@101 Thanks for the Wiki quote. From what I got out of it, looks like it’s normally switched off. In times of crises it’s activated. The sentence, “However, it’s said to remain fully functional” may be in reference to the fact that it /remains/ functional even if most of the time, it’s turned off.
If this reading is right, then Putin may have indeed activated Perimeter. I’d say the victory in Bakhmut merits it, ’cause NATO can only escalate from there. I just think it’s a bold statement to make publicly. But the circumstances are unusual either way. Hmm. I’ll go looking.

Posted by: David | May 21 2023 19:16 utc | 104

Sushi – has to be right. A query. What is the current mood in Ukraine? Is there a possibility that the war could be ended by a Ukrainian faction, backed by popular disillusionment, turning against the Kiev administration?

Posted by: English Outsider | May 21 2023 19:22 utc | 106

FALL OF BAKHMUT:
History will show that the fall of Bakhmut (Artyomovsk) will prove to be a significant milestone for Russia taking and securing all of the Donbas.
History will show that the fall of the Donbas will prove to be a significant milestone for when Russia launched against the USA.
WHERE WILL THE RUSSIANS NOW GO???
There still is a significant concentration of Ukrainian troops immediately to the West ot Artyomovsk.
Since Russia has a lot of its firepower set up for the taking of Western Bakhmut, now Artyomovsk, it will be rather easy for the bear to focus its superior fire power upon the readily available AFU troops just West, Southwest, and Northwest of Artyomovsk. NOTE: During the Bahkmut seige, the Russians have been able to perfect the deadliness of their superior fire power upon the Ukrainian troops.
I don’t think Russia will focus so much on taking a specific territory except where such territory is strategic in accomodating their taking out Ukrainian troops.
If the Russians do not pause now that they took Bakhmut, and if they start to make immediate and significant gains in the Donbas, this will be a strong indicator that the Donbas will fall rather quickly to the Russians.
Another strong indicator of when the Russians will take the Donbas will be when Ukrainian supply bridges and rail roads are taken out. When Russia takes out the Ukrainain supply bridges and other feeding the Donbas, this will be yet another strong indicator of a planned significant Russian advance in the Donbas.
It is difficult for me to accept an early July 2023 time frame for Russia taking all of the Donbas. That is less than 2 months away. Yet, every day the AFU weakens from continual Russian attacks. Eventually, AFU’s lines in the Donbas will fail. When they do, Russia will quickly make signficant and quick gains within the Donbas.
Meanwhile, the escalation towards nuclear war continues with F-16s now going to be delivered and operated by Ukraine. Most likely these planes will be operated by former NATO F-16 pilots that took off their country’s patch and put on a Ukrainian patch. These days the patches are held on with velcro so not even a taylor is required to remove and sew on a new patch.
The F-16s arriving within Ukraine will provide the Russians very valuable experience in taking out F-16s which is the mainstay aircraft for most of NATO. I am sure Russia will like to have this experience under their belt before they launch against the USA.

Posted by: young | May 21 2023 19:27 utc | 108

On Sunday, May 21, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev arrived in Hanoi for negotiations with the Vietnamese authorities.
Vietnam, by the way, is one of the first countries, that kicked the US Army out. Latest country was Afghanistan, after 20 years of US/NATO occupation.

Posted by: ostro | May 21 2023 19:29 utc | 110

JustAMaverick | May 21 2023 13:20 utc | 4
Ukraine will not fall. From topwar.ru via google translate:
The head of the OSH of the Ministry of Defense of Germany said the “troops in Bakhmut inflicted heavy losses on Wagner PMC and Russian troops…They were there for more than six months inflicting losses on them. This is a real success for the defenders of Bakhmut and other cities.”

Posted by: horseguards | May 21 2023 19:30 utc | 112

An interesting account of evolving fire control between longer range surveillance drones and ground attack aircraft. I will labour my preference for long range guided rockets over aircrews but I would assume the described system can route target information to all relevant units =)
This Orion UAV looks like a high end, somewhat pricey, lower volume system.
https://t.me/llordofwar/143265

According to Turkish sources, the (Russian) Orion reconnaissance and strike UAVs have become more intensively used in air strikes on the Kherson border.
“Orions” detect the target, instantly transmit the position of the target to the Su-34 and Su-35 aircraft, carrying out air patrols, which allows them to fire at the target within a few minutes.
Russia has dramatically accelerated the transfer of data between UAVs and aircraft by developing new blocks and systems for command and control.

Posted by: anon2020 | May 21 2023 19:37 utc | 114

Apparently, the last ukraine soldier to leave bahkmut was executed,as per previous statement by wagner that they will not take prisoners following the kiev regimes execution of wagner troops. The last soldier was apparently dressed as a woman to evade arrest.

Posted by: HERMIUS | May 21 2023 19:38 utc | 116

RHERMIUS | May 21 2023 19:19 utc | 107
*** Rumour has that Zeluzhny was bumped off ***
Like Generals Patton, Lebed and Soleimani?

Posted by: Cynic | May 21 2023 19:53 utc | 118

The reason I questioned the story about Perimeter being turned on is that whatever its post Soviet status is and its moment to moment status is, this is something you keep mum about. If it exists you let that alone be known and no more, never a word about it afterwords. If you are serious and Putin and the rest of the RF govt. seems pretty serious. Talking about it after Artemovsk didn’t seem Putin’s style.
Anyway, if Perimeter is real I would hope they keep it parked on standby most of the time, despite the risk this is one place you don’t want to find a bug, computers are all about bugs. Less it’s on better off we all are. And, then there’s the documentary: The Man Who Saved the World.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | May 21 2023 19:57 utc | 120

David no. 106
If i was in Putin’s place, i would have any bloody thing which could detect an attack activated.

Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | May 21 2023 20:07 utc | 122

If Moscow (the population) actually showed up for the war, how long do you reckon the provincial Khakovians or Sumy-ani would last?

