ZH has a posting up with the title
Ukraine’s New Defense Chief & The Untold Half Of The Zaluzhny Story
The quote

Senior Western officials, The New York Times reported, now say that “Hundreds of Ukrainian troops may have been captured by advancing Russian units or disappeared during” what they now call, “Ukraine’s chaotic retreat from the eastern city of Avdiivka.” The Times was now calling it “a devastating loss.”
And hundreds may have been an understatement. Further down in the article, the Times reports that “soldiers with knowledge of Ukraine’s retreat estimated that 850 to 1,000 soldiers appear to have been captured or are unaccounted for.” There are unconfirmed reports of even higher numbers of dead and wounded.

I have not read anymore about the potential folks still trapped in Avdeevka, other barflies?

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 25 2024 21:11 utc | 103

You have it completely backwards — we want to end the war and are in complete despair about the Kremlin’s self-defeating policies that prolong it.
Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Feb 25 2024 19:29 utc | 71
Have some people lost their memory? Are you having Alzheimer’s problems? This tragedy in Ukraine began in 2014 with the coup financed by US/British criminals.
Have you forgotten that fat cow, distributing cookies to the Nazis and who claimed that they spent billions of dollars for the COUP?
All these Nazis in the Kiev government will be eliminated. I have no doubt.
No doubt about that, whether living inside Ukraine, or hiding in other countries.

Posted by: Michel | Feb 25 2024 21:16 utc | 105

Posted by: Constantine | Feb 25 2024 21:05 utc | 104
################
Can you do anything about NATO assets, ISR, or personnel?
I try to focus on the things I have control over. Things beyond my control are too numerous to count and will drive me insane if I focus on them over the present and my responsibilities.
While I enjoy reading MoA, I am pretty sure that we’re not shaping public opinion at large, and if we were, that public opinion could do anything to stop wars.
These leaders are irrational, dangerous, and unchecked. Make peace with that.
Particularly if you’re an atheist because this is what a world of men, run by men’s rules, looks like.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 25 2024 21:26 utc | 107

If Polish farmers are cross with Ukraine, Brit farmers will soon be furious.
https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/uk-ukraine-extend-tariff-free-trade-agreement-aid-ukrainian-businesses-1723361
The extension of zero tariff trading terms for a further five years has been welcomed by industry experts. William Bain, Head of Trade Policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, described it as a vital development that will ease supply chain access for Ukrainian businesses under immense pressure.
Bain said: “Alongside the Digital Trade Agreement, which aims to bolsters e-commerce trade between our countries, this extension will boost opportunities for Ukrainian business in key sectors such as oils, grains and other agri-foods.”
Under the terms of the agreement, tariff-free trade will be extended on all goods for five years, except for eggs and poultry, which will enjoy an extension for two years. Notably, Ukraine has also agreed to reciprocate the UK’s approach, allowing British businesses to benefit from tariff-free exports to Ukraine.
Blackrock will be chuffed, haven’t they bought up Ukrainian agriculture?

Posted by: YetAnotherAnon | Feb 25 2024 21:30 utc | 109

Posted by: Michel | Feb 25 2024 21:16 utc | 107
Alzheimer doesn’t have any problems, but the people in Donbass have plenty. And since you brought up 2014, memory serves well those who remember that Mariupol, Slavyansk and Kramatorsk were in the hands of the Donbass militia at the beginning of the ATO. They should have remained so, instead of having the Ukro-Nazis advance to the outskirts of Donetsk. At the very least, after the victory at Ilovaisk, the NAF should have been backed and allowed to reclaim much of the territory lost unnecessarily up to August.
Putin himself has admitted that in retrospect the actions against the Maidanist regime should heve started much earlier, even in 2014. Even if the argument that back then Russia needed to buttress its home front holds (and I think it does), they should have inundated the Donbass with weapons, money and volunteers to the point that the efforts of the Ukro-Nazis during the ATO would fail completely. In short, the territories now fought over with immense loss of life should have been liberated since then. That importantly would include the people in them, no few of whom would be recruited in the AFU.

Posted by: Constantine | Feb 25 2024 21:40 utc | 111

It all comes down to today, the “manpower” that Ukraine no longer has!
Even with NATO sending small troops disguised as “mercenaries”, there is no way to stop Russian advances.
The question now is when will Ukrainian forces surrender to Russian forces so as not to be destroyed?
The question is also whether NATO will have the courage to REALLY put forces on the ground.
If they do, we will all be in the vulture’s beak!

Posted by: Michel | Feb 25 2024 21:44 utc | 113

CConstantine
Should communists also have their crystal ball before they lost 27 million Soviet citizens in the patriotic war?
There is no such thing, my dear comrade!
You work with the data and numbers you have in your hands. TODAY, not yesterday!
There is no crystal ball.

Posted by: Michel | Feb 25 2024 21:52 utc | 115

@ vargas, §97:
Watch Tucker Carlson, episode 75, where he interviews Mike Benz:
https://twitter.com/TuckerCarlson?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
It spells out exactly what happened, step by step, in chapter and verse.

