NYT On Ukraine - Real Reporting, Propaganda For Balance, Ominous Warning
Th New York Times is putting itself in a twist with its current reporting on the war in Ukraine.
Last months Ukraine was winning the war - at least in 'western' media. But this week the NYT's man on the ground reports the opposite:
Outnumbered and Worn Out, Ukrainians in East Brace for Russian Assault
Exhausted Ukrainian troops complain they are already outnumbered and outgunned, even before Russia has committed the bulk of its roughly 200,000 newly mobilized soldiers. And doctors at hospitals speak of mounting losses as they struggle to care for fighters with gruesome injuries.
...
The first stages of the Russian offensive have already begun. Ukrainian troops say that Bakhmut, an eastern Ukrainian city that Russian forces have been trying to seize since the summer, is likely to fall soon. Elsewhere, Russian forces are advancing in small groups and probing the front lines looking for Ukrainian weaknesses.The efforts are already straining Ukraine’s military, which is worn out by nearly 12 months of heavy fighting.
...
Losses among Ukrainian forces have been severe. Troops in a volunteer contingent called the Carpathian Sich, positioned near Nevske, said that some 30 fighters from their group had died in recent weeks, and soldiers said, only partly in jest, that just about everyone has a concussion.“It’s winter and the positions are open; there’s nowhere to hide,” said a soldier from the unit with the call sign Rusin.
At one frontline hospital in the Donbas, the morgue was packed with the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers in white plastic bags. In another hospital, stretchers with wounded troops covered in gold foil thermal blankets crowded the corridors, and a steady stream of ambulances arrived from the front nearly all day long.
"We ca not let that defeatist piece stand alone," said the editor and turned to the dimwits of the British Military Intelligence to get some 'balance':
Moscow’s forces are advancing only a few hundred meters a week, U.K. intelligence says.
As Russia makes slow, bloody gains in a renewed push to capture more of eastern Ukraine, it is pouring ever more conscripts and military supplies into the battle, Ukrainian officials say, although it remains far from clear that Moscow could mobilize enough forces to sustain a prolonged offensive.
...
But Britain’s defense intelligence agency said on Tuesday that Russia had been trying to launch “major offensive operations” since early last month, with the aim of capturing the rest of the Donetsk region, which includes Bakhmut. But it had “only managed to gain several hundred meters of territory per week,” because of a lack of munitions and maneuver units, the agency said in its latest daily assessment of the war.“It remains unlikely that Russia can build up the forces needed to substantially affect the outcome of the war within the coming weeks,” the agency concluded.
One wonder what 'outcome of the war' those folks are dreaming of.
The reports from the ground leave no doubt on who is winning. Even the op-ed pages of the NYT now acknowledge it:
The problem is that Ukraine is losing the war. Not, as far as we can tell, because its soldiers are fighting poorly or its people have lost heart, but because the war has settled into a World War I-style battle of attrition, complete with carefully dug trenches and relatively stable fronts.Such wars tend to be won — as indeed World War I was — by the side with the demographic and industrial resources to hold out longest. Russia has more than three times Ukraine’s population, an intact economy and superior military technology. At the same time, Russia has its own problems; until recently, a shortage of soldiers and the vulnerability of its arms depots to missile strikes have slowed its westward progress. Both sides have incentives to come to the negotiating table.
The last sentence is wrong. Russia has no incentive to negotiate now. It no longer has a shortage of soldiers and its ammunition points have been dispersed and camouflaged to protect them from Ukrainian HIMARS attacks. Russia keeps grinding the Ukrainian army into the ground and is ready to attack further.
But the piece then makes a correct point. The U.S. would not allow any negotiations:
The Biden administration has other plans. It is betting that by providing tanks it can improve Ukraine’s chances of winning the war. In a sense, the idea is to fast-forward history, from World War I’s battles of position to World War II’s battles of movement. It is a plausible strategy: Eighty years ago, the tanks of Hitler and Stalin revolutionized warfare not far from the territory being fought over today.But the Biden strategy has a bad name: escalation.
...
With whom is Russia at war — Ukraine or the United States? Russia started the war between Russia and Ukraine. Who started the war between Russia and the United States?
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Many Americans cannot resist describing Mr. Putin as a “barbarian” and his invasion of Ukraine as a “war of aggression.” For their part Russians say this is a war in which Russia is fighting for its survival and against the United States in an unfair global order in which the United States enjoys unearned privileges.We should not forget that, whatever values each side may bring to it, this war is not at heart a clash of values. It is a classic interstate war over territory and power, occurring at a border between empires. In this confrontation Mr. Putin and his Russia have fewer good options for backing down than American policymakers seem to realize, and more incentives to follow the United States all the way up the ladder of escalation.
That is indeed the case. Russia does not want to escalate. But when the U.S. does escalate, then Russia will do it too.
Posted by b on February 7, 2023 at 17:31 UTC | Permalink
next page »"UK intelligence" - is that an oxymoron. Asking for a friend
Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Feb 7 2023 17:43 utc | 2
Reality is being fed to the unthinking masses.
A drip at a time.
Thanks NYT.
Posted by: jpc | Feb 7 2023 17:47 utc | 3
This NYT story is huge. It signifies that the the Western rulers want to inure the Western public to the loss of Bakhmut/ Artyomovsk and the eventual loss of the entire Ukraine.
Posted by: Anton Gorbatow | Feb 7 2023 17:49 utc | 4
Britain’s defense intelligence agency
Defence Intelligence has around 5,000 staff, of which two thirds are armed forces personnel and one third are civilians. Our people are based mainly at locations in London, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire.................
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/adrian-bird-appointed-new-chief-of-defence-intelligence--2
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Feb 7 2023 17:55 utc | 5
@ Anton Gorbatow | Feb 7 2023 17:49 utc | 5
that is kind of how i see it too anton.. they are breaking it slowly, but it is now inevitable...
Posted by: james | Feb 7 2023 17:55 utc | 6
The decline of the British state into a Jackal of the US empire is embarrassing. Ever since the Suez crime the British state has grovelled but now it's like a dog eating its vomit. I wouldn't mind but I pay for these bastards.
Posted by: Squeeth | Feb 7 2023 17:58 utc | 7
NYTs piece is laying groundwork for the Clarion Call - “We need to send our military in to save those poor Ukrainians”
Posted by: Exile | Feb 7 2023 17:59 utc | 8
thank the gods!
de-escalation is being socialised.
hoping the path is being laid for diplomacy, cease-fire and peace talks.
Posted by: Irish | Feb 7 2023 17:59 utc | 9
When comes to ominous warnings et al, the Pirates and U$Anistan ought to stick to metric. None of that Imperial BS measurement units, please. They'll start using "kilometers" very soon.
Posted by: Sektion2B | Feb 7 2023 18:00 utc | 10
Did the neocons actually ever believe Ukronazis could win? I seriously doubt that. It looks like US/NATO feeds weapons in sufficient amounts to keep the fighting going. As Ukies lose catastrophic numbers of men, they feed in escalating weapons systems and NATO forces to, partially, compensate. They are only playing for time now, as they try to forestall Kabul on steroids moment.
