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February 8, 2023
Ukraine Open Thread 2023-33
Comments
Yalensis has posted a poignant reminder:
Today (February 8) is the 6th anniversary of the death of Givi, the legendary Donbass Commander for the Separatist forces. This is a timely reminder that this was did not start just a year ago, it has been waging for many years.
Colonel Mikhail Tolstykh was born in 1980 in the Donetsk city of Ilovaisk. Growing up, he served his obligatory term in the Ukrainian Armed Forces (UAF). This turned out to be useful, as it imparted some military skills that he was to need later. After the Maidan Coup of 2014 Tolstykh assumed the call sign Givi [a Russian humorous nickname for those of Gruzian ancestry; sort of like, in America, calling an Irishman “Paddy”] and volunteered in the Donbass militias. He commanded a Battalion called Somali. [He picked the name because he had read that Somali pirates and ohter fighters were the fiercest in the world.]
Givi took part in the major battles of that first period of the war: Slavyansk, Ilovaisk, the Donetsk Airport. He earned a medal as Hero of the DPR, was promoted to Colonel, became a Cavalier of two St. George crosses, and an extra medal for “Defender of Slavyansk”.
On February 8, 2017 Givi was killed when a bomb exploded in his HQ in Makeevka. He was buried in Donetsk. Givi’s legacy was his dream, which he expressed numerous times, that Donbass would someday throw off the Ukrainian yoke and reunite with Mother Russia.
https://awfulavalanche.wordpress.com/2023/02/08/ukraine-war-day-350-sad-anniversary-deck-chairs/
Posted by: West of England Andy | Feb 9 2023 7:21 utc | 201
Hey guys I hate all the western propaganda in the news and I’m looking for sources to counter it. The best nonpropaganda source I seem to be able to find comes from the Russian government. Any other good nonpropaganda sources?
Posted by: Old Fart | Feb 9 2023 7:28 utc | 202
Alex. It’s not that horrific. Man is very ugly, dark, evil these run deep in humans,since time immemorial. That’s our nature, there were better eras but for sure there have been bloodier eras. This one happens to be very plastic, nothing meaningful to hold to. This right now is some kind of change some kind of shift it just so happens we have to live thru it. Easy peasy, you stay well. And keep a cool head man.
Posted by: Dingo | Feb 9 2023 7:31 utc | 203
Posted by: Anydaynow | Feb 8 2023 22:57 utc | 126
It looks like you’re ignoring a lot of evidence-based discussion and discussion of other topics.
Even the opinions are many different or at least not exactly the same as the Russian sources.
This is just lazy “Putin bot” accusations.
If echo chambers mean less MSM brainwashing and less trolling, then echo chambers are no doubt a great thing.
Posted by: Colin | Feb 9 2023 7:33 utc | 204
# 199 by definition a political leader is part of the status quo. Period. Everything else are unfulfilled promises.
Posted by: Dingo | Feb 9 2023 7:43 utc | 205
Posted by: Down South | Feb 9 2023 3:53 utc | 177
Yes, we know why Zelensky thinks the Minsk agreement couldn’t be implemented. Because the nazi’s ignored him and told him to sod off in the 2019 released video when he was visiting the Donbass front. And the nazi factions in Ukraine are controlled and funded by the US establishment.
Posted by: unimperator | Feb 9 2023 7:49 utc | 207
I track at least a dozen sites/channels covering the war in Ukraine, and I’ve heard NOTHING about a drone attack in Moscow this week.
On the other hand, I have seen a huge increase of self-shot videos in Ukraine of military commissars dragging in fresh meat off the streets, complete with wives and children crying and scream.
Yeah, Ukraine *definitely* gonna win *SNORT*
Posted by: Sam | Feb 9 2023 7:59 utc | 208
lots of videos in last few days of drone v drone. stay tuned as this develops into more complex arena with specialised tools etc to defend and attack. at the moment it seems to be just ramming each other and hoping you’re the one left flying .
Posted by: hankster | Feb 9 2023 8:00 utc | 209
Southfront had a report on the organ harvesting business in Ukraine, which seems to be flourishing more than ever. Evidence here and there is popping up from crematoriums with people neatly cut out organs, signs of no other injuries, and organ transfer boxes being found in captured front line positions. Contacts have been established with EU and US organ markets and it’s highly lucrative. The victims can be mobilized servicemen, the “missing in action” in tens of thousands, etc.
https://southfront.org/most-lucrative-business-in-war-torn-ukraine/
Posted by: unimperator | Feb 9 2023 8:23 utc | 210
Kashimir @102
How much kash did you receive for posting that garbage?
Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 9 2023 8:24 utc | 211
Outraged @ 100
” Russia’s authorities have prepared new support measures for volunteers. Now they will be able to receive two pensions for wounds, disability and other compensation.
– A bill giving monthly payments to widows of servicemen passed first reading in the Duma.
– Russia’s Cabinet allocated additional funding for additional payments to medical workers in the Russian Armed Forces and other servicemen who provide care to the wounded.
The government will subsidize investment projects to modernize enterprises working for the Russian Armed Forces. Significant funds are allocated for the production of new equipment.
– Production of machinery and equipment for the Russian Armed Forces will increase. ”
Is that about the Russian conflict or not ? Well is it ? Looks and sounds like it to me.
Man, you see trolls and trolling everywhere. You make it so hard for westerners to support you. Everyone’s a troll, everyone’s a troll, everyone’s a troll ain’t that right Rufus. Sure is firefly.
I read the Saker’s very touching farewell I will very much miss him. In the end he suffered the same troll disease. As if everybody was out to get him.
This EVERYONE is a troll disease is like reading a travel article about beaches. Some prick in the comment section says why did you write about beaches they’ll be over run by tourists. As if these beaches belonged to them and only them.
This war is my war as well you know. It’s not just Your war.
This EVERYONE is a troll disease is no different to cancel culture and you quickly better wake up and realise it. Or those in the West who actually DO support Russia will abandon you. Just get sick and tired of being labelled as a troll by Russian idiots in the comment section who can’t count to 10.
Every Russian blog suffers from the same Paranoia. I wonder how many Westerners you’ve lost because of it ? A thousand, 10 thousand supporters. Until, ultimately you end up with an echo chamber.
What’s also interesting outraged is, is troll spamming the thread when you reply to somebody who has already gone off piste ? The regular member who went off piste gets away Scott Free but if you reply to it you get labelled a Western Troll. Yeah, that’ll work, that will really encourage Western support.
Tell ya what I’ll do outraged. I will lie, cheat and deceive instead and say Russia is winning this war because of the tax payer money myth and the roubles they get from exports (the right wing version of the war). Probably won’t get called a troll once as it is the right wing point of view.
Those that are so quick to censorship others by throwing about the Western troll label like confetti. Should actually debate and have something constructive to say and defend their stance. Instead of using confetti to silence others.
This Western troll naming game of “whack a mole” is so tiresome. Based on it’s easier to shout TROLL! than debate and defend a position. How about anybody who falsely without proof calls anybody a troll gets banned for 6 months. Sits in a sin bin for 6 months contemplating their own stupidity ?
