I was notified this morning by Tik Tok of my account suspension due to me thanking a Ukrainian poster who was lamenting the death and destruction in the Ukraine due to the war; simply expressing my ephemeral gratitude to the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people who keep it in power for suffering, dying and sacrificing their country’s cities and infrastructure so I could continue enjoying the fruits of US hegemony.

Posted by: ctpalmer | Mar 23 2023 16:52 utc | 4

I finally had an opportunity to actually read the statement by Vladimir Putin regarding the supply of depleted Uranium ammunition. Unlike some of the more hysterical posters on this forum who were defecating in their women’s underwear, Putin obviously has a more realistic understanding of what Depleted Uranium is. I am also certain that Putin doesn’t wear women’s underwear and that he doesn’t have difficulties with incontinence.
A few clarifications on what Depleted Uranium ammunition actually is. Since the US doesn’t recycle spent fuel rods (an abysmally stupid policy), the US doesn’t utilize Uranium that has been irradiated in a nuclear reactor to manufacture ammunition.
Also, be aware that the US military is extremely cognizant of radiological hazards. As an example, the US Navy refuses to deploy tactical nuclear weapons that utilize Plutonium rather than Uranium-235 for the fissile material. Plutonium -239 which has a half-life of 24,0⁰0 years is about 20,000 times as radioactive as Uranium-235 which has a half-life of about 450 million years. Even bomb grade Plutonium contains significant quantities of Pu-238 which has a much shorter half-life of 89 years as well as Pu-240 which undergoes spontaneous fission. Since crew bunk in the torpedo room, the Navy doesn’t want Plutonium fueled bombs. Air Force crews spend far less time in proximity to nuclear weapons and are separated by more distance, so Plutonium fueled bombs are less problematic.
I don’t believe that Putin is stupid enough to retaliate for the use of DU munitions by using nuclear weapons. However; Putin is shrewd enough to exploit the hysteria as a justification for the interdiction of NATO tanks and ammunition before they enter Ukraine. I expect that more drones as well as satellites and manned surveillance aircraft will also be shot down.

Posted by: Elmer Fudd | Mar 23 2023 17:06 utc | 6

Posted by: ctpalmer | Mar 23 2023 16:52 utc | 4
They hate the truth.

Posted by: Colin | Mar 23 2023 17:22 utc | 8

Another Weekly MFA Briefing presented by Maria Zakharova has two long sections about Ukraine of which I provide the first. I should also mention there’s a portion devoted to MH-17 developments and the observance of two notorious anniversaries–Opening of Dachau in 1933 and the 1999 NATO Aggressive War against Serbia. There’s also a long section devoted to “On the discriminatory nature of the current global monetary and financial system.” I should also add the transcript isn’t complete, but the video is available at the above link.
And now, About the Ukrainian Crisis:

In the territories of Zaporozhye, Kherson regions, the DPR and the LHP liberated from the neo-Nazi kiev regime, there is an active establishment of peaceful life. Tens of thousands of specialists from other regions of Russia are restoring and rebuilding residential buildings and civilian infrastructure, repairing hundreds of kilometers of roads.
On March 15 of this year, a technological complex of the asphalt concrete plant was installed in the Lutuginsky district of the LPR, a trial batch of road surface was produced. This will put in order about 410 km of roads, 20 bridges and overpasses. In Mariupol this year it is planned to repair 54 km of roads, 5 bridges, complete the restoration of the city center, build another 30 multi-storey buildings for 2700 apartments. In Donetsk, by the end of 2023, a perinatal center equipped with modern equipment, designed for 149 seats, will be put into operation.
Time has shown that the Kiev authorities succeeded only in destruction. Russia has returned to these lands forever (there is no doubt about this) and is actively restoring what was destroyed by Ukrainian neo-Nazis. Naturally, they did not destroy alone. They were actively assisted in this by those who created them and brought them to power illegally. First of all, the Anglo-Saxon duet (Washington and London). We’ll talk about that later today [this part of the transcript isn’t complete yet].
On March 18 of this year, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky introduced another package of sanctions against 300 individuals and 141 legal entities. In addition to the Russians, the list includes individual citizens of Iran and Syria, including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Restrictive measures have been introduced against a number of enterprises of the domestic military-industrial complex, aviation, shipbuilding and automotive industries, including the Kalashnikov, Almaz-Antey concerns, as well as several companies from Iran and the UAE.
The Kiev regime deliberately put the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions on the stream. This is done in order to keep their own policies afloat, including in the West, and to continue to do what they do best and in which they have no equal today – professional begging against the background of the total destruction of everything that was created by generations before them.
The “collective West” does not stop pumping the Kiev regime with weapons. On March 20 of this year, the Pentagon reported that since the beginning of the special military operation, the amount of American military assistance to Ukraine amounted to more than $ 32.5 billion. According to the head of the US Defense Department L. Austin, 9 NATO countries agreed to provide Kiev with more than 150 Leopard tanks for the formation of 9 tank brigades.
The EU announced the allocation of funds for the purchase of over 1 million shells for the armed forces of Ukraine. Money for these purposes is about $ 2 billion. – will traditionally be taken from the “European Peace Foundation”.
On March 21 of this year, British Deputy Defence Minister Anna Goldie made absolutely irresponsible statements, announcing London’s intention to transfer to Kiev, in addition to Challenger 2 tanks, also armor-piercing shells equipped with depleted uranium warheads. These words have been confirmed also these days at the official level additionally in the UK. It wasn’t a caveat or another mistake. No, this is nonsense, confirmed at the official level by the UK.
All this is additional evidence of the aggressive intentions of the West, which does not need peace in Ukraine, in the region, and in the whole world. He is obsessed with the maniacal idea of inflicting a “strategic defeat” on Russia and is ready to sacrifice an entire country, peoples, millions of lives for the sake of this. We are ready to do everything if only this painful idea of the dominance of one’s own exclusivity has practical confirmation through such destructive logic and its implementation.
This is confirmed by the words of US Secretary of State E. Blinken. Commenting on the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Moscow, he directly stated the inadmissibility of a ceasefire in Ukraine. Let me remind you that the fund through which American satellites in Europe send money to the Kiev regime is called the European Peace Foundation. E. Blinken believes that there is no possibility of a ceasefire. How these things fit together in the same minds is completely incomprehensible. There can be only one answer – somewhere they openly and cynically lie. Obviously where. It’s not a “peace fund” or a European one or any other. This “fund” should have long been renamed the “war fund”. Then everything will be logical. And nothing will contradict each other.
Zelensky’s regime continues to fight dissent and potential opponents. Recently, the Verkhovna Rada approved in the first reading the bill “On Strengthening Democratic Civil Control over the Armed Forces of Ukraine”. It restricts the ability of military personnel to participate in the political life of the country. Clear. The political life of the Kiev regime is something sacred and belongs to those who occupied the offices on Bankova Street. And those to whom the Kiev regime together with V.A. Zelensky arranged their fate and form their reality as cannon fodder should not care about any management institutions and the implementation of such opportunities. They will be prohibited from such options as becoming deputies of any level, making public statements. They are limited in any manifestation of their own opinion on domestic political issues. Why do you think that is? Because the Kiev regime has fully (to the extent that it can even realize something) understood the inevitability of its own collapse and is trying to do at least something to postpone this terrible moment for them for a little. I want to disappoint them. The terrible moment for them has come a long time ago. The lack of conscience and any morality prevented them from realizing this.
By closing its mouth to its own military, the Kiev regime, in fact, is trying not only to hide the truth about what is happening in the combat zone. The story is much worse. Ukraine, torn apart by Western experiments, subjected to the pitting of its people against each other by the very political forces led by the West, plunges into what from the point of view of the program statements of its leadership was their terrible dream. You remember (not to mention Vladimir Zelensky and before him, and everyone else) how they said only that they see the future of Ukraine in the first as a democratic and free state, where every person has the right to say what he sees fit, has the right to participate in public and political life, that all power institutions should be controlled by the media in accordance with the law for openness and transparency in order to overcome. Unfortunately, there are ancestral problems for this country, namely the total dominance of corruption, bureaucracy and their merging.
I would like to remind you that in the words of the same Vladimir Zelensky, it was the word “freedom” that was in the first place, ahead of such concepts as well-being, economic growth, and financial stability. No, all this, of course, was important, but in second place, and in the first place is “freedom” and through the comma “freedom” and “peace”. Take a look. At first, the Kiev regime struck a blow at the world, because they allowed the West to turn itself into a NATO bridgehead against Russia, to pump itself up with weapons, to sell and be bought. Then the blow came on freedom. At first, everything “went” gradually: repressions were launched against political figures, political scientists, and then journalists. After that, murders, disappearances, harassment, harassment and persecution of various species began. Then there was open censorship. And all this began long before 2022, pressure was exerted on the channels, and they were closed, reformatted and withdrawn in favor of other forces of influence. Then something happened that could not be put in any barrier, because the scale of the disaster was irreversible. The formation of a total dictatorship of one representative of the current group of power (directly V.A. Zelensky) began. There was only one channel for the dissemination of information. Everyone else had to be built into the mainstream. Total and severe censorship was visible behind everything that is published by the Ukrainian media. It was not just persecution that began, but real kidnappings, their disappearances are no longer as an isolated incident, but as a system.
Today, all this was enshrined, at least in the first reading, in the new law. This law does not just “put an end” (there is no longer room for crosses), but fixes the irrevocable departure of the current “group” of ruling people from the principles (at least in words voiced by them. there will be no return. It will only get worse).
Kiev sees another threat to itself in the preservation of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Why? Probably because, as the saying goes (if you recall the terminology of the mid-twentieth century) “did not ziganuli”. They did not swear allegiance to the criminals and did not retreat from what was inherited by their ancestors as covenants. On March 20 of this year, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refused to meet with members of the Holy Synod who tried to urge him to prevent the escalation of the interfaith situation in the country and to stop the persecution against clerics and laity of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. They tried to do everything in their power to take advantage of the remnants of any system of communication between citizens and what is called (or used to be called) the state, and today is the Kiev regime. They urged to leave alone the Orthodox shrine – the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, to prevent its transfer to the schismatics. They tried to talk and be listened to. Even that was denied.
Apparently, the current Ukrainian god-fighters from power do not intend to stop. On March 21 of this year, the chairman of the Ternopil Regional Council M.I. Holovko said that the expulsion of the clergy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from another holy Orthodox monastery – the Pochayiv Lavra – is a strategic task (terrible words, but they said it), which should be solved in the near future. We talked about all these trends at international venues, sent letters, reports and reports, appealed and urged, explained long and hard when it could still be prevented. I am referring not only to the split and absolute violation of everything that was proclaimed as high ideals in Ukraine, and in Europe too.
In principle, it would be possible to use this topic in order to prevent the degradation of the general situation on the territory of Ukraine. The international community, in the form of Western countries blocking any discussion of these topics, was silent. Someone did not want to understand, someone to hear. Someone heard and understood everything, but did not want to do anything. And someone opposed and did it actively.
The new stage of the religious war in Ukraine started by the Kiev regime will not lead to anything good. The consequences will be tragic.
All these events, especially the UK’s decision to supply armor-piercing shells with depleted uranium, show that neither Kiev nor its Western curators are interested in resolving the conflict. They are interested in the opposite – in escalating the situation. They do not care that by their actions they are turning Ukraine into a real scorched field (in the context of shells with united uranium, this will sound in the literal sense of the word), and now also into a source of radiation pollution.
For these reasons, the special military operation will continue. The goals and objectives outlined by the Russian leadership were repeatedly reconfirmed by him. We will once again return to the fundamental principles that, unfortunately, have now been trampled on the territory of Ukraine, in order to demonstrate everything that is happening there and give an objective assessment of it. [My Emphasis]

