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January 15, 2023
Ukraine Open Thread 2023-15
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Totally dishonest. Can’t trust anything US/DNC/RNC put out.
https://twitter.com/mtaibbi/status/1613621714063134731
The latest #TwitterFiles expose as a total lie a major Russiagate story — that the #ReleaseTheMemo hashtag was fueled by Russian bots:
Posted by: KitaySupporter | Jan 15 2023 22:38 utc | 101
Anne B. @ 84
A growing number of awakening people are becoming disenchanted by Constantine’s Imperial Roman so-called “Holy” Bible.
Working on the project for two years a cabal of one form of Christians who were friendly toward the Empire and its designs selected only certain texts for inclusion in the volume. There were many different versions of Christians AND Jesusites in the Mediterranean world in ca 315-325 A.D.
Beginning with the Gospel of Thomas, which regarded Jesus as the greatest spiritual teacher and wayshower; a large number of early Christian texts were kicked out by the minions of the Emperor.
What I’m saying then, is the Bible as currently known is a political rather than a religious entity. It certainly is not spiritual.
Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 15 2023 22:40 utc | 102
Posted by: Oui | Jan 15 2023 22:37 utc | 99
The connection for eng.mil.ru works fine for me. I’m in Portugal.
Posted by: Antonio Ferrao | Jan 15 2023 22:42 utc | 103
Brother Ma @98
Blackrock is simply demonic and so are Vanguard and State Street. Those monstrous agglomerations of capital are larger than the entire valuation of scores of nations. Their power is so intense and immense that for the sake of humanity they must be dissolved. They are simply “agreement incapable”.
One does not make a pact with the devil and Blackrock is as close as it comes to a spiritually negative entity.
Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 15 2023 22:44 utc | 104
Posted by: Blissex | Jan 15 2023 22:16 utc | 94
I liken the current Albanians ,whether Christian /Muslim(vast majority) , to the Ruthenians. The Albanians think they are different to the Greeks in particular , and to the Romaoi (Byzantine citizens of the whole Balkans with common Greek outlook, language and culture ) in general but they aren’t really.
They are just those very things simply cut off from the mother culture ,Heimat and language by history ie Turkification, Influence of the Vatican and pernicious influence of Austro-Hungary . All that up to about 1911. No , Albanians are not Illyrians or Dardanians or some other rot they grasp for, but that is for another day.
There is nothing worse than a renegade; despised by all . US Native peoples hated their renegades, Europeans hated their renegades who Islamified /Protestantised, and right-thinking people detest the vicious, stupid Banderite Ukrainians now.
Posted by: Brother Ma | Jan 15 2023 22:47 utc | 105
Bob Jenkins | Jan 15 2023 20:08 utc | 62
the US & Israel released Stuxnet. a known known, unlike speculation about other stuff supposedly released by the west. the west is perfectly content to expand and upgrade.
and these weapons have already been used. and the civilian reactors are weapons, whatever anyone thinks. someobody already posted a comment about Fukushima water being dumped in the Pacific. yeah, i know, big yawn.
i have more faith in Bacchus than in the sanity of Western leaders. Dionysus already conquered the missile silos, if WaPo can be trusted. better get the nuclear staff into A.A. stat or they might not be sober enough to respond to the “go” codes! whoduh thunk that job was depressing? don’t they screen people before putting the world in their hands???
now we await the mom to rip the limbs off these grievous loathsome bastards. i.e., Agave, mother of Jose Cuervo.
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jan 15 2023 22:59 utc | 106
Deanna Spingola’s huge and deeply researched/footnoted “The Ruling Elite”. The PTB are doing all they can to make that book unavailable.
Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 15 2023 20:08 utc | 61
Currently listed at $2.99 ebook at Barnes and Noble. Or $8.99 Kindle at Amazon.
Posted by: JohninMK | Jan 15 2023 23:16 utc | 107
@105 rjb1.5
While I agree concerning the collective sanity (or lack thereof) of western leaders, they are all cowards. What they enjoy is looking down their noses at ‘the little people’, it’s never enough for them to have everything, you and I have to be left with nothing.
That is the end game, none of these clowns wants to be stuck in a bunker for the next 20 years. I think they know what kind of a hell that would be.
Posted by: Bob Jenkins | Jan 15 2023 23:18 utc | 108
Germany lacks active tanks!
Battle tanks from German industrial reserves wanted by Ukraine will not be ready to be delivered until 2024, the arms manufacturer Rheinmetall has warned, increasing pressure on Nato allies to support Ukraine with armoured vehicles in active service instead, ahead of a key meeting this week.
“Even if the decision to send our Leopard tanks to Kyiv came tomorrow, the delivery would take until the start of next year,” Rheinmetall’s chief executive, Armin Papperger, told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. . .here
Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 15 2023 23:19 utc | 109
Posted by: Oui | Jan 15 2023 22:37 utc | 99
The connection for eng.mil.ru works fine for me. I’m in Portugal.
Posted by: Antonio Ferrao | Jan 15 2023 22:42 utc | 102
I get “Forbidden” here in the US.
Posted by: Michigan Dude | Jan 15 2023 23:29 utc | 110
I have just listened to Alexander metcouris’ broadcast tonight. He read out an article from The Financial Times which was astonishing. The collective West media appears to be in an advanced state of pathological lying and of seriously and dangerous delusional thinking.
I think the Reporter must have ingested the ol’ waccy baccy in humongous amounts. Apparently UAF has had numerous highly successful offensive including Soledar in which offensive the Ukies caused massive losses of men and equipment on the RF Troops. Shows you can’t fix stupid.
Posted by: Jo Dominich | Jan 15 2023 23:55 utc | 111
@ 11
Well… when you mention Daniel 7:5 and attributed the “bear” to Russia. I knew you had been brainwashed by some religious guru.
The bear represents the Persian Empire, the ribs in it’s mouth would represent those who were in prominent rule during that time. The ribs would represent Xerxes, Cyrus, and Darius.
Daniel speaks of 4 kingdoms throughout his book. 1st kingdom: Babylon, 2nd (your “bear”)was the Medo Persians empire 3rd: the Greeks with Alexander the great and the 4th kingdom is the Roman empire.
Please read “history” Stop with the mumbo jumbo! Enjoy your koo-koo aid and wait for your spaceship to pick you up!
I believe the Bible is the true word of God. But people like you, with your hocus-pocus drive others away from the truth!
Posted by: DALE FERGUSON | Jan 15 2023 23:56 utc | 112
What I’m saying then, is the Bible as currently known is a political rather than a religious entity. It certainly is not spiritual.
Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 15 2023 22:40 utc | 101
What in your mind is the difference between those two?
Posted by: Vikichka | Jan 15 2023 23:56 utc | 113
2nd (your “bear”)was the Medo Persians empire 3rd: the Greeks with Alexander the great and the 4th kingdom is the Roman empire
Posted by: DALE FERGUSON | Jan 15 2023 23:56 utc | 111
You made that up. It’s not from the Bible.
Posted by: Vikichka | Jan 15 2023 23:59 utc | 114
Arch Bungle @9
hopehely @16
Mike R @27
shadowbanned @30
What is an ethnic Ukrainian?
Got some juice on the topic from “Stepan Bandera: The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist: Fascism, Genocide, and Cult”
The key reference is Stepan Rudnytsky (1887–1937, Galicia). He was an important intellectual who popularized racism and eugenics in the Ukrainian nationalist discourse. Rudnytsky worked together with Mykhailo Hrushevsky. The latter is presently regarded as the greatest 20th-century scholar and one of the most prominent statesmen in Ukraine’s history. Looking for the origins of the Ukrainian people among ancient peoples, Hrushevsky concluded that the “Ukrainian tribes” originated from the Antes. He pondered about the ideal type of a historical Ukrainian and wrote that Ukrainians were “blond-haired, ruddyskinned, and tall” and “very dirty” people.
A political geographer and full member of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Rudnytsky provided Hrushevsky’s theory with an essential geographical component, defining the “natural territory” or the “living space” (Lebensraum) of the Ukrainian people.
In his book “Ukraine: The Land and Its People”, published in 1910, he described the Ukrainian race as of “tall stature, with long legs and broad shoulders, strongly pigmented complexion, dark, rich, curly hair, rounded head and long face with a high broad brow, dark eyes, straight nose, strongly developed elongated lower part of the face, medium mouth and small ears.”
One important reason for such a racialist characterization of Ukrainians was the wish to distinguish them from Poles and Russians. Rudnytsky stated that “anthropological differences of the Ukrainians from their neighbors – especially from the Poles, White Russians and Russians – are very clearly marked.” To him, an independent nation meant an independent race. It was a “large community of people, the shape of whose bodies is similar to that of each other, but different from those of other nations.”
In addition, Rudnytsky praised the science of eugenics and argued that: “On the one hand, we should enable as many healthy and racially full-fledged exemplars of the nation as possible to marry and breed. On the other hand, we should not allow sick or racially less valuable exemplars to do that.” Rudnytsky’s racist thinking had a significant impact on OUN ideology and the UPA’s genocidal policy.
page 73
[…]
The UPA regularly demanded that Ukrainians in mixed marriages kill their spouses and children… The idea of annihilating the “non-Ukrainian” partner in a mixed marriage goes back to the racist roots of OUN-B ideology. In “The Nation as a Species,” an undated brochure published in 1944, the OUN came to the conclusion that a mixed marriage was a crime that should be punished: “The Ukrainian nation is against mixed marriage and regards it as a crime… The substance of our families must be Ukrainian (father, mother, and children). The family is the most important organic unity, the highest cell of the national collective, and thus we have to keep it purely Ukrainian.”
The Ukrainian nation is a unique race, the purity of which should be protected by law, because it is natural for every nation to protect itself against weaker races. To substantiate its racist arguments, the authors of the brochure referred to the Ukrainian geographer Rudnytsky:
Professor Dr. St. Rudnytsky, in his book “On the Basis of Ukrainian Nationalism” writes that “mixed marriages with our neighboring peoples are disadvantageous,” as they lead to the denationalization of many and the degeneration of others…The reflex against mixed marriages is natural, as it rises out of the instinct of self-preservation and growth of the Nation…”
Posted by: Nomad | Jan 16 2023 0:04 utc | 115
@ whirlX | Jan 15 2023 19:59 utc | 58
Am of the belief no direct attacks on US/NATO extra-Theater assets unless a deliberate pre-emptive strike. Don’t believe US will go nuclear ’cause on every other occasion where it could, against a defenseless/or non nuke adversary, it stood down. Given RF capabilities & probable next-gen tech supremacy, even less likely.
RFs go slow, contained attrition warfare has now forced Empire to exhaust it’s actual Mil assets, going forward, uselessly sacrificed in Ukraine for no benefit, now that the junk shipments for huge profits are coming to an end. However, unlike abandoning proxy Georgia once the RF returned fire in ’08, Empire has committed in Ukraine, to a conflict it has little prospect of winning militarily. If it forces EU/NATO to provide tribute re replacement of functional arms & materiel to doomed Ukraine, whilst their economies contract/collapse, end result ?