Posted by: Derek Henry | Feb 9 2023 8:25 utc | 212
# 170 Well put. I read to learn something. Agreeable, disagreeable, indifferent, a different perspective on thought is what it’s all about. If you don’t question your thoughts you become a boar to yourself and to others. But that’s a matter of taste.
Posted by: Dingo | Feb 9 2023 8:25 utc | 213
🇺🇸 🇺🇦 🇷🇺SpaceX has disabled the Starlink Internet service to control Ukraine’s military drones, as their product “was never intended to be used as a weapon.” This was stated by the president of the company Gwynne Shotwell, writes Reuters.
“>https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/spacex-curbed-ukraines-use-starlink-internet-drones-company-president-2023-02-09/
https://t.me/azmilitary11/36737
Posted by: Down South | Feb 9 2023 8:26 utc | 214
❗️ Rostec officially announced the end of state tests of special grenades capable of sheltering people and equipment from high-precision guided missiles .
The novelty creates an impenetrable cloud for thermal imaging devices, RIA Novosti reports.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/32565
Posted by: Down South | Feb 9 2023 8:28 utc | 215
AFU lost drones in Artemovsk due to “trench” electronic warfare: details
Since January 2023, UAV operators of several large AFU formations in Artemovsk have lost at least a hundred commercial drones used to adjust artillery and mortars. Drones do not have time to reach the positions of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation—they are suppressed by previously unknown electronic warfare complexes.
For the first time, units of the 80th separate airborne assault brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine encountered such a phenomenon in November last year in the area of Kremennaya; however, mass failures of drones since the end of January have been recorded only in the area of Artemovsk (Bakhmut).
The mass neutralization of Ukrainian drones may be related to the operation of portable electronic warfare stations that appeared at the front relatively recently. According to the AFU radio intercepts, we may be talking about a small device placed either in the nearest forest or directly on the ground, in the same trench as the infantry.
According to captured UAV operators of the armed forces of Ukraine, when enemy drones are detected in the sky, the system automatically begins intercepting and forcibly landing the drone outside the positions of the Ukrainian infantry.
Due to the operation of such devices near settlements in the south of Artemovsk (Bakhmut), liberated from the Ukrainian army in the autumn and early winter of 2022, the Armed Forces of Ukraine almost completely stopped conducting aerial reconnaissance, dropping grenades, and spraying toxic substances over the positions of ground units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/32587
Posted by: Down South | Feb 9 2023 8:31 utc | 216
It may be so, but their existence were publicly announced in 2018, so talking about “New principles” and meaning hypersonic missiles seems unsatisfacory.
Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 9 2023 7:17 utc | 200
If you talk about modern hypersonics, Mach 9+, in 2018 they had most of them in service, that is large scale production, finished models. Putin talked about new weapons in his 2018 speech. Russia publicly announced prototypes since 2000 or so, I don’t remember exactly. I do remember Western “experts” said at that time that it can’t be true. If you go to yt Combat Approved, in the hypersonics episode you’ll see a lot more.
The only weapon from the 2018 list still in development seems to be Skyfall. Which looks like a waste of money and resources to me but they like it at the expense of drone development, a much more useful thing today.
Other news: Twitter disabled likes for TASS posts. Erdo blocked twitter yesterday.
Posted by: rk | Feb 9 2023 8:35 utc | 217
Likklemore @127
“Panic is the word”. Precisely.
They are being consistently found out. The collective West, dominated by their ruling bank$ters in City of London and Wall $treet have been pulling the corruption, blackmail and bribery racket for so long that now they have switched to bare-assed bluster.
So here we view the symbolic reality of a mangy old lion and an eagle missing most of its tail feathers versus Mama Bear awakening from hibernation and a Dragon in the East warming up it’s afterburners, along with a Persian Cat which no longer is a cuddly little kitty…whilethe terminally deluded Great Overwashed remain clueless about the shenanigans of their “liberal” leaders.
Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 9 2023 8:45 utc | 218
Valerie Swales @131
No need to fret over London Town. City of London will be the prime target…it’s the Square Mile, don’t you know. The citizens of the mangy old lion are relatively innocent…and incredibly stupid. They should have overthrown the prostitician regime decades ago. Nowadays tis clear as day and everyone there is waiting for “George” to do something. Pathetic.
Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 9 2023 8:49 utc | 219
Ramsey Glissadevil @135
Thank you for the link to DPA War…good map-work there. Most informative regarding major breakthrough north of Bakhmut coming from eastwards and fanning out. Cauldrons developing as Ukies are running out of vehicles by which to run away from Russian pincers. The supporting attack on Chasiv Yar looks to be completely cutting off all further retreat from Bakhmut. Soon it will once again become Artemovsk.
Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 9 2023 9:05 utc | 220
DepCom @170
Differing points of view are one thing, but intel sponsored trolling is quite a different beast.
Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 9 2023 9:21 utc | 221
Posted by: Exile | Feb 9 2023 7:00 utc | 195
Time will ultimately tell but alternative news sites have been data dropping information on unit mobilization of U S personel and equipment shipments for the last several months. It of course is Classified to be kept secret from the American public who would be aghast that the current administration that fraudulently occupies a position of power was marching us all to nuclear war. With this thought in mind… Russian inaction to blatant provocation is not a sign of weakness but rather a sign of their humanity…not wanting to enter a global man-made thermonuclear extinction level event
Posted by: Joe | Feb 9 2023 9:30 utc | 222
Posted by: Dingo | Feb 9 2023 7:43 utc | 205
Not so, for example, Mao launched the Cultural Revolution to challenge the status quo.
Historically, the kings of France challenged the status quo of the feudal aristocracy for the king’s own benefit and joined forces with the bourgeoisie to promote capitalism.
If Trump’s anti-establishment energy is as depleted as Meloni’s, then we shouldn’t see this enthusiasm for DeSantis and this hatred for Trump in the centrist media.
Posted by: Colin | Feb 9 2023 9:38 utc | 223
@ Colin | Feb 9 2023 9:38 utc | 223
> we shouldn’t see this … hatred for Trump in the centrist media.
Reverse psychology — sold to you!
Posted by: dfg | Feb 9 2023 9:40 utc | 224
@ hankster | Feb 9 2023 8:00 utc | 209
Sigh…unfortunately, that’s the kind of development I’ve been dreading and anticipating. If sci-fi drone-vs-drone warfare is indeed here as you claim, then the West can continue its fight even after it sacrifices the last Ukrainian.
Posted by: dfg | Feb 9 2023 9:44 utc | 226
Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 9 2023 8:45 utc | 218
While opponents of Wall Street and London’s Lombard Street are being called “manifestations of leftist anti-Semitism,” Zionists in Britain and the United States seem to be confessing.
It’s like that old leftist joke, “Castro is so bad he even took my father’s slaves.”
“The anti-Semites were so bad they even took away my father’s big bank, family office and private equity funds.”
Posted by: Colin | Feb 9 2023 9:47 utc | 227
“IMO the plane was flown using FBW (fly-by-wire) technology all the way to Diego Garcia. Valuable passangers on board”
Or valuable cargo? The official document listing what was inside the plane was abnormally laconic, considering post-9/11 security regulations.
