I tend to believe that both sides – NATO as well as Russia – are waiting for the other to make the fatal mistake of concentrating some massive amount of troops for an assault.
To be wiped out by air-missile-drone strike…
Or may be its just what they fear.

Posted by: Greg Galloway | May 6 2023 11:28 utc | 303

Posted by: grunzt | May 6 2023 10:57 utc | 301

I know I’m like a broken record on this, but people in the West still don’t understand why and how exactly the Cold War ended.
And that includes even the anti-imperialists. Those consist mostly of two groups — a libertarian right and a Trotskyist left, and both of them have their reasons to swallow line hook and sinker the official narrative that is presented to everyone else, namely that the USSR collapsed because it was an unworkable system that history has now firmly rejected.
The libertarians like that idea because they dream of a small state, completely unregulated markets, etc. And obviously the USSR is a mortal enemy of that ideology.
The Trotskyists (and I use this term loosely — most of them don’t identify themselves as such because they have no knowledge of that history) hate the USSR because it was built by Stalin, and Trotskyists and Stalinists hate each other. Also, in later decades communist countries went in a conservative nationalist direction on cultural issues, which is unacceptable for Trotskyists too.
So we have the mainstream narrative converging with the disparate motivations of the “alternative” fringe in creating a huge blind spot, and everyone is thinking the USSR collapsed because it just had to collapse as it was a fundamentally broken system.
Nothing of the sort — if there had been a will, there would still be a USSR. It’s a long topic, but it could not only have been saved, but it would have thrived and been light years ahead of the West if the correct decisions had been taken, especially in the 1960s. You see what China looks like now.
In reality what happened was that the grandest act of treason and betrayal in human history was committed — a certain layer of the late Soviet elites made a deal with the West to surrender without a fight and hand over the USSR’s resources in exchange for a percentage on the rent extraction flow that would allow them to then live in unimaginable under communism luxury. That’s the essence of the whole story.
But again, that isn’t understood in the West, including in the anti-imperialist circles.
It is well understood in Russia though, and this is why there is so much pessimism — because that scum has been in power ever since, it has not been cleansed and purged at all, and everything about the last 14 months smells very strongly of another such betrayal.

Posted by: shadowbanned | May 6 2023 11:43 utc | 305

Posted by: shadowbanned | May 6 2023 11:43 utc | 311
I don’t agree with you on a lot of things, but I agree that Gorbachev and Yeltsin sold out the USSR, and Putin was Yeltsin’s loyal servant at first. My understanding is he changed, and pushed back against the Western oriented oligarchs. otoh i’m no expert on Russia. but it seems to me like Russia is clearly winning the war, while walking a tightrope to avoid world war 3.
“– a certain layer of the late Soviet elites made a deal with the West to surrender without a fight and hand over the USSR’s resources in exchange for a percentage on the rent extraction flow that would allow them to then live in unimaginable under communism luxury. That’s the essence of the whole story.”
this is a good synopsis, and this betrayal paved the way for the US to go on a 30 year rampage.

Posted by: pretzelattack | May 6 2023 12:07 utc | 307

So many obvious paid trolls in this thread slinging shit at Lira like caged gibbons. These ones seem more like State Department trolls herded by fake NGOs rather than the SOCOM MISO trolls, but I could be wrong. In either case, this volume of trolling indicates the situation with Lira is serious and has the attention of the Empire of Delusions higher level operators that have resources for large scale trolling.
If the trolls are SOCOM then perhaps Lira was just snatched to keep him out of the picture while the Ukraine’s offensive gets under way. He’ll likely be back then sometime after the dust settles.
If the trolls are tools of the CIA/State Department, then we may never see Lira again. That crowd is literally a gang of psychopathic murderers. Absolute lowest scum of the Earth, like an entire organization of Jeffrey Dahmer types.

Posted by: William Gruff | May 6 2023 12:11 utc | 309

It is well understood in Russia though, and this is why there is so much pessimism — because that scum has been in power ever since, it has not been cleansed and purged at all, and everything about the last 14 months smells very strongly of another such betrayal.
Posted by: shadowbanned | May 6 2023 11:43 utc | 311
this though, seems way exaggerated. Russia isn’t at all like it was in the 90’s, and that’s because the traitors don’t have the power they used to. and if they ran things the way you say, Russia would not have invaded Ukraine, but just meekly acquiesced to its eventual encirclement and dismemberment.