Posted by: Wokechoke | May 21 2023 20:10 utc | 124

Re: F-16s
Unfortunately for the Ukraine, this is not a Top Gun movie.
Russia has these things called S-400s. You know, the kind of air defense that Erdogan and other discriminating leaders prefer to the woeful Patriots.
Good luck with that.

Posted by: Ghost of Zanon | May 21 2023 20:16 utc | 126

Ostro no. 117
“not some coffee table fools at G-7… :)”
🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
Oooh that made me laugh.

Posted by: ThusspakeZarathustra | May 21 2023 20:19 utc | 128

Posted by: David | May 21 2023 19:16 utc | 106
Not sure whether Perimetr is/needs to be “activated”, it’s always on stand bye receiving signals from the peripheral sensors it relies on.
But one thing for sure this Artemovsk battle does hurt Nato for sure, and a lot. There are talks Ukraine won’t be defending Chasov yar too hardly, either. They are building a strategic reserve way behind even Chasov yar line, which will take a while. The Russians might get Chasov within a few months too.

Posted by: unimperator | May 21 2023 20:25 utc | 130

From RT:

“The truth of the matter is that Russians have suffered over 100,000 casualties in Bakhmut [Artyomovsk in Russia]. That is hard to make up,” the US president claimed, without revealing the source of this information.

Delusion reigns supreme in Washington.
Meanwhile the entire last two pages of the last thread were taken up by shadowbanned and the idiots responding to him. Delusion reigns supreme here, too, apparently.
Martyanov (for the hater, of course) demonstrates in his last video that F-16’s are outranged by Russian air-to-air missiles by a factor of 2. And today he proves that so far Russia has wiped out the Ukrainian equivalent of the entire French Air Force:
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2023/05/not-first-time.html

Lt.Colonel Daniel Davis gets it and lists only some issues related to modern air combat for US fighter planes:

For starters, it will take a long time to adequately train Ukrainian pilots and maintenance crews to be able to fly the jets into combat and keep them airworthy. In February, Undersecretary of Defense Colin Kahl said it would take between 18 and 24 months to get pilots and maintenance crews trained, airframes procured, and delivered on site for use. Yet a leaked Air Force assessment leaked last Thursday suggested the training time might be as few as four months. Even if that were true — and in all likelihood that would get pilots to a minimum capacity to fly the jets but be far from proficient in air-to-air combat — the process to identify F-16s from partner countries, get them airworthy, and then deliver them with the full contingent of maintenance supplies, spare parts, and ammunition, will likely take into 2024.
There is little likelihood, therefore, the fighters will see combat over the skies of Ukraine this year. Secondly, while the F-16 is clearly one of the best fourth-generation fighter jets in the world, its primary effectiveness is predicated on being one component in an integrated command and control battle management system of sensors. While the jet is capable of operating on its own, it is far less capable without additional acquisition assets, such as the E-3 Sentry AWACS. To date, there has been no discussion of providing this capability to Ukraine. Third, the F-16 is not a stealth aircraft. It was first delivered to the active Air Force in 1979, and it is vulnerable to Russian air defenses, such as the S-300 and more advanced S-400 air defense systems. One of the reasons the Ukrainian Air Force has played such a minimal role in this war has been their inability to neutralize the Russian air defense networks. While the F-16 is more capable than the MiG-29s the Ukrainians have been using, it is still vulnerable to attack by Russia’s air defenses.

This today’s piece gets it somewhat, but here is the issue which is going to irritate many rah-rah boys who learned about modern air combat from the Top Gun: Maverick school of the advanced military studies and who still cannot wrap their brains around this simple fact: NO modern US pilot, even the Senator Kelly, ever flew any mission under the conditions of high density Air Defense, EW and being outgunned and outranged by the enemy’s Air Force. None, zero, zilch, nada and, consequently, lacking practical (emphasis–PRACTICAL) tactical and operational experience and all necessary tactical and operational data, they are reduced to theoretical study of experiences of those very few Ukie and possibly NATO pilots who survived more than one mission against Russians.
Moreover, Russian Air Force Beyond Visual Range (BVR) against capable MiG-29s, Su-27 and SUu-24 of Ukie AF is staggering–a wet dream for very many in NATO Air Forces. Moreover, USAF NEVER operated against the best air defense in the world. Davis forgets that air domain in SMO is stuffed with not just S-300 or S-400s, nope, Tor-M2s, S1 Pantsirs, let alone Buk-M2 and M3, not to mention S-350 Vityaz are all there and it is them who create the most hostile air environment in history, as Ukie AF learned the hard way. Here are their losses in fixed and rotary wing aircraft:
As you can see yourself, for today (May 21, 2023) aggregate losses of the 404 AF are: 428 fixed wing aircraft, 234 rotary wing and 4,245 UAVs of all kind. We will learn later how many of those combined 428+234 = 662 manned aircraft have been shot down by combat aircraft of Russian VVS (Air Force) and how many by Air Defense complexes, but to provide some proper perspective on the intensity of the air combat in SMO, take a look at these numbers.
In other words, Russian VKS (Russian AF and AD are constituent parts of VKS) wiped out the equivalent of the French Air Force with every single aircraft in its inventory.

Posted by: Richard Steven Hack | May 21 2023 20:27 utc | 132

There’s a certain problem that the EU/NATO leaders, doesn’t appear to fathom. That is, a dead-man-walking won’t take any practical or rational decisions. Even with all that talk about forever afterlife in father’s home-in-sky, anyone near death knows that the end is near, and that there’s no coming back to check on anything after death. So, putting their cards on Biden is the most foolish thing those “leaders” could do.

Posted by: ostro | May 21 2023 20:29 utc | 134

@ Rep2 | May 21 2023 18:32 utc | 92
You have a more pro-Russian view than the Russians on their TV shows.
They should watch more 1&1 TV broadcasts from Kiev.

