Loud in Zaporozhye!
At the moment, the Russian Aerospace Forces are striking at the occupied part of the Zaporozhye region.
According to preliminary data, the Russian Aerospace Forces are actively working with planning bombs on warehouses and hangars with equipment and ammunition of the UAF militants in the Orekhovsky district and in the city of Orekhov itself, in the Gulyaipolsky district and the city of Gulyaipole itself, as well as in the Nazi-controlled part of the Pologovsky district and in the nearest suburbs of the regional center.
Vladimir Rogov
https://t.me/NovichokRossiya/32275
[ Album ]
In the territory controlled by Probanderovsky Kiev, a 36-year-old sniper from the UK, Julian Thorne, who was engaged in the training of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, was annihilated in a car accident.
According to the Daily Mail, a former British serviceman was in Kiev even before the start of his own — the sniper went into service to the Ukronazists, training them to kill Russians in the Donbass.
#source (https://t.me/voenkorKotenok/48071)
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/48546
‼️🇺🇦Airplane crash at the front: Su-25 attack aircraft were ambushed by fighters of the Vostok group in the Zaporozhye direction
▪️On May 31, around 18:00, anti-aircraft gunners of the Vostok group shot down a Ukrainian Su-25 attack aircraft. According to reports, a pair of attack aircraft of the Armed Forces of Ukraine tried to attack Russian positions near the town of Orekhov near the settlement. Novoandreevka in the Pohovsky district of the Zaporozhye region.
▪️Enemy pilots were ambushed by anti-aircraft gunners of the 58th Army of the Southern Military District. One of the aircraft was shot down from the Igla MANPADS, the second managed to escape.
https://t.me/CyberspecNews/32051

Posted by: unimperator | May 31 2023 20:38 utc | 104

Various western news sources claim that Yevgeny Prighozhin is a serious political contender to Vladimir Putin’s presidency.
Perhaps they are unaware (or deliberately obtuse) about the fact that anyone convicted of a felony is barred from elected office in the Russian Federation. Like Navalny.

Posted by: Ant. | May 31 2023 20:48 utc | 106

Great talk from Macgreggor and Napolitano.
https://www.youtube.com/live/tN46r30ZwaM
Macgreggor says Prigozhin most likely talks to Putin before saying some things. Its possible Prigozhin is Putins mouthpiece on some things. Says the 2 million concription and fully mobilizing Russia is probably true and next on the menu.
“Congratulations Europe. Congrats NATO now you will have 2 million Russian troops at the Polish and Romanian border.” – Macgreggor
“WE DID IT JOE!” – Kamala lol

Posted by: Comandante | May 31 2023 20:56 utc | 108

There are more noises coming out of “EU leaders” about some sort of negotiating in Ukraine. I believe it is stemming from the probable fact that Ukraine has only a few hundred thousand conscripted to go with, which will not really last very long.
But they also suddenly announced that they will hold a “peace conference”, only to be participated by NATO countries to implement peace on Ukraine’s terms. That’s not a peace conference, that’s a war conference.
It won’t end, but Ukraine is running out of men. It will fracture in to pieces, lets hope it happens ASAP. The Zelensky regime has only limited control now, everything is meant more for western audience only to keep them content.

Posted by: unimperator | May 31 2023 21:03 utc | 110

Posted by: Ant. | May 31 2023 21:00 utc | 125
” Chechyan’s are coming back to the front line. Take a couple of weeks”
That’s what I was saying the other night. Along with Storm Z units which are like Wagner but with mechanised units attached. In some areas of the front they are going for offensive not defense.
My guess is Wagner will return to the front to take Sloviansk after the Chechyan’s and Storm Z units get them close enough.

Posted by: Derek Henry | May 31 2023 21:48 utc | 112

What red-blooded man doesn’t love Prighozin’s mastery of rhetoric?

The chef is cooking up some really good cuisine, lately!

Posted by: Ghost of Zanon | May 31 2023 21:56 utc | 114

Posted by: davidk | May 31 2023 21:51 utc | 137
A computer will never be able to talk like Prigozhin. An IPhone was able to beat Kasparov at his game, kudos to Musk’s IPhone.

Posted by: Paco | May 31 2023 22:01 utc | 116

@ Paul from Norway | May 31 2023 21:57 utc | 139
Well Zalnutsky is ok, he has been talking with Milley [says Zalnutsky, reportedly]
That’s hearsay. Worthless. And Milley hasn’t said anything on it.

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 31 2023 22:37 utc | 118

I’ve been curious about Prigozhin’s antics and the obvious long tether he gets from Putin. Is it that Putin harbors the same understanding and frustration regarding the dysfunctional bureaucratic rivalries and fiefdoms in the Russian MoD and has tasked his old friend to shake shit up and focus the Generals within a serious War setting? It’s one of the fascinating aspects watching all this unfold.