Posted by: pretzelattack | May 6 2023 12:13 utc | 311

this though, seems way exaggerated. Russia isn’t at all like it was in the 90’s, and that’s because the traitors don’t have the power they used to. and if they ran things the way you say, Russia would not have invaded Ukraine, but just meekly acquiesced to its eventual encirclement and dismemberment.
Posted by: pretzelattack | May 6 2023 12:13 utc | 317

Remember how a couple days after the invasion started Putin gathered the oligarchs and told them “Everything that is happening now is desperate measures. They left us no choice, they have created security risks that are unacceptable”.
And then immediately he added “But that does not mean we will isolate ourselves from the world and stop doing business”, etc.
That scene was hugely important in retrospect.

Posted by: shadowbanned | May 6 2023 12:23 utc | 313

It is well understood in Russia though, and this is why there is so much pessimism — because that scum has been in power ever since, it has not been cleansed and purged at all, and everything about the last 14 months smells very strongly of another such betrayal.
Posted by: shadowbanned | May 6 2023 11:43 utc | 311
@ Pretzelattack yes ditto.
So why is Russia even fighting? Why not just break it into saleable parts and get their $$$ and be done with it? Certainly their cohorts in the West would have made it very much worth their while. But that didn’t happen.
I’d like to hear your reasoning why they are betraying Russia and fighting for Russia all at the same time when they could have just competed the process 20 years ago with Yeltsin.
I do get the pessimism though, anyone who has suffered trauma would feel the same.

Posted by: K | May 6 2023 12:31 utc | 315

@ Posted by: pretzelattack | May 6 2023 12:18 utc | 318
There is more to it than what you list.
I’m convinced US Special Ops will be joining in the fray very soon, and probably positioned to do so right now.
The latest US weapons package indicates this, but very few understand the relevance of what each weapon represents.

Posted by: BroncoBilly | May 6 2023 12:34 utc | 317

Do Trolls get benefits? Vacation time and health insurance?
Perhaps Trolls freelance? How does it work?

Posted by: Ramsey Glissadevil | May 6 2023 12:41 utc | 319

light years ahead of the West if the correct decisions had been taken, especially in the 1960s. You see what China looks like now.
Not really. You might say that GDR collapsed in 1990 around the time Deng was changing policy in China – compare and contrast China with former GDR under West German management !
China has a sea coast and had Hong Kong and New Territories where UK had let a business culture thrive – it had export ports. ALL Chinese wealth is concentrated in its coastal regions
USSR had no real coastal ports for exports.
USSR offered Akio Morita cheap labour to produce SONY products in Soviet factories – he declined. Outside Mil-Spec USSR quality was pitiful especially in consumer goods.
The areas of USSR best suited to technically advanced optics and electronics were Ukraine and Baltic States which is why USSR produced there and in GDR at Carl Zeiss Jena.
Dreamers like you are big on drama but weak on detail

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | May 6 2023 12:49 utc | 321

@ Posted by: Response2 | May 6 2023 12:43 utc | 326
Look at the list. What is new?
How is it used? Which launch systems use it?
Who controls those launch systems?
Also another overheard conversation from several months ago, which I won’t repeat here. But now I have better confirmation by simply paying attention to mundane items in press releases.

Posted by: BroncoBilly | May 6 2023 13:01 utc | 323

There are exceptinal Russians, with fine sensitivies and humanity, but alas this type NEVER ends up in power in Russia.
They don’t end up in power in America either.

Posted by: Fred777 | May 6 2023 13:20 utc | 325

Not really. You might say that GDR collapsed in 1990 around the time Deng was changing policy in China – compare and contrast China with former GDR under West German management !
China has a sea coast and had Hong Kong and New Territories where UK had let a business culture thrive – it had export ports. ALL Chinese wealth is concentrated in its coastal regions
USSR had no real coastal ports for exports.
USSR offered Akio Morita cheap labour to produce SONY products in Soviet factories – he declined. Outside Mil-Spec USSR quality was pitiful especially in consumer goods.
The areas of USSR best suited to technically advanced optics and electronics were Ukraine and Baltic States which is why USSR produced there and in GDR at Carl Zeiss Jena.
Dreamers like you are big on drama but weak on detail
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | May 6 2023 12:49 utc | 327