I’ll look for the additional discussion that’s noted above.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 23 2023 17:34 utc | 10

ISW saying again that Russia running out of precision missiles.
How many more times are we going to hear that?
They claim there are less being used. Perhaps Ukraine’s air defence depletion means less missiles achieves the same result as three months ago.
Posted by: Truthsayer | Mar 23 2023 16:43 utc | 2

They are not running out but they are also not using them as they should be.
The situation is very reminiscent to the one from August 2022 — once again there are these large concentrations of UA forces for a rumored counteroffensive, the pro-RU crowd is dismissing it as not a serious threat, and we know how that ended.
Because back then for some inexplicable reason Russians did not make much of an effort to destroy them with stand off weapons before they could launch that counteroffensive, nor did they make any effort at all to isolate the battlefield.
The worry is that it’s the same shit now — Konstantinovka, Slavyansk and Kramatorsk are supposedly getting hit daily but what is getting hit? Nobody is told anything, but if they were hitting what needs to be hit, there would be no possibility of a counteroffensive, and yet here we are.
Videos are circulating of large Ukrainian columns of lightly armored vehicles that could be taken out quite easily with a quick strike, but they are not touched? Why? How many times do we have to go through that?

Posted by: shadowbanned | Mar 23 2023 17:41 utc | 12

Russia has returned to these lands forever (there is no doubt about this)

Well, it returned to Kherson “forever” too, and then left.
And neither Putin nor any other senior official has said a word about that for more than four months now. Not a single word. When is it going to be returned, how, etc. It’s a regional capital of the RF we are talking about, and they are constitutionally obliged to regain control over it.
And when the KPRF filed an inquiry regarding the matter, United Russia blocked it.
So such claims are very hollow at the moment after that debacle.

Posted by: shadowbanned | Mar 23 2023 17:45 utc | 14

The tide is going out. . .
My media-area is being drawn to naming the US as the damn #@%&*(.
I’m much more condemning but this is a win.
Popular opinion does pay the taxes (if only in disguise).

Posted by: Elmagnostic | Mar 23 2023 18:01 utc | 16

@ Dferg | Mar 23 2023 18:04 utc | 17
That was quick, only 14 months since commencement of hostilities. A link please ?
Cheers
&

Laugh at it, but Finland just got into NATO.

Au contraire, will laugh at it & all your posts, huge belly-laugh uproarious guffaws! If you think Finland abandoning its faux neutrality to join derelict NATO given the length of it’s border with RF, it’s population size & state of it’s military, as former territories of the then Russian Empire for over a century, is a great strategy, you’re an even bigger fool than you are a Troll.

