Ukrainian Soldiers Tell Of High Losses For Little Gains
Yesterday I linked to a fresh NY Times piece about the horrors of the war in Ukraine.
It has a somewhat uplifting headline and the first few paragraphs describe an Ukrainian 'success'.
Amid the Counterattack’s Deadly Slog, a Glimmer of Success for Ukraine
Recapturing the village of Staromaiorske was such welcome news for the country that President Volodymyr Zelensky announced it himself. But formidable Russian defenses have stymied progress elsewhere.
The piece is accompanied by this staged photo which shows some trashed uniform on a dirt road with two boots put next to it.
bigger
The line below the picture, which I strongly believe is false, says:
The body of a Russian soldier outside a village in the Zaporizhzhia region of southern Ukraine this month.
Credit... Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
I wonder what the editors thought when they came up with it.
Now onto the first paragraphs of the report:
For 10 days, Ukrainian marines fought street by street and house by house to recapture the southeastern village of Staromaiorske, navigating artillery fire, airstrikes and hundreds of Russian troops.The Russians put up a ferocious defense but that ended on Thursday when they folded and the Ukrainians claimed victory. “Some ran away, some were left behind,” said an assault commander from Ukraine’s 35th Marine Brigade, who uses the call sign Dikyi, which means Wild. “We were taking captives,” he added.
The recapture of Staromaiorske, a small village that is nonetheless critical to Ukraine’s southern strategy, was such a welcome development for Ukraine that President Volodymyr Zelensky announced it himself.
I have bad news for the NY Times readers. The village Staromaiorske (Staromayorskoye in Russian writing) is no longer in Ukrainian hands but in the gray-zone:
Tony @Cyberspec1 - 22:00 UTC · Jul 30, 2023❗️Despite the fact that [Donetsk leader] Pushilin announced the recapture of Staromayorsk, our troops are absent from the village itself. The enemy is knocked out, but there is nowhere to gain a safe foothold.
Russian troops periodically enter the village to organize ambushes. Yesterday, several AFU soldiers were taken prisoner in this way.
There is also video of Russian artillery bombarding the village.
via LiveUAmap - bigger
via LiveUAmap - bigger
bigger
After two months of 'counter offensive' the frontline south of Velyka Novosilka has moved only some six kilometers south of the original frontline. Starmajorske consist of about 200 houses. Like the other four small villages along the way it has largely been destroyed.
This was not a 'counter offensive' but a bloody slog with mediocre results.
The NY Times piece is by Charlotta Gall who at times writes realistic reports from the ground in Ukraine.
After the uplifting start of her piece the reporting becomes grim:
As officials celebrated Ukraine’s progress in Staromaiorske, troops elsewhere on the ground said that Russian defenses and firepower remained formidable and in places impassable.A soldier at a medical post, awaiting evacuation for a concussion, recently described how his battalion had been decimated when it came under Russian artillery and tank fire. His brigade, the 23rd, was one of nine newly formed, Western-trained units prepared and equipped for the counteroffensive. But the brigade, he said, had been thrown into the fight without sufficient artillery support and had been unable to defend themselves against Russian firepower.
In one battle in which his unit took part, Ukrainian soldiers attacked in 10 American-made MaxxPro armored vehicles, but only one came back, he said. He showed photographs of the damaged vehicles, ripped open and burned out, which he said had been hauled back to a repair base. The soldier declined to give his name for fear of getting into trouble with his superiors.
...
The soldier lost a 22-year-old friend, Stas, in the shelling the day before, he said, adding that in just over a month, his battalion had suffered so many dead and wounded that only 10 men remained at the front line.
Previously that battalion has had some 400 to 500 men.
Next Gall speaks to a soldier from a different unit:
Another soldier, who joined up last year and asked to be identified only by his first name, Oleksiy, said that his unit had taken heavy losses as Russian troops directed artillery fire and aerial bombs onto their positions.“We were shot like on a shooting range,” he said. “A drone was flying above us and correcting the artillery fire.” Their positions were in former Russian positions, hemmed in by minefields, he said, and the Russian forces were able to keep them pinned down and under constant drone surveillance.
Soldiers were running out of ammunition and water but could only sneak in and out of their positions in ones or twos, on foot, when the light was poor just before dawn and at dusk, he said.
And a third case:
Interviews with Ukrainian soldiers and a review of military surveillance footage from a recent attack indicate that many Ukrainian units are sustaining heavy losses.A group with special operations training, deployed last month to storm Russian positions in a village on the western part of the front, took such heavy casualties in four days of assaults that they had to pull out without success.
After their armored vehicles were largely destroyed by artillery strikes on the first day, they revised their plan to approach the village on foot through a tree line that had been mined. The Ukrainians cleared a narrow path with demining explosives and the first soldiers reached the Russian positions and dropped down into a trench.
Drone footage of the event showed what happened next. Explosions suddenly detonated inside the trenches and other strikes hit soldiers on the edge of the tree line. The video footage has been verified by The New York Times.
“The trenches were mined,” said the assault commander, who uses the call sign Voskres, short for Resurrection. “Our guys started jumping in the trenches and blowing up,” he added. The Russian forces were watching, and they remotely detonated the mines, he said.
Those who managed to avoid the mines came under attack from multiple Russian kamikaze drones. “It seemed like they had a drone for each person,” he said. “The amount of equipment the Russians have, had we known, it was like mission impossible.”
Several weeks later, the village remains in Russian hands.
Since the Ukrainian 'counter-offensive' was launched the Russian Defense Ministry has reported on average 710 Ukrainian casualties per day.
The U.S., and its Ukrainian proxy, have sent these soldiers into battle knowing well that the 'counter offensive' would have no chance to win anything.
As the Wall Street Journal wrote a week ago:
When Ukraine launched its big counteroffensive this spring, Western military officials knew Kyiv didn’t have all the training or weapons—from shells to warplanes—that it needed to dislodge Russian forces. But they hoped Ukrainian courage and resourcefulness would carry the day.They haven’t. ...
Largely untrained draftees with mediocre equipment and without sufficient artillery and air-support were willfully pushed into a fight they had no chance to win or even survive.
It was a cruel policy. Those who pushed them, and in fact anyone with military training and knowledge of military history, had known that all along.
Posted by b on July 31, 2023 at 15:15 UTC | Permalink
next page »This is criminal, and criminally insane. Biden et al are responsible for these Ukrainian deaths. These are young men the age of my son. What a horrible, horrible outcome. Russia had no choice. The US did.
Posted by: Gerry | Jul 31 2023 15:27 utc | 2
"The Ukranians will fight to the last guy. Its the best money we ever spent"
- Lindsey Cindy Graham
Posted by: Comandante | Jul 31 2023 15:29 utc | 3
I haven't found any media reports confirming that Ukraine had been pushed out of Staromaiorske. Just this tweet. In contrast to consistent reports for days of steady Ukrainian progress, which this website tries to paint as "mediocre" and apparently was too reluctant to discuss for the past three days. Media reports on the harsh conditions of the frontlines have been noted here before, but I wonder if those articles are not reporting typical conditions seen in previous wars in a tone meant to scare a populace too divorced from the realities of warfare due to the lack of a draft. And the WSJ is owned by Rupert Murdoch, one of the loudest voices of the right wing in the West. Others have ardently denied this assertion, but in the US, opposition to aid for Ukraine grows increasingly associated with right wing extremism.
Posted by: Inkan1969 | Jul 31 2023 15:30 utc | 4
the west needs to be put on trail for these horrible details.. they have brought this on ukraine and they need to acknowledge it.. i know they won't, but anyone paying attention knows the truth of this... thanks for the update b..
Posted by: james | Jul 31 2023 15:30 utc | 5
Posted by: Gerry | Jul 31 2023 15:27 utc | 2
Putin had the choice of resorting to military action, taking responsibility for the deaths of both these young Ukrainians and Russians. With "Ukronazi" and "Uke" repeated endlessly here, claims of horror for Ukrainian deaths sound very insincere.
Posted by: Inkan1969 | Jul 31 2023 15:32 utc | 6
@ Inkan1969 | Jul 31 2023 15:30 utc | 4
what is this shit on display then? left wing extremism?? call if what you want... the west is off the charts insane at this point.. anyone who challenges it can be described anyway you or others want.. bottom line - this is insane and the fault of the west under usa leadership.