Posted by: casey | Feb 7 2023 18:01 utc | 11
"Russia does not want to escalate. But when the U.S. does escalate, then Russia will do it too."
I would think that by now Russia has realised that escalation is up to them. Merely to follow the US lead is folly. It appears that Russia does in fact realise this, and is preparing a degree of escalation which will set the US and NATO back on their collective heels. It must be only a matter of time before the Ukranian forces collapse through lack of money, supplies and men, despite all the west can do to bolster them up. Roll on the day.
Posted by: Jams O'Donnell | Feb 7 2023 18:01 utc | 12
I learned about thirty years ago if you read anything in the mainstream press you start at the end of the column and read up the way to the start. The first 2/3rds of any article is normally hogwash designed to catch the rabbits in the headlights.
Posted by: Derek Henry | Feb 7 2023 18:07 utc | 13
From telegram - it appears the partitioning of Ukraine is already underway.
Legitimate
#Layout
Yesterday, Arestovich began to warm up the topic with a certain "peaceful exchange" or Minsk-3.
According to our data, his statements did not cause a direct negative reaction among the population of the country. Although even 3-4 months ago, this would have been perceived as a zrada.It should be understood that Arestovich does not just raise such topics. This is preparation for what is already being decided somewhere on the sidelines.
https://t.me/s/legitimniyDmitry Medvedev
Once again, about how the remnants of Ukraine will become the new South KoreaIt is clear that talking about the "Korean script" is just a wishlist. Like we, the rest of Ukraine, will be under Western control and protection. And then we will reach the level of the Republic of Korea. And yet – as if there is still some hope for reunification with the former territories. Abstract for internal use, no more.
However, Ukrainian propagandists do not write that the division along the 38th parallel created two independent countries.
And the Donbass and other territories became part of Russia, which is the largest state with full sovereignty and the most formidable weapons.Something else is noteworthy here. In Kiev, they shyly forwarded the thesis that there can be no peremogi. At best, it is divided into parts. In fact, this is the first step towards recognizing the current realities on earth.
https://t.me/s/medvedev_telegram
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 7 2023 18:09 utc | 14
I keep saying empire is in desperation mode and I think this latest NYT "reporting" is another example.
With a hat tip to a commenter from yesterday, empire is reaching inflated ballonacy and might pop soon or get shot down. Blinken's canceled trip is just another one of the tells.
Inflated ballonacy I say!
That is what we have here!
Inflated ballonacy!
Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 7 2023 18:12 utc | 15
Is there a bigger blatant Nazi than Joseph Borrell?? Maybe Ursula comes close but this guy is a cartoon character. Everytime he opens his mouth is to spew racist supremacist garbage.
Yesterday he claimed:
- "banning Russian media in Eurooe is good for freedom of expression."
- "Russia keeps courting easy countries like Mali and Eritrea."
Russia must love this guy :D
Posted by: Comandante | Feb 7 2023 18:13 utc | 16
From the grey hag:
"Russia has... an intact economy"
That's an interesting admission, after how the entire Russia-must-lose propaganda line has been grounded ultimately in Russia's alleged unsustainability up against the empire's long-running sanctions war. It's an admission of imperial defeat on that entire global battlefront.
"...whatever values each side may bring to it, this war is not at heart a clash of values."
Even more interesting, after how so much of the demonization of Russia in general and Putin in particular centers on their allegedly barbaric intolerance of the empire's satanist/woke/trans-mutant/pedo-ring agenda, an agenda which is at the core of the imperial media's propaganda mission.
Meanwhile Putin and the Russians have been explicit in their total rejection of this spiritual-cultural war of imperial aggression, and the entire rest of the world supports them in this as well. I wonder why the NYT now runs a piece suddenly pretending this abyss they themselves first gouged doesn't exist.
Posted by: Flying Dutchman | Feb 7 2023 18:14 utc | 17
Western rulers want to inure the Western public to the loss of Bakhmut/ Artyomovsk and the eventual loss of the entire Ukraine.
@ Anton Gorbatow | Feb 7 2023 17:49 utc | 5
Except that paroxysms of contradictory motion keep seizing "Western rulers" such than attempting to discern intent in their actions is like trying to find the melody in something by Sun-Ra. Ukraine fanatics in the State Department pull one way, Taiwan commandos in the Pentagon pull another. It's institutional catatonia, not anything like a coherent or actionable plan.
For instance, take the current argument in USA regarding whether Trump should have shot down previous "incursions" by Chinese weather balloons. Please.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Feb 7 2023 18:15 utc | 18
The panic in the West is because if the US can't get Russia to a negotiated settlement then all those corporations - Blackrock, Goldman Sachs etc can't profiteer off of the rebuild and reboot of a decimated and desperate Ukraine. The US 'panic' is proof of Russian victory.
Posted by: gottlieb | Feb 7 2023 18:18 utc | 19
If Ukraine is to be broken up,from the Russian point of view that must be quite a way west of the Dnieper and Ukraine should have no coastline,anything less after this war is not on.
Posted by: Englishman | Feb 7 2023 18:18 utc | 20
The fact the people in the USA are ignorant of even recent history is why these MSM "News" platofrms can simply make things up that suit the narrative. Unprovoked? Land Grab? The list goes on for miles.
I suppose one can derive bit of grim satisfaction as Reality rubs their collective nose in the scent of their own lies.
And yes, the RF has not reason to "negotiate" and plenty of them not to. They will in part, teach those that would try to ruin them a valuable lesson: If you you will not listen to our requests and the reasons for them (Lavrov) then you will be forced to contend with the consequences which will abate when and only when we wish them to (Shoigu). All the bullshitting in the world wont change that.
Posted by: Chevrus | Feb 7 2023 18:21 utc | 21
According to prior posts at this bar, the Russian troops are rotated back after about four months of combat. That implies that the ones on the lines don't suffer from long-term exhaustion, and their replacement/reinforcements will be mostly experienced soldiers. Is one of Russia's reasons for going slowly to ensure that all of their troops in the later push will be rested and experienced?
Posted by: barstool | Feb 7 2023 18:22 utc | 22
US has several provocation paths. Chemical weapons in Ukraine (currently), a death scene of Zelensky, arranging border "incidents" in neighboring Russia countries, and nuclear weapons in that order me thinks. They already attempted one Nato incidence with the S-300 missile. They are doing all and every war crime in history books.
Posted by: unimperator | Feb 7 2023 18:22 utc | 23
James @2
Whether or not you have done sufficient research to believe it; The regime in the Di$trict of Corruption is but another puppet, albeit a powerful one with considerable resources. But who controls this resources? Aye, that is the rub. Power behind the scenes is to be found on Wall $treet and to a greater degree in City of London.
The power is in the hands of the International Globalist Bankster consortium.
Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 7 2023 18:23 utc | 24
That NY Times article is behind a paywall,nice for M of A to post it
Posted by: oldrepublic | Feb 7 2023 18:25 utc | 25
Derek Henry @14
Good take. Good advice. This is particularly true with the Chew Pork Slymes, aka "The Grey Lady"...the U$$A's "newspaper of record".
Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 7 2023 18:28 utc | 26
Posted by: gottlieb | Feb 7 2023 18:18 utc | 20
The empire absolutely wants and needs the "Korea treaty" they leaked about. They really thought that Ukraine could be "South Korea". Yeah sure, the country at par with Ethiopia or Somalia already before the war.
That should be precisely the reason there will never be no such agreement, only Syrianization process which will push the nazi factions much further away. There will be a buffer zone, or grey zone, but it won't be under any "agreement" by USA or Nato.
Posted by: unimperator | Feb 7 2023 18:31 utc | 27
Consider if Russia launched ultrasonic missles to hit the tanks in Poland from torpedo tubes on one of their very quite diesel submarines in the Atlantic. Poland has stated that the tanks are for the war against Russia so it wouldn't be a major escalation.
It would show that Russia could hit targets such as naval bases at Norfolk, San Diago, and Pearl Harbor at will.
Posted by: barstool | Feb 7 2023 18:32 utc | 28
Ultrasonic missles wouldn't be that hard to build, but are extremely hard to control. Russia has demonstrated that they can do that. One of them could, in theory, hit a nuclear ballistic missle in flight. Has Russian advances in ultrasonic missles removed the "Mutually Assured Distruction" deterent of using nuclear ICBMs?
Posted by: barstool | Feb 7 2023 18:37 utc | 29
Language matters. It's worth noting that most of the western reporting, and almost all Ukrainian reporting, refers to Russian troops as "conscripts". While technically mobilization is a form of conscription, the word has specific connotations with the primary one being 18 year olds drafted into national service. Mobilizing reserves is not the same as fielding a conscript army. Just like before the conflict western media used phrases like "Putin's conscript army". The point of these language choices is an attempt to evoke the WWII myth of the soviets simply throwing overwhelming manpower at the Wehrmacht ... which also isn't true, but does serve a propaganda purpose.
The point of the tanks and everything being supplied now is a theoretical summer offensive towards Crimea. I assume the west has mostly given up on actually occupying Crimea, but they believe that if they can sever the land bridge it can at least reestablish the status quo ante of Crimea on a perilous lifeline through a vulnerable chokepoint. They believe that they can recreate the Kharkov offensive with more power. While Kharkov was a well planned and executed offensive, it was pretty context dependent. The timing meant a thinning of Russian defensive forces in the area. The terrain lent itself to very light, mobile infantry operations which NATO is most competent at conducting. The Ukrainian forces were far less wore down, so it was possible to put well-trained forces with relatively newly trained forces and be successful. And Russia made the tactically sound decisions to trade territory to save manpower. Not that it didn't fight, but that it didn't prioritize holding ground.
None of those things will be true in the hoped for "Crimean" offensive. But it has to be attempted because it's essentially the only position left from which the west could negotiate from a position of strength and give Russia a serious bloody nose. Perhaps they believe that Russia will withdraw as in Kharkov, but Kharkov in September was not a geostrategic priority for Russia.
Posted by: Lex | Feb 7 2023 18:39 utc | 30
Posted by: barstool | Feb 7 2023 18:32 utc | 29
Using hypersonic missile against tanks is a waste imo.
A Poseidon torpedo inside Puget Sound, Portland or Norfolk naval shipyards could be some kind of answer to further US provocation.
Posted by: unimperator | Feb 7 2023 18:39 utc | 31
psychohistorian @16--
LOL!! I like the way lunacy sneaks into Ballonacy--brilliant!
Yes, NYT is twisted as in the Joni Mithcell jazz tune mixing a few belated truths with an ongoing litany of lies.
Today, Borrell made another of his twisted statements that banning Russian media from the EU “In doing that, we are not attacking the freedom of expression, we are just protecting the freedom of expression.” I see he has a future as a NYT's scribe.
The relevance of what's uttered by the EU and its master diminishes daily as few listen or read their screed anymore.
Several hundred meters is about a half mile. Factor in the length of the front, that's not bad progress. Russia would have the Donetsk oblast wrapped up in two months. I think Russia would take that. Obviously the statement has no meaning or accuracy though.
Posted by: GS | Feb 7 2023 18:40 utc | 33
@15
Medvedev slams speculation about 'Korean scenario' for Ukraine as 'wishful thinking'
https://tass.com/politics/1572629
Posted by: Joe | Feb 7 2023 18:42 utc | 34
Could it be that opinion pieces in western press are just AI generated now?
Posted by: Jacq | Feb 7 2023 17:39 utc | 1
Yup, human columnists and reporters following directives from script control AI computer, and the computer is programmed to do all these as AI training ops. No legal responsibility can be blamed under training ops.
Posted by: KitaySupporter | Feb 7 2023 18:42 utc | 35
1 imperial dead ex-Ukrainian nazi = 10 actual dead ex-Ukrainian nazis. (Mossad confirms by denial and obfuscates by talking about wounded when most of the surviving wounded are sent right back to the front).
I'm sticking to my guesstimate of 1 million dead ex-Ukrainians, although I'm tempted to start thinking it might be a bit too conservative (maybe it should be 2 million?).
For the one million guess; if one assumes there was at least one hundred thousand already at the front it would mean that on average they've sent something close to 75 thousand people to the front each month.
That could be as little as 2500 people each day.
Doesn't seem unrealistic does it?
Its not only the Allies killing the ex-Ukrainians, it's the poor conditions, wounds and disease, suicide, and all kinds of "friendly" fire.
Artillery both explosive and incendiary don't necessarily leave behind corpses. The ex-Ukrainians leave the bodies behind on the battlefields either on purpose or because they are fleeing and all those full morgues are from dead wounded who managed to flee and died before they could be sent back.
Posted by: Sunny Runny Burger | Feb 7 2023 18:43 utc | 36
Gottlieb @ 20
Seems we’re beginning to hear squeals from fat cats, but so far the warmongers are still in charge. Neither us or rf want to negotiate. Ukr not nearly ready for unconditional surrender.
Also seems clear rf is about to break thru the def lines, though not clear whether a big arrow move follows. Imo not if ukr continues to throw troops vs artillery. Eventually ukr will just collapse, rf liberates imo 4 more oblasts and artillery prevents incursions from Poland, west ukr becomes depop no-man’s land, pop moves to eu by end 2023.
Posted by: John k | Feb 7 2023 18:43 utc | 37
Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | Feb 7 2023 17:43 utc | 3
In spite of the fact that I have British relatives — we’ve even got some silver ware inherited from lord Beverage sitting on top of a bookshelf — “according to British Intelligence” is the new “it’s true, I read it on the internet!”
Posted by: Jörgen Hassler | Feb 7 2023 18:46 utc | 38
@Lex: Massing a force capable of "taking Crimea" and then funneling it through what is a fairly narrow lane would be a massacre. This is not to say they wont try it. At which point the RUAF may as well line up their strategic bombers in Sevastopol and carpet bomb the invading force.
Posted by: Chevrus | Feb 7 2023 18:46 utc | 39
Fire has broken out at a drone manufacturing plant in Riga, Latvia. It did produce drones for the UAF.