Posted by: John Marks | Feb 25 2024 22:01 utc | 117

Posted by: Constantine | Feb 25 2024 21:40 utc | 113
Yes Putin admitted he should have acted earlier. He made a judgement call that in HINDSIGHT was wrong. It is easy to be clever after the event.
In fact I think Putin, also even MORE Lavrov, also Medvedev etc, actually believed that the West were mostly decent and that reason would win. I think many of us would have made the same call. In 2014 Putin and co actually preferred to KEEP the Donbass in Ukraine. They hoped/expected that this would ensure a vaguely neutral/pro Russian Ukraine – the very best outcome for Russia.
Putin and co knew and had dealt with Merkel and her predecessors- all sane, wise and reasonable Germans. They totally failed to read the mentality of the new breed Germans- the Greens and their types in Scandinavia etc. Call it age and perhaps a cultural divide. They underestimated the stupidity and hostility of Sholtz and most of the UK leadership. They also I think underestimated feminism/wokeness and its influence on the west. They also underestimated the extent to which ALL progressive organisations in the west had declined in influence and/or been fully infiltrated by US operatives.

Posted by: watcher | Feb 25 2024 22:01 utc | 119

Posted by: psychohistorian | Feb 25 2024 21:11 utc | 105
RT has been broadcasting Russian-speaking civilian MOS greetings for a few days. Yalensis also serialized a RU a war correspondent’s human interest journey shadowing call-sign…Tatarin (which signifies exactly what one would expect). Last weekend, before RF officially captured Avd**vka, I was curious to know if anglophone press has had any interest in how many “civilians” (pro-UA or pro-RU) have remained since 2022 UA boilerplate, 30K-32K. I think, MoA will agree, Zelensk* state media register of the humanitarian conditions in “temporarily occupied territories” -> 0, if not a double-digit negative rate. Over ten years.
More than 95% of Avd**vka’s residents abandoned the town on or before the start of UAF’s counter-offensive.
a/o 10 Apr 2023: 1,800
a/o 27 Oct 2023: 1,000 or 1,600 (depending ChatGPT informant)
a/o 17 Feb 2024: < 1,000

Posted by: sln2002 | Feb 25 2024 22:07 utc | 121

“In 2003. there was some resistance in Europe against the invasion on Iraq. But now, there is no political resistance against wars in Ukraine and Palestine.
So in 20 years European countries lost their sovereignty.
How has this happened? ..”
vargas | Feb 25 2024 20:43 utc | 97
The answer is that Neo-liberalism happened. Since the mid seventies Neo-liberal politics have advanced steadily in all of the NATO countries (and across the world generally). It was this tide which overcame the Soviet Union as its rulers succumbed to the temptations of this aggressively capitalist ideology.
Among the other casualties were the socialist parties and the working class institutions that socialists had built over more than a century.
The Communist parties of France and Italy, which survived Fascism and played a major role in its defeat, crumbled. So did the Trade Union movements, particularly after the Miners defeat in Britain in 1984-85.
National sovereignty in democracy has always been opposed by the ruling class- Constitutions from that of the United States to that of the EU, to the provisions of NAFTA and other international trade agreements are marked by the suspicion with which property owners regard democratic assemblies, which, when they represent popular opinion, inevitably tend towards taxing, regulating and governing capitalism.
It is not the sovereignty of the state but the sovereignty of the people over the state which is feared by the ruling class- like the Austrian school of economists, it prefers a system in which the exploiting minority, the 1%, retain the ultimate power.

Posted by: bevin | Feb 25 2024 22:15 utc | 123

“In 2003. there was some resistance in Europe against the invasion on Iraq. But now, there is no political resistance against wars in Ukraine and Palestine.
So in 20 years European countries lost their sovereignty.
How has this happened? ..”
vargas | Feb 25 2024 20:43 utc | 97
Political partisanship happened. People opposed the Iraq war because they opposed Bush. In contrast, Clinton2016 is the origin of much of contemporary Russophobia, so it’s prima facie obvious to people in the professional managerial class that Putin is evil.
I don’t know how old you are. But “Bush derangement syndrome” came before “Trump derangement syndrome.”
This is broader of course. For example, the West is seen as pro-LGBT, and Russia is seen as homophobic and transphobic and anti-feminist (I don’t even know if that’s true), which “proves” that they’re evil.

Posted by: Afro | Feb 25 2024 22:28 utc | 125

Posted by: GW | Feb 25 2024 22:03 utc | 122
The official tally Ukraine reports is 31k dead and maybe 450k missing in action. Most of the MIA are dead as well, as there is more than enough video evidence of where the ‘MIA’ ended up – they ended up in a ditch through the help of a bulldozer. The rest are captured, or hiding from remobilization. This happens for a variety of reasons for withholding wages by commanders to saving state budget from assistance payments to the family.
500k dead means another million wounded or maybe less in case of Ukraine as medical facilities are overflowing and not very reliable.

Posted by: unimperator | Feb 25 2024 22:30 utc | 127

watcher | Feb 25 2024 22:01 utc | 121
You are absolutely correct. They went through very much the same process of re-adjusting to the cynical amorality of the Neo-con world view that Craig Murray has recently written about.
It would be interesting to hear from shadowbanned and his friends what they thought when the Minsk accords were first negotiated.
Minsk, after all made perfect sense and was very similar to the sort of arrangements made in countries like Belgium and Canada to protect minorities from racist persecution. It has taken considerable propaganda muscle on the part of the Mighty Wurlitzer to disguise the reasonability and moderation of the modest demands put forward by Donetsk and Lugansk in 2014 and since.
What the Russians, and most sensible people, did not realize was that behind the US/NATO position was an appetite for the revival of Operation Barbarossa. Having repudiated socialism the Russians had lost the ability to identify the close connection between capitalism and fascism- they honestly and naively thought that they were dealing with benign liberals ignorant of the true nature of Bandera-ism.

