Nervous German #86
Thank you for that and I will read Pepe at the Cradle. I spotted it last evening and postponed it for a ‘morning coffee stroll’. 2023 looks to be another exciting year.
The Cradle had another interesting piece that I linked on the open thread dealing with KSA and Yemen accommodations. Do consider that in your travels. Yes the Africa transformation could become a big thing too this year.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 8 2023 0:23 utc | 103

1. It is in fact narrative engineering and morally many of us are averse to spin, although the facts are in principle true. Probably because we have become experts at detecting narratives and very allergic to it.
2. Narrative engineering on that scale takes skill, access to information conduits and a lot of money.
However it is still better than what many do at the moment,
Posted by: alek_a | Jan 7 2023 23:30 utc | 88
1. The facts being true there’s no moral problem that I can see.
2. Scale? Turn black to white? Child’s play. Customary with the sheeple. The norm for ‘discussion’. Had you not known? It is the colloquial way to learn, to identify with the group and to earn acceptance by ascribing to the norm.
They meet with their preconceptions and listen to what gets thrown around and if it seems the opposite is now de rigueur they accept it and go out and promulgate it. Simple as that. They do. Check it out.
And there is no manipulation right there. In that way. Turn black to white. All we’re really doing is inserting the word ‘all’.
‘Support ALL Ukrainians’.
And cleverness? I don’t see it. You, anyone, just has to approach the venue with the mindset that they will support any call for supporting Ukrainians and never fail to mention the ‘missing’ 10 million.
Could even initiate with the simple query ‘Why do you victimise 10 million Ukrainians?’
Is all there is to it.
“However it is still better than what many do at the moment, ”
now there’s the point. We, WE, the ‘illumined’, are doing nothing. NOTHING.
Pontificating. And the loudest and wordiest pontiffs generally the most prone to ad hominem abusing of others.
A fairly shameful exhibition really, in this shameful era for the West.
Truth is no one wants to do anything. Everyone is enjoying the movie, the drama..

Posted by: abrogard | Jan 8 2023 0:49 utc | 105

Welldone | Jan 7 2023 22:31 utc | 69
more anti semite shit… b will delete your post and rightfully so…
Posted by: james | Jan 7 2023 22:45 utc | 71
Don’t hold your breath.
Welldone’s comment is half-baked speculation – like ~50% of comments here. Just for starters he would have to demonstrate that jews were hugely over-represented in the military compared with their % of the German population. And that’s just one flaw.
On the other hand, if b deleted every half-baked comment the threads would be much quicker and easier to read.

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jan 8 2023 1:10 utc | 107

karlof1 | Jan 7 2023 22:11 utc | 63
Thanks Karl; yep, caught the “he’s clearly off his Meds”vedev.
Can you imagine the after dinner banter if the table-of-8 included Medvedev, Lavrov, Maria, Peskov, …. and even Surovikin, who has let the stone-face slip when he sardonically announced that (me paraphrasing) despite running out of missiles several times, (he read in the western media), somehow he keeps firing them..
Over the years I’ve observed that what the west fears more than Russian nukes, is that the Russians have cause to mock and laugh.
The recent Congress cartoon capers being a recent example: “stop it,you clowns, Russia is laughing at us”….

Posted by: Melaleuca | Jan 8 2023 1:38 utc | 109

Stopping by MoA to see if there are any signs of intelligent life. Nope, just the same old circle jerk and genocidal fantasies. When is any one gonna stop injecting Russian propaganda and get a clue. The West will bury Russia and your savior China is wracked with Covid. Maybe Iran will come to your rescue?

Posted by: Muthaucker | Jan 8 2023 1:58 utc | 111

Mutthacker@111
Your forays remind me of the assaults made by the Ukies, who for their City of London overlords, attempt again and again to reenact the Charge of the Light Brigade against Russian cannons in the battles around Sevastapol clear back in ’53.
Same situation. Different episode. Maybe my response will get you a bonus from your primary cheerleaders. Maybe a bigger bonus if you dress as a cheerleader…pom-pom’s and all. They so do love a bit of drama.

Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 8 2023 2:27 utc | 113

Dr. George W Oprisko @ 46
“The turning point in the war with Russia must be reached before the beginning of the summer of this year, otherwise the situation will become irreversible: Ukraine will finally turn into a drug addict tightly hooked on Western aid
In other words, Condolezza Rice is saying the West has the Ukraine just where they want them. If only the US could develope more nations along these lines….

Posted by: circumspect | Jan 8 2023 2:39 utc | 115

The US is giving Ukraine 50 bradley vehicles. Apparently each holds up to 9 soldiers. 450 soldiers. Seems like an inefficient way to feed the grinder. 50 schoolbuses could liquidate 2500 men, and cost a lot less.
They’re also gifting them an unspecified number of sea sparrow anti-air missiles, I guess in case Russia start wanting to use more of their planes and choppers, or if they start using scuds. Range 19km, speed 4200 km/h.

Posted by: Featherless | Jan 8 2023 3:01 utc | 117

The Duran has a new long video up…
The Tragedy of Ukraine w/Nicolai Petro, Alexander Mercouris and Glenn Diesen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68F3-YtbN8c
Petro’s bio:

Nicolai N. Petro is the Silvia-Chandley Professor of Peace Studies and Nonviolence and Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island, in the United States. He also served as the US State Department’s special assistant for policy on the Soviet Union under President George HW Bush

Based on that, I suspect this discussion will be a lot of Alexander Mercouris discussing why Ukraine is so messed up and how horrible it all is. I pass, but someone might be interested.
As far as I’m concerned, Ukraine is not a “tragedy” – it’s evolution eliminating the stupid. Ukraine is every year’s winner of the Darwin Award.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Jan 8 2023 3:50 utc | 119

Jen | Jan 7 2023 20:13 utc | 31
Diaries of a teenage girl passing through a war… inexhaustible mine for propaganda. How many teenagers now keep a diary?

