Raw video
2 months before the Pentagon were shared illegally, China blasted the U.S for surveillance abuses.
Watch https://twitter.com/AbrahamStein8/status/1648012741527871492?s=20

Posted by: Dave Oneil | Apr 17 2023 17:18 utc | 3

i think the leaks are just a sign of a faction dispute in Washington. we will learn more sooner or later, but they won’t make any difference on the ground.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Apr 17 2023 17:43 utc | 5

Posted by: Иван Иванович | Apr 17 2023 17:34 utc | 4
Posted by: pretzelattack | Apr 17 2023 17:43 utc | 5
For those interested, Larry Johnson raises more red flags about the “leaks” here: https://sonar21.com/more-unanswered-red-flags-regarding-jack-texeira/

Posted by: West of England Andy | Apr 17 2023 17:50 utc | 7

Good evening Barflies,
Please, can someone post a link to the last and FULL/original Prigojin’s text on telegram,
talking about “stoping the smo” (as western’s media affirm), when that text seems to be titteled somthing like “no negociation”?
Thanks in advance.

Posted by: Tak-Tik | Apr 17 2023 18:08 utc | 9

Now, it becomes unnecessary read about how Empires declined and fell in the past. You can watch the American Empire collapse in real time.
1. Let your Elites (the new Princes) sell out your industrial base. Preferably to an enemy.
2. In lieu of incomes from real jobs, know-how and enterprise, print money for your Monied Friends. Let a pittance trickle down.
3. Let that newly conjured money jack up prices of “nothings” such as stock prices, conspicuous consumptions, and real estate.
4. Ignore the fast approaching cliff and print more money, incur more unpayable debt
5. Increase your belligerence. Dare otherwise relatively complacent nations to cross your many and obtuse Red Lines.
6. Start a war with one of the best armed Nations on the Planet, then blame them for starting it. Tell them it is them, not you that is being unreasonable.
7. Sanction yourself, deny critical elements to your declining circle of friends. Most especially, chop off the arm of one of your purported friends, just to show you can do it.
Little Boots Biden hath spoken

Posted by: kupkee | Apr 17 2023 18:11 utc | 11

Doc Leaker’s job – the reality. Leak remains Highly Suspicious. Judge Napolitano – Judging Freedom Youtube 1m09s
Call me a Traitor? Doc Leaker Jack Teixeira is a hero. Let me explain why Judge Napolitano – Judging Freedom Youtube 1m10s

Posted by: Outraged | Apr 17 2023 18:14 utc | 13

@ 4 Иванович
Man… I disliked the guy since the few seconds. Him patting himself on the back for first correctly predicting the leaker was a “gun owner and republican” based upon seeing Glock posters on the walls in the background.. Boy what great detective work there captain obvious duh. I patiently watched the full duration thinking maybe he had something but he never addressed any of the true points indicating it is a psyop, he only addressed fake points that no one is questioning.

Posted by: NJH | Apr 17 2023 18:38 utc | 15

Our OP source said that MI6 is proposing to the General Staff that they replicate the experience of the “Operation Neptune” landing in Normandy, where the main effect was achieved through surprise and a massive strike in bad weather.
Given the experience of disinformation operations under the code names “Glimmer” and “Taxable”, the purpose of which was to mislead the Germans about the real direction of the invasion, various variants of operations are now thrown into the network for these purposes, as well as the timing of its implementation in order to confuse the Russian special services.
British intelligence suggested creating 5 real counteroffensive plans so that no one could get information about the main attack and only at the time of implementation would a real one be presented.
Now they are discussing the option of starting a counteroffensive in rainy weather, when they will not expect a strike and landing across the entire Dnieper, this will allow them to gain the advantage of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the left bank and create a springboard for further counteroffensive.

https://t.me/rezident_ua/17325

Posted by: Down South | Apr 17 2023 18:56 utc | 17

Our source in the OP said that Zelensky at the headquarters demanded from Syrsky to keep Bakhmut until the start of the counteroffensive, the Armed Forces of Ukraine cannot start an operation in a negative information field.
Zaluzhny was instructed to transfer additional units that were trained in Britain for local counterattacks near Bakhmut, and new units of the Main Intelligence Directorate and Alfa SBU will be sent to the city.

https://t.me/rezident_ua/17326

Posted by: Down South | Apr 17 2023 18:58 utc | 19

#14 Ray McGovern on Napolitano show – As usual, Ray has James W. Douglass’ book on Kennedy over his left shoulder. Douglass’ book “Lightning East to West” was very formative to me in the 1980’s and I always looked forward to every issue of Ground Zero. However Douglass’ book on Kennedy just devastated me when I read it. Glad I did. The book is impeccably researched. My viewpoints on the nature and length of time, etc. of state conspiracies were never the same after reading.

Posted by: paxmark1 | Apr 17 2023 19:02 utc | 21

Posted by: unimperator | Apr 17 2023 18:14 utc | 12
Whirlwind = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9K121_Vikhr
Nasty! Outranges most UA MANPADS by up to 1-2km, if launched by the KA-52/Mi-28, and double that if fired by the Su-25T*
*The Su-25T is quite rare, so more likely Army aviation refers to helicopters. During night-time engagements the UA will be at a severe disadvantage, as only Starstreak is fitted with TI sights. Another reason to question the UA offensive narrative, you can’t just retreat your armour into night time laagers, well behind the FEBA and bring them out in the day to resume operations. They and their supply vehicles will be virtually defenceless, from night time aerial interdiction and strike missions.

Posted by: Milites | Apr 17 2023 19:18 utc | 23

From a tweet
The AFU chief, Zaluzhny, goes to Washington, meets with Sec Def Lloyd Austin and Gen Mark Milley, where he states Ukraine’s KIA at 257K. This was according to Col Doug Macgregor, former Pentagon advisor, citing anonymous inside source(s). The recent major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war (actually U.S. proxy war) started Feb 24, 2022, while Zaluzhny’s visit occurred on Jan 16th, 2023. That is a 326 day spread, which works out to ~800 losses per day. Given that Zaluzhny was on a begging mission for long-range weapons and support, he’d have no incentive to underestimate losses. Instead, he’d be appealing to fact, in order to make the case for how Ukraine is paying dearly in lives and that the U.S. must do everything it can to help. According to CIA estimates of manpower fit for military service, Ukraine draws from a theoretical pool of ~7,000,000, while Russia’s is ~23,000,000. This isn’t accounting for the mass exodus of military age Ukrainians to Russia, the West and elsewhere

Posted by: oldrepublic | Apr 17 2023 19:26 utc | 25

“If you can’t grope and sniff young girls, you must lick the world.” Joe Tzu

Posted by: Immaculate deception | Apr 17 2023 19:42 utc | 27

Fred777 @ 24 “It could get him a reduced sentence, could also get him killed.”
Assuming he was set-up I would think naming whoever set him up is his best hope for some kind of leniency. It’s a chance he will have to take. Either that or he admits to doing it to show off. He’s in big trouble either way.