Posted by: bevin | Feb 25 2024 22:31 utc | 129

Furthermore, the argument of so many posters for Russian restraint is exactly the opposite of yours: that NATO is very much willing to get involved in the fight and all it requires is an excuse offered from the Russians.
Posted by: Constantine | Feb 25 2024 20:48 utc | 98
The thing about this is it is an unknowable factor. Russia doesn’t want to find out, and truthfully neither does NATO. I argue that’s the reason for Russia’s slow pace and restraint – ignoring Ukrainian provocations as bait to trigger NATO reaction.
At the same time NATO members don’t mobilize their troops, the alliance members’ economies aren’t on a war footing, it isn’t in direct conflict with Russia. Yes, they do send money and weapons to Ukraine, but all in the name of deterrence – to keep Russia from attacking them.
So NATO and Russia dance around each other, hoping that there isn’t a major escalation. Wars have a way of getting out of hand (See: World War I, World War II) and no one wants that here with the specter of nuclear weapons hanging over the conflict.
I suspect though, if Russia continues to push Ukraine westward, that NATO will back down. The Russian pace is still slow, the war has dragged on for two and a half to three years. Europe isn’t too worried that they’ll be next (they never were). So maybe there will be de-escalation.
But no one can say that with any definitiveness – not Moscow, not Brussels, not DC – an unknowable factor. As I’ve said before the outcome of the war, the ground battles, will determine the next course(s) of action.

Posted by: James M. | Feb 25 2024 22:50 utc | 131

Putin himself has admitted that in retrospect the actions against the Maidanist regime should heve started much earlier, even in 2014. Even if the argument that back then Russia needed to buttress its home front holds (and I think it does), they should have inundated the Donbass with weapons, money and volunteers to the point that the efforts of the Ukro-Nazis during the ATO would fail completely. In short, the territories now fought over with immense loss of life should have been liberated since then. That importantly would include the people in them, no few of whom would be recruited in the AFU.
Posted by: Constantine | Feb 25 2024 21:40 utc | 113

This had all sorts of other disastrous ramifications beyond the immediate issue of control over territories. Had there been active support for the pro-Russian factions inside Ukraine, it would have been much more difficult to Banderize the country. In the hypothetical situation in which the Donbass is flooded with Russian weapons and the L/DNR make real progress against the Banderites, likely there would have been much more successful pro-Russian movements elsewhere in the country, and it could have sparked a chain reaction. Remember that in March 2014 they had pro-Russian protests all throughout the Novorossiya area, and there was a Kharkov Republic declared too.
And that even to this day, Kiev is 80% Russian speaking. The unfortunate reality is that Central Ukraine was so successfully Banderized because people there have always had much weaker identity than those in the Russian regions further East. So they tend to go with whoever is strong at the moment. By completely abandoning Ukraine like that, Putin actively helped the Banderization of the country.
We can go even futher — in retrospect, the war should have started not even in 2014, but in 2005, after the first US coup.
I have said it on numerous occasions, let me repeat it again — if Putin was the kind of Russian statesman we all wish him to be, there would have been missile strikes against the Bandera January 1st torch marches the moment there were more than a few hundred people participating, and damn the foreign relationships consequences. Which would have been some time in the early 2000s. It is that much of a serious issue given what happened during WWII — physically wiping out all Banderites from the face of the planet should be one of the very top priorities of the Kremlin at all times.
But the priorities instead were to keep lining up the pockets of the oligarchs so they can waste trillions on buying real estate in the West (which they will never actually own given that they themselves don’t have an army to defend it), football clubs, and yachts and limousines with zero resale value that are just money lit on fire if you think about it.

Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Feb 25 2024 22:53 utc | 133

This could all have been over with one nuclear strike on the NATO base in Rzezhow in April 2020 and about ten thousand mostly NATO military deaths.
Instead we have half a million, most of them ethnic Russians, dead two years later, and we are headed towards global nuclear exchange.
Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Feb 25 2024 19:29 utc | 71
Brave Sir Shadowbanned, you bravely show your face after a string of Russian victories to bravely battle common sense. Bravely, bravely Brave Sir Shadowbanned wields the nuclear sword, and drives his enemies into the sea. If only…
The stupidity of your comment speaks for itself. No further commentary on it is needed.
When Russia wins later this year and there is no global nuclear war what dragons will you slay next Brave Sir Shadwbanned? I worry you won’t have a job anymore.

Posted by: James M. | Feb 25 2024 22:58 utc | 135

We are left with two options:
1) Putin was naive and gullible (and white, fluffy and innocent, as it is common to ironically comment in Russia) and was deceived by the wicked West. In which case he is unfit to be the president, and someone who is not naive and gullible should replace him.
2) Putin knew perfectly well what is happening, but did not take the decisive measures that the situation called for due to other considerations. In which case the question immediately comes up what those other considerations were and why they were more important than preventing the current carnage?
Which one is it?
Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Feb 25 2024 22:55 utc | 136
False dichotomy Brave Sir Shadowbanned. Tsk, tsk, go back to logic school. There are multiple factors that go into decision-making and leadership, and sometimes a leader is prevented from taking action by those factors.