Posted by: whirlX | May 21 2023 20:31 utc | 136

THIS is what the Ukrainians are told in their newspapers:
“WE ARE APPROACHING THE CAPTURE OF BAKHMUT IN THE TACTICAL ENCIRCLEMENT – SYRSKY”
The Commander of the Ground Forces spoke about the state of affairs in the hottest spots.
The defense of the Ukrainian-controlled unit of Bakhmut does not lose its relevance, said the Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrsky. This was announced by his official Telegram.
“Despite the fact that we now control a small part of Bakhmut, the importance of its defense does not lose its relevance. This gives us the opportunity to enter the city in case of a change of scenery. And this will definitely happen,” the commander said.
“We continue to advance on the flanks in the suburbs of Bakhmut and are actually approaching taking the city into a tactical encirclement. Thanks to this, we will be able to control all high-rise buildings occupied by the enemy, and gradually destroy them. This deprives the enemy of control over the approaches to the city and gives us certain tactical advantages. While working with commanders, we analyzed in detail our actions and the order of destruction of the enemy. Therefore, we continue the defense. The situation is complicated, but under control,” Syrsky added.
Well, since Syrsky wrote this on his official Telegram- account- he must be well.
https://zn.ua/ukr/war/mi-nablizhajemosja-do-vzjattja-bakhmuta-v-taktichne-otochennja-sirskij.html

Posted by: Paul from Norway | May 21 2023 20:42 utc | 138

Pudding | May 21 2023 20:29 utc | 140
*** Apparently this is a liberal anti-corruption, opposition-in-exile project***
CIA, Soros or both?
Doubt there can be a “liberal anti-corruption” organisation anyway, since “liberal” is, one way or another, a toxic form of corruption itself.

Posted by: Cynic | May 21 2023 20:48 utc | 140

Croatia was systematically exterminating its ethnic Serb population. The census after the war shows that over 2/3 of the pre-war ethnic Serb population was killed or cleansed off.
Here we have a member of a former death squad, Miro Bajramovic, who, as a free man, admits and details how his squad would exterminate the Serb population, and that just he himself, was responsible for killing almost 90 mostly Serb civilians. The media kept quiet of these killings during the war while it made up or exaggerated claims against Serbs. The ICTY court wasn’t interested in the mass murderers of Serbs.
https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/05/world/croatian-s-confession-describes-torture-and-killing-on-vast-scale.html

Posted by: MiniMo | May 21 2023 20:51 utc | 142

I don’t understand why the BRICS nations (and others) aren’t making the price of oil/gas (and other commodities) scream–this could potentially shorten the estimated 10 days left before the USA hits the debt limit and defaults. Russia could state they’ve received threats on their industrial plants and thus shut them down for a week; other countries (Saudi Arabia, India) could simply claim “mechanical or supply chain issues”. At the very least it might help stomp on any re-election hopes of Dementia Joe the Warmonger.

Posted by: Dulles_Did_Dallas | May 21 2023 20:52 utc | 144

Posted by: Pudding | May 21 2023 20:29 utc | 140
Thanks, I’ll at least take a look.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 21 2023 20:55 utc | 146

The Croats and Bosnian Muslims did have larger forces – a much larger infantry within those former republics & they also got control of Yugoslavia weapons depots at beginning of war. Slovenia was selling the weapons left behind by the JNA (the JNA didn’t take any of these weapons out – didn’t have a chance) to the Bosnian Muslims, while it was also the main middleman for weapons from dozens of countries.
U.S. and British ships in the Adriatic weren’t stopping shiploads of weapons for the Bosnian Muslims, and by the war’s end BiH was awash with weapons and went on to sell the to Kosovo, Iraq, Syria. Croatia sent scores of planeloads of weapons to the Syrian opposition forces just before it entered the EU.
There was also an Osama bin Laden connected arms smuggling operation, financed by Austrian banks, for the Bosnian Muslims.

Posted by: MiniMo | May 21 2023 20:59 utc | 148

The reason I questioned the story about Perimeter being turned on is that whatever its post Soviet status is and its moment to moment status is, this is something you keep mum about.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | May 21 2023 19:57 utc | 125
The Perimeter is to deter a nuclear exchange, not to win one. It would be useless unless we knew about it. That is, also, modern military doctrine. If you got the means to take them on, let ‘them’ know it so you don’t have to take them on.

Posted by: Jmaas | May 21 2023 21:04 utc | 150

whirlX is woefully ignorant, and doesn’t stop to reason how the Bosnian Muslims and Croats could be fighting with heavy weapons against EACH OTHER only 6 months into the war if they didn’t have armies and weapons? Explain how Croats destroyed the Mostar bridge in 1993 if they didn’t have heavy weapons.
In fact the Bosnian Muslims also had control of most of Bosnia’s weapons factories established and built by Yugoslavia.
“The majority of the military production facilites in Bosnia-Herzegovina were in the Lasva Valley [area]…these plants…fell into the ABiH’s hands in 1991 & 1992, but most important of them remained in HVO’s hands throughout the period.”
https://books.google.com/books?id=OTQs4zif-qYC&pg=PA17&lpg=PA17&dq=%22The+majority+of+the+military+production+facilities+in+Bosnia-Herzegovina+were+in+the+Lasva+Valley%22&source=bl&ots=-uzl4xEJEl&sig=ACfU3U1Yi7NBNNU_nwJUdRfNWNWnhhL7gA&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj1qoWLv5niAhUDA6wKHRxpBZQQ6AEwAXoECAIQAQ#v=onepage&q=%22The%20majority%20of%20the%20military%20production%20facilities%20in%20Bosnia-Herzegovina%20were%20in%20the%20Lasva%20Valley%22&f=false

Posted by: MiniMO | May 21 2023 21:06 utc | 152

Tim Q 17,
Could it be that you are confusing Russian meritocratic selection of decision makers with the utterly corrupt western democratic party dominated system that inevitably delivers up incoherent incompetents who become glove puppets of Zionist forces, intelligence agencies and arms manufacturers, all seeking their own interests? Russia will look after itself, it always does. If Putin is replaced it will be someone smarter, not by a western patsy.