Posted by: Old Brown Fool | Jan 8 2023 4:05 utc | 121

O.B.F.@121
Don’t know if you are aware of it but the major part if not of all of the “Diary of Anne Frank” was composed with a ballpoint pen. From recall, I believe that the girl died of Typhus in one of the camps somewhat shortly before the end of the war in 1945. Ballpoint pens were not commercially available until several years after the end of WWII.
Sources believe that her father, who survived the typhus, so prevalent in the camps and perhaps the primary killer of those many types of inmates; did himself compose and write that famous/infamous diary.

Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 8 2023 4:21 utc | 123

@ Oh | Jan 8 2023 4:28 utc | 124
free speech also means the right of a reply… cheers and happy new year to you too..

Posted by: james | Jan 8 2023 4:33 utc | 125

@Melaleuca 49
Any moderately intelligent Russian can understand Ukrainian, and most any sufficiently drunk Russian can speak it 😉

Posted by: Hermit | Jan 8 2023 4:45 utc | 127

@ Oh | Jan 8 2023 4:45 utc | 128
we’ll see how b processes it.. apparently there are laws that blog owners have to be attentive to and this is one of them.. happy new year once more to you too…

Posted by: james | Jan 8 2023 4:54 utc | 129

aristodemos | Jan 8 2023 2:27 utc | 113
____
A gentle(manly) put down, nicely done. Indeed, Ukraine is yearning to repeat the Crimean Charge of the Light Brigades. Strangely mindless suicidal fervor, into the meat grinder; must be something in the water.
“Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die: Into the valley of death Rode the six hundred.“ —  Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Charge of the Light Brigade

Posted by: Doug Hillman | Jan 8 2023 5:36 utc | 131

Interesting this thread is all over the place complete with false leads, trolls, and misinformation.
“The Idler” magazine from 11/11/1758 which says “…among the calamities of war may be jointly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates and credulity encourages.”
In his epic poem the Aeneid, in book IV, line 174, Virgil wrote:
Fama, malum qua non aliud velocius ullum.

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jan 8 2023 5:56 utc | 133

@ Oh | Jan 8 2023 4:28 utc | 124
free speech also means the right of a reply… cheers and happy new year to you too.
Posted by: james | Jan 8 2023 4:33 utc | 125
________
Yes, thanks. Criticism is not censorship; it’s the opposite of “behaving like a self entitled twitter censor.” Free speech is messy … and essential.

Posted by: Doug Hillman | Jan 8 2023 6:02 utc | 135

The campaign for Artyemovsk (Bakhmut) / Soledar seems reaching its crescendo, with the end in view.

Posted by: John Kennard | Jan 8 2023 6:27 utc | 137

Organic @116 , Abrogard @84
It’s not so simple when it comes to Jewish society be it in Israel or outside.
This “society” is not as much a society than a collection of inter-warring mini cartels and clubs. If you want to see ust how madly they fight each other, check out the latest situation in Israel, where a right wing/orthodox/Mizrahi faction has essentially taken over the helms of the government. Half of the country’s young are desperately trying to get a second passport, while the other half is dancing in the street with a faction celebrating the coming rebuilding of the third temple (on the ruins of the Al Aqsa mosque, of course). The country is riveted by spite, factionalism, wall to wall corruption and generally, intense dislike and suspicion of ‘the other”. As someone from there told me recently – Israelis basically don’t like each other so it’s each nuclear family against the “barbarians’ outside (they all consider the “other guy’ a barbarian, a reactionary, an ingrate, and it goes downhill from there).
This factionalism is very much in evidence among jewish people outside Israel too. Remember – the ultra-orthodox don’t speak to the orthodox, though both hold the seculars under serious suspicion, while the seculars (the vast majority are so, and are, more often than not, well to do) are so deeply intermarried by now that it’s hard to tell who is what and what is when or why. I’d say, they are basically a rather confused lot.
What self-help and networking is there among jews in the west is largely criss-crossed and buffeted by class and wealth. Yes, the wealthy help each other and they marry other wealthy ones, not necessarily Jewish either. The lawyers do help each other’s progeny but it’s very limited, again, to specific background and locales, and of course, class. The technically savvy looking for some venture money may be able to call upon a well-off jewish family member, but this comes with a price, which is sometimes a bit “high’ (they only ask for your soul!). Frankly, such an entrepneur is better off with financing any other way but from the tribe.
so it’s basically some help, some inter-tribal benefit but also lots of strife, because the tribe is not much of a tribe any longer but a collection of factions. For example, once they find out your opinions deviate from the preferred narrative (we the best, no matter what is paramount, never stated, always implied) then you can’t expect any help. It’s a bit like the indians who also network and help each other, except that caste is never far away.
An interesting tid bit; israelis tend to pretty much shun the established jewish groups – when they reside outside, at least in the US. They do help each other – at least until a deal goes sour then don’t even think of looking for forgiveness – but they do not generally intermingle with the Jewish communities for whom they have, shall we say, very limited respect.
All that said, from my observations – limited as they are – I do know one academic enclave where it really helps to be jewish. That is Economics. The academic, Univ of Chicago version thereof. Don’t even think of getting a good academic appointment in a serious economics department if you happen to be, say, Chinese, or Indian, or gawd forbid, just a plain regular American. Then again, don’t pity the academic indian economists 9yes, not too many of those). They do know a thing or two about greasing the skids…..
I can go on about the jewish “heretics’ – the likes of Max Blumenthal and Aaron Mate and the Code pink people. But leave that for another day as this comment is already way OT. Except that it is on topic when it comes to Ukraine vs Russia. which is where a fault line runs deep deep through the Jewish communities and specialty professional’communes’. So caution is advised when raising the “Ukrain business” with any Jewish friends in attendance.