Posted by: James M. | Feb 25 2024 23:10 utc | 137

At the same time NATO members don’t mobilize their troops, the alliance members’ economies aren’t on a war footing, it isn’t in direct conflict with Russia. Yes, they do send money and weapons to Ukraine, but all in the name of deterrence – to keep Russia from attacking them.
Posted by: James M. | Feb 25 2024 22:50 utc | 133

Troop mobilization is completely irrelevant for a NATO vs. Russia war. Who comes up with this nonsense?
Such a war is not going to be fought in trenches and with tanks. It will be over in a few hours without anyone crossing any borders during that period.
And destroying stuff like the A-50s, BSF attack submarines, and the Russian strategic bombers is highly relevant as a preparation for such a war.
Meanwhile the other side is suffering no such hits currently.
Here is a scenario:
Long-range missiles are given to Ukraine with no restrictions to their use, and Ukraine uses them to take out the Voronezh early warning radars in Armavir and St. Petersburg, and perhaps even in Kaliningrad. It can now be done with drones too. It will be once again the “Ukrainians” who have done it, not NATO, so it’s not a preparation for a first strike from a Western direction. Right? Right?
Meanwhile a few more A-50s go down and there is no meaningful capacity left to monitor the air space for low flying terrain hugging cruise missiles.
What does the Kremlin do then with its early warning systems compromised in such a way?
Does it launch a first strike or does it just wait to be hit?
Also keep in mind that likely that won’t happen all at once, it will be one radar hit here, then another one a couple months later, etc. Bit by bit.
You need to tell us what exactly currently prevents such a scenario from becoming reality. Because it looks entirely realistic at the moment given what has happened so far.
Not just that, only if the “Ukrainians” do this with drones will we not have had to first survive something else previously unthinkable already happening, which is the launch of NATO missiles towards pre-war Russia. By doctrine if such missiles are detected, the response should be a strategic retaliatory strike, because there is no knowing what kind of warheads they carry and what their targets are. Yet Stoltenberg just declared publicly what they plan to do is exactly launching missile salvos towards pre-war Russia.
How did we get to this point?

Posted by: shаdοwbanned | Feb 25 2024 23:22 utc | 139

Posted by: unimperator | Feb 25 2024 19:33 utc | 74
I have stated previously that this was a local sabotage group that waited, potentially camping out for days in a remote location, aware that these planes followed this flight path frequently. When the opportune moment came, they launched their manpad.
Obviously, everything was orchestrated from Kiev. It allows them to assert that they can achieve great distances with their missiles. That feeds the bellies the US congress, of course. GIVE US MORE WEAPONS!

Posted by: HERMIUS | Feb 25 2024 23:23 utc | 141

Barflies, all the religion, philosophy, racism, culture wars, and psychology are giving me a hangover. The vast, active majority of you seem unable or unwilling to examine the fundamental mechanisms of the elephant in the room: capitalism. You argue endlessly about where it should shit next, and how much less shit there would be in here if only Putin had got the elephant out of the room earlier, or someone had given it something to settle it stomach so its shit wouldn’t stink so much. Quit feeding it cupcakes! It gets the runs! No, it’s the ice cream and latkes that are making it stink!
I need to get away from all the umbrella drinks and take my analysis straight up, no rocks.

Posted by: Honzo | Feb 25 2024 23:27 utc | 143

Posted by: Constantine | Feb 25 2024 21:40 utc | 113
> Putin himself has admitted that in retrospect the actions against the Maidanist regime should heve started much earlier, even in 2014.
I think one of the reasons Russia did not intervene earlier was its engagement in Syria. I guess the leadership estimated that they cannot manage two wars at the same time so they needed to prioritize.
Now why did they think Syria was more important/urgent matter I don’t know, but sure the situation in Syria at that time looked really dire.

Posted by: hopehely | Feb 25 2024 23:28 utc | 145

There’s speculation and then there’s speculation. The Russian blogsphere is abuzz.
“It is highly suspicious that in the Black Sea area, off the coasts of Bulgaria and Romania, NATO reconnaissance platforms with transponders turned on have not been observed at the moment.
If we haven’t missed anything from the civilian radar data, there are currently no NATO military flights in Eastern Europe and the Baltics, which is even stranger.
For many years, or even 10 years, there has not been an hour without some NATO reconnaissance element flying around Russia, but an A-50U airborne early warning and control aircraft crashes in Russia and there is not a single NATO aircraft with a transponder turned on.
Last night, NATO did something and made a strategic move that brought the war to a dangerous point. All extraordinary events confirm this.
The transponders were turned off, presumably to keep a low profile, and the flights were carried out in line with the intensity of NATO exercises and the intensive civilian air traffic between Turkey and Romania.
There is a great deal of uncertainty as to whether the attack was carried out by an S-200 or AIM-260 air defense system, fired by a stealth aircraft that came from Ukraine or Turkey with the support of NATO electronic warfare systems, or by Meteor air-to-air missiles”.

Posted by: Suresh | Feb 25 2024 23:37 utc | 147

Salaam,Hail I, Shadowbanned @13, how do you know the drone was a “Russian” drone? Another pre fals flag set up,then blame the ruskies.If it was the ruskies,then is it probable that the whereabouts of other ” western
officials” are known to the Russians.