Posted by: eagle eye | May 21 2023 21:10 utc | 154

@MiniMo | May 21 2023 20:43 utc | 144
Guess who was UN Peace Envoy to Yugoslavia? It was Thorvald Stoltenberg, father of Jens Stoltenberg.
Video: UN PEACE ENVOY THORVALD STOLTENBERG

Posted by: Norwegian | May 21 2023 21:16 utc | 156

LightYearsFromHome writes;
“On the Soviets stealing atomic secrets, of course, and of course they had help. I think some part of the motivation here wasn’t a fellow traveler’s love of communism but that it was pretty clear that there were very strong forces in the USA (driven by the UK) on the knife edge of nuking the entire country with a massive unprovoked first strike. The only way to prevent this insanity was to help Russia get the bomb as fast as possible, save Russia, save the world, save yourself.”
I always thought that if Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were guilty of nuclear espionage on behalf of the USSR, they should’ve been awarded posthumous Nobel Peace Prizes.

Posted by: malenkov | May 21 2023 21:23 utc | 158

JustaMaverick @4. I agree with you absolutely. The Leaders of the collective West are suffering from a mass psychosis. I am astonished that these Leaders who must, surely must know the truth, keep the delusional thinking prevalent using it to escalate, escalate, escalate.
I never thought I would see the day that European countries, who were occupied by the Nazis in WWII, would now be actively supporting an absolutely brutal, tyrannical Fascist Dictator and turning a blind eye to their serious war crimes, the truth and the brutality of the Ukrainian Govt in the cleansing of ethnic Russians by cancelling their language, their history, their culture and their humanity. The only reason that springs to mind is, as the WEF Unipolar world is an extreme form of Fascism in terms of control, identity, surveillance and propaganda, the Leaders do not give a damn about their citizens, it is all about Glory and Power for themselves. Well, they will fail. My grandparents fought in WWII so that Fascism and the Nazi ideology would never again dominate the world and yet it has an unhealthy, deep obsession with Zelensky and Ukraine. So deep is the delusional obsession that these Leaders are willing to destroy their own countries. They lack moral and actual courage. Courage is not the absence of fear but rather, the judgement that something else is more important. the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has had the enormous moral and professional judgement to protect the ethnic Russians in Ukraine and Russia itself. He put the protection of his citizens and his country first. It was a fearless decision and also, as the collective West has shown, the weight and expectations of 85% (i.e. the RoW) rest heavily on his shoulders. Thank God for Putin. A deep thinker, an arch rationalist and at heart, a Pacifist. The destiny of the RoW is safe in his hands.
Conversely, the collective West Leaders really are insane. Not one, with the exception of Orban in Hungary, has had the courage to speak out against Zelensky (who now, has completely outrun Hitler in terms of Messianic tendencies and brutality) and its Fascist Nazi Regime that has no Opposition Parties and only one media channel now. The Leaders talk about Ukraine as ‘sharing their values’. My God, if what is going in Ukraine are European ‘values’ then these Leaders will convert to Fascist/Nazi ideology in their own countries. They are not courageous in any way. They are conformists to the WEF because they hunger for total power and glory in the world and f**k the citizens of their country. It was only a few years ago that the massive continuing protests in France (God Bless the French people) would have secured the resignation of the President on the basis that it had lost authority to govern the country. Now, Macron insists he is going to stay in power because he can. No moral judgement, no care or consideration for the wishes and feelings of the citizens but an avowed coward who cannot face the French electorate in an election because he might lose it.
A President who does a televised interview wearing an $80,000 watch on his wrist which he then has to take off due to poor optics, says everything. Whilst the standard of living for the French is rapidly declining, the President appears on TV wearing an $80,000 watch and who is publicly seen holidaying on billionaires yachts tells people everything they need to know about him. BTW I do not believe at all the later claims that the watch was a $2000 ‘copy’. A man such as Macron would wear nothing less than the real deal.
God Bless Mother Russia, President Putin, China and XiJing Ping. The soon to be saviours of this corrupt collective West.

Posted by: Jo Dominich | May 21 2023 21:28 utc | 160

“…This Soviet influence was still there in the 1980s, as witness the huge campaigns against the deployment of US nuclear weapons in Germany and the UK (Greenham Common etc). In those days Green Parties were against nuclear weapons, now they call for more to be sent to the Russian borders….”
YetAnotherAnon@130
The influence of the Soviet Union on the campaigns against imperialist warmongering was close to zero. Most of those involved and leading the campaigns were thoroughly imbued wiith the Trotskyist currents which dominated the left at the time.
The campaigns were against war not for the Soviet Union- most people involved believed that it was imperialist warmongering that sustained the ‘Stalinist’ regime, and that internal opposition would flourish when the pressure of desperate defence was removed.
As to the rest of your warmed over McCarthyism it is nothing more than that : the same guilt by very distant and tenuous association is presumed. There is a good reason that McCarthy never came up with his long lists of ‘subversives’ -they didn’t exist.
As for nuclear weapons- the Manhattan programme began as Tube Alloys in the UK. Without the work of Tube Alloys the Manhattan programme would have taken much longer to come to fruition.
So far as Klaus Fuchs and the Cambridge spies are concerned, it is not they who were traitors but the imperialist authorities who adopted the Third Reich’s orphans and nurtured them. It was Gehlen and his myriad accomplices- sponsored by the Dulles clan- not Fuchs who betrayed us.
And have brought us-as Helmer’s article today shows- to the very brink of annihilation.

Posted by: bevin | May 21 2023 21:30 utc | 162

Tom_Q_Collins | May 21 2023 20:51 utc | 148
No one in their right mind is arguing that EVRYONE mentioned in Venona was a Soviet agent. For example Churchill’s name appears.
But we’ll have to agree to disagree on Sen. McCarthy. If this list of Soviet agents had been known at the time there’d have been a political earthquake. McCarthy was right. The rot went right to the top – Harry Dexter White was a trusted Roosevelt aide.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Eastern_Bloc_agents_in_the_United_States
Re the change in attitudes once Russia wasn’t communist, look at Earl Browder, head of the US Communist Party and declared supporter of the Soviet Union, and his son Bill, dedicated anti-Russian propagandist.