Posted by: dh | Apr 17 2023 19:46 utc | 29

Is it real, fake or intentional disinfo from wagner?
Can’t access Prigojine’s telegram channel, could someone copy past the full and original text please?
“Wagner boss says Russia must ‘put a definitive end’ to war in Ukraine
A first step towards the end of the conflict? As spotted by our colleagues from TF1 (french TV channel) Yevgueni Prigojine, the sulphurous founder and leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, called on the social network Telegram to end the “special military operation”
(…)”For the authorities and for society as a whole, it is now necessary to put a definitive end to the special military operation,”
“The objectives are achieved”
““We have wiped out a large number of fighters of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and we can declare that the objectives have been achieved”, he insists, referring to a land corridor that connects Crimea to Russian territory and the capture of the Sea of ​​​​Azov via Mariupol.”
Finally, the leader of Wagner also spoke of the consequences of a hypothetical Russian defeat in Ukraine, synonymous according to him with a “popular revolt” against “the deep state mired in luxury and bureaucracy.”
“These people who today, without making any effort in a military operation, are as far as possible from the theater of operations”, he tackles.”(…)
It’s on every french talking medias, but seems hard to find on english-talking ones?

Posted by: Tak-Tik | Apr 17 2023 19:52 utc | 31

“Is it real, fake or intentional disinfo from wagner?
Can’t access Prigojine’s telegram channel, could someone copy past the full and original text please?
“Wagner boss says Russia must ‘put a definitive end’ to war in Ukraine”
I have no problems with this statement if true and I agree 100%.
Enough dying has happened. Ukranians have lost 250k soldiers KIA. Most likely more than 500k seriously injured.
Russians have probably had 100k KIA and seriously injured.
Plus 3rd party casualties we are talking about 1 million KIA/injured.
Enough. Both parties can lick their wounds and resume the fight sometime in the future(sadly)

Posted by: Comandante | Apr 17 2023 20:08 utc | 33

Martyanov in his video stated that the Kinzhal bunker strike in the reserve command bunker of the Transcarpathian military district, used by Nato generals and colonels is big news in the Russian media. The Kinzhals actually penetrated through a weak spot in the ventilation system of the bunker, 2 of them reached a depth of 60 meters, perhaps there were more than two in the same spot.

Posted by: unimperator | Apr 17 2023 20:22 utc | 35

[But that] about the Russian politician waving a Ukraine flag I assume was real.
Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 17 2023 20:13 utc | 34

That Rus politician can only do that because there is freedom of speech in Russia. Had that been done by some Ukrop Rada deputy, he would get killed on the spot.
But who knows. Russian high-rise windows are risky and patient, just like German or Austrian roads for some people…

Posted by: Nervous German | Apr 17 2023 20:23 utc | 37

Nervous German | Apr 17 2023 20:23 utc | 36
From what I have read, it is a criminal offence in Germany to hold up a Russian flag. And your right about freedom of speech in Russia. he brainwashed fools here in the west think we have freedom of speech and the Russians are highly censored.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 17 2023 20:27 utc | 39

The “leak” is meant to pre-lube the slide out of Ukraine. Clearly the US/West isn’t going to get anywhere near something resembling a “victory,” in which case it needs to start paving the path out with excuses. Biden will take the fall: he’ll hold the bag of crap as he exits his presidency (and won’t run again). The Deep State is concerned about China and needs to push all its efforts in that direction: sure, Russia is part of the equation, but the attack via Ukraine is now, clearly, a losing proposition.
Again, the horse is dead.

Posted by: Seer | Apr 17 2023 20:32 utc | 41

Here is the clarification from Prigoshin re end of the SMO. As far as I can parse this, I think he meant defining the end result of the SMO, not ending the SMO per se.

#1479 We publish a request from the editors of the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and the answer:
Dear Evgeny Viktorovich!
Request from the Russian-language department of the Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat (News in Russian), which publishes our news in Russian.
First of all, we would like to thank you for your response to the previous query by Helsingin Sanomat published on 11/25/2022. Despite the fact that we have not been able to find additional information about any of the “about 20” Finnish citizens fighting in the Wagner PMC, we highly appreciate your willingness to communicate with representatives of the Western press.
We would be grateful if you could shed light on two more points for us:
1) We read with great interest your article on the current situation, published on 04/14/2023. In it, for the first time, we heard from you proposals to “put a bullet” and “announce the end of the NWO”. Please tell me what was the main reason that led you to such thoughts? The strength of the Ukrainian army? Insufficient level of training of the Russian regular army? Internal political nuances?
We publish a comment by Evgeny Prigozhin:
“Good afternoon! You asked an absolutely correct question, because foreign media took the most basic thing from my article, that you need to put an end to the CBO. Pay attention, my article is called “Only a fair fight, no agreement.” The main idea of my article is only a fair fight. There is no way to follow the lead of the Western coalition. Therefore, the task is to put an end to the special operation, of course, exclusively observing all the interests of Russia, I immediately repeat once again – both for the authorities and for society as a whole, today it is necessary to put, attention, some fat point in the NWO. This bold point is the capture of Bakhmut, access to Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, and some other serious conquests. Further, the ideal option is to announce the end of the NWO, to inform everyone that Russia has achieved all the results that it planned. Because the main task of the SVO – since the results of this SVO and the tasks are blurred – it is necessary to put some kind of bold point. And the people of Russia must be satisfied with this set point.
We have ground, I said, a huge number of fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and this, among other things, is one of the tasks that were set during the beginning of the NMD – the demilitarization of Ukraine. Of course, Ukraine was stuffed with Western weapons, but the very destruction of a combat-ready population is a serious result for any war. Therefore, I am not proposing to stop the NWO in any way, I am saying that we can announce the end of the NWO so that the Russian people, the Russians, know that the results that we set for ourselves have been achieved and that we have received a sense of satisfaction from what has been done. Here is the basis of what I said. There is no decline. As the head of Wagner PMC, I have no hopelessness. We are ready to fight on. Until the end or until the next step. This is the first.