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 23 2023 18:17 utc | 18

Double envelopments are a new thing, didn’t really see it good before. Now it looks like it forces supply routes to go closer to fire control zones at minimal territorial control necessary. Bahkmut is showing clearly now in the city itself.
It also forces one to move roads to get around the inner ring, which may be valuable in slowing movement restricting max throughout.
Interesting…

Posted by: Neofeudalfuture | Mar 23 2023 18:26 utc | 20

Such a marvelous display of strategy…
Posted by: shadowbanned | Mar 23 2023 17:54 utc | 15
#######################
Friend, don’t be that guy in the trench that the other soldiers want to slip a live grenade under while he is asleep.
It is easy for you criticize the moves (or lack thereof) by others on the internet with little of the information, and none of the responsibility.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 23 2023 18:33 utc | 22

Dugin has a piece up about the Russia/Chinese relationship, and how their different perspectives and interests keep one from dominating the other outright.
AXIS MOSCOW – BEIJING 2.0

For Moscow, Chairman Xi’s visit at such a difficult moment is very important. It shows that the great power, China, is not at all in solidarity with attempts to isolate Russia on the international stage, as the West seeks to do, and that relations between countries and peoples are at a historical peak.
This is roughly how the responsible Russian expert community sees Xi Jinping’s visit. This is a symbolic gesture of the established multipolarity represented by two world leaders who fully agree with each other on the main parameters of the future.
However, other voices are also heard in Russia. We can sometimes hear opinion that China is playing its own game, is not going to actually help Russia in its head-on confrontation with the West, and is ready to enter into separate negotiations with Washington. This is all the more possible because the Chinese economy is too dependent on Western markets, and China itself is not yet ready for a frontal conflict with the West and will try to postpone it as much as possible or avoid it altogether. But in the meantime, Russia may have fallen on hard times. The main topic of such fears is China’s lack of readiness to provide military assistance to Russia.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 23 2023 18:39 utc | 24

@ Neofeudalfuture | Mar 23 2023 18:26 utc | 20
expanding an envelopment inwards and outwards decreases the risk of getting one of the “pincers” cut off, (creating two rings if you will)

Posted by: ctiger | Mar 23 2023 18:42 utc | 26

@ ctiger | Mar 23 2023 18:42 utc | 26
Indeed.
ie Battle/Siege of Alesia, the Roman army of Julius Caesar against a confederation of Gallic tribes united under the leadership of Vercingetorix of the Arverni, 52 BC. Though contrary to the dictum of Dangerous vs Deadly ground. Sun Tzu would not be amused.
Cheers.

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 23 2023 19:05 utc | 28

Posted by: Elmer Fudd | Mar 23 2023 17:06 utc | 6
Anything to do with Putin or the UK’s depleted uranium shells aside, what *does* the US use to manufacture its own DU ammunition?
As to the US military being extremely careful with anything, puh-leez. Ask the residents of Camp Lejeune or the children in Iraq born with cancer caused by US DU ammunition. I’ve even heard stories about US troops guarding DU ammunition coming down with cancer and other illnesses.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 23 2023 19:10 utc | 30

About that depleted Uranium.
Depleted Uranium can be handled safely as solid slugs.
But, when used as tank ammunition, it becomes FAR more dangerous.
1. When the round hits tank armor, a large fraction of it instantly vaporizes and the rest can fragment. It then forms uranium oxide dust and can be inhaled or settle into the soil. When that happens, it can be easily ingested by breathing contaminated air or eating food grown in the soil. It can accumulate in body tissues.
2. Uranium is also a heavy metal chemical toxin like lead or mercury.
The long term effects are now well documented from Iraq and Serbia.
So, some of Ukraine’s fertile fields where the battles are taking place can become too toxic to live or farm there.
Of course, this the US/UK strategy of scorched earth in defeat.
Since this now Russian territory and will stay that way, Russia will be forced to somehow deal with this contamination.
Russia has every right to prevent this ecological disaster in whatever way they find appropriate.

Posted by: Mar man | Mar 23 2023 19:11 utc | 32

@ John Marks | Mar 23 2023 19:06 utc | 29
Concur. Found the unlinked ref:
It slowly dawns on the West that Ukraine is not going to win – TheAmericanThinker Blog, Mar21’23

Writer David Goldman, who writes as the brilliant “Spengler” at Asia Times, foresees an ending of sorts to the Ukraine conflict, based on the West’s inability to supply the resources to keep an extended war coming.
In his latest Asia Times piece, he noted the private thinking going on of people who make up the foreign policy community:
A gloomy assessment of Ukraine’s prospects for victory against Russia emerged from a recent private gathering of former top US soldiers, intelligence officials and scholars with resumes reaching from the Reagan to the Trump administrations.
Short of trained personnel and ammunition, one speaker argued, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky might consider a Chinese peace plan, especially after Beijing’s successful mediation of the Iran-Saudi dispute.
The several dozen attendees, many of whom had held cabinet or sub-cabinet positions, met under Chatham House rules, which forbid identification of individual participants but allow the content itself to be presented.
…

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 23 2023 19:15 utc | 34

Posted by: Bob | Mar 23 2023 19:15 utc | 33
“The problem is when it gets inside you which it will when it’s vaporized which it will be when shells hit. Once inside it causes Cancers and other mutations including the cells that become children.”
—
Totally correct, Bob. This is precisely the issue of this type of ammo.
The problem is not external radiation, but the internal radiation which you get when you inhale or ingest particles.
And that is extremely dangerous.