Posted by: james | Jul 31 2023 15:33 utc | 7
Biden, Nuland, Blinken, et.al. who pushed the Ukrainians into an offensive that they knew would surely fail, are the real war criminals. They need to face a Nurenburg Trials scene, then be hanged.
Antoinetta III
Posted by: Antoinetta III | Jul 31 2023 15:34 utc | 8
@ Inkan1969 | Jul 31 2023 15:32 utc | 6
ever heard of nato, or the cuban missile crisis? jesus inky, but your missing a few pegs in all of this here with your slavish devotion to the rightness of the west in all this madness.... if you want to blame someone - start in washington - nato headquarters...
Posted by: james | Jul 31 2023 15:34 utc | 9
The video of the artillery bombardment is 2 2 weeks old by the way.
I wonder if b gets his news from twitter or telegram. I notice he rarely links to Telegram resources, where the majority of the news on twitter actually comes from.
Russian MilBlogger Romanov_92 writes
15-16.07.2023
Staromayorskoe, Volnovakha district, Donetsk People's Republic, Russian territory temporarily occupied by Ukraine.Footage from two weeks ago, when the enemy really tried to enter the northern part of the settlement. and was destroyed.
They are accelerating now, as supposedly confirmation that in n.p. there are fights (is a lie).
No attempts to storm the settlement. today / yesterday was not done. Artillery in the direction also has no resource.
Posted by: Soothsayer | Jul 31 2023 15:35 utc | 10
'Posted by: Gerry | Jul 31 2023 15:27 utc | 2
Putin had the choice of resorting to military action, taking responsibility for the deaths of both these young Ukrainians and Russians. With "Ukronazi" and "Uke" repeated endlessly here, claims of horror for Ukrainian deaths sound very insincere.'
I don't agree.
In my days in the Youth wing of the UK Labour party, a common slogan was 'the only good Fascist is a dead fascist'.
That is different from the majority of conscripts, non-fascists, pushed untrained onto front line trenches, with the naxis behind them ready to shoot them if they try to retreat.
The difference is like night and day.
Posted by: scepticalSOB | Jul 31 2023 15:40 utc | 11
@ scepticalSOB | Jul 31 2023 15:40 utc | 11
you are replying to Inkan1969, not gerry..
Posted by: james | Jul 31 2023 15:42 utc | 12
But they hoped Ukrainian courage and resourcefulness would carry the day.
The high school football team thought their "courage and resourcefulness" would carry the day against the NFL All Stars.
Sure. It's downright Luciferian how the Western elites are sending so many Ukrainians to die. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it's literally Luciferian: that somehow this is meant as a blood sacrifice to Satan. You have to wonder why so many of these geriatric psychopaths -- Soros, Biden, Pelosi, Schwab, etc. -- just never seem to die, but go on actively wreaking havoc well into their 80s.
Posted by: ASensibleMan | Jul 31 2023 15:42 utc | 13
@ Posted by: Inkan1969 | Jul 31 2023 15:30 utc | 4
Soldiers being killed by artillery, mines, and drone bombs the minute they get to the front line is horrifying, and we don't need to be threatened with conscription to view it as such. The desire to die for a national cause is absolutely alien to me. I hope I'm reading you wrong but that seems like a strange thing to say - other wars have been this brutal (which ones?) so the reporting on Ukrainian casualties is sensationalist? What?
Opposition to the war has become associated with the right-wing for several reasons. One because left-wing opposition is not publicized in the mainstream media except to mock it, marginalize it, and associate it with the right. This is a smear campaign by Democrat-aligned media outlets to shore up the left flank of the Democratic party, and to keep the more timid left-liberal types who opposed the GWOT in the pro-war fold. Another reason is that "Ukraine" has become a fnord in the right-wing imagination linked to Joe Biden and his son (and in the same way, Putin has become such a fnord for left-liberals, who associate him with Trump and the GOP).
Posted by: fnord | Jul 31 2023 15:44 utc | 14
Posted by: Inkan1969 | Jul 31 2023 15:30 utc
The defining feature of alt-media is their lack of care for Russian casualties, they don't even try to extend their faux concern about "bloody slogs" to actions like Bakhmut or Vuhledar. For them masses of Russian dead are worth it for the new multipolar world order (Chinese domination of the tech market and more aid to Africa)
Posted by: Soothsayer | Jul 31 2023 15:45 utc | 15
There's a video I watched today of a Ukrainian soldier sending a last message to his wife or girlfriend saying there were only four of his unit left, and they were trying to withdraw on their own after having no ammunition or support.
He was speaking Russian, of course.
Jacob Dreizin continues to post mass video dumps of Ukranazistani equipment and troops getting blown up, but in contras to earlier more and more prisoner videos are included. Here's his latest dump:
The New York Crimes of course cares nothing about Ukranazistan's chances, only about how it might affect Bidet's chances. Even the headline and the "cheery" first paragraphs were chosen in the knowledge that the average rainbow haired liberal freak that reads this rag lacks the attention span or IQ to read beyond that.
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Jul 31 2023 15:47 utc | 16
@ Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Jul 31 2023 15:47 utc | 16
the average rainbow haired liberal freak
Biswapriya, methinks you doth protest too much. Cool it on the cheap heat. You're not actually endearing yourself to the reactionaries here.
Posted by: fnord | Jul 31 2023 15:50 utc | 17
Haha, people who still try to respond logically to Inkanazi1969. Why are you wasting your time?
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Jul 31 2023 15:51 utc | 18
'Posted by: Gerry | Jul 31 2023 15:27 utc | 2
Putin had the choice of resorting to military action, taking responsibility for the deaths of both these young Ukrainians and Russians.
Very true Gerry, Putin's choice was to allow the West to militarize Ukraine and destroy Russia or to put a stop to it. Sadly people die and have died by the Millions for the insatiable desire of the West to rule the world.
Posted by: Dferg | Jul 31 2023 15:53 utc | 19
@fnord 17
Are you claiming that the New York Crimes' target audience does not comprise rainbow haired liberal freaks?
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Jul 31 2023 15:53 utc | 20
@ Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Jul 31 2023 15:53 utc | 20
I'm saying I resemble that remark 🥸
Posted by: fnord | Jul 31 2023 15:54 utc | 21
Sorry but I repost a notice from the previous thread since it is more relevant here since it underscores what Bernard is writing:
Aftershock.news reports the following citing Sergei Shoigu:
In just two days – on July 26 and 27 – more than 400 Ukrainian servicemen, 31 tanks, including three German Leopard tanks, two French tanks, and 32 armored combat vehicles were destroyed near the village of Rabochyne. A total of 63 armored vehicles.
Over the past month, as a result of the successful actions of our troops, the enemy's losses amounted to more than twenty thousand eight hundred military personnel, to be precise, 20,824 people and 2,227 units of various weapons, including 10 Leopard tanks, 11 American Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, 40 American M777 artillery systems and 50 self-propelled artillery installations from Great Britain, USA, Germany, France and Poland
Posted by: C on the roof | Jul 31 2023 15:55 utc | 22
If ten thousand, a hundred thousand, a million Ukrainians were to die, the Biden Administration (not to mention the puppet regime in Kiev) would consider it a good deal, as long as their deaths resulted in the suffering of at least one Russian person.
This is because Russia can do little or nothing, short of nuclear war, that will so much as inconvenience the decisionmakers in Washington. And the vultures in Kiev will simply bunk off to their villas in Italy and Miami. There is a reason so many Ukrainian oligarchs and politicians (Zelenskii included) were named in The Panama Papers and The Paradise Papers.
Posted by: Feral Finster | Jul 31 2023 15:56 utc | 23
"Opposition...grows increasingly associated with right wing extremism." Since when does the left support imperial NATO expansion? Since when does the left support the neo-NAZI children of Bandera? Since when does the left support the mass killing of an entire nation's 20 year old's? Right wing extremism of the freedom to live under one's chosen form of government. Wait, I get it, it's the Christian part. According to ((some)) anything Christian is right wing.
@Bishawara - Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin cares more about the lives of Ukrainian soldiers than does anyone in Washington or Kiev.