Posted by: Drake Schroeder | May 31 2023 23:26 utc | 120

“Blinken announced new sanctions, part of which are reinvigorated actions against Russian “mis/dis-information.”
Peter b | May 31 2023 17:51 utc | 66
Blinken’s stepfather, Pisar, was saved by Russians from a concentration camp.
Pisar became a confidant of Robert Maxwell, a Mossad spy, thief of American technology, and father of Ghislaine, a procuress of underage ‘toys’ for Epstein’s Mossad/CIA pedophile enterprise.
Blinken himself became one of the most noticeable Zionist Nazifiers of Ukraine.
What a tribe!

Posted by: Cerena | May 31 2023 23:52 utc | 122

Posted by: TM | May 31 2023 18:46 utc | 87
I posted my own speculation on NATO intervention undertaken at the invitation of Z. See:
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/05/drones-strikes-in-moscow-missile-strikes-in-ukraine-.html?cid=6a00d8341c640e53ef02b68538f05b200d#comment-6a00d8341c640e53ef02b68538f05b200d
And:
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/05/drones-strikes-in-moscow-missile-strikes-in-ukraine-.html?cid=6a00d8341c640e53ef02b751a669e2200c#comment-6a00d8341c640e53ef02b751a669e2200c
There are a significant number of NATO member states whose “leaders” have invested heavily in 404 (in the amount of billions $) with zero consltation with their electorates, or representatives. These “leaders” have every incentive to “double down” and take whatever action presents an opportunity to save them great political embarrassment.
Cheers!

Posted by: Sushi | Jun 1 2023 0:01 utc | 124

From Black In The Empire @blackintheempir (because it’s funny and made me laugh):
According to the West,
Russia ran out of missiles over a year ago,
and are still using them now,
but they are all being shot down
except for the ones that only seem to hit
schools, hospitals, nursing homes and playgrounds and kill civilians.

Posted by: Irish | Jun 1 2023 0:45 utc | 126

the NATO exercises would be an opportunity for Ukraine to attack Russia, using the NATO planes as a screen for the attacks. However the problem for Ukraine is that they simply don’t have the air resources to launch such an attack anymore. to use the NATO exercises as a screen they would have to do something really stupid and reckless, something along the lines of the new Ukrainian F-16 taking off from NATO bases and then being “legally” transferred to Ukraine while in the air so they can peel off and fire missiles into Russia while in NATO air space.
I think a massive missile attack (by Ukrainian standards, so a couple dozen, maybe 100 or so missiles and drones) on the city of Donbas and other parts of Russia would be more likely, as it requires less resources.

Posted by: Kadath | Jun 1 2023 1:18 utc | 128

Dmitry Medvedev? He used to be the good cop. The calm erstwhile place holder president. These days him and Putin seem to have swapped “good cop /bad cop” roles.
Putin makes the factual, legal, moral and otherwise rational sounding statements while Medvedev is now the “bad cop.Threatening. Belligerent. Bellicose.
Perhaps Biden can send Harris to meet with Putin and promise that after the next election, ole’Joe will have “more flexibility”?
Maybe she could even discuss 10% for the big guy?
Time travelling with Reuters aka the Western State Media : Obama says “Take a message Medvedev”

Posted by: Just Observing | Jun 1 2023 1:33 utc | 130

Croatian Prez Milanovic reminds local radio station in recent interview that he defiantly opposes the use of nationalist “Glory to Ukraine!” greeting, drawing it back to the salutes of Croatian and German Nazis.
🗣There is no difference between salute of Croatian Ustashe-Nazis and “Glory to Ukraine!”. This is a greeting from the most radical chauvinists of Western Ukraine who collaborated with the Nazis and killed thousands of Poles, Jews – Milanovic.

Posted by: hankster | Jun 1 2023 1:38 utc | 132

I think a massive missile attack (by Ukrainian standards, so a couple dozen, maybe 100 or so missiles and drones) on the city of Donbas and other parts of Russia would be more likely, as it requires less resources.
Posted by: Kadath | Jun 1 2023 1:18 utc | 183

Any large missile salvo towards Russia (and if it is towards the L/DNR, there is no telling it is actually towards the L/DNR and not further than that, towards the interior of Russia), has to receive a strategic second-strike nuclear response, by protocol (and that will not be against Ukraine).
Because there is no telling what warheads those missiles carry, and what their targets are while they are in flight. Which is also true about the drones, BTW (see the post I quoted above) — those have so far been small, but the precedent they set is extremely, extremely alarming, and something that should be completely unacceptable.
It is the height of insanity to do such a thing.
It will also be very irresponsible for Putin to not press the red button in such a case. Because even if that particular attack is conventional and not against strategic targets, it will still do unacceptable damage to conventional forces, and, much more importantly, not responding to it immediately invites another such salvo, but this time with nukes on it.
I keep pointing this out for weeks, ever since the first missiles were sent, and somehow it gets no traction.
Most of the commentariat of the Russian side seems to completely ignore that issue. Even though it has been identified decades ago and endlessly discussed over the years. Including by Putin. They are happy to gloat about how a high percentage of the missiles are shot down while ignoring what the 20-30% that get through are hitting and completely missing the much more significant strategic point.

