God forbid if the truth came out.

Posted by: jpc | Dec 29 2022 12:10 utc | 1

Good to see that Russia is continuing its attacks on the power grid. I suspect it is becoming harder and harder to repair it due to lack of parts. Thankfully, the US cannot provide the autotransformers, switchgears, etc so these strikes will help hasten the end of the war. It is humorous (not really) to see Ukraine claiming to shoot down all these missiles will begging for air defense systems. I'm hoping these strikes will trigger a revolt or at least a mass migration to bring the Ukraine regime to its knees. As Ukraines' economy continues it free fall, they will demand more and more money from everyone. Schadenfreude...

Posted by: ctiger | Dec 29 2022 12:24 utc | 2

Ukrainian infrastructure once again bravely intercepted the Russian missiles

Posted by: leaf | Dec 29 2022 12:30 utc | 3

120 missiles or 69?
None of these reports sound convincing.
Of course the Bandera Broadcasting Corporation here in the UK will be regurgitating the Ukrainian numbers like tablets of stone.

Posted by: Glasshopper | Dec 29 2022 12:38 utc | 4

I am dazed and confused. Were there 120 missiles or 69? How did missiles that had been shot down deprive 40% of Kyiv residents of their electricity? What is this place called 'Kyiv' anyway? Is the Ukraine still winning or not?

Zanon, where are you when we need you? Always one step behind! Please get in touch as soon as the power comes back on.

Posted by: B. Wildered | Dec 29 2022 12:38 utc | 5

As for accurate reportage (Glasshopper may be interested) the BBC's "Today" programme this morning on Radio 4 was a peerless in an already overcrowded class, guest 'edited' by the Head of GCHQ. Not to be missed

Posted by: jamesh | Dec 29 2022 12:45 utc | 6

Translated from Russian FYI:

ПЕРЕХВАТ (Z) (Intercept (Z)) (Open/Public TG link)
(Ukraine Situ map re strikes here)(JPG)

🇺🇺🇦💡 Massive missile strike by the Russian Armed Forces on infrastructure facilities in Ukraine on December 29 - what is known by 12.00

The Russian Armed Forces carried out another massive missile strike on facilities throughout the territory of Ukraine.

This time the targets were not only energy facilities, but also, apparently, Ukrainian air defense position areas. Like the last time, to identify the air defense position areas, they first launched decoy missiles and then fired on them.

Immediately after the air alert was declared, at least in the Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa regions, the power supply was cut off in order to try to hide the damage to infrastructure.

▪️In Kiev, at least four arrivals are known. An industrial enterprise in the Goloseevsky district, an unidentified facility in the Darnitsky district and a S-300 SAM of the Ukrainian air defense system were hit. In the city the subway is not working, the light is partially lost.

▪️ At least 5 strikes were counted in the Odessa region. One of them hit an air defense position near Aleksandrovka. The 160th anti-aircraft missile brigade of the AFU is located relatively nearby in Radostne.

A hit was recorded at the Usatovo 330 kV substation. Judging by the photo, the target was again the 330/110 autotransformer. Explosions were also heard in the village of im. Kotovsky settlement.

▪️At least five blasts hit Kharkov. Electric transport, including the subway, completely stopped in the city, and heating, hot and cold water was lost in some areas.

One of the targets was most likely the CHP-3 near the Turboatom plant in the Nemyshlyanskiy district.

It is quite possible that the Turboatom shops were hit. Local residents reported four incursions in that area. Last week we reported that the plant was operating.

▪️In Lviv, locals reported at least 3 arrivals, after which the city has almost completely lost power and transportation is not functioning.

The sounds of flying missiles could be heard over Ternovitsa, near where the Yavoriv training ground, where foreign mercenaries undergo training, is located.

▪️At least two strikes hit the Ternopil region. Ternopil 330kV substation and a repair plant are located in the region.

▪️Local sources reported explosions at an unnamed facility in Nikolaev.

At the same time, Russian troops launched MLRS strikes against Ochakov from the territory of Kherson region.

▪️Local residents heard explosions near Mirgorod in the Poltava region, where the Ukrainian Air Force military airfield and the 330 kV power substation of the same name are located.

▪️One strike struck a facility in the Chernihiv region.

▪️There were no arrivals in the Dnipropetrovsk region, but the authorities themselves cut off electricity shortly before the massive attack by the Russian Armed Forces.

▪️There is no exact information about the explosions in Zhytomyr and Chernihiv oblasts, as well as in Ivano-Frankivsk.

▪️ In Vinnitsa, Sumy and Khmelnitsky regions, air defense equipment went off.

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 29 2022 12:46 utc | 7

Leaf no. 3

😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣

B. Wildered no. 5

😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣

I thought zelensky was the comedian!!!!!

Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Dec 29 2022 12:51 utc | 8

Continuing from the previous thread:

Russia will stop at Poland's border - at least until Poland tries something. It's that simple. Russia does not want to start a kinetic war with NATO until NATO starts it. That's simple, too.

Giving Galicia to Poland achieves absolutely nothing for Russian security interests. It just bring NATO closer, albeit insignificantly.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Dec 29 2022 2:51 utc | 155

Good points.

But this line of thinking has to be expanded.

The Baltic Sea has now become another huge problem for Russia -- it has Kaliningrad isolated way out there on its own, another narrow outlet on the Gulf of Finland, and that's it. Everything else is NATO.

It hasn't been this bad of a situation since Peter The Great. Geographically it was of course worse between WWI and WWII, but the other countries in the region at the time were not all in the same openly hostile towards Russia alliance.

That situation was eventually resolved, though only briefly, in 1939-1940 with the expansion of the area of control north of Leningrad and with the recovery of the Baltic republics.

Same kind of problem needs to be solved now too.

But how do you do it without starting a nuclear war?

Posted by: shadowbanned | Dec 29 2022 12:58 utc | 9

Aggregated relevant posts:

Intel Slava Z
🇷🇺🇺🇦 After arrivals in Western Ukraine (explosions are reported in the Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions), blackouts began in a number of cities.

There are also arrivals in Odessa, Ochakov, Zaporozhye (region), Kharkov region. In Odessa, the electricity and water were turned off. Cellular and internet outages.

Since the beginning of the attack, there have been reports that in addition to attacks on infrastructure, the Russian Aerospace Forces are hitting the positions of Ukrainian air defense crews in a number of areas (previously it was reported about the defeat of air defense systems in Odessa, destroyed after they worked on a false target)(Decoys).

In Odessa, locals record a hit in an air defense battery. There was a chaotic scattering of air defense rockets into the sky.

Explosions in the Ternopil region and Ivano-Frankivsk.

90% of Lviv is currently without electricity - local authorities.

Explosions thundered in the Chernihiv region. Earlier, Ukrainian "sources" wrote about the UAV flight from the territory of Belarus

Note: Concurrently, a series of missile attacks were carried out on clusters of the AFU in Kramatorsk.

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 29 2022 13:04 utc | 10

I seriously doubt Ukraine managed to shoot down 16/16 missiles over Kiev. 100% success is a stretch

Posted by: Zenith | Dec 29 2022 13:08 utc | 11

Perhaps Russians are just really good at recycling their missiles.

Posted by: Jim Phillips | Dec 29 2022 13:18 utc | 12

Some here might have missed Medvedev's low key meeting with Xi Jinping some days ago, which was very unusual from a protocol point of view:

On December 21, 2022, General Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and President Xi Jinping met with Chairman of the United Russia Party of Russia Dmitry Medvedev, who visited China at the invitation of the CPC, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse.

Xi Jinping asked Medvedev to convey his cordial greetings and best wishes to President Vladimir Putin. Noting that the 20th CPC National Congress has laid out the central tasks of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects and advancing the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation on all fronts through a Chinese path to modernization, Xi pointed out that China has every confidence and courage to follow a Chinese path to modernization and provide more opportunities for world peace and prosperity.

https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/zxxx_662805/202212/t20221223_10994181.html

This, to me, signals the introduction of Medvedev as the successor to Putin in preparation for what is likely to be Putin's final term.

For those in the West who have been screaming hysterically for Putin to vanish from the scene, they might get their wish, good and hard ...

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 29 2022 13:18 utc | 13

Why would anyone assume everything Russia launches is an actual missle? Id assume Russia and Ukraine are playing a lot of hide the real missle games now.

I'd also guess the wild discrepancies in missle count are related to that.

Like lvov got hit, what better way to open a far west target than throwing junk at kiev to burn up missles and attention

Finally kiev is on outages all the way to spring says their power company. They consider it fixed if the outage is planned as opposed to unplanned.