Posted by: Feral Finster | Jul 31 2023 15:58 utc | 25
"Ukraine" has become a fnord in the right-wing imagination linked to Joe Biden and his son
@ fnord | Jul 31 2023 15:44 utc | 14
I had to look that up. What a deliciously apt analogy! (from wiki):
"Fnord" (/fnɔːrd/) is a word coined in 1965 by Kerry Thornley and Greg Hill in the Discordian religious text Principia Discordia. It entered into popular culture after appearing in The Illuminatus! Trilogy (1975) of novels written by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. Here, the interjection "fnord" is given hypnotic power over the unenlightened, and children in grade school are taught to be unable to see the word consciously. For the rest of their lives, every appearance of the word subconsciously generates a feeling of unease and confusion which prevents rational consideration of the text in which it appears.
Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jul 31 2023 16:01 utc | 26
The Biden Administration and its National Security leaders need to be tried for Crimes Against Humanity.
Posted by: Northern Observer | Jul 31 2023 16:05 utc | 27
"Biden, Nuland, Blinken, et.al. who pushed the Ukrainians into an offensive that they knew would surely fail, are the real war criminals. They need to face a Nuremberg Trials scene, then be hanged.” Exactly Antoinetta III
And Victoria “Fuck the EU” Nuland was just promoted by Biden:
https://jamesburrillangell.substack.com/p/strange-diplomacy-victoria-fck-the
Largely untrained draftees with mediocre equipment and without sufficient artillery and air-support were willfully pushed into a fight they had no chance to win or even survive.It was a cruel policy. Those who pushed them, and in fact anyone with military training and knowledge of military history, had known that all along.
Yes, but the ultimate motivation is not military. The ultimate motivation is economic.
The Ukrainians are getting paid to generate news that may somehow give the appearance of a weakened Russia. From top honchos (president, ministers, parlamentarians, generals, colonels) to the last babushka, they are all getting paid US$ and € to have Ukrainian men getting blown to pieces in the front lines.
Also, lots of Ukrainian women and children are living in the EU receiving pay outs from welfare (in Germany, Ukrainians are the largest group of foreigners receiving welfare payments from the tax payer and from new government debt).
Ukraine is like a baloon with a big hole that remains inflated by fast pumping of air into it.
If they stopped generating headlines by sending Ukrainians to death to somehow give the appearance of a weakened Russia, all the money goes puff and the Ukrainian state collapses. The general/minister will have to run with his money and the babushka will not get her pension or her pension will be worth peanuts.
All in Ukraine know they don't have a chance in the war but they want to go down with as much money as possible, sucking in Western money till they max out. Some will have a fortune saved in overseas bank accounts, bonds and shares, and real estate. Most will be left with very little.
If Russia offered to pay them off instead, the war will end tomorrow, but Russia cannot bring money into existence like the USA and the EU can do (for now).
Posted by: Johan Kaspar | Jul 31 2023 16:17 utc | 29
Posted by: Inkan1969 | Jul 31 2023 15:30 utc | 4
#################
Murdoch is not right-wing. He's a globalist. The right-wing has been his target audience for decades, smart business in that they were the underserved demographic. Nearly every other media outlet has been overtly progressive.
All part of the uniparty trap of keeping people at odds over manufactured dilemmas and differences.
When has any of Murdoch's outlets in America come out hard against illegal immigration, its disintegration of the social fabric, and the undermining of good wages?
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jul 31 2023 16:20 utc | 30
The NATO commanders aren't stupid. They know this is the effect of their orders. Therefore this is what they want.
If perhaps half of all casualties are wounded, not killed (maybe less seeing as medics are rare) that is a huge financial cost for decades of veteran support. Many of them will not be able to hold a job. Keep in mind the war to neocons is primarily economic, not military, so anything to hurt the Russian economy is a plus.
This is economic and social scorched earth policy.
Posted by: Matthew | Jul 31 2023 16:22 utc | 31
In a war, "the first casualty is Truth"...The NYT is a perfect embodiment of this fact...
Posted by: pyrrhus | Jul 31 2023 16:24 utc | 32
i've seen enough footage/photos of bodies to call bullshit on the picture. the closest thing is resembles is a body after being run over by a tank but it lacks...the actual body. those would have to be some damn good boots to retain their shape when the rest of the "soldier" was flattened and sprayed out. "he" would also appear to be unarmed which makes it not only bullsh_t but an odd brag.
#RIPHollowMan
Posted by: the pair | Jul 31 2023 16:25 utc | 33
Inkanazi can find footage of a TOS-1 striking Staromaiorske. Terrifying no doubt to the conscripts facing death. I wonder if the contemplate the role of Maerica in their fate before dying.
Shills like you should get to the front line to get a real feel for war, instead of cowardly cheerleadering the Nazis from the back.
I love that you try to paint opposition to funding Nazis as right wing. TIL that funding Nazis is progressive! Utterly reprehensible nonsense.
Posted by: Doctor Eleven | Jul 31 2023 16:27 utc | 34
I'm in agreement with Trump on this, who said he wants the dying to stop, on both sides. I see the necessity of war, but I hate it all the same. I wish Russia would end this quickly...but then that might push NATO to react with even more desperation.
Posted by: Gerry | Jul 31 2023 16:29 utc | 35
There is a famous WW2 photo of a road well traveled that has the entire corpse; face and all, of a dead soldier pressed down in the mud of the road. His face still showing his shock as he died.
In the photo trucks, tanks, troops are moving down the road and pass over him, none see him in time to stop.
I apologize for not having a link, I did search. I believe it may have been the resource for the bogus photo above.
Posted by: Bonami | Jul 31 2023 16:33 utc | 37
The main players in these tactics seem to be Britain, Germany and then the USA followed by the other 46. Anycase, France and NATO have now ordered ECOMAS to invade Niger and reinstall Frances chosen leader. So the war will move into another continent, we’ll see if or how NATO can chicken out of this one.
Posted by: Mark A | Jul 31 2023 16:34 utc | 38
Haha, people who still try to respond logically to Inkanazi1969. Why are you wasting your time?
Posted by: Biswapriya Purkayast | Jul 31 2023 15:51 utc | 18
True. Definitely a poison dwarf. Do not touch!
Posted by: Ahenobarbus | Jul 31 2023 16:39 utc | 39
@ Ahenobarbus | Jul 31 2023 16:39 utc | 37
most of the time i don't! however they make such a bad case, that replying with a response only makes there position look much worse..
Posted by: james | Jul 31 2023 16:47 utc | 40
That photo is most definitely staged. To create an image of an offensive "turning point" after "capturing" one settlement that is completely flattened.
Because, that's the only thing the Washington Swamp knows how to do, propaganda, smoke and mirrors.
Posted by: unimperator | Jul 31 2023 16:49 utc | 41
Posted by: Mark A | Jul 31 2023 16:34 utc | 36
These African colonial countries seeking independence need S-300 to shoot down invading Nato jets.
Posted by: unimperator | Jul 31 2023 16:51 utc | 42
Antoinetta III | Jul 31 2023 15:34 utc | 8
Not good enough. The system will always, always excuse itself in self-defense. If anything, we need to put the entire aristocracy on trial the same way the Chinese tried their landlords. Furthermore, we need to do the same to every think-tankist and every other academic who has ever laid eyes or hands on "world order" or spoken or written in its favor.
Posted by: Concerned Citizen | Jul 31 2023 16:53 utc | 43
ASensibleMan | Jul 31 2023 15:42 utc | 13
I think you're projecting the consequences of your love for money and property onto mythical creatures, essentially to distinguish yourself from them and leave them to absorb the consequences of your own sins.
Satan wants us dumb and neoliberal. Lucifer only wants to know all and, to the cancerous self-important heroic predators that built Christianity for 5000 years or more, a truth that can't be owned is no truth at all.
Posted by: Concerned Citizen | Jul 31 2023 16:57 utc | 44
Because, that's the only thing the Washington Swamp knows how to do, propaganda, smoke and mirrors.
Posted by: unimperator | Jul 31 2023 16:49 utc | 41
Every time I look at that picture, I wonder why the shoes are not flattened too?
Posted by: Bemildred | Jul 31 2023 16:58 utc | 45
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jul 31 2023 16:20 utc | 29
True, and right wing media owners do not demand the removal of their top personality, who brings in millions of viewers every day, for questioning ‘the narrative’. He’s one of the chief illusionists trying to disguise the fact that US democracy has been transformed into a turkey, one bird, two wings.