Posted by: Oblomovka daydream | Feb 7 2023 18:47 utc | 40
during Vietnam some of the usa Stan media went “cannot win”, it took 5 years to get out….. of that quagmire, too much $$ being made!
Posted by: paddy | Feb 7 2023 18:47 utc | 41
casey @12
They were convinced that Russia would fold at the first sigh of resistance.
Western Intelligence has been wrong about the Soviet Union and Russia for decades: the problem is wishful thinking and ideological blindness.
One aspect of that blindness is the conviction that all is well 'at home' and that Russians long to live as well as the English or the Americans, by which they mean themselves.
The members of the Intelligence community, the armed forces and the political class live in a social bubble, another planet from the one in which the people they rule live.
As to negotiations-there is nothing to negotiate about. The NATO strategy, laid down in Washington, is to build an iron curtain across eastern Europe thus preventing the development of China's One Belt One Road, and then to squeeze the Eurasian alliance through the agency of Central Asia's former Soviet Republics.
It is all about money- preserving imperial dominance by using imperial wealth to buy governments.
Which leads us back to the dollar, which is what the imperialists seem to have forgotten about when their sanctions made it impossible for the rest of the world not to wake up to the reality that the dollar is not a currency for trade and investment, a store of wealth or reliable medium of payment but an instrument of state in the incompetent hands of the idiots running the Empire.
To put this matter into perspective it is useful to recognise that the Imperial system in question dates back to the Fifteenth Century, when the War of the Roses was taking place.
And that in the past almost six hundred years the imperial system has never been challenged, though it has survived several changes of ownership and successive unsuccessful takeover bids- from France, Germany and the Axis powers, most recently. Its essential nature, long distance maritime trade facilitated by naval dominance and hinged on the exploitation of the American continents, has been unchanged.
The Eurasian uprising, born of the movement for decolonisation, patronised by the Soviet Union and its allies, represents the first real challenge to the Empire, the first revolution, in the sense of the world being turned upside down, since Zheng He was ordered to dock his fleets by the Ming emperor, and the way was open for Europeans.
Which is why Russia has to be, virtually, expelled from Europe- driven back into a smaller area than it has occupied in almost six hundred years.
Posted by: bevin | Feb 7 2023 18:52 utc | 42
"Leopard" must be the lamest name ever for a tank. If you want an animal tank, shouldn't it be like Rhino, Mammouth, T Rex, Behemoth?
Tanks are not cats. The Americans or Brits chose this name for the West German tank, I think.
Look, Heinz, you'll have Leopard tanks now. Like "panzer", but soft. Ain't that nice?
Posted by: veto | Feb 7 2023 18:54 utc | 43
Joe | Feb 7 2023 18:42 utc | 35
There wont be two Ukraine's. Russian Ukraine will be Russia. The west is digging up suitable wording for defeat. Those territories that go back to Russia will no doubt be called Russian occupied Ukraine by the west.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Feb 7 2023 18:59 utc | 44
Posted by: Chevrus | Feb 7 2023 18:46 utc | 40
It's a very remote scenario, but lets imagine for a sec Nato can muster a large force capable of pushing through Russian defense toward Crimea. In the face of very overwhelming force, they might give land and withdraw, drawing the Nato force further. They will hit that offensive with a massive air support campaign and with help of self propelled artillery, and ATGMs. They will draw Nato force deeper, do some local counter attack here and there (mobile defense). After a while the Nato offensive is stretched, and they will hit the final blow against the weakened offensive.
I don't see that materializing or Nato being capable of creating such a force, but in such a case they would give land.
However, Nato can create such a force if they send additional 50 000 Polish troops, which is completely possible.
Posted by: unimperator | Feb 7 2023 19:00 utc | 45
Posted by: unimperator | Feb 7 2023 19:00 utc | 46
Meant to say, they could withdraw both east and west to split the Nato force. If the Nato force only goes toward Crimea, they can hit back from the east. If they manage an air campaign to destroy the piecemeal Nato tanks on the spearheads, everything will work out well. Once again, we loop back to the importance of destroying Nato SAM systems.
Posted by: unimperator | Feb 7 2023 19:04 utc | 46
@46:Sure why not give it a try. Something tells me that the RF brass would do something fairly clever in the scenario you depicted. IF that did materialize it would be an open "admission" of direct NATO hostility which would change the game a wee bit. So: RF pulls out the stops, removes bases in the rear and whatever else they feel the need to do. Escalation by any other name.
Posted by: Chevrus | Feb 7 2023 19:08 utc | 47
The "wishful thinking" over the Korea conceptualization may have more to do with the long presumed (rhetorically and fancifully no doubt) result of EU association - i.e. that Ukraine's living standards will rise to that of Germany or France (or S Korea - "we will reach the level of the Republic of Korea"). That will not happen, as the framework of an economic status of a neoliberal laissez-faire capitalist experiment has already been undertaken.
A major problem for a rump partitioned Ukraine would be throttling the obvious questions related to the economic and social realities of a smashed post-war state in comparison to what was on the negotiating table just before the war started, let alone the particulars of the Minsk agreements, and even what had been agreed the night before the Maidan putsch. The metrics of those compromises are going to look pretty f---ing good in retrospect, particularly in relation to the huge disasters wrought by the NATO interests.
Posted by: jayc | Feb 7 2023 19:09 utc | 48
Interesting times.
The USSA is still brainlessly following all trash and poopaganda from country 404. Faithfully believing the ego-inflated nonsensical data supplied by both the CIA Enslave Europa/Terror Radio poop.
The NAZO USSA trash removal operation in country 404. Is rapidly drawing to a close.
As one very bankrupt evil empire since 1776 lays upon its death bed. Ripped apart from within. Another is born.
Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Feb 7 2023 19:09 utc | 49
Posted by: veto | Feb 7 2023 18:54 utc | 44
"Leopard" must be the lamest name ever for a tank. If you want an animal tank, shouldn't it be like Rhino, Mammouth, T Rex, Behemoth?
---
Ironically the biggest tank the Germans ever built was called "Maus":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzer_VIII_Maus
Posted by: Verdant | Feb 7 2023 19:09 utc | 50
Regarding the raising the debt ceiling rumpus. Which is nothing more than horse trading between two groups that love the same horses.
It's hilarious how both sides are fighting over the 'empty chest' argument, rather than questioning whether there is a chest at all.
There is a mighty tome called Principles of Federal Appropriations Law. It doesn't mention the Federal Reserve or the TGA once.
Where does the empty chest argument come from?
Same place as "loanable funds" and "lump of labour" come from, as well as "money" and host of other weasel words in economics and finance. The source is figurative speech based on reification of abstractions. The type of thinking is based on logical fallacy and cognitive-affective bias, as is much if not most uncritical thinking, like the confusion between stocks and flows.
It comes from an insane belief in tax first, spend later. Reverse that with the actual truth spend first, tax later and there is no empty chest - and no authority for the Federal Reserve to refuse an order from Treasury to make a payment.
What NEEDS to happen and would be hilarious if they had the baws and actually were two different political parties. Instead of horse trading the same horses in a pantomime.Is Treasury makes a payment, the Fed refuses it and then that goes to court to see whether the Fed has the authority to refuse a Congressional payment request. Which of course it doesn't and never has.