Posted by: Neofeudalfuture | Dec 29 2022 13:21 utc | 14

"69 missiles" - no chance of any bawdy PR minds at work here.

Posted by: unimperator | Dec 29 2022 13:22 utc | 15

Posted by: unimperator | Dec 29 2022 13:22 utc | 15

Only yours, unimperator, only yours!

Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 29 2022 13:23 utc | 16

Always zealous, the "The Guardian" reports:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/dec/29/russia-ukraine-war-live-air-raid-alarms-sound-in-kyiv-and-kherson-bakhmut-reaching-stalemate-say-us-thinktank
“Russia-Ukraine war: Russia launches more than 120 missiles into Ukraine, with three people injured in Kyiv”

I guess they were conflicted between reporting "Russian orcs target and massacre heroic ukrainian civilians" and "Russian orcs incompetence and faulty weapons mean 120 missiles have no effect", choosing a compromise.

Posted by: Blissex | Dec 29 2022 13:26 utc | 17

Posted on twitter by Defense Politics Asia

Donated Armoured Fighting Vehicles to Ukraine:
- 28 M113AS4 (Australia)
- 39 ACSV (Canada)
- 157 Tanks (Czech)
- 60 IFV (Czech)
- ? Sisu XA185 (Finland)
- 20 ACMAT (France)
- 104 IFV+APC (Germany)
- >97 Tanks (Germany)
- 80 IFV (Greece)
- 50 APC (Lithuania)
- 45 T72 (Netherland) ? (comment where did Dutch get T72's ??)
>24 APC (Netherland)
- 14 LAVIII (Norway)
- >230 Tanks (Poland)
- 40 BWP-1 (Poland) - (Polish version of BMP-1)
- 18 APC (Portugal)
- 30 BMP (Slovakia)
- 28 T55 (Slovenia)
- 35 BVP M80A (Slovenia)
- 120 APC (UK)
- 200 APC (USA)
= 1419 Armoured Vehicles.
(not inclusive of infantry mobility vehicles)

Ukraine have AT LEAST 1000 tanks of their own, 1000 IFVs, at least 6000 MT-LB/APC, and 1000 wheeled APC.

And we haven't counted scrapped/mothballed soviet vehicles.

Which means, Ukraine have possessed >10419 armoured vehicles from war start till now.

7000+ destroyed is plausible

Posted by: Aslangeo | Dec 29 2022 13:27 utc | 18

Bodies in a village near Bakhmut

Can anyone look at the image above and check whose bodies they belong to? I am not able to tell.

Wagner group/Russian army or Ukraine?

Looks like there are many and somebody is getting destroyed in Bakhmut. But who?

All I have is the above screenshot posted by someone on quora. I don't think it will help, but this is where I got it from.

Posted by: FieryButMostPeaceful | Dec 29 2022 13:35 utc | 19

Posted by: jamesh | Dec 29 2022 12:45 utc | 6

Does it contain this gem?

The Ukraine conflict marked a sea-change for the release of intelligence, the head of the spy agency GCHQ Sir Jeremy Fleming has said.

Posted by: Anne B | Dec 29 2022 13:40 utc | 20

Posted by: Aslangeo | Dec 29 2022 13:27 utc | 18

That's a very wide array of mish mash tanks and (mostly) IFVs. Some of it is Soviet hardware, some genuine Nato vehicles. I'd hazard a guess that the largest single problem is that most of the donated hardware isn't followed up by maintenance and operating training or spare parts, which doesn't help with standardizing those procedures. Which also makes the trip for those vehicles one way, with a short realized and assumed life span.

The Nato support of vehicles, with exception of T-72 and T-64/T-55 tanks, and pretty much everything else, is a drop in the ocean compared to what Ukraine originally had.

Posted by: unimperator | Dec 29 2022 13:40 utc | 21

Kyiv Independent ??????? The exception to the Zelensky Total News Control policy ? Even the name is quaint.

Posted by: Glasshopper | Dec 29 2022 12:38 utc | 4

Good. The BBC makes evident the need for Hunt to implement Defence Cuts to fund cost of living pay increases for British workers. It is tiresome this panhandling by Zelensky when Russia is clearly ineffectual.

It is like the whole Cold War fiction - Kennedy gets elected on a "Missile Gap" lie to undermine Eisenhower and his "MIC Speech" at a time when USSR had 16 missiles.

Kennedy was elected as a hawk until he discovered the Pentagon had lied to him - Moscow saw the threat and after Cuba Brezhnev began the rocket buildup.

They are trying it again. Use Russia as the fossil-fuel bogeyman to force Suckers into Green Agenda - use Russia as rocket-bogeyman to get tax-funding away from health and pensions to Armaments.

Cannot admit Russia is paramount so belittle Russian efforts while hyping the threat !!!!

Doublethink

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Dec 29 2022 13:41 utc | 22

Arch Bungle | Dec 29 2022 13:18 utc | 13

A lot occurring recently. Apparently Putin has just had video meeting with Xi as per a tweet from https://twitter.com/AZgeopolitics. At the moment I cannot find the source for that as nothing at the Kremlin website and a quick scan of RT showed nothing.

Medvedev going to China, the many meetings and speeches of Putin recently - everything points towards Russia making another major move in the near future similar to the run-up to Russia recognizing the two republics and the announcement of the SMO. Russia and China have separate strategies but also coordinate their strategies.

It will be interesting to see what move Russia is intending to make. Strikes into the entity still known as Ukraine are still within the confines of SMO, but the ethnic Russian regions that are now Russian regions - I think that has to be looked at as war. Putin used the term war for the first time in a speech not long back.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 29 2022 13:45 utc | 23

@ Aslangeo | Dec 29 2022 13:27 utc | 18

Need to take into account the non ex-soviet AFVs will have suffered a significantly high loss rate due to no spares nor parts supplied, technical/service support not qualified re maintenance/repair. Simple abandonment due above for even minor breakdown, minor repair requirement, minor damage in or out of combat.

In addition & compounding, is majority of supplied AFVs were mothballed/derelict/reserve war stocks as well as those literally previously worn out re serviceable combat life.

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 29 2022 13:54 utc | 24

Vague recollection that Armoured Vehicles have (very roughly ) a mean time between breakdown of 100km.

Does any Barfly have insight ?

Posted by: Exile | Dec 29 2022 14:06 utc | 25

Posted by: shadowbanned | Dec 29 2022 12:58 utc | 9

Will the Baltic be of any importance, once Russia turns eastwards?

Posted by: Anne B | Dec 29 2022 14:11 utc | 26

@ Peter AU1 | Dec 29 2022 13:50 utc | 25

For the same reason abrogard links to psychopath Arestovichs bi-weekly video addresses ?

@ Exile | Dec 29 2022 14:06 utc | 27

How long is a piece of string ? ;)

Depends on type (MBT/IFV/APC), Light/Medium/Heavy, generation (50's, 60, 70's, 80's, etc), actual date of manufacture, endurance/reliability/complexity of the design, miles on the clock, halt-daily-short-medium & long term maintenance/repair, how often road/offroad driven as opposed to truck transporter/rail re-location, competency, dedication & motivation of crews throughout lifetime.

Denmarks (or Netherlands ?) APC's can hardly do 12Kms without breakdown during exercises, hence truck transported everywhere ... even onto the exercise/training range.

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 29 2022 14:20 utc | 27

Posted by: shadowbanned | Dec 29 2022 12:58 utc | 9

MSM has been actively advertising of Baltic turning into a "Nato lake". But if the Russians invest seriously in the production of the newest type of coastal defense missiles and systems, you could actually argue that the entire Baltic sea can easily turn into a Russian lake, controlling and watching all surface movements of Nato ships.

https://eurasiantimes.com/russia-says-zircon-hypersonic-missiles-can-now-be-fired-from-mobile-launchers-developer-says-intensifying-work/

Posted by: unimperator | Dec 29 2022 14:21 utc | 28

Virtually all of the Russian missiles are destroyed by Ukrainian targets upon impact.

Posted by: ariadna | Dec 29 2022 14:22 utc | 29

Ukies be doing it again ...

Translated from Russian FYI:

ПЕРЕХВАТ (Z) (Intercept (Z)) (Open/Public TG link) (Photos at link)

Everyone has already understood that Ukrainian air defense is something "unexpected," since one does not know exactly where it will fly. The problem is the poor quality of missiles, which have long been "written off".