Not at all. We are not talking about business — the whole point of the USSR was to move away from the “business” mentality — and definitely not about exports.
An entirely separate autarkic system had to be created.
If humanity is to survive in the long run, everyone who talks about business must as quickly as possible have their head and body separated from each other and buried in shallow unmarked graves, and everyone who ever talks about “business” again needs to be immediately lined up and shot. There is no viable future that is not based on careful material balancing of physical resources that ensures there is no growth in their use, and in which the ideas of “profit” and “interest” do not become heresies punishable by death. The alternative is extinction for the species and much of life on the planet.
The point is that the USSR refused to pursue the tech that would have allowed independent development along a different trajectory. Computer tech is key indeed, but not so much as a consumer item. And a lot of opportunities were missed.
Disastrous decisions were taken in the late 1950s and the 1960s.
First, not to pursue OGAS, which would have developed an internal Soviet internet before the Western version, and, critically, would have solved the real-time material balance problem (early on central planners had to plan for a few hundred items, but that eventually grew to complexity two orders of magnitude higher, which they couldn’t handle; a problem that was foreseen — there were people there who were not dummies and knew what had to be done — and OGAS would have been the solution). OGAS, in simplest terms, would have been much like what Amazon uses today to manage its logistics, but coming half a century earlier. The problem is that would have taken away the power of the bureaucrats so they blocked it.
Second, the decision was made to not pursue indigenous chip designs but to copy the Western ones. That ensured that they would always be half a decade behind. They were not as far behind initially, especially in theoretical work, and it’s not as if they didn’t have the brains to work on their own tech. Look up the early literature on machine learning, a lot of it is Soviet, and the first examples of what we now call deep learning were also Soviet.
Third, the Sino-Soviet split put them in permanent disadvantage. Circa 1965 it could have been 1.1-1.2 billion Chinese + Soviets + the rest of the communist countries in a single consolidated area of exchange of technology and ideas versus ~800 million in the West. After the Sino-Soviet split, the Eastern bloc was left with less than 400M people, vastly outnumbered by the West, while now having to spend double on the military to guard the eastern borders too.
What happened instead was the in the 1960s resource exports to the West started, which set the process of deep corruption of the system in motion. Why invest in local computer tech if you can just sell oil and buy them ready made?

Posted by: shadowbanned | May 6 2023 13:23 utc | 327

Weeb Union 1 hour ago
Wagner Teams Up With Kadyrov To Take Bakhmut Before Victory Day | Full Front Update 06/05/23 6 mins
Shades of Dresden last night in The Citadel … horrendous
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJf_fZjZxSI

Posted by: Don Firineach | May 6 2023 13:31 utc | 329

@William Gruff #332
It’s quite apparent they are paying peanuts, judging by the banal performance of the monkey trolls.

Posted by: BillB | May 6 2023 13:43 utc | 331

There is no way Ukraine shot down a Kinzhal with a Patriot AD system.
More pure lies and bluster to cover their failures. I suppose when the population has been abused this extensively what’s a little more. After the utter embarrassment of having one of your own drones hacked and having to shoot it down over their own capital ciry they’ll say anything to change the subject.
I remain stupified by the complete fucking idiocy of Western strategists.

Posted by: Doctor Eleven | May 6 2023 13:51 utc | 333

everyone who talks about business must as quickly as possible have their head and body separated from each other and buried in shallow unmarked graves, and everyone who ever talks about “business” again needs to be immediately lined up and shot.
Posted by: shadowbanned | May 6 2023 13:23 utc | 333
Enviroloons and ecofascists – always looking to reduce population by one method or another.

Posted by: GT Stroller | May 6 2023 14:01 utc | 335

Fantastic:

The list of front-line settlements in the Zaporizhia region that fell under partial evacuation will be expanded — RIA Novosti

Expanded to what?
It already covered the whole front yesterday.
Melitopol is next?