Posted by: Nanker | Feb 9 2023 9:50 utc | 228
Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 9 2023 7:17 utc | 200
Norwegian, it’s simpler than it sounds in translation. . .
The “new physical principles” is a notional term coined to emphasize that the destructive factors of a weapon are based on processes and phenomena that have not been used for military purposes before.
From here: https://tass.com/defense/971232
See also
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_physical_principles_weapons
Cheers,
Kyle.
Posted by: Kyle Koffler | Feb 9 2023 9:52 utc | 229
@ Derek Henry | Feb 9 2023 8:25 utc | 212
Easy there, fella. Occasionally, smart regular patrons call someone else a troll. Despite our respect for the former, probably most of us decide for ourselves regarding the latter. You’re okay with me.
Posted by: dfg | Feb 9 2023 9:59 utc | 230
Down South #214
So with Starlink Internet service for Ukraine drones terminated are we to consider the life service for Zelensky and the nazi regime is terminated?
Is this the fade to black phase?
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 9 2023 10:00 utc | 231
Paul Greenwood #225
More likely:
Macron = Scholz = Sunak = Trump = Rodent = 170cm
Biden not included as he is not fit to tie their laces.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 9 2023 10:06 utc | 232
Posted by: Joe | Feb 9 2023 9:30 utc | 222
If US wants to expand a war, they can just blow up buildings in Warsaw and drop a mock-up of an S-300 missile on the crash site and invoke article 5. There’s no one anyone can do to prevent that, but the relevant issue is whether they actually want to start it. There’s no reversing such a decision.
Posted by: unimperator | Feb 9 2023 10:16 utc | 233
# 223 if you overthrow the status quo then you become the status quo. The philosophy of the new leader might be different, that does not change the definition of status quo. Leader = status quo.and all those who support that system .
Posted by: Dingo | Feb 9 2023 10:17 utc | 234
Joe | Feb 9 2023 9:30 utc | 222
Going slow makes it more probable to go nuclear than fast. Even if it doesn’t, it lets one side organize, move troops, weapons, expand nato, build factories, change suppliers, while the other side is still running in circles with the same army of 5, now with occupied territory and no economic sanctions. The plan for regime change in Russia isn’t going that bad. All nato has to do is keep the war growing until elections and kill as many civilians as possible, lowering trust in current leaders and the army. Which is exactly what they’re doing, targeting hospitals, chemicals, npps, car bombs, petal mines that will take 5-10 years to find and remove and so on. If it doesn’t work, then extend war again until next elections, use longer range weapons to strike bigger things, start attacking ships and planes using Finland for example. Like the attack on NS by “unknown” attackers
Posted by: rk | Feb 9 2023 10:18 utc | 235
Old Fart #202
Any other good nonpropaganda sources?
Really all people below clearly have a position within the political spectrum and it is up to you to exercise the critical faculty necessary to arrive at confident opinion.
Colonel Douglas MacGregor
Scott Ritter
Jeffrey Sachs
Chris Hedges
Alexander Mercouris
The Duran
Others maybe not so much in your definition but entirely credible (whatever the word ‘propaganda’ means to you).
Richard Medhurst
The Dive with Jackson Hinkle
Canadian Patriot Press
Cynthia Chung
Eva Bartlet
Syriana Analysis
soanar21 Larry Johnson
the new atlas brian berletic
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 9 2023 10:25 utc | 236
[233]
and invoke article 5.
BFD…….Art 5 says ZILCH……….it has no meaning………read it in context of Art 51 UN Charter……
NATO only had meaning when it was Western Europe + Turkey………….it was to protect Turkey and use West Germany as the battleground………it was always a fig-leaf
NATO is now worthless with Lithuania and Estonia and Latvia……Romania and Bulgaria and Hungary and Slovakia are nonentities………
Only 4 countries in NATO have any weapons or spend any money and even then it is not enough – they have the wrong weapons – they are parade ground and air show weapons…….
UK and France hide behind 4 SSBNs – that is all they really have
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Feb 9 2023 10:28 utc | 237
Ukrainian channel Legitimny:
Colleagues , the defense of Bakhmut / Artemovsk has not yet been completed, as well as the number of dead, wounded, captured.
According to our sources, in the most negative scenario, the Armed Forces of Ukraine may end up in a mass encirclement in Bakhmut, where the figure will be more than 5-6,000 soldiers (just the Ilovai cauldron). At the same time, the total daily “losses” are more than a thousand people (these are killed, wounded, sick, go to the roof, with concussions, run away, etc.).
They don’t talk about it now, the topic is too sensitive.
As our source says: do you want to know the truth? go first to the hospital and the military hospital and look at the queues of “military cripples”, and then go to the cemetery.
Everyone understands that it is important for Zelensky to keep the city until the moment he knocks out new loans, weapons and awards for himself. So they send trains of soldiers without experience and professional qualities to the Donbass. No one pays attention to losses – this is simple dry statistics for office workers.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/32636
Seems like the “full encirclement” of Artemovsk is actually a moot point by now. The semi-encirclement seems to be enough to de-militarize and de-nazify it. The melt down of EU and Nato seems to be more or less positively correlated with the melt down of UAF in the Donbass.
Posted by: unimperator | Feb 9 2023 10:30 utc | 238
So with Starlink Internet service for Ukraine drones terminated are we to consider the life service for Zelensky and the nazi regime is terminated?
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 9 2023 10:00 utc | 231
I don’t trust Musk’s statements, can be a lie to hide that he’s an official terrorist now. If it’s true, they can still use Starlink for troops and anything else. Not a problem, nato will send them more military drones. Those with Starlink looked home made in the photos published online, assembled from parts you can find in diy drone shops and using Raspberry Pi computers. Other photos from captured drones last year showed Mikrotik wifi routers, exactly as you buy them from amazon. They didn’t even use the industrial version, they used the home version with leds, labels and everything.
Posted by: rk | Feb 9 2023 10:33 utc | 239
ITV morning talk show host comparing Zelensky to the English hero Winston Churchill, calling Zelensky Churchillian, as he was speaking pictures of the Neo-Nazi leader Ukraine’s president Zelensky, is seen outside the English PM’s front door at Number Ten Downing street shaking hands with him.
I’m under the impression that the English PM Churchill fought the Nazis and didn’t aid them, now Westminster is aiding the Ukrainian Neo-Nazi regime, and even the likes of Israel (a murderous military regime) which boasted about hunting down Nazis, post 1945, is thinking of sending its Iron Dome defence system to Ukraine to aid the Neo-Nazi regime.
The West is proficient at spreading propaganda, however Russia is proficient at winning this conflict, and that’s more important.
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 9 2023 10:37 utc | 240
# 223 if you overthrow the status quo then you become the status quo. The philosophy of the new leader might be different, that does not change the definition of status quo. Leader = status quo.and all those who support that system .
Posted by: Dingo | Feb 9 2023 10:17 utc | 234
Trump has not been able to overturn the status quo, or the media would not be saying this about him.