Posted by: Bonami | Jul 31 2023 16:33 utc | 35
This is the one I’ve seen on the Russian front. https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/570901690243122739/
Posted by: Milites | Jul 31 2023 16:58 utc | 46
Inkanazi is not just insane and a poison dwarf. He enjoys hanging out here, visits us all the time. Either he enjoys being a prick or he gets paid.
Yes, the entire West is insane at this point. First rule for coping with the insane is you cannot predict what they will do next. They do believe they are winning. They do believe they are damaging Russia and defeating Russia. They will act on that belief. Past that, anyone's guess.
Posted by: oldhippie | Jul 31 2023 16:59 utc | 47
Milites | Jul 31 2023 16:58 utc | 46
The US republic (not "democracy"; that's marketing fluff) was founded as a continuation of Rome by other means and with a slightly less stupid origin story. The real effect of the end of chattel slavery was merely the dominance of wage slavery, ironically because a labor army inside the tent pissing out more effectively reproduces itself than a labor army outside the tent pissing in.
Posted by: Concerned Citizen | Jul 31 2023 17:09 utc | 48
@ Posted by: oldhippie | Jul 31 2023 16:59 utc | 47
The west had made known that the plan was to use the offensive to demonstrate to Russia the potency of the western trained/supplied/funded Ukraine military.
It has had the opposite effect.
The west is busily rethinking. The pattern is/has been that they will categorically deny doing the thing which they are in fact doing and will point to the opposition as doing that very same thing. Seems a CIA tactic spread via the NY Times.
Hardly any positive way to spin this I think. A trapped animal, quite dangerous.
Seems Russia has allowed the west to defeat itself - damn you, Sun Tsu.
Posted by: jared | Jul 31 2023 17:14 utc | 49
reply to:
Posted by: Milites | Jul 31 2023 16:58 utc | 46
Thank you for that photo, might explain the Ukraine focus on boots :)
But the one I recall, it is had to ever forget, has a line of troops and equipment moving to the right, the dead soldier is in the middle of the road. It is a rural mud road.
The photo is taken from above to the right, probably by someone standing on the ridge they are passing by.
Posted by: Bonami | Jul 31 2023 17:15 utc | 50
Oh, the other possibility for the more primitive trollery around here. It could be fully automatic. Like Chat GPT. Personas could even be automatically created and assigned to this site. When they have nothing original to say and anodyne delivery AI is a good possibility.
Posted by: oldhippie | Jul 31 2023 17:17 utc | 51
Feral Finster | Jul 31 2023 15:56 utc | 23
And the vultures in Kiev will simply bunk off to their villas in Italy and Miami. There is a reason so many Ukrainian oligarchs and politicians (Zelenskii included) were named in The Panama Papers and The Paradise Papers.
Zelensky and Kolomoisky have luxury villas in Israel as well. The aim is now clearly -- and probably always was -- to depopulate what used to be Ukraine. Retain only the minimum, as necessary servants. Blackrock and related outfits have already bought most of it; the IMF and EU will ensure disposal of the rest into similar hands.
If the country just about still known as 'Poland' is allowed / encouraged to take over part of Ukraine, no change -- given that country's absurdly massive arms orders to the USA, it will soon be efffectively owned by the same organisations anyway.
Not to mention being forced into trans/wokism by the EU / NATO dictatorship.
Hardly worth Poles and Kiev-Ukraine soldiers fighting Russia at all, really.
Posted by: Cynic | Jul 31 2023 17:24 utc | 52
Soldiers being killed by artillery, mines, and drone bombs the minute they get to the front line is horrifying
The horror Ukrainian conscripts experience can be ended by denying Ukrainian entry into NATO and no longer threatening Russia with missiles on its borders in Poland, Baltic States, and the Balkan States. The belligerence continuing the horror for the Ukrainian people comes from the US, NATO, and Ukrainian fascists.
Posted by: Wilikins | Jul 31 2023 17:33 utc | 53
LoveDonbass | Jul 31 2023 16:20 utc | 30
*** Murdoch is not right-wing. He's a globalist. The right-wing has been his target audience for decades, smart business in that they were the underserved demographic. Nearly every other media outlet has been overtly progressive.
All part of the uniparty trap of keeping people at odds over manufactured dilemmas and differences.
When has any of Murdoch's outlets in America come out hard against illegal immigration, its disintegration of the social fabric, and the undermining of good wages?***
Absolutely so. In the UK, the socially 'conservative' element who habitually follow the line pimped by Murdoch media have for decades been too stupid to realise that when the time is right they *always* then get divided, demonised and stabbed in the back by that very same Establishment media.
Posted by: Cynic | Jul 31 2023 17:37 utc | 54
Pro bono publico: decimated means 1 of each 10 killed, when 10 remains of 400 it is called carnage.
Posted by: Sh0tek | Jul 31 2023 17:38 utc | 55
Like b, I also have bad news for NYT readers:
You're a pathetic bunch of dupes wasting your time reading lies.
Posted by: Figleaf23 | Jul 31 2023 17:50 utc | 56
D +54(ish) and the big news is a small village perhaps just inside the skirmish line that is now so destroyed that neither side can really occupy it.
No, the plan was not to depopulate Ukraine or simply make money for the US MIC. The plan was to defeat Russia. It was to at least have Putin overthrown and force Russia into an embarrassing withdrawal from its near abroad. As many dead Ukrainians as it takes has always been a cost the US is willing to pay, but that wasn’t the point.
Economically, politically and militarily the plan has failed disastrously. But because the west is under excellent propaganda control and the people in charge are completely divorced from reality (as propagandized as the rubes), leadership isn’t forced to deal with reality. It is completely believable that Biden’s national security team could be informed that Ukraine doesn’t have the capability to breach Russian defenses in the south and that team decide that Ukrainian ingenuity and toughness will make the difference. These people speak publicly and write articles. They’re not secretly smarter than they appear to us.
They are not serious or smart people, and the moment they created is vastly too big for them. Because they’re neither serious nor smart they remain convinced that it will turn out alright because they believe, because they can’t admit that Russians might be serious and smart, because they’ve never suffered and everything has always turned out ok. And mostly because they know that they’ll never be held accountable for this disaster. That is the fault of the American system and the American people.
Posted by: Lex | Jul 31 2023 17:54 utc | 57
Putin had the choice of resorting to military action, taking responsibility for the deaths of both these young Ukrainians and Russians. With "Ukronazi" and "Uke" repeated endlessly here, claims of horror for Ukrainian deaths sound very insincere.
Posted by: Inkan1969 | Jul 31 2023 15:32 utc | 6
This is the first time you wrote something I can agree with: I don't like ukronazis and uke (or khokol, for that matter), either. In most cases it demeans otherwise sound arguments.
You say Putin had a choice to resort to military action. Yes, he did.
But so did Zelensky. And he so chose, more than once.
It is the loser that has to sue for peace. And at the moment Russia is not looking like the loser - unlike Ukraine it has intact infrastructure, a working economy, a better trained and larger army.
Loser or not, Zelensky could sue for peace. He could have done that any time in the past 18 months. Thus he is taking on the responsibility for the death of Ukrainians and Russians of any age. Given that the death toll is so much higher on the Ukrainian side (no need to argue that with me - let's just wait until this war ends, and the beancounters will count the dead, missing, crippled, and refugees abroad), and he has no hope of winning, he should do that as soon as possible. Instead he keeps procrastinating. Killing more people.
Looking at the planned "peace conference" in Saudi Arabia, I think Ukraine and its Western backers are now trying to get peace negotiations along the lines of Minsk I and II off the ground - negotiations in which the Ukrainian government once again refuses to talk to the other side in a conflict. The West talks to Ukraine, offers to be guarantor for Ukraine once more. Whatever countries the West can rope in (preferably some BRICS countries) will take that role for Russia.
And then they plan to do the same thing they did after some Ukrainian ex-politicians signed the Minsk Accords. Lie to the world about the agreements reached. Claim that the guarantors for Russia's behavior don't fulfill their part of the deal, and sanction them to hell. Oj, and build another Ukrainian army.
I hope Russia will not fall for that again. This can only end if they force the Ukrainian government to take responsibility for their action.
Yes, I know that there are many people who think the same with regards to Russia. Like that German politician who said in an interview that "Russia must learn to lose as Germany did after World War II". Well. He certainly never learned that lesson. Germany as a whole seems to have forgot.