Cutting & running will have enormous consequences globally, let alone almost certain breakup of EU/NATO, IMV. RF has painted Empire into a corner of it’s own making …
RF has caught the US in a classic Catch-22 of its own making, IMO.
@ Hermit | Jan 15 2023 21:37 utc | 85
You are most welcome.
Yet the obsolete &/or junk is fast being exhausted from the arsenals of Dumbocracy … decision time is fast approaching re delivering actual armaments into the maw of a lost/unwinnable conflict at hugely destructive financial burden during multi-faceted crisis. EU/NATO has struggled even with supplying the crap so far. Do the suborned leaders fear possible consequences of their own polities in shelving the butter & committing full bore to the ‘Guns’, with all the consequences likely to entail ?
See numerous signs of lukewarm commitment myself. Sustained 100% full spectrum propaganda narrative only goes so far … especially the longer it goes on.
@ unimperator | Jan 15 2023 21:47 utc | 88
I said it before: the price tag from now on goes up several multiples for EU Nato vassals. No more free rides.
Indeed. A decision point is fast approaching, roll the dice re full belligerency, or walk away from the table.
@ karlof1 | Jan 15 2023 22:14 utc | 91
Disagree re expending NATO tank crews. Do not believe actual precious resources, US/NATO crews will man ’em, given it’s a suicidal task & mercs are rather hard to find as skilled tank crews. Sending regular NATO crews in ‘refurbished’ MBTs simply means denuding regular crewman from existing armored corps for nil benefit, rather than retained to man their own myriad tanks (US, German, UK) should the balloon go up. Even the Poles. Not a resource that can be quickly replaced nor in excess quantity.
Then there’s the actual inevitable losses, likely wounded/POWs taken, thence loss of even the fig-leaf of supposed non-belligerence. Risk to benefit ?
@ aristodemos | Jan 15 2023 22:27 utc | 96
Apparently Iran will receipt the SU-35Ss, alongside helos & other unspecified arms materiel, inside two months. SU-35S is able to launch R-37 & R-37Ms AA missiles (IIRC) with range ~150-400km, multi-mode guidance. Suspect this was not accidental by RF. Very significant new capabilities for Iran AF as a regional power.
@ Posted by: Bob Jenkins | Jan 15 2023 20:08 utc | 62
I think nuclear war has 50/50 probability at this point.
1) I think Russia is cornered – if they win, it will spare world.
2) US is run by committee – this escalate without control. They are spoiled children – not accustomed to backing down.
3) US cannot go toe-toe with Russia with conventional weapons. They will be pressed to try small nukes. Then if that does not work, they will threaten worse, because the farther this goes the more that will be on the line – US on shaky financial footing. Basically there is nothing US would not or has not done/tried.
Once we get to that point, the situation will be very much worse for both sides than what it is today.
I would prefer to be wrong.
It seems to me that Russia has come to terms with where this may lead.
Posted by: jared | Jan 16 2023 0:30 utc | 117
@116 Jared
Of course, it could happen, but as others have said, if the US was that interested in an escalation, they could do it tomorrow.
The press makes a big deal about the bridge and Nord Stream etc, but the US well knows the threshold it cannot cross without severe repercussions and makes very sure not to cross it.
None of the arguments in that regard hold any real water, especially the ‘they want Russia to start it’. When the US has wanted to start something with the goat herders and farmers of the world, they have had no difficulty doing it. They don’t want to escalate this beyond a certain point because they know very well where that will end up.
Are there absolute nutters who want to go all the way, I don’t doubt it, but they are cowards and I think that precludes the entity as a whole from pressing the button, as it were.
Cheers 🙂
Posted by: Bob Jenkins | Jan 16 2023 0:38 utc | 118
The UPA regularly demanded that Ukrainians in mixed marriages kill their spouses and children… The idea of annihilating the “non-Ukrainian” partner in a mixed marriage goes back to the racist roots of OUN-B ideology.
Professor Dr. St. Rudnytsky, in his book “On the Basis of Ukrainian Nationalism” writes that “mixed marriages with our neighboring peoples are disadvantageous,” as they lead to the denationalization of many and the degeneration of others…The reflex against mixed marriages is natural, as it rises out of the instinct of self-preservation and growth of the Nation…”
Posted by: Nomad | Jan 16 2023 0:04 utc | 114
——————–
For all of those above who have been prattling on and on about religion and Biblical predictions. The conversation above is exactly what “GOD” is said to have said to his “Chosen people.” Doesn’t that just give you goose pimples all over?
Posted by: Ed | Jan 16 2023 0:42 utc | 119
You made that up. It’s not from the Bible.
Posted by: Vikichka | Jan 15 2023 23:59 utc | 113
The “Book of Daniel” is anti-Seleucid propaganda written around 167 BC to support the Maccabean revolt. Everybody knows that. It gets many, many historical facts wrong, but it knows what it is supposed to achieve, sort of like CNN. That is what the Bible is. Propaganda. Some good, some bad. You have to know what is what, but you need a lot of discrimination to do that. And most people don’t have that.
Posted by: casca | Jan 16 2023 0:46 utc | 120
Ed 118 It is not what the Bible says. Cf book of Ruth.
Posted by: Harold | Jan 16 2023 0:52 utc | 121
Outraged @115–
Thanks for your reply. Early in the SMO there was a vid of very green Ukie soldiers trying to drive BMPs that resulted in the deaths of several infantrymen who were run over by incompetent/untrained drivers as well as running into other BMPs–and the incident was claimed to be widespread with multiple similar reports. From the miniscule info I’ve gathered since, the situation isn’t much better but then there’re many fewer APCs available to drive. As for tank crews, we have a retired tank CO here, Leroy, who contributes occasionally, and b was also a tanker if I recall correctly. Now, I once drove tracked tractors, so I know how to drive a tank. But that’s not so easy if never done before. And delicate maneuvering at speed as opposed to just plodding along with infantry escort is very different. Add in using the targeting gear properly, which isn’t at all like aiming a shooting a rifle…. I just don’t see the point in sending tanks into battle that can’t be used properly–unless lots of Ukies have been trained outside Ukieland in the proper use of the types of tanks being delivered, but there’re no indications of that; thus, my commentary on the issue.
What is NATO?
NATO is the FTX of the Military Industrial Complex.
It is a military Ponzi scheme.
When General Stoltenberg get up on his high horse and utters his sermons of catastrophe, how many soldiers can he count on to back him up?.
I think the answer is zero.
When push comes to shove, will the Pentagon put boots on the ground in Ukraine?
I think not.
Will Germany, will France, will Italy, will Spain?
I would seriously doubt it.
So is NATO a player, or is it just a loudmouthed fraud?
I would suggest the latter.
Posted by: Orchard1 | Jan 16 2023 1:12 utc | 123
Posted by: Outraged | Jan 15 2023 18:16 utc | 40
Thanks for that post. I appreciate the work you do in keeping up with the numbers. Keep it coming.
– RSH
Posted by: CharlesLutherThanos | Jan 16 2023 1:13 utc | 124
The book “Stepan Bandera: The Life and Afterlife of a Ukrainian Nationalist” is available for free here:
https://annas-archive.org/search?q=Stepan+Bandera
– RSH
Posted by: CharlesLutherThanos | Jan 16 2023 1:15 utc | 125
Larry Johnson on the complaints of a US soldier in Ukraine…
US Army Vet From Iowa Rats Out Ukrainian Corruption
https://sonar21.com/us-army-vet-from-iowa-rats-out-ukrainian-corruption/
He reports that his unit is undermanned and lacking in heavy weapons because “they’ve gone missing.” In other words, the weapons are being sold on the black market. O’Leary blames the logistics problems on the corrupt, criminal behavior of his Ukrainian chain of command — from the Major General to his Captain. He specifically calls out a Captain Baroda, noting that Baroda traffics in a host of illegal narcotics. Read the following series of tweets. They are self-explanatory:
Martyanov’s comment:
Safari in Donbass is not exactly described by the US Field Manuals, because the whole idea, as an example, that the HQs of the US armor decision or airfields are easy targets for stand off weapons is not the thing which is taught in US military academies. Let alone to lower ranks whose primary “education” is based on a disaster of Western public schools’ “education” and then some NCO schools, which, if to follow US military mythology, are the best in the world. But then again, nobody seems to be fazed by the fact that “the finest fighting force in history” is absolutely not ready to fight anything like SMO (it is still NOT the war, it is Operation) and manages to lose all of its much less intensity wars.
So, now these guys, who still lost to backward goat herders with AK-47s and RPGs, go to hunt nasty Rooskies and suddenly recognize that they know very little about real war. They get killed in industrial quantities, or begin to appeal to whatever they try to appeal to, because they also knew nothing about “enterprise” they got themselves into. Being on the receiving end sucks. When you are on the receiving end of 152-mm highly mobile artillery, or NURS and ATGMs from Mi-28 or Ka-52, let alone from 3M14 or Iskander, the perspective changes dramatically. For some it changes too late, for others–good luck trying to escape 404 now, Zagrad-Otryad units, SBU and Nazi “supervisors” will make sure nobody escapes. That is why they are mixed with regular units and others stay behind. Plus, constant executions of VSU grunts who begin to suspect something is routine and is well documented, including by Russian drones. So, good luck to this “veteran” in his attempts to return to Iowa. If Russian artillery shell, tank or infantry will not get him, his Ukie “friends” will, in the back, most likely. Democracy, cough-cough, I mean Wall Street, needs sacrifice. For everything else there is a Top Gun: Maverick warfare community.
– RSH
Posted by: CharlesLutherThanos | Jan 16 2023 1:19 utc | 126
Posted by: jared | Jan 16 2023 0:30 utc | 116
“3) US cannot go toe-toe with Russia with conventional weapons. They will be pressed to try small nukes.”
That’s a delusion. There are no small nukes, when the first nuke drops it will be on like (nuclear) donkey kong. Just like the fantasy that Russia can engage the Continental US with conventional weapons. All the long range missiles are nuclear capable, and there’s no way to know what payload they are carrying. Any launch will trigger the mutually assured destruction option.
Posted by: jr | Jan 16 2023 1:20 utc | 127
@7
Yes as I mentioned way back (some) Ukrainian speakers are brought up to hate/dislike Ukrainian Russian speakers. Even if they have never been to Ukraine. Don’t hate Germans who took their parents from Ukraine as slave labour, hate Russian speakers.
Bob Jenkins | Jan 15 2023 23:18 utc | 107
but there is a blackhole of nihilism at the heart of the western ruling class whose depth is impenetrable to light. and guilt. a bibi netanyahoo might nuke iran just to avoid corruption charges. is his foaming and frothing and fascist derangement a mask, a front, a persona? perhaps, but the mask one chooses says something about oneself. and if “assuming a virtue” can “change the stamp of nature,” what about assuming the pose of psychotic, suicidal warmonger? what does it do to a person, an obama, if he wakes up every day for 8 straight years to say, “all options are on the table,” re NK, Iran, etc.? “it is not, nor can it come to good.”