Posted by: Merlin2 | Jan 8 2023 7:20 utc | 139

Paper Gold rising surprisingly in first trading week of the year.
De-dollarization ?

Posted by: Exile | Jan 8 2023 7:42 utc | 141

I’ve yet to see any follow-up on RF downing a spherical UFO over Rostov on the 3rd. I’d expect to see at least a disinfo follow-up by now. I expected an update attempting to clarify the instance before more mainstream sources and every youtube channel began reporting on it. The last time I’ve seen zero follow-up at all even after mainstream sources begin reporting on an unknown object interfering in wartime with photos and video was when an m1 abrams tank was destroyed by an unknown projectile on 8/28/2003 on the outskirts of Baghdad.

Posted by: NJH | Jan 8 2023 7:44 utc | 143

ObserverBG #142
Unbelievable. I just saw that at Slavyangrad and laughed my head off.
He is known to post outrageous teasers. Wait until Macron latches on to the suggestion and makes a complete fool of himself. Give it 24 hours.
The dividing line strategy has never brought anything but grief when it is in USA or UN hands. See Korea, Vietnam etc.
If you take the Korean example and apply to Ukraine you know immediately which side will develop and launch the nukes as tormentors.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 8 2023 8:06 utc | 145

C’mon Elon Musk
Where’s the free speech
What’s up all you very focused Twitter files journalists?
Give Scott Ritter back his freedom to speak. Free twitter account now!
This is superb from Jeff Norman.
Enough kabuki.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 8 2023 8:30 utc | 147

Exile @ 141

Paper Gold rising surprisingly in first trading week of the year. De-dollarization?

Add Paper Gold to George Carlin’s Jumbo Shrimp and Military Intelligence. Pirates had it right if you don’t have it in your hand you don’t have it, even then to be even safer they put it in their teeth!

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Jan 8 2023 9:09 utc | 149

uncle tungsten | Jan 8 2023 8:06 utc | 145
“The dividing line strategy has never brought anything but grief when it is in USA or UN hands. See Korea, Vietnam etc.”
Certainly it’s a horrible idea, as is any idea short of the Russians forcibly imposing their full will upon the entire Borderland, exactly as WWII in Europe had to end. But it’s been floating around for awhile now. I first encountered it in full form from Mike Whitney at Unz, a few months ago.
Well, somebody’s floating it, and I doubt it’s the imperialists or Kiev. They remain committed to victory which they already defined as the Russians pulling back to at least the pre-SMO line, if not from the Crimea as well.
So who’s floating it? It’s either cowardly crypto-pacifist “pro-Russians” who really just want the war to end at all costs, and to hell with the proclaimed necessary war goals of full demilitarization, denazification and neutralization, or else it’s the Russians themselves.

Posted by: Flying Dutchman | Jan 8 2023 9:23 utc | 151

Paper Gold rising surprisingly in first trading week of the year.
De-dollarization ?
Nah PONZI. There is nowhere near enough bullion to back paper gold.
After FTX there just has to be another ponzi bloat and paper gold sounds perfect.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 8 2023 9:46 utc | 153

digital dinosaur @ 140

According to some the SMO did not affect Germany’s economy anywhere near as much as others prophesied… I think I will wait just a little bit longer…

Don’t bother setting a date, it doesn’t work that way. It’s like when someone goes bankrupt – little by little, then all at once. It’s not a linear process, in the initial phase you don’t even notice. You see it all the time with retail stores, everything seems fine till the very last minute, rarely clues given, then one day you walk by and the windows are papered over.
Reasonably priced Russian energy and resources tied to long term contracts is what allowed the EU to be competitive with the rise of Asia, all the while keeping the high living standards and social benefits established during the miracle growth years of the post war boom, which incidentally the USA had allowed so as to keep the internal and external commies at bay during the cold war.
Europe for a while was given by its overlord all the benefits of capitalism and all the benefits of socialism. That’s over now, was over progressively with the fall of the USSR, neo-liberalism, and the creation of the structurally anti-democratic Euro monetary system. Only thing that perpetuated “la dolce vita” was cheap Russian energy, and very likely the reason Europe didn’t degrade into a giant fentanyl homeless camp like the USA over the last 40 years.
Europe will find other energy suppliers and develop alternatives but it won’t be cheap. Remember you don’t have to loose all your income to go broke, just a critical percentage, often small. Once you loose your profit margin you are working for nothing, once you go below that you are paying to work, in arrears, in other words broke. The added cost of energy could be more than enough to bankrupt Europe.
Germany seems debt free only because of its huge euro cash flow, Target 2 surplus imbalance, illegal at that given EMS constraints. Deutsche Bank alone has enough derivative exposure buried away from 2008, too big to bail, to take out the entire German economy 1929 style, and then some. In addition to a eurozone trade surplus Germany has a huge commercial and retail economy that provides the cash flow to maintain the shadow banking system financialized bubble scam. But, we are talking very small margins here, just a few percentage points in arrears can tip the whole thing over. Once Main Street misses a few payments, poof.
The UK went quietly bankrupt during the Truss weeks, it couldn’t get anyone to buy its gilts. Japan is also likely bankrupt, it can’t get anyone to buy its yen. Canada real estate just did the Big Short, again, twice in not even 20 years, its big banks are likely busted.
The whole thing is more bankrupt now than 2008, it’s a 20 year compounding failure, only this time they aren’t putting it in the headlines and letting you know. Keeping the next big crash secret was what the fraudulent Dodd-Frank “reform” was all about. System has already crashed they are just not telling you.
Have patience but don’t be too enthusiastic, it’s the little guy that will get pounded not the elites.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Jan 8 2023 10:18 utc | 155