From: https://t.me/concordgroup_official/776

Posted by: Zet | Apr 17 2023 20:36 utc | 43

Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 17 2023 19:48 utc | 30
Wonder what happened to the crew sitting inside? The turret gets ripped off, probably engineers hadn’t that in mind when it comes to crew spacing inside.
BTW, Martyanov in his video mentioned the Kinzhal bunker strike. They are a big news on the Russian media, supposedly they hit the weak spot, the ventilation system of the bunker. Two of them were enough to penentrate 60 meters deep, there could have been more of them. But maybe 60 meters is enough to cause unrecoverable damage and prevent anyone getting out alive.

Posted by: unimperator | Apr 17 2023 20:46 utc | 45

Is anyone else dismayed by the decline of https://strategypage.com/default.aspx ? When I read it, I’m in an alternate reality, where NATO is crushing Russia, and Russia is on the brink of social collapse. And yet, its failure to predict with any accuracy what has happened in Ukraine damns its analysis as crap. Whenever they talk about anything other than hardware, they quickly lose the melody. They’re living in an opposite reality. But if I apply the low standards most Americans use when consuming info, I could see how it persuades low-effort nationalist types.
It’s unfortunate, because they used to be really good at analysis. I wonder if they are exemplars of US military thinking, or if they’re just some overly patriotic dupes? Is it too hard to ask a journalist to look up historical data before just repeating what an official says? Like these absurd military spending figures for Russia? As if Russia had secretly decided to implement Grover Norquist’s budgetary agenda during a time of war? I can’t tell who is stupid and who is compromised and who is still on the learning curve.
This data source forking problem isn’t just something ChatGPT struggles with, we in the analysis community have the same problem. How can I convince a dupe that Russian MOD data is at least corroborated with battlefield footage if they won’t even look at it? How is it we live in an age of math, but nobody trusts forensic accounting? And then again, I’m not at the battlefield: I’m just depending on an information coherence model. Lots of potential problems there.
This public information warfare doesn’t make sense if the opponent is able to get better intel privately(For example: is this leak so much more earth-shattering than tracking Russian fuel consumption?). Suggests this is all about consensus building in West. Russia doesn’t have the same problem or need. At the same time, what would actually convince me that the pro-NATO info is ‘accurate’ or at least ‘more accurate’? Personally, I just have a knee-jerk distrust of the US government now. It’s like dealing with an extreme psychopath: you have to figure out what it wants first before you can even evaluate what course of action to take.
Garry Kasparov makes the point that propaganda exists to fatigue your critical faculties. I’m not seeing a great advantage to studying this leaked NATO intel. It would be far more useful to have detailed info on fuel distribution. Makes me think someone wants us to think about the wrong issue. And the fact it’s all over MSM makes me even more distrustful that it has any value one way or another. Just a red-herring. Like when the market looks to the Fed to determine whether to bull or bear. The Fed is a distraction and pretext. I feel the same way about this intel leak. It seems like there are many more fruitful analytic paths one can take if attempting to understand the ‘reality’ of war events.

Posted by: Aaron Lee | Apr 17 2023 20:57 utc | 47

Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 17 2023 19:48 utc | 30
Wonder what happened to the the crew. The engineers probably don’t design that thing with crew spacing in mind in a scenario where the turret simply gets ripped off, wouldn’t be a pretty way to go.
BTW, Martyanov in his video said that the Kinzhal bunker strike is big news on the Russian media. Supposedly it was the ex reserve command bunker of the Transcarpathian military district in use by Nato officers. Two Kinzhals hit the air conditioning shaft into the bunker (weak spot, apparently) and where enought to dig to 60 meters. Maybe there were more than two.

Posted by: _unimperator_ | Apr 17 2023 20:58 utc | 49

whirlX | Apr 17 2023 20:48 utc | 42
That is roughly my thoughts. I only had the Wagner tg channel. Zet linked the cooks own channel which I did not know about before.
I guess for a lot of Russian’s just looking at the static frontline it must be frustrating but sitting here on the outside and watching, I see that it is defeating the US and Nato.
Russia cannot complete its stated objective until US pulls its backing. It seems that will happen later this year.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 17 2023 21:00 utc | 51

the First thing ( in fact the only thing) Russia must do is to kill as many English soldiers (and not only their hired mercenaries ), English spies masquerading as British and BBC journalists and mercenaries as possible as in shortest time. That will settle the problem of the world being destabilized by the England pirate island and there will be no more plotting for wars by English pirates. But Russia does opposite! It let English mercenaries escape safely from donesk (Debeltsov enckave) in Feb 2015!
Quote
” According to UP sources close to Zelensky, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who appeared in the capital almost without warning, brought two simple messages.
The first is that Putin is a war criminal, he needs to be squeezed, and not negotiated with him.
And secondly, if Ukraine is ready to sign any agreements on guarantees with him, then they are not.
This position of Johnson testified: the collective West, which back in February offered Zelensky to surrender and run away, now felt that Putin was actually not at all as omnipotent as he was imagined, and that right now there was a chance to squeeze him.
Three days after Johnson left for the UK, Putin went public and said talks with Ukraine “have reached an impasse.”

Posted by: Sam | Apr 17 2023 21:00 utc | 53

Posted by: paxmark1 | Apr 17 2023 19:02 utc | 21
Thanks mark for the reference to James T. Douglass, I am taking a gander at his book Kennedy And The Unspeakable, using the Read Within feature of Amazon.