Posted by: Martina | Jul 31 2023 17:56 utc | 58
The picture of the flattened uniform of the alleged dead Russian soldier is probably fake, but is an attempt to duplicate a rather famous image from WW2 Soviet propaganda which showed the flattened remnant of a German soldier on a Russian dirt road.
Posted by: A. Pols | Jul 31 2023 18:08 utc | 59
Today, Crooke asks, "The ‘Scandal Implosion’ Stratagem: Will It Work for Ukraine?", the "scandal" being:
"‘We gave them everything – yet, the Ukrainians turned ‘their back’ on our expert advice for how to ‘win’ – and consequently have achieved nothing." [Emphasis Original]
Crooke explores this propaganda method by revisiting Jonathan Turley's prognostication on how the Hunter Biden scandal would unfold in which he was as correct as he could be, but despite BigLie Media's efforts, the public isn't falling for it. And if the Narrative Machine is broken, neither NATO or the Outlaw US Empire's Parasites have any weapons or tools remaining to employ. Rove's false reality is in the process of imploding--The Sky is Falling atop the cabal that's painted themselves into a corner so tightly they can barely breathe. The Donors clearly need to do something, but right now every effort that's made turns out to be counterproductive for them. And if the Rs don't act on Biden, there'll be hell to pay for them. IMO, the Donors ought to cut their losses by getting rid of both Bidens and living with a Harris presidency for a year when they'll attempt to install Newsome. August looks like it might be a hot month if Congress remains in session.
Re: Posted by: oldhippie | Jul 31 2023 16:59 utc | 47
I agree with your post. I think “their” only puzzlement is:
“How come, since we won the war and all, are they still there? What’s wrong with “them”?… that’s their discussion of late.
To being deranged 🍺!
Posted by: Trubind1 | Jul 31 2023 18:19 utc | 61
@4 hilarious,
axioms left winger progressive neocons
more war from a rooting section totally unaccustomed to slaughter
Posted by: paddy | Jul 31 2023 18:20 utc | 62
Hi Biswapriya,
Do not endorse this ‘sack-of-shit’ Jacob Driesen and share his website. He seems like a nasty piece of work and I would not trust him nor his site.
Posted by: Áobh O’Sheachnasaigh | Jul 31 2023 18:23 utc | 63
@60
the empire gave them everything, but what was necessary and sufficient to attack RF positions.
the usa’s everything is same everything as the unproven safe and effective covid vaxxes
Posted by: paddy | Jul 31 2023 18:37 utc | 64
Putin had the choice of resorting to military action, taking responsibility for the deaths of both these young Ukrainians and Russians. With "Ukronazi" and "Uke" repeated endlessly here, claims of horror for Ukrainian deaths sound very insincere.
Posted by: Inkan1969 | Jul 31 2023 15:32 utc | 6
Here's an article from Reuters, a western mainstream outlet.
What it shows is Ukraine irrefutably fired the first shot at Donbass. Although the article doesn't explicitly mention it was Ukraine, one could infer that from the absence of pointing any fingers.
The progression of firing over the week by OSCE showed this was indeed a lead up to an all out invasion of Donbass. BY UKRAINE.
Further, article "fears it would give Putin the pretext to invade". Well, why is Ukraine giving that pretext by invading "it's own territory"???
Putin indeed had a choice - it's either "not invade Ukraine" and watch Russian aligned residents of Donbass be murdered by Zelensky's military or intervene.
Posted by: FieryButMostPeaceful | Jul 31 2023 18:48 utc | 65
@ ASensibleMan said:
It's downright Luciferian how the Western elites are sending so many Ukrainians to die.
It's settling scores - descendants of Ukrainian emigrés getting revenge for pogroms by Cossacks, Tsarist secret police, general indifference to their ancestors' lack of success in the Russian empire.
Also, for NATO members like Poland, settling old scores against Cossacks, Russians, Tatars, Ukrainians.
Posted by: Manage without me | Jul 31 2023 18:49 utc | 66
Posted by: Áobh O’Sheachnasaigh | Jul 31 2023 18:23 utc | 63
> Do not endorse this ‘sack-of-shit’ Jacob Driesen and share his website. He seems like a nasty piece of work and I would not trust him nor his site.
Why not? Sure he is sometimes a bit rude to commentators and his panhandling for donations is annoying but he is definitely on Russian side and quite well informed. His calling the other side 'globohomo' is quite apt IMO.
Was he offensive to you and hurt your feelings?
Posted by: hopehely | Jul 31 2023 18:51 utc | 67
Posted by: Inkan1969 | Jul 31 2023 15:30 utc | 4
----------------------------------------------------------
Posted by: Gerry | Jul 31 2023 15:27 utc | 2
"Putin had the choice of resorting to military action, taking responsibility for the deaths of both these young Ukrainians and Russians."
-------------------------------------------------------------
Very true Gerry, Putin's choice was to allow the West to militarize Ukraine and destroy Russia or to put a stop to it. Sadly people die and have died by the Millions for the insatiable desire of the West to rule the world.
Posted by: Dferg | Jul 31 2023 15:53 utc | 19
------------------------------------------------------
The fact is that Joe Biden and NATO took responsibility for all that has happened in Ukraine since the start of the SMO when the US shit on the two formal Russian proposals (draft treaties), which were meant to be an opening for negotiations, but Biden considered them a pretext for war: Putin said. “We made it clear that NATO’s expansion to the east is unacceptable. The U.S. is on our doorstep with its missiles. How would Americans react if we placed our missiles at the U.S. border with Canada or Mexico?”
The proposals as outlined by consortiumnews — a draft treaty with the United States and a draft agreement with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) — were published by the Russian Foreign Ministry on Dec. 17. The texts reflect Russia’s concern with the eastward expansion of NATO, including the ongoing armament of Ukraine and its proposed eventual inclusion in the Western military alliance.
The Russian proposals were exchanged at a Dec. 15 meeting in Moscow between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov and Karen Donfried, U.S. assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs. They contain the following demands:
No more NATO expansion towards Russia’s borders. Retraction of the 2008 NATO invitation to Ukraine and Georgia.
Legally binding guarantee that no strike systems which could target Moscow will be deployed in countries next to Russia.
No NATO or equivalent (UK, U.S., Pl.) ‘exercises’ near Russian borders.
NATO ships, planes to keep certain distances from Russian borders.
Regular military-to-military talks.
No intermediate-range nukes in Europe.
https://consortiumnews.com/2021/12/23/putin-says-peace-in-ukraine-is-up-to-us/
--------------
At this moment, and again after the US/UK scuttled the opportunity for an early (March 2022) peace deal during talks in Istanbul, the US and NATO owned this war and all the death and destruction connected to it, both Ukrainian and Russian.
Posted by: Ed | Jul 31 2023 18:56 utc | 68
Posted by: Feral Finster | Jul 31 2023 15:56 utc | 23
‘This is because Russia can do little or nothing, short of nuclear war, that will so much as inconvenience the decisionmakers in Washington.’
I strongly disagree. Russia and other still-silent partners are in process of neutering the West fascist leadership and their stranglehold on countries around the world. Their financial system dominance vis a vis Swift and PetroDollar / world reserve currency status is about to be collapsed. Did you see today, news of the coup d-etat in Niger, where the French / US puppet regime was dethroned? France and the US threaten immediate military response, but who is waiting to confront this force a stone’s throw away in Mali, the Russian musicians. Hit them where it hurts. It is all unravelling, and the pain will soon become evident to all.
Posted by: Feral Finster | Jul 31 2023 15:56 utc | 23
Posted by: Áobh O’Sheachnasaigh | Jul 31 2023 18:56 utc | 69
"in the US, opposition to aid for Ukraine grows increasingly associated with right wing extremism.
Posted by: Inkan1969 | Jul 31 2023 15:30 utc | 4 "
Apologies for replying to this incessant magpie.
BUT. It is tedious to see this Extreme Right invective painted onto anyone who has concluded that the individual Profiteers from this war are supported by the "Extreme Right".
Politics are not some linear line, but a circle. Extreme Left and Extreme Right are indistinguishable because they are, at their core, Extremism. Do what I tell you or I will kill you.
FWIW, there has to be some other impetus for Saudi Arabia, to get involved in a "Peace" negotiation, when Russia is told to sit on the sidelines, while the "adults" talk.