◾️Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov admitted that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are carrying out the mission of NATO.
– “We are fulfilling the NATO mission today, without losing their blood, with the loss of our blood, so they need to spend their weapons,” Reznikov said.
◾️ It’s been said before many times… Until the last Ukrainian!
https://t.me/azmilitary11/32969
It’s good that the “Ukrainian’s” acknowledge their role as a disposable condom of US interests. Russian’s will sit back and see who still wants to show at the party for “Nato interests”.
BREAKING NEWS, RED ALERT: [Confirmed by reliable sources connected to Wagnar.]
The Ukrainian army has used a chemical weapon against the Russian army in Bakhmut. Reported to be asphyxiating.

https://twitter.com/cirnosad/status/1611758287183319042

Posted by: unimperator | Jan 8 2023 10:24 utc | 157

Doug Hillman #154
Yes. It sounds totally like an Integrity Initiative seed planted by a few token paid for stenographers in the EU.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 8 2023 10:36 utc | 159

Posted by: unimperator | Jan 8 2023 10:24 utc | 157
“BREAKING NEWS, RED ALERT: [Confirmed by reliable sources connected to Wagnar.]
The Ukrainian army has used a chemical weapon against the Russian army in Bakhmut. Reported to be asphyxiating.”
If true, that would explain the CBW unit they sent there. Also suggests that stuff might have been stored there in the salt mines, as I suggested above.
However, no official confirmation yet, according to this article: Russian public: PMC “Wagner” fighters report that the Armed Forces of Ukraine are using unidentified chemical weapons in Artemovsk
Interesting to also note that Biden just in the last 24 hours warned that “the threat of Russia using chemical weapons is very real”, according to this article:
Biden, Stoltenberg Warn Of Threat Of Russia Using Chemical Weapons In Ukraine
https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-chemical-weapons-biden-stoltenberg-ukraine/31766921.html

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Jan 8 2023 10:55 utc | 161

The chemical weapons attack would be a British project. They did the same before they attacked the Skripals. There was a highly publicised CBW exercise with Portland Down and special UK CBW personnel all over the district. They can’t help themselves, they just have to brag.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jan 8 2023 11:10 utc | 163

It’s only a matter of time that chemical, biological and nuclear weapons are used by the ukronazis. There is no one to stop them and everyone to encourage them.

Posted by: Vikichka | Jan 8 2023 11:28 utc | 165

Ramsey @ 101
The answer is none. Further mobilization will be pathetic and ridiculous. And very small.
They are currently taking 60 year old men and 16 year old boys. While accepting ‘volunteers’ older and younger than that. Any healthy men under 50 who remain in Ukraine really seriously do not want to fight. They have put a lot of effort into remaining civilian this long, they do not want to go and will be useless. Now Ukraine is making noises about registering and conscripting young Ukrainians abroad. Even making publicity noises about such a thing shows they are desperate and not thinking clearly.
When the war is over Ukraine will not re-populate. Not with Ukrainians. The war is lost, the nation, if you believe there ever was one, is lost. This is a US proxy conflict and the question is why did US want to end the existence of Ukraine? A year ago I’d have said the prospect of repopulating with Israelis was ludicrous anti-semitic nonsense. It still is. I just haven’t seen any other theory that begins to explain what has happened.

Posted by: oldhippie | Jan 8 2023 11:47 utc | 167

Posted by: Kellen Cramer | Jan 8 2023 11:26 utc | 165
Poland only has about 60-85,000 ground troops depending on whose numbers you believe (as usual, the numbers are all over the place.) They can’t send them all, obviously. They could, I suppose, call up reserves and send them. Supposedly they have “1.7 million reserves” – which I assume includes everyone living who ever wore the uniform – basically the same crap the Ukrainians have.
The 200,000 mobilization they’re doing seems to be more for administrators than combat troops. The only training they’ll get is 28 days and then serve 11 months. It was apparently in the cards to enlarge their military even before the war. It is discussed here at Global Security:
Poland – Military Personnel
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/europe/pl-personnel.htm
I don’t see them actually entering Ukraine to fight Russians. If they come in at all, it will be as a “peace-keeping” (read: “land grab”) force to grab some of western Ukraine. Whether the Russians will allow this or not is a matter of conjecture – everyone but me says Russia will.
But if they come east of the Dnieper, Russia will certainly annihilate them just as they’re doing the Ukrainians.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Jan 8 2023 11:53 utc | 169

Translated:
ПЕРЕХВАТ (Z) (Intercept (Z))

Chronicle of strikes and mutual fire in the SSO zone overnight from January 7 to 8, 2023
▪️In Kharkiv Oblast, Russian forces struck enemy positions in Merefa, Staritsa and Ogurtsovo.
▪️In the Starobelsk direction, the Russian Armed Forces struck accumulations of AFU manpower and armored vehicles in Dvurechnaya, Myasozharivka, Nevsky and Makiivka.
▪️Overnight, Russian forces struck a machine-building plant and a location of Ukrainian formations on the territory of a training school in Kramatorsk.
▪️In the Bakhmut (Artemivsk) direction, Russian missile forces and artillery fired on the Ukrainian armed forces’ concentrations in Bakhmut, Soledar, Dyleevka and Kleshcheevka.
▪️On the Donetsk direction, the Russian Armed Forces carried out strikes against enemy positions in Kurakhove, Nevelskoye, and the western outskirts of Marinka.
In turn, Ukrainian formations shelled civilian facilities in Yelenivka, Novy Svit and Zugres with barrel and rocket artillery.
▪️On the Yuzhnodonetsk direction, Russian artillery struck concentrations of enemy forces in Novomikhailovka, Ugledar, Bolshaya Novoselka and Zolotaya Niva.
▪️In Zaporizhzhya region, Russian forces struck AFU facilities in the vicinity of Zaporizhzhya, and worked off enemy positions in Malye Shcherbaki, Olgovskoye and Kamenskoye.
Ukrainian formations shelled civilian objects in Dorozhnyanka.
▪️ In Dnipropetrovsk region, the Russian Armed Forces hit targets in Krasnohrigoryevka and Mirovoye.
▪️In the southern sector of the front, Russian forces targeted AFU concentrations in Kherson, Berislav, Antonovka, and Inzhenernoye.