The Defense Ministry of Belarus publishes a photo of the wreckage of the missile(S-300), which fell in the Brest region, 25 km from the border with Ukraine.

The previous times the missile flew to Poland, where it hit a tractor and killed a Pole, and twice to Moldova, where President Sandu was silent on the fact of whose missile.

We also wrote that the President's Office launched a false trail accusing the Russians of firing S-300 missiles into cities. Although all the experts pointed out that these were AFU missiles, which simply "went astray" and hit the wrong target, and the authorities blamed the Russians for everything in order to absolve themselves of responsibility.

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 29 2022 14:37 utc | 30

Kievistanis are inveterate liars. But for all that they aren't very good at it.

Posted by: Figleaf23 | Dec 29 2022 14:38 utc | 31

Saw a picture of Kiev in TG. Allegedly, you could see the trail of an s300 or other. The thing is, it reminded me inmediatly of what we see in the sky's of other European countries. I'm talking about chemtrails or, as they call them in the Spanish TV, comtrails(just water, basically). Do you have them in your countries. The chems, I mean. Would b ever write about it?

Posted by: Paco75 | Dec 29 2022 14:43 utc | 32

@ FieryButMostPeaceful | Dec 29 2022 13:35 utc | 19

Since they are abandoned rather than buried, they must be Ukronazi.

Posted by: Figleaf23 | Dec 29 2022 14:47 utc | 33

In the meantime, a new Ukies drones attack happened in ... Saratov... 600 km( 400 miles) from the front line!!!!
An ennemy drone can fly 600 km in Russian sky without be destroyed and even not be seen?
How the hell can that happen?
And tomorrow, when Ukies will send dozens of drones guided by US ISR to attack ONE place. What kind of target will it be? Moscow? That's only 100 km more.

Posted by: Rambert | Dec 29 2022 14:49 utc | 34

Anne B (20)
I believe it did. The whole broadcast was a massive psyop: as one would expect. It was gaslighting on a cosmic scale and was hysterically funny if listened to in the right way.

Posted by: jamesh | Dec 29 2022 14:50 utc | 35

more than 120 missiles had been launched

the Air Force shot down 54 out of 69 missiles

All missiles targeting Kiev were destroyed

seriously damaged Kiev's energy facilities

Is it what now?

Posted by: Vikichka | Dec 29 2022 15:02 utc | 36

Well, the Ukies fire at missiles with substations and utilities - and hit.

Posted by: aquadraht | Dec 29 2022 15:03 utc | 37

Outraged #26
Simple abandonment due above for even minor breakdown, minor repair requirement, minor damage in or out of combat.

Viewed a video from C&C Equipment on Youtube the other day: the repair shop bought an abandoned military JD850 Dozer, abandoned after ELEVEN (!!) hours of service. Unit had original procurement papers--taxpayers spent 230,000 USD back in 2012 or thereabouts. After some interesting mechanical sleuthing, new owners determined that the entire failure was due to rust plugging the fuel outlet in the main fuel tank. This had led to destruction of the fuel pump, etc etc. One can imagine similar scenarios for AFV's.

Posted by: inspector general | Dec 29 2022 15:15 utc | 38

Re: Posted by: shadowbanned | Dec 29 2022 12:58 utc | 9

How do you solve this problem?

If you're Russia, you do a land swap with Poland.

Poland gets Volyn, Rivne, Lviv, Ternopil & Ivano Frankivsk.

Russia/Kaliningrad gets the Suweilki Gap through to Belarus/Union State.

Poland has a fair claim to 5 Western Ukrainian oblasts.

Just check out a map.
https://kafkadesk.org/2019/06/22/lviv-a-slice-of-poland-in-ukraine/

Posted by: Julian | Dec 29 2022 15:22 utc | 39

Rambert

IMO. Theyre not travelling 600km. Theyre locally launched within abt 50km. Thats why theyre "not seen". Theyre launched by sabatage groups operating in russia.

Theyre designed to undermine the faith in russias security. The claim of 600km is generated by ukrops chanels to increase the propoganda element.

Posted by: HERMIUS | Dec 29 2022 15:27 utc | 40

@ inspector general | Dec 29 2022 15:15 utc | 44

Exactly !

Crews who for whatever reason, do not carry out proper basic minimal halt & daily servicing/maintenance, or in the case of Ukies are not familiar with, have nil experience with, & are not even trained to do so re foreign/ancient/worn-out vehs ? Let alone same for their rear area support techs/mechs with zero spares nor equipment, with an absence of high current voltage re tools & machinery ? An exercise in futility. Furthermore requirements are even more crucial under exercise/combat conditions re hard running/serial usage/abuse.

Cannot determine reliability or accuracy of, yet have seen footage of these AFVs delivered to Ukies patently ... derelict.

Re Bulldozer ... wheeled AFVs are complex heavier/overloaded offroad trucks, tracked AFVs are complex heavier/overloaded tracked tractors, in simplest terms. See: 'Little Willie', original tank concept prototype(failed), WWI.

Re previous, amendment: ... how often & how far, over lifetime/between servicing, road/offroad driven as opposed to truck transporter/rail re-location ...

@ Julian | Dec 29 2022 15:22 utc | 45

Intriguing ...

@ HERMIUS | Dec 29 2022 15:27 utc | 46

Almost certainly the case, IMV. Hence the recent directive/decree for increased internal security efforts by all relevant agencies across entire RF. Internal saboteurs, agents & operatives.

@ Orwellian Language | Dec 29 2022 14:57 utc | All

Paragraphs?! Use 'em! Deliberately double spacing single sentences to spam & fill the thread. Puhlease ? A supposed learned guru swami should know better. Repeatedly posting to a non-response. Clean up on comments page 1 ... B

Troll.

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 29 2022 15:47 utc | 41

Interesting

The power went off anyway. Or did Colonel Ghost of Kyiv have a bad hair day? Along with the other ghostly members of the "z" paid from his own back pocket Kyiv air defense regiments?

In other news. NATO is currently teleporting 2,500 members from country 404. It appears the Russian cyberwarfare team published their full bio, mugshots inclusive!

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Dec 29 2022 15:48 utc | 42

From one of the telegram channels seems the general has a sense of humor
Sergei Surovikin explained today's missile strikes on Ukraine as a "New Year's miracle."

"Yesterday, the missiles ran out, I myself read in the news, and today they appeared again. This is a real New Year's miracle!"

Posted by: ctiger | Dec 29 2022 15:52 utc | 43

Host and barflys are ignoring the obvious. It was not the missile strikes that caused the the power outage. It was millions of Ukrainians simultaneously Telegramming, Instagramming and Tweeting the success of their missile defense that cause a power consumption surge which took down the grid.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Dec 29 2022 16:04 utc | 44

@Opport Knocks 52
Certainly. As we all know, messenger posts burn megawatthours per message.

Posted by: aquadraht | Dec 29 2022 16:08 utc | 45

Posted by: jamesh 38

Anne B (20)
I believe it did. The whole broadcast was a massive psyop: as one would expect. It was gaslighting on a cosmic scale and was hysterically funny if listened to in the right way.

....

GCHQ head says Ukraine conflict marked 'sea-change' in release of intelligence

Sir Jeremy, who was guest-editing the programme, also spoke to the US director of national intelligence Avril Haines, who led the drive to release western agencies’ secret intelligence.

“We obviously tried to counter the disinformation the Russians were putting out,” she said.

“We saw that they were looking to create a pretext for the invasion and we wanted to debunk that and help people understand that this was a false narrative by finding ways to declassify certain information while still trying to protect our sources and methods."

https://www.gloucestershirelive.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/gchq-head-says-ukraine-conflict-7976536

Posted by: Red Star | Dec 29 2022 16:13 utc | 46

"This [meeting w Ji], to me, signals the introduction of Medvedev as the successor to Putin in preparation for what is likely to be Putin's final term.

"For those in the West who have been screaming hysterically for Putin to vanish from the scene, they might get their wish, good and hard ..."
Posted by: Arch Bungle | Dec 29 2022 13:18 utc | 13
______

I'm sorta hoping for Maria Zakharova---softer than bad-cop Med, sharper wit, easier on the eyes, and harder for the woke west to demonize.

Posted by: Doug Hillman | Dec 29 2022 16:30 utc | 47

Certainly. As we all know, messenger posts burn megawatthours per message.

Posted by: aquadraht | Dec 29 2022 16:08 utc | 53

According to Statista:
Nearly 80 percent of Ukrainians used the internet daily or almost daily, according to a survey conducted in May 2022.