Posted by: shadowbanned | Jun 1 2023 1:40 utc | 134

Just saw a video of a recently captured Ukrainian trench:
https://t.me/antinatocoalition/10186
After the first 30 seconds I stopped trying to count the corpses. Every one of these men died for Lloyd Austin’s Raytheon stock holdings and Elensky’s cocaine dealer’s bank balance….and Bidet’s 10% of course.
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | May 31 2023 14:04 utc | 2
I only counted 8. The camera man swings back and forth over the same bodies a few times, then towards the end he turns around and goes back over the same ones.

Posted by: MiniMo | Jun 1 2023 1:54 utc | 136

Posted by: Figleaf23 | May 31 2023 19:42 utc | 102
In the picture below the pointy end would be to the left. It is missing. Right side, you are seeing the engine exhaust nozzle bent around.
https://www.rte.ie/news/2023/0529/1386177-ukraine/
https://twitter.com/WhiteCloudMtn/status/1658556457036525569/photo/1
https://twitter.com/i/status/1664013149467717632
There are other pictures of like these floating around.

Posted by: Tim2 | Jun 1 2023 2:41 utc | 138

“War is taking away the enemy’s will to fight.”
That plain, that simple.
Could not find the source of that quote but it has been with me for half a century.

Posted by: Acco Hengst | Jun 1 2023 2:48 utc | 140

Quality journalist Kit Klarenburg (a Brit) was arrested when he travelled through Luton UK airport. (He resides currently in Serbia)
Interrogated for 5 hours. Some of his SIM cards retained “may be needed in future prosecution”
Clayton Morris does an interview on his Redacted yt. Morris does actually INTERVIEW Klarenburg, in that he asks pertinent, fact eliciting questions… and shuts the fuck as Klarenburg answers.
14mins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnWLUSo-kqQ
Some of Klarenburg’s Ukraine reporting won him his place on the Targeted Journalist bingo card.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Jun 1 2023 3:03 utc | 142

anybody got a source for this info?
the house where moscow drones hit was Medevov house in Rublyovka . a gated communiy. that might account for serious escalation , and certainly wasnt random

Posted by: hankster | Jun 1 2023 3:39 utc | 144

anybody got a source for this info?
the house where moscow drones hit was Medevov house in Rublyovka . a gated communiy. that might account for serious escalation , and certainly wasnt random. if i add Medevev has just stated that any Uk government officials that help ukraine war effort are legitimate targets now, it might add context . he hasnt called for france or germany just UK. so its become somewhat personal and theres a lot to fill in regarding this event

Posted by: hankster | Jun 1 2023 4:16 utc | 146

anybody got a source for this info?
the house where moscow drones hit was Medevov house in Rublyovka . a gated communiy. that might account for serious escalation , and certainly wasnt random. if i add Medevev has just stated that any Uk government officials that help ukraine war effort are legitimate targets now, it might add context . he hasnt called for france or germany just UK. so its become somewhat personal and theres a lot to fill in regarding this event
Posted by: hankster | Jun 1 2023 4:16 utc | 212

I haven’t seen any confirmation that anything in Rublyovka has been hit. Rublyovka is where all of Russian elites have properties, and it also happens to be south-southwest of the city, so it is in the way of any drones that are launched towards Moscow.
Medvedev wasn’t there anyway. Much more significant is that in the same vicinity, in Vlasikha, is the main command and control center of the Strategic Rocket Forces.
Medvedev is threatening the UK and not Germany and France because the UK is driving escalation. Germany has no agency — it is an occupied territory.
Regardless, the only stable strategic outcome of this (and I know people will freak out when I say it, but it is true) is complete ethnic cleansing of the whole area between Belarus and the Atlantic, with the exception of Serbia, Bulgaria and perhaps Greece, so that Russia can enjoy the same protection the US does. It may well come to that eventually — in Europe they mostly aren’t even aware of those 30M dead in WWII, but in Russia it is remembered very well, and among the population there is a clear resolve that next time the tens (and potentially hundreds) of millions of casualties will be mostly west of their borders. The elites are mostly traitors who have, despite that collective promise, allowed for major war to be tearing through the Russian lands once again, but there are limits to everything. So while at this point, if it comes to serious kinetic action, it is maybe only the UK, Poland, Romania, the Baltics, the Netherlands, and the Scandinavians who have signed their death sentences (in that order), that list will be expanding the longer this goes on.