Posted by: 4q8 | Feb 25 2024 23:47 utc | 149

Putin’s mistake was sizing up NATO correctly, as worthless, while underestimating the USA and overestimating Russian military power in 2022. Back in 2014 he stated, “But if I wanted to, I could take Kiev in two weeks.”* Looks to me he thought his big Soviet style blitz into Ukraine which had been planned probably soon after 2014 would have been enough to scare NATO straight, or actually the EU, Germany and France would have chickened out, which they came close to doing. He miscalculated the level of supine vassalage and didn’t foresee the USA being out ahead of him, ready to call his bluff via less gelatinous UK vassal. Went both ways, lots the neocon USA didn’t foresee either. It was all supposed to be fun and games till both got a stick in the eye. And, here we are.
*https://time.com/3259699/putin-boast-kiev-2-weeks/

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Feb 25 2024 23:57 utc | 151

Tannenhouser @ 153

In canada i say lock em ALL up. Every single mp from all parties who stood and clapped for natzi and wont call for an end to palestinian suffering All of them. I also include ALL members of legacy media. Put em in jail. Throw away the key. All of em

It’s a long way off, you’ll have to wait for Russia and China to hold the post WW3 Nuremberg trial in Rio de Janeiro. Problem is it’ll be in every language but English and those of us that survive won’t be able to enjoy it.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Feb 26 2024 0:08 utc | 153

Party over in Kiev kids – you’re going to the front.
https://twitter.com/Darthprophet/status/1761510407703793753
Posted by: unimperator | Feb 25 2024 20:34 utc | 94
NAFO basement dwellers have gleefully pointed out the footage is actually from Crimea & not Kiev. While initially I assumed this was nonsense, the following post on X seems to confirm it was ‘drunken employees of the Bear PMC’ & a criminal case is being pursued. This explains why they were apparently speaking in Russian.
So, two opposing stories – which to choose? Here’s a link to the counter-narrative:
https://twitter.com/GhostOfPashka/status/1761691097007312949?t=YYKXdHZJWawatt4hEPzB4Q&s=19
What I can say with certainty is that no side is made up exclusively of angels or demons, despite what we wish to be true.

Posted by: FakeBelieve | Feb 26 2024 0:11 utc | 155

Posted by: hopehely | Feb 25 2024 23:28 utc | 145
Russians intervened in Syria in the autumn of 2015. The main issue in 2014 was Ukraine.
Plus, the intervention was given impetus by the arrival of the martyred Qassem Soleimani leading an Iranian delegation in Moscow, who explained to the Russians that the situation on the ground had become critical (this was after the fall of Palmyra to ISIS) and the Syrian Republic was in truly dire straits.
It’s just not possible to dance around the problem; the western bloc is run by sociopaths who perceive any based and balanced policy as a form of weakness. They understand only force. That is why they feel so emboldened to escalate.
On another note, as it happened in the past in Donetsk and in Christmas in Belgorod, they either accuse the Russians of attacking their own cities or label it Russian disinformation. Or they would hide behind the “Ukrainians”.

Posted by: Constantine | Feb 26 2024 0:28 utc | 157

Constantine @ 158

It’s just not possible to dance around the problem; the western bloc is run by sociopaths who perceive any based and balanced policy as a form of weakness. They understand only force. That is why they feel so emboldened to escalate.

They have no choice and this goes back to Bevin’s post @131, everyone, including the Russians and Chinese, misunderstood the lethal economic misdirection that is neoliberalism, for all the lucre it generates through debt leverage and the financial bubble machine it’s been corrosively devastating on the projection of USA hegemonic power – neoliberal economics destroyed soft power.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Feb 26 2024 0:43 utc | 159

Dude, this isn’t a pissing contest, but a debate in an internet site. That is the purpose of it after all.
Your point about NATO being unwilling to confront real opponents who fight back has plenty of merit. But when NATO personnel uses advanced assets to harm not insignificant numbers of troops and civilians, all the while masquerading as “Ukrainians”, its goals are fulfilled. When therefore those attacked are UNABLE to actually “fight back” precisely because NATO hides behind the Ukrainians, there is a problem as per your own point.
Furthermore, the argument of so many posters for Russian restraint is exactly the opposite of yours: that NATO is very much willing to get involved in the fight and all it requires is an excuse offered from the Russians. Your point (and it may well be the correct one) is that they would not get involved because the Russians are not as weak as other targets. Which is why the NATOists fight behind Ukrainian backs and playing with rules of fraudulent plausibility so as to deny the Russians the ability to effectively “fight back”, the very factor that you emphasized.
Posted by: Constantine | Feb 25 2024 20:48 utc | 98
—————-
Indeed, but the doom-leaden “WW3 & nukes will fly any day now” stuff. Gets tiresome, when the “dirty/proxy war” pattern has been made so abundantly clear.
Also a lot of the slowly shrinking cadre of NATO specialists get killed too, and unlike the RF. They’re not being replaced.
On a different note, the steady infestation of s**t posting (usually when the Ukrs are doing particularly badly) about the Kremlin being full of traitors is also f**king boring & asinine, to anyone who knows anything about the Yeltsin era. A true cabal of fifth column sell-outs. Who wouldn’t have taken Crimea in 2014 nor launched the Syria intervention. Nevermind the SMO.
Doubtless more could be done on the RF end, without degenerating into an all out war of assassins/panicking NATO into a state where their reckless stupidity preveils over disingenuous cowardice.
But the RF seems ponderous about these things, even if they get to it in the end. It is what it is.