Soledar direction.
Situation as of 14.00 on 8 January 2023
Fierce fighting continues in the vicinity of Bakhmut and Soledar. Russian troops are pushing through the defense of the AFU, forcing them to move more and more reinforcements to hold the settlements.
🔻In the Soledar area, assault units of the Wagner PMC are advancing in the area of the Salt Mine #1-3 on the AFU positions near Artemsol at the intersection of Chkalova and Karpinskogo Streets.
▪️On the northeastern outskirts of Soledar, the assault units reached Yurchina Mountain, establishing control over the section of the highway to Blagodatnoye.
▪️The situation in Soledar is close to critical for the Ukrainian formations: the Russian Armed Forces have broken through the first and second lines of defense, and the combat ranks of the third are under threat. The forces of the 128 Ogshbir ran away from the lines, and the resistance is provided by ideologically committed members of the AFU.
▪️ Units of the 99th Battalion of the 61st Army Brigade of the AFU lost control over three observation posts, and part of the 61st Brigade’s forces were withdrawn from the combat area to make up for losses. On January 6, two additional platoons were redeployed to the vicinity.
Despite significant successes in Soledar, it is premature to speak of full control over the village. At the moment, there is no evidence of AFU withdrawal from Soledar.
🔻 To the northeast of Bakhmut, the RF Armed Forces personnel dislodged combined detachments of the RF Armed Forces’ 60th Brigade and 17th Brigade from the village of Podgorodne, opening the way to encircle the Bakhmut garrison from the north, and reached Krasnaya Gora.
🔻The eastern and southeastern outskirts of Bakhmut are advancing towards the garbage plant from the north of Fyodor Maksimenko Street to the south, with almost the entire street under the control of the Wagnerians.
▪️In addition, the sweep of the plaster factory on Patrice Lumumba Street has been completed and control over Labor Reserves Street has been expanded. The AFU is actively using underground communications to deter the offensive.
🔻South and southwest of Artemivsk, the storming of Ukrainian strongholds in Opytne and Klescheevka continues, the liberation of which will allow to fully surround Bakhmut and take under fire control communications from Konstantinovka and Chasov Yar.
🔻In order to hold back the offensive, the AFU introduced 50 reserve men from the 60th brigade, two armored groups from the 3rd battalion of the 28th Mechanized Brigade, as well as a company from the 32nd National Guard Regiment and the SDF Karpaty Special Forces.
▪️To make up for the losses of the 24, 30 60, 61 and 63 brigades of the AFU, up to four thousand men with armored vehicles will be transferred from the Chernihiv region starting January 20. Most likely, these will be units of the 58th Ombrbr and 93rd Ombr, which are currently at the Goncharivske training range for supplementary recruitment.
▪️In addition, the artillerymen and tankers of the 60th Brigade and 17th Brigade, as well as tactical aviation aircraft from Mirgorod (five Su-25s and two Mig-29s) are indiscriminately firing at the Russian Armed Forces’ offensive areas in Soledar, Bakhmut, Kurdyumovka, Andreevka, Podgorodne and on the approaches to Krasna Gora.

&

Russian Army advances in Artemivsk, Avdiyivka and Liman directions and tries to improve the tactical situation near Kupiansk – the main thing from the report of the General Staff of the AFU
💥In the past 24 hours, Russian units attacked the AFU in areas of 16 settlements, including Stelmakhovka, Makiivka and Belogorovka LNR and Razdolovka, Soledar, Artemovsk, Zhelezne, Pervomaiskoye, Vodyanoye and Victory DNR.
▪️On the Seversk and Slobozhansk directions, Ukrainian positions came under fire from the Russian Armed Forces in the areas of Staritsa and Dvurechnaya in the Kharkiv region. Russian units also used a strike UAV near Oleksandrivka.
▪️On the Kupyan and Liman directions, the Russian Armed Forces shelled Ukrainian positions in the areas of Ivanovka, Stelmakhovka, Myasozharivka, Ploshchanka, Makiivka, Nevskyy, Chervonopopovka and Dibrova LNR.
▪️In the Artemivsk direction, Russian forces inflicted fire on Ukrainian units in the areas of Berestovoye, Bilogorovka, Veseloye, Krasnaya Gora, Artemivsk, Kleshcheevka, Belaya Gora, Dyleyevka, Zheleznoye and New York DNR.
▪️In the Avdiivka direction, the Russian Armed Forces shelled AFU positions in the areas of Nevelskoye, Marinka and Novomikhailovka of the DNR.
▪️On the Zaporizhia and Kherson directions, Russian forces fired tanks, mortars, mortar, barrel and rocket artillery at Ukrainian positions in the areas of Antonovka, Volshebnoye, Dorozhnyanka, Inzhenernoye, Belogorye, Alekseevka, Malye Shcherbaki, Stepnoye and Kamenske of Zaporizhia region.