Posted by: Verdant | Mar 23 2023 19:28 utc | 36

Dferg | Mar 23 2023 18:04 utc | 17
the us’ pentagon is horrified it may be shown totally inept after 30 odd years spending on profits from expensive weapons which could not operate in ukraine!
high profit, spending on unilateral disarmament.
the euro part of nato is disarmed on the cheap less than 2% gdp!
usa should have killed: b-2, c-17, f-22, f-35, mv 22, ford class carriers, virginia class subs, etc. and bought guns, shells and refueling vehicles….

Posted by: paddy | Mar 23 2023 19:39 utc | 38

Re Hankster, #19.
Quote the BBC as an expert source?
Rolling on the floor laughing my ass off.

Posted by: Elmer Fudd | Mar 23 2023 19:52 utc | 40

Re: Verdant | Mar 23 2023 19:28 utc | 36 and Bob | Mar 23 2023 19:15 utc | 33
Agree, it is the internal exposure to DU that poses a danger to those such afflicted.
I will summarize the writing of Paul Zimmerman below, which partially explains why this is the case.
What is not widely understood is that there is a fundamental difference between the refined and concentrated uranium metal as opposed to exposure of the ubiquitous uranium found in nature. This is because “the non-depleted uranium that is present in nature is, for the most part, found in low concentrations in soil, rock and water. Its concentration is routinely measured in parts per million.
According to the IAEA: The average concentration of natural uranium in soil is about 2 parts per million, which is equivalent to 2 grams of uranium in 1000 kg of soil. Proponents of DU frequently justify the safety of these weapons on the grounds that human beings are constantly exposed to uranium and show no ill effects. This argument is fancy footwork, but ultimately, hokum. DU munitions contain uranium in concentrations that are hundreds of thousands of times greater than the non-depleted uranium found in nature. With the possible exception of a small number of workers in limited sectors of the uranium fuel cycle and some who are involved in the fabrication of components for nuclear weapons, no human being on planet earth receives acute internal exposure to concentrated uranium at levels comparable to those who inhale particles of DU.”
When this material is ingested or inhaled, the exposure is totally unnatural. The internalized particles are concentrated uranium. Once embedded in tissue, they act as point sources of radiation, and their level of radioactivity far exceeds that from naturally occurring uranium in the environment.
In other words, a particle of metallic uranium238 is going to emit a great deal more concentrated radiation than you would experience if you ingest or inhale naturally occurring uranium.
The other issue that comes into play here is how the biological effect of internal radiation exposures from such ingested or inhaled radionuclides are estimated using the current radiation safety standards. Tiny clusters of cells that surround a particle of DU (or cesium-138, strontium-90, etc., etc.) receive a relatively high dose of ionizing radiation, however, the standards average the dose over the entire organ system where it is absorbed.
Advocates for these standards will say that they take into consideration this dilutional effect by using “quality factors” or “weighing factors” because, for example, the formulas will multiply the effect times 20 for alpha particles. However, this is more than offset when the dose is averaged over the entire tissue mass wherein the dose is absorbed. It is like multiplying by 20 and then dividing by a million.
This is why there is such a discrepancy between the observed effects of so-called “low-dose” internal radiation exposures and the horrendous health effects created in young children living in regions that have been grossly contaminated by the fallout from the Chernobyl disaster. See Radioactive Cesium and the Human Heart” by Dr. Yuri Bandazhevsky.

Posted by: Perimetr | Mar 23 2023 20:06 utc | 42

@ Bob | Mar 23 2023 19:15 utc | 33
My understanding is a large proportion of a uranium projectile spontaneously combusts upon high energy impact with and penetration of a target. For a tank crew it can mean a fiery death. The oxides mentioned are from this combustion.
Regardless of the amount of residual radioactivity or not, it is a terrible poison to release upon a land, a people, or an ecosystem. Basically it seems like a terrible nuclear waste disposal solution for those without morals.