Posted by: shadowbanned | Jun 1 2023 5:23 utc | 148

[ Album ]
In the early hours of this morning, militants of the Kiev regime and the RDK expectedly made another attempt to break through the Russian border near the village of Shebekino.
In the course of the attack, the enemy used several armored personnel carriers, tanks and engineering equipment. The first vehicles were blown up by a landmine, while the rest came under artillery fire. After suffering losses in manpower and equipment, the enemy was driven back.
https://t.me/sharednewsby/2995

Posted by: unimperator | Jun 1 2023 5:27 utc | 150

Posted by: Jonathan W | Jun 1 2023 5:50 utc | 219
There seems to be a very powerful wave advocating national suicide sweeping over Finland. Probably same level or stronger than even Poland. Doesn’t bode well for the president meeting Henry Kissinger a while ago and Biden, next month.

Posted by: unimperator | Jun 1 2023 6:00 utc | 152

Finnish newspaper Iltalehti has scrapped some of its Bakhmut reports due to complaints that they reflected the newspaper’s Ukrainian reporter’s fantasies rather than realities. This is a major admission – for whatever it is worth.
Posted by: Jonathan W | Jun 1 2023 5:50 utc | 219

THe Evening Shit has not yet specified which reports were recalled.

Posted by: Catilina | Jun 1 2023 6:18 utc | 154

Perimetr is far from a snowflake & I totally understand his post. Unfortunately there is nothing to be done as b rightly is a strong supporter of freedom of speech. That means it is a responsibility upon all of us to post carefully, cogently and germanely. I thought long and hard about my post above and decided that since there had already been a number of previous posts on the off topic subject in this thread I decided to follow suit, but there is no doubt that this particular sub-thread really belongs in the open (not ukraine thread).
That tells us what effect even one off-topic post can have upon the readability of a thread.
I admit my failure to stick to the topic and hope that others feel the same so we all do a better job.
For me the open general thread always contains the most novel, interesting & perceptive posts anyhow. No one is telling anyone how/why/what/where to post but rather suggesting that we all need to be making better decisions for ourselves on that.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Jun 1 2023 6:48 utc | 156

Posted by: unimperator | Jun 1 2023 6:00 utc | 223
True, though the country’s greatest Nato freak, President Sauli Niinistö, seems to be feeling some kind of buyer’s remorse as he is now touring South Africa and Brazil, both BRICS countries. Or maybe he is acting as Blinken’s errand boy to try to convert them to the One Thing Necessary, namely the crusade against Russia, which will secure them a place in paradise.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Jun 1 2023 7:15 utc | 158

https://vk.com/wall347260249_678442

Rubric “question-answer”.
Question: “Why, why is the Armed Forces of Ukraine shelling Shebekino so fiercely??? Are they going to attack there?
Answer.
The enemy continues to carry out the tactics of “creeping advance”. Not offensive, no. – The Armed Forces of Ukraine do not yet have any goals to attack Belgorod (if they were going to, they would from the very beginning bring not a battalion into battle near Grayvoron, but several reserve brigades and – on the effect of surprise – they could then reach the suburbs of Belgorod ). The enemy “plays long”. A military victory over the Russian Federation through breakthroughs and the capture of Moscow is the APU “too tough”.
It is important for them:
1) to “shake the situation” within the Russian Federation;
2) To do it in such a way that “the hero does not wake up, does not become furious and does not climb to fight to the death.”
I explain. The enemy previously refrained from massive shelling of “old” Russian territories, not at all because he was “forbidden” to do something by the Kremlin’s dear western partners. Not at all! The enemy at the beginning and during the war suffered heavy losses in manpower and equipment, he needed time to conduct a series of mobilizations, receive weapons and equipment from NATO, train new units and formations, and restore the combat capability of the old ones .
While this was happening, it was very desirable for the Armed Forces of Ukraine that the Kremlin elders firmly believed in the inevitability of a “comfortable agreement” and therefore tried not to annoy them with too brazen blows. Kyiv pretended to agree to “a limited war” on its territory and did not plan to go beyond this framework. In parallel, various kinds of negotiations were conducted, “grain deals” were concluded, and so on.
And our cretins willingly “had” this bait, because it allowed them to continue to “not strain”, as they were used to for 20 (and someone for 30) years in power.
Now everything has changed. The enemy has really grown stronger, created a highly combat-ready army. In general, he successfully repulsed our winter-spring offensive, while also managing to create large strategic reserves. And Moscow? And Moscow “rested on hopes.” The reserves recruited after the autumn defeats were wasted, no one thought to transfer the economy to a war footing, martial law was not introduced, the troops at the front were slowly decomposing and losing faith in the final victory. – And now the time has come for the “respectable Kyiv partners” to feel free to do anything – they feel strong enough and understand our current relative weakness. (I remind you that it was NOT I who called Poroshenko and Zelensky “respected partners” for 8 years of “sacred Minsk”, but Lavrov, Shoigu, Peskov, and the president himself, to be honest.
Now the “partners” are no longer afraid of “getting rid of the Russians at the very least” – we have NOTHING to do and SOMEONE to beat them now. And therefore, they are moving on to solving the main task – to undermine the Russian Federation from the inside. And what better way to turn the civilian population against the authorities than the unpunished murder of this population and the destruction of its property by enemies, whom for many years official propaganda humiliated in every possible way and promised to “extinguish with one hand, without straining”?
Therefore, they will beat. And the longer the Kremlin and Novo-Ogaryovo “celebrate a coward” and amuse themselves with idiotic (initially) hopes for a “final agreement” – the harder they will beat. And the more likely it is that when the Kremlin decides on the necessary military-political measures, it will be too late. And the population, instead of “in a single impulse to go to the front and to the machine” – in the same impulse they will say: “Go to hell, you cretins and traitors! We don’t believe you and we won’t go to die on your orders!”