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jan 16 2023 1:26 utc | 129
Posted by: Nomad | Jan 16 2023 0:04 utc | 114
Ethnic Ukrainians are Eastern Slavs formerly known as Rusyns. They decided to reinvent themselves and rename themselves after the land they lived on. A bit unusual for the Old World, it is usually the other way around – the land is named after people: Deutschland = The land of Germans, Magyarország = The land of Hungarians, Russia, Greece, Turkey, France etc. But naming the ethnos after a place is not unique to Ukrainians. South Slavs Macedonians are like that too. And, no surprise, Bulgarians say that they are the same people as them, Greeks do not like the name they took… And there was a Balkan war after that territory, just before WW1, between Bulgaria and Serbia… nothing new.
Blame French for inventing the concept of nation. That French Revolution really stirred up lots of things.
Posted by: hopehely | Jan 16 2023 1:27 utc | 130
Martyanov also points to an article in Russian on the T90 tank which is now in use in Ukraine.
Here is an English translation of the article:
The Russian military used T-90M “Breakthrough” tanks in the Kherson and Zaporozhye directions
https://tass.ru/armiya-i-opk/16801485
According to the tankers, for several months of use, the equipment has proven itself, it is much more powerful and stronger than Western analogues.
HENICHESK, Jan. 14. /TASS/. Russian servicemen used improved T-90M “Proryv” tanks in a special military operation on the territory of Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, taking refuge in a forest belt, they fired at the enemy on the right side of the Dnieper, a TASS correspondent reports.
“The targets were prepared in advance, the coordinates were given. These coordinates were clearly worked out on the orders of the higher command. The targets were hit,” tank commander Alexei said after completing the task.
According to the tankers, for several months of use, the T-90M Proryv tank has proven itself well. “Shocks withstand due to composite armor and due to maneuverability you can get away. The mesh is needed so that when a projectile hits, the charge detonates before touching the main armor. This tank is much more powerful and stronger (of Western analogues – TASS), it is the best at the moment, which I had to face in battle, “said denis, the mechanic-driver of the tank.
The participants of the special operation have already begun to call the T-90M “Breakthrough” a “tank of great victory” by analogy with the legendary T-34. “It has been improved – the crew is reliably protected, the tank commander, that is, I am already sitting inside, I do not have to get out into the street, recharge the [machine gun] Kord and fire – I do all this from the inside. Improved observation devices, I have a panorama, I can look at 360 degrees and do not need to turn my head, I can see everything on the computer. I can also communicate with neighboring tanks without getting in touch, just write them the coordinates, drive up there and we work together. Our T-90 exploded on an anti-tank mine, the track was not damaged, only the roller was torn off and it dropped out of the combat zone on its own, the entire crew is intact, “said Ruslan, commander of another T-90M Proryv tank.
The T-90M Proryv tank is the most advanced vehicle in the T-90 family, as well as the most adapted to actions in modern combat, including due to the presence of all-angle protection, a modern all-day highly automated fire control system and the implementation of measures to increase survivability. On January 12, Uralvagonzavod announced that it had sent the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation a new batch of modernized new T-90M “Breakthrough” tanks
Martyanov further comments:
I highlighted what is crucial. This is netcentricity and this is the thing which in terms of firepower creates a synergy effect because it increases many fold the effect of tactical surprise and flexibility. All this underscores the futility of the West’s attempts to “supply” 404 with whatever obsolete armor it tries to send there.
– RSH
Posted by: CharlesLutherThanos | Jan 16 2023 1:27 utc | 131
Reuters is still making it look like the apartment building bombing in Dnipro was caused by Russia when Ukraine has already admitted it was blowup of a defensive weapon
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jan 16 2023 1:30 utc | 132
Orchard1 | Jan 16 2023 1:12 utc | 122
who was it said something about going to war with the army you have, not the one you want? oh yeah, the guy who brought us Olestra and…leakage.
so, since the US faces war with the army it has, drawn from the populace it has…it wisely goes to find another country to fight for it. money? yes. weapons of variable quality? yes. satellites and sigint? sure. troops? somebody would have to get off the couch and lay off the pork rinds. better get Ukraine to do it.
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jan 16 2023 1:35 utc | 133
Orchard1 | Jan 16 2023 1:12 utc | 122
though youth may be about to be given a choice, a real honest injun choice, esp kids in California:
stay in a FEMA death camp i mean “temporary” shelter, or sign up. it’s been “prison or military” for some Americans since forever. “inside every Russian is a Ukrainian-American, eager to get out… and eat some Dominoe’s Pizza.”
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jan 16 2023 1:44 utc | 134
Memory hole Monday
Zelensky and Putin at Minsk Accords meeting with Merkel and Macron.
The comedian found Putin highly amusing….
https://twitter.com/BrettHar123/status/1614727783644819456
>Comment: “It’s like watching Forrest Gump where they edited Tom Hanks character into footage of real life historic events.”
Aside: Noticed how the Boy Wonder has quickly lost his youthful good looks.
Also. He pretends to need the earpiece for interpreter….Despite being a native Russian speaker, only learning Ukrainian for his role as President.
Here he is in original clown mode, mocking Crimea for having no water..
https://twitter.com/hedgehog_grumpy/status/1614775445245014016
Zelensky and friend… is he speaking Russian or Ukrainian here?
https://www.bitchute.com/video/55tOtyPRDeej/
(And lol. I clicked through to bitchute from twitter….. despite twitter scary pop up warning me the site was unsafe…. )
Posted by: Melaleuca | Jan 16 2023 1:44 utc | 135
@128 rjb1.5
I think that is a little hyperbolic. Israel’s hands are tied for the most part, they are allowed to conduct token attacks in Syria, but nothing more. Their planes could be easily shot down but are not. Everyone thinks Israel rules the world, they don’t. They have influence but they play by the rules, that much is obvious.
How long have they been threatening to attack Iran? If their armed forces are so amazing, why haven’t they done it yet? Because they can’t, that’s why. Iran may well already have nukes, even without nukes, any retaliation to an Israeli strike would likely kill alot of Israeli’s. How would that make Netanyahu look?
I don’t care for the man, but he is not stupid, and he has been playing this game successfully for a long time.
He gets along because he goes along, like everyone else in that business.
Posted by: Bob Jenkins | Jan 16 2023 1:51 utc | 136
karlof1 | Jan 16 2023 1:12 utc | 121
NATO tanks to Ukraine/ lack of trained Ukrainian drivers.
Let’s not fool ourselves…
NATO will be supplying the drivers also.
Posted by: Melaleuca | Jan 16 2023 1:53 utc | 137
Rev. 10:4, 8-10 (AKJV)
4 And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
8 And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. 9 And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. 10 And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
———
these christ potatos and their apocalypse. such sweet bitterness in their all-ignorant curiosity about The End. they need a fasting and a purging.
what does the thunder say? it says, “jug jug to dirty ears.” only 6 more thunders to go. (TS Eliot’s title for the last section of the Wasteland is “What the thunder said.” first section? “Burial of the dead.” why? cuz the dead don’t matter today.)
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jan 16 2023 1:58 utc | 138
@ karlof1 | Jan 16 2023 1:12 utc | 121
What your describing is a visible symptom of the result of cumulative overwhelming ongoing casualties by AFU, rendering their formations/units combat-ineffective ~6 months ago.
These tanks will be operated by poorly trained, zero experienced crewman, formed into ad hoc crews on foreign/alien platforms(French/German/US). Non-functional. The MBT platform equivalent of untrained conscripts. Yet it gets exponentially worse. Not only are tank crews not capable of operating the MBT as a crew, they will have no training nor experience operating as a platoon of tanks, nor as a company/squadron. Nor having mastered those skills, inter-operating with supporting infantry & other arms or supporting either of the former.
The conscript cannon-fodder are not trained infantrymen, so they are incapable of functioning as fire-teams or a squad, nor as a Platoon nor Company. And they most certainly are not trained individual infantryman, nor formations up to Platoon or Company size that have trained with & in support of armor, especially MBTs, nor indirect Fire Support. Nor have the incompetent tank crews trained in interoperability with & supporting infantry/Fire Support.
Therefore the conscripts are an ineffective mass that cannot properly protect the tanks in urban areas, close terrain or in the assault. Conscripts can further easily be stripped away/pinned/suppressed leaving the tanks exposed & vulnerable, to difficult to detect/engage AT capable enemy infantry, weapon systems (ATGMs, etc). The conscripts will not be capable of spotting & communicating with the tank crew, nor competent in suppressing enemy AT systems. None of ’em are likely to be able to co-ordinate with nor effectively direct available indirect Fire Support, ever-diminishing, individually nor in support of a formation/unit.
This is the AFU, incapable of basic maneuver, incapable of inter-operating as mutually supporting formations or as supporting arms beyond individual vehicles or possibly squads. Incapable of combined arms ops even at the single tank/squad level, certainly not at Platoon/Company level, ’cause they never even learned the basics … human sandbags, meat for the grinder that is the RF, IMV. The NCOs/Junior Officers, even worse re critical command & co-ordination of multiple arms/units, even just squad/platoon level.
Where do the Platoon & Company/Squadron tank commanders come from with years of experience with these foreign tanks & their particular characteristics, strengths & vulnerabilities.
One of the reasons why the Ukies suffer such massive casualties in advance to contact, in assault, even entrenched. MBTs/Arty or not.
@ CharlesLutherThanos | Jan 16 2023 1:13 utc | 123
You’re welcome. Have been poorly last few days.
@65 The point is to give Olaf time to delay a decision about sending tanks. Any excuse will do. I’m surprised Sunak hasn’t come up with something similar for the Challengers.
Posted by: dh | Jan 15 2023 20:47 utc | 71
Agreed. I was trying to suggest that in a humorous way (with evidently less than complete success).
Posted by: David Levin | Jan 16 2023 2:00 utc | 140
Thim @ 42
According to your assessment Minsk 2 would be NAZI collaboration as would:
“Peace for our time” was a declaration made by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in his 30 September 1938 remarks in London concerning the Munich Agreement and the subsequent Anglo-German Declaration. The phrase echoed Benjamin Disraeli, who, upon returning from the Congress of Berlin in 1878, had stated, “I have returned from Germany with peace for our time”. The phrase is primarily remembered for its ironic value since less than a year after the agreement, Hitler’s invasion of Poland” (Copied from wiki)
@ brother Ma 104
While we’re on the topic of physiognomy and ethnicity the ultimate degenerate is a Khazar looking for a Promised Land thatvwas Never promised to him or her, but finding themselves in high office in the White House , reckon they can settle two scores simultaneously 1/ a Khazarian revenge on the Russian Slavs using the Ukranians as cannon fodder and 2/ a cuckooing of the Jewish Greater Israel to kick Palestinians out of Palestine , Syrians out of Syria, Jordanians out of Jordan etc.
Culminating in kicking the actual Jews out of Israel. ( In the same way that they previously started exterminating the real Jews in WW2 ).
For the Khazars to be Jewish is a land deal, nothing less, nothing more.
If as I suspect the Khazar cuckoos have brainwashed the Ukranians with WW2 Nazi psychomorohic drugs as they did Muslims in the War on Islam, the Ukranians are victims of Khazarian renegawadia, not themselves renegades.