Posted by: anon1 | Mar 23 2023 20:11 utc | 44

@ mo3 | Mar 23 2023 18:58 utc | 27
THIS PAGE COULD NOT BE FOUND.
Nothing could be found at this location.
—————–
link to colonel macgregors commentary from 8 hours ago…
Massive Russian offensives are underway to terminate Ukraine

Posted by: james | Mar 23 2023 20:16 utc | 46

well said bevin.. thank you for saying all that…

Posted by: james | Mar 23 2023 20:21 utc | 48

Umpteenth request to STOP RESPONDING TO THE FUCKING CONCERN TROLL!! YOU ARE WHY HE IS HERE! GET A FUCKING CLUE!
But I digress…
Here are two links from Martyanov which are worth considerably more of your time than RESPONDING TO THE FUCKING CONCERN TROLL!
First, Larry Johnson on the possibility of a Bakhmut offensive:
Is Ukraine On the Verge of Launching A Counter Offensive at Bakhmut?
https://sonar21.com/is-ukraine-on-the-verge-of-launching-a-counter-offensive-at-bakhmut/

I received the following from a friend who is well plugged in with the Ukrainian side. I consider his information reliable:
Volodomyr Zelensky visited Chasov Yar today to kick off an offensive to relieve Bakhmut and push the Russians back. A number of armored and artillery brigades are being moved down from the North to support such a relief operation.
Chasov Yar may be four or so miles from Bakhmut. Zelensky can no longer chance a visit to Bakhmut as he did earlier this month.
As we have noted before there are somewhere between 15 to 20,000 UKA fighting inside Bakhmut, and the UKA area of control is shrinking and also bifurcated between a larger group in the western center of the city and the remainder in the north east of the city.
Sources report that Leopard and Challenger tanks have been moved into position for the relief operation, even though the room for tank operations is not great because of the bad weather, rain and mud.
Some experts think this relief operation will last only four or five days and may start as early as tomorrow. It can’t go much longer than that because the UKA has limited reserves and cannot afford a long battle or stalemate with the Russians.
It is anticipated this will be a very bloody battle and could be decisive for both sides.
Zelensky is acting outside of the advice he is getting from the US/NATO which desires a frontal attack on Crimea and not at Bakhmut or, further to the south, Avdviika, which is also under Russian attack and potential encirclement.
If the Russians lose at Bakhmut it pressages a much longer war, perhaps years.
Up till now the Russians have been operating slowly and methodically, but this will go out the window with a fierce rescue operation.
If the Ukrainians lose, it suggests that the UKA will have squandered much of its offensive capability, and it could lead to a chaotic outcome.

Larry then goes on to discuss the likelihood of Ukraine being successful at this alleged “relief operation” (we can’t call it an “offensive”).
Then we have Scott Ritter and Andrei Martyanov (for the bloviating hater, of course) on Garland Nixon’s Youtube channel:
THE UKRAINE CRISIS – WITH SCOTT RITTER AND ANDREI MARTYANOV – VOLUME TWO (1 hour 18 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIJoFjqg80M
Spend your valuable time on these and NOT on RESPONDING TO THE FUCKING CONCERN TROLL.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 23 2023 20:28 utc | 50

Posted by: Milites | Mar 23 2023 20:29 utc | 50
Did you not read what I just said?

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 23 2023 20:32 utc | 52

I have seen some bone-headed moves in my day, but Finland trying to join NATO takes the cake. Don’t they know that a big part of why the Ukrainians are going to be missing generations of men is because they tried to join NATO???!? Is Finland somehow jealous of what Ukraine has done to themselves and wants some of that on their previously sovereign land. I don’t get it man. Just pure-ty foolishness.

Posted by: LGB! | Mar 23 2023 20:35 utc | 54

DU munitions are still widespread in U.S and U.K arsenals….most of the tonnage of DU munitions where in the form of automatic cannon in Iraq and the former Yugoslavia….20mm….25mm..30mm and when these penetrator sub calibre projectiles hit they cause aerosolization from impact and incendiary effects. But there are two distinct harmful effects from this toxic dust… radiological and chemical…. radioactive harm from alpha particles ingested or toxicity from this toxic heavy metal. During investigation into Gulf war syndrome…very specific studies from areas where DU munitions where used showed very substantial increases in overall mortality and congenital birth defects…very substantial increases in chromosome abnormalities in Bosnia and Kosovo. Now even though there is no specific ban on DU munitions because they kill by kinetic energy and not residual effects…there have been several attempts to address the environmental effects of these weapons… several nations have introduced bans on DU munitions and composite armour using this material. Regardless…I’m sure U.S would shit a chicken if someone dispersed these aerosolized DU byproduct over the continental united States. The current users of DU would also be setting themselves up for liability for damages done to foreign lands because of their usage of these weapons if they where to sign up for prohibition citing current and past studies. Just another poke of the Bear on the part of those shit eaters hunkered down behind the impenetrable wall of the English channel. This may have had historical relevance in days gone by but these are different times

Posted by: Joe | Mar 23 2023 20:41 utc | 56

In addition to the self sharpening properies, DU is pyrophoric, the outer layer, molecularly speaking, is uranium oxide because it is already in contact with the oxygen in the air. When it hits a target and some of the outer layer peels off and turns into dust, some/most of the dust is the pure uranium that was beneath that outer layer. That pure uranium dust immediately reacts with the oxygen in the air and in the process of becoming uranium oxide it reaches several thousand degrees. So as that DU dart passes through a tank it will incinerate everything inside of it because of the dust generation that is occurring.