Posted by: shadowbanned | May 6 2023 14:09 utc | 337

The Dolphin | May 6 2023 10:51 utc | 300
The cook is cranking something. I suspect Russian mindset. Along with drawing in Nato for some lessons in military tech type stuff. It is becoming obvious that Russia will have barbarians at its gates into the foreseeable future.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | May 6 2023 14:14 utc | 339

reply to 339
It could be worse. You know the Russians were pulling chips out of appliances to support their missiles. Or that Ghost of Kiev guy. Or the US could have a Presidential race between two elderly men who have mental problems, touch women inappropriately, lie persistently, and make awful public gaffes. And then they might demand a rematch of the two.
I wonder what happened to the world I live in?

Posted by: Eighthman | May 6 2023 14:23 utc | 341

Re:Shadowbanned:
“What happened instead was the in the 1960s resource exports to the West started, which set the process of deep corruption of the system in motion. Why invest in local computer tech if you can just sell oil and buy them ready made?”
Posted by: shadowbanned | May 6 2023 13:23 utc | 333
You really like raking over past mistakes as if there is some gain in it. I could go on for eons about the USA from 1960-2022, pointing out corruption, corporate oligarchy gutting our manufacturing, allowing foreign nations all over the world access to our technology, unlike Russia, the US doesn’t make a dang thing anymore.
You can say all you want, ALL NATIONS from 1960-2022 that globalized, then neoliberalized their economies betrayed their citizens & sovereignty. Quit acting like Russia is some unique oligarchy corrupt to the core.
Putin paid off the over 100 billion of IMF years of Yelstin et el, the Russian “debt” is laughable & the GDP to debt ratio is at best 37% vs US that stands at 34 trillion & ratio of 112% currently, which the majority of nations are over the 100% mark.
The true legacy of a national leader is the debt he leaves his country with. Because it is debt that determines national sovereignty or not. Debt & military might are the nation’s survival as a sovereign nation. Putin has secured both in his tenure. And scrapping over the last 70 years is a waste.

Posted by: Trubind1 | May 6 2023 14:36 utc | 343

Andrew Korybko has an interesting article about the Lira case, he thinks the US government is complicit.
https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2023/05/us-vs-gonzalo-lira/

Posted by: Morongobill | May 6 2023 14:43 utc | 345

You can say all you want, ALL NATIONS from 1960-2022 that globalized, then neoliberalized their economies betrayed their citizens & sovereignty. Quit acting like Russia is some unique oligarchy corrupt to the core.

Where did I say Russia is unique in that? Russia was unique in that it was once anti-capitalist, so it hurts much more.

Because it is debt that determines national sovereignty or not
Posted by: Trubind1 | May 6 2023 14:36 utc | 350

Not true. The military is all that matters.
Debt is ultimately backed by the ability of the creditor to apply force to extract payment, and vice versa.
Which is why the US can rack up tens of trillions of debt — it is backed by the might of the US military that ensures nobody dares ask for repayment.
In that context allowing the combined tonnage of Russian megayachts built in the last three decades to exceed many times the combined tonnage of new ships and SSBNs for the navy goes 100% against the interests of the country. And it wasn’t necessary — notice how no Chinese billionaires have megayachts.

Posted by: shadowbanned | May 6 2023 14:48 utc | 347

I remain stupified by the complete fucking idiocy of Western strategists.
Posted by: Doctor Eleven | May 6 2023 13:51 utc | 339
But it works for Western public. Ukr may be leveled and msm will say Russia has lost and has no missiles left.
Cleopatra is black (new netflix documentary) and Russian drones are shot down with pickle jars. They really believe it. Do you know a tv show called Big Bang Theory? At first it was relatively funny then really bad. Over the years it aired, US had no working rockets, used Russia to get to space. In that tv show they made fun of Russians, their space program, scientists and other things many times. From tiny parts, it all adds.

Posted by: rk | May 6 2023 14:55 utc | 349

Do you know a tv show called Big Bang Theory? At first it was relatively funny then really bad. Over the years it aired, US had no working rockets, used Russia to get to space. In that tv show they made fun of Russians, their space program, scientists and other things many times. From tiny parts, it all adds.
Posted by: rk | May 6 2023 14:55 utc | 357

Indeed. Remember the episode with the Caltech janitor that turned out to have originally been a physicist from Leningrad who emigrated to the US? There may have been such cases in the early 1990s, but certainly not in the 2010s. But the stereotypes persist to this day.
P.S. The US handing the space program to the private sector is a historically monumental disaster. That should never ever have been allowed — space exploration should be a common effort of all of humanity and greed and profiteering should have no place in it. But here we are…