Posted by: YetAnotherAnon | May 21 2023 21:33 utc | 164

Richard Steven Hack | May 21 2023 20:27 utc | 137
usaf is having difficulting keeping its f-16’s combat tready.
spare parts and spare engines are short for f-16 which is living longer less reliable higher maintennce life bc f-35 is 10 years late and counting bc f-35 cannot pass certain test requirements….
gao relates the above.
if the f-16’s come from eu they likely have less spares to send than usaf.
who sends the spare parts and spare engines is a bigger question than who off loads hard to maintain f-16’s on ukranazistan

Posted by: paddy | May 21 2023 21:38 utc | 166

Re: LightYearsFromHome | May 21 2023 19:57 utc | 125
as Jmaas | May 21 2023 21:04 utc | 156 says, Perimetr was not designed for offense. Rather, the idea was that it gave the Russian leadership the “luxury” of “riding out” a perceived attack, rather than launching on warning of attack.
If the warning of the attack were false, but believed to be true, than the “retaliatory” strike, which was launched on electronic warning of attack, would turn out to be a first strike. Russia knows that the US can hit Moscow in something like 7-9 minutes with a SLBM; that would give them maybe a minute or so to make the decision to launch on warning.
What has always worried me is Murpy’s Law, something can always go wrong with any technology, so having Emergency Communication Rockets ready to go that can automatically launch Russian nukes is one more nightmare to add to the rest.

Posted by: Perimetr | May 21 2023 21:44 utc | 168

It’s ironic that Iran is the only country helping Russia when they were a big factor helping the U.S./NATO proxies in the Bosnian war. The article shows that Bosnian officials had a direct line to the U.S. government regarding these weapons shipments. U.S. was behind the whole thing only not helping directly, at that time, to put up a false front of not being a party to the war.
U.S. was advising the separatists even BEFORE the wars started. Bush & other politicians gave LIP SERVICE regarding Yugoslavia to make themselves seem neutral or innocent, yet their ACTIONS and behind the scene maneuverings shows they were backing the separatists against Serbs the whole time.

U.S. ALLIES FED PIPELINE OF COVERT ARMS TO BOSNIA
Arms smuggling to Bosnia and Croatia was larger and more complex than the shipments from Iran and Turkey recently acknowledged by the Clinton administration and involved such U.S. allies as Pakistan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Argentina, according to U.S. and Bosnian officials.
U.S. officials learned in 1992 that Iran had opened a smuggling route to Bosnia with the assistance of Turkey, two years before a controversial decision by President Clinton to give Croatia a diplomatic “green light” for the shipments, national security adviser Anthony Lake said Friday. Bosnian government officials said that by 1993, arms or money for arms purchases also were being supplied through the Turkish pipeline by Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Brunei and Pakistan, and that other weapons shipments came from Hungary and Argentina.
U.S. officials knew of most of the arms shipments but took no action, despite Clinton’s public support for a United Nations-sponsored arms embargo against Bosnia, Croatia and the other nations of the former Yugoslavia. That policy marked a break with the Bush administration, which strongly protested when an Iranian plane flew to Zagreb in September 1992 with 4,000 assault weapons, prompting Croatia to impound the cargo.
…several congressional committees, including a House select committee named Friday, are now investigating the arms smuggling and Clinton’s decision in April 1994 to have U.S. envoys tell Croatian President Franjo Tudjman that the United States did not object to the shipments. Republicans have charged that the administration allowed Iran to gain a foothold in the Balkans by not opposing the shipments, and they plan to investigate whether U.S. officials in the region may have taken direct action to encourage or facilitate the smuggling.
…On May 4, an Iranian cargo plane with 60 tons of ammunition and machinery for making arms landed in Zagreb for transshipment to Bosnia. When asked at the time by The Washington Post if the plane contained arms, a State Department official who monitored weapons smuggling denied it. However, when Croat militia units blocked the weapons from moving into the Muslim-held parts of Bosnia, the Bosnians telephoned U.S. officials in Vienna and Zagreb and asked them to press the Croats to allow the materiel through, sources said.
An internal investigation by the Intelligence Oversight Board at the White House’s request concluded earlier this year that Galbraith had not taken action in response to the Bosnian request but that Redman probably had contacted Croatian officials to get the convoy cleared.
The main airport and staging center for the Iranian arms was the Croatian island of Krk, near the northern Adriatic port city of Rijeka. U.S. officials said helicopters piloted by Croatians would land at Krk the afternoon before Turkish or Iranian 747B cargo planes were expected, then fly the arms and ammunition out during the night. Defense Minister Susak recollected that most of the planes were Turkish.
As the supply operation grew, both Croatia and Bosnia began to cultivate closer ties with Iran. While some Iranian fighters joined the Bosnian Muslim army, Croatia developed relations with Iran in areas such as oil and banking. According to U.S. and Bosnian sources, Croatia took 30 percent of Iranian-provided arms arriving in the region. And in October 1994, Zagreb signed a $120 million barter deal with Iran to build four cargo ships at its nearly bankrupt shipyards in Split and Pula in return for Iranian oil.
In Zagreb, Iranians involved in weapons smuggling and fighting in Bosnia were so numerous that the U.S. Embassy was thrown “into a panic,” one official said…
“>https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1996/05/12/us-allies-fed-pipeline-of-covert-arms-to-bosnia/9d2d9f71-c191-490a-b1cc-c468c0a8468a/

Posted by: MiniMo | May 21 2023 21:49 utc | 170

The idea that the little drone attack over the kremlin was any kind of serious assassination attempt by anybody but a kook is asinine. A real assassination attempt on putin would make much better effort to know exactly where he was first.
Periodically some kook fires rounds at the white house, and this is the same situation. Zelensky clearly did not order the drone attack, and if it did possibly come from ukro intelligence or cia et al, it was apt best meant to damage the kremlin and piss on the vday festivities.
Lastly, killing Zelensky would be pointless, as would capturing him. He is no great leader or strategic mastermind. He is a puppet, and killing him would not end NATOs designs on Ukraine, and would only ratchet up propaganda boo hooing by the west.
He is far more useful as beggar in chief for Ukraine than a nationalist general seizing control in a coup or a successor. If anybody is going to liquidate z it will be nato, as happens to all who make a deal with the devil and fail.