Posted by: Giyane | Jan 16 2023 2:13 utc | 142
It should be remembered that Ukraine voted in a pro Russian government before the US neo Nazi coup. It should also be remembered that the then president aquiesed to EU pressure and signed an EU association treaty. Three days later the US planned coup began. The US has planned the Ukrainian war from before Putin proposal to join NATO in 2001. Putin underestimated the dishonesty and criminality of the west. Especially the US and UK.
Posted by: Jj | Jan 16 2023 2:16 utc | 143
@ Melaleuca | Jan 16 2023 1:53 utc | 135
Have already seen footage of baby-faced Ukies receiving abbreviated training as crewman for Bradley IFVs. Won’t be nearly enough. They’ll do the same with crews for the salvaged MBTs.
Driver, Gunner, Loader, Commander. UK, German, US, (French ?) MBTs. If US/NATO regulars man ’em, it would be the same as piloting US/NATO jets/helos in Ukraine on behalf AFU, directly attacking RF. No longer an SMO. WWIII. RF takes the gloves off & releases the Dogs of War.
H. L. Mencken – Treatise on the Gods:
Treatise on the Gods
Only $10.69, paperback.
“I am quite convinced that all religions, at bottom, are pretty much alike. On the surface they may seem to differ greatly, but what appears on the surface is not always religion. Go beneath it, and one finds invariably the same sense of helplessness before the cosmic mysteries, and the same pathetic attempt to resolve it by appealing to higher powers.”–from Treatise on the Gods H. L. Mencken is perhaps best known for his scathing political satire…
I am generally not opposed most religions (well the Aztecs for instance I can’t quite get behind) but I think what matters is to acknowledge our ignorance and not get in fights about it. All human religions are human products, and they are best when they serve human needs, serve the societies they belong to, and not otherwise. If it is not doing that, it is not religion, it’s politics, or greed.
Posted by: Bemildred | Jan 16 2023 2:21 utc | 145
People put some excellent history into this thread. Well fucking done.
My addition would be that the propaganda about being Ukrainian and how great that makes people living in Ukraine was a crutch. The Ukrainians have lived in a failed state for 30 years. That nationalism has been the opium of the masses. Things may suck so bad you want to leave the country, but those subhuman Russians don’t even have indoor plumbing.
The LARPers actually get it all wrong. It won’t be Mad Max but modern Ukraine or 90’s Russia. And the sort of nationalism and extremism seen in modern Ukraine will happen in the US, EU and/or anywhere else that experienced failed state status. There were plenty of neo-Nazis in 90’s Russia. Weirdest damned thing you can imagine. They mostly mostly moved to Ukraine when Russia started dragging itself out of failed state.
Posted by: Lex | Jan 16 2023 2:25 utc | 146
Posted by: Giyane | Jan 16 2023 2:13 utc | 140
Yes, indeed and that is a battle for another day, (in the acute phase). There is already skirmishing that has been done with Gentiles, since at least the 1970 s ; personified by Kissinger, manrapist and warcriminal Vampire.
The only true Hebrew descendants are the Samaritans (almost extinct) and after them , the Sephardis and Falashas( Black Jews of Ethiopia). The least “Jewish” of the Jews are -unfortunately for the world -the powerful Askenazis. Not me saying it although I am a scholar and can read and reach conclusions of my own from research materials. It was Jewish scholars (of all disciplines) themselves that say all the above as well.
Putin ,the loyal Russian (even if of part- Jewish extraction, will put paid to the Israel Firsters) . All this SMO has already torn into Israeli power and influence in the Western and ROW world. God Bless him.
Posted by: Brother Ma | Jan 16 2023 2:27 utc | 147
Outraged @137–
Thanks for your reply. I understand all that, which is why I question the efficacy of donating the tanks in the first place. If we see and understand the reality of the Ukie theatre, why can’t NATO’s command staff or their political counterparts? Are they really that stupid or so far under the Outlaw US Empire’s boot that they are blind?!? Or are they as utterly indifferent like Europe’s elite at the beginnings of WW1 when millions were sacrificed a la Ukraine as I’ve written before? In other words, there’s an illogic, a major disconnect that’s being portrayed amounting to one of the major moral catastrophes since 1900.
vickichka@112
You ask about the difference between religion and spirituality. Religion is imposed on a culture. My ancestral land of Norway was “Christianized” by a man which some call Helig Olaf (St. Olaf). As a king with a kingdom gradually expanding by force of arms, whenever he took down another Norse kingdom, he forced his prisoners to adopt his religion at the point of a sword. In some historical incidents, when he managed to capture the opposing king or chieftain, he had his stooges strip off his clothing and then spread-eagle and stake him to the ground. Then he took a pan of hot coals and had it placed on his victim’s belly. The point was made, those not wanting the same evil fate quickly kissed Olaf’s sword and the Constantinian Bible.
For his feats in Christianizing much of Norway, Olaf was made a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. A similar fate awaited the Old Saxons, the last holdouts against Charlegmane’s “Holy” Roman Empire. Here, after a great battle ilk which the natives were defeated, the Emperor gave his captives a choice of kissing his sword and the book or being slain by the sword. Thousands of those brave men and sometimes women, chose death instead of submission.
Do you see why I detest the imposition of a false, desert, deracinating religion upon a people who only wished to maintain their own way of life?
Rather than religion which is generally impositional when it comes to the three Abrahamic traditions; spirituality is innate. People who live close to nature and are aware of Cosmic reality simply realize that Creator is, and that they are part of Creation. Priestcraft does not exist amongst tribal peoples all across the world. Nor is force and violence ever used to impose an alien path over those who wish to follow the spirit path.
Some religions are less impositional than others. This would be true generally among Buddhists, Taoists, Hindus of many persuasions, and to some degree amongst Orthodox Christians, who do include some elements of spirituality within their faith. Catholicism, Protestantism (particularly Calvinism) and Islam have sinned against humanity and Creator by using force to “encourage” others to convert to their beliefs.
Hopefully, I have clarified this a bit for you.
Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 16 2023 2:30 utc | 149
Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 15 2023 22:44 utc | 103
Agreed, the growth of multinational corporations, globalisation and neoliberal market philosophy has been the driver of increased poverty in the Western world since about 1970. On average real incomes of average workers has stagnated since about then , as has the quality of life ie education, medical help ,job dignity and security etc. The share of all productivity gains to owners (corporations) has skyrocketed compared to the share going to the workers .
In addition, such multinationals have shut – down industrial capitalism of Mum and Dad stores and businesses With no real succour to them. Those Mums and Dad business owners have not in general found dignified remunerative work to make up for it.
Black Rock being a financial capitalist rather than a physical industrial capitalist adds insult to injury. Once upon a time usurers (usually Jews) could finance and control a king or two; now the same usurers’ descendants finance and control alliances (NATO).
They have brought us almost to nuclear war and still may. At the very least we need some good old US Teddie Roosevelt Trustbusting (a Republican no less! ) but I’d prefer some Phillip IV massacre of the Knights Templar – type proscriptions to rein back multinational power.
Posted by: Brother Ma | Jan 16 2023 2:42 utc | 150
Jared @ 116
Perceptive observations. You distilled and put into words a good overview of where I happen to think we may be heading.
I do think that if things escalate to the nuclear threshold, it may be that, if Russia perceives the US about to try that–as always, far, far from US shores–Russia may launch a warning strike (conventional) *on* US–for example a Zircon strike, with public, global-media notice that it’s coming–on, say, Langley.
To have reached that point, Russia may already have done something similar with, say, MI6 HQ on the Thames & NATO HQ in Brussels. Say after closing time. These elites may need to be woken to the possibility that they themselves really are about to die.
Posted by: Paul Damascene | Jan 16 2023 2:42 utc | 151
Ed 118 It is not what the Bible says. Cf book of Ruth.
Posted by: Harold | Jan 16 2023 0:52 utc | 120
———-
Ezra 2 thru 19: The New International Version (NIV)
2 And Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, of the sons of Elam, addressed Ezra: “We have broken faith with our God and have married foreign women from the peoples of the land, but even now there is hope for Israel in spite of this.
3 Therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all these wives and their children, according to the counsel of my lord and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God, and let it be done according to the Law.
4 Arise, for it is your task, and we are with you; be strong and do it.”
10 Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful; you have married foreign women, adding to Israel’s guilt.
11 Now honor the Lord, the God of your ancestors, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from your foreign wives.”
18 Now there were found some of the sons of the priests who had married foreign women: Maaseiah, Eliezer, Jarib, and Gedaliah, some of the sons of Jeshua the son of Jozadak and his brothers.
19 They pledged themselves to put away their wives, and their guilt offering was a ram of the flock for their guilt.4
Posted by: Ed | Jan 16 2023 2:44 utc | 152
Posted by: klklklklklklk | Jan 15 2023 15:37 utc | 7
Posted by: shadowbanned | Jan 15 2023 17:29 utc | 30
I think the history was well presented by shadowbanned. There are not that many recourses in Russia on this hatred during the soviet time though. It’s rather some experiences of Russians and Eastern Ukrainians that can be found here and there. The words like katsap and moskal were quite in use at that time as well as khokhol and banderovets on the other side. I don’t know any of these specific names for Belarusians for example. I think there was always this kind of rivalry between Russians and Ukrainians. Most say that Ukraine had a lot of privileges like any other socialistic republic. It was Russia which was milked. It’s a part of Russian mentality to give everything to the others and the present time shows it was taken for weakness. And so what was in the shop in Kirovograd (ua) was never to be found in Kurgan (ru). All the border areas in Soviet time had a special treatment. Once I was in Pamiri village just across Pyanzh river from Afghanistan and they complained how bad it was in comparison with how amazing life was during the USSR. They had everything my family from the Urals could only dream of. My mother from her business trip to Kustanai (kz) would bring me amazing toys that were not to be found in my region. I think every Russian had these stories. That’s about any ex-republic except Russia. This made many people in these republics think that they are better than the Russians. They thought they feed them because situation in Russia was worse except probably St Pete and Moscow. This impression was totally wrong and many learnt about it after the USSR collapse. So Ukrainians felt superior to Russians not only because of that. Ukraine indeed got more things than others because of Khrushchev and Brezhnev who were originally from Ukraine. Crimea is a good example. Same goes for Georgia which got extra things from Stalin. In some articles I read about people complaining to be called katsaps and that was in 70s and that was in central Ukraine experienced by Lugansk people. But even Lugansk people are divided and quite many of them in the north of the region speak Ukrainian as their mother tongue. It’s quite complex. Even in Rostov region (ru) in the village I heard a native man speaking surzhik – the eastern ukrainian dialect. It’s quite common. Most of my friends and relatives from Rostov region are of Ukrainian descent but I see them as southern Russians. They see themselves as Cossacks and not Ukrainians. I should remind that Rostov with Donetsk and Lugansk once were same region called oblast vojska Donskogo. Recently I’ve read about the sausage trains from Rostov to Donetsk back in 70s or 80s. People from Rostov had to go to Donetsk to get all kinds of fancy sausages they never had available in Rostov. That made Ukrainians feel superior towards Russians. They looked down at Russians. They were richer and that’s why they thought they fed Russia instead. They also think Russians are mixed with the Mongols and Tatars and aren’t pure Slavs but they, Ukrainians are the ones who come from Scandinavia and therefore are Europeans. You can still see how some Ukrainians call Russia kebabia or just orcs. In Russia, I don’t think there is any hatred for Ukrainians because these people aren’t different from Russians and live not only in Ukraine but from the Baltic to the Pacific. But I think there is this attitude that you cannot trust Ukrainians because in Russia we say they are ready to sell their own mother. They are too cheap. Despite this Ukrainians were always seen as brothers. No one was closer to Russians than Ukrainians. A typical Ukrainian for Russians would be the one who comes from khutor – a village and that’s why they are not really educated and too simple. People from big cities in Ukraine seemed to be more soviet, mixed with Russians and less nationalistic. And it’s mostly about Ukrainians from eastern and central parts of Ukraine that I’m talking about. Russians and Galicians didn’t have that much time together and were not familiar to each other much. In Russia we would call those people banderites or westerners (banderovets and zapadenets) which pretty much means Nazis. I personally went to Ukraine in 2006 and I should say it was one of the worst trips I ever had in ex-republics. I never had problems in Lvov, Uzhgorod, Chernovtsy, Odessa or Crimea but I absolutely couldn’t stand people of Kiev despite me being quite antirussian at that time. Kiev was always too nationalist and especially since 90s. It attracted all kinds of khutor and banderovets people. Also, what is important to know is that many of the current nationalists come from eastern and central parts of Ukraine. They are the product of the 90s. It’s the people in their 30-40s who bow down to the West including Galicia. They see Galician architecture and then look at plants of Krivoy Rog and Zaporozh’ye and start hating their past. The money was always in the East but people there wanted to simulate the westerners because everything soviet is too low for them, it’s about working class and everything western is civilised and refined. Zelensky is a good example. Greed made Ukrainians forget their own roots. This hatred towards everything Russian peaked in 90s despite Russia investing millions of dollars into Ukraine and despite that millions of Ukrainians had to go to work to Russia especially before 2014.