Let's say Ukraine has a remainder of 20 million population. This means 16 million people use the internet daily. The average laptop uses 50watt. let's say average device consumption is 30Watt and is used 1 hour daily.

16 000 000 x 30 watt x 1 hour = 480 megawatthours daily

This doesn't consider internet infrastructure, non-internet use, TVs and so on.

Posted by: Vikichka | Dec 29 2022 16:47 utc | 48

@ Julian [45]

Poland has a fair claim to 5 Western Ukrainian oblasts.

Poland lost its "fair claim" by their own government's actions to make sure WW2 would happen. Both the Polish government and the vast majority of their citizens were adamantly opposed to any security agreement with France and the USSR. The memoirs of French General Doumenc are unequivocal. August 1939, two weeks before WW2 started, he was on a mission to Moscow to get an agreement. The sticking point was Polish refusal. He sent Captain Beaufre to Warsaw to get the Poles to change their mind. His proposal to allow Soviet armies into Poland under very tight conditions, if Germany ever attacked, were rebuffed in such strong terms that the French and British diplomats stationed in Warsaw refused to ask the Polish government a second time. Obviously, the fact that a minor nation (i.e. Poland) would be allowed to dictate French and British policy shows that these two major powers also did not want any security agreement with the USSR. Doumenc clearly discussed British intransigence in his memoirs, and you can indirectly read French intransigence as well. By Doumenc's account, it was only on August 19 at 10 pm, that Doumenc says the Soviets turned away from the French-UK mission and agreed to allow the German delegation to come to Moscow. So the Polish government formally refused the only security agreement that would have prevented WW2 and saved Poland. That government went out of existence when the Nazis defeated it, a week before Soviet troops entered what had been Eastern Poland. It was a BS fiction of the British to have an "exile government" in London. In 1944, it was another British BS fiction to have an early uprising in Warsaw which cost the lives of thousands of Polish patriots, merely in order to do damage to the Soviet Army and its reputation. After WW2, the USSR did not want a repeat of the Polish hyenas of the 1920's and 1930's. If "hyenas" seems too harsh, that was Churchill's word, when the Nazis seized Czechoslovakia and Poland tore off a piece for herself, Těšín and the region around this town in 1938. The Soviets paid a large economic price with its occupation of Poland, in order to create good will with the Polish people. Obviously this did not succeed. Even President Lech Wałęsa, who had a significant role in the demise of the Soviet Union, regretted what his nation had become after the USSR collapsed. after he became President, retired, and rough men, probably puppets of the West, replaced him. I never followed Polish politics, but I suppose the Vatican and the CIA steered the Polish people into what is nearly a suicidal and entirely an immoral hatred of Russia.

So Poland does not deserve those territories even though 250,000 Poles were massacred there, because these victims were murdered by the same Banderas that Poland officially supports today.

Galicia needs to become a sort of Alcatraz, isolated for the criminals living there. It needs the sort of treatment that Hans Morgenthau, the American Jewish banker, wanted for postwar Germany: purely agrarian and totally de-fanged.

Posted by: JessDTruth | Dec 29 2022 16:54 utc | 49

I note a hint of cynicism in b's reporting today, but one couldn't blame him.

On the Baltic Sea, Russia has major ship building facilities near St. Petersburg that are currently undergoing expansion. The signal is Russia has no intent of ceding to Baltic to NATO. Today, Putin presided via video over the launching and introduction of several new naval vessels at most shipyard locations including a new class of minesweeper:

"The new generation also includes sea minesweepers, such as as 'Anatoly Shlemov'. This project is considered one of the most successful Russian developments in surface shipbuilding. In the future, it is planned to build more ten ships of this class.

"I would like to emphasise that we will increase the pace and volume of construction. ships of different projects, equip them with the most modern means weapons, to conduct operational and combat training of sailors taking into account experience, received, including during a special military operation, in a word, to do everything necessary to reliably ensure the security of Russia, the protection of our national interests in the oceans."

One of the cheapest ways to interdict shipping is mining the waterways, and the Baltic being as constricted as it is makes that the method of choice by nations that have very small navies; thus, Russia's new minesweepers. Same issue holds for the Northern Sea Route as NATO subs would be employed to mine, which would constitute an act-of-war since the NSR is within Russian waters. The major advantage Russia holds over NATO is its industrial plant and shipyards. NATO cannot match Russia's ship construction; and when China and India's are added, NATO is vastly overmatched. One of the reasons to expand the size of Russia's military is the need for many more sailors.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 29 2022 16:57 utc | 50

thanks b...

thanks outraged....

strange math at work here..

Posted by: james | Dec 29 2022 16:58 utc | 51

Siemens Stock is really going up really nice. I believe they have the contracts to help repair the Ukraine power grid, as it gets destroyed. Hey, war is business.

Posted by: Robert | Dec 29 2022 17:10 utc | 52

Today, Lavrov was interviewed by Rossiya Segodnya. As Lavrov interviews go, this one is very short, yet it does cover two important points: whether Russia will remain in OSCE and is there anyone in Ukraine capable of conducting negotiations. The two other questions don't pertain to Ukraine or related events.

Question: Given the state of affairs in the OSCE, does Moscow consider it necessary to maintain its representation at the Organisation? Could there be a question of suspending our membership in it?

Sergey Lavrov: Let me be clear: things are not going well in the OSCE. The organization was created as a platform for equal dialogue and cooperation, but over the past few years it has been in a deep crisis.

The West perceives the OSCE as a tool to promote its collective interests and has turned it into an arena for propaganda battles. In 2022, the current chairman of the Organization was Poland with its openly anti-Russian attitudes. According to our assessment, the Poles succeeded in only one thing – they reduced the effectiveness of the OSCE's work to zero.

This did not come as a surprise to us. After all, in general, Western countries – and they, for the most part, are both OSCE participants and NATO members – have long and purposefully trampled on the principles of the Vienna organization's activities, the spirit and letter of the basic documents adopted in it – including at the highest level – in the field of European security. For example, NATO's expansion and the approximation of its military infrastructure to Russia's borders flagrantly violates the commitment not to strengthen one's own security at the expense of the security of others. We are now reaping the benefits of the selfish, short-sighted policies of our former partners, whose credibility has been thoroughly undermined. And one of the lessons is that if and when we return to working together, it will have to be done on new principles, because the old approaches no longer work.

Question: Do you think there is a political force or politician in Ukraine now with whom Moscow would be ready to negotiate, and can such a figure appear in the foreseeable future?

Sergey Lavrov: The current clip [clique] of Ukrainian politicians is well known to everyone for its inability to negotiate. Most of them are outspoken Russophobes.

Let me remind you that immediately after the start of the special military operation, Zelensky took the initiative to sit down at the negotiating table. We did not reject it and agreed to meet with his representatives.

Several rounds of talks have shown that mutually acceptable agreements can be found. However, the negotiation process that began in February demonstrated the complete lack of independence of V.Zelensky in making important decisions. Already in April, at the behest of the Anglo-Saxons, interested in continuing hostilities, he quickly stopped negotiations and sharply hardened his position.

It is obvious that Kiev is not ready for dialogue. Putting forward various ideas and "formulas for peace", V. Zelensky cherishes the illusion of achieving with the help of the West the withdrawal of our troops from the Russian territory of Donbass, Crimea, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, the payment of reparations by Russia, the appearance "with guilt in international tribunals", etc.

Of course, we will not talk to anyone on such terms. It is difficult to say whether adequate politicians remain in the territories controlled by the Kiev regime, especially given the widespread practice of suppressing dissent and summary executions of dissenters. Could some sane political figure appear in Kiev later? We'll have to wait and see. [My Emphasis]

As you read, the Poles are held in contempt--Again. But they are acting no different than most of the other NATO/OSCE members. For those who missed Lavrov's previous two lengthy and very important interviews, The one with TASS is here, while the one with Channel One's program The Great Game is here.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 29 2022 17:15 utc | 53

yalensis has a good post up at awful avalanche today... i ought to read him more often...

