaze, fled Tallahassee, lives in the swamps and on road-kill, and acts as deus ex machina in many of the novels.
Posted by: John Kennard | Sep 26 2022 23:43 utc | 84
Tom_Q_Collins @63--
Thanks for that comment. We have friends living in Jacksonville and am curious to discover their situation.
Chris @67--
Thanks for your reply. IMO, the only beneficiaries would be gas exporters as price would rise. Dat rates for LNG tankers would also increase benefitting shareholders of the few non-state companies owning them.
juliania @76--
Thanks for your reply. I remain a very curious spectator. Just got my winter wood supply. Soon hope to get my winter garden planted.
A useful rational review by Patrick Lawrence last week of the SCO meetings.
Western coverage of last week’s summit in Uzbekistan brings us face-to-face with the extent to which Americans are not supposed to see the world turning.
http://patricklawrence.us/patrick-lawrence-appointment-in-samarkand/
and another more specifically about Ukriane and the present moment.
https://scheerpost.com/2022/09/25/patrick-lawrence-in-the-terrain-of-word-war-iii/
Posted by: SeanAU | Sep 27 2022 0:07 utc | 86
I still find it inexplicable that after 7 months of combat that Russia with drones, satellite surveillance and on the ground intel cannot stop the shelling of a region (Donetsk) the size of Massachusettes? What's up with that?
Posted by: Deplorable Cro magno | Sep 27 2022 0:11 utc | 87
Really don't think Snowden had any choice. Say he flew into Paris, my guess is some black suv's would meet him at the airport. A quiet jaunt to a nearby CIA black site for a little tuning up followed by a one way trip to Gitmo or even dumped out in the middle of the shining sea.
He ought to get down on his knees and thank God Almighty for President Putin every night the rest of his life.
Posted by: morongobill | Sep 27 2022 0:40 utc | 88
marko @32
russian first nuclear use is western bs.
guess i won't be listening to dima anymore.
Posted by: polarbear4 | Sep 27 2022 0:41 utc | 89
For a few weeks we keep seeing the Biden Administration warn Russia not to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
This strikes me as odd, because not only does Russia have no need to use such a weapon in Ukraine, it would go against everything they are trying to achieve there, which is to liberate the Russian people and lands of Ukraine from a fanatical fascist regime.
The US State Department knows that perfectly well. So why do they keep intimating that Russia is tempted to drop a nuke on Ukraine?
Then it occured to me, they are planning another MH-17 to blame on Russia, but this time it will be a nuclear detonation blamed on Russia.
I could definitely see the Biden Regime doing that. Everybody better stock up on iodine pills...
Posted by: Rhinoskerous | Sep 27 2022 0:47 utc | 90
Re: Russian use of 'tactical' nukes
Low-yield, sub-kiloton nukes (artillery, small warhead missiles) are generally not worth the trouble and more of a historical curiosity than a useful weapon today. Existing precision-guided conventional weapons can do the job just fine.
Larger-yield 10's or 100's of kiloton tactical nukes may have had some practical value for area-mass destruction, but there's generally not that large of a target anywhere on a modern battlefield calling for something that big. Maybe regional fixed targets like a military base, airfield or shipping port, but not much else. Even then, these targets can all be destroyed or degraded just as effectively with a dozen conventionally-armed cruise or ballistic missiles - something Russia still has plenty of to use. Considering the political fallout, there is really no good reason for Russia to ever bother using a tactical nuke in Ukraine. It makes no sense.
I would suggest that the only thing Russia might even consider using is an electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) nuclear weapon detonated at high altitude - high enough that there are no direct 'nuclear' (blast, flash, thermal or radiation/fallout) effects on the ground. Their effect is to fry electrical/electronic equipment over a wide area several miles below the explosion using electro-magnetic energy. Humans are not affected (unless you have a pacemaker). No radiation reaches the ground, but radiation/EMP effects would extend to satellites in the vicinity.
Russia is thought to have EMP weapons with an effect far greater than the level at which NATO had originally considered for hardening their electronic equipment. EMP-hardened NATO equipment *is* susceptible to EMP effects beyond a certain threshold.
This poses a dilemma for NATO: could they justify any kind of tactical nuclear strike response to a Russian EMP weapon that blacked out half of Ukraine? Even if the NATO response was a nuclear EMP weapon, what would they target? It would have to target Russia proper, which would be interpreted by Russia as a nuclear attack requiring a nuclear response to the aggressor.
I'm not suggesting Russia would EMP Ukraine, but the situation is a lot more complicated than the simple response calculus of NATO to Russia lobbing a useless 30kt nuke at an ammo dump or railroad crossing.