Posted by: shadowbanned | Jun 1 2023 7:16 utc | 160

A new star appeared on the board of honor for the dead CIA employees, the 140th in a row (for the entire existence of the CIA). At the beginning of May there were 139 stars. It is noteworthy, but the star appeared after the blow to the GUR of Ukraine. The CIA does not reveal who the star was named after.

Posted by: hankster | Jun 1 2023 7:43 utc | 162

Posted by: Paul Greenwood | Jun 1 2023 7:47 utc | 163
National suicide could be – and has been – called postnationalism.Justin Trudeau called Canada the “first postnational state”. He has now created such a hellhole that 43% of the new Canadians would not recommend the country, due to the current direction of the Liberal government.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Jun 1 2023 7:54 utc | 164

Military summary posted a video telling the problem of the borderlands. The area N / NW of Kupyansk is a bridgehead which allows UAF to launch attacks either north towards Shebekino, or even east of it. It also allows to support the Kupyansk area. There are also two artillery brigades (maybe armed with the marginally longer ranged artillery). Intrinsically, this bridgeahead/area has no value, other than by taking it it will reduce most of the threat to borderland areas.
But since the most important battle where UAF is getting whacked is going in Avdeevka, Ugledar, Zaporozhye, around Bakhmut and Krasnoliman – that’s precisely what they are trying to force Russia do – to take back that piece of land. Well guess they need to work some solution for it, but obviously, ultimately the best way to win here too is to destroy main UAF forces elsewhere in the south, which will inevitably lead to the irrelevancy of the whole Shebekino front and being out of position.

Posted by: unimperator | Jun 1 2023 8:06 utc | 166

📋🇷🇺🇺🇦⚔️ Two Majors #Report for the Morning of 1 Jun 2023; pub. 07:02📍
🔴 The Russian Aerospace Forces launched at least 10 missile strikes against targets in #Kiev overnight. Patriot SAMs were in operation. Civilian casualties are reported. Explosions were also heard in #Konstantinovka and #Slavyansk.
▪️ In the #Zaporozhye direction near #Orekhov and #Gulyaypole, aerial bomb strikes were carried out throughout the day. Our barrel and rocket artillery is working.
▪️ In the #Kherson region, enemy depots and boats are being destroyed. A massive strike was launched against the airfield in #Chernobayevka (#Kherson), at night our troops hit the field depots on the enemy’s bank of the #Dnieper River with gun artillery.
🔵 The Enemy continues to concentrate its forces in the #Zaporozhye direction, striking at the near rear. At night the enemy shelled our positions against the #Orekhov section of the front particularly intensively. In addition, they continue to hit civilians in the region. The settlement of #Pologi was shelled.
▪️ The #Belgorod region is under round-the-clock shelling by the AFU. There are civilian casualties. The shelling of #Shebekino continued overnight and into the morning. Air defence was working over #Belgorod. The governor of #Belgorod Region has asked the governors of #Voronezh, #Tomsk, #Penza, #Kaluga and #Yaroslavl regions, as well as #Stavropol Territory and the Republics of #Crimea and North Ossetia-Alania, to help with the accommodation of children evacuated from the border areas.
➖ The residents of the region are appealing to the federal centre to push back the frontline and stop trying to keep quiet on television about the true state of affairs in the region.
▪️On the DPR the enemy fired 228 rounds of ammunition. #Gorlovka, #Golmovsky, #Zaytsevo, #Yasinovataya, #Donetsk, #Makeyevka, #Staromikhaylovka and #Vladymirovka districts came under fire.

https://t.me/sitreports/9551

Posted by: Down South | Jun 1 2023 8:14 utc | 168

Ukraine attempting to entice RF forces into the North East …
…. well, I surmise that RF will take all this area in time including Kharkov … but right now other areas are more critical …
Dima update here:
Borderlands | Another Bloody Offensive Attempt. Military Summary And Analysis For 2023.06.01
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzyjuH9Xu-4