Posted by: jonku | Apr 17 2023 21:02 utc | 55

Shouldn’t the state-organized pogroms aimed at eliminating the Russian Orthodox Church be declared Cultural Genocide? At minimum the actions confirm Russia’s R2P reasoning and Article 51 use. The following is from Escobar’s Telegram:

Part 8 of the attack on Christian Orthodoxy🙏.
🔹A civilian was killed & seven wounded when Ukrainian troops shelled Donetsk’s Transfiguration Cathedral during Orthodox ☦️ Easter Vigil on Sunday April 16th 2023. Ukrainian troops used Slovakian 🇸🇰-manufactured 122mm JROF-HEAP fragmentation rockets, which were supplied by NATO countries.
🔹The UOC Church of St. Matrona, located in the village of Huta in Mezhyhirsk, Kiev region which was accused by Ukraine’s 🇺🇦 gov’t of being pro-Moscow was burnt down during Easter.
🔹The mayor of Lviv in western Ukraine, declared UOC in his city was no more after authorities demolished the Church of St. Vladimir.
🔹The West/CIA politically created the Orthodox Church of Ukraine 🇺🇦 (OCU) (to foster neo-Nazi style nationalism) & undermine the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) – Moscow 🇷🇺 Patriarchate.
🔹Ukraine continues the persecution of Orthodox Christians, has an unabashed profession of state paganism (not very discretely disguised in the form of vicious Neo-Nazi political cults) & supports eager acolytes inciting anti-Christian pogroms while flaunting satanic inscriptions.
💠 Pt 7: The Kiev regime arrests the abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra Monastery & raids church compound. The last Orthodox church in Ivano-Frankivsk was seized.
💠 Pt 6: Ukrainian neo-nazi arsons burn🔥 church of the UOC in Boryspil, Kiev.
💠 Pt 5: Ukraine’s gov’t inciting attacks against the UOC over accusations of connections to Russia.
💠 Pt 4: Ukraine proposes law to ban the UOC as the church is a threat to national security.
💠 Pt 3: Ukraine’s SBU, raids the largest UOC monastery in Ukraine.
💠 Pt 2: Ukrainian militants shell St. Nicholas ⛪️, shot 3 monks in Svyatogorsk, held 800 monks hostage & seized Popelnya UOC.
💠 Pt 1: The West’s silence about multiple attacks vs Russian Orthodox Churches around the world.

Links to source at above link.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 17 2023 21:11 utc | 57

Posted by: Down South | Apr 17 2023 18:56 utc | 17
‘in order to confuse the Russian special services.’
It might confuse them, it certainly will confuse the people who are trying to carry out the offensive, as it means mission critical orders, timetables, deployment schedules, etc will only be disclosed hours before D-Day. Troops, who have had one third, if that, of the standard basic training allotment, are going to be expected to be able to digest and carry out complex plans (riverine assault)* without proper rehearsal, in poor weather. Poor sods!
* I guess though, if you show them this clip it will be more than enough. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-icdOTvcSIo

Posted by: Milites | Apr 17 2023 21:17 utc | 59

A big thank you to Outraged, whose ongoing work of boiling down the battlefield reports is very sobering, and thus immensely helpful to the discussion.

Posted by: persiflo | Apr 17 2023 21:19 utc | 61

Posted by: Outraged | Apr 17 2023 18:21 utc | 14
thanks for that link, but i wonder if Biden has enough faculties left to even discern whether he is being lied to. I think of him more as a puppet, kind of an inferior chat gpt, you can program him but you’re not always sure what he is going to say.

Posted by: pretzelattack | Apr 17 2023 21:33 utc | 63

@commandante-33/Peterr AU1-34-35-37/nervous german-36/Zet-40/etc
Thanks a lot for your answers, note I had read that original Prigojine’s satement was 30 (!) telgram pages long and titeled “Only a fair fight, no negociation/agreement.”…
The clarification from Prigojine posted by Zet (tnx again) seems to go in the same direction as the words of Lukashenko, who were reported in this forum a few days ago, and who said more or less “this this war must stop, it’s so atrocious that many Russian soldiers as well as Ukrainians warn the opposing camps before bombings or attacks to limit losses”.
This semmes to confirm my feel, unlike some analysts or commentators who seem to like to play the most warlike, the reality on the ground is the need to end the massacre…and this before it ignites the rest of the planet.
Create peace-comittes everywhere, mobilize for cease-fire, now.

Posted by: Tak-Tik | Apr 17 2023 21:39 utc | 65

A comment on the Russian anti ship missiles that feature a final vertical attack, be they cruise or pseudo ballistic. Most of the discussion I have read is that their objective is to punch right through the ship, being fused to explode underneath, rather than inside the ship. The objective being to use the water pressure bubble created by the explosion to break the spine of the ship, replicating the final moments of a modern heavy torpedo.
Also re the Kinzhal, it is to all intents and purposes an Iskander modified to be launched by a Mig-31K or Tu-22M3M rather than from the ground. Using the Mig for the first part of its journey, lifting it up to probably around 50,000ft and then launching it at M2.5 using the resultant fuel saving to increase its range by 3-4 times. But as it heads back to earth it has all the deadly attributes of an Iskander. With the Tu much of the range increase is lost as it can’t reach the Mig’s launch speed.

Posted by: JohninMK | Apr 17 2023 21:50 utc | 67

Czechs steal Moroccan tanks, break law twice to aid Nazis yet again, “Moscow denounces ‘egregious’ Czech confiscation of Morocco’s tanks for transfer to Ukraine”:

Moscow views the seizure by Prague of tanks belonging to Morocco, but undergoing upgrades in the Czech Republic, so as to transfer them to Ukraine as an egregious case of de facto expropriation, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary circulated on Monday.
“We consider this egregious case to be yet further evidence of the hostile anti-Russian course pursued by the Czech authorities, within the framework of which Prague does not hesitate to stoop to violating fundamental provisions of international law regulating arms trade, and to seize the property of others. We observe with regret that the sad experience of World War II is being repeated, when Czech enterprises, being a part of the military-industrial complex of Nazi Germany, indefatigably supplied the Third Reich with armaments for prosecuting its war against the USSR,” the diplomat noted, answering a media query about whether the Czech Republic had passed Morocco’s tanks on to Ukraine.
“It looks like the current leadership of the Czech Republic has learned nothing from history, as they have eagerly turned their country into one of the primary sites for the production, repair, and modernization of military equipment to be sent to Kiev’s neo-Nazi regime,” Zakharova stressed.
The diplomat pointed out that the goals and objectives of the collective West are quite clear: to help drag the conflict in Ukraine on and thereby inflict maximum damage on Russia, even if this requires continuing the fight down to “the last Ukrainian.”
When asked to comment on media reports that Moroccan tanks that were undergoing upgrades in the Czech Republic may have ended up in the war zone in Ukraine, the diplomat said: “Indeed, we have seen these reports. We are continuing to look into it.”
Zakharova said that, according to available data, before the start of the Russian special military operation, Morocco had signed a contract with Czech company Excalibur Army spol. s r.o. to upgrade its 130 T-72B tanks, purchased in 1999-2001 in Belarus. “After the work was done, 56 tanks were returned to the kingdom [of Morocco]. [But] the remaining 74 armored vehicles were de facto expropriated by the Czech side for further transfer to the war zone in Ukraine,” she went on to say.
“The Moroccans were effectively presented with a fait accompli. Moreover, they were made to be culpable before the Belarusians for failing to honor their commitment not to transfer these tanks to third countries without the supplier’s consent, as stipulated under the contract,” Zakharova stressed.