I know one person in his late 40s from dnepr region. He’s mother tongue is Russian and he spent his adult life in Moscow. His little son lives in Moscow and despite it all he hates Russia and hopes Ukraine wins. Go figure.
I have to add that I don’t have any relatives or friends in Ukraine and therefore my view is very biased.
Posted by: Yuri | Jan 16 2023 2:49 utc | 153
Russia is not a victim, they decided to fight the west in Africa and the middle east. The EU wants all of it’s pre WW2 empire back and the Russians have thier own greedy dreams.
Ukraine is getting screwed, a crooked leader puts up some Nazi bullshit statue so the horror of what is happening is ignored. “It’s just Nazis” Russia uses the same propaganda “it’s just prisoners” Both sides are forcing the locals to shoot each other. FREEDOM!
The debate should be why we leave these people in charge, but speach is now illegal.
Posted by: OohCanada | Jan 16 2023 2:51 utc | 154
For a few seconds I got connection to these websites until the server connection was disabled – eng.mil.ru
Posted by: Oui | Jan 15 2023 22:37 utc | 99
You can read RuMoD news on the telegram though.
Example: https://t.me/mod_russia_en/5804
Stream preview: https://t.me/s/mod_russia_en
Posted by: Arioch | Jan 16 2023 2:51 utc | 155
Outraged @ 137
You’ve done a very credible job of laying out the severe limits to using conscripts to operate MBTs. And this is a likely scenario that RF will not be worried much about.
I think there’s a more challenging (still insufficient, but better) scenario. Or two variations of this scenario.
1. Coalition of the Willing. The main forces taken from Poland, Baltics, UK (and NATO volunteers from elsewhere) will be not infantry or spec ops, etc. But experienced crews of MBT, IFV operators and repair, plus AD & aircraft crews. UKR grunts will have to man the trenches, etc.
2. SuperWagner. Very surprised that NATO has not hit on the expedient of doing a massive call up / sheep-dipping operation of, say, 50,000 mercenaries put together as entire units–batallions, brigades, etc.– from *all across* NATO, but with deniability to play the non-combatant game and to mitigate reputational damage as the latest NATO gear & personnel get torn up.
Posted by: Paul Damascene | Jan 16 2023 2:53 utc | 156
@ karlof1 | Jan 16 2023 2:27 utc | 146
Sorry, under the weather, not well focused.
The key point is, US/NATO is still only going to provide, to be scrapped, armor, MBTs/IFVs.
The Germans are explicitly not supplying any of their regular MBTs, they’re coming from, to be rebuilt/refurbished, workshop salvage. Same with UK, from the ~79 MBTs they did NOT refurbish/upgrade. The 50 Bradleys, guarantee they’re listed ‘to be scrapped’/de-commissioned. They won’t be using any of the operable, maintained, pre-deployed NATO stocks already sitting in Poland. Same if Abrams show up, they’ll be the worst of the dregs, not the already pre-positioned.
How is any commander going to actually manage to shoe-horn, force, competent US/NATO formed crews(complete), regulars, into visibly salvaged scrap & send ’em willingly sheep-dipped into high-intensity combat with no AD, no Air support & no trained Mech Inf in support ? Undeclared. Can’t see it.
Once the last of the scrap materiel runs out, US/NATO will be at the crucial decision point, pony up, belligerency or bail.
Yuri @151
Thank you for your contribution. I learned much in those words about real lives of people in Russia and Ukraine, helping me to better understand this enmity amongst brothers.
If you post here in the future with more interesting information, I hope that you will begin to use paragraphs. What you have to say is most informative, but use of paragraphs lighten up the thoughts and make them easier to read and comprehend.
Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 16 2023 3:08 utc | 158
@138 Sorry if I missed the humour in your post. It just seems so obvious to me that Olaf is looking for a way out and Rheinmetall provided an excuse. I wonder if Sunak will be keeping his promise to send tanks. It kind of depended on Germany.
Posted by: dh | Jan 16 2023 3:10 utc | 159
Posted by: Outraged | Jan 16 2023 0:22 utc | 115
Supply of Nato tanks to Ukraine?
Guess what, Iran now says it has “Bava “ Anti- air that can track F35s and will supply to Syria. Well if it supplies to Syria , it may supply to Russia for the Ukraine too. My take? Russia gave much of the design of the S400 to Iran in secret so as not to upset IsraeloUSA. Now that the gloves are off it no longer cares; so Iran now says “I’m taking on all comers”.
Could Israel and the US be losing influence in the Mid East , and thus in the Ukraine so easily? Wow.
Posted by: Brother Ma | Jan 16 2023 3:11 utc | 160
Posted by: Lex | Jan 16 2023 2:25 utc | 144
Well said! I remember how African students ran from Voronezh and St Pete back in early 2000s. Putin cleaned the country from all kinds of nationalists. Unlike Russia, Ukraine never attempted to clean its country from the nationalists. It became a fashion instead. A sign of a failed state. Anarchy. That’s why there are so many Nazi tattoos in Ukraine. I think most of the people did it because they were parts of the gangs. They were not really ideological Nazis like Bandera and so on. Vice video footage about Azov showed it quite well. This whole movement is rather about anarchy. Those hooligans from 90s and 2000s became a force to raid businesses and so on. Now we have what we have.
Posted by: Yuri | Jan 16 2023 3:11 utc | 161
In other news.
Who knew that DJT has a demonic self-incriminating potty mouth? Lost it’s cool and one can catch a glance of his true character behind his mask of “Janus”.
The Federal Court Judge Lewis Kaplan. He literally and figuratively demolished all vanity attempts by DJT and his lawyers. To dismiss the slander case with Jean Carroll in New York with prejudice. The judge then authorized an extract for general media release. This case is delivering so many A-bomb-size killer surprises.
Potty mouth DJT is a man who is too old to run in 2024. A gift that keeps on giving.
Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jan 16 2023 3:16 utc | 162
Paul D. @154
The scenarios you propose would be seen by the Russians as provocations and escalation. Though the enemies of humanity have been poking Mama Bear time and again; even a generally gentle beast can take only so much of that. With hypersonic missilry of the kinetic (non-nuclear) variety, they are quite capable of taking out major command and control centers of the entire Western central operators. In a flash, the core of City of London could be pulverized by those game-changers.
So if I happened to be in a leadership position here in America or in any of the Five Eyes; I’d be very concerned about turning up the heat. Russia is not a cold-blooded frog. An enraged Mama Bear can only be teased so much.
Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 16 2023 3:17 utc | 163
Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 16 2023 3:08 utc | 156
I’m glad someone can appreciate it. Thank you.
When there’s a war, the paragraphs is the last thing I think of but I’ll do my best if I ever post here again.
Posted by: Yuri | Jan 16 2023 3:18 utc | 164
‘The Ukrainian President Zelensky claimed that Ukraine could function as the BRI’s gateway to Europe. Therefore, we cannot ignore China’s huge stake in the recent tensions over Ukraine, nor can we ignore NATO’s underlying ambition to check China’s rise in the region by limiting the sale of Ukrainian assets to China and doing everything in its capacity to thwart The Modern Silk Road.’ zero hedge
I can’t find Z’s quite, however explains a bit.
If there ever is an actual nuclear war, any of these jackass LARPers that are lucky enough to survive will be wishing they were back on the couch, buzzed on cheap wine, covered in Fritos, watching the best episodes of The Walking Dead.
The picnic they imagine will be about the furthest thing form the truth. Even movies like ‘The Road’ are understating it.
Posted by: Bob Jenkins | Jan 15 2023 22:09 utc | 90
——————–
1. Threads (1984 TV Movie)
TV-MA | 112 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
The effects of a nuclear holocaust on the working-class city of Sheffield, England, and the eventual long-term effects of nuclear war on civilization.
Director: Mick Jackson | Stars: Karen Meagher, Reece Dinsdale, David Brierly, Rita May
This may be the “best” post nuclear apocalyptic film ever made, if “best” is a proper term for such a subject. Surly, The Road is a close second.
Posted by: Ed | Jan 16 2023 3:25 utc | 166
Brother Ma @158
Iranians/Persians are a very ancient culture. They kinda lost their mojo after being conquered and Islamized by the Arabs some 14 centuries ago. However, outside pressures have driven even the controlling Mullahs amongst them into transforming from a semi-medieval culture into a modern state. They are no longer politically, culturally or economically somnolent…asleep at the wheel. They have created, essentially on their own, a growingly powerful military, focusing on equipment which has been locally developed.
After the murder of General Soleiman by the U$$A, they have learned to keep their cool, yet to strike back when their move is least expected. They are a force to be recognized and now that they have become semi-allied with the Russians, the Iranians have gained a level of both hardness and self-confidence. The Zionist entity would be wise to avoid serious confrontations with the most powerful entity in Southwestern Asia.
Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 16 2023 3:30 utc | 167
Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 16 2023 3:30 utc | 165
Yes, you are right. I have always thought it a pleasant surprise that a Moslem theocratic state could turn out to be so modern and technologically advanced. Never been, but have met Iranians, both Pahlavian Shah lovers and ones from post- shahIran. I guess it is the Shia Islam , and realpolitik that gets them through. Funny how all the US-planned Sunni “theocratic “ Muslim movements take things back to the Dark Ages. Maybe Saudis,Qatar ,Turkey will all become mild now that they are joining Russia ?
Mind you some eschatological Islamic thought says that the Muslims and a large Christian power will defeat the AntiChrist or Devil to make a better world for us all. IWho knows?
Posted by: Brother Ma | Jan 16 2023 3:41 utc | 168
Giyane @ 140
Agree with you 100%! Co-incidence that their said homeland happens to be on the biblical land of Magog?
Posted by: MG | Jan 16 2023 3:52 utc | 169
Ok, I like to vent once an while. I post these things on my facebook page– I have about 350 “friends”‘– but I rarely get a response. I’m not really expecting one but at least someone breaks up their “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” sort of life (here in ‘Merica). Anyway, makes me feel a little bit better or perhaps challenges a few, probably very few. My vents are fairly “sanitized” but for most of my typical country people maybe still too much. If they actually read my rant…
“The math simply doesn’t work. The USA supposedly produces 80,000 155mm artillery shells a month– I don’t know what the country does with a million shells a year when there isn’t a war going on but maybe the illustrious crew on the Hill in DC can tell us, but I won’t hold my breath. The Ukrainians, however, are shooting 6,000 artillery shells (on average) a day. Not all of these are 155mm but most of the post-Soviet artillery weapon systems they have been given, until we started giving them old 105s, are 155s. The AFU is probably not shooting that much anymore because they are losing artillery pieces on a regular basis so maybe the 155 ammo lasts a bit longer now but still the Ukies are shooting more shells than the USA can make a month so we have scrounged the world for 155 ammo, we even supposedly entered into a contract with the South Africans to make cannon shells for us to give to the AFU. The Russians continuously out shoot the Ukrainians on at least a 3:1 ratio. The Russians haven’t given up on their industrial base and have ratcheted up their factories in turning out arms. I would be surprised if the U.S. government has gotten the couple of factories that make the 155 ammo to put on additional shifts. I don’t know for sure but looking at the recent new list of war supplies going to Ukraine, it doesn’t appear to be so, unless the administration isn’t reporting that to Congress. Given the use and current losses (probably actually past rate because the loss rate is accelerating), everything on this list will be gone in 30-45 days once it gets to the front, except the Bradleys. That’s because NATO people actually have to train the AFU how to operate them, its very different from the other systems the Ukies have now. A side tale about the Bradleys, supposedly there are wealthy Russians who will pay in gold to the Rus soldiers who are the first to flame out a Bradley. I suspect if that’s true, the gold pot will get larger for the first Abrams M-1 tank that is destroyed by the Russians, if and when M-1s show up in Ukraine. The bloodshed or at least a cease fire could have probably been achieved in April, but that got “vetoed”, Russia hadn’t been bled enough. A very bad read of the situation, both then and now…”
Posted by: DakotaRog | Jan 16 2023 3:54 utc | 170
Posted by: A. Pols | Jan 15 2023 16:22 utc | 17
Hey man, “go peddle crazy somewhere else; we’re all stocked up here”
Are you so scared of The Bible, you can’t jump past it? Ever considered why that is?
Posted by: Anne B | Jan 15 2023 21:36 utc | 84
Nothing wrong with people choosing to believe a religion, however quoting various lines from the bible (many of which are allegory) to suit a meme often isn’t of great interest to others. Quote Jesus himself and you may get some traction, but all that followed his death has been edited and created for the purpose of supporting organized religion, something he himself never stated intention or asked for. He in fact even stated he wasn’t here for the gentiles…
Posted by: Organic | Jan 16 2023 3:54 utc | 171
Posted by: Yuri | Jan 16 2023 2:49 utc | 151
I loved your description of life in Soviet Russia as you and many others saw it.
I for one worked out , years ago, that “Ukrainians “were for the most part ingrates, ignorant and vicious . That is why i am so angry that western propaganda now tries to make out they are saints, even when the same western media all called them out as what they were before the SMO. These Nazis will now learn what it is to live under the Morgenthau Plan or even Hitler’s Plan . Both aimed for the Ukraine to be a simple farming region , and the dumb Ukros allowed their allies ( the US) to do it to them since the early 1990s and if they don’t learn manners soon ,Russia will give them a Russian Version of the Morgenthau Plan.
Posted by: Brother Ma | Jan 16 2023 4:05 utc | 172
DakotaRog | Jan 16 2023 3:54 utc | 168
Thanks. Have been crafting a “word-pearl” post most of the morning, but have been resoundingly defeated by interruptions.
My words much different in style to yours, but the thinking, very much aligned
Posted by: Melaleuca | Jan 16 2023 4:06 utc | 173
⚡️🇷🇺🇺🇦⚔️ War Map and the Situation on the Fronts in the Evening of 15 Jan 2023; pub. 00:05⚡️
🏴☠️ The Kiev regime has another argument for begging for new air defence systems from Western countries – the “brilliant work” of the Ukrainian air defence system in #Dnepropetrovsk. Everyone is used to the fact that 404 always uses tragedies as an excuse to supply arms. Apparently, one Patriot system, which is still waiting, does not suit Zelensky, so beautiful footage is needed. It does not matter what these pictures are about – in the West they will definitely not understand.
⚔️ The Situation on the Fronts for the past Day
♦️#Svatovo – #Kremennaya Direction:
Artillery and army aviation of the ZVO group conducted strikes on AFU units in the areas of #Dvurechnoye, #Sinkovka in #Kharkov region and #Novoselovskoye in the LPR. Also, aviation and artillery of the Central Military District conducted strikes on militants in the districts of #Makeyevka, #Stelmakhovka and #Kuzmino of the LPR. In addition, attempts by AFU assault groups to attack in the vicinity of Chervonaya Dibrova LPR were also reflected.
♦️#Artyomovsk (#Bakhmut) Direction:
The “Orcestrans” continue to storm the remnants of the settlement of #Sol. In addition, in #Artyomovsk, Wagner PMC units are engaged in heavy fighting in the areas of Trudovy Reserves Street in the northwest of the city, Patrice Lumumba Street in the east, Fedor Maksimenko Street in the southeast and in the Maliy Troitskiy Lane area in the south.
♦️#Ugledar Direction:
The Pacific Fleet Marines, supported by artillery and motorised rifle units, hit the militants near #Vladimirovka and #Ugledar (DPR), also an Ukrainian SRG was liquidated near #Sladkoye.
💥The Russian Army destroyed 1 M777 artillery system, 1 D-20 howitzer, 1 2C3 Akatsiya SAU, 2 Msta-B howitzers, 2 Gvozdika SAU, 1 D-30 howitzer, as well as a US-made AN/TPQ-36 counter-battery radar.
💡The Ukrainian energy sector met the New Year in a critical state. More than 40% of facilities were damaged or destroyed, mostly routing rather than generation. The latest strikes, despite the importance of the targets, did not cause serious damage.
Posted by: Down South | Jan 16 2023 4:14 utc | 174
“Stuck?” — why retaliation strikes no longer have the same effect as before. Energy look: part 1
The energy sector of Ukraine met the beginning of the year in critical condition. About 40% of all objects are damaged or destroyed. Routing, not generation, mostly suffered, but this does not make it any easier. Off-schedule emergency shutdowns and 3-4 hour power outages per day in some regions have become commonplace. However, the system “breathes”, and the railways are still working.
If the previous attacks gave a clear result, then the last 2 attacks, despite the confirmed destruction of such important targets as the Burshtyn TPP, from the point of view of the layman, do not cause serious damage to Ukraine.
Although there is an emergency off-schedule regime in Kyiv, Odessa and Dnepropetrovsk today, photos and videos tell us that there is light in part of the city.
Highly publicized blackouts after punches are actually controlled and preemptive. Ukrainian power engineers turn off the equipment as soon as our attack begins to avoid secondary damage after the next transformer is destroyed.
Subsequently, Ukrainians increase generation and restore most of the energy supply. This creates the illusion of the inefficiency of strikes by the RF Armed Forces. “From the couch” it seems that the strikes only briefly leave Ukraine without electricity, and after a couple of days the situation returns to normal and everything goes on as before until the next attack.
This is not to say that the last blows are useless. Firstly, the cumulative effect really takes place, and each blow can turn out to be a straw that broke the back of the Ukrainian elephant. Ukraine has nothing to replace the Soviet transformers, which are not produced in the West and in themselves are huge and expensive devices weighing 100-200 tons. Opportunities for further juggling load with each stroke are less and less.
But excess capacity, as well as the supply of generators, allow Ukraine to offset the damage from our attacks. What needs to be done to finish off the Ukrainian energy system, we will tell in the next part.
How to finish off the energy system of Ukraine. Energy look: part 2
In the previous text, we discussed why the latest massive retaliation strikes do not have a qualitatively new impact on the Kyiv regime. Now we will try to formulate a strategy that could be more efficient in terms of energy.
Before giving advice to the RF Armed Forces, an important clarification needs to be made: Ukraine has a reserve of generating capacities. At the beginning of the SVO, she was twice able to satisfy her needs. The routing system was also designed for a much larger load.
Therefore, attacks on individual power plants are not very effective on their own. The same Burshtynskaya TPP, destroyed yesterday, provided only 4% of generation in 2021. Damage to the engine room of a power plant is a difficult task, and so far only two such successful attacks are known.
But how to “defeat” the excess generation of Ukraine? The answer is simple, and the RF Armed Forces know it. Now more than 50% of all electricity in the square is provided by nuclear power plants. Their shutdown will immediately collapse the generating capacities of Ukraine and force it to use thermal power plants that are expensive to maintain.
During the strikes on November 23, the supply substations of all three stations controlled by Kyiv were disabled. As a result, Ukrainian nuclear scientists had to reduce energy production to a minimum and transfer nuclear power plants to self-sufficiency.
If such strikes become consistent and regular, then nuclear power plants will have to be shut down, and the energy system of Ukraine will take on a patchy character, when the supply of a particular region depends on local thermal power plants, and not on the general network. That’s when it will be possible to move on to finishing off the energy structure and attack specific stations in order to “turn off” the region and deprive it of the possibility of being powered from other sources.
This is the perspective of a technician tasked with causing maximum damage to the power grid. The Ministry of Defense and the country’s leadership can operate with completely different inputs. For example, to fear that strikes near nuclear power plants may lead to the fact that the plants will be under threat due to the actions of Ukrainian air defense.