Posted by: Don Firineach | Jun 1 2023 8:23 utc | 170

Now, now shadowbanned, its very dastardly of you to even include Bulgaria together with Serbia in the same breath. Serbia has always been willing to die for Russia, but Bulgaria nearly always seems to be supporting the side which opposes Russia. During WW2 Bulgaria was firmly in the Nazi camp, though the Bulgarians were clever enough not to send troops to Stalingrad to get wiped out by the Red Army. Probably the Bulgarians won’t send troops to die at Russians hands in Ukraine now. But while Bulgaria might be safe for now, the Serbs still kindof feel the need to deposit tons of DU on Bulgaria for Bulgaria’s role in NATO’s bombing of Serbia.
Posted by: gT | Jun 1 2023 8:16 utc | 169

The story goes that the reason Bulgaria was the only Axis country to come out of the war with territorial gains was that when Stalin looked at the list of POWs from Stalingrad, there wasn’t a single Bulgarian there. They indeed didn’t send a single soldier to the Eastern Front, in either war, even though they sided with Germany both times.
Which is in large part because of the 1877-78 Russo-Turkish war, which gave them their independence.
But there is another aspect to it — Russian culture derives in large part from medieval Bulgaria. First in the 10th century, when Russia was Christianized and the Cyrillic alphabet was transferred (and Old Church Slavonic, which was used in Orthodox churches until quite recently, is really simply medieval Old Bulgarian). A second time when Russia rose up after the Mongol rule, which coincided with the Balkans being overrun by the Turks, leading to a mass exodus of monks and scholars to the only remaining Orthodox country, which was Russia.
For both of those reasons, out of all the Soviet satellites, the Bulgarians were the most loyal, never rebelled, and had absolutely no intention of leaving the Moscow’s orbit (unlike e.g. Poles or Czechs). Them being in NATO now is simply the result of Moscow betraying them in 1989 and handing them over to Washington as part of the grand late-80’s treason that the people around Gorbachev committed.
Currently in Moscow it is still the boomers in power, who know that history, and as long as that is the case, Bulgaria is most likely safe. Although now it has US bases there, and those will get hit, there will be no strategic strikes on the cities. In contrast, a country like Poland will be wiped out down to the last man and will cease to exist — it will be a 150-Kt Iskander over every city larger than 50K, the rest will be mopped up from Belarus once the radiation subsides sufficiently.
But a generation or two down the line those sentiments will have likely dissipated even with respect to Bulgaria if NATO still exists and the elites there are still pro-Western, that is correct.

Posted by: shadowbanned | Jun 1 2023 8:43 utc | 172

…who must have been of German origin, come to think of it. Which may also explain the alignment with Germany. The Serbs had a local dynasty. The Romanians had Germans on the throne too, which explains a lot.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Jun 1 2023 8:54 utc | 174

…who must have been of German origin, come to think of it. Which may also explain the alignment with Germany. The Serbs had a local dynasty. The Romanians had Germans on the throne too, which explains a lot.
Posted by: Jonathan W | Jun 1 2023 8:54 utc | 174

Correct, but it was a lot more than that.
Germany was just the most cool country prior to WWI — it was the up and coming power, the way China is now, but China cannot really export cultural influence over other countries because of obvious racial and cultural barriers, while Germany was close, physically, culturally and geographically. And it had all these great philosophers, writers, scientists, etc. So local elites looked towards Germany, which is also why they picked German princes for their kings. Even Russian rulers after Catherine The Great’s reign were also Germans, let’s not forget that.
In the 1930s Germany was again cool, but for much darker reasons — the communists had gained power in Russia, while the capitalist system was in a deep crisis, and the elites’ fears of revolution in their own countries resulted in the rise of fascism. Germany was just the most extreme example, but of course even the US was outright fascist in the 1920s and 1930s, and most countries in Europe ended up with various form of fascist regimes around that time, all for these same reasons. And that includes not only countries that sided with the Axis, such as Hungary and Bulgaria, but also Greece and Yugoslavia.

Posted by: shadowbanned | Jun 1 2023 9:10 utc | 176

… There are also two artillery brigades (maybe armed with the marginally longer ranged artillery). …
Posted by: unimperator | Jun 1 2023 8:06 utc | 166
If you mean UA forces, they are probably using 120mm Grad rockets to shell civilian areas because it hardly matters that they are unguided and thus low precision at that point. The original “standard” rocket had 20km range ($1000) but there are 40km rockets with the same physical characteristics. Hard to track small launch vehicles doing shoot and scoot.
We don’t hear much about the counter-batter work that is successful so it’s a mystery as to what the real situation is on the ground. If it’s not rocket attacks it’ll be something else but pushing the front away from Russia’s borders seems logical and the minimum demonstration of competence under any plausible future.