Posted by: shadowbanned | May 6 2023 15:00 utc | 351

But here is the problem — the difference between an oligarchy and a strong centralized state is that the latter can be decapitated fairly easily while the former is too dispersed. …
And then decapitation does not even have to be physical, you can do it through subterfuge and corruption if there is a single failure point.
Posted by: shadowbanned | May 6 2023 8:49 utc | 270
Mind rules body, smarts outplay muscle. Decapitating a leader doesn’t change the underlying culture though it may well paralyze the current regime in charge. The culture will grow the same sort of thing back in no time. Again and again.
The current culture has gone to extreme materialism which ultimately is a serious spiritual deficit, a pathology infecting the entire Body Politic such that core human values have been suppressed (principally values that value values!) as the over-arching view that life is a mechanical process and we are no more than biological machines now rules. This is the core problem that needs to be resolved. Killing leaders in churches – a very lowbrow idea, I must say! – won’t cut the mustard.
These core values can be recovered but not whilst the materialist mindset rules.
And, frankly speaking, it is not all that clear that Russia and China are entirely free from the spell of the materialist mindset, especially the latter which seems to be into materialism on steroids. It’s incredible what they’ve been pulling off the past half century, but it doesn’t seem to be anything other than a really, really big demonstration of the material advances that can be made following the industrial revolution. They are just the biggest polity who came to the party the latest so are building up with the latest tech. Their regime is clearly still terrified of any spiritual authorities challenging their own which may make sense administratively speaking, but that fear belies a certain level of deception on their own parts in that they know, in their heart of hearts, that they don’t have all the answers and don’t entirely deserve the degree of unchallenged single party authority they have achieved. Russia seems to have more soul generally and Putin for sure projects an extremely strong value system. However, once people start shooting and bombing each other, morality plays second fiddle to the related – and urgently materialist – needs for violence, destruction, mayhem and deception. There are never any winners; all sides lose.
No easy answers.

Posted by: Scorpion | May 6 2023 15:03 utc | 353

Posted by: BroncoBilly | May 6 2023 13:01 utc | 329
The list for May 3, 2023 is here: https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/3383288/biden-administration-announces-additional-security-assistance-for-ukraine/
Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS);
155mm Howitzers;
155mm artillery rounds;
120mm, 81mm, and 60mm mortar rounds;
Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles;
AT-4 and Carl Gustaf anti-armor weapon systems;
Hydra-70 aircraft rockets;
Small arms and small arms ammunition;
Demolition munitions for obstacle clearing;
Trucks and trailers to transport heavy equipment;
Testing and diagnostic equipment to support vehicle maintenance and repair;
Spare parts and other field equipment.
It does say “includes” not not everything that was sent.
Have you seen a different list?

Posted by: Response2 | May 6 2023 15:06 utc | 355

But such a project could only have worked if Western Europe was to become communist, and that was not a viable prospect after D-Day.
Otherwise the West would have corroded and collapsed Russia, which is what indeed happened, and it is the job they are trying to finish now.
Posted by: shadowbanned | May 6 2023 15:09 utc | 364
The other possibility is that the West had effected bona fide internal reforms rather than allowing it self to be taken over by commerce and banking. Most traditional societies know that you don’t let the merchants become rulers, leaving that (usually) to either the warrior or priest classes, neither of which are without problems of course which is why monarchies were developed and they too can go pear-shaped as history demonstrates in spades.
But what has been the problem with Russia and the West is not, indeed, cultural but systemic. The West has been ruled by rapacious left-brain psychopaths for far too long. If we can solve that problem, then doubtless Russia and the West can join back together. I was slightly surprised to learn a few months ago that Russia is traditionally regarded as part of Europe. This is accurate, they are. I think the Eurasian Multipolar Dream can only truly work if there is one polity – or whatever it is – going from Lisbon to Vladivostok. Any sort of Cold War bifurcation is a failure, though looks like that’s what we are going to get for a few decades at least at this point given the failure of leadership on all sides.

Posted by: Scorpion | May 6 2023 15:18 utc | 357

@Paco
Thanks for your updates and comments.