Posted by: Colin | Feb 9 2023 10:42 utc | 241
Is this the fade to black phase?
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Feb 9 2023 10:00 utc | 231
I get the impression they’re trying to pull the plug without losing face (a la Afghanistan). Cutting their losses whilst they still can.
Changes are being made that may seem small on their own but together will have a significant impact. The newspaper reports are slowly starting to reflect the reality on the ground, the weapons deliveries that are being promised will come way too late to make a difference, Hersch with his expose and the Legitmniy insider Ukrainian channel showing how the US is manoeuvring the Ukrainian leadership to get their own men in charge.
I’m getting the impression that within the ruling circles of the West they’re trying to bring this conflict to an end because it is going horribly wrong for them. Russia is not bleeding, NATO is. Russia is not collapsing economically, NATO is. They want to go to war with depleted stocks and no manufacturing base to build those weapons with. Russia on the other hand is producing what they need in the quantities they need. To top it off the Russians haven’t even gotten started yet (per Putin) They’re still holding back for now.
Posted by: Down South | Feb 9 2023 10:44 utc | 242
#24- you are absolutely correct. Let’s move on to other words and their meanings.
Posted by: Dingo | Feb 9 2023 11:16 utc | 243
@ Down South | Feb 9 2023 8:26 utc | 214
AFU just lost its secure C2 & real time access to US/NATO Intel & Target packages data.
@ Down South | Feb 9 2023 10:44 utc | 242
Quite.
It’s been the case since Jan20 across the board, multi-domain, immediately post the NATO summit failure. Preparing the ground for abandonment of the sacrificial proxy to its fate, in a desperate attempt to somehow try to salvage Empire, NATO/EU before it’s too late. They missed that bus by about 11+ months. The old world, the International-Rules-Based-Order’, is on life support … Nordstream ?
@ Derek Henry | Feb 9 2023 8:25 utc | 212
You make it so hard for westerners to support you. ?
Just get sick and tired of being labelled as a troll by Russian idiots in the comment section who can’t count to 10. ?
Now that is a first. Being tagged as a Russian, a Russian blogger, a paranoid Russian, a non-Westerner, a Russian activist. Please, I beg your leave to excuse me, am sorry, though however likely to be misconstrued/wholly inappropriate, yet, that characterization one finds for all the wrong reasons, uncontrollably, excruciatingly hilarious.
Anyway. Thank you. All good. Cheers. 🙂
Peace
Swiss Policy Research is pretty straight down the middle on most things. The Ukraine War is no exception.
https://swprs.org/the-ukraine-war-in-2023/
Posted by: The Accountant | Feb 9 2023 11:23 utc | 245
“Any other good nonpropaganda sources?”@236
Redacted
Posted by: cirsium | Feb 9 2023 11:36 utc | 246
The Accountant | Feb 9 2023 11:23 utc | 246
they lost me at himars and long range fires are a game changer.
they seem to be into rand studies and believe that us air power won in vietnam.
correct about new western stuff though.
not recognizing the logistics of low mission capability western high tech.
Posted by: paddy | Feb 9 2023 11:38 utc | 247
The only weapon from the 2018 list still in development seems to be Skyfall. Which looks like a waste of money and resources to me but they like it at the expense of drone development, a much more useful thing today.
Posted by: rk | Feb 9 2023 8:35 utc | 217
For Burevestnik, it probably isn’t so much the capability of fielding the actual infinite-range cruise missile that is so valuable. It is rather large in size and subsonic, and it will be shot down if identified, plus it is unlikely they will ever be able to field thousands of these things to totally overwhelm AD given that each one has to have its separate nuclear reactor.
But the small nuclear reactor propulsion itself is an extremely valuable thing, that will then open up all sorts of applications, in space, for the military and in the civilian sector.
Burevestnik might be just the vehicle for working out that technology, thus the persistence with it.
That, or there is some other overwhelmingly powerful reason why they are pushing so hard for it that isn’t immediately obvious to outside observers.
Posted by: shadowbanned | Feb 9 2023 11:45 utc | 248
Feb 9 2023 10:44 utc | 242
the west is not serious…..
besides the fact they have spent all their money on f-35’s that break down in middle of benign tests, they have no way to move the things they do not make.
putin could be concerned if biden directed henry kaiser to turn his ship yards over to making 1000 liberty ships, and gm to turning out diesel locomotive, with us steel producing thousands of miles of rails for rail roads to deliver the cannon fodder usa cannot keep running….
oh wait i got fdr and biden/macron/johson mixed up….
Posted by: paddy | Feb 9 2023 11:46 utc | 249
“By: hankster | Feb 9 2023 8:00 utc | 209”
“lots of videos in last few days of drone v drone. stay tuned as this develops into more complex arena with specialised tools etc to defend and attack. at the moment it seems to be just ramming each other and hoping you’re the one left flying”
Begun, the drone war has.
Posted by: Dalit | Feb 9 2023 11:47 utc | 250
The only weapon from the 2018 list still in development seems to be Skyfall. Which looks like a waste of money and resources to me but they like it at the expense of drone development, a much more useful thing today.
Posted by: rk | Feb 9 2023 8:35 utc | 217
The nuclear propulsion tech in Burevestnik is extremely valuable on its own. More valuable than the missile itself (which is unlikely to be ever available in large numbers anyway given that it has a nuclear reactor). It opens up all sorts of other applications.
Thus the persistence with that project.
Posted by: shadowbanned | Feb 9 2023 11:48 utc | 251
Masno on Telegram (post includes photographic proof):
“The use of Russian guided missiles 3OF39 “Krasnopol” … by artillerymen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from self-propelled guns 2S3 “Acacia”.
How is this possible? Quite simply, in the summer, during the retreat from the Kharkov region, a significant amount of military equipment and ammunition was left to the enemy, among which were Krasnopoli at that time.
Can the Armed Forces of Ukraine use these shells? There are two options here. In the case of tuning to the desired laser wavelength, the enemy will be able to use the Krasnopoli data as intended – as a laser-guided munition. Otherwise, they can be fired like regular artillery shells.”
[Source: https://t.me/NovichokRossiya/24467?single ]
Oh, the brilliance of the 17D chess by Putin, who by essentially removing all troops from Kharkov and allowing the nazis to develop an offensive that was only stalled by a heroic defence at Krasni Liman, bequeathed to them laser guided ammunition with which to shell Russian forces, while Russian troops have to painfully fight for every kilometreto re liberate the territory! Such heights of strategy!
(Or maybe the retreat from Kharkov was actually a rout, and the rancid bag of blubber Martyanov and his fellow blowhard armchair generals were spouting rubbish as to how it was a masterstroke.)
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Feb 9 2023 12:03 utc | 252
@Stormwarning | Feb 9 2023 1:31 utc | 154
I’ve found a couple authentic 2013 articles re public opinion polls:
1) Dec 2013 RIA Novosti ( Link to RIA Novosti article ) – When the survey participants were asked to choose which union it would be better for Ukraine to join, the respondents answered as follows: 46.9% would support joining the EU, and 28.9% would vote for joining the CU. Another 24.2% are undecided or are not ready to take part in such a referendum.