Posted by: kupkee | Jul 31 2023 19:00 utc | 70
kupkee | Jul 31 2023 19:00 utc | 71
The trick is in the "grows increasingly associated". The ruling class lives in a bubble of myth and solipsistic idealism, and for some reason we serve them, run interference between them and the reality they profess to love, and take various other action as needed to allow these wastes of food and oxygen to exist.
Every time some elitist property-owning midwit tells you what's going on in the world, you can discount it as what's going on in their fictions.
Also the "horseshoe theory" is capitalist disinformation.
Posted by: Concerned Citizen | Jul 31 2023 19:09 utc | 71
reply to:
Posted by: Cynic | Jul 31 2023 17:24 utc | 52
You mentioned Blackrock's proposed role in Ukraine, it is an incredibly lucrative one. I wonder if it will ever be executed.
For if I were Putin, I would take all of Ukraine. For if he let's any portion of Ukraine be under Western control, he will have the same NATO problem again in a few years.
Take all of Ukraine, end the Z govt, put the country under Martial Law, declare all of its debt null and void, all of the land ownership by foreign nationals null and void. The use of GMO crops null and void.
Then I would install local citizen Regents in each province, who would work with Russian and Chinese teams to identify rebuilding requirements. Funding would come from the BRICS group only, no IMF, no World Bank and certainly no Blackrock.
I would invite people to return, I would immediately give the existing people food, water, medicine, clothing. Construction of housing would be a first priority as well as schools, hospitals.
Sure he will be dealing with some level of resistance, but given the huge number of dead, the very few that remain, I think Russia can handle it. Putin brought Russia back from the brink, Ukraine is a lot smaller.
Posted by: Bonami | Jul 31 2023 19:10 utc | 72
Just published the last article of Alastair Crooke in National Culture Founadtion
The ‘Scandal Implosion’ Stratagem: Will It Work for Ukraine?
Posted by: Antonio Ferrao | Jul 31 2023 19:16 utc | 73
"But [western officials] hoped Ukrainian courage and resourcefulness would carry the day."
Funny thing to hope. Ukrainians lack the courage and resourcefulness to end a government that is sending them to die for no reason.
Posted by: Figleaf23 | Jul 31 2023 19:19 utc | 74
NFL All Stars.
Posted by: ASensibleMan | Jul 31 2023 15:42 utc | 13
I think you mean the Kansas City Chiefs. :)
Posted by: Henry Moon Pie | Jul 31 2023 19:21 utc | 75
Irish (RTE) news report that the Ukrainian army has retaken 200 odd km2.
And all the grovelling platitudes they're given in press releases.
No mention of the carnage to enter a 12 mile wide and 6 mile deep area of fields with a village or two.
The reluctance address the realities in EU land is pathetic.
Posted by: jpc | Jul 31 2023 19:34 utc | 76
Ukrainian government keeps the losses secret, so people are looking for ways to estimate and there is a new method. Ukrainian phone operators can distinguish between SIM cards that moved abroad and those that disappeared. The ratio between SIM/persons in Ukraine is 1.2 and there is 1.1mil irretrievable SIM cards.In Russian, end of article starting with P.S. https://mobile-review.com/all/articles/misc/spam-ataka-mobilnogo-telefona-kak-zashhitit-sebya-ot-nepriyatnostej/
These days I talked with Ukrainian operators, discussed various issues. I was struck by a number, a new metric that cut with its cynicism - the irretrievable loss of SIM cards. Behind the Aesopian language are people who will never again be able to call, write, enjoy life. At the beginning of summer, Ukrainian operators estimate their "irretrievable losses" at 1.1 million SIM cards. Until March 2022, there were 1.2 SIM cards per person in Ukraine, you can calculate the rest yourself. And these are not the SIM cards that are in roaming, these are phones that have been silenced forever, and people who now live in Russia and have refused the services of Ukrainian operators are also not taken into account. Statistics that speak for themselves, Ukraine is rapidly ending. As a representative of one of the operators in Ukraine said, “Since the beginning of July, we have been losing 5.5 thousand SIM cards in the east of the country every week, other operators have the same figures. Ukraine has objectively deprived itself of a future.” I have nothing to add to these words, I am not in Ukraine, but my view of what is happening is similar. I sympathize with those who found themselves hostage to this situation and could not escape from it.
The metric for forever silenced SIM cards in Ukraine suggest AFU losses are over 900k (1.1 million SIM-cards person per 1.2 SIM-cards/person = 916k).
Posted by: unimperator | Jul 31 2023 19:35 utc | 77
77
The US has a stranglehold on Ireland and many EU countries. At least insofar as catapulting the propaganda.
Posted by: Chaka Khagan | Jul 31 2023 19:46 utc | 78
"The shit show continues until it doesn't and we all hope that is soon"
-psychohistorian | Jul 31 2023 15:26 utc | 1
Actually, I'm not convinced the matter should be brought to a quick conclusion.
Every day seems to deplete the might, wealth, will and coherence of the arrogant and dangerous 'west'. Since I live here, I don't want that taken TOO far, but the ruling classes need strong dose of comeuppance, leading to institutional renewal.
Posted by: Figleaf23 | Jul 31 2023 19:53 utc | 79
Here is my prediction:
Zelinsky probably have some documents that clearly shows Bidens corruption and Biden probably have his spies looking for them. If they dont find them they will make Zel dissapear, and blame it on the Russian. When the documents appears, they will label them russian propaganda. And then Biden goes free.
Again they will "mute" the media, as with NorthStream.
As much respect I have for the excellent Mr. Crooke, this time i fear that he is underestimating the Empire.
SlavaLira
Posted by: Paul from Norway | Jul 31 2023 19:56 utc | 80
@Matthew | Jul 31 2023 16:22 utc | 31
If perhaps half of all casualties are wounded, not killed
This is probably an added bonus. Think of the money to be made from the organs of the wounded and dying Ukrainian soldiers. Elizabeth Debreu and her team must be very busy behind the lines just as she was at Artyomovsk https://archive.is/yKOpB
Maria Zakharova gave a briefing on the organ harvesting going on in Ukraine on 24 May 2023 -extract
Since the late 1990s, reportedly, low-income people in that country had to sell their internal organs in order to put food on the table. There were reports about illegal removal of anatomical materials from dead bodies. Ukraine was at the centre of scandals related to illegal organ transplants. All of that took place long before the 2014 coup and the ensuing events. However, the outbreak of hostilities in southeastern Ukraine has worsened the situation.The illegal transplantologists’ activities in the warfare area have become a separate issue now. Even the first head of the DPR, Alexander Zakharchenko, noted that he saw corpses with open stomachs and chests and had information about illegal seizures by Ukrainian nationalists of anatomical materials of prisoners, local residents and wounded soldiers from the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Unfortunately, these chilling finds are not uncommon.
In July 2022, officer of the People's Militia of the LPR Andrey Marochko said 20 to 30 people, mostly military personnel from the Armed Forces of Ukraine, get on the surgical tables of the black transplantologists operating in Ukraine daily.
Against this background, the real reasons behind the Ukrainian side using field crematoria remain unknown to the general public.
Notably, Ukrainian transplantology legislation has been significantly relaxed lately, in particular, the procedures for obtaining consent for transplantation was simplified, the right to conduct organ transplants was granted to private clinics, and organ transplantation operations were exempted from VAT.
Posted by: cirsium | Jul 31 2023 20:01 utc | 81
Posted by: Mark A | Jul 31 2023 16:34 utc | 38Germany seems to have little agency, surprisingly little even if you take into account its weak and extremely transatlantic leadership. As a reader of German news outlets, it was telling how many (more than half, it seems to me) of frontline/intelligence reports are from "UK sources". And the whole Northstream experience was a major humiliation to Germany as a state and economy. You may have heard the economic forecasts which put Germany (along) into negative growth. A lot of Germans are very worried.The main players in these tactics seem to be Britain, Germany and then the USA followed by the other 46. Anycase, France and NATO have now ordered ECOMAS to invade Niger and reinstall Frances chosen leader. So the war will move into another continent, we’ll see if or how NATO can chicken out of this one.