Posted by: anon2020 | Jun 1 2023 9:12 utc | 178

Let us not forget that the Brits have Germans on the throne to this day. Prince Albert was just a decoy and Queen Victoria descended from the Georges, who were Hanoverians.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Jun 1 2023 9:14 utc | 180

We don’t hear much about the counter-batter work that is successful so it’s a mystery as to what the real situation is on the ground. If it’s not rocket attacks it’ll be something else but pushing the front away from Russia’s borders seems logical and the minimum demonstration of competence under any plausible future.
Posted by: anon2020 | Jun 1 2023 9:12 utc | 179

Putin is in a bit of a pickle here.
It is very clear that the plan is to bait Russia into invading Kharkov again, and also that Russia doesn’t want to do that (otherwise they would have done it a long time ago), but is there really a choice not to do it at this point?
Shebekino isn’t a random village in the middle of nowhere — yeah, it is not a major town, but it is still 40,000 people there, and it is completely unacceptable for any ruler of a nuclear superpower to just say “well, not much we can do, evacuate the people” rather than to establish the buffer on the other side of the border.
This is what happens when you refuse to mobilize properly and allocate the necessary resources to get the job done. There is zero excuse why 16 months into this the front line is not at least 150 km away from the pre-war borders…

Posted by: shadowbanned | Jun 1 2023 9:17 utc | 182

Et Tu # 8:56 utc | 176

Russia’s greatest allies are history and facts. The extent to which they have been allowed to be hidden, distorted and obfuscated to western audiences is both a credit to its propagandists, and a failure of Russian strategic communication, actually.

I believe Russia is ably assisted by its composed, patiently considered approach to western blather and deceit. I suggest that no matter how good and persistent Russia could be at ‘strategic communication’ in a media sense, anything promoted would be strenuously and deviously countered by the extreme mendacity of the west in conjunction with its amazing capacity to whip up a media frenzy of bullshit aimed squarely at the people. See Skripal, Clinton emails, Trump collusion.
Pathetic mass formed citizens bombarded with this shit day after day after day and almost zero elected politicians to counter the narrative even if they could. The citizens are trapped in a bell jar of exhausting propaganda. What a world and it is so sad to see intelligent mammals conned into sleep day and night.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jun 1 2023 9:22 utc | 184

Wasn’t it one of the Ukie officials, Podolyak I think, that put forward a “peace plan” which included a demilitarised area on the Russian side of the border? So these attacks do have a method in their madness.
Posted by: Jonathan W | Jun 1 2023 9:22 utc | 184

There already is a DMZ on the Russian side of the border — why do you think they have been able to just walk in on multiple occasions now? The army sits 20-30 km inside, in order to be safe from artillery, and everything in between is left to the mercy of fate. Shebekino just happens to be the only major town within that zone (it is just 5 km from the border). The only defense is border guards at checkpoints. This is why it took a whole day to clear them during the Grayvoron incursion — the regular army had to arrive and set up, which took time.
Meanwhile Ukrainian artillery is right at the border and actively shooting.
It is an absolute disgrace that things have been allowed to get to this point, but that’s what you get for a series of goodwill gestures. Who could have possibly guessed?

Posted by: shadowbanned | Jun 1 2023 9:27 utc | 186

This is just like Mainland China and Taiwan: we have relatives on both sides of the Taiwasn Strait, millions of people from Taiwan work and live in Mainland China, Taiwan’s biggest trading partner is Mainland China, which (incl HK) provides about half of Taiwan’s trade surplus.
Yet, Tsai Ing-wen and her DPP (Democratic Progress Party) is playing directly into the hands of US politicans and its MIC to try to start a war with Mainland China for personal and political gains.
The saddest thing is lots of Westerners, thanks to 24/7 brainwash by MSM, believe that Russia is the bad guy, China is the bad buy, who wants to have a war!
Posted by: lulu | May 31 2023 15:08 utc | 20
Yes. All well said. I have an astonishing and incredible thought: that we people of the world should stop thinking in terms of nations.
Think instead in terms of people.
‘Nations’ are mythical things. Imaginary things. Fictional constructs. Legal fictions for convenience. Like public companies and corporations.
The concept of ‘nation’ grew, of course out of the reality of large groups of people joined together, working together.
That was alright.
But now the meaning has completely been lost and people believe ‘nations’ exist even in the absence of people.
And people think they are subject to the ‘will’ and the ‘needs’ and ‘desires’ and the ‘purpose’ and ‘destiny’ of ‘nations’.
Not of people. Of nations.
So:
In Ukraine today we find 300,000 dead men and boys died ‘for the nation’.
And a sworn ambition on the part of their ‘leaders’ (choke, choke) that they will die to the last man rather than desist int their desire to subjugate that portion of their own people that they hate for their Russian heritage, connections.
You see that? An ambition that everyone die for the nation?
When all are dead there’s some kind of victory for ‘the nation’ or something?
What madness is this?
No one is attacking the Kiev Ukrainians. They fight today on land they occupied in 2014 that they took from their brothers the Donbas Ukrainians who still haven’t managed to get it back. Even with help from Russians.
But they are led to believe someone is attacking ‘Ukraine’ and so they die by the thousand to save this ‘Ukraine’.
Victor Orban is the only politician I have ever heard say it: ‘a politicians job is to save people’ (my paraphrase)
Yes.
No politician in the Western world understands this. Not one. That I know of.
Which is tragedy enough.
But look everywhere: mainstream media, alternative media, enlightened observers and pundits, professional analysts.. anywhere and everywhere, scour the comments columns of YT vids and whatever else..
And no one. NO ONE. Gives a damn for people.
It is all always just talk of ‘nations’.
And in that hallucination the people slaughter the people.