Hopefully, the Czech people will oust their Eurofascists themselves.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 17 2023 21:54 utc | 69

Tak-Tik | Apr 17 2023 21:39 utc | 61
In Patrick Lancaster’s latest video that I watched yesterday, when he was interviewing several peole that are now on the Dnieper river frontline, I saw a different perspective. I think they were ethnic Russian’s but considered themselves Ukrainian. The ukies are now lobbing intermittent shells across the river into purely civilian areas. One said we now know how the people of the Donbass felt. They sort have had mixed feeling. They wanted the war to stop, basically go back to pre 2014, but as one said, the war will stop when Ukraine is demilitarized and denazified.
This is the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xjo6dZbrPw
I did not watch the video right through but near the start there is a meeting with farmers about Russia giving them subsidies which is relatively long, but flick past that to where the meeting ends and that is when the very interesting interviews begin. It gives a perspective on the mixed feelings which a lot of Russians must have. As Putin said at the start, they are brotherly nations.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 17 2023 22:07 utc | 71

Outraged | Apr 17 2023 22:04 utc | 66
That what Shaffer was saying, the boy must have been handed the documents as that is the only way he could have come in possession of them….
The so called leak was for a purpose. Simply handing the docs to an innocent 21 year old is a very hit and miss way to get those docs out into the public if that was the purpose. He had to either be part of the team or it didn’t happen.
He could just as easy looked the documents, said shit these are classified – I had better hand them in to someone.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | Apr 17 2023 22:28 utc | 73

First, a comment on Prigozhin, once again: He DOES NOT KNOW what the ultimate objectives of the SMO are. Period. He is going off the speeches of Putin, like so many other people do, which are not operational orders from the President of the Russian Federation, let alone operational plans of the Russian General Staff, nor are they classified political decision documents submitted to the other authorizing bodies of the Russian Federation.
In short, Putin’s speeches are political speeches intended to outline certain objectives – and likely obscure others – for the benefit of the electorate of Russia and foreign observers. They are in no way definitive, no matter how many times people talk about “Putin meaning what he says”. Yes, he does – but he doesn’t always say what he intends to do to achieve what he means. This is a subtle difference which apparently no one outside of government – any government – seems able to comprehend.
Now on to other matters:
This is the charging document issued on Jack Teixera:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23777132-teixeira-charging-document
Note the following:
“As of February 2023, TEIXEIRA’s title was Cyber Defense Operations Journeyman.”
That is not what has been reported elsewhere. What was reported in that his title is “Cyber Transport Systems Journeyman”, which as I described in an earlier MoA thread is very different. In other words, he was described as being this:
3D1X2 – CYBER TRANSPORT SYSTEMS AFSC
https://foreverwingman.com/career_fields/3d1x2-cyber-transport-systems/
Whereas now he is being described as being this:
1D7X1 – CYBER DEFENSE OPERATIONS AFSC
https://foreverwingman.com/career_fields/1d7x1-cyber-defense-operations-afsc/
WBUR, Boston’s NPR affilitate, had this article which repeats the claim that Teixera was the former, not the latter:
Major part of Mass. Air National Guard’s job is analyzing intelligence
https://www.wbur.org/news/2023/04/14/massachusetts-military-secrets-national-guard-charges-teixeira

It’s not yet known how Teixeira, who held the title cyber defense operations journeyman, allegedly got the documents and shared them in an online group.

In short, it appears the FBI wants to “upgrade” his skills to a higher level computer security specialist in order to make it more plausible that he was the leaker, rather than being a “hardware monkey” who would mostly have been swapping out hardware like network routers, printers, PCs and the like.
Also note that the charging document contains this interesting bit:

According to a U.S. Government Agency, which has access to logs of certain documents TEIXEIRA accessed, TEIXEIRA accessed the Government Document in February 2023, approximately one day before User 1 reposted the information on the Internet. User 1 told the FBI that the information he reposted
was originally posted on Server 1 by the individual using the Subject Username.

This would indicate that Teixera, if he in fact did this, would have done so knowing – if he were indeed a 1D7X1 Cyber Defense Operations Journeyman – that his access was being monitored and that access to these documents was logged and monitored, whereas a “hardware monkey’ might not know that – and might not have that capability at all.
Then the charging documents says this:

In addition, according to a second U.S. Government Agency, which can monitor certain searches conducted on its classified networks, on April 6, 2023, TEIXEIRA used his government computer to search classified intelligence reporting for the word “leak.” The first public reporting regarding the Government Information appeared on or around April 6, 2023. Accordingly, there is reason to believe that TEIXEIRA was searching for classified reporting regarding the U.S. Intelligence Community’s assessment of the identity of the individual who transmitted classified national defense information, to include the Government Document.

This appears to have been added solely to bolster the notion that Teixera was the leaker. It would seem to be beyond stupid for Teixeira, knowing that he was being monitored and that his access to classified documents was logged, to have conducted such an obvious search – if indeed he had advanced government cyber defense training.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Apr 17 2023 22:41 utc | 75

The “Patsy” is the rule. Not the exception. There’s always got to be a patsy.

Posted by: Chaka Khagan | Apr 17 2023 22:46 utc | 77

Fred777@24. FWIW I have a growing sense of unease about what is going to happen to Texeira. Does he have a lawyer? Where is he? Is he in contact with family? WaPo & NYT have already severely demonised him ensuring he will not get a fair ‘Trial’. In fact, they have de facto found him guilty.
I have an awful feeling, ever increasing, that he will be ‘disappeared’ by the CIA or meet the same fate as Jack Ruby and the Skripals. I am having less and less confidence that we will ever see him in Court or in public again.