I agree with you on the Niger front. Paris may feel that their hands are bound: they need the uranium from Niger to fuel their nuclear reactors and war is certainly an option. It will be interesting to see how China, Russia, India etc. react to this. It looks like the West lost Africa for good, and I don't expect BRICS to let them "solve" Niger the way they did Libyia.
As far as Ukraine is concerned, it seems clear by now that the US is pulling out, leaving the humanitarian mess to EUrope. I've said it before but I don't believe they consider this a complete loss in Washington: while they probably had higher expectations re: Russia (economic breakdown, perhaps even elite collapse and regime change), the Ukraine war got them a lot of nice things: an emaciated Germany tightly in line; NATO expansion and centralisation; windfall profits from energy and weapon exports. Good game. Nobody gives a fuck about millions of Ukrainian casualties and refugees -- but this is method not madness.
Posted by: Konami | Jul 31 2023 20:03 utc | 82
Posted by: Antonio Ferrao | Jul 31 2023 19:16 utc | 74
Thank you for the article.
It is kind of tragicomic, but the fact is that this Ukraine mess (from the wester point of view) will be resolved through the basis of that, what is cheapest for the Washington regime.
That means, the cheapest option for Biden, Blinky-boy etc. is to make Ukraine disappear into the memory hole. That is, say Putin has lost, while saying Ukraine didn't follow are brilliant tactics and strategies on the battlefield. We gave them everything, after all.
Ukraine will disappear into the memory hole and the west won. Biden gets re-elected in 2024.
Posted by: unimperator | Jul 31 2023 20:07 utc | 83
Given the ukrainian involvement I highly doubt that France has the capacity to intervene in a situation like in Niger.
If I remember correctly the force that was sent to Mali in 2014 was some 3000 troops strong. It was on the invitation of the malian government not against its will.
Its landlocked too, so what are they going to do? If there is an intervention it needs to be strongly supported by countries like Nigeria. In fact it would be those countries that needed to do the fighting and most of them have internal military problems like boko haram. On the other hand Nigeria seems to be a davos country. Still why would Ecowas do that?
On the other hand, we may see a new war in a slowly evolving world war. But why would the africans chose to be on the side of the western powers?
Posted by: Orgel | Jul 31 2023 20:18 utc | 84
Since when does the left support imperial NATO expansion? Since when does the left support the neo-NAZI children of Bandera? Since when does the left support the mass killing of an entire nation's 20 year old's?
Posted by: TJC | Jul 31 2023 15:58 utc | 24
There was a time when the European left was known for pacifism. There was a time when the left was against joining NATO. There was a time when the left marched against the Iraq war. Not today. Today you can pick up a left-wing newspaper, and on the front page there is a speech by the NATO general secretary, straight from the NATO press handout, without any criticism. Today, there is applause if a socialist politician is proposed as the next NATO chief. Today, there is no difference between political parties wrt to Russia.
If I wish to vote for a political party that has not sent arms to Ukraine in the past, and is against sending arms to Ukraine in the future, there is no party to choose from.
Posted by: Passerby | Jul 31 2023 20:24 utc | 85
NYT was one of many papers that would avoid posting pictures of corpses if they were white people, but was very comfortable posting gruesome corpses of non-whites. The "wokies" (or 'politically correct police' or whatever you pampered whiners call them) forced them to abandon this about a decade ago, but since Russians are just knuckle-dragging Slavs to the West, they're bringing back page-1 Gore Porn for the wine sippers to gawk at.
That said, I can't see a single inch of flesh or blood anywhere in that photo, so I think they just tossed an empty uniform on the ground, drove over it a couple of times, and called it a day.
Posted by: fogers | Jul 31 2023 20:33 utc | 86
Putin cares more about the lives of Ukrainian soldiers than does anyone in Washington or Kiev.
This is the punchline for ~85% of humans.
Posted by: Rae | Jul 31 2023 20:35 utc | 87
Posted by: Gerry | Jul 31 2023 15:27 utc | 2
Putin had the choice of resorting to military action, taking responsibility for the deaths of both these young Ukrainians and Russians. With "Ukronazi" and "Uke" repeated endlessly here, claims of horror for Ukrainian deaths sound very insincere.
Posted by: Inkan1969 | Jul 31 2023 15:32 utc | 6
And what of Russia???
What of DARPA's plan to dis-member Russia using Ukraine as their weapon of choice??
What of the pregnant women and men butchered and burned in the Odessa Trade Union Building for the crime of wanting good relations with Russia?
What of the NAZIS.... predicted in 1946 by the Soviets to Rise from the ashes of Hitler's Third Reich??
What of the Priests... murdered.. imprisoned... de-frocked.... by those self-same NAZIS...
What of Nulan's testimony.... admitting that NATO paid $5 billion to put their client NAZIS in power...??
I'll tell you my view....
NUKE THE WHOLE GOD DAMNED PLACE!! NATO TOO!!
NUKE ANY BASTARD LIKE YOU!!
KILL THEM ALL!!
I HATE NAZIS....
I HATE ANYONE WHO SUPPORTS NAZIS!!
INDY
Posted by: Dr. George W Oprisko | Jul 31 2023 20:41 utc | 88
That photo, faked and ghastly as it seems, is a stark reflection (for me) of the 'cancel culture' world so many of our elites seem to occupy, not only with respect to trashing education (which they have done) but in disrespect for what ought to be common to us all, humanitarian reflexes. How they who illuminate this nightmareish struggle in this fashion would think they would be helping their cause propaganda-wise says more about them than any claims of bestial behavior the Russians might want to promote. It surely will cause shudders in the RoW, more folk turning away from them than otherwise. It reminds me of the photo of the little girl running screaming in Vietnam; something that is hard or impossible to unsee.
And it sends me, myself, running to find the Greek play Antigone which is all about the desecration of the dead and its consequences. Did that poor little Vietnamese girl live? Part of me will always be asking. Because I know deep down we are all responsible for everyone, and we are all failing Ukrainian soldiers as well as Russians, fake image or not. As we failed the Vietnamese.
I am realizing that this conflict is Vietnam all over again; the same demonism unveiled - a war that didn't have to be. And with the intensity of climate change it seems nature is realizing this as well. But it is not well. There should be protests; there must be protests, in the US, in the very heart of it.
God forgive us all.
Posted by: juliania | Jul 31 2023 21:05 utc | 90
There are enough reliable sources to verify that the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) have suffered heavy losses since the beginning of their recent offensive on June 4th.
I go to Defense Politics Asia, Weeb Union, The New Atlas, Military Summary Channel, Alex Christoforu, Alexander Mercouris, Military and Foreign Affairs Network, New World Economics, UA maps, ISW, and others for their commentary of where the zero lines are and what is going on there.
Of course there is plenty of fog of war. The first casualty of war is the truth. So some discretion and caution is advised to determine the truth.
When a large body of commentators from both the Western and the Russian sides are saying roughly the same thing, this can be taken to be pretty accurate for the battle front situation.
Since the battle front can change rapidly, these reports should be considered to be a few days old as new developments may not have been reported nor confirmed yet.
I always suspect that any reports will be a couple of days out of date. Usually a few days of aging on the front line reports usually shores up or disproves their validity.
Never has a conflict been fought with so much information coming to the public that was so close to being accurate. That does not mean everything is totally accurate. Yet, it is close to being so.
From multiple reports it is obvious that the zero lines have not changed significantly since Ukraine began its offensive on June 4th, 2023. It is also obvious that that Ukraine has taken significant loses since they began their latest offensive.
Another hard fact to swallow if you are pro-Ukrainian is that the Russians have superior artillery and air support. This is one of the major reasons the Ukrainians are suffering such heavy loses.
Posted by: young | Jul 31 2023 21:14 utc | 91
I am convinced that Jake Sullivan spent much of his life - becoming high school valedictorian, going to Yale, working as Hillary's errand boy - so that he could be in some position where he could dictate policy while callously (and with enjoyment) disregarding loss of human life on a tragic, epic scale. To cause people to die simply to achieve some fleeting political aim is exciting - a game - to monsters like him.