Posted by: UWDude | May 21 2023 21:58 utc | 172

Has anyone reviewed the RUSI doc on Russian capability/tactics?
https://static.rusi.org/403-SR-Russian-Tactics-web-final.pdf
We have to take its anti-Russian bias as a given, but there were a few things that struck me.
“It is typical for there to be between 25 and 50 UAVs from both sides operating over the contested area between the forward line of own troops (FLOT) and forward line of enemy troops (FLET) at any given time for each 10 km of frontage.”
But just down the page it gives Ukrainian drone losses at 10,000 A MONTH!
Can this be remotely true when Russia only claim about 4,400 UAVs in the entire campaign? Or are small drones like DJI Mavic 3s not counted by Russia, but counted by RUSI? Can they really be losing 120,000 drones a year? The Chinese economy will be flying! Or is that figure plucked from someone’s nether regions?
Elsewhere they don’t rate Russian infantry but admit that they stand firm under attack, rate Russian engineering and Electronic Warfare – they say every infantry platoon has electronic anti-drone equipment – and seem agnostic about the air force, which Russia has wisely IMHO kept away from deep Ukrainian airspace.

Posted by: YetAnotherAnon | May 21 2023 22:01 utc | 174

@ MiniMo | May 21
This roll is about Ukraine and RF’ SMO.
Mo, whatever, easy – it was many years ago and everybody has the right to have its own perspective.
So, I am not blinded by the NATO ‘light’, also not by any other Eastern ‘light’.
People forget, do not know and equalise Ukraine and Balkans, drawing some weird parallels between those two events.
And the poster, JB, did notice that properly.
Serbs also identify towards as almost Russians, although except religion, similarities are very distant.
From the culture to the general population’s education and the world perspectives.
Two very different people.
In 1991 unfreezing the conflict from the cryostate, just as it was frozen in 1945, minus Tito’s coherent rule, could have been easily prevented. All eyes on the West.
Also, there, in my view, not one side was seen as it didn’t want the war. They all played along with the rise of their own nationalisms, leading it to a clash.
Not excusing or accusing anybody there, but Serbs, overall, did inflict much more pain and the destruction around the Balkans than all the others combined.
That could have been avoided and prevented if NATO had the guts and balls to intervene in the early stages of a conflict. A few tough flyovers, some bombing here and there and a ground UN/NATO supported forces of separation.
There was no political will in the West for it, as simply it was a change of political generations in a process.
The Berlin Wall just came down a year ago, and bloody fighting was very fresh in Romania with Ceausescu’s downfall.
Koehl and others busy with the ironing “Two Plus Four Treaty” etc.
Everybody panicked in the West. US were too busy in neutering USSR (CCCP) and eying Kuwait and Saddam. Very wild years.
NATO ‘bombing’ was apparently helpful in stopping further killings, it just came a way too late for around 150k victims, mostly civilians.
The rest is an endless saga of who did what, to whom and where.
The same as with every other war.
Fog, tales of horrors and heroism, everywhere the same.
Nobody cares about those any more, as it seems.
Otherwise, current stuff would never happen.
EOF

Posted by: whirlX | May 21 2023 22:14 utc | 176

Re the fate of General Zalushny:
The silence of the Western propaganda machine on this major event is telling. Unless the West believes Zalushny will be back really soon, they seem to be unsure of the situation, otherwise they’d have already spun it in some way.
We hear rumours that Zalushny is badly injured, perhaps in a coma, which would be a good cover for being (kept?) incommunicado. How can the West be sure Zalushny isn’t working on a coup, or some other faction is and Zalushny stayed loyal to his Western masters and has been muffled. Would also explain Zelensky’s suspension in international travel as mentioned here before.

Posted by: Leser | May 21 2023 22:24 utc | 178

Re: Iran sending weapons to RF, the USA is now experiencing the blowback of having sanctioned Iran up the wazoo, plus having their proxy Israel threaten them with destruction repeatedly for 40ys straight. The west has absolutely no leverage left against Iran. Oddly enough the most sanctioned country is the most free to act as it wants in an existential global conflict, same goes for the DPRK. Think about, Iran and the DPRK are free to either help or not help Russia. Now compare the shackled and whipped vassal states of Europe and Japan forced to immolate themselves! Crazy stuff, right?
An example, Italy isn’t a sinking ship, it sunk, about the only hope for those left floundering and in the life rafts was for the One Belt One Road ship to sail by and pick them up. No other ships passing by, that was it, their one hope out of the EU austerity shipwreck. They’d have been better off being sanctioned by the USA for the last 40ys, they could have just hopped aboard the OBOR rescue ship and sailed into the BRICS port. Crazy upside down world.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | May 21 2023 22:37 utc | 180

John Helmer weighs in on the F-16s.
Posted by: FVK | May 21 2023 12:54 utc | 1
It seems to be that the F16s will have some “Ukrainian” pilots. A lot of this is to massage (slowly boil) the NATO/US populace – claim it takes a long time, then viola – here they are. Like the Patriots, M1, etc…..