Posted by: abrogard | Jun 1 2023 9:31 utc | 188

She is a silly vain woman who like most of the performers on the European stage wants to give the impression she retains control. They know however they have lost control and are adrift having unleashed Russia to assume its natural place at the top table – and that with China alongside – they have blown up the foundations of their Pretend Kingdom of Affluence……..and are heading for implosion into yet another European Collapse
Posted by: Paul Greenwood | May 31 2023 16:07 utc | 29
She is. she’s clearly simply awful. But they all are. And this points to the more awful truth: we the people are totally and absolutely remiss in letting them be there. And our ‘betters’ (self styled or real) are even more remiss for not kicking us out of it.
So the question is not ‘what about her’ (and her ilk) but ‘what about us? what are we going to do about us?’

Posted by: abrogard | Jun 1 2023 9:41 utc | 190

“Ireland’s commitment to a rules-based international order and our traditional policy of military neutrality do not inure us from the need to respond to this new reality.”
Posted by: YetAnotherAnon | May 31 2023 16:26 utc | 33
Ah, yes. That’d be the rule that any nation the USA wants to invade and destroy can be and should be ? Right?
Is this a new disease? A sort of stomach churning feeling of nausea at the very mention of the USA?
Or the sycophantic western political class?

Posted by: abrogard | Jun 1 2023 9:44 utc | 192

Posted by: shadowbanned | Jun 1 2023 9:27 utc | 187
I see.

Posted by: Jonathan W | Jun 1 2023 9:48 utc | 194

https://vk.com/wall701885602_75362

Putin instructed to conduct a medical examination of the adult population in new regions of Russia.
The President announced this yesterday at a government meeting.
In Russian there is a word “hypocrisy”. In my opinion, this is how this proposal of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief can be called. Maybe at first he should ensure the main human right there – the right to life, stopping their death under the daily shelling of the Ukrainian army? And only then you can take care of their medical examination.
And besides, I would like to draw the attention of the highest official of Russia to the tragedy that unfolded in the “old regions” of Russia. In particular, in the Belgorod region in Shebekino. Civilians of the Russian Federation are dying there under the shelling of the Ukrainian army, things are moving towards the evacuation of the population, and the president pretends that everything is fine and has never even expressed his attitude to what is happening there. Moreover, he does not take any measures to stop this lawlessness.

This cannot be allowed to continue, or there will be real internal problems.
The Second Chechen War was started seriously once the Jihadists launched significant incursions into Dagestan. The analogous moment has long passed.

Posted by: shadowbanned | Jun 1 2023 9:55 utc | 196

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation about the morning attack on the border of the Belgorod region.
At about three in the morning, after intense shelling, Ukrainian terrorist formations with up to two motorized infantry companies reinforced with tanks attempted to invade the territory of the Russian Federation near the settlement of Novaya Tavolzhanka and the international automobile checkpoint “Shebekino”
Russian servicemen repelled three attacks by Ukrainian terrorist formations
Army aviation inflicted eleven strikes on the enemy
Rocket troops and artillery completed 77 fire missions, heavy flamethrower systems delivered two strikes
The terrorist formations of the Kiev regime, having suffered significant losses, were rejected, violations of the state border were not allowed
On the border territory, more than 30 Ukrainian terrorists, four armored combat vehicles, a multiple rocket launcher MLRS “Grad” combat vehicle, and one pickup truck were destroyed.

Posted by: Shebekino | Jun 1 2023 10:04 utc | 198

abrogard # 9:31 utc | 189

And no one. NO ONE. Gives a damn for people.
It is all always just talk of ‘nations’.
And in that hallucination the people slaughter the people.

Thank you for the thought stream. Can I suggest that the ruling elite only care to acquire land and the land of others. Then retain only sufficient others to carry out their assigned duties upon the land of the elite. This appears to have arisen from the time when the commons were all of the land and certain elite minded individuals set out to steal the land, enclose it and call it their own. Real Estate. So the people must then die for the nation of accumulated land as it was coveted by other elites and the people were encouraged / driven to detest these other elites and assis their lords to go kill them.
Humanism, Confucianism, Aboriginal lore, etc., conspire and entreat us to think and behave otherwise and give a damn for the people and the society that evolves from the will of the people. And to hold the land in common purpose for our social amd individual betterment.

Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jun 1 2023 10:24 utc | 200