Practical EMP weapons are 1) inherently nuclear and 2) immeasurably more useful to Russia against NATO's electronic-everything battlefield and satellite/airborne sensor and communications network. Using an EMP weapon would make affected civilians miserable (no power, cell phones, etc.) but it would not cause the kind of death and destruction that conventional weapons have been causing thus far.
The US and NATO can feed Ukrainians into the meat-grinder all day long, but the one thing they could not stand for is being blind, deaf and dumb on the Ukraine battlefield while Russia rolls across the steppes. Would the US amp up the crazy and EMP or nuke Russia in response? I don't know - that's the part that everyone should be worried about. I only know what Russia will then do in response.
Vk.com and all associated apps taken off app stores worlwide.
@Karlof1 did you lose your account?
Posted by: Lozion | Sep 27 2022 1:06 utc | 92
indian punchline today -
Fascism returns to Europe’s centerstage
Posted by: james | Sep 27 2022 1:12 utc | 93
apple - working for the same corrupt empire 24-7...... who whudda thunk it? fuck apple..
Posted by: james | Sep 27 2022 1:14 utc | 94
gotta love orban on the other hand -
2/2 “For the first time in Europe, in Hungary, we will ask for the opinion of people concerning sanctions…National consultations will be launched. Hungarian people will be able to express their opinion whether they support them & if they are in favor of introducing new ones.”
Posted by: james | Sep 27 2022 1:15 utc | 95
So, no one here can quote a single estimate of the number of West-Ukrainian tanks involved in the "great West-Ukrainian offensive" east of Kharkov. No one can point to an article where some estimate is made.
The real reason for this?
The East-Ukrainians (The Luhansk & Donetsk People's Republic forces) were ordered to withdraw from the whole area.
The West-Ukrainians made a few small attacks on the retreating East-Ukrainians and the lying media turned these into a massive West-Ukrainian victory.
Two questions; Who ordered the East-Ukrainians to withdraw?
And why did they choose to do it at a time when the West-Ukrainians were absolutely desperate for a distraction because of their disastrous losses in the south.
I still wait for an estimate of the number of Ukrainian tanks involved in the "great West-Ukrainian offensive."
Even an order of magnitude guess.
Was it 10 tanks, or 100 tanks, or 1000 tanks, or 10000 tanks?
Posted by: Jack | Sep 27 2022 1:21 utc | 96
Jack @16
Maybe you should read today's Saker article/editorial about the prisoner swap.
Then you would understand.
Posted by: digital dinosaur | Sep 27 2022 1:27 utc | 97
Posted by: Jack | Sep 27 2022 1:21 utc | 96
I still wait for an estimate of the number of Ukrainian tanks involved in the "great West-Ukrainian offensive."
Dear Jack
Ask in the YouTube comments section. Those guys know *everything*.
Regards,
Arch
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Sep 27 2022 1:29 utc | 98
I am happy to see the reduction in troll activity at the bar but note there are still those that insist on engaging those that ask questions but don't add value in the comment....and your response is just more worthless textual white noise we have to wade through.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Sep 27 2022 1:34 utc | 99
[email protected]
Overdone is putting it mildly. But the reporting on which the WSWS agitprop is engrafted is solid.
As to Corbyn you are right. The objection to him was that he would not follow NATO policies and would side with AMLO in Mexico and defend the Cuban and Venezuelan governments.
I had the luck to meet a mid level MI guy in the UK in 2016 who frothed at the mouth when the subject of Corbynism came up: the objection, very clearly, was that disassociation with NATO and US Imperialism would make the UK military, Security Services and most of The Establishment redundant- they work for the USA and they know it. What passes for patriotism in the UK ruling class and Establishment is entirely phony- they despise the country and its people their loyalty is to the Empire and their Boss is on the western side of the Atlantic.
They hated Corbyn because he understood this and was able, like Shelley, to understand that the message "We are many, They are few" had immense resonance- it has been in the back of the minds of the people for centuries. Chesterton understood it when he talked of the People of England "who have never spoken yet".
Unfortunately Corbyn is not a politician, he just makes his living that way, but a poet and prophet..
By the way, Crooke's article at Strategic Culture is very good this week. His explanation of the thinking behind the SMO very convincing. One of his best.
https://strategic-culture.org/news/2022/09/26/unpacking-ukraine-game-change-is-major-conflict-inevitable/
Posted by: bevin | Sep 27 2022 1:39 utc | 100
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From TASS:
Posted by: David Levin | Sep 26 2022 16:49 utc | 1