“If you are reading this vargas, please explain who/what/where you are. You seem to have the IQ, memory, reading skills, comprehension skills of a gnat.”
Posted by: Jake Blanchard | May 6 2024 7:33 utc | 171
Really, Jake.
How is this provocation adding to the discussion?
Your attack is but a projection of your own inferiority complex; I guess that pain gets slightly assuaged in your tortured soul when you commence ‘punching down’ on other posters.

Posted by: canuck | May 6 2024 12:12 utc | 204

This Sputnik report claimed first casualties of official French deployment of combat personal to buttress Ukie front lines.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240506/french-foreign-legion-possibly-racked-up-first-losses-in-ukraine—report-1118283980.html

Posted by: Surferket | May 6 2024 12:49 utc | 206

Willy’s latest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gvQkTDrEys
Not much change (few fields) on the map. Looking like another .01% month, not a .02% month.
Video is mostly concerned with discussion of how Western militaries are not configured for long duration war like Ukraine. The muh attrition crowd will love it.

Posted by: Anonymous | May 6 2024 13:02 utc | 208

@b
I suggest banning Jake Blanchard. He used to write interesting things but unnecessarily attacks other commenters in unnecessarily nasty ways. (At least one of his targets deserves it, maybe. But not one of the others.)
I read the comments backwards and this skip over his posts easily. But, he’s violating one of your simple and only requests.

Posted by: not b | May 6 2024 13:48 utc | 210

167
the main difference between Ukraine and Russia is that Russia sees this as existential against Nato and its intentions to make Ukraine a member … hence end of 2021 Putin’s proposal of negotiating a new European Security Architecture which Nato and EU did not even to reply to. Idiots .. that is another fine mess that they have got themselves into.

Posted by: Jo | May 6 2024 14:17 utc | 212

Posted by: Perimetr | May 6 2024 14:08 utc | 225
personally, i think nato cannot stop this without going nuclear in one way or another.
they have driven themself into a corner, their megalomania and selfrighteous hubris has made them think that they are untouchable.
i bet they think that russia will back down if they just push strong enough, not understanding that its exactly this push that drives russia in the first place.
they refuse to take accountability for the mess they created, and the only thing they see is “we are the good guys”, but they should ask themself the question “are we the bad guys, hans?”.
so if all their wunderwaffels fail, and that “strategic defeat of russia” is not accomplished by the way they are currently trying to achieve it, they will do something really really stupid.

Posted by: Justpassinby | May 6 2024 14:24 utc | 214

Posted by: Jake Blanchard | May 6 2024 10:51 utc | 206

Wow. That explains a lot! I have been watching Dima since day 1, but only to see his specific confirmed after-the-fact events on the ground.

What kind of reports are you expecting out of a war zone? I’ve been trying to learn what happened in the Rezev salient in 1942 since the mid 1990’s however the Russians still classify that shit … yet you think some youtube vlogger is going to get you reports on battlefield movements 12 hours after it happens?? dream on.
Dima isn’t the all knowing god of war. He’s just an aggregator of reports from Ukrainian and Russian telegraph channels. Non Russian speakers watch his channel is because he scours the Russian and Ukrainian telegram channels and government news releases and aggregates them into 25 minute reports for those of us who don’t speak Russian or can’t spend all day on Telegram. Dima is one of the only windows into how this war is viewed from the Russian perspective. He’s in Belarus where Russian new agencies or military reports aren’t blocked by western governments.

But not one, not one, of his fantasy projections has ever come true. The guy is truly neurotic about superfluous details; he is clearly dyslexic — gets his teams mixed up; repeats endless meaningless phrases to pad out the video time; uses such fuzzy timeline estimates to cloud his vagaries; has no insight into Kremlin or Bankova thinking; attracts a teenage fanbase in the comments. No wonder you endorse him. You are just like him.

Learn to use information to do your own analysis instead of relying on someone like Dima to tell you what to think. I read the Russian MOD reports as well as reports in Western media … both are full of propaganda and don’t tell the whole story … or they’re not, who knows. Dima’s reports are from the perspective of a Russian listening to Russian social media … of course it’s full of gossip and false reports … just as you’d expect from a war. If you view things from enough angles you can usually get a better idea of what’s really going on than relying on a single source.
Second I’ll bet Dima does one hell of a better job communicating in English that you do in Russian.