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 8 2023 12:07 utc | 171

The Jefferson salaries is a fitting metaphor for country 404. The West’s intelligence PTB has always considered Russia’s economy insignificant and has miscalculated the financial support now available from China.
Oil accumulated because of the salt and oil has attracted the oil prospectors. 100s of years of the Great Game has taught Russia the need for military superiority.
Condoleezza Rice is no stranger to USUKIS military failure and now watches helplessly as country 404 socks the finances of the West into the caverns of Ukranian corruption.
Here we are thinking this will end in nuclear, but in fact the combination of Multipolar money and USUKIS hybris and stupidity will end in USUKIS ate/ collapse and disaster.
Inshallah

Posted by: Giyane | Jan 8 2023 12:32 utc | 173

It seems unwise to provoke the Russians to extract revenge.
Sprintero ވ
@Sprinter20000
·
15m
During the day, Russian reconnaissance means uncovered and reliably confirmed the points of temporary deployment of the Ukrainian military in Kramatorsk – Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
More than 700 Ukrainian soldiers were in hostel No. 28 in Kramatorsk and more than 600 Ukrainian soldiers were in hostel No. 47 – Russian Defense Ministry
In response to the criminal attack of the Kyiv regime on the point of temporary deployment of the Russian Armed Forces in Makeevka, a retaliation operation was implemented –
More than 600 soldiers destroyed in Kramatorsk as a result of a missile attack on the points of temporary deployment of Ukrainian troops – Russian Defense Ministry
Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

Posted by: JohninMK | Jan 8 2023 12:49 utc | 175

But in maneuver warfare, you only have time to put down such fortifications way to the rear before the enemy is on top of you if you can’t hold him back long enough. So the Russians eventually might have run into such fortifications, say, around Kiev, but they would likely be not as extensive as the Donbass ones. And by that time, the Ukrainian army would be mostly destroyed pretty much as they are now – but in somewhat shorter time.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Jan 8 2023 12:26 utc | 173
Which is what happened the first time, and why they put down fortifications, winding up here now. Only so could they hope to stop the Russians and draw this out. Like the French in WWI. The Germans back then decided to go around, got stuck at Verdun anyway.
The Russians today settled right in to this sort of war. I give them credit for that. They know where they are. No need to thrash around. General Armageddon is just the man for it too.
MANPADs and ATGMs did not used to be so prevalent, but boy we have fixed that now.

Posted by: Bemildred | Jan 8 2023 12:52 utc | 177

Regarding the use of chemical weapons by Ukrainian forces, the following had already been posted on yesterday’s Ukraine thread, albeit without any link to the source:
Wagner – “Just in the village of Bakhmut on Labor Reserves Street, the enemy used chemical weapons, as a result of which our fighters received chemical burns of the respiratory tract and mucous membranes. They were sent to the hospital in serious condition.”
Posted by: rk | Jan 7 2023 17:31 utc | 231
So far, I have not seen or heard this being mentioned in the MSM, but I suppose that, if it is, Russia will be blamed for making a chemical attack on its own troops.
This incident seems to be a significant escalation of the war. So who is losing? Your guess.

Posted by: B. Wildered | Jan 8 2023 12:54 utc | 179

Finally:
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/28001

Retaliation for Makееvka.
In response to the Kiev regime’s criminal strike in the first minutes of January 2023, the command of the United Group of Russian Forces carried out a retaliatory operation against the temporary deployment point of Russian military personnel in Makееvka, Donetsk People’s Republic.
Over the past 24 hours, Russian reconnaissance assets uncovered and reliably confirmed through several independent channels the temporary deployment of the AFU military personnel in the city of Kramatorsk.
There were over 700 Ukrainian military personnel in dormitory No. 28 and over 600 Ukrainian military personnel in dormitory No. 47.
As a result of the massive missile strike on the said places of temporary deployment of the AFU units more than 600 Ukrainian servicemen were killed. (from) Russian Ministry of Defence

Rumor has it the Tornado-S was finally let loose.
P.S. The Kharkov fiasco could have been prevented with a a few such salvos and some Iskanders, but nobody ever bothered, for still mysterious reasons.

Posted by: shadowbanned | Jan 8 2023 13:15 utc | 181

Translated:

Summary of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on the special military operation on the territory of Ukraine (08.01.2023)
The combined grouping of Russian troops (forces) in the areas of the Special Military Operation observed the declared ceasefire along the entire line of contact from 12 noon on 6 January until 24 noon on 7 January.
Throughout the entire period of the ceasefire, Ukrainian troops continued to conduct intensive shelling of populated areas and Russian positions.
◽️ In the Kupyan and Krasno-Limansky directions, the Ukrainian Armed Forces fired 78 artillery and mortar rounds.
◽️ The enemy used large-caliber artillery for shelling 155 times in the Soledar, Avdiivka, and Mariinsk directions.
◽️ Over 160 large caliber shells and 20 multiple rocket launchers were fired by Ukrainian forces into residential areas of Donetsk.
◽️ In Zaporizhzhia region, the enemy fired artillery fire 89 times.
◽️ Ukrainian artillery was used 55 times in the Kherson and Krivoy Rog directions.
💥 Retaliatory fire from Russian troops suppressed Ukrainian artillery, which was used to shell populated areas.
💥 After the end of the ceasefire on the Kupyansk direction, Russian troops hit concentrations of AFU manpower and equipment near Novoselovskoye in the Luhansk People’s Republic and Sinkovka in the Kharkiv region. More than 30 Ukrainian servicemen, an infantry fighting vehicle, an armored personnel carrier and two vehicles were destroyed.
💥 In addition, two enemy sabotage and reconnaissance groups were destroyed in the areas of Kotlyarovka, Kharkiv Oblast, and Novoselovskoye, Luhansk People’s Republic.
◽️ In the Krasno-Limansky direction, Russian units after the end of the ceasefire carried out artillery strikes against two AFU assault groups in the areas of Chervonaya Dibrova of the Lugansk People’s Republic and Serebryanka of the Donetsk People’s Republic, as well as concentrations of enemy manpower and equipment in the areas of Makiivka and Stelmakhovka of the Luhansk People’s Republic. As a result of the strikes, more than 50 Ukrainian servicemen, three armored fighting vehicles, a pickup truck and a vehicle were destroyed. In addition, Ukrainian armed forces sabotage and reconnaissance groups were destroyed in the areas of Artemivka and Serebryanka settlements.
◽️ In the Donetsk direction, Russian artillery strikes thwarted an enemy attempt by up to a company of the 54th AFU Mechanized Brigade to counterattack Russian troop positions in the direction of the Spornoye settlement of the Donetsk People’s Republic. Up to 70 Ukrainian servicemen, two armored combat vehicles and a pickup truck were destroyed.
◽️ In the South Donetsk direction near Novomikhailovka, Vladimirovka, Pavlovka and Neskuchnoye settlements of the Donetsk People’s Republic, actions of Ukrainian armed forces sabotage and reconnaissance groups were suppressed. More than 40 Ukrainian servicemen, an armored personnel carrier and three vehicles were destroyed.
💥 Strikes by tactical and army aviation, rocket and artillery forces hit the depots of rocket and artillery weapons and ammunition of the 95th Airborne Assault Brigade and 60th Mechanized Brigade of the AFU in the areas of Krasny Liman and Konstantinovka settlements of the Donetsk People’s Republic, as well as 84 artillery units in firing positions, live personnel and military equipment in 117 areas.
💥 In the course of the counterbattery fight, artillery crews of the howitzer battery of the 59th motorized infantry brigade and Grad multiple rocket launchers at firing positions in the areas of Karlovka and Konstantinovka of the Donetsk People’s Republic were defeated.
💥 Russian Air Force fighter aircraft shot down five Ukrainian air force planes in 24 hours.
◽️ A Ukrainian Su-27 fighter jet was shot down near the village of Lozovoye, Kharkiv region.
◽️ A Ukrainian air force Su-24 aircraft was shot down near the settlement of Izyum, Kharkiv region.
◽️ Two Ukrainian Su-25 aircraft were shot down near the settlements of Mykolaypillya and Novy Donbass.
◽️ A Ukrainian MiG-29 aircraft was shot down near the Veseloye settlement of the Donetsk People’s Republic.
💥 Anti-aircraft defense forces destroyed five Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles near Patalakhovka, Kuzemovka, Kuzmino, Kreminna and Pshenichne settlements of the Luhansk People’s Republic.
💥 In addition, 10 HIMARS and Uragan MBLRS rockets were intercepted in the areas of Kreminna of the Luhansk People’s Republic, Orekhov of Zaporizhzhia region, Stepne of the Donetsk People’s Republic and Donetsk city.
💥 An American anti-radar HARM missile was shot down near Kurdyumovka settlement of Donetsk People’s Republic.
***
◽️ In response to the criminal strike of the Kiev regime, in the first minutes of January 2023, the command of the United Group of Russian Forces carried out a retaliatory operation against the Russian soldiers’ temporary deployment point in the settlement of Makeyevka, Donetsk People’s Republic.
◽️ During the past 24 hours, Russian reconnaissance assets uncovered and reliably confirmed through several independent channels the temporary deployment points of the AFU military personnel in the city of Kramatorsk.
◽️ There were over 700 Ukrainian servicemen in dormitory #28 and over 600 Ukrainian servicemen in dormitory #47.
💥 As a result of a massive missile strike on these locations of temporary deployment of AFU units, over 600 Ukrainian servicemen were destroyed.
📊 A total of
365(+5) aircraft,
199 helicopters,
2,848(+5) unmanned aerial vehicles,
400 surface-to-air missile systems, (Each AD Radar destroyed, no(Soviet pre ’91) spares/replacements, effectively: Unclaimed Kills)
7,449(+8) tanks and other armored combat vehicles,
972 multiple rocket launcher combat vehicles,
3,787 field artillery and mortar guns, and
7,965(+8) pieces of special military vehicles.

Comment:
Period of lower intensity conflict along FEBA during unilaterally declared (RF) ceasefire. Yet very significant AFU casualties regardless.
Prioritized accelerated destruction of rear of FEBA AFU military assets & logistics/ordnance continues. Shaping the battlefield.
@ oldhippie | Jan 8 2023 13:25 utc | 183
Concur. Now RF likely moves to a new phase re the conflict …
@ shadowbanned | Jan 8 2023 13:15 utc | 182
AFU has suffered such & more virtually daily, day in day out, for almost 11 months. Dissuaded ? Not. BS Narrative sustainment, Twoll.

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 8 2023 13:28 utc | 183

The cavalry never came and never was coming. Russia started with a simple show of force that would have made sane politicians negotiate. Russia hesitated to simply kill everything in sight. So we have a long drawn out holding action.
Posted by: oldhippie | Jan 8 2023 13:25 utc | 183
OK. Yes, agree, most interesting thing is Russians clearly are/were not in a hurry. And I give them credit for that. They know where they are.