Posted by: Urban Fox | Feb 26 2024 0:50 utc | 161

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Feb 26 2024 0:36 utc | 159
The naval drone attacks are unfortunate, there have been a handful of them. So far they have hit the oldest ships, one of those old missile frigates, the Ropuchka, and the Moskva was probably as well. This is the first time in history we have seen massive use of sea drones.
They should be building a lot of those smaller 500 ton missile frigates which are very versatile platforms, and by now they come standard equipped with Zircon missiles. Even if you take the 1500 km range at face value (one might probably add 20 %) the Russian fleet can wipe the floor with whatever fleet Nato wants to go to battle with within the Black Sea. They could sink the Nato fleet in the Black Sea while drinking martinis in the Sochi beach bar.
But they still need some new counters for those drones.
It’s also possible Nato is launching sea drones from cargo ships en route to Ukraine if they have a limited range. One thing you also notice is those drones are pretty slow. The Ropuchka ship supposedly was heading to a shipyard and could travel only 5 kt, which is why the drone could catch it.
Budanov just threatened the Crimean bridge again too. Nuland said they have more surprises. Things that maybe considering past events they should take seriously. Expect the worse, at some point even with a 2% chance they will get a hit on the bridge.

Posted by: unimperator | Feb 26 2024 0:56 utc | 163

“There is no way for Ukraine to replace the workforce it has lost over the past two years.”
Picking up the theme of how ideas, focus, trends, outcomes can change in 20 years….
There’s no way Ukraine can replenish its population.
How many females 15-45 in Ukraine now?
How many births in Ukraine in 2022-2024?
How many Ukrainians born in 2020-2025 will still be alive, or in Ukraine, in 2045?
Ukraine will never reclaim Crimea or the 4 Russia returning oblasts.
But more than the land lost is those that have already emigrated and will never return.
And Ukraine has forever “lost” the generation that will never be procreated …

Posted by: Melaleuca | Feb 26 2024 1:00 utc | 165

Posted by: Urban Fox | Feb 26 2024 0:50 utc | 162
If Yeltsin or on of his ideological heirs (say, Kasyanov) was still in power, we would not be having this discussion. Indeed, Russia might have been on a state of dissolution. But the damage this subhuman traitor did was so severe and his legacy so destructive that decisive action must be finally taken to eliminate all vestiges of the Yeltsinite cancer.
In short, there is far less room for mistakes than it would have been if the 90s horror show had not taken place. NATO has unleashed what amounts to a racial and ideological war of annihilation and Russia must respond accordingly.
On a final note, do not underestimate the ability of the Anglo-American elites to find muppets to serve in Ukraine. If one thing has become clear the last years, is that through liberalism NATO has access to surprisingly large numbers of slavering goblins serving Mordor-on-the-Potomac.

Posted by: Constantine | Feb 26 2024 1:06 utc | 167

Posted by: Constantine @ 163
The Chinese if you notice, whose export based, productive, earned income economy generates enormous surpluses to recycle, are all about soft power, the BRI is at the heart of it, a colossal project needed to recycle a colossal surplus. Communism with Chinese characteristics is just post war Keynesian and regimented capitalism that needs to win hearts and minds, and pocketbooks. Cool thing about China which the west doesn’t get is that with 1.4 billion people they could just as easily recycle that surplus inward without too much upheaval. Or maybe they do get it and why the USA is provoking China to war, destroy what you can’t control.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Feb 26 2024 1:12 utc | 169

Does anyone have a link to a list of the 500 sanctions announced by Biden?

Posted by: daffyDuct | Feb 26 2024 1:19 utc | 171

Budanov just threatened the Crimean bridge again too. Nuland said they have more surprises. Things that maybe considering past events they should take seriously. Expect the worse, at some point even with a 2% chance they will get a hit on the bridge.
Posted by: unimperator | Feb 26 2024 0:56 utc | 164
Speculation, I know, but take her threat seriously. Rememeber when Biden said, in response to a reporter asking how Biden would stop Russian Oil flowing in the nord stream, “Trust me, we’ll stop it”
Think the worst here.
An assassination attempt on Putin.
Forget the distraction of the Crimean Bridge. Why the hell would Budanov warn Russia theyre going to blow the bridge, if only to distract?

Posted by: HERMIUS | Feb 26 2024 1:20 utc | 173

Glad to be back aboard!

Posted by: AntiSpin | Feb 26 2024 1:27 utc | 175

GW @ 171

New York Post just printed this article, and I’m perplexed

Let me get this straight, you want peeps here to explain about the credibility of the NYP? There’s a game arcade right across the street, no beer, but you can drink here and hang there. Ask the bartender if he can change 5 buck into quarters for you.

Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Feb 26 2024 1:29 utc | 177

Some videos for today.
The Kiev regime shelled a restaurant in Donetsk:
https://rutube.ru/video/96ea4b629f1d9333cd359dce78d2ca4a/
Russian forces beat off two enemy tanks in close quarters fighting during the battle to liberate Avdeevka:
https://rutube.ru/video/dea0a0b8f9b65fc71cb36adc4f1f8359/
Russian D-30 howitzer fires on enemy position near Kupyansk:
https://rutube.ru/video/e2628d630dfc534b85a2f1c10d16e168/
Russian mortar crew fires on enemy position on the right bank of the Dnepr River:
https://rutube.ru/video/65f03a49d02d0b1d42fc5a582da80884/