Posted by: J | Mar 23 2023 20:55 utc | 58

So the 3BM-32 Vant, used in Chechnya and Georgia used a special DU penetrator that helped fertilise the soil? The decision to supply the Ukrainians with these rounds was to stop embarrassing headlines about Challenger 2’s being unable to penetrate modern Russian MBT’s, from the frontal arc. Not evidence of the Wests desire to irradiate Ukraine; after all, 14 Challenger 2’s with life expectancies measured in days are going to be hard pressed to have any meaningful effect on the environment.

Posted by: Milites | Mar 23 2023 21:03 utc | 60

THE UKRAINE CRISIS – WITH SCOTT RITTER AND ANDREI MARTYANOV – VOLUME TWO (1 hour 18 minutes)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIJoFjqg80M
Spend your valuable time on these and NOT on RESPONDING TO THE FUCKING CONCERN TROLL.
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 23 2023 20:28 utc | 49

What is the predictive track record of “these” over the last 14 months, and what is the track record of the “concern trolls”?

Posted by: shadowbanned | Mar 23 2023 21:05 utc | 62

Maybe Prigozhin wants to say that now Russia has to apply nuclear weapons?

Posted by: somat | Mar 23 2023 21:18 utc | 64

Posted by: shadowbanned | Mar 23 2023 21:03 utc | 59
Ditto.

Posted by: Milites | Mar 23 2023 21:20 utc | 66

Posted by: somat | Mar 23 2023 21:18 utc | 62
He strikes me as the kind of character who’d want to have then in Wagner’s arsenal, just in case. Still, he plays his part well and soon might have the staring role, if Ukraine are stupid enough to launch a relief effort towards Bakhmut.

Posted by: Milites | Mar 23 2023 21:27 utc | 68

@ shadowbanned
First, I appreciate your posts as much as I appreciate anyone else’s here, including regulars, despite your handle appearing only a few months ago.
Russia attacking Finland now would be bad optics. (Yes, I heard you laugh at that.). But if Finland starts installing missiles of any kind, Russia can take them out — “We allowed a defensive pact but will not allow massing nuclear-ambiguous missiles on our border” — with better justification for the global audience.
I certainly don’t dismiss your concern. The small number of native Finns means increasingly little in a world of increasing automation.

Posted by: natokraine | Mar 23 2023 21:43 utc | 70

Posted by: james | Mar 23 2023 20:16 utc | 45
Try this (in German):
http://www.anti-spiegel.ru/2023/scholz-bekam-in-washington-anweisungen-zur-vertuschung-der-nord-stream-sprengung/

Posted by: Jx | Mar 23 2023 21:47 utc | 72

23 March
Zelensky’s 80.000 army is ready to storm Wagner in Bakhmut. Military Summary (video, autotranslate enabled)
expecting UAF to push back Wagner-RFA to the Soledar direction from NW Bahkmut flank
coincidentally,
RT | Russia launches military satellite

According to a statement, a Soyuz-2.1a carrier blasted off at 9:40am local time (06:40 GMT) from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in the northern Arkhangelsk Region, which partially lies beyond the Arctic Circle.
The rocket had “a spacecraft in the interests of the Russian Ministry of Defense” aboard, the statement read. No further details were provided about the launch or the satellite itself.

Could this provide artillery target support?

Posted by: sln2002 | Mar 23 2023 21:56 utc | 74

Today, Military Summary said that 80,000 Ukrainian troops are DEFINITELY going to storm Bakhmut in the very near future. This is a new low for him. He’s living in a fantasy world.

Posted by: Anton Gorbatow | Mar 23 2023 22:00 utc | 76

Following up on my Russian military budget article, I saw that the historical Russian budget with its 10% annual spending increases, was suddenly Grover Norquisted down 50% for 2023 according to Novaya Gazeta. From nearly 50 trillion Rubles in 2021, to 31.1 trillion in 2023. Hmm. https://aaronlee.substack.com/p/current-stated-budget-of-russian

Posted by: Aaron Lee | Mar 23 2023 22:12 utc | 78

Aircraft can’t be used due to stacked air defences
Posted by: Johnycomelately | Mar 23 2023 22:08 utc | 74
So for what were the approx. 140’000 sorties the RuAF have flown in the special military operation?
Source:
https://www.firstpost.com/world/most-russian-fighter-pilots-gained-combat-experience-in-ukraine-war-claims-defence-minister-shoigu-12334982.html