2) Regnum (Link) which mentions a poll done by a UA agency Rating (https://ratinggroup.ua/research/ukraine/dinamika_ideologicheskih_markerov_oktyabr_2013.html)
3) on Rating site I’ve also found an article re another poll done by IRI – https://ratinggroup.ua/research/ukraine/iri_ukraine_survey_ukrainians_positive_about_association_agreement_with_the_eu.html
But I’m not sure if above qualifies as a legitimate poll – as this was an opinion expressed by “The randomly selected sample consists of 1,200 Ukrainian residents older than the age of 18…”
Posted by: Lurker from Moscow | Feb 9 2023 12:08 utc | 253
The Faker says:
To the various Saker haters out there
Yes, you also tried your very best to bring the blog down and to somehow “defeat” me. Some of you tried to use the blog to gain some visibility. Others attacked me for not agreeing with your stupid and cultish ideas (including various flavors of racism). You insulted my guest authors, and you slandered me on other blogs. And what did you achieve? Absolutely nothing :-)”
[Source: https://thesaker.is/a-few-special-goodbye-messages/ ]
Yet the Junkyard Of The Faker is closing down while we “haters”, that is, people with their own minds, people who don’t necessarily agree with the Faker on everything, and most unpardonably people who make dussenting statements that turn out to be correct, are very much still there.
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Feb 9 2023 12:23 utc | 254
[240]
I’m under the impression that the English PM Churchill fought the Nazis
Well……he actually loathed Germans well before NSDAP arrived on scene which is why he personally kept the naval blockade for a year AFTER the Armistice in 1918 leading to hundreds of thousands starving to death……
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z8vt9qt/revision/1
So whatever Churchill felt about “Nazis” he certainly was concerned to destroy Germans……..
As for parallels…….Churchill was funded by the Czech Government when he was kept out of the Cabinet by Baldwin as punishment for running Unofficial Candidates AGAINST Conservative Candidates to obstruct Home Rule for India 1935
He certainly had his financial debts and Stock Market losses paid off by wealthy Jewish businessmen like Strakosch…….
https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/2016-09-19/ty-article/.premium/churchills-debts-and-the-money-men-who-saved-him/0000017f-e9a7-da9b-a1ff-edefddc40000
He sold off British overseas assets in USA to fund war materiel and allowed US occupation of British territory in Caribbean and UK itself……….he gave away the Rolls-Royce jet technology to buy support from FDR – he left UK bankrupt in 1945 with Keynes having to negotiate a $5 billion loan and Marshall Aid being the means of keeping afloat …….by which time Churchill was swanning around on millionaires’ yachts
Churchill was more like Boris Johnson that people care to imagine – regarded as a self-promoter – he was not even a Churchill but a Spencer. His father had changed the family name to Spencer-Churchill and Winston dropped the hyphen.
He was descended from the female Spencer line not the male Churchill line but wanted to imagine himself a descendant of the First Duke of Marlborough
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Feb 9 2023 12:25 utc | 255
Posted by: Derek Henry | Feb 9 2023 8:25 utc | 212
I was called a troll on my second comment here. *sniff* It really hurt my feelings. *sniff* *sniff*
Honestly, I do believe that’s how some people handle anything that challenges their perception of reality. It’s a lot easier to label someone a troll than it is to actually think about what was said.
Two cents is about all I have.
Posted by: T.D. | Feb 9 2023 12:38 utc | 256
Oh and just in case you are too young………Churchill died 1965 but his widow died 1977……….British Prime Ministers’ widows did not get a pension and it was sadly the situation during the Harold Wilson Government that it emerged Clementine Churchill had been living in relative penury selling 5 paintings to meet living expenses……………
The Labour Government took action to remedy this deficiency – her late husband’s profligacy having left her in penury
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Feb 9 2023 12:41 utc | 257
Warts and all………..
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/01/why-winston-churchill-was-so-bad-with-money/419094/
Throughout his political career, he relied upon rich acquaintances to bail him out. After he lost his seat in Parliament in 1922, he engaged in dubious lobbying on behalf of oil companies. He stretched all available loopholes to avoid paying taxes, even (and especially) when he served as chancellor of the Exchequer, the head of Great Britain’s Treasury, from 1924 to 1929. And in the end, he made his fortune by taking advantage of papers commandeered from government files to construct his blockbuster memoirs.
Take the 1940 crisis when the shirtmaker presented his bill. The prime minister was saved by a discreet payment amounting to nearly $375,000 in today’s money, from a foreign-born financier, conveyed in a check written to someone else and endorsed over to Churchill.
After the war, he took 68 bundles of state papers home with him. To his successor, Clement Attlee, Churchill explained that he needed the documents to recount “the British war story.”
This last bit was essential to write the historical record HIS way. Churchill had cut Defence Spending when Finance Minister 1925-29 on the basis No War for Ten Years and kept moving the timeline. Chamberlain as Chancellor after 1931-37 started to reverse these cuts and build up armaments production at Rolls-Royce, Vickers, Radar, etc……..and funded Shadow Factories……..
Churchill needed to blame Chamberlain who died Nov 1940 for his own negligence
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Feb 9 2023 12:55 utc | 258
# 257 the hero becomes a zero. I’m. Not blushing. But his legacy is a sterling fable.
Posted by: Dingo | Feb 9 2023 12:57 utc | 259
Another Nato Mig-29 and Su-25 shot down in last 24 hours. Same fate awaits F-16.
Posted by: unimperator | Feb 9 2023 13:07 utc | 260
When history is written on this the West US will be seen equivalent of ww2 Nazi’s. n 10-15 years Americans will chased down all over the Earth to stand for war-crimes. It’s sad but but deserved.
So many people in the west have turned into genocidal racists.
Posted by: Peace | Feb 9 2023 13:15 utc | 261
India sending 6 tons of relief aid to Syria:
https://www.hindustantimes.com/videos/news/india-sends-6-tonnes-of-relief-material-to-quake-hit-syria-under-op-dost-toll-crosses-11500-101675861325993.html
Blinken and his evil friends are not pleased.
Posted by: Chris | Feb 9 2023 13:20 utc | 262
@Chris 262
Any number of Indian liberal middle class quislings will be unhappy too.
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Feb 9 2023 13:29 utc | 263
There’s No F In Jets…
From Sputnik: https://sputniknews.com/20230209/uk-has-no-fing-jets-to-spare-to-meet-zelenskys-thanks-in-advance-demand-1107107614.html
The UK has no jet fighters to give to Ukraine — that is the blunt view of a government minister and a Royal Air Force (RAF) officer.
Their comments poured cold water on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s latest round of high-level begging for arms from US-dominated alliance NATO, which has now escalated to demands for combat aircraft to strike deep into Russia.
~~~
Some British media reported that up to 20 older ‘Tranche One’ F2 models of the Eurofighter Typhoon, already retired from combat duty, could meet Kiev’s incessant demand for jet aircraft to replace those shot down by Russian fighters and air defence forces. But a source inside the RAF told media that was simply unreaslistic
“Tranche 1 are just training aircraft no good for combat,” said an RAF insider.