This mirrors the 'growing produce' debates in the UK from the early 19th century.
Posted by: Derek Henry | Feb 7 2023 19:14 utc | 51
bevin @43--
Good recap!! What we see is Russia, China and its RoW friends gathering together as one to formulate a new system. All the lashing out being done by the Empire only serves to drive the forces opposing it more firmly together. The process is slow yet inexorable and is already apparent to Europeans. From Escobar's Twitter this morning:
"Small and medium-sized towns mobilized all across France, all generations involved.
"The action starts in Paris at 2 pm.
"Le Petit Roi, BlackRock messenger boy, 'governs' AGAINST the people.
"There will be blowback."
That was @8 hours ago.
LOL. The Russians haven't even started their offensive in earnest, and the copium is already being passed around by the shitstream media.
Posted by: Monos | Feb 7 2023 19:17 utc | 53
Monos54: They are tripping over themselves. Who wants to be the last A-hole in the empty theater spouting blatant falsehood?
Posted by: Chevrus | Feb 7 2023 19:22 utc | 54
"That NY Times article is behind a paywall,nice for M of A to post it
Posted by: oldrepublic | Feb 7 2023 18:25 utc | 26"
https://archive.ph/
Plug in link to article ad hit save and wait for it to load.
Easy.
Posted by: cranked | Feb 7 2023 19:22 utc | 55
@Sektion2B | Feb 7 2023 18:00 utc | 11
Metric system is a crime against nature. Try to cut a block of cheese into ten equal pieces, then cut another into sixteen. The sixteen piece cut is trivial without any measuring devices, the ten one is almost impossible to do without using "unatural" tools. Real life is binary, not decimal. Imperial system is based on binary.
Posted by: barstool | Feb 7 2023 19:23 utc | 56
@ aristodemos | Feb 7 2023 18:23 utc | 25
i don't want to repeat myself too often.. my posts are already boring, but yes - it is all about money and those who are controlling so much of this have one interest only and it ain't people or places - its money...
Posted by: james | Feb 7 2023 19:28 utc | 57
Russia arms depots are vulnerable to attack.
Only for about 4 weeks in late summer, when HIMARS were first used.
Since then Russia has "captured" (bought) a HIMARS missile, determined the radar cross section and quickly updated their anti-aircraft units with new target recognition software. The result is HIMARS now have a shot down rate like any other missile in theater.
Additionally, Ukraine foolishly started using HIMARS against the Kherson bridge, changing target strategy from a force deprivation, to a force maneuverability objective. Using resources to symbolically attack a civilian target (which needed multiple hits over several weeks) shouldn't win out over depleting the opponents military supplies, and hence, their fighting capability.
In a similar move, the Luftwaffe switched tactics in the air battle for Britain. By all accounts, another 3 weeks of bombing airfields, aircraft, hangers and fuel depots would have reduced the RAF to near nothing. Instead they switched to civilian populations, and ended up losing whatever aircraft advantage they originally had.
Posted by: BroncoBilly | Feb 7 2023 19:32 utc | 58
It's funny how the collective West is running around like a headless chicken with contradictory propaganda at every stage. Russia has escalation dominance in this operation. And I think this thing would end on Russian term. And there won't be any negotiated settlement until Russia realizes all its stated objective, and perhaps more.
Posted by: Steve | Feb 7 2023 19:33 utc | 59
@44
The best German medium tank of ww2, and arguably the entire war, was the Panzerkampfwagen V or Panther. Understand the logical progression now?
Tanks have always been used for deep penetration armoured spearheads and primarily in infantry support. They are tactically and operationally useless for anything else. Especially today. So Ukraine really has no need of them imho. What they need is the ability to launch combined operations above brigade/battalion level. Something they have virtually never done. Mainly because their command and control is effectively useless. Has been since about week 1.
But they then thought NATO would directly intervene to save them.Too bad.
Posted by: Frequent observer | Feb 7 2023 19:35 utc | 60
The collective west is a old man, trying to muster the physical energy to get up off the chair. The mind is willing but the body is incapable of carrying out the thought. This realization forced the old man back in his chair. Remembering how easy thing used to be.
Posted by: Dingo | Feb 7 2023 19:38 utc | 61
@57 barstool
And how do you get from inches to feet with binary operations?
Or to Btu??
How do you cut your cheese into 12?
LOL
Posted by: daniel_s | Feb 7 2023 19:38 utc | 62
Reality is being fed to the unthinking masses. A drip at a time. Thanks NYT.Posted by: jpc | Feb 7 2023 17:47 utc | 4
I doubt the NYT editors are changing from being propagandists to becoming good factual reporters. I suspect that our neocons are currently changing their approach and the NYT is preparing the public for what is to come next. Or is it that the financial sponsors are dropping their support for the Biden team and making them lame ducks? We will see.
Don't forget that the US elites have been preparing that war for decades and they have no skin on the ground. They want Russia to continue suffering. The neocons or whoever is running that show has no incentive to stop unless they get a punch on the nose.
Posted by: Richard L | Feb 7 2023 19:48 utc | 63
When Bennett told Zelenski that Putin said that he wouldn't kill Zelenski, Zelenski believed Putin. He immediately changed his behavior. I've noticed that, unlike Western politicians, Putin is very careful about what he says. He often waits days to talk about an event. I've suspected that he passes his comments through his staff to ensure accuracy before stating them publicly.
Somebody said that one who later became a US President said "I cannot tell a lie," but most people don't believe him.
Posted by: barstool | Feb 7 2023 19:49 utc | 64
There are multiple bad things happening for ukraine. Multiple reports about russia advances across the whole donetsk front are happening.
They appear to be adapting to and winning the attritional battles. Convicts and Chechnyas and wouldn't surprise me if there a lot of non ethnic Russians being drafted.
The russia formations seem to come after the expendables get first dibs on the action and loot. New soldiers hold the ground and the assault teams move on.
Posted by: Neofeudalfuture | Feb 7 2023 19:49 utc | 65
aristodemos @ 58
" it is all about money and those who are controlling so much of this have one interest only and it ain't people or places - its money... "
I'd say it's all about the voters and voters voting for centre right ( liberal) and far right ( conservative ) foreign policy for the last 40 years. Then scratching their heads wondering why we are where we are. The complete denial and disconnect will be studied by psychiatrists for hundreds of years. The power ideology has over common sense.
The latest video by Chris Hedges and Ralph Nader from 2 months ago shows how to reverse it all. Only problem is you need faces on the ballot worth voting for. Maybe everyone who posts on here can put their names forward and their faces on the ballot. Win by a landslide.
Let's not kid ourselves the battle is no longer left v's right. That's now old news. Now we are either Globalists or Westerphalians. Fixed exchange rate vs floating exchange rate. One currency vs multiple currencies. Autocracy vs democracy.The first battle we all must win is retaining the ability to change anything.
Posted by: Derek Henry | Feb 7 2023 19:50 utc | 66
The US/NATO is playing a game of nuclear chicken with Russia and hoping that they can keep escalating and escalating without a strong Russian response in kind. It’s idiotic and dangerous.