Ukraine War Day #309: Missile Strikes + Mozart Criticizes Ukrainians

Posted by: james | Dec 29 2022 17:17 utc | 54

inspector general | Dec 29 2022 15:15 utc | 44

Western militaries have gone the way of the west in general. Replace mechanics with so called technicians. If a computer does not show them what is wrong they have no clue. Error codes and so forth are great in the era of computerized machinery but diagnosing of simple mechanical problems has been discarded. Have had a similar experience to what you describe with a mates machine that he leased to the local coal mine.
The Komatsu ex-spurts had already charged my friend 4.5 grand for services rendered and next step was 20 for replacement of high pressure fuel pump. It had been an ongoing saga and at that point I intervened. I questioned my mate then looked at the machine with the Komatsu 'technician' and questioned him. It became obvious it was a simple problem somewhere before the lift pump. Turned out the problem was a broken plastic $2 fuel level float that drifted around in the fuel tank and occasionally blocked the fuel supply. My mate saves 20 grand plus whatever would have been charged when the 20 grand didn't work, I get a packet of peanuts and all is good.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 29 2022 17:25 utc | 55

typical news updates from cbc - via associated press wire service this time... apparently some of the missiles hit and lviv is 90% no power.. wonder how many lvivians are trying to go to poland?

Russian missile barrage hits multiple regions in Ukraine, targeting vital infrastructure

Posted by: james | Dec 29 2022 17:31 utc | 56

karlof1 | Dec 29 2022 16:57 utc | 50

Surface shipping in the Baltic is completely at the mercy of Russian hypersonics. The submarine world balance of power is somewhat murkier. Not much discussed apart from Martyanov. Currently, from everything I have read, submarines are the unknown.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 29 2022 17:40 utc | 57

The longer Russia delays the decisive strike to partition Ukraine and divide it into a friendly east and a neonazi west, the greater is the danger of nuclear war.

The Anglo plan A for regime change in Russia has obviously failed and plan B seems to be more of plan A, with no plan for Ukraine's defeat. Ukraine's defeat will lead to nuclear war as the west has not been defeated strategically for a very long time and it won't accept it.

So the ideal situation would have been for Russia to launch a blitz war and resolve it right away rather than the silly military operation.

The danger to the rest of the world is rising, and the SMO is partly to blame.

Posted by: nothing but the trut | Dec 29 2022 17:42 utc | 58

Poles are still running from mobilization to other countries. Local media writes that 70k men escaped and the number is growing quickly, they expect hundreds of thousands by March. So in 3-6 months we can expect Duda to invade Ukr. If Baldie will still be in his medieval artillery duels in Donbass, they will go straight to Odessa with 100-200k out of the 300k mobilized.

Posted by: rk | Dec 29 2022 17:45 utc | 59

@ nothing but the trut | Dec 29 2022 17:42 utc | 58

bullshit.. usa//nato wanted this and now they have it... as colin powell said - if you break it - you own it..this is on the west.

Posted by: james | Dec 29 2022 17:53 utc | 60

Maria Zakharova opened her final briefing for the year on an optimistic note:

I'll tell you what you know. This is our final briefing. What can I say? We all understand that the year has been incredible. At the same time, it became very important, because it is a turning point. In many ways, he has placed completely new accents and priorities in foreign policy, in the world economy, in the life of each of us. Of course, not everything he brought with him was marked by positivity. Mildly. In doing so, he laid bare the most important thing. He gave everyone the opportunity to show their true colors.

The day and hours counted until the New Year. To what didn't exist yet, to our future. Whoever celebrates this New Year with whom and how, given these difficult circumstances, we now know that we are together. And that's very important. Together we can undergo various tests, including such. Perhaps this is also one of the achievements of this year.

I sincerely wish all of us warmth, hope and faith during these frosty, snowy days. Durability and light. We don't know what next year will be like. But it is in our power to make sure that it is really filled with light. Sincerely, from the heart to perform their functional duties, to work, to believe, to support each other, to sympathize and empathize.

Of course, we will be together. Every month, every week and every day. The Department of Information and Press of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation is always with you!

You might be surprised. Such things are usually said at the end of a briefing or a speech. But this is no coincidence, because this is not the end. This is just the beginning.

The first item: "On the main foreign policy results of 2022:

"The results of the foreign policy year will be summed up in a material that we will publish on the Foreign Ministry's website. There you can get acquainted with our assessments of the international situation at the end of the outgoing year."

The Report is well organized and worthy of review.

There is one Q&A I want to highlight because of what it reveals:

Question: The question is that this is not a revelation [Mozart Group Leader's revelation rant] to the Western world. Why, after such "discoveries", do they continue to support Kiev?

Answer: They built this neo-Ukrainian "state". That's what they wanted to mold. The Western world was not going to make a new democratic strong state. They were going to use the collapse of Ukraine to use it as a weapon against our country. All. If it were necessary to make Ukraine a strong state, there were opportunities for this. No one would oppose it. Russia would pump its resources through Ukraine, which would go to Europe, would receive income. The Russian-speaking population, remaining citizens of Ukraine, would have the opportunity to speak their own language, communicate with relatives and friends, and trade would move forward. The development of Ukraine would go to Western investments. There would be no problem. Everyone was not against such a scheme. For thirty years, no one raised the issue of Crimea and would never have raised it further. An agreement on the status and conditions of stay of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine was concluded. Until what year? And we paid for it.

We always paid in good faith and in a timely manner for everything that was promised to Kiev. The West did not need any welfare of Ukraine. The well-being of Ukraine is stability in the region. Who in the West needs stability there?

The Americans have been saying for years that Europe needs to give up Russian energy resources, and if they do not give up on their own and Russia does not agree to all the conditions, then they will destroy these projects. This was stated by the United States. If even within their "Western" world they are not interested in stability, what kind of stability can it be in a space to which they do not historically belong? [My Emphasis]

In her review of the Ukrainian Crisis, Maria provides the following useful information before her further description of events there:

Tomorrow is a very memorable day in our common history. Exactly one hundred years ago, on December 30, 1922, at the First All-Union Congress of Soviets, representatives of the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the BSSR and the Transcaucasian Federation signed the Declaration on the Formation of the USSR and the Union Treaty.

As part of a single Soviet state, the Ukrainian SSR turned into one of the most developed and prosperous republics. It had a powerful scientific, industrial and energy potential, developed agriculture. However, later Kiev, which made a lot of efforts, including for the collapse of the USSR and the proclamation of independence, could not only multiply, but also preserve the Soviet legacy it inherited.

Are these our estimates? No, it's not only and not so much our estimates. In this case, I quote directly the "figures" who have been in charge of Ukraine in recent years.

The second President of Ukraine L.D. Kuchma, reflecting on the price of Ukrainian sovereignty, noted that "the largest amount is paid by ordinary people, because they believe the promises ... To some extent, we deceived people when we said that Ukraine feeds all of Russia... After all, we used to get oil and gas at prices that are less tea, less plain water."

Today, Ukraine under the Kiev regime, with its fertile lands and natural resources, through the efforts of the current authorities, who pursue a nationalist Russophobic policy, has acquired a dubious status as one of the poorest countries in Europe and is turning into a new colony of the "collective West". Who is the main beneficiary of what is happening? Of course, the United States, which considers Ukraine and Ukrainians exclusively as "expendable material" in the confrontation with Russia. Tool. But, it seems to me, it is more correct to say "expendable". [My Emphasis]

At the end of the above recap of Ukraine, Maria concludes thusly:

"The behavior of Kiev and Western countries, which we regularly talk about, testifies to the unconditional need to fulfill the tasks set for denazification and demilitarization, which the Russian leadership has repeatedly said."

Left unsaid is the need to do the same to NATO and its leader The Outlaw US Empire for it/they are the cause of it all.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 29 2022 17:55 utc | 61

@james | Dec 29 2022 17:53 utc | 60

We now have the first real challenge to the west in the last 600 years.

To defeat it first Russia has to be "pacified" (merkel's words), the real target is China as that country is on track to overtake the US.

So this is really a plan to return to colonialism. The west's power was actually colonial domination. The entire British empire was fueled by India's wealth and soldiers. Now see where is Britain.

Posted by: nothing but the trut | Dec 29 2022 18:00 utc | 62

@nothing but the trut | Dec 29 2022 17:42 utc | 58

the west has not been defeated strategically for a very long time and it won't accept it.

I guess you're not familiar with: Somalia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Iran. . .now Ukraine. . .the list goes on.
The West hasn't won a war in . . .how many years? Where? Japan, I guess.. . . They've accepted every loss since.No choice.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 29 2022 18:05 utc | 63

The Baltic Sea has now become another huge problem for Russia -- it has Kaliningrad isolated way out there on its own
Posted by: shadowbanned | Dec 29 2022 12:58 utc | 9

That was the stupidity of the past leaders but Kaliningrad is filled with weapons just like Crimea, including hypersonics that can easily reach UK. The only way to take Kaliningrad is by nukes, there's no conventional way. Unless you hire general Baldie to defend it, he will retreat in the first day

Posted by: rk | Dec 29 2022 18:07 utc | 64

@ my 63
afterthought:The US hasn't fought these wars to win them, for the corporations, but to make money. War is a racket.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 29 2022 18:08 utc | 65

@Don Bacon | Dec 29 2022 18:05 utc | 63

the west has not had a strategic defeat for a long long time. in fact the major wars have been between factions of the west.

they lost vietnam. so? where do the chinese/russian/indian elite send their money? where do they send their kids to get an education?

the west has been the center of civilization, ie, money, culture, education, science and technology for a long time.

it's lead is being challenged now.