“We haven’t got any f*cking jets to give!” one un-named cabinet minister told a daily newspaper on Thursday.
The RAF now only has around 100 FGR4 variants out of the 160 Typhoons delivered over the last two decades in service, and has mothballed its Tornado strike and interceptor models and Harrier STOVL close air support jets years ago.
“The Tornado is a fantastic jet, but too difficult to maintain, operate and they will now be in disrepair or mothballs. Going nowhere for months,” the RAF source said, while other types were “too expensive, complicated, we don’t have any spare”.
~~~
To make matters worse, the RAF grounded its fleet of BAE Hawk advanced jet trainers in late January after an incident on a runway revealed problems with their engines. And last August it emerged that only 11 pilots out of a possible 43 ‘holddies’ would get conversion training onto the Typhoon or the US F-35B bought to equip the Royal Navy’s two new aircraft carriers.
“Unbelievable,” the source said. “We have clearly established we can’t train our own pilots. The holdies are in shock.”
Fred Karno would be proud…
Posted by: West of England Andy | Feb 9 2023 13:32 utc | 264
# 262 A unfortunate natural disaster. India is doing the humane act of helping people caught in a unexpected situation. It’s telling act of kindness. A promise of hope , in a heart&brain traumatized western sympathy.
Posted by: Dingo | Feb 9 2023 13:42 utc | 265
Posted by: bottle | Feb 8 2023 18:50 utc | 59
The Maginot line did its job, forcing the Germans to go northabout through Belgium. The attack through the Ardennes emerged just north of the Maginot line. It put the French in a sweat about an outflanking move on the Maginot line via Stonne, which is one of the reasons why the German main effort down the Somme river valley did so well.
Posted by: Squeeth | Feb 9 2023 14:09 utc | 266
Dalit @250
“Begun the drone war has”. Inevitable, was it not. Not so long ago we were rushing into the future. Nowadays the future is rushing into us.
Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 9 2023 14:20 utc | 267
BisPur@252
Like the Western media “managers”, you are falling into the habit of personalizing the conflict. Putin and 17D chess.
People do make mistakes…particularly when they are in a hurry. The general running that front should simply have imposed a standing order to destroy all equipment that would have been of considerable use to the enemies of humanity…here, I’m referring to those prime actors in the Collective West who engineered this war, now calculated by them to fight it to the death of the last bedizened Ukrainian service-man…and I do mean SERVE…as to the Masters of War.
Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 9 2023 14:27 utc | 268
Translated, abbreviated, MOD Clobber list(09.02.23)
📊 In total, since the beginning of the special military operation destroyed ((+?) over preceding 24hrs):
384(+2) aircraft, (Daily avg 1.1)
206 helicopters, (Daily avg 0.6)
3,057(+11) unmanned aerial vehicles, (Daily avg 8.8)
403 surface-to-air missile systems, (Daily avg 1.2)
7,798(+9) tanks and other armored combat vehicles, (Daily avg 22.5)
1,012(+1) multiple rocket launchers, (Daily avg 2.9)
4,034(+12(+13?)) field artillery and mortars, (Daily avg 11.6) and
8,302(+11) special military vehicles. (Daily avg 24)
Comment:
Return to a comprehensive MOD Summary. Very significant increase in rear of FEBA Ammo depots/stores destruction.
Further escalation re preparation & shaping of the battlefield.
Sustained Op tempo targeting 116 locs, characterized by,
1. Strikes by Assault & army aviation & artillery fire …
2. Strikes by operational-tactical & army aviation, artillery fire & heavy flamethrower systems …
3. Air strikes & artillery fire …
4. Strikes by operational & tactical aviation & artillery fire …
RuAF heavier aircraft along with Close Air Support(CAS), as well as Army tactical aviation & increasingly now heavy flamethrower systems, in combination with rocket/artillery barrages, is a significant increase in application of massed combined destructive firepower, in not one locale, but along the FEBA on four fronts.
The AFU has no defense against nor effective counter-response to the above at & rear of the FEBA.
Consequent significant ‘immediate’ increase in AFU attrition (Particularly manpower losses) on four fronts, whilst further crippling their already fragile & insufficient logistics train & supplies, given ten forward Ammo dumps destroyed in only 24 hours(Part of ongoing priority tasking).
One Grad MBLRS, one US-made M777 artillery system, four D-20 howitzers, one D-30 howitzers, one US M109 “Paladin” SPH, two MSTA-B howitzers, a Gvozdika SPH & three large-caliber mortars were destroyed.
Six ammunition depots & four artillery ammunition depots destroyed. One MBT destroyed. One US counter-battery radar destroyed.
RuAF fighter aircraft shot down an AFU MiG-29 & RF Air Defense systems shot down an AFU Su-25 aircraft.
&
@ West of England Andy | Feb 9 2023 13:32 utc | 264
Yet again the myth of the overwhelming might of US/NATO on full display. Pathetic. Yet the Psychopathy & propaganda narrative continues unabated.
Am looking forward to one day possibly seeing the tumbrils roll & a revived Madame Guillotine do her duty.
Posted by: Derek Henry | Feb 9 2023 8:25 utc | 212
Don’t act like a HATO plant and you won’t be treated as such.
The steps to not acting like a HATO plant are easy:
1) Don’t be one
2) Don’t talk like one
3) Don’t “coincidentally” shoot in the same direction
4) If unsure about 2 and 3, LURK MORE!
Posted by: Arganthonios | Feb 9 2023 14:31 utc | 270
Lurker from Moscow @253
The single worst university course I ever took…and that was in the mid-60’s…was a “journalism” course on opinion polling. It was your usual oxymoronic mumbo-jumbo political “science” form of bullshit. I did learn that opinion polling can be readily used to get the results you desire…mainly by way of how that particular poll is worded.
Although a recovering journalist myself, that polling course was the only “J-School” one I took at university. Those who majored in journalism at the University of Minnesota…at least after the time of Eric Sevareid, a grad of the high school I once attended…ended up being primarily stenographers for the Ruling Elite’s agenda….Brown Nosers, the majority of them even back in the Sixties…and nowadays generally nothing but Brown Nosers, sniffing up to the back-ends of those holding the reins of power.
Then we come to poll-wise #2, the critical element. If polling is accomplished in tandem with “noose” management, as I like to term it, then the pollsters can expect that the mind of the “Great Overwashed” hoi-polloi has been so thoroughly washed, rinsed and put out to dry that once again, the result of the polling generally ends up being quite close to the originally desired outcome.
Perhaps polling is done somewhat differently in Russia, but here in the Ruptured Republic, there rarely occurs an outcome which was not already engineered and generally turning out as planned. They did fuck up at least once in their efforts, though, as contrary to most polling results, the less than fully honorable Donald Trump defeated the egregious bitch, Hillary Clinton, promptly launching the status quo into hyperspace.
Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 9 2023 14:43 utc | 271
Derek Henry | Feb 9 2023 8:25 utc | posted this:
“Just get sick and tired of being labelled as a troll by Russian idiots in the comment section who can’t count to 10.”
What a pathetic, squalid statement that speaks volumes about who you really are; “the troll” is gross understatement.