Posted by: Sentient | Jul 31 2023 21:20 utc | 92
julianna, 91, on global south, ahh,(a much beloved commenter you may remember from the saker) last week posted on the hearty salon (very similar to the cafe), a series of photos of her. she is alive, there was one photo of her with her horrendous burns holding her infant. truly an unforgettable photograph, almost as memorable as the one from her youth. if i remember correctly she lives in canada. we have a sizeable vietnamese population, the vietnamese community was very active assisting afghan refugees. sharing experiences, advice as well as how to adjust & begin anew, open a restaurant, or other small business. if you haven't visited amarynth's site, global south, i recommend it.
antigone when i was a young actress was one of my favourites, both versions were equally challenging. along with clytemnestra, & medea. a fine way to navigate the theatre world's casino.
Posted by: emersonreturn | Jul 31 2023 21:24 utc | 93
This is criminal, and criminally insane. Biden et al are responsible for these Ukrainian deaths. These are young men the age of my son. What a horrible, horrible outcome. Russia had no choice. The US did.
Posted by: Gerry | Jul 31 2023 15:27 utc | 2
Yes. And they chose this route way back in the past, depending on which writer you read. Even way back before WWII ended. The destruction of Russia was on their minds back then and that is what this is all about. Don't they openly declare that much? Aren't they callous and self confident and inhuman enough to simply stand up and declare openly that the deaths in Ukraine or merely incidental on the way to their aim: Keep Russia out, Germany down, America In?
Yep. I think so. So where's the fault? Find half a dozen men and string up from lamposts? Catch a cabal of lunatic power brokers like the Clintons maybe or the Bidens and arraign them as criminals? Riot in the streets and burn public buildings? Attack the mansions of the rich and plunder them?
Or think about the American electorate of 350 million people charged with 'governance of the people by the people' who turned a blind eye, left the politicians alone to do as they wished, evinced no interest in governance whatever.... ?
And to this day, to this very day, millions of them can be found apparently, on the streets of ANY city in the USA that don't even know where Ukraine is! That cannot find it on a map!
Morons. Braindead mere sheeple. How great their crime for being morons? Not great. You can't blame them for being no more than they are. BUT all the millions - yes, millions - of would be 'superior' Americans with intelligence, knowledge, ability, position - teachers, pundits, social leaders, opinion setters, main stream media, writers, journalists... ALL of whom (with few tiny exceptions) do NOTHING to wake up those sheeple or to stop the lunatic power brokers at the top.
So there's your reason and your enemy. Ironically: Democracy. Democracy. This is what happens when you introduce Democracy - govt of the people by the people - but the people do not participate.
Posted by: arthur brogard | Jul 31 2023 21:30 utc | 94
juliania | Jul 31 2023 21:05 utc | 91
"Did that poor little Vietnamese girl live? Part of me will always be asking."
IIRC she not only lived but became a mother (and Christian) herself. Living in Canada with hubby and two kids.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phan_Thi_Kim_Phuc
"Forgiveness made me free from hatred. I still have many scars on my body and severe pain most days but my heart is cleansed. Napalm is very powerful, but faith, forgiveness, and love are much more powerful. We would not have war at all if everyone could learn how to live with true love, hope, and forgiveness. If that little girl in the picture can do it, ask yourself: Can you?"
Posted by: YetAnotherAnon | Jul 31 2023 21:31 utc | 95
Juliania @ 91:
The photographer who took the picture of the 9-year-old Vietnamese girl, whose clothes were burnt off her by napalm, took her to hospital. She survived her injuries but the burns left severe scarring. At a much later time, the girl (now adult) emigrated to Canada, married and had children. I believe she may still have health issues arising from the burns and scarring, which destroyed a lot of her sweat glands.
Posted by: Refinnejenna | Jul 31 2023 21:36 utc | 96
unimperator @ 78
The metric for forever silenced SIM cards in Ukraine suggest AFU losses are over 900k (1.1 million SIM-cards person per 1.2 SIM-cards/person = 916k).
RESPONSE: Thanks for sharing. Brilliant way to determine Ukrainian military losses.
Some assumptions have to be made, like every soldier has a cell phone. But, overall, the method of determining loses looks to be sound in providing a rough estimate.
Posted by: young | Jul 31 2023 21:40 utc | 97
@Áobh O’Sheachnasaigh @70
Or, just look at T bill rates or interest rate futures. Nobody is panicking. I can wish otherwise, but wishing doesn't make it so.
Posted by: Feral Finster | Jul 31 2023 22:05 utc | 98
Posted by: Gerry | Jul 31 2023 15:27 utc | 2
Putin had the choice of resorting to military action, taking responsibility for the deaths of both these young Ukrainians and Russians. With "Ukronazi" and "Uke" repeated endlessly here, claims of horror for Ukrainian deaths sound very insincere.
Posted by: Inkan1969 | Jul 31 2023 15:32 utc | 6
I think the blame game is largely a waste of time and distracts from present initiatives. But playing the game I'd point out that though Russia may have taken the wrong road by invading (though Donbas had pled for assistance) they quickly retreated and since then have been playing a defensive game on DONBAS land trying to stop the attack of Kiev and trying to push them OUT.
If at any time Kiev had said 'we will push no further' that alone would have been enough to bring a cessation of the conflict for the time: a ceasefire, I am sure. That simple.
The line of thought is to find fault with 'resort to military action' and apparently conveniently overlooks eight years of shelling of the Donbas as 'not military action' and the quite clearly proven buildup of military and plan for all out invasion of Donbas as 'not military action' and the 'fifth column' and agitator and manipulative operations of the USA in Kiev as 'not military action' and the declared intent to join NATO and allow nuclear weapons on the very border of Russia mimicking the Cuban thing Americans were prepared to initiate WWIII to prevent as 'not military action' and the declared intent to remove from Russia the Crimean port of Severopol, their main warm water port, traditional home of their fleet, and make it a NATO base as 'not military action'.
And those are merely the most obvious points.
But its all water under the bridge. Finding blame. No help to anyone. Who is doing what to whom right now is the question. Right now Kiev promotes its same aggression, its same attack on what it declares are its own people: the Donbas Ukrainians. Clear aggression.
An aggression that would be as a cat's meiow were it not for American aid. Clear aggression.
As Viktor Orban, alone amongst Western politicians and the only man amongst them, points out: the duty of a politician, of a government, is to care for its people. But Kiev has 'cared' for its people to the extent where now near 500,000 lie in their graves and probably double that number carry all kinds of injuries. Clear aggression. Very, very, very clear aggression.
Politicians are liars by conviction, by profession and by choice. But on the surface if we are to take them at face value what do they say?
Kiev says hate Russians to such an extent that you must hate any Russian influence or culture or connection and you must invade the homes of people who have such culture and connection and rectify that situation: they call for ethnic cleansing. They call for hate. Their hero is Stepan Bandera.
The USA says hate Russia simply to assist the USA in its hegemonic strangling of the world. Hate Russia, it says, to such an extent that its okay to cripple Germany and reduce the prospects and present living standards of all Europeans. That's hate. They call for hate. They ARE hate.
Russia, Donbas Ukraine, Viktor Orban, a handful of voices in the West but millions in the RoW call for Kiev and USA to back off, to go away, to stop. Call them lunatic, destructive, hatefilled monsters.
I have no doubt, not a shred of doubt, which side I am on.
Posted by: arthur brogard | Jul 31 2023 22:06 utc | 99
kupkee | Jul 31 2023 19:00 utc | 71
*** Politics are not some linear line, but a circle. Extreme Left and Extreme Right are indistinguishable because they are, at their core, Extremism. Do what I tell you or I will kill you.***
An often cited assertion that is absolute, and deliberate, bullshit.
Consider the carnage, looting and criminality inflicted in recent times upon Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yugoslavia and Syria. All by so-called "centrist", or "moderate", or "non-extremist" foreign regimes.
Plus the agenda and "values" of NATO, IMF/WB, and WEF.
So "moderate" and "non-extremist".... just like (then UK PM) David Cameron's allegedly "moderate" (head-chopping, ultra-sectarian, totalitarian and even cannibalistic) imported jihadists in Syria.
Of course, thoroughly backed by the "moderate" alleged "left", "moderate" alleged "right" -- and (no surprise) the sanctimoniously moderate "liberals" as well.
Looting, lies, criminality and carnage almost only denounced by ALLEGED "extremists"!
Posted by: Cynic | Jul 31 2023 22:15 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
The shit show continues until it doesn't and we all hope that is soon
The perpetrators of this genocide need to be brought out and prosecuted for their anti humanistic perfidy
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jul 31 2023 15:26 utc | 1