Posted by: nothing but the trut | Dec 29 2022 18:09 utc | 66

Paco75@35. For the record, the visible trail of flying machines are called ‘con-trails’, not ‘com-trails’ or ‘chemtrails’. This is short for ‘condensation trails’ because the phenomena is caused by water vapor in the air condensing on particles in the engine exhaust. During the Vietnam war, the US spent big bucks trying to eliminate the formation of contrails of the bombers striking North Vietnam. Anti-aircraft gunners used the visible trails to help target the bombers. Some of this research was done by Cornell Aeronautical Lab near Buffalo, NY which was owned and operated by Cornell University.

Posted by: Mjh | Dec 29 2022 18:21 utc | 67

I think it is actually Poland that has been striking Ukraine with missiles, they are wrongly blaming Russia for the deed. After all Russia ran out of missiles since April. And the Polish mercenaries donning Ukrainian army's uniform are just camouflage. Kiev had better realized the truth.

Posted by: Steve | Dec 29 2022 18:27 utc | 68

For Exile @ 25, Many moons ago our US M60 tanks required 4 hours of maintenance for every 1 hour of operation. And still we broke down too much. Seems like we had a problem with our transmissions. And our heaters seldom worked, so we froze.

Posted by: Leroy | Dec 29 2022 18:27 utc | 69

New attack on Engels today: Fragments of a downed UAV damaged the fence of a private house and a garage this morning, there were no casualties - Governor of the Saratov Region

Posted by: rk | Dec 29 2022 18:31 utc | 70

New attack on Engels today: Fragments of a downed UAV damaged the fence of a private house and a garage this morning, there were no casualties - Governor of the Saratov Region

Posted by: rk | Dec 29 2022 18:31 utc | 71

The closing Q&A from Zakharova's briefing:

"Question: Summing up the results of the year, do you think that it was possible to break through the information blockade of Russia by the 'collective West'? Was it possible to expose a fake campaign against the SVO in Ukraine?

"Maria Zakharova: Answering your question about whether it was possible to break the information blockade of the West, I can tell you that the West 'blew up' on its propaganda. That's for sure. The number of mines, banners and explosive devices of the information plan that were placed by the Western mainstream played a terrible and cruel joke with them.

"Westerners have become hostages to their own lies and lies. They used all their power (and they are powerful) to promote fakes that failed, thereby showing the world all this terrible ugliness of their lies. They began to denounce themselves in plain text, talking about the unwillingness and unawareness to fulfill the Minsk agreements, about pumping, as it were, 'strengthening' Ukraine with weapons (although they simply dragged their feet), as well as promoting the topics of 'atrocities' in Bucha and Mariupol. At the same time, it is obvious to the whole world that there is a staged script behind this. There are many such examples."

And no western spokesperson could ever end their briefing with these words as they'd be laughed of the stage:

"Thank you for our interaction this year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I wish everyone strength and patience in this right deed – upholding the truth, the truth and striving for the light. Peace, prosperity and goodness!" [My Emphasis]

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 29 2022 18:32 utc | 72

I surmise Russia can't afford NATO nukes or biolabs based a few hundred miles from Moscow. Therefore, it's an existential fight for Russia.

Is the war in any way good for Russia's economy? I'm curious, because nobody ever talks about it. Maybe a war economy means more jobs for Russian citizens? I don't know. I'm sure the real answer is nuanced and not black-and-white.

Posted by: Ramsey Glissadevil | Dec 29 2022 18:48 utc | 73

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 29 2022 18:32 utc | 72

The US is the empire of lies. And they will be judged.

19 “This is the basis for judgment: The light came into the world, and people loved darkness more than the light, for their actions are evil. 20 All who do wicked things hate the light and don’t come to the light for fear that their actions will be exposed to the light. 21 Whoever does the truth comes to the light so that it can be seen that their actions were done in God.”

Posted by: Ramsey Glissadevil | Dec 29 2022 18:48 utc | 73

Short answer is no. Long answer is here:

https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/08/broken-window-fallacy.asp

Posted by: Vikichka | Dec 29 2022 18:56 utc | 74

@ karlof1 | Dec 29 2022 18:32 utc | 72

Thank you. Zakharova is one of a kind. The real deal & all class.

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 29 2022 18:59 utc | 75

Paco@32

Curious about chemtrails? Perhaps the best researcher on the subject is Dane Wigginton. His blog is linkable via Rense.com. He keeps a massive archive on the subject and on related ones as well

Posted by: aristodemos | Dec 29 2022 19:04 utc | 76

Posted by: Vikichka | Dec 29 2022 18:56 utc | 74

There's little doubt US will install new bioweapon labs and nukes into Poland, Baltic states and Finland just in the effort to get another war going.

And no, war is never good for anyone unless you're the cabal controlling the US.

Posted by: unimperator | Dec 29 2022 19:09 utc | 77

Hello, so I got in a fight with my dad last night when we were talking about European people; Slavs (we are half Slavic blood) and Galician people etc. I accidentally mentioned something about the Nazi forces in Ukraine and WW2 history and he laughed at the word Nazis and said “you’re just repeating Russian propaganda.” This briefly turned into an argument which I ended out of frustration and not wanting to get angry. I’m sure this kind of thing is repeating all over the US during the dreaded holiday season with our families. My dad religiously reads the New York Times and that kind of media and apparently they’ve been whitewashing and downplaying the various Nazi militias pretty convincingly recently. I tried to show him some videos by the New Atlas and Jimmy Dore, but he hates those people and independent media in general so he refused to watch them as they aren’t his “trusted media” I remembered that a while ago someone in these comments posted a long list of articles from the US mainstream media that were written before Russia entered the war, but I can’t find it now. Can someone do me a favor and link me to a list of links such as this? I’m assuming there must be a website somewhere that has compiled a comprehensive list of MSM articles on this subject. Thank you in advance.

Posted by: James C | Dec 29 2022 19:13 utc | 78

Karlofl, FYI, when you post a link to a post on your blog I can read it, but when I go to your blog by clicking on your name, VK wants me to sign in to see it.

So I do appreciate your posting particular links, as well as your posting quotes directly here on MoA.
Thank you for all you do.

Posted by: wagelaborer | Dec 29 2022 19:26 utc | 79

Posted by: unimperator | Dec 29 2022 19:09 utc | 77

The cabal serves the father of lies and he is in the business of destroying souls. There are 8 billion souls out there and having them believe lies and doing evil is worth much more to their master than a war or two.

4 “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do. 5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.

Posted by: Vikichka | Dec 29 2022 19:26 utc | 80

Here is the "interview" to which RT refers this morning.
WaPoo">https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/12/29/ukraine-offensive-kharkiv-kherson-donetsk/">WaPoo | Inside the Ukrainian counteroffensive that shocked Putin and reshaped the war (29 Dec), a romantic quest, inspired by Jake Sullivan, to liberate K*v, Khark*v, and Kherson...temporarily.

Wherein Gen. Kovalchuk proudly reveals that RF did not damage the Kakhovka dam, the UAF did. Also, the RF (evacuation, deportation, retreat) from Kherson city with civilians was an kind of unintended consequence of the UAF experiment to blow the dam.