Posted by: NoName | Mar 23 2023 22:17 utc | 80

Some DU factoids
DU alloy emits approximately 60% of the alpha, beta, and gamma radiation found in natural uranium DU is a heavy metal that is 160% more dense than lead and can remain within the body for many years and slowly solubilize. The radiological toxicity of DU is lower than that of natural uranium, the chemical toxicity of DU is the same as that of natural uranium.
The uranium-235 that remains in depleted uranium emits only a small amount of low-energy gamma radiation. However, if allowed to enter the body, depleted uranium, like natural uranium, has the potential for both chemical and radiological toxicity with the two important target organs being the kidneys and the lungs.
If depleted uranium hexafluoride (depleted UF6) is released to the atmosphere, the uranium compounds and hydrogen fluoride (HF) gas that are formed by reaction with moisture in the air can be chemically toxic. In the operation Desert Storm, over 350 metric tons of DU was used, with an estimate of 3-6 million grams released in the atmosphere.
When DU shells strike a solid object, like a tank’s armour plating, they can go straight through it before erupting in a burning cloud of dust and metal fragments. The high temperature fragments created as DU passes through armour can spread to strike anything inside a tank and set fire to its fuel and ammunition.
Veterans and civilians who did not occupy DU-contaminated vehicles are unlikely to have internalized quantities of DU significantly in excess of normal internalization of natural uranium from the environment. Analysis found that the risks of DU-induced leukemia or birth defects are far too small to result in an observable increase in these health effects among exposed veterans or Iraqi civilians.
In vitro and animal tests suggest the possibility of chemically induced health effects from DU internalization, such as immune system impairment. It is a plausible working hypothesis that a significant part of the symptoms from various organs, which have been observed among veterans from Gulf War 1 and that have been grouped under the name of the Persian Gulf syndrome, may be explained as a consequence of mitochondrial DNA damage in various cell types and organs.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11259733/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17299528/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31796256/

Posted by: olaf22 | Mar 23 2023 22:31 utc | 82

heck, this schowbanned troll is really annoying, do like me avoid him

Posted by: A.cagliostro | Mar 23 2023 22:47 utc | 84

Posted by: NoName | Mar 23 2023 22:17 utc | 77
Hmm, that’s 359 sorties per day – that’s 100 sorties a day over what most people have been estimating at 200-250 per day.
Impressive if true. Way more reportedly than the US conducted daily during Iraq and the other low-level wars.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 23 2023 22:51 utc | 86

Posted by: Anton Gorbatow | Mar 23 2023 22:00 utc | 73
See the Larry Johnson article I cited above. Apparently this is a current theme. I don’t doubt that it’s possible, I just don’t believe it will have any success.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 23 2023 22:57 utc | 88

@ T S | Mar 23 2023 21:26 utc | 65
Nothing used on the frontline is healthy.
Here is the link to all the info one might want or need on DU.
Also pretty good overview on who is using it and how and when.
Nobody is innocent there.

Posted by: whirlX | Mar 23 2023 23:02 utc | 90

Posted by: Drinky Crow | Mar 23 2023 21:00 utc | 57
“So why do you draw attention to the “concern troll” by continuously bellowing about him/her/it?”
How can anyone miss his fifty posts per thread? Obviously so you clowns WILL STOP RESPONDING TO HIS BULLSHIT.
Every fucking response to this asshole contributes to his continuing to disrupt the threads. Which means everyone who responds to this asshole is an asshole.
Get the fucking picture?

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 23 2023 23:04 utc | 92

Worth watching:
Dmitry Medvedev at a meeting of the armaments commission read a telegram from Joseph Stalin from the time of the Second World War to the directors of military factories.
https://t.me/WarRealTime/7782

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Mar 23 2023 23:09 utc | 94

^^^By “compounds” I just meant nuclear power plants, not combinations of substances. Wanted that to be clear since someone made the thread all science-y and stuff.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Mar 23 2023 23:16 utc | 96

Which means everyone who responds to this asshole is an asshole.
Get the fucking picture?
Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Mar 23 2023 23:04 utc | 89
################
I forgive you for calling me an asshole. Maybe some apple juice and a nap will set your mood right. It sucks when posting with low blood sugar.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Mar 23 2023 23:22 utc | 98

@ LightYearsFromHome | Mar 23 2023 23:09 utc | 91
Thank you kindly. Was keen to find out what he said in his pep-talk. Cheers.
There’s also this from Cyberspace News, Telegram:

He said that Russia will produce 1,500 battle tanks this year alone and boost production of other weapons to meet the army’s needs. His claims couldn’t be independently verified.
“The most important thing now is to make it all in necessary volumes, and we are launching new factories to do that,” Medvedev said.

So that’s an increase from the current 800/yr T-90s to 1,500/yr apparently.
@ unimperator | Mar 23 2023 21:57 utc | 72
It’s insanity. Just like the Poles the Finns are writing checks neither their military nor their nation can cash. This will not likely end well. 🙁
&
Cyberspace News – Telegram

Footage of the 🇺🇦”Ichkerian” (Chechen) Mansur Btn in Bakhmut …it’s been geolocated in the South part of Ivanovske

Intriguing.

Posted by: Outraged | Mar 23 2023 23:32 utc | 100