Posted by: daffyDuct | May 21 2023 23:15 utc | 182

Brian Berletic: Bakhmut Folds: Russia Takes City + Ukraine’s Struggle Against Toll of Attrition
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MUXj5DtlM8
– Russian Ministry of Defense claims the Donbass city of Bakhmut/Artyomovsk has been fully taken by Russian forces;
– Western analysts claim the city’s capture will not “turn the tide” of the conflict, ignoring the war of attrition taking place superseding territorial advances;
– The US is sending another weapons package to Ukraine featuring an unspecified amount of ammunition for HIMARS, artillery systems, anti-tank weapons, and both bridging and logistics equipment;
– The US is also incrementally moving in favor of sending Ukraine F-16 fighter jets through third party nations in Europe. The F-16 represents no specific capability Ukraine’s own air force didn’t have before being removed from the battlefield;
– The Western media continues incrementally admitting the limits in military industrial output preventing the US and Europe from providing Ukraine with weapons and ammunition to match or exceed Russia’s military capabilities;
References:
TASS – Putin congratulates Wagner assault teams with liberation of Artyomovsk — Kremlin (May 21, 2023):
https://tass.com/defense/1620655
Associated Press (via NPR) – President Zelenskyy has said that Bakhmut is destroyed as Russia claims victory there (May 21, 2023):
https://www.npr.org/2023/05/21/117738…
NY Times – Defenses Carved Into the Earth (December 2022):
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2…
US Department of Defense – Biden Administration Announces Additional Security Assistance for Ukraine (May 21, 2023):
https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases…
Politico – Biden set to announce new military aid for Ukraine after meeting with Zelenskyy (May 19, 2023):
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/05…
Washington Post – Europe’s military industrial capabilities fall short of Ukraine’s needs (May 19, 2023):
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/…

Posted by: Melaleuca | May 21 2023 23:29 utc | 184

There’s an interesting hypothesis I saw going around that Wagner was tipped off by the Elensky regime where Zaluzhny was so that they could take him out. (Prigozhin made a video saying they don’t know where he is now but they did early in May and “conducted certain tasks”). It’s implied that this was Elensky’s way of eliminating Zaluzhny who would at this point be a replacement acceptable to America as Ukraine dictator instead of Elensky.
And of course Zaluzhny’s a publicity hog who if anything should be more visible now. He should now be posting photos pointing dramatically at maps on a table with captions like “the indefatigable Ukrainian army chief General Zaluzhny planning the counteroffensive aimed at crushing the Russian invaders.” Why isn’t he?

Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | May 21 2023 23:37 utc | 186

Posted by: mjc | May 21 2023 23:38 utc | 195
Geez, that’s one of those questions that has been answered upwards of 100x around here since 2014. I recommend Consortium News’s coverage of the situation dating back to the Maidan coup. It’s also more complicated than “neither kindled nor sustained” because the territory, people and culture of the region in question has historically been Russian to begin with. When the Ukrainians were shelling Donbass where do you think those that fled went to? They went to Russia, not western Ukraine. In a situation like that – essentially a civil war kicked off by an unconstitutional coup and followed by literal cultural/ethnic cleansing and specific repression of the Russian language and culture for 8 years – the neighboring government will almost always do at least something about it. But insofar as Russia’s government from the period of 2014 to 2022, I would argue not much. The “Russian” support or “Russian backed rebels” really means that there is a close kinship between those Russians who live in the regions bordering the Donbass and many of them volunteered to go help in fighting off the fascists from the west. Putin refused many times to get involved, in fact. There were members of the media and the Duma who wanted him to intervene with Russia’s military but he didn’t until the SMO. That said, there may have been light tactical and training assistance provided – far less than what the US tends to do – but the members of the Donbass militias were in many cases former military people themselves and already trained on all the weaponry left over from the USSR and in use by both sides of the conflict. So what was happening over that span of time was really the US and NATO helping the Ukro-Nazis and ratcheting up the pressure to the point that a major invasion was imminent and that sparked the SMO.
You’ll probably be best off reading and/or watching each installment of this series.
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/02/27/watch-the-war-in-ukraine/

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 21 2023 23:51 utc | 188

Posted by: mjc | May 21 2023 23:38 utc | 195
In case that wall of text is hard to track, the TL/DR version of my answer to your question is “No, the Russian government definitely did not kindle or sustain the Ukrainian civil war to any degree of major significance as there would have been plenty of evidence if they did.” It was nothing like how the US kindles and sustains civil wars in places like Syria….or Ukraine.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | May 21 2023 23:55 utc | 190

The head of the OSH of the Ministry of Defense of Germany said the “troops in Bakhmut inflicted heavy losses on Wagner PMC and Russian troops…They were there for more than six months inflicting losses on them. This is a real success for the defenders of Bakhmut and other cities.”
Posted by: horseguards | May 21 2023 19:30 utc | 116
If you look, you can find Nazi Films on the “Merry Christmas from Stalingrad” propaganda showing naked soldiers throwing snow at each other. Stalingrad, another German Success story.
On the topic of soldiers, Alexander the Great, a great man or a nasty piece of work, was fond of men. Ahem.
And Zelenski ? I think we are looking at a heels up occasion. Soon.