Kovalchuk set out to bisect the Russian-occupied area on the west side of the Dnieper and trap the Russian forces. “My task was not only to liberate the territory,” he said. “My task from the start was to occlude and destroy the force. That is, to not let them leave or exist.”
[...]
Russian troops in that portion of Kherson, separated by the broad river from their supplies, had been placed in a highly exposed position. If enough military pressure was applied, Moscow would have no choice but to retreat, Kovalchuk said.
[...]
The two bridges were targeted with U.S.-supplied M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems — or HIMARS launchers, which have a range of 50 miles — and were quickly rendered impassable. Kovalchuk considered flooding the river. The Ukrainians, he said, even conducted a test strike with a HIMARS launcher on one of the floodgates at the Nova Kakhovka dam, making three holes in the metal to see if the Dnieper’s water could be raised enough to stymie Russian crossings but not flood nearby villages. The test was a success, Kovalchuk said, but the step remained a last resort. He held off.
[...]
Back in Kyiv, impatience was growing. Kovalchuk was insisting it was just a matter of time before the Russians retreated — the leaves were about to fall off the trees, the river would freeze in winter, the Russian forces were running low on supplies. But for Kyiv, Kovalchuk wasn’t moving fast enough. He was replaced by Brig. Gen. Oleksandr Tarnavsky, a deputy of Syrsky’s during the Kharkiv operation.
[...]
The pressure from Ukrainian troops forced the retreat, but they didn’t manage to run down or destroy the fleeing Russians. Mines, in some cases laid a meter apart and three rows deep or tucked into thin strips on the roads, prevented the Ukrainians from giving chase.
[...]
Tarnavsky stood beside Zelensk* on Kherson’s central square. “I was amazed at the people I saw,” Tarnavsky said. “All of their faces, there was just joy on them.” Zelensk* raised the flag over a liberated city for the second time in two months and described the moment as the “beginning of the end of the war.” Ignatenko, the regional politician and Kherson shipping magnate serving in the 59th Brigade, sent a drone up over the river and found one of his barges half-submerged near the Antonovsky Bridge, but others were missing.
[...]

Posted by: sln2002 | Dec 29 2022 19:29 utc | 81

Using cheap Iran-made attacking drones (worth some 10,000 or 20,000 dollars apiece) is the fitting response to a tight air defense system like Kiew's. The rockets used to intercept them cost a multiple of the price of a drone. This discrepancy is even worse for a defense system like the Patriot - which can sensibly be used only against high value (or extremely dangerous) targets such as ICBMs or expensive fighter jets.

Posted by: grunzt | Dec 29 2022 19:31 utc | 82

Posted by: james | Dec 29 2022 17:17 utc | 54

Thank you, james! Lots more reading to do! This one:

https://awfulavalanche.wordpress.com/
2022/12/25/ukraine-war-day-305-land-road-to-crimea/

And speaking of roadwork and awful avalanches -- La Bajada, I-25 between Santa Fe and Albuquerque, was pridefully attempted to be widened further than the previously widened four lane divided highway recently. (We travel up and down it to shop.) The outer edge is quite literally an outer edge, and places you have a lovely view down to our little road stretching across to the Jemez mountains... way,way down below.

BUT ... that outer lane did not want to be widened!

It sank. Big problemo. Better fortune, Russians!

Posted by: juliania | Dec 29 2022 19:37 utc | 83

"Release of intelligence"?

Does anyone know where it went? :P

(Apologies if anyone else already made the same joke).

Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Dec 29 2022 19:37 utc | 84

#13
Point is rather:
Is Medved good or bad for Russia?
I remember reading threads here labeling Medved as an 5D Column liberal western camelion.

Posted by: Ćevapčići | Dec 29 2022 19:41 utc | 85

@ nothing but the trut | Dec 29 2022 18:00 utc | 62

well, it is all idle speculation at this point.. regarding the grand sweep of history, it seems the west is bringing down the west and russia is just one of the many outer excuses to blame it on.. this imperialistic mindset hasn't gone away and as you note, the uk passed the torch to the usa, but the usa is headed for the same fate.. whether it happens quickly, or more gradually - i think it would be better if it was more gradual myself.. the world is making adjustments...

Posted by: james | Dec 29 2022 19:43 utc | 86

#40
So the huge heavy monster drone attacked Engels has been launched by sabotage groups inside Russia?
Yeah right dream on ))))))

Posted by: Ćevapčići | Dec 29 2022 19:43 utc | 87

@ juliania | Dec 29 2022 19:37 utc | 83

well - safe travels!! and stay away from the outer lanes!! i like the fact you are not shopping via amazon!

Posted by: james | Dec 29 2022 19:47 utc | 88

https://t.me/rt_russian/141773

press conference Kadyrov (translated with app)

Stop throwing pearls in front of pigs "or about the overripe need to stop playing war

As part of today's press conference, the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, touched on an important topic: it's time to stop behaving well with those who, in principle, do not deserve it.

This truth will be voiced to you by any soldier who is at the forefront. Their comrades-in-arms are tortured to death, their positions are hit with ammunition prohibited by all conventions, attempts at negotiations turn into blows on the sly.

The civilians, sitting in the deep rear, will try to prove that this is inhumane, that it is impossible to stoop to the level of the enemy.

Let's put it this way: now the Ukrainians have been supplied with up to 2,000 attack drones similar to our Geraniums. Throughout December, the enemy space group filmed Russian airfields and energy facilities. In the largest cities of Russia, they are preparing for a massive strike at the New Year holidays.

Question: if on New Year's Eve he arrives at peaceful and civilian facilities, how appropriate would such thoughts about "nobility" be?

And what if terrorist attacks continue not only in the liberated territories, but also in the centers of Russian cities? If the car of some official takes off into the air next to you, hooking your loved ones?

They will do it without thinking.

The inhabitants of Kherson, Melitopol, Energodar, Donetsk, Lugansk, Stakhanov, Gorlovka have long heard all these common truths. But in our country, with broad popular support, they continue to play humanism.

Kadyrov is right when he says: we need to stop playing games. Any act of terror by Ukraine must be retaliated against.

We need to stop fidgeting. It is necessary to write in the media that "as part of the response to the criminal shelling of Donetsk, which resulted in the death of civilians, a blow was struck on the administration of conditional Vinnitsa or Ternopil."

It's just enough to save the lives of Ukrainians at the expense of the lives of our fellow citizens - we've been talking about this almost since the beginning of the special operation.

We must not stoop to their level, that is a fact. But if a rabid dog bites you, then it must be shot.

Finally stop throwing pearls in front of pigs: they will not appreciate it.

Posted by: Ćevapčići | Dec 29 2022 19:48 utc | 89

James C @78--

During the 1990s, many secret docs about Outlaw US Empire involvement with keeping Nazism and OUN alive in Ukraine and elsewhere were released and several books were written based upon them, and Congressional hearings were also held as a result. That documentary record is very clear and damning as you would expect. Cynthia Chung's second of her three-part series provides the essential info and links about 1/3rd of the way through the text. Here's some of that meat:

"In 1998, the Nazi War Crimes and Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group (IWG), at the behest of Congress, launched what became the largest congressionally mandated, single-subject declassification effort in history. As a result, more than 8.5 million pages of records have been opened to the public under the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act (P.L. 105-246) and the Japanese Imperial Government Disclosure Act (P.L. 106-567). These records include operational files of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the CIA, the FBI and Army intelligence. IWG issued three reports to Congress between 1999 and 2007.

"A research group was put together to compile and organise key elements of this massive newly declassified database, the result was the publication of “U.S. Intelligence and The Nazis” in 2005, and “Hitler’s Shadow Nazi War Criminals, U. S. Intelligence, and the Cold War” in 2011, both published by the National Archives, and which will be used as a key reference for the rest of this paper."

If your father is unwilling to read facts, then there's no help for him--sorry. If you have trouble reaching the linked article, here's the link to Chung's article's substack page.

I also note that Chung has published the first of two volumes about "The Birth of International Fascism and Anglo-American Foreign Policy" whose full title is The Empire on which the Black Sun Never Set: The Birth of International Fascism and Anglo-American Foreign Policy. Info about that and more can be found here. I have yet to read her book, but her thesis corresponds to one which several of us at MoA have developed over the last several years and which I wrote a short note about saying WW2's outcome remains unfinished as Nazism was never expunged as was agreed but was kept alive by the Outlaw US Empire and its fascist allies in UK and Europe.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 29 2022 19:53 utc | 90

Posted by: inspector general | Dec 29 2022 15:15 utc | 38
Ex US Military John Deere 850 bulldozer
"(the) new owners determined that the entire failure was due to rust plugging the fuel outlet in the main fuel tank. This had led to destruction of the fuel pump, etc etc. One can imagine similar scenarios for AFV's."
Aside from the fact that if you gave me a running JD 850, I wouldn't take it. Sherlocking the real problem with operating machinery always comes down to sorting out the symptoms of the problem from the real problem.
Dust, rust, plugged filters or the real nuisance today of sensors can delay repair of mobile equipment. The problem is the time it takes for you to sort it out in the field is more than the time for the vehicle to be located and blown to pieces.