Posted by: Nate | Feb 26 2024 1:34 utc | 179

Posted by: whirlX | Feb 25 2024 18:04 utc | 180
Re Crimean historical frictions.
Thank you Mr/Ms WhirlX for your always stellar “setting the record straight”. It’s consoling to know that round here, there will always be someone to expand, deepen, correct our knowledge and which puts the little perspectives into the bigger picture.
Message to Kiev (and Washington):
You.will.never.get.posession.of.Crimea. Not.now.in.this.war — not.ever.
I hope and pray that during 2024 they will finally get the message and give up trying — for good.
For the slow folks who think that Putin might agree to some premature ceasefire, and who do not get
the UKR/UK/US fixation on Crimea, consider this:
Crimea, the region, its people, its bridges, its naval facilities, will NEVER BE SAFE from Ukro attacks unless and until they are all “missile-isolated” from the Ukrainian mainland. Tauruses from Germany and long range US ATACMS are probably being loaded into trucks as we speak. That unarguably means all of Kherson and Odessa oblasts will be restored to secure RF territory, most probably over to Transnistria and all land east of the Dneiper. RF will need at least a 500kms buffer zone from the Black Sea for naval security.
I constantly refer all who ask “what are Putin’s *teritorial goals* for the SMO” to refer to what is known as >The Zhirin..ov..sky Map of 2014<. Just Google/images that and all will be clear. For those who may not know the background to it, the story I read goes like this: Zhirin..ovs..ky, a massive Soviet Patriot, sent the map off to all Russian and Ukrainian neighbours, proposing (maybe trolling, maybe serious) that all of Ukraine's neighbours agree to it and squish Ukraine into a 50% zone which would never cause any trouble again for anyone. But they laughed at his proposal! Well, silly Poland, Hungary, Romania. Imo, they're only gunna get that anyway, but with a lot of dead along the way. And, this map clearly gives lie to the narrative that "Russia wants to expand unto Europe". Nope, it wants to GIVE Europe the west of Ukraine ... once they secure a Kievan unconditional surrender! Lol. It's so f'k'n obvious where Russia will stop and not before. Maybe Germany is peed off, and starting nonsense rumours about being attacked by Russia in 5 years, because they don't get any of Ukraine! Poor sookums. But, once Ukraine is a demilitarised stable entity, they can always make BMWs there! I believe labour and energy will be very cheap there in 2025!

Posted by: Jake Blanchard | Feb 26 2024 1:40 utc | 181

Honzo@144….good call on the Mammonites, some of us do follow along, yes, money money money never enough money.
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Feb 26 2024 1:48 utc | 183

Two more idle thoughts before I leave the bar for tasks both unattractive and unavoidable….
Ukraine rarely laments the loss of “meat”. That there’s chatter and concern about 800-1000 missing troops.. perhaps POWs or perhaps not that lucky…
Avdeyevka saw the deployment of the Azov stormtroopers…. And it was they that precipitated the unauthorised retreat…
Why is Ukraine so specific about 800-1000 whereabouts unknown?
Because these are the Azovs?
In Azovstal thousands of Azovs were taken POW and some of the worst ended up in prison in Turkiye.
Until snake/scorpion Erdogan caved to his inherent nature and betrayed the deal by releasing them, traded for inducements undisclosed.
How likely is it that frontline Russian troops (and DPR) want to see a repeat?
On encountering Azov in Avdeyevka, how likely is it that these vermin were liquidated?
Coke plants have furnaces?
Russia releases names of POWs as per international treaties.
The Ukrainians know 800-1000 are unaccounted for.
Russia MoD does not have them, they aren’t among the dead being reported…. They’re “unaccounted” for….
@LightYearsFromHome + discussion on USNATO escalation to missile/air power.
The U$ has always believed it had air-supremacy.
It never acknowledged the bloody nose it got in the North Korean and Vietnamese skies. (Against Russian and Chinese Migs)
The last 1/2 century of bombing the shit out of defenceless “sandal-wearers” has embedded this belief they can totally dominate by airpower.
The economic war (SanctionsFromHell) has failed, and the land war (totheLastUkrainian) has indeed nearly exhausted the supply of Ukrainians.
So now it’s time for the flyboys to show how a war is fought…
How will Russia respond?
Not how the U$NATO anticipates, is my best answer.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Feb 26 2024 1:49 utc | 185

New York Langley Times: “Putin threatens to go nuclear”
Translation: The US is planning an attack on a scale the Russians cannot pretend to be an accident. The US is planning to do something that by Russia’s published protocols demands a nuclear response.
That’s why the A-50s are being targeted. It is clearing the air to maximize the effectiveness of the US attack… maximum “Shock&Awe™”. I wonder if they are really intending a decapitation strike?

Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 26 2024 1:50 utc | 187

An assassination attempt on Putin.
Forget the distraction of the Crimean Bridge. Why the hell would Budanov warn Russia theyre going to blow the bridge, if only to distract?
Posted by: HERMIUS | Feb 26 2024 1:20 utc | 174
Despite the reassurances of confident posters like “Afro”, Putin’s assassination is definitely on the menu,if the timing is convenient. Remember that the western leaders can always attribute such a heinous act to the “Ukrainians”, who, after all, as indignant victims of an “unprovoked invasion” are allowed to do that or, again according to past practice, they can claim that it was conducted by disgruntled “Russians”.
Not sure why people are so confident about western elites acting rationally and not in an utterly unhinged, sociopathic manner. They have engaged in criminal activities of vast enormity and continually escalate around the globe without any fear of consequences. It is just surreal.