Posted by: Bemildred | Jan 8 2023 13:39 utc | 185

Komsomolskaya Pravda reports on the retaliation strike of the RF that took place directly after the unilateral ceasefire. Revealed is what the RF did during the period of ‘planned silence’: https://www.kp.ru/daily/27449.3/4703178/
Retaliation operation: How Russia responded to the death of our soldiers in Makeevka
Russian Armed Forces destroyed more than 1,000 soldiers and five aircraft of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Our servicemen in the special operation zone used the planned silence regime to their advantage. The ceasefire regime on our side made it possible to “listen” and “look closely” at the negotiations and salvos from the other side. All this helped clarify the targets, which immediately after the “Christmas ceasefire” were dealt with powerful concentrated strikes by rocket and artillerymen.
“In response to the criminal strike of the Kiev regime in the first minutes of January 2023, a retaliation operation was carried out by the command of the United Group of Russian Forces at the temporary deployment point of Russian military personnel in the settlement of Makeevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic,” Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said at a recent briefing.
The lieutenant-general noted that the day before, Russian intelligence facilities had uncovered and reliably confirmed through several independent channels the points of temporary deployment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the city of Kramatorsk. Powerful strikes killed more than 1,000 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who refused to comply with the declared ceasefire along the entire line of contact.
“More than 700 Ukrainian servicemen were in dormitory No. 28, and more than 600 Ukrainian servicemen were in dormitory No. 47,” Konashenkov specified.
Deserved: over the past day, the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine carried out more than 377 artillery and mortar shelling of peaceful settlements and positions of Russian military personnel, only the streets of peaceful Donetsk were shelled with 180 shells of various calibers.
The Ukrainian artillery, from which shelling of settlements was fired, was suppressed by the return fire of the Russian troops. But that is not all.
Konashenkov listed the losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of contact: more than 30 Ukrainian servicemen were killed in the Kupyansk direction, more than 50 in Krasno-Limansky, up to 70 in Donetsk, and more than 40 in Yuzhno-Donetsk.
Six sabotage groups, dozens of tanks, armored vehicles and pickups were also destroyed.
During the day, strikes by operational-tactical and army aviation, missile forces and artillery hit: two depots of rocket and artillery weapons, as well as 84 artillery units in firing positions, manpower and military equipment in 117 districts.
The representative of the Ministry of Defense thanked the fighter aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces, whose aces shot down five aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force in a day. With the black soil of Donbass, the entire palette of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was mixed into a heap: Su-27, Su-24, Su-25 and MiG-29.
The forces of the air defense units destroyed 5 Ukrainian drones and 10 rockets of the HIMARS and Uragan multiple launch rocket systems, the American HARM anti-radar missile.
MEANWHILE
By the way, on January 8, as a result of the negotiation process, 50 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime, who were in mortal danger in captivity. They were exchanged.
“The released servicemen will be delivered to Moscow by aircraft of the military transport aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces for treatment and rehabilitation in medical institutions of the Russian Defense Ministry,” the military department said.
Representatives of the Ministry of Defense emphasized that all those released “are provided with the necessary medical and psychological assistance.”

Posted by: Oblomovka daydream | Jan 8 2023 13:42 utc | 187

Berletic also pointed out in his video yesterday that a study of US army trained soldiers firing various anti-tank weapons under training conditions could only hit the target – hit, not destroy – 19% of the time. I don’t know if Russian soldiers are better at that, but clearly western anti-tank weapons have been ineffective in Ukraine.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Jan 8 2023 13:54 utc | 189
Does look tricky all right. Lots of videos since Syria heated up. Training with simulators might help, but of course we don’t have time for that right now.
However, it has turned out that they (ATGMs) can be useful against all sorts of targets, and money seems to be no object so far.

Posted by: Bemildred | Jan 8 2023 14:03 utc | 189

Oblomovka daydream | Jan 8 2023 13:42 utc | 188
______
Thanks for the bad-news/good-news. Retaliation indeed deserved, but horrible for AFU conscripts criminally forced into the meat grinder.
War is hell. In this one, I do hope there is hell to pay for the criminal bankrollers/decision-makers.

Posted by: Doug Hillman | Jan 8 2023 14:08 utc | 191

shadowbanned | Jan 8 2023 13:15 utc | 182
______
You just had to add your usual ungrounded pontification at the end (“P.S.”–>B.S.). What level of satellite and ground-level intel can you access relative to AFU force and civilian concentrations? How many authentic stars on your epaulets?

Posted by: Doug Hillman | Jan 8 2023 14:28 utc | 193

Outraged | Jan 8 2023 14:28 utc | 195
______
“Major paradigm shift” indeed, described in exquisite detail. Many thanks.

Posted by: Doug Hillman | Jan 8 2023 14:45 utc | 195

You just had to add your usual ungrounded pontification at the end (“P.S.”–>B.S.). What level of satellite and ground-level intel can you access relative to AFU force and civilian concentrations? How many authentic stars on your epaulets?
Posted by: Doug Hillman | Jan 8 2023 14:28 utc | 194

Yes, let’s ignore the Russian military bloggers who were screaming “massive AFU concentration of manpower and vehicles at the railway station in X, where is the f****ng missile strike?” days before Balakleya was attacked.
Sure intelligence was hard and an insurmountable problem…

Posted by: shadowbanned | Jan 8 2023 15:22 utc | 197

Posted by: Outraged | Jan 8 2023 15:32 utc | 199
Gotta drop this, but, 1.) yeah I like the balloons, WWI again, low-tech is preferred, and 2.) well control of the air is the question, with modern weapons and tech, what does that look like? I don’t know. I can see that low-level AD has inhibited the Russians, but they are not in a hurry anyway. Do we use F-35s to hunt drones? I would guess we will have drone wars soon, duelling swarms of combat drones. And everybody can shoot off rockets, even Gaza has rockets, even Houthis have Iranian tech. drones and rockets.
One can start to see why they call this the Kali Yuga.

Posted by: Bemildred | Jan 8 2023 16:00 utc | 199