Posted by: LongCovid | Feb 9 2023 14:49 utc | 272
Paul Greenwood
Kudos. One helluva fine précis on one of the most successfully evil pro$titicians and self-serving egotists in the 20th Century.
His only competition would have been the Ruptured Republic’s own Franklin “DeLano Roosevelt, a diabolical schemer and plotter who engineered the deaths of near on 10,000 American soldiers and sailors on 12-7-41 in order to further the Bank$ter agenda of pulling Churchill’s chestnuts outta the fire and to eventually become the new Big Dog within the Collective West.
Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 9 2023 14:52 utc | 273
Swiss Policy Research is pretty straight down the middle on most things. The Ukraine War is no exception.
https://swprs.org/the-ukraine-war-in-2023/
Posted by: The Accountant | Feb 9 2023 11:23 utc | 246
Agree, it is an excellent “neutral” assessment of where we are now. No sugar coating or cheerleading for either side. “b” should review the propaganda and false flag sections, they do not hesitate to call out the Ukrainians there.
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Feb 9 2023 14:59 utc | 274
Paul Greenwood (255).
All very good, I’m also under the impression that Churchill starved 3 million Indian’s to death as well, and that the British Empire committed quite a few atrocities on that continent.
https://anti-empire.com/winston-churchill-starved-3-million-indians-to-death-in-the-man-made-bengal-famine-of-1942-43/#:~:text=Winston%20Churchill%20Starved%203%20Million%20Indians%20to,Death%20in%20the%20Man-Made%20Bengal%20Famine%20of%201943.
Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 9 2023 15:00 utc | 275
Outraged @270
Thank you for your indefatigable efforts on behalf common humanity vis a vis the horrific agenda of the powers of the Evil Empire and their corrupted and corruptive stooges in Kiev. Truly a workmanlike effort. Kudos.
Posted by: aristodemos | Feb 9 2023 15:00 utc | 276
Larger, more aggressive pincer movement developing at Bakhmut:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3Uy-kHH4Pk
Posted by: Chris | Feb 9 2023 15:03 utc | 277
@202 yandex.ru, use your browsers translator.
Posted by: Neofeudalfuture | Feb 9 2023 15:11 utc | 278
@ paddy | Feb 9 2023 11:38 utc | 248
Fairly good broad summary reporting & analysis(IMV), yet glaring deliberately interleaved/embedded misinformation & blatant propaganda as well as irrelevant & invalid analogies. Further to your points:
On the Ukrainian side, there are about 50,000 deaths and about 150,000 dead and wounded in total.
As a matter of fact, Russian tanks and Russian planes haven’t had much of an impact in Ukraine
the destruction of civilian infrastructure, absent military necessity, is a war crime. In fact, these attacks appear to be the first systematic, ordered-from-the-top Russian war crime in Ukraine.
Russian forces did illegally execute, without a fair trial, about a dozen plain-clothed territorial defense forces who were armed or spying on Russian troops.
Hm … for starters, See: Francs-tireurs, belligerent combatants who operate outside the Laws of War, & 3rd Geneva Convention, 1st additional Protocol 1977, article 43.
So much “winning” for Europe:
https://www.rt.com/business/571233-iran-russia-germany-gas-turbines/
“Iranian-designed parts will replace German equipment in hydropower plants after sanctions halted operations last year”
I am thinking that racism is behind scum like Blinken and his ilk, who cannot conceive of the possibility that Iranians might have the intelligence, work ethic, and general ingenuity to build their own turbines. Their hatred of Arabs and Persians is going to be their undoing.
Posted by: ChrisFromGA | Feb 9 2023 15:24 utc | 280
@Technophobe, §119:
Yes, the silence from Corbyn et al. is deafening.
But then again, Britain is muzzled, so one would never know.
There may be many anti-war movements, actions and protests but the likes of 77th brigade prevents us ever knowing about them.
It´s full Goebbels here in England. So let´s hope we don´t go the way of Germany under Goebbels.
Unfortunately, with this parliament, things are not looking good.
One hope is that the sovereign has to declare war (last was George VI in 1939) and can refuse. In the case of Charles III, that is a forlorn hope.
Posted by: John Marks | Feb 9 2023 15:31 utc | 281
World socialist website
Posted by: Adamski | Feb 9 2023 10:49 utc | 243
Excluding their attitude towards Trump and vaccines, this is good source.
There is also an accurate source of mainstream media claiming that their enemies do bad things (chemical weapons, biological weapons, nuclear weapons, hypocrisy, lawless tyranny, etc.) and assuming that they are talking about the bad things they do.
Posted by: Colin | Feb 9 2023 15:33 utc | 282
Macron awarded Zelenskiy the Legion of Honor.
It would give some hope for France if some previous awardees would protest.
Like the antiwar vets who in DC protests during the Johnson Administration threw their ‘Nam medals over the fence onto the White House lawn.
Posted by: John Kennard | Feb 9 2023 15:33 utc | 283
[282]
Sorry to rain on your parade but George VI did no such thing. It was PM Neville Chamberlain in Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street
War is a Royal Prerogative Power and those are now exercised by Prime Minister as First Lord of Treasury and carried out through Privy Council using Order in Council
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Feb 9 2023 15:42 utc | 284
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Feb 9 2023 12:25 utc | 255
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade_of_Germany
It’s interesting how many people on the comments page argue that the blockade causing deaths is not a war crime, sounding very much like neoconservatives talking about the children killed by the blockade in Iraq.
And there is a better link for the article about Churchill:
https://archive.md/19OA5
It’s interesting that even the Zionist newspapers admit that the Palestinians are 97% of the Kingdom of Israel as well as Zionist businessmen bribing Churchill (obviously not for nothing).
Of course Marx was obviously right, the bourgeoisie is the ruling class of the country, not the clowns on the stage.
Posted by: Colin | Feb 9 2023 15:46 utc | 285
@Valerie Swales, §131:
Mine too.
But that is just what Brandon and BoJo (and his successors) have been provoking – and promoting.
This is at least as bad as the Cuban missile crisis back in 1962. (Remember the ´four-minute warning´?)
The British parliament clearly cares not a jot for the sufferings of the Ukrainians – and their attitude to nuclear war suggests they care nothing about us.
Where is the anti-war movement in England?
This is a far worse prospect than the B´liar war against Iraq in 2003.
Posted by: John Marks | Feb 9 2023 15:47 utc | 286
@Kyle Koffler | Feb 9 2023 9:52 utc | 229
Thanks again, now it is clear.
Posted by: Norwegian | Feb 9 2023 15:48 utc | 287
@bevin, §133:
Yes indeed.
One of the most complete travesties of justice yet.
I used to respect the Dutch. Now they have fallen to the bottom of the sewer in my estimation.
Posted by: John Marks | Feb 9 2023 15:50 utc | 288
@Joe, §149:
The Rumanians need to be careful.
They could get their pre-1939 Dniester border back again if they signal cooperation with the Russians.
If they invite the Yanks in, they´ll be toast, like the Ukraine. Is that what Rumanians really want?