Posted by: Jo Dominich | Apr 17 2023 23:07 utc | 79

@ K | Apr 17 2023 23:21 utc | 76
my own take is prigozhin is obfuscating as much as anything else.. there is no way putin or prigozhin are going to tip their hand.. that is the exact opposite of what great warriors do.. so whether one or the other is saying anything, or leaving anything out – anyone thinking they know what they are saying, are living in a hall of mirrors but oblivious to it too..
richard @ 71 – thanks for the post…

Posted by: james | Apr 17 2023 23:27 utc | 81

Posted by: K | Apr 17 2023 23:21 utc | 76
You get real. You actually think that a big mouth like Prigozhin, who can’t keep his mouth shut for 24 hours, who isn’t in any way a member of the Russian General Staff or Putin’s Presidential Administration team, is actually given Putin’s top classified intentions with regard to the SMO? He’s the front man for a Russian government “black ops team”, and probably is lucky to have that position, having zero military experience in his background.
Why do you make these ridiculous statements? Just to run your mouth like you know what’s going on, like half the people at this site?

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Apr 17 2023 23:35 utc | 83

my own take is prigozhin is obfuscating as much as anything else.. there is no way putin or prigozhin are going to tip their hand.. that is the exact opposite of what great warriors do.. so whether one or the other is saying anything, or leaving anything out – anyone thinking they know what they are saying, are living in a hall of mirrors but oblivious to it too.
Posted by: james | Apr 17 2023 23:27 utc | 77
Exactly! However this is not to say they aren’t saying anything truthful or useful that can’t be clearly understood.
I just think it’s bizarre to state that the head of Wagner is not in the loop, whatever that classified loop is.

Posted by: K | Apr 17 2023 23:41 utc | 85

Doc Leaker: More Red Flags – Larry Johnson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMYasP2OSKk
Johnson tells Napolitano he’s been directly told by someone formrly in the Air Force who is part of the Cyber Defense Operations command that there is zero chance Teixiera could have access to those documents.
As I said in my post above, a “hardware monkey” would not have such access, and even a Cyber Defense Journeyman probably wouldn’t, and despite that Intelligence Wing having its primary task as analyzing foreign conflict intelligence for the Air Force, they still wouldn’t have internal CIA and State Department documents.
Ray McGovern, in the other Napolitano interview mentioned by someone above, also concludes that this is an authorized leak intended to oppose Biden’s insane actions in Ukraine conducted by someone high up in the Pentagon or the Director of National Intelligence. He thinks it might be Avril Haines, which has been suggested here before. If his assessment of Haines is correct, that is possible, but I don’t think the motive as suggested by others as Haines being an operative of Obama and the Clintons to undermine Biden is likely. I continue to think the Pentagon is the most likely source, although the presence of the two CIA documents could cast doubt on that, depending on whether any CIA internal docs are ever acquired some how by, say, DIA.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Apr 17 2023 23:43 utc | 87

Peter AU1 @74–
Thanks very much!! I see the article Martyanov refers to was posted here in its entirety over the weekend.

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 17 2023 23:57 utc | 89

barstool @84
“..Hitting engine rooms, fuel storage or weapons holds..”

Just out of curiosity, has a nuclear-powered surface vessel of any navy suffered a critical reactor failure?

Posted by: Rattus | Apr 18 2023 0:14 utc | 91

@karlof1 | Apr 17 2023 23:57 utc | 85 and other posts.
Karl, in the interests of clarity, when you reference another comment please copy and paste its time-stamp (you should realise why). I make the same request to old hippy, as I also value his contributions.

Posted by: Ново З | Apr 18 2023 0:19 utc | 93

Leaker(🤪) Timeline
As the stench around the patsy-leaker become increasingly putrescent, I’m becoming aware the “facts” are whatever “they” say they are.
However, the timeline of the emergence of the first 4pages of intel into the wide awareness was, as I’ve posted, the 4chan post dated:
04/06/23(Thu)01:33:13
This post was made to 4chan to support the argument “Ukraine is winning”.
The text stated this, and the image was posted to support the argument.
The first image to appear had the low Ukraine losses.
The post “blew up” and there were immediately a dozen or more threads with the image and debating the i) authenticity) ii)accuracy.
Interestingly many of the 4chan arguments were replicated right here at MoA.
That the “leak” blew up all over 4chan and bled into twitter and telegram I see as the work of Bellingcrap.
I am totally convinced nothing is organic and the whole thing is orchestrated.
*We are not the audience*
Repeat _ we are not the audience_ the purpose of the “leak”™️, is the incendiary faction fighting within the U$.
AFTER the first image appeared, showing low Ukrainian losses, the doc re-appeared, obviously photoshopped, and showing RUSSIAN losses lower.
*This* is what appeared on Donbass Devushka.
I am absolutely certain the account was set up.
i) once it appeared on that account, the narrative became “leaked docs that FIRST APPEARED on a Russian telegram channel”.
Being able to smear the leaked docs with the “Russian disinformation” epithet is just so boringly boring and predictable. But it works…
IMO.. Donbass Devushka was set up by Bellingcrap.
I see every element as a Bellingcrap work product.
Since publishing the “leaked docs™️” Donbass Devushka has been targeted, “doxxed” and scapegoated.
The account was obviously too successfully puncturing the controlled narrative. Way too many are finding their way out of the fenced narrative to places beyond the control of the U$.
Here’s a comparison of the original and the altered first posted image
https://files.catbox.moe/zpa2dc.mp
Larry Johnson highlights that the tranche of “leaked docs™️🤡) included an internal (in-house) CIA doc that would never be made available.
It is available to the DIA
Tony Schaffer says the “leaked docs😉” would only be available to 15 people, at most.
Bellingcrap is to be found everywhere. This entire “leak” is an #op.
Avril Haines got helicopter dropped into the DIA role.
She is not someone who spent 30 years working her way up the slippery greasy pole of an intel service.
She had access to the docs.
Because she is not an insider, she would not know including the CIA doc would be a massive blunder to those that *are* 30/40/50 year veterans of intel services.
She’ll get away with it because they’ve arrested Boy. Made for television exactly like an episode of CSI or Hawaii5-0. Neat, scripted, satisfyingly resolved for those watching at home.
If they can keep Assange incarcerated for decades (and I include his time in the Embassy as incarceration), then this Pat Seh kid will be soon forgotten, especially in the cacophony of the 2024 campaign.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Apr 18 2023 0:33 utc | 95

There a coming more leaks. Are the USA now leaking it self out of the spetacle. One leak a day so that everybody can see that the UKR have deceived/ lied to the USA?
Now first Bakmut, which the USA have asked Zel to abandon. He choosed not to. What can be the next leak?
And finally top it off with Sy Hearch report about corruption in Ukraine, a report that has not even been videly discussed in these pages!!! ???
https://www.rt.com/russia/574890-artyomovsk-bakhmut-us-surveillance/
And for the Europeans here- how has the US left every country after ravaging it. In tatters. Rebuildt it?
Well the refugees and cost it will fall on us from Europe.