Posted by: kupkee | May 22 2023 0:02 utc | 192

Posted by: whirlX | May 21 2023 22:14 utc | 184
@ MiniMo | May 21
“This roll is about Ukraine and RF’ SMO.”
Yes, it is but you brought up the lies and propaganda about the Yugoslavia wars, and the media constantly lied about Serbs while it blocked news of murders and ethnic cleansing of the Serbs population which were the targets of the NATO/U.S. backed proxies all along. The media also lied about the numbers of dead – exaggerating by extra 100s of thousands.
Most of the dead were COMBATANTS, not civilians, and they ended up having to count the dead from all sides, both civilians and military and add in all the “missing” and then round up, and that number was only a fraction of what they claimed during the wars.
“Mo, whatever, easy – it was many years ago and everybody has the right to have its own perspective.”
Your perspective is based on mainstream media LIES and propaganda.
“Serbs also identify towards as almost Russians, although except religion, similarities are very distant.
From the culture to the general population’s education and the world perspectives.
Two very different people.”
No they do not identify as Russians. They, many of them, are pro-Russian.
“In 1991 unfreezing the conflict from the cryostate, just as it was frozen in 1945, minus Tito’s coherent rule, could have been easily prevented. All eyes on the West.”
Key NATO powers wanted to break up Yugoslavia into old faultlines and wanted to hurt and weaken the Serbs and Serbia the most. There were substantial – even constituent – Serb populations in the set-to-be “independent” republics and it was that population which was first killed – either that are the JNA soldiers.
The first attacked were the Yugoslav border guards on the Slovenia/Austria border. They were attacked by the Slovenia TO – territorial defense.
Austria and Germany had been working with Slovenia towards separation from Yugoslavia for well over a decade before the war. Slovenia’s Janez Jansa was a known NATO spy.
“Not excusing or accusing anybody there, but Serbs, overall, did inflict much more pain and the destruction around the Balkans than all the others combined.”
Wrong. It was the Serb population in the broken off republics which was targeted and ethnically cleansed and exterminated. The censuses prove this. The other populations all GAINED percentage-wise and got their ethnically pure countries/territories.
Croatia is much more ethnically pure than it was in 1990.
The Bosnian Muslim population went from 43% to over 50% by the wars end. Their president Alija Izetbegovic was an Islamic fundamentalist who stated in his book that Islam could not co-exist with other religions/peoples within a state.
He was part of a Nazi youth as a teen during WWII. Bosnian Muslims were a special project of Himmler and they and the Croats were also at Stalingrad, besieging and killing Russian civilians.
He was also jailed for seeking help from Islamic terrorist groups in the early 80s for some plot against Yugoslavia.
He was sentenced to 13 years but got out after a few and he and his fellow conspirators formed the SDA party which took Bosnia to war.
He even stated: I will sacrifice peace for “independence”.
“That could have been avoided and prevented if NATO had the guts and balls to intervene in the early stages of a conflict. A few tough flyovers, some bombing here and there and a ground UN/NATO supported forces of separation.”
What is a NATO shill like you doing on this forum. NATO wanted the war and wanted bases in the Balkans and the destruction of Yugoslavia was practice for and a step towards their attack on Russia.
“There was no political will in the West for it, as simply it was a change of political generations in a process.
The Berlin Wall just came down a year ago, and bloody fighting was very fresh in Romania with Ceausescu’s downfall.
Koehl and others busy with the ironing “Two Plus Four Treaty” etc.
Everybody panicked in the West. US were too busy in neutering USSR (CCCP) and eying Kuwait and Saddam. Very wild years.”
The west was heavily involved with helping their proxies and was managing the war. When the Croats and Bosnian Muslims started fighting, and when you also had the moderate Muslims under Fikret Abdic (and he was the actual winner of Bosnia’s presidential election NOT Alija Izetbegovic), and Abdic was an ally of the Serbs.
Serbs were allied with moderate Muslims in Bosnia such as those of Abdic around Velika Kladusa, but the west was sponsoring the radical ones, and falsely advertising that they were moderate.
“NATO ‘bombing’ was apparently helpful in stopping further killings, it just came a way too late for around 150k victims, mostly civilians.”
Wrong. Most of the dead were COMBATANTS. Most all the dead in Bosnia were men – around 91%. And NATO never would bomb the Bosnian Muslims for killing Serb civilians, while they didn’t bomb either the Croats and Bosnian Muslims in their war against each other.

Posted by: MiniMO | May 22 2023 0:21 utc | 194

For a moment now I’ll allow my most paranoid thinking to guide my posting.
I’m wondering if Speaker of the House McCarthy is partly motivated in his insistence on having President Biden back in Washington before serious negotiations over the debt limit can recommence so as to ensure that POTUS is among Congress at Ground Zero in Washington, and not safely aboard Air Force One where the hawks could persuade him to stand aside as they provoke Russia to the point of a nuclear exchange all but happening.
Biden is that demented, and the hawks are crazy enough to think that if they push Putin hard enough, he’ll blink. Russian President Putin might have warmed up Perimeter because he has his own suspicions, and hopefully things will cool down once Biden is entrenched back in America, and has had his Ovaltine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Hand

Posted by: Babel-17 | May 22 2023 0:31 utc | 196

Some videos for today.
Liberation of Artemovsk (Bakhmut) fully completed – Russian MOD:
https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/bakhmut-yt:2
Scott Ritter: Artemovsk’s liberation ‘military victory that shows Russia is winning’:
https://odysee.com/@SputnikInternational:c/ScottRitter2105:5
Russian forces beat off another Kiev regime attack near Artemovsk:
https://odysee.com/@Overthrown:6/video_2023-05-21_02-48-51:e
Retreating Kiev regime troops drive past their own destroyed military equipment near Artemovsk:
https://odysee.com/@Overthrown:6/video_2023-05-21_19-16-21:b
Russian Tyulpan self-propelled heavy mortar pounds enemy position:
https://rutube.ru/video/0d148af3bfd9f3d035bb46792fc89a71/

Posted by: Nate | May 22 2023 0:36 utc | 198

Posted by: William Gruff | May 21 2023 21:04 utc | 155
The US has always sustained itself on delusions. Even the poorest Americans saw themselves as ‘temporarily embarassed millionaires’ instead of questioning a predatory system that was rigged to leave them with nothing. Today that system is sustained by a polarity that pushes people into either of two camps – living in a neoliberal fantasy or a fatalism that withdraws the individual from society altogether, often with violent repercussions. The problem with living in a fantasy is that it works until it doesn’t, and like a plane that flies below its stall speed, the landing is not soft or controlled.
Posted by: Jo Dominich | May 21 2023 21:28 utc | 166
I never thought I would see the day that European countries, who were occupied by the Nazis in WWII, would now be actively supporting an absolutely brutal, tyrannical Fascist Dictator and turning a blind eye to their serious war crimes, the truth and the brutality of the Ukrainian Govt in the cleansing of ethnic Russians by cancelling their language, their history, their culture and their humanity.
Well, here in the good ole US of A, its peoples have supported a government that has been committing war crimes for quite some time. A million or so dead in Iraq due to US actions? Out of sight out of mind. Can’t really explain Europe except that those countries now slavishly follow the US’s lead. “And every city, the whole world round, will just be another American town. . . Let’s drop the big one now.”

Posted by: Mike R | May 22 2023 0:39 utc | 200