Posted by: Constantine | Feb 26 2024 2:02 utc | 189

hopehely | Feb 25 2024 23:28 utc | 146
*** I think one of the reasons Russia did not intervene earlier was its engagement in Syria. I guess the leadership estimated that they cannot manage two wars at the same time so they needed to prioritize.
Now why did they think Syria was more important/urgent matter I don’t know, but sure the situation in Syria at that time looked really dire.***
A situation hardly helped by Israel sponsoring IS and firing missiles at the Syrian army, Hezbollah and Iranian Guard troops, and at Damascus. In some instances, assisting the IS and related terrorists’ capture of important areas….
None of which seems to have bothered Putin at all.

Posted by: Cynic | Feb 26 2024 2:14 utc | 191

Dropping an old post I made back in Dec:

The Kerch Bridge must be destroyed in 2024 | Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYZBcNuChRM
Crimea is still the prize. And Hodges believes Ukraine can still take it back.

“I think that bridge, at some point in 2024 will be gone… and if you can disrupt the other side’s logistics, prevent the flow of ammunition and fuel… then you’re going to win.”
The destruction of the Kerch Bridge is crucial to the liberation of Crimea and success of Ukraine[GFUKUS] in winning the war, explains Lieutenant General Ben Hodges.

Hodges reveals “Ukraine’s” winter strategy
§| Ukraine is probably going to do the following:
number one, they’re going to keep pressure on Russian logistics, they’re going to keep pressure on Crimea.
I think we’re going to see continued sabotage efforts inside Russia as well as occupied Russian occupied parts of Ukraine.

Just like in the cartoons, the Bad Guys always do tell you what they are planning…

Posted by: Melaleuca | Feb 26 2024 2:21 utc | 193

To everyone who’s asking why would the Ukrs be making a dog & pony show of announcing “X”. In the mistaken belief there’s a hidden message.
There isn’t, they’re just loudmouth droogs, who’ve been fixated on the bridge since it was built. Even after the land-corridor obviated much of its key usefulness.
Piss & wind is one thing they’ll not run out off. They’ll still be talking big on Crimea, when RF troops are in f**king Kharkov, and beyond that until the bitter end. Just like their Nazi Idols.
Hell, remember when people were saying all the big talk of the “great southern counter offensive to the sea”, was a mind-game?
Nope, they absolutely attacked into layered defences. Just like they stupidly said they would.
Also, no NATO “first strike”, is on the table. The RF has more redundancy in detection systems, than they do in their MIC generally.
Due to the selfsame institutional paranoia, that NATO is trying to play on. In order to buy their openly faltering proxy breathing room via distraction.
Like I said the opening for open conventional intervention (if there ever was one even in theory) passed in 2022. The nuclear option passed when the RF was still rebuilding in the aughts from post-Soviet malaise.
Not after the RF rebuilt, geared up and expanded/refurbished their nuclear triad & detection systems along with the conventional armed forces.
Whilst the USA’s and NATO vassals own capacity, began invisibly and now very visibly rotting away.
Their “big plan” was the sanctions imploding the RF economy, followed by regime change, followed the RF giving up territory to Ukraine.
It failed because they bought into their own BS about Russia There is no malevolent hidden “Plan B”, they’re just trying to make Ukraine as much of a poison pill as they can. Before they abandon it, to its final wretched fate.
Maybe with vague hopes of an unforeseen black swan event.
Of course none of those factors, will stop people taking the latest incarnation of “Operation: Piss-in-the- Wind” more fearfully than it deserves.

Posted by: Urban Fox | Feb 26 2024 3:29 utc | 195

by Jake Blanchard | Feb 26 2024 1:40 utc | 182
Thank you for your kind words. The reasons for this conflict are straight forward and easy to understand, but the circumstances are very complicated, sometimes hidded from the public eye.
Some things that make me sleep at night:
Russia will never throw the nuke, the USA is not the biggest gorilla in the jungle anymore, Europe needs a revolution and it is nearing it, Ukraine will never win this conflict with or without the West.
The rest is just a historical and sociological semantics.

Posted by: whirlX | Feb 26 2024 3:41 utc | 197

🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇸🇺🇦 The United States created 12 secret bases along the Ukraine border 8 years ago for operations against Russia, prompting Putin to start a Special Military Operation – New York Times
These bases housed underground bunkers for monitoring Russian broadcasts, and now also operate kamikaze drones for strikes against Russia.
“The CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies provide reconnaissance data for targeted missile strikes, track the movements of Russian troops, and help maintain spy networks.”
This has turned Ukraine… into one of the most important intelligence partners of the United States in the fight against Moscow.
In 2016, the CIA began training the Ukrainian “Detachment 2245,” which captured Russian drones and communication devices for CIA hacking. One of the officers of this unit was Kyrylo Budanov, the current head of the GRU.
The CIA also helped train a new generation of Ukrainian spies who operated inside Russia, across Europe, in Cuba, and elsewhere where Russians have a significant presence.
Over 10 years, this cooperation “turned Ukraine into a hub for gathering intelligence, intercepting more Russian messages than the CIA station in Russia.”
Such American involvement became one of the factors underlying Putin’s decision to initiate the Special Military Operation.
According to a senior European official, at the end of 2021, Putin was considering whether to start the operation. He met with the head of one of Russia’s main intelligence services, who told him that the CIA, along with British MI-6 intelligence, control Ukraine and turn it into a staging ground for operations against Moscow, – writes NYT.
🔴 @DDGeopolitics

Pretty damming confession.

Posted by: the pessimist | Feb 26 2024 3:58 utc | 199