Posted by: Flyby Commentator | Feb 7 2023 19:52 utc | 67
Posted by: barstool | Feb 7 2023 19:23 utc | 57:
....Real life is binary, not decimal....
Yup! Ying & Yang.
Posted by: Oriental Voice | Feb 7 2023 19:58 utc | 68
"NYTs piece is laying groundwork for the Clarion Call - “We need to send our military in to save those poor Ukrainians”
I think the DC assholes tested the grounds with American mercs or "humanitarian" workers (like the recently departed Pete Reed) and they came to the conclusion Putin will hold no punches = red white and blue coffins will go home en masse if they deploy troops in Ukraine.
Posted by: Nanker | Feb 7 2023 20:00 utc | 69
Beavus: I voted for the guy because he promised to slash government spending and cut my taxes.
Butthead: I voted for the guy because he promised to increase government spending and tax the rich.
Insane madness - Beavus and Butthead failure to understand money highlighting the power of ideology over common sense. As war spreads around them like wildfires.
Posted by: Derek Henry | Feb 7 2023 20:08 utc | 70
stool 57
IMO "Binary" systems, as you put it, are more about dominance than about nature. My 2 CENTS.
Posted by: Sektion2B | Feb 7 2023 20:08 utc | 71
[NYT:] "...whatever values each side may bring to it, this war is not at heart a clash of values."
...
Putin and the Russians have been explicit in their total rejection of this spiritual-cultural war of imperial aggression, and the entire rest of the world supports them in this as well. I wonder why the NYT now runs a piece suddenly pretending this abyss they themselves first gouged doesn't exist."
Flying Dutchman | Feb 7 2023 18:14 utc | 18
_____
Well spotted and countered. Tucked into its mostly correct poor outlook for negotiation, due to the US, NYT's "values" premise leaps off the page, especially adding its next sentence:
"We should not forget that, whatever values each side may bring to it, this war is not at heart a clash of values. It is a classic interstate war over territory and power, occurring at a border between empires."
It tries to sneak in an demonstrably false equivalency: that Russia's moral values are the same as that of the Outlaw US Empire; Russia just as dishonest, treacherous, greedy, degenerate, dominionist, and homicidal as we are. This is not about the rule of law or humanist moral values at all; it's just a classic war for power and plunder between the reigning Evil Empire and a wannabe.
Posted by: Doug Hillman | Feb 7 2023 20:12 utc | 72
It seems all these reports in various MSM are designed to prepare the Western public for the inevitable Ukrainian defeat
Time is not on the side of the Kyiv regime. Breedlove, the former Supreme Commander of NATO, warned the Western public about this when talking about the prospects for confrontation with Russia.
In his opinion, Ukraine simply will not have time to get the heavy weapons it needs in the event of another powerful offensive by the RF Armed Forces.
"The timing of deliveries will definitely not match the Russian offensive if it starts," Breedlove said in an interview with CNN.
https://t.me/sitreports/4256
Posted by: Down South | Feb 7 2023 20:16 utc | 73
Posted by: Down South | Feb 7 2023 20:16 utc | 74
They can prepare the western audience for defeat all they want, but there won't be "Korea" solution. Once organized resistance withers away as a result of Nato being incapable of arming, the front will gradually move west and the nazi factions driven or destroyed to the Polish border.
Posted by: unimperator | Feb 7 2023 20:21 utc | 74
◾In Ukraine there is a new scheme to avoid forced conscription: a professional surgeon offers to safely break your arm, anesthesia included in the price.
https://t.me/sitreports/4258
Posted by: Down South | Feb 7 2023 20:22 utc | 75
@Sektion2B, #72:
Dominance has shades of gradations, depending on opinion of the one judging. One can say 90% dominance, 60% dominance, etc. Nature is always binary, Ying or Yang; rectilinear or curvilinear; up or down. Etc. etc.
Posted by: Oriental Voice | Feb 7 2023 20:22 utc | 76
Oriental Voice | Feb 7 2023 20:22 utc | 77
I was initially referring to units of measurement. Nature is a different story.
Posted by: Sektion2B | Feb 7 2023 20:25 utc | 77
Part 1
Anatomy of a Russian Psyop.I've written before about extensive Russian efforts, starting last summer and ending quite recently, to goad the Ukrainians into expending their limited reserve of well-trained and equipped prewar troops in counteroffensives. A key part of that effort seems to have been measures designed to create the impression the Russian Army was in desperate straits and on the verge of collapse. Even if these "false indicators" flew against the great weight of the evidence, NATO's (and Ukraine's own) confirmation bias-addled analysts could be expected to lap them up and spin them into positive assessments for the Ukrainian war effort.
So with that in mind, let's examine a strange incident that happened last summer - Russia's deployment of deeply-obsolescent T-62Ms. These old tanks were photographed going into battle basically unmodernized, without even the applique ERA added to those sent to Syria in recent years. In fact the only thing the Russians seem to have done to prepare them for the Ukrainian battlefield was weld rather ridiculous "cope cages" to their turrets, a curious protective measure given their volatile ammunition storage racks are located in the front and rear hull rather than under the turret as in newer vehicles.
Of course pro-Ukrainian commentators bit down on their confirmation bias and took their appearance as a sign the Russians were running out of tanks and had pushed these relics to the front from sheer desperation. Western intelligence analysts likely said as much to their superiors, albeit more soberly. More serious (and more pro-Russian) analysts suggested that maybe these tanks were perhaps intended for use as “assault gun” artillery rather than in a strictly "armor" role, or maybe that they were being used by a detachment of particularly crusty Donbass reservists unfamiliar with newer tanks.
https://t.me/DonbassDevushka/43680
Posted by: Down South | Feb 7 2023 20:28 utc | 78
Part 2
The thing about these various theories is none of them really make sense. If the Russians were running out of T-72Bs, the logical thing would be to activate some of their thousands of T-72As instead of old T-62Ms that require an entirely new supply chain for spare parts and ammunition. We also know by now that the Russians aren’t running out tanks, far from it. The Russian Army’s frontline tank fleet has been replenished with brand-new models rather than reactivated Soviet armor – T-90Ms, T-80BVMs and T-72B3 mod. 2022s, all of which are thoroughly modern, have become common sights.If the Russians wanted to supply “assault guns” to support the infantry there’s similarly no reason they couldn’t use newer and more capable tanks for the job. There’s absolutely nothing special about T-62s that makes them particularly suitable for such a mission. And while the story of a company of Boomer veterans of the Soviet-Afghan War going for one last thunder run would make a great movie (seriously, Russian filmmakers, get on that), it doesn’t pass the laugh test as a serious proposition.
Which leaves us with a handful of old tanks sporting ridiculous cope cages getting photographed trundling around Kherson (with a few pointedly abandoned after the Russians started their withdrawal when they recovered practically everything else they could roll or drag out) despite the fact the Russians had no need at all for them. Furthermore, this T-62 deployment was not a large-scale effort – we didn’t see them outside of Kherson and we haven’t seen them at all since the Russians withdrew from their bridgehead on the right bank.