Posted by: kupkee | Dec 29 2022 19:54 utc | 91

@ James C | Dec 29 2022 19:13 utc | 78

i remember seeing the post you mention, but have no idea how to find it.. here is an article that might shed more light on it for your dad, but it sounds like he is pretty convinced by the brainwashing.. this article is from 2016..

US Congress quietly enables funding for Ukrainian neo-Nazi-led Azov Regiment

Posted by: james | Dec 29 2022 19:56 utc | 92

wagelaborer @79--

Thanks for your reply and the info provided. Since I'm constantly signed-in, I can't recreate the circumstances you face. Tell me please, when you open a directly linked article, can you navigate beyond it or must you sign in? I know many of those asking to become friends have just joined VK likely just to be able to do what you can't, although I'm making an assumption here, but that's what the numbers suggest. Occasionally, I'm told by a new friend that they came from MoA, but they're a rather small percentage. I see substack sites can be accessed without being a member, so perhaps I'll look into that as several have suggested.

Posted by: karlof1 | Dec 29 2022 20:01 utc | 93

Komsomolskaya Pravda published an article about the S-300 missile that wandered into Belarus, stating that the same Ukrainian regiment that fired a S-300 missile into Poland (killing two civilians) is responsible for this FLAK. https://www.kp.ru/daily/27490/4700524/

How a Ukrainian rocket fell in Belarus and who launched it: The full picture is revealed
Military observer Viktor Baranets: The missile that fell in Belarus was launched by the same Ukrainian regiment that "missed" in Poland

After it became known that a Ukrainian S-300 anti-aircraft missile had fallen on the territory of Belarus, I contacted my military and civilian sources (correspondents of various news agencies who are investigating this incident) by phone.

So far, from their words, the working version looks like this.

The flight of the S-300 missile from the territory of Ukraine was recorded at about 10-30 in the morning.

Apparently, fragments of the rocket fell in the Ivanovsky district of the Brest region (not far from the agricultural town of Gorbakh).

According to the wreckage, the type and "brand" of the missile has already been established - this is the product 5B55R of the S-300PS complex. Here is her "passport":

Weight, kg: 1665

Length, m: 7.25

Diameter, m: 0.508

Warhead weight, kg: 130

Management: radio command (there is a homing head).

It has already been established with a high degree of probability that the rocket was launched by

540th anti-aircraft missile regiment of the armed forces of Ukraine (this unit, which is deployed in the village of Kamenka-Bugskaya, Lviv region, is armed with S-300PS missiles).

The regiment took up combat duty relatively recently - on January 14 of this year, but already managed to "distinguish itself" when it recently "hit" the same missile in Poland, knocking out a tractor and hitting two civilians.

The Belarusian military agrees that the Ukrainian clumsies tried to counteract the massive Russian missile attack on Thursday, but again "got something wrong." By the way, the 540th regiment covers Lvov, and our "Caliber" hit its military-industrial facilities. Well, from Lviv to the Ivanovsky district in the Brest region, about 250 kilometers. For a rocket that flies at a speed of 1800 meters per second, such a "misfire" is nothing.

The Ministry of Defense reported that the Ukrainian S-300 missile was shot down by the air defense of Belarus.

https://www.vesti.ru/article/3126268
Kyiv is ready to investigate the incident with a missile that fell in Belarus
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine announced its readiness to investigate the incident with a missile that fell in Belarus.
At the same time, a commentary published on the agency's website states that the incident occurred in the sky over the territory of Belarus "due to the reflection of a massive Russian missile attack."

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry also reported that Kyiv is ready to invite authoritative experts from countries that are not associated with Russia's support in any form to participate in the investigation of the incident.

For their part, the Ukrainian armed forces do not deny that the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system that fell on the territory of Belarus could be Ukrainian.

"Such things are possible. It cannot be ruled out. We know examples on the territory of neighboring states - some debris can fall," Yuriy Ignat, spokesman for the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces, said on the air of one of the Ukrainian TV channels.
Meanwhile, Sergei Dik, deputy of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus, is convinced that the incident with a rocket launched into the territory of Belarus is a deliberate provocation by the Ukrainian side.

"This is a provocation, this is a deliberate provocation to try to split the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus," RIA Novosti quoted the Belarusian parliamentarian as saying .

Dick suggested that the incident is intended to tarnish the unprecedented trust that Moscow and Minsk have built.

The S-300 air defense missile launched from the territory of Ukraine was shot down on the morning of December 29 by the air defense forces of the defense of the Armed Forces of Belarus after entering the airspace of the republic. Rocket fragments fell near the village of Gorbakha, Ivanovo district, Brest region. There were no casualties or damage. Minsk demanded that Kiev thoroughly investigate the incident and bring the perpetrators to justice .

Posted by: Oblomovka daydream | Dec 29 2022 20:03 utc | 94

Posted by: James C | Dec 29 2022 19:13 utc | 78
> Hello, so I got in a fight with my dad last night when we were talking about European people;
> Slavs (we are half > Slavic blood) and Galician people etc.
Wow you covered it all, from Lisbon to Vladivostok then!
But yeah, it is a historical fact that Galician people lived under the rule of fascist dictatorship of general Franco for several decades, I do not doubt that there were (and perhaps still are) fascists among Galicians.
So you are right, your dad is wrong, you won!

Posted by: hopehely | Dec 29 2022 20:08 utc | 95

Julian | Dec 29 2022 15:22 utc | 39

If Moscow cedes any territory to Poland, it must come with these provisions:

a) Poland withdraws from NATO completely.

b) No NATO troops / equipment can enter Poland without the expressed permission of the Russian Federation.

c) Poland will sign a non-aggression pact with the Russian Federation.

d) All economic sanctions will cease, and relations will normalize.

It's time to get things back to normal.

Posted by: Mummer | Dec 29 2022 20:11 utc | 96

Does anyone get this sort of thing happening on their feed or is it something peculiar to mine?

Here in #27 he refers to Peter @ #25 but #25 was Exile.
He quotes Exile as #27 but his own is #27.

Posted by: abrogard | Dec 29 2022 20:12 utc | 97

I forgot to post the cut:

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Dec 29 2022 13:45 utc | 23

@ Aslangeo | Dec 29 2022 13:27 utc | 18

Need to take into account the non ex-soviet AFVs will have suffered a significantly high loss rate due to no spares nor parts supplied, technical/service support not qualified re maintenance/repair. Simple abandonment due above for even minor breakdown, minor repair requirement, minor damage in or out of combat.

In addition & compounding, is majority of supplied AFVs were mothballed/derelict/reserve war stocks as well as those literally previously worn out re serviceable combat life.

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 29 2022 13:54 utc | 24

Vague recollection that Armoured Vehicles have (very roughly ) a mean time between breakdown of 100km.

Does any Barfly have insight ?

Posted by: Exile | Dec 29 2022 14:06 utc | 25

Posted by: shadowbanned | Dec 29 2022 12:58 utc | 9

Will the Baltic be of any importance, once Russia turns eastwards?

Posted by: Anne B | Dec 29 2022 14:11 utc | 26

@ Peter AU1 | Dec 29 2022 13:50 utc | 25

For the same reason abrogard links to psychopath Arestovichs bi-weekly video addresses ?

@ Exile | Dec 29 2022 14:06 utc | 27

How long is a piece of string ? ;)

Depends on type (MBT/IFV/APC), Light/Medium/Heavy, generation (50's, 60, 70's, 80's, etc), actual date of manufacture, endurance/reliability/complexity of the design, miles on the clock, halt-daily-short-medium & long term maintenance/repair, how often road/offroad driven as opposed to truck transporter/rail re-location, competency, dedication & motivation of crews throughout lifetime.

Denmarks (or Netherlands ?) APC's can hardly do 12Kms without breakdown during exercises, hence truck transported everywhere ... even onto the exercise/training range.

Posted by: Outraged | Dec 29 2022 14:20 utc | 27

Posted by: abrogard | Dec 29 2022 20:13 utc | 98

Posted by: abrogard | Dec 29 2022 20:12 utc | 97

It's simply b deleting shit posting and the numbers getting moved.
Not rocket science. Just requires a little critical thinking.
You must be new around here

Posted by: JoeDontSurf | Dec 29 2022 20:26 utc | 99

I guess you're not familiar with: Somalia, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Iran. . .now Ukraine. . .the list goes on.
The West hasn't won a war in . . .how many years? Where? Japan, I guess.. . . They've accepted every loss since. No choice.
Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 29 2022 18:05 utc | 63
---------

Nothing like a couple of atomic bombs to bring an already defeated nation to its knees.

Posted by: Ed | Dec 29 2022 20:30 utc | 100