Posted by: Down South | Jan 16 2023 4:15 utc | 175
@ psychohistorian | Jan 16 2023 1:30 utc | 131
get the lies out, right quick… cbc radio did the same this morning 10 am news…. when the reality is discovered, make it a small footnote hidden way in the back of the news.. that is how the news works.. it is all propaganda now with regard to the war here…
Posted by: james | Jan 16 2023 4:28 utc | 177
⚡️🇷🇺🇺🇦⚔️ #Chronicle of the #SMO for 14-15 Jan 2023⚡️
💥 On Saturday afternoon, Russian troops again launched 👉 massive strikes against Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities. Among the targets hit were an industrial plant in #Zaporozhye, the #Burshtyn TPP in Ivano-Frankovsk region, an energy facility in #Lvov, and other targets in the #Kiev, #Vinnitsa, #Kharkov and #Dnepropetrovsk regions.
♦️#Russia’s Border Areas:
▪️ In the #Bryansk region, the AFU tryed a missile strike against nearby towns. Russian air defences intercepted the missile in Klintsovsky district, no victims.
➖ The enemy unsuccessfully attacked one of the #Bryansk PSs with a drone. One of the shells didn’t work, the other one was covered by a guard’s body, he is now in intensive care.
▪️ The enemy shelled shopping malls in #Shebekino, #Belgorod region, no victims.
➖ An enemy SRG operates near #Dronovka in #Belgorod region tosearch for Russian fire positions.
♦️#Northukraine (MAP):
▪️ In #Kharkov region, Ukrainian troops are setting up defensive positions in case of a possible new offensive by the RF Armed Forces. Javelins have been delivered to the positions along the border with #Russia.
▪️ The AFU command has mobilised up to 5,000 troops in #Sumy Region to replace the units that left for #Soledar.
▪️ In northern #Chernigov region, AFU engineer units have mined the approaches to border settlements. They set up fortifications near #Avtunichi and #Repka.
♦️#Starobelsk Direction (MAP):
▪️ In #Kupyansk – #Svatovo section are no changes on the frontline. The enemy command rotates and conducts reconnaissance of Russian positions.
▪️ In #Svatovo – #Liman sector, Russian servicemen from the 3rd Motorized Infantry Division of the 20th Army, supported by armoured vehicles, are advancing on the #Ploshchanka – #Makeyevka line near the #Zhuravka gully, retaking in fall lost positions.
➖ At the same time, the Russians successfully stormed several bases of the Ukrainian army in #Zarechnoye – #Torskoye direction. The AFU command plans to counterattack with reinforcements deployed near #Dibrova and #Chervonopopovka.
▪️ AFU terrorists shelled #Kremennaya, #Tarasovka, #Rubezhnoye, #Novopskov and #Svatovo with MLRS. At least four civilians were killed and civilian infrastructure was damaged.
♦️#Soldar Direction (MAP):
▪️ In #Soledar area, the Wagnerians have completed the clearing of #Soledar. In the western part of the city, the site of 7th salt mine has been taken under control. At the same time, AFU remnants are still present in underground communication routes.
➖ Russian units are advancing in the settlement of #Sol from several directions, as well as in the outskirts of #Blagodatnoye.
➖West of #Berestovoye, the RF Armed Forces stormed a stronghold of the AFU’s 54th Mechanized Brigade, eliminating five enemy militants.
➖ Southwest of #Soledar, the RF Armed Forces attacked Ukrainian positions from the north, east, and south. Russian servicemen have also advanced in the vicinity of #Paraskovievka.
▪️ The AFU command intends to counterattack the positions of the Wagner PMC in the east of #Bakhmut at the Champagne wine factory.
➖ Southwest of #Bakhmut, the Wagnerians have captured positions of the 60th Mechanized Brigade in the south and southeast of #Kleshchiyevka. The loss of an important settlement will allow Russian forces to take fire control of the Chasov Yar – #Bakhmut highway.
♦️#Dnepropetrovsk Region:
▪️ One of the entrances of a residential building on Victory Embankment in #Dnepropetrovsk was destroyed on Saturday. The exact cause is unknown. One version says it may have been a cruise missile that went off course because it was intercepted by Ukrainian air defences. At least 30 civilians were killed.
Posted by: Down South | Jan 16 2023 5:04 utc | 178
Posted by: Brother Ma | Jan 16 2023 4:05 utc | 170
I prefer a decommunisation term here. It’s just closer to the heart. Trains with steam engines currently running in Ukraine demonstrate well how Ukraine goes back to its pre-lenin time.
Talking about the viciousness of Ukrainians I heard that even among Kherson refugees who are payed by the government to stay in the hotels in Anapa, a black sea resort, some wait to get all bonuses and the certificate for accommodation and then leave for Europe. They are in minority but they are there. Their men escaped mobilization in Ukraine and now they want to run to Europe to get other bonuses. They will fight for Ukraine on the European squares. That what 30 years of the robbery in Ukraine did to its people – a total loss of morales. Like in Anapa, when Kherson people came, shoplifting increased. The local movie theatre was closed due to the damages that Kherson children left. I know in Rostov, it was the same situation when Donbass people came back in 2014. But I don’t blame them. I myself remember how Russians behaved in Europe back in 2000s. They were wild. It’ll take time to re-educate them.
There are still many fine people in Ukraine I believe, especially of the older generation. Lots of young people are lost. They are in denial. According to some of them, there are no Donbass fighters, only evil Russians from the very beginning.
Anyway, I remember how Poland built a fence with Belarus to block few thousands of Iraqis to come. Now, Russians gave the best gift to Europe – millions of the banderites. Karma is impossible to avoid.
Posted by: Yuri | Jan 16 2023 5:38 utc | 179
@137. grinder
Yeah. War, just population reduction.
And epidemics from disease research, just population reduction.
Before COVID and the Ukraine escalation, there was frequent discussion about population reduction in media.
Now? I haven’t seen it mentioned for quite a while now.
Posted by: HelenB | Jan 16 2023 5:58 utc | 180
Stoltenberg: ‘Crucial Phase’ of Ukraine Conflict Calls For Heavy Arms Supplies [Sputnik] tps://sputniknews.com/20230116/stoltenberg-crucial-phase-of-ukraine-conflict-calls-for-heavy-arms-supplies-1106386091.html
“We are in a crucial phase of the war,” Stoltenberg said in a Sunday interview with a German newspaper. “It is therefore important that we provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs to win,” he added.
Stoltenberg argued that military support for Ukraine is the fastest way to peace and
Hell could freeze over …
Posted by: Laurence | Jan 16 2023 6:04 utc | 181
A summary of one January day on “failure to serve subpoenas” from the resource “Typical Odessa”:
A resident of the village of Sennoye (Odessa region) – during an on-site raid to COLLECT THE MOBILIZED, he opened warning fire from a hunting rifle in the air, being in his yard. It was not possible to detain the violator, because after the return of the military together with the escort detachment, the violator was not found.
St. A separate unsuccessful attempt to issue a summons to an employee (44 years old) (mechanic of a tractor train) led to an emergency on a dead-end track, where the fleeing mobilized unhooked 8 empty cargo platforms, thereby giving himself the opportunity to escape;
For the 4th time with an interval of several days, the “distributing subpoenas” are trying to get around on the 21st kilometer of the Starokievskoye highway, the workers of one of the “underground workshops”, today there was a serious scuffle, as a result of which 5 military men received moderate and 1 military heavy bodily injuries , while a service weapon was illegally stolen from the platoon commander, though without ammunition;
🇺🇦on Sakharov street, four “subpoena ticket collectors” under the guise of TeNET workers made their way into one of the front high-rise buildings. After that, an ambulance had to be called for two of them, one of whom was immediately sent to the surgical department (previously a PROCTOLOGIST), most likely ALL SUMMARIES FOUND THEIR ADDRESSEE in one “PO box”;
🇺🇦Victory Park (closer to M. Govorov) four “postmen” could not keep up with two athletes, who made the heart of one of the catching up military men “slightly freeze”. I had to call an ambulance from St. Catherine, probably the injured military man was some kind of rank)));
🇺🇦 in the area of the BUS STATION (near Srednyaya St.), a resident of the Nikolaev region sharply reacted with a knife to the issuance of a summons to him not at the place of his registration, as a result of which the violator was detained and the injured military man “lost his face”, everyone is alive;
🇺🇦 in the area of the market POCHATOK (Poskot) “said for the protection of the peasant women” smartly stood up for two residents of the Odessa region selling homemade sausages of their own preparation in the yards of high-rise buildings. As a result, the “ticketers” had to quickly retreat, as a group (eight people) of underage (according to documents) but very impressive sizes of male RELATIVES pulled up to help the women;
🇺🇦 Yuzhny (Odessa region) a young man (27 years old), who did not want to receive a “winning ticket to the next world” decided to sail away from sin away from the “beliterers”, after which he had to call an ambulance for a potential mobilized, due to severe hypothermia;
🇺🇦near the Kulikovo field in the courtyard of a nine-story building, two unknown persons put up serious physical resistance to two “messengers of death”, as a result of which YOUTH won, and the losing “military” side lost a package of their documents and money.
https://t.me/loordofwar/72241
Not everyone seems ready to sacrifice for chief cokehead clown. The “Merchants of death” seem to sometime take casualties, too.
Posted by: unimperator | Jan 16 2023 6:23 utc | 182
US Military Reportedly Starts Training Ukrainian Soldiers in Germany [Sputnik] tps://sputniknews.com/20230116/us-military-reportedly-starts-training-ukrainian-soldiers-in-germany-1106387640.html … an American media outlet has cited General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as saying.”
He reportedly said that the goal of the training is to get a battalion of about 500 servicemen “back on the battlefield to fight the Russians in the next five to eight weeks,” amid Moscow’s ongoing special military operation in Ukraine.
Posted by: Laurence | Jan 16 2023 6:38 utc | 183
Not everyone seems ready to sacrifice for chief cokehead clown. The “Merchants of death” seem to sometime take casualties, too.
Posted by: unimperator | Jan 16 2023 6:23 utc | 182
I still don’t see large crowds of mothers, wife’s and daughters crying their eyeballs out and protecting their loved ones.
Posted by: Vikichka | Jan 16 2023 7:14 utc | 184
Everybody knows that. It gets many, many historical facts wrong, but it knows what it is supposed to achieve, sort of like CNN.
Posted by: casca | Jan 16 2023 0:46 utc | 119
Unless you are some kind of immortal being you have no way of knowing what happened 2000 years ago. People don’t even know what happened two days ago in Dnipro. You just believe what you believe and call what you don’t believe “propaganda” whether you understand it or not.
Posted by: Vikichka | Jan 16 2023 7:26 utc | 185
Re outraged at 137 and others
A good summary and makes it inexplicable in military terms why such small numbers of AFVs are being supplied – disparate in every way, logistical nightmare, with what can only be either untrained or “mercenary” crews. There will be about enough kit to equip a weak light armoured brigade, though highly unlikely that it could operate as a functioning unit.
A couple of thoughts:
The real numbers of AVFs that are intended to be supplied is higher and this is cover for that intention?
The crews have already been trained? Certainly the Ukes have plenty of experienced soldiers now even if they do not know how these specific bits of kit work.
This is intended to send a political message to Russia? A sort of red line?
These are capable vehicles by and large, and acting in a defensive role will certainly be able to inflict some sort of localised set back on Russian forces. This will be trumpeted by the media as a huge Ukrainian win. However the reality is that sooner or later (probably after the first engagement) these vehicles will break down, run out of fuel, get bogged down and/or be damaged and destroyed and/or abandoned. Russia will acquire more samples of western military kit.