This leads me to one inevitable conclusion – the T-62 deployment was a psyop designed to create a single, white-hot data point that the Russian Army was running out of tanks. Considering we’re still hearing about the damn things I think it’s safe to say that it was a complete success.
https://t.me/DonbassDevushka/43681
Posted by: Down South | Feb 7 2023 20:30 utc | 79
If the MSM told me the sky was blue I’d have to go outside to check!
I‘ve had this growing feeling for quite a while that all is not sweetness and light among the elites of the Empire; fractures between diferent factions are deepening, and the NYT piece in b’s thread topic is reinforcing that feeling. Perhaps there is an increasing realisation that they have bitten off more than they can chew and some now wish to call a halt, or at least a suspension, as a face-saving exercise.
Against that faction however, are the real ’balloonatics’, the “crazies in the basement”, who actually believe they can retake Crimea and then steam on with their schemes to dismember and plunder Russia.
Of course, I have no evidence of the above speculation and perhaps I am reading too much between the lines of the Mighty Wurlitzer.
Plus of course, the only party that has any real say in halting or suspending the conflict is Russia herself; given all the ignorance, insults, arrogance, destruction and death hurled in her direction why should she change her plans at the behest of any Western pleading.
Posted by: West of England Andy | Feb 7 2023 20:33 utc | 80
"We should not forget that, whatever values each side may bring to it, this war is not at heart a clash of values. It is a classic interstate war over territory and power, occurring at a border between empires."
Self-serving bullshit; unsurprising, considering the source. The west must ever rationalize its actions so that its motives are pure. It is indeed a clash of values between a country that wishes to be left alone and the democratizing liberal gender-blurring can't-get-over-itself west. Russia is not interested in having western 'values' imposed upon it, and its people are plainly okay with that except for the precious children of the intelligentsia, and not even all of them. At the same time, Russia has never aspired to be more than a regional power in the region in which it is geographically located, unlike the USA with its insistence on global reach and the absolute right to interfere.
Posted by: barstool | Feb 7 2023 19:23 utc | 57:....Real life is binary, not decimal....
Yup! Ying & Yang.Posted by: Oriental Voice | Feb 7 2023 19:58 utc | 69
The benefit of the metric system is in science, in the ease of conversion and calculation between mass and volume in scientific calculations. Clearly you do not work in science.
No one cares how you "cut the cheese", just don't do it while I'm in the bar.
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Feb 7 2023 20:41 utc | 82
gottlieb | Feb 7 2023 18:18 utc | 20
>>……”The panic in the West is because if the US can't get Russia to a negotiated settlement then all those corporations - Blackrock, Goldman Sachs etc can't profiteer off of the rebuild and reboot of a decimated and desperate Ukraine”
Agree.
They went for the whole pie. The Smartest Guys in the Room can see the pie is already sliced. They are now begging for a piece. They can see soon there’ll barely be crumbs.
Posted by: Melaleuca | Feb 7 2023 20:47 utc | 84
Posted by: Down South | Feb 7 2023 20:16 utc | 74
the swamp masters realized they were in same position as hitler in 1939, the rest of the world rising faster than the swamp declining!
"Time is not on the side of the Kyiv regime. "
nor is it on the side of the usanistan empire!
why in 2014 the swamp masters started this!
the multi-polar rise is well advanced and putin let them waste time with minsk and normandy bluffery.
Posted by: paddy | Feb 7 2023 20:55 utc | 85
They went for the whole pie. The Smartest Guys in the Room can see the pie is already sliced. They are now begging for a piece. They can see soon there’ll barely be crumbs.
Posted by: Melaleuca | Feb 7 2023 20:47 utc | 85
Has the pie been sliced using imperial or metric measurements??
Posted by: West of England Andy | Feb 7 2023 20:58 utc | 86
@Neofeudalfuture | Feb 7 2023 19:49 utc | 66
They probably send orcs ahead before getting involved themselves.
Posted by: scc | Feb 7 2023 21:00 utc | 87
""Leopard" must be the lamest name ever for a tank."
Reply to #44
Germany just kept their tradition of naming tanks after feline predators.
In WW2 they had Tiger I, Panther, and Tiger II.
Postwar they built Leopard 1 and 2, and Gepard (cheetah) AA system on Leo 1 hull
Posted by: mauro | Feb 7 2023 21:01 utc | 88
Nato can create such a force if they send additional 50 000 Polish troops, which is completely possible.
Posted by: unimperator | Feb 7 2023 19:00 utc | 46
50k won't do anything. They can party in Lvov and take selfies. Even with the amateurs from the general staff, no one can take Crimea by force. It'll be nuke time before Crimea is lost. nato can do terrorist actions in Crimea or other places. Those training bases were created in EU exactly for this.
Posted by: rk | Feb 7 2023 21:02 utc | 89
Chevrus | Feb 7 2023 18:21 utc | 22
It seems the Russians are required to teach the Europeans “a lesson” once every century. (and twice in 1917-45)
Slow learners?
The “cookie jar” that is Russia is just too enticing for the greedy dumb kid.
Posted by: Melaleuca | Feb 7 2023 21:02 utc | 90
The only Korean agreement that suits me is with Russia occupying east of the Dnieper and the rest of Ukrorea under Kim Jong-un.
Posted by: Sektion2B | Feb 7 2023 21:04 utc | 91
@ Posted by: Derek Henry | Feb 7 2023 19:14 utc | 52
@ Posted by: Derek Henry | Feb 7 2023 19:50 utc | 67
@ Posted by: Derek Henry | Feb 7 2023 20:08 utc | 71
We agree on many things, like spend and tax, and that national money is just the aggregate of balance sheets using double entry accounting.
The US Debt Clock recently showed total US (government and citizen) liabilities exceeding assets for the first time. There is also no way that the trend can be reversed any time soon.
So the question is, what does default look like this time? Sober minds in banking are already making contingencies, but do not tell us what those are.
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/3845901-bank-of-america-ceo-preparing-for-us-debt-default/
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Feb 7 2023 21:04 utc | 92
Posted by: Down South | Feb 7 2023 20:30 utc | 80
The theory that the T-62s were a psyops may have some merit.
The other theory that has merit is that Russia just wanted to dump the T-62s and rather than spend a lot of effort cutting them up into scrap and reusing the metal, they decided to ship them to the front for whatever use could be made of them. Cheap pillboxes, expendable mine clearers, direct fire support, whatever.
Cheap firepower, in other words. Can always find a use for that. Better than letting them take up space in the tank parks better used for the new tanks coming off the assembly line.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Feb 7 2023 21:15 utc | 93
Meanwhile the forests in Ukraine are being logged out, burned and cleared for 'better things'. Typically the forests are the first casualties of colonialism and then the greed never ends.
In Ukraine, forests cover approximately 16-17% of its territory (about 9.5-10.4 million hectares) as of 2001. According to the documents, 10.4 million hectares were considered a forest fund, and forests actually grew on 9.5 million hectares.The figures of twenty years ago are given for comparison: it is 2001 that the director of the Kiev Ecological and Cultural Center Volodymyr Boreyko takes as a starting point. In his publication, he analyzes the scale of deforestation during 2001-2016. During this period, Ukraine managed to cut down 800 thousand hectares of forest (7.2% of the total forest area).