Posted by: anon2020 | May 6 2023 15:20 utc | 359

It will be interesting to see in this so called “upcoming offensive” if the Russian Army will play this tactically or strategically like they did in Kherson.
While it made sense there to retreat from a tactical point of view (troops could have been stuck on the other side of the river during a potential winter campaign – unable to supply those troops which could be crucial somewhere else and so on, it still gave the Ukrainians something that they brag with it since then (“hope” that they can win). Now, of course hope doesn’t win wars .. but it also somehow gave the impression (the Russian High Command) that they prefer to limit casualties as much as possible for a longer war. Keep in mind that the Soviet Union when they stopped the Germans at Moscow, lost more men than the Germans did until then (they lost most of their Western Army at that point). So of course, you could argue that Ukrainians can cause some upset as well considering the amount of support and ammunition that gets dumped there. Basically the country right now lives on Western support, which means every men could be eligible for military combat instead of working in the state economy.
Now the situation in Zaporizhia is different because it eliminates some of the flaws that Kherson city and they have a fairly large fortification network already done. However, given recent events (planned evacuations of the civilians there) you could argue that they start doing the same steps that they did with Kherson. In a way, it seems that the Ru Army needs to inflict as much pain possible to existing Ukr offensive limiting casualties on their end or retreating to conserve strenght which makes their position quite difficult. I hope, that I am wrong though. While the initial mobilisation seemed to be working without major issues, not sure if other mobilisations would go too smoothly.

Posted by: JamesBond | May 6 2023 15:21 utc | 361

Here we go again:
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/44819

🔴 Ukrainian troops deployed armored vehicles to the front line in the Zaporozhye region
📝 “ The enemy has deployed armored vehicles to the front line. Its main part is hidden in underground vegetable stores in the Orekhovsky and Gulyaipolsky districts in the part of the Zaporozhye region controlled by the Armed Forces of Ukraine ,” said Vladimir Rogov, politician and member of the local administration
According to him, Ukrainian troops also deployed thousands of troops to the front line.
🔹 Rogov stressed that the situation in the region is tense, but there is no panic among the population.
✔️ On the eve of the authorities of the Zaporozhye region said that the counteroffensive of the militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine could begin in the coming days or even hours.

They were supposed to have prevented this transfer of men and equipment, but of course nobody really tried seriously…

Posted by: shadowbanned | May 6 2023 15:23 utc | 363

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1654522175678996481
https://twitter.com/squatsons/status/1654837050158481409?cxt=HHwWgoDQ_fDhlPctAAAA
So much scum in this thread. Name hijackers and trolls. There is good honest people here from right across the spectrum but they have been drowned out. I didn’t agree with some of Lira’s views but he put on good roundtables. The clowns that are celebrating Lira’s arrest by the Ukro nazi’s. Scum.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | May 6 2023 15:28 utc | 365

JamesBond | May 6 2023 15:21 utc | 369
If they apply the Kherson retreat in Zap region won’t they lose control over ZNPP instantly? nato wants that npp badly, free energy for them and to cut Crimea from it. If not for energy, maybe they want to explode it. Seems to be the only npp nato can explode in Ukr without too much protest from Duda.

Posted by: rk | May 6 2023 15:34 utc | 367

If they apply the Kherson retreat in Zap region won’t they lose control over ZNPP instantly? nato wants that npp badly, free energy for them and to cut Crimea from it. If not for energy, maybe they want to explode it. Seems to be the only npp nato can explode in Ukr without too much protest from Duda.
Posted by: rk | May 6 2023 15:34 utc | 376

They have no room for retreat as it is, even if there was no NPP.
If they lose Tokmak, Melitopol is in artillery range.
If they lose Melitopol, Crimea is left only with the Kerch bridge.
If they lose Berdyansk, the Kerch bridge is in range to be destroyed.
Mariupol will be open to attack too.
If both the land bridge and the Kerch bridge are lost, Crimea can only be supplied by ship, but that can be blocked too with ASMs from Odessa and from the Azov coast.
So just losing Tokmak can cascade into losing Crimea if they don’t finally stand up and fight properly.
I have no idea what the hell the thinking is here. They built all these fortifications, and if they just retreat once again without fighting, then what were they for???
This isn’t new, BTW — they started building fortifications outside Kherson too, plus, of course, the city itself could be used as a fortress and defended for a very long time. Then they retreated. So extremely ominous signs these last two days…

Posted by: shadowbanned | May 6 2023 15:42 utc | 369

The only historical parallel you need to consider is that of the Wehrmacht outside Moscow in December of 1941: their initial attack failed, they have no means of resupply or reinforcement and they are left in an exposed position. They are about to be rolled back.