Posted by: Paul from Norway | Apr 18 2023 0:44 utc | 97

Posted by: Melaleuca | Apr 18 2023 0:33 utc | 91
Problem with theory that Bellingcat is the author of the op: Why would they post docs critical of Ukraine?
I can see the Pentagon – or even Haines if she, as McGovern says, “used to have her head on right” – posting these in oppo to Biden. But Bellingcat?
Now what Bellingcat IS involved in is the subsequent spin on the leaks by the MSM – obviously, since their reporters are cited by the MSM like the Washington Post.
But Bellingcat did not INITIATE this leak just to get Donbass Devushka – that makes no sense.
Meanwhile from Twitter:
Geo_monitor @colonelhomsi
Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant writes on three pages about the miserable state of the Armed Forces of Ukraine
https://twitter.com/colonelhomsi/status/1648067295674089473
Article is here:
Here is the article translated into English (bolding is mine):

Ukrainian army struggles with lack of trained soldiers: ‘We had no idea how to behave on a battlefield’
Now that many experienced soldiers have been eliminated, the Ukrainian army is cracking. Without much training, new recruits sometimes find themselves in the trenches. “Some guys are standing upright on the battlefield reloading their weapons.”
Tom Vennink17 April 2023, 05:00
Medewerkers van het medisch vrijwilligers­bataljon Hospitaljery verzorgen een militair aan het front bij Avdiivka. Beeld Daniel Rosenthal / de Volkskrant
Employees of the medical volunteer battalion Hospitaljery take care of a soldier at the front at Avdiivka. Image Daniel Rosenthal / de Volkskrant
One afternoon with a drunken instructor and a Kalashnikov who gets stuck after three bullets. That’s all the combat training Oleksii received from the Ukrainian army when he arrives at a base just behind the front in the Donbas early this year.
Every day he sees groups of soldiers leave for the battlefield. When Oleksii and other soldiers make contact with one of those groups via messaging apps after a few days, they hear that of the 25 soldiers in the group, only 5 are still alive. The next group refuses to go on that, preferring criminal prosecution to “an end like cannon fodder,” Oleksii says. He is ordered to take the place of one of the refusers. “Following that order was my big mistake,” he says over the phone from a hospital bed in eastern Ukraine.
Of the 27 soldiers with whom he left, only 8 remain after one evening at the front.
Ukraine is struggling with a lack of well-trained soldiers now that many experienced forces have been eliminated. The Ukrainian army keeps its own losses secret, but the US army estimated the number of dead and wounded within the Ukrainian army at the end of last year at more than 100 thousand. A Russian winter offensive has killed and wounded thousands more Ukrainian soldiers in recent months.
About the Author
Tom Vennink writes for de Volkskrant about Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, the Caucasus and Central Asia. He regularly travels to the war in Ukraine. Previously, he was a correspondent in Moscow.
They are largely replaced by mobilized Ukrainians with no combat experience or extensive training. They usually have to make do in the trenches with fewer resources than their Russian opponents. The Ukrainian shortage of ammunition has not been solved, partly because Western countries have only recently started to increase their production.
Not a chance
Oleksii’s platoon, who is not given by his real name because of possible punitive measures by the Ukrainian army, does not stand a chance when arriving at the front in Donetsk province. When Oleksii and his warriors disembark from an armored infantry vehicle, they are immediately fired upon with mortar shells.
The lack of training makes Oleksii insecure. In a trench, he discusses with a friend in his unit what they need to do to gain insight into the Russian positions. They decide to crawl out of the trench, see nothing and crawl back. They are seen themselves: immediately new mortars come down. “We had no idea how to behave on a battlefield,” Oleksii says. “We didn’t even know how to look out of a trench without being seen. The army should have prepared us.’
The eight hours he spends at the front consist almost entirely of hiding and, eventually, fleeing. In a pit covered with some branches and earth, he feels the thumps of exploding mortars, which sometimes strike a few meters away. “After each impact, my friend and I yelled at each other. “Are you still alive?” “Yes!” It went back and forth until he didn’t yell back.’
Oleksii’s eyewitness account is not entirely verifiable, partly because other survivors from Oleksii’s platoon do not want to talk. But it ties in with cries for help from the front about a shortage of experienced or well-trained soldiers.
“I get a hundred new soldiers, but not the time to prepare them,” a battalion commander from the 46th Airmobile Brigade told The Washington Post last month. Almost all five hundred soldiers with whom he went to war are dead or wounded. Their replacements “drop everything and run away” from the battlefield, the commander said. “When I ask a soldier like that why he doesn’t shoot, he says, ‘I’m afraid of the bang.'”
The training of new soldiers is a race against time for Ukraine. NATO countries have stepped up by organising huge training missions on their own territory. In Lower Saxony, Germany, Ukrainians learn to drive Leopard 2 tanks, in northern England they practice storming trenches. The EU and the United Kingdom aim to provide basic military training to 50,000 Ukrainians this year.
‘Increase in losses’
In practice, not every Ukrainian at the front appears to be prepared. A platoon commander told de Volkskrant last year that he is very concerned about the training of new forces. “Some guys are standing upright on the battlefield reloading their weapons. Others don’t pay attention to landmines at all.’
Refusals of orders have led to “an increase in the losses of soldiers, territories and civilians,” Valery Zaluzhny, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, said this winter. “Often lost positions have to be regained with attacks that have a very high price.” At Zaluzhny’s request, President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law in January that increases the penalties for disobedience (5 to 8 years in prison) and desertion (up to 10 years) within the military.
Oekraïense militairen passeren op de weg bij de stad Lyman, die in oktober vorig jaar werd bevrijd. Beeld Daniel Rosenthal / de Volkskrant
Ukrainian soldiers pass on the road near the town of Lyman, which was liberated in October last year. Image Daniel Rosenthal / de Volkskrant
According to critics, the sentence increases are contrary to a promise that distinguishes the Ukrainian army from the Russian army: humane treatment of personnel. Commander-in-Chief Zaluzhny said in an interview with The Economist late last year that it is “always possible to remain human.” He described the Russian general Sergei Surovikin, who was in charge of the invasion army at the time, as a brutal commander from the time of Peter the Great. “When you see him, you understand that you have to complete your task or else you’re the dick.”