Posted by: John Marks | Feb 9 2023 15:58 utc | 289
Arestodemos @ 274 at 14.52 utc
“Franklin “DeLano Roosevelt, a diabolical schemer and plotter who engineered the deaths of near on 10,000 American soldiers and sailors on 12-7-41 in order to further the Bank$ter agenda of pulling Churchill’s chestnuts outta the fire and to eventually become the new Big Dog within the Collective West.“
Only about 2,400 American soldiers and sailors died on Oahu on 12-7-1941. I do not doubt that FDR is responsible for drawing the US into WWII and thus responsible for many, many more American deaths than 10,000.
That particular morning my father was 15 and lived across the street from the Pearl Harbor harbor master. The harbor master and dad drove to Pearl that morning and did what they could. Several months later, with the blessings of the Punahou principal, dad skipped his senior year in high school, and received his diploma upon enlisting in the navy. I heard him say several times how when FDR died no enlisted man on his ship would lower the flag to half mast and an officer ended up doing so.
Repeat after me, “The only good politician is …”
Posted by: Butte Bill | Feb 9 2023 16:06 utc | 290
What russophile folks wouldn’t understand is Washington’s involvement is not about guaranteeing a quick victory to Kiev.
Washington and its vassals are feeding the correct equipment to deplete Moscow’s armed forces at a rate in which this will take a decade or more to rebound the losses.
A quick defeat for Vladimir Putin would just reset the clock until his successor or he threatening again by a few years.
Vladimir Putin has been provided the off-ramp : Washington was proposing a territorial concession in a peace-for-land swap.
By turning that down, Vladimir Putin clearly revealed his goals were imperialistic.
Therefore, not that people like this, to prevent that from continuing – Kiev will get what needs to continue to allow Vladimir Putin to deplete his own forces.
Weapons like F-15 Eagle wouldn’t yet align with that thought process.
Posted by: Wantagh | Feb 9 2023 16:13 utc | 291
Posted by: Wantagh | Feb 9 2023 16:13 utc | 292
You don’t get to call out “imperialism” while following an US discourse.
I mean, you can drink bleach if you want, the degree of hypocrisy and stupidity it entails is simply off the charts.
Posted by: Arganthonios | Feb 9 2023 16:15 utc | 292
@Konrad, §159:
The UK régime is clearly psychotic.
I hope the Brits do an Oliver Cromwell over the forthcoming coronation of Charles III.
Posted by: John Marks | Feb 9 2023 16:22 utc | 293
A distant relative of mine was a petty officer on the Oklahoma on 7.Dec 1941. He survived, but always blamed FDR for Pearl Harbor.
Posted by: Exile | Feb 9 2023 16:24 utc | 294
@Joe, §149:
The Rumanians need to be careful.
They could get their pre-1939 Dniester border back again if they signal cooperation with the Russians.
If they invite the Yanks in, they´ll be toast, like the Ukraine. Is that what Rumanians really want?
Posted by: John Marks | Feb 9 2023 15:58 utc | 290
There are barely any Romanians in those areas. The dominant minority is actually Bessarabian Bulgarians. The rest is Russian.
Also, in terms of “inviting the yanks” Romania already f***d up big time by having one of the two Aegis Ashore sites in Europe in Deveselu.
So they are pretty much guaranteed to get nuked in an eventual all-out war, while neighboring Bulgaria and Hungary probably won’t be.
They will also get bombed conventionally if their airfields are used for missions in Ukraine, which looks likely at this point.
Posted by: shadowbanned | Feb 9 2023 16:29 utc | 295
Moscow is losing men and equipments but at a far slower rate than Kiev and also had more to begin with, whenever saw danger to pull out to preserve its army, while Kiev wasted its on showy advances.
The point of demilitarization is to turn Ukraine into unsuitable candidate for NATO and remove this as a proxy on its border – Hence, remove a threat to itself and probably annex Ukraine’s southern and eastern oblasts. Leaving a rump state that will never be in NATO and will take a long time to become any sort of threat again and to give leverage over what’s left of Ukraine through sea access.
Posted by: Carny X Call | Feb 9 2023 16:31 utc | 296
Vladimir Putin has been provided the off-ramp : Washington was proposing a territorial concession in a peace-for-land swap.
By turning that down, Vladimir Putin clearly revealed his goals were imperialistic.
Posted by: Wantagh | Feb 9 2023 16:13 utc | 292
Absolute nonsense.
Most of Ukraine, with the exception of Galicia, is core historic Russian territory.
It ended up independent by a series of unfortunate historic accidents, and then it became a US colony.
Russia is fighting to recover its own lands now.
But because the US owns most of the tools for brainwashing on this planet, the campaign to trick people into thinking the exact opposite of what is true has been very successful, which is how we have so many idiots who really believe this is an “imperial war” launched by Putin for no reason whatsoever.
A “territorial concession” is a laughable proposal.
Kiev and Odessa are the third and fourth (not necessarily in order) most important historic Russian cities. And the situation right now is such that from the point of view of guaranteeing long-term security, Ukraine has to be completely extinguished as an independent entity, and then erased as an idea (“Ukraine” has to become as abhorrent a word as “Nazi Germany”, it is pretty much the same thing at this point). Otherwise that cancer will continue to cause problems forever.
Posted by: shadowbanned | Feb 9 2023 16:38 utc | 297
Moscow is losing men and equipments but at a far slower rate than Kiev and also had more to begin with, whenever saw danger to pull out to preserve its army, while Kiev wasted its on showy advances.
Posted by: Carny X Call | Feb 9 2023 16:31 utc | 297
But at a much faster rate than NATO, which has only a small number of soldiers there.
A long war is not in Russia’s interest, contrary to the hopium that many have drunk.
Posted by: shadowbanned | Feb 9 2023 16:40 utc | 298
that means the war will go on for more years and US forces are already heavily committed
Only Putin is to blame for this.
He should have gone for a full blitz and done a regime change in the first week before the enemy had time to recover.
He has given them time. That could be a fatal mistake.
The anglos do not negotiate. They consider themselves exceptional ie the rules don’t apply to them. I think Putin still does not understand what that implies.
Posted by: nothing but the trut | Feb 9 2023 16:46 utc | 299
Vladimir Putin hadn’t annexed Donbass in 2014 because he wanted these oblasts in Ukraine as autonomous republics, which could veto any membership for NATO but couldn’t let Kievan regime and its neo-nazi paramilitaries shell people forever. Western leaders used Minsk II to trick him into thinking a peace was possible to prepare Kiev for war. They spent years to turn Ukrainian forces into capable forces, which is basically NATO’s force without the security guarentees. In the beginning of 2022, Kievan forces launched an offensive on Donbass to provoke Moscow that couldn’t let Donbass be cleared by the the neo-nazis.
NATO has been exposed by this war as lacking industrial capacities to back large ground forces up. Kiev is losing, European economy is wrecked and Washington has conducted a terror attack on Europe’s energy infrastructures, exhibiting to be Europe’s enemy. This will turn back to bite Washington on the arse… Although, that will take some years yet.
Posted by: Carny X Call | Feb 9 2023 16:46 utc | 300