Posted by: Noam A. Larkey | May 6 2023 15:54 utc | 371

Posted by: shadowbanned | May 6 2023 15:42 utc | 380
The ability to hold the trenches depends on being able to neutralize the ukro artillery, which will be the main source of Russian losses. If the ukros manage to overcome the Russian artillery, they will need to abandon that trench. Not because they couldn’t hold it, but to avoid unnecessary trench warfare losses from artillery. The ukros need to have their artillery in place if they want to launch the offensive and the Russians are trying hard to destroy them before they launch.
Russian doctrine calls for flank attacks on the ukro force perpendicular from the axis of advance before they reach the third line of defense, which possibly may happen.
“What is more likely, is that every line of defense is also a fire bag and a mine trap. The invading force will be bombed heavily after taking each line of defense.
If we assume, for the sake of discussion, that the offensive will take place in Zaporizhzhia then the following scenario could be possible:
Attack the offensive formations with the glide-bombs (Air Force), missiles, and artillery until they reach the first line of defense. If they reach the first line of defense,
Retreat from the first defense line. If the enemy makes further progress,
Retreat from the second defense line.
Try to envelop doctrinally with reserve forces the invading force left and right on the second line of defense and destroy them. If this is not successful, then retreat to the next line trench system, prepared further in the rear.
Repeat the same.”
https://bmanalysis.substack.com/p/operational-update-4

Posted by: unimperator | May 6 2023 15:57 utc | 373

Posted by: unimperator | May 6 2023 14:19 utc | 347
Agreed that the photo looked bogus but I though they were trying to create the impression of a graphite nose cone, which is apparently a thing in missile / space technology…

Posted by: anon2020 | May 6 2023 16:00 utc | 375

Remember the episode with the Caltech janitor that turned out to have originally been a physicist from Leningrad who emigrated to the US?
Posted by: shadowbanned | May 6 2023 15:00 utc | 359
The RU scientist turned janitor in US was one very soft moment. But in other episodes they just inserted “jokes” with no connection to the script or anything. For example, Russians “are only known for Tetris and mail-order brides”, Russians are “the people who gave us Chernobyl”, their rockets are scary bad, Russians shit too much in space compared to Americans and other such “jokes” but I don’t remember now.

Posted by: rk | May 6 2023 16:21 utc | 377

The delusion-embracing “younger generation” is Gen Z… aptly named for the end of Western civilization, wouldn’t you say?

Posted by: William Gruff | May 6 2023 16:23 utc | 379

Here is another view on “sanctions”: Selling Off the West’s Patrimony for One Ruble – But Why?

Posted by: Dacian | May 6 2023 16:26 utc | 381

The RU scientist turned janitor in US was one very soft moment. But in other episodes they just inserted “jokes” with no connection to the script or anything. For example, Russians “are only known for Tetris and mail-order brides”, Russians are “the people who gave us Chernobyl”, their rockets are scary bad, Russians shit too much in space compared to Americans and other such “jokes” but I don’t remember now.
Posted by: rk | May 6 2023 16:21 utc | 389
likely scriptwriters and producer were from an ethnic group that absolutely hates Russians with a crazy zeal. a mania with this group.

Posted by: Exile | May 6 2023 16:38 utc | 383

Do Trolls get benefits? Vacation time and health insurance?
Perhaps Trolls freelance? How does it work?
Posted by: Ramsey Glissadevil | May 6 2023 12:41 utc | 325
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Do Trolls get benefits? Does a bear shit in the woods? Why don’t you ask Mr. Kenneth Wollack or Mr. Wilson.
Kenneth Wollack is chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy and a member of the George W. Bush Institute’s Advisory Council on Human Freedom
Mr. Wollack has been actively involved in foreign affairs, journalism, and politics over the past five decades. For more than 25 years, he served as president of the National Democratic Institute (NDI), a nongovernmental organization (NGO) dedicated to advancing democracy worldwide [in other words Trolling]. He retired in September 2018, after 32 years at the Institute.
The current head Troll at the NED For over twenty years, Damon Wilson has helped shape U.S. strategy and national security policy in regard to NATO and US-European relations to advance freedom and security, Wilson views authoritarian Russia and China as “the main geopolitical challenge of the 21st century,” and that “there is no possible successful strategy to confront Putin’s aggression without a strong NATO.”
As far as pay and benefits are concerned, they are’t saying.