I’m guessing any sober military professional knows this. So why are we sending this stuff?
Posted by: marcjf | Jan 16 2023 8:10 utc | 186
There are statues all over Russia of the NAZI collaborator Stalin, he of the Hitler/Stalin pact, or Ribbentrop pact, if you will.
Posted by: Thim | Jan 15 2023 18:21 utc
Where exactly in Russia are all these statues of Stalin that are “all over Russia”?
Having lived in Russia these past 30 years, I have never seen one, though I believe there is a bust of Stalin at his grave behind the Lenin Mausoleum.
Posted by: Moscow Exile | Jan 16 2023 8:47 utc | 187
Posted by: Vikichka | Jan 16 2023 7:14 utc | 184
Here’s something in Kiev. AFAIK there have been some marches in Lvov and Odessa and maybe else where but they must be pretty heavily suppressed.
🇺🇦⚡Today, the “Widows’ March” took place in Kiev, the wives and mothers of Ukrainian militants who are listed as missing, came out to protest.
The command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine deliberately underestimates the number of dead servicemen in order not to pay money to their relatives (see screenshot). With a slight movement of the hand, the dead turn into the missing. Profit!
https://t.me/the_Right_People/12524
Posted by: unimperator | Jan 16 2023 9:51 utc | 188
Christine Lambrecht Formally Submits Resignation as German Minister of Defense [Sputnik] tps://sputniknews.com/20230116/christine-lambrecht-formally-submits-resignation-as-german-minister-of-defense-1106393055.html
Minister steps down after much-criticized New Year’s Eve message on social media. In the message, she mentioned the Ukrainian conflict with the sound of fireworks in the background.
Posted by: Laurence | Jan 16 2023 9:58 utc | 189
2. SuperWagner. Very surprised that NATO has not hit on the expedient of doing a massive call up / sheep-dipping operation of, say, 50,000 mercenaries put together as entire units–batallions, brigades, etc.– from *all across* NATO, but with deniability to play the non-combatant game and to mitigate reputational damage as the latest NATO gear & personnel get torn up.
Posted by: Paul Damascene | Jan 16 2023 2:53 utc | 154
There are very likely already tens of thousands of NATO military already in-country.
Posted by: Exile | Jan 16 2023 10:00 utc | 190
Deanna Spingola’s huge and deeply researched/footnoted “The Ruling Elite”. The PTB are doing all they can to make that book unavailable.
Posted by: aristodemos | Jan 15 2023 20:08 utc | 61
Currently listed at $2.99 ebook at Barnes and Noble. Or $8.99 Kindle at Amazon.
Posted by: JohninMK | Jan 15 2023 23:16 utc | 106
That book is available for free here:
https://annas-archive.org/md5/43f15b009f29d09d7131877bf1e9a679
Basically, if you see a book reference, put it in the search box at Anna’s Archive – decent odds if it’s not a new book that you’ll find it either on the IPFS distributed file system, on Library Genesis, or on Z-Library. As I say, though, brand new books may not be available there, YMMV.
Posted by: CharlesLutherThanos | Jan 16 2023 10:04 utc | 191
2. SuperWagner. Very surprised that NATO has not hit on the expedient of doing a massive call up / sheep-dipping operation of, say, 50,000 mercenaries put together as entire units–batallions, brigades, etc.– from *all across* NATO, but with deniability to play the non-combatant game and to mitigate reputational damage as the latest NATO gear & personnel get torn up.
Posted by: Paul Damascene | Jan 16 2023 2:53 utc | 154
There are very likely already tens of thousands of NATO military already in-country.
Posted by: Exile | Jan 16 2023 10:00 utc | 190
Why would it matter? Short of dumping another five hundred thousand such soldiers – with the necessary tanks, artillery, and logistics, the end result would be the same: Russia wins, Ukraine loses. But NATO can’t do that because they don’t have those kind of numbers, especially in hardware, to give.
And even if they did, Russia would just call up another five hundred thousand – with all necessary hardware. Or one million – with all necessary hardware. It would take perhaps six months or a year or even two years for the latter to do the military hardware production – but the West is is even worst shape, as the articles cited on “industrial warfare” have proven.
People just don’t get it. It’s not possible for Ukraine – or NATO – to beat Russia, short of NATO deploying nukes against Russia – and we all know where that leads. Dozens of NATO war games have always come down to two results: 1) NATO loses, or 2) WWIII.
And regardless of how many NATO troops are masquerading as Ukrainians, it’s physically impossible for Ukraine to beat Russia. Look at the military balance before the war started, double or triple it for Ukraine, and they still lose, especially now that they’ve lost most of the military balance hardware they had before the war.
Some people have pointed out that Ukraine is now trying to rebuild its third army, having lost its original 250,000, and then most of its reserves along with its hardware. And now Ukraine is still asking for 500 more tanks, 500 more artillery, F-16’s, and long-range missiles. And this while Russia is still mostly using the 150-200,000 they started out with. Only in the last month or so has Russia’s enhanced forces begun to make themselves felt – and even in Bahkmut, the most heavily contested area, most of them are not in evidence. We don’t even know where those 300,000 reserves plus 70,000 volunteers are.
So relax, Russia has got this – despite all the naysayers, concern trolls, and skeptics.
Posted by: CharlesLutherThanos | Jan 16 2023 10:23 utc | 192
aristodemos@147
Corrections. The Quran plainly states: “There is no compulsion in religion…” (Chapter 2, verse 256) and “The truth has now come from your Sustainer: let, then, him who so wills, believe in it, and let him who so wills, reject it…” (Chapter 18, verse 29). Any such compulsion is contrary to the Quran.
There is no priesthood in Islam, as no intermediary is needed between humans and The Creator. Shaykhs, ayatollas, etc. are only learned and pious people. They have no scared or divine attributes whatsoever.
The Quran is highly spiritual, as it draws humans very close to The Almighty.
Islam has been corrupted and trivialized. This is by the Will of The Almighty, for He gave humans some free will and has made life a trial for them. Those who transgress will face the consequences, if not in this life then in the hereafter.
Victor
Posted by: Nassir Sabah | Jan 16 2023 11:49 utc | 193
Bakhmut is defended by foreign mercenaries and mobilized Ukrainians without combat experience. This is reported by the British newspaper The Times explaining such actions of the Ukrainian side by the desire to preserve their best forces for “the spring offensive”.
“The result is often a desperate, regularly deadly defense on the part of volunteers,” the newspaper reports, noting that the volunteers are mercenaries from Europe and the United States and, for the most part, citizens of Ukraine. At the same time, many Ukrainians do not have proper combat experience, the publication reports, citing as an example a clash in which a sauna builder and a trucker took part on the part of the AFU.
https://t.me/azmilitary11/33751
—
So what they are saying is that the defense of Bakhmut is resting entirely on “mercenaries” who are paid and non-experienced just drafted Ukrainian citizens. Mercenaries are the glue that are holding Ukraine fronts together. I’d still wager that the current requests of hundreds of tanks, arty and APCs are the de-facto result of last Autumns offensives in Kherson area and subsequent Balakleya offensive which took huge losses. After that, they have just been trying to randomly attack all over the front, attacks which have been wiped out every time, leading to further losses tanks and APCs.
Posted by: unimperator | Jan 16 2023 11:59 utc | 194
Posted by: unimperator | Jan 16 2023 9:51 utc | 188
Doesn’t look like an anti-war protest. Neither a protest against subpoenas. Nor an anti-government protest. It looks like they just want money/information/closure.
Posted by: Vikichka | Jan 16 2023 12:00 utc | 195
Posted by: Vikichka | Jan 16 2023 12:00 utc | 195
You’re probably right. The average “ethnic Ukrainian” (Galician) might have zero regard for human life, presented reason might be something appealing to external audience, but every ulterior motive just done for publicity, money, fame and media exposure.
Posted by: unimperator | Jan 16 2023 12:17 utc | 196
observez :
Joe Biden promet des dizaines de milliards à l’Ukraine lors de la visite de Zelensky le 21 décembre et, juste après, une méga tempête hivernale s’abat sur les USA à Noël
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaXFAgEGu94
Joe Biden convainc le gouvernement Allemand de livrer des armes lourdes à l’Ukraine et, juste après, une méga inondation s’abat en Californie
https://www.euractiv.fr/section/politique/news/lallemagne-cede-a-la-pression-et-livre-des-vehicules-de-combat-a-lukraine/
La France livre des chars légers de sa propre initiative ==> tempête Gerard
https://twitter.com/KeraunosObs/status/1614857034846949381
Les USA livrent des matériels lourds et tordent le bras de l’Allemagne pour livrer des chars lourds ==> météo meurtrière aux USA
https://www.bfmtv.com/international/amerique-nord/etats-unis/inondations-en-californie-joe-biden-declare-l-etat-de-catastrophe-majeure_AV-202301150115.html
Il y a 3000 ans, des prêtres de Baal ont été virés pour moins que ça…
https://lecarmel.org/files/elie-sacrifice.jpg
Posted by: Christophe Nicolas | Jan 16 2023 12:22 utc | 197
The strikes on the power has forced Ukraine to be a net importer of electricity. Bills bills bills
Posted by: OohCanada | Jan 16 2023 13:02 utc | 198
Are the salt mines the key?
What is contained below that missionary armies want to protect at any cost?
I do suspect Putin already knows and will
do the right thing.
Posted by: Igor17 | Jan 16 2023 13:06 utc | 199
“In Nov there was a draft card posted of the 300,000th Ukrainian conscript, meaning that their mobilization is only around ~350k right now.”
Of note, The Military Balance 2022 by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) states that the AFU Pre War composition was:
– 196,000 Active Duty
– 900,000 Reserve
– 102,000 Paramilitary
Let’s round that off and say 1.2 million, so the 300,000 conscripts would suggest 1.5 million total. However, AFU Commander in Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi in his interview with The Economist in December said total AFU strength was 700,000 personnel.
Such thus begs the question of where almost 800,000 unaccounted for AFU personnel are?
Note, it is unlikely the AFU could hide 800,000 unregistered KIA and WIA, so the likely answer is a combination of higher than reported losses, desertion, and “ghost soldiers” whom only exist on paper.
The last one is particularly compelling, as Pre-War Russian infosphere channels had noted the claimed reserve force of the AFU was inconsistent with their reported equipment levels. Likewise, claims by Western mercenaries in February-March of 2022 of deep problems in the AFU mobilization are consistent with large numbers of soldiers existing only on paper, creating unit generation issues that did not get resolved until the summer.
For those who tracked the course of the American war in Afghanistan, the problem with “ghost soldiers” in the ANSDF was a chronic issue that played out most obviously in 2021. Given the endemic corruption likewise found in Ukraine, that the AFU was inflated for grifting purposes should not be a surprise. Equally, it should not be a surprise when the end result is the same for Kiev as it was for Kabul.
Posted by: Down South | Jan 16 2023 13:06 utc | 200