Military analysts point out that the Ukrainian army still shows traits of the Soviet army, despite NATO training missions and intensive cooperation with Western military advisers. The Soviet army, from which the Ukrainian and Russian armies emerged, was known for a vertical chain of command in which units were not given room to make their own decisions based on the situation on the battlefield. Ukraine has been trying to break with that culture since 2014 by modernizing its military with NATO support.
‘Culture of the old army’
“Many people who benefited from NATO training have died,” Michael Kofman, of the American think tank CNA, said after a recent visit to the front in Bachmoet. “And many people who have not benefited from NATO training and retired have returned to high positions. They come from a different culture, the culture of the old Ukrainian army.’
Reporting on Ukrainian soldiers at the front has been restricted by the army leadership. Journalists have not been allowed to enter ‘red zones’, including Bachmoet, since last month. ‘Yellow zones’ are only accessible under the guidance of an army press officer.
Nevertheless, uncensored stories from the war front trickle down to the population. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion, it has been known for its intransigence and its support for the armed forces. But the stories discourage some Ukrainians from enlisting in the military.
“A friend of mine says he is being treated as a slave by his commander,” says a young Ukrainian from Kyiv who ignored a call from a military recruitment agency. “Everything depends on your commander. I also know positive stories, but the negative ones scare me.’
Ukraine’s security service last month blocked 26 chat groups on messaging service Telegram that helped men evade mobilization. Members of the chat groups warned each other about places where recruiting officers handed out unannounced subpoenas. The founders of the groups could face up to 10 years in prison.
Russian attacks
The Russian army has never broken with the culture of the Soviet army and sacrifices its own soldiers in large numbers. In September, during a successful Ukrainian offensive in the northeast, President Putin personally called a local commander to tell him not to withdraw his soldiers despite a looming encirclement, the Wall Street Journal reported. Mercenary army Wagner sends people into the battlefield in waves, only to discover the positions of the Ukrainian army.
Putin expects to sustain a war of attrition longer thanks to a larger population. Last week, he signed a law that would make it easier for his military to mobilize civilians and punish conscientious objectors.
The Russian attacks have put the Ukrainian army under great pressure this winter, as is noticeable in a hospital behind the front. “I had to stay in my position longer than agreed, because the enemies came with many at once,” said Serhii, a grocery delivery man at a Ukrainian supermarket chain who was mobilized late last year. He was shot in the leg by a sniper near the town of Lyman, but expects to return to the army. “It’s tough, but we’re holding out.”
Serhii, die eind vorig jaar werd gemobiliseerd, verblijft in een ziekenhuis achter het front. Hij werd in zijn been geschoten bij Lyman. Beeld Daniel Rosenthal / de Volkskrant
Serhii, who was mobilized late last year, is staying in a hospital behind the front. He was shot in the leg at Lyman. Image Daniel Rosenthal / de Volkskrant
Soldiers at the front regularly lack medical knowledge, says a doctor from Hospitaljery, a volunteer medical battalion at the front near Avdiivka, a city where there is heavy fighting. “Compression bandages can save 90 percent of the arms and legs hit, but soldiers don’t tighten the bandage far enough,” says ambulance doctor Anton in a basement where the flap windows vibrate from impacting projectiles.
He jumps up to put on his bulletproof vest when a message comes in from a nearby army unit about three wounded. But after receiving a new message, he tells his four colleagues that they can take off their vests again. “All three are 200” – a Soviet army code for “killed in battle.”
Anton and his colleagues prefer unpaid work on the volunteer ambulance to paid work on an army ambulance. “I’ve seen the army’s system from the inside, I don’t want to be in it,” Anton says. His colleague Andrii, a floorlayer from Lviv who drives the ambulance: ‘In the volunteer battalion I am a free man. No one can give me orders that oppose me. And yet I do very useful work.’
Together, they transferred more than thirty wounded soldiers to hospitals in a month at the front. The entire Hospitaljery battalion, consisting of about five hundred people, evacuated thousands of soldiers this war, mostly in unarmored ambulances and always without compensation.
Doctors are working overtime
The losses raise the question of whether the Ukrainian military has enough capacity for a spring offensive. Western military analysts assume that Ukraine is withholding military and ammunition to break through Russian lines this spring. It is unknown how many soldiers and ammunition are involved. Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s defense minister, says his army could go on the offensive in April or May.
Doctors, meanwhile, are working overtime to patch up wounded soldiers. Even the loss of a limb doesn’t have to get in the way of a return to the military. “60 percent of our patients go back,” says Andrii Ovtsjarenko, director of Bez Obmezjen (Without Restrictions), a prosthetic center in Kyiv that made eight hundred artificial legs last year, mostly for military personnel. He says his patients return to the army as “immortal soldiers”: a soldier who stepped on a mine only sustained damage to his artificial leg and was able to fight on.
Foto van een militair die met zijn kunstbeen op een mijn stapte. Hij liep alleen schade op aan dat been en kon doorvechten. Beeld Daniel Rosenthal / de Volkskrant
Photo of a soldier stepping on a mine with his artificial leg. He only sustained damage to that leg and was able to fight on. Image Daniel Rosenthal / de Volkskrant
“They won’t give me a machine gun anymore,” says Serhii Tumanovsky, a soldier from the 93rd Mechanized Brigade who lost both legs on a supply road to Bachmoet and takes his first steps on artificial legs in the prosthetic center. “My commander has already said he’s taking me back. I can control drones or cook. I have to go back, there’s no choice.’
But Sanja, a mobilized miner waiting for a new left leg, doesn’t think about returning to the front on an artificial leg. He rubs his stump and says, “Fighting on my own feet was hard enough.”

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | Apr 18 2023 0:48 utc | 99