Posted by: Ed | May 6 2023 16:40 utc | 385

Norwegian @392
Corners of western civilization will hold out for hundreds of years, and I see no reason why your corner shouldn’t be one of them.
The discussions here often touch upon a “civilization war” that the world is in right now. The civilizational model represented by the US is up against its limits and has nowhere to go. That is why they embrace nonsense like “the end of history” or retreat into their imaginations. We’re not at the end of history, just the end of western civilization as represented by American culture.
While your corner of western civilization might continue, or even thrive for generations to come, the US is toast. It cannot outlast this decade.

Posted by: William Gruff | May 6 2023 16:43 utc | 387

@ William Gruff | May 6 2023 16:43 utc | 399
I agree with your assessment, the US is toast. We also need a complete overhaul over here. We don’t need Quislings like Stoltenberg.
This is a significant turning point in modern history.

Posted by: Norwegian | May 6 2023 16:51 utc | 389

Posted by: oldhippie | May 6 2023 16:39 utc | 393
>No way has Gonzalo been running his high profile operation in the middle of a war zone without protection.
I’ve long wondered about his protectors. The guy is a particularly unattractive manosphere specimen, droning on about why women can’t be trusted, how women hit the wall (coming from a guy who evidently slammed into that same wall), don’t marry Western women, etc, etc. His followers are political nobodies: losers who can’t get a western girlfriend and fantasize about mail order Slavic brides. And he’s not even from USA or other strong Ukrainian ally but rather Chile! From what I can see, his videos and tweets this past year has done nothing to help Ukraine’s war effort. (To the extent he’s contributing to Ukraine losing the war more quickly, yes, he’s helping Ukraine, because hurrying the end of this destructive war is in Ukraine’s interest, but that’s not what SBU would call helping Ukraine.) Or am I missing something?

Posted by: Revelo | May 6 2023 17:07 utc | 391

Posted by: William Gruff | May 6 2023 16:43 utc | 397
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Bill, you probably know this already, but just the same I would like to point out that the yahoo Francis Fukuyama did not invent the term “The End of History.” He was playing on Marx who was suggesting that after a period of socialism, humanity would move towards communism where the ownership of things and objects would become superfluous. A period when human poverty and the need for capitalist class oppressors would become yesterday’s nightmares. This Marx referred to as “the end of history.”
On the other hand, Fukuyama dreams of a future were neo-liberalism, and a permanents capitalist class society would be the “end of history.” The neo-liberals of Francis days (the Clintons, the Bidens, and the Obama’s) loved it.

Posted by: Ed | May 6 2023 17:27 utc | 393

klutch kargo | May 6 2023 16:50 utc | 395
Some organs last up to 2 days in storage. There’s no problem. If they’re evil, they can keep the soldiers almost alive. Fresh from Borel’s garden, for everyone!

Posted by: rk | May 6 2023 17:30 utc | 395

@ Posted by: Response2 | May 6 2023 15:06 utc | 359
That’s it.
“One of these things is not like the others…One of these things just doesn’t belong here..”

Posted by: BroncoBilly | May 6 2023 17:41 utc | 397

Because it is debt that determines national sovereignty or not
Posted by: Trubind1 | May 6 2023 14:36 utc | 350
Not true. The military is all that matters.
Posted by: wagelaborer | May 6 2023 14:53 utc | 356
The use of debt to control other countries was policy in the USA around the end of the nineteenth century. The name for it was “Dollar Diplomacy,” and it was directed primarily toward Latin America. Start with a country that does not have an inherently strong government. Next borrow them money. Finally, threaten to cut of their credit if the don’t go along. Lacking a strong government, the disruption to commerce would cause the local government to get overthrown. Threat of that happening produced their cooperation without the direct use of military force. Thus it was the substitute for military force, and was a better system for keeping life safe for United Fruit’s investment in the country

Posted by: Jmaas | May 6 2023 17:50 utc | 399