And now, for a scale, we give data for 2017-2020: 1,355 thousand hectares, and these are official fellings, to which another 219 thousand hectares of poaching should be added. In total, about 2.37 million hectares for 19 years. That is, just after the moratorium, deforestation unfolded?
Source: https://vz.ru/world/2023/2/5/1198017.html
I guess Ikea will make furniture at a good price for you all.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 7 2023 21:17 utc | 94
Chevrus | Feb 7 2023 18:46 utc | 40
Crimea is Russian Federation territory.
The USNATO might choose to say the process followed is bogus.
But it followed UN precedent and the people of Crimea and Russia believe Crimea is Russia.
The west can dream of a Crimean War do-over, but Russia will never again cede that prime piece of Black Sea real estate.
They’ll defend it with all means necessary.
All means *all*.
Posted by: Melaleuca | Feb 7 2023 21:19 utc | 95
Ukraine’s ability to hold off Russia was due to its unprecedented supply of atms. The inventory and production of the entire supply of the West’s atms is in Ukraine.
That’s why progress is slow, every trench and firing point requires fire suppression and combined armour and infantry manoeuvres to overwhelm the enemy.
The stark difference is that Russian forces don’t seem to be saturated with atms or guided munitions. Dejan Beric complained of this issue numerous times.
Russia has overwhelming superiority in dumb munitions but for some reason seems to be lacking in smart munitions, drones, atms and guided artillery. Even a small force saturated with atms would have made Kharkov very expensive for Ukraine.
Nato is betting that manoeuvre warfare will take advantage of this situation.
Posted by: Johnycomelately | Feb 7 2023 21:21 utc | 96
Martyanov trashes Germany...
Well, the idiot Brzezinsky who prescribed a lot of catchy geopolitical BS to the US, never understood a simple fact of the chessboard, of which he pretended to know something, while being clueless, that even the pawn can mate the opposition when supported by proper heavy figures. But then again, can you imagine explaining the whole framework of geopolitical realities to a political "science" major from the US "academe"? There you go.But not to be outdone, Germany does this:
Bundesverteidigungsminister Boris Pistorius (SPD) ist zu einem unangekündigten Besuch in Kiew eingetroffen. Wie ein Sprecher des ukrainischen Verteidigungsministeriums sagte, traf Pistorius am Dienstag in Kiew den ukrainischen Verteidigungsminister Oleksij Resnikow. Resnikow veröffentlichte auf Twitter ein Foto, das ihn mit Pistorius und einem Panzermodell zeigte, und schrieb dazu: „Der ‚erste' Leopard-2 ist in Kiew angekommen.“ Die Ukraine soll nach Angaben von Pistorius von einer Gruppe mehrerer europäischer Länder mehr als 100 Kampfpanzer des älteren Typs Leopard 1A5 erhalten. Bis zum ersten oder zweiten Quartal 2024 sollten mindestens drei Bataillone damit ausgestattet werden, sagte er. Wenig später teilten Wirtschafts- und Verteidigungsministerium mit, dass Deutschland die Ausfuhr von bis zu 178 Kampfpanzern des Typs Leopard 1A5 in die Ukraine genehmigt. „Wie viele Leopard 1A5 Kampfpanzer tatsächlich an die Ukraine geliefert werden, hängt von den erforderlichen Instandsetzungsarbeiten ab“, heißt es in der Erklärung weiter. Zuvor hatten „Der Spiegel“ und Reuters berichtet.
Translation: Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) has arrived in Kyiv for an unannounced visit. According to a spokesman for the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, Pistorius met the Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov in Kyiv on Tuesday. Resnikov posted a photo on Twitter showing him with Pistorius and a model tank, and wrote: "The 'first' Leopard-2 has arrived in Kyiv." Older Leopard 1A5 Main Battle Tank received. At least three battalions should be equipped with it by the first or second quarter of 2024, he said. A little later, the Ministry of Economics and Defense announced that Germany approved the export of up to 178 Leopard 1A5 main battle tanks to Ukraine. "How many Leopard 1A5 main battle tanks will actually be delivered to Ukraine depends on the necessary repair work," the statement said. “Der Spiegel” and Reuters had previously reported.
This is Leopard 1A5.
[Shows picture of Leopard 1 tank]
It is also an obsolete piece of shit not survivable on the modern battlefield and it features the lack of serious armor and the gun which, let's put it this way, is a little bit "outdated". 1A5 is a 1990 version of a 1960 tank and on the battlefield dominated by much more capable Russian tanks, BMPT Terminator and CAS all packed with extremely capable ATGMs, one can only conclude that Germany tries to be "slightly pregnant" under the circumstances when Russia views Germany as an existential threat.
In an interview with the Bild am Sonntag newspaper published on Saturday night, Chancellor Scholz once again placed all of the blame for the conflict on Moscow, arguing that Russia’s “unprovoked aggression” justified the collective West’s intervention with military aid to protect the “European peace order.” “Together with our allies, we are giving battle tanks to Ukraine so that they can defend themselves,” Scholz argued. He added that Berlin “carefully weighed every arms shipment, closely coordinating… first and foremost with America.”
Then this cretin stated that he still wants to have relations with Russia. Of course, he forgot to ask Russia if she wants to have relations with Germany, but what the hell, he is a typical EU cuck who lives in a pretend world where there are no consequences for child's tantrums. Well, Germany went a little bit further than tantrum.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Feb 7 2023 21:26 utc | 97
Johnycomelately | Feb 7 2023 21:21 utc | 97
Where did you get your information about Russian munitions?
Posted by: Melaleuca | Feb 7 2023 21:31 utc | 98
Posted by: Sektion2B | Feb 7 2023 20:08 utc | 72
These days it is just a matter of time on the internet before someone reduces everything to be the fault of the patriarchy and social constructs based on power.
Posted by: alek_a | Feb 7 2023 21:34 utc | 99
This German involvement in Ukraine today has to be very weird.
Going into the Battle of Kursk in 1943 the Germans attacked the Russian positions with their tanks called "Tigers" and "Panthers". The Nazis had some kind of fixation on using the names of predatory cats for their tanks to terrify the Russians.
The battle battle of Kursk turned out to be one of worse military defeats the Germans experienced during WWII.
So what is Germany doing today: why they going to attack the Russians with "Leapords". Hello stupid Germans, please note, your latest cat fantasy is not going to end any better than it did in 1944. The Russians will make sure of that.
Posted by: Toivos | Feb 7 2023 21:38 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
thanks b, and for your humour as quoted here - "We can not let that defeatist piece stand alone," said the editor and turned to the dimwits of the British Military Intelligence to get some 'balance'"
when will these idiots stand down? i can't see it frankly... it seems the usa and friends have a death wish.. nothing else explains it... no rational person would continue to pursue this madness.. and yet all the leaders of the west act like brain dead stooges for a continuation of the same madness...
Posted by: james | Feb 7 2023 17:43 utc | 1