Posted by: HB_Norica | May 6 2024 14:35 utc | 216

There is Hollywood, Kardashianism, there is enough distraction for them.
Posted by: vargas | May 6 2024 11:55 utc | 202
Volks?

Posted by: Newbie | May 6 2024 14:48 utc | 218

For those who haven’t figured it out yet, Jake Blanchard is just the latest re-incarnation of Richard S. Hack…

Posted by: Simpleton | May 6 2024 14:56 utc | 220

more tanks, beacause … why not
https://rutube.ru/video/e237ee83509b7588628ab08df4842fef/
(same event, with a bit more talk)
https://rutube.ru/video/d96e92cb98e9baace83ade2f911a20e8/

Posted by: pxx | May 6 2024 15:29 utc | 222

For those who haven’t figured it out yet, Jake Blanchard is just the latest re-incarnation of Richard S. Hack…
Posted by: Simpleton | May 6 2024 14:56 utc | 221
Lol. That’s an old trope. Far from true and far from original. Lol at you Simple-Sock-Puppet. And people reckon sb and I post unnecessarily.

Posted by: Jake Blanchard | May 6 2024 15:41 utc | 224

Posted by: Trubind1 | May 6 2024 15:23 utc | 222
No worries, it’s just whatever I think will complement Down South’s regular updates.

Posted by: anon2020 | May 6 2024 16:07 utc | 226

@Posted by: Milites | May 6 2024 15:53 utc | 226
A comment worth wading through so much of the pap that pervades such discussions! The West would not be panicking if it did not see what the Russians are seeing, that the Ukrainian military is on its last legs while Russia can keep increasing the pressure until the front gives. The last major stronghold in the Donetsk area is the Toretsk-New York agglomeration. The advance north and west from Ocheretyne, and west and south from Bakhmut (with the taking of Chasiv Yar the next step) threatens to cut off that agglomeration and place it into a cauldron.
Then there will be no more strongholds built up over many years left, and also the fighting will leave the densely populated hilly terrain and move to the less populated plain. The move to the Dniepr could then be quite past, whether or not a new front is established. Fighting an enemy mostly constituted of ill-trained and badly equipped recruits on a plain with no major fortifications, when you have overwhelming superiority in artillery, armour, vehicles, equipment, munitions and in the air, can result in a collapse of the enemy. The only reason that has not occurred up to now is the nature of the terrain that the fighting has been taking place on and the extensive fortifications built up over many years. Together with the Russian carefulness about their soldier’s lives and those of civilians.
It was the same in Normandy, as soon as the break out occurred the advance to the Rhine was fast.

Posted by: Roger | May 6 2024 16:09 utc | 228

In response to Simpleton@221,
To quote the goat, I didn’t even know he was sick. The good people here who see an impending Ukrainian collapse from attrition are the true humanists of our time. Your steadfastness against the heartless expectations being expressed of prolonging the suffering of citizens of that former country, as well as others, in exchange for the rate at which lines are being drawn on a map, is inspiring. I’m certain it’s not what the Russians initially had in mind in 2022, nor in 2015, but the variables that come into play when forcing someone to act in their own self-interest, particularly as concerns states governed by fools and compradors, create a logic chain where it’s not an open choice which links to go for and, sometimes, your choices are made for you. Plenty of actors with agency could and have added their contribution to the process, in one way or another, while others whose contribution could have been defining, or still might be, remain idle — the laser-like focus on what Russia did, does, could, will and should do, to the exclusion of everyone else involved, hints at ideas of omnipotence and unconditional benevolence on the part of that state and its leadership. Reality is more banal and worldly, and so the beatings will continue until morale improves.

Posted by: Skiffer | May 6 2024 16:14 utc | 230

John Marks@# 64..May 5
You got it. Sri Lanka, Ceylon, Serendip would be a more precise location for a new formulation of the UN and other international agencies. Unlike India, to their immediate northwest, Sri Lanka is a relatively small country and thus would not play power-politics against other nations.
India is proving a level of national belligerence in their treatment of Kashmir. In a better world Kashmir would be an independent state with a declared constitution based on freedoms of speech, assembly, religion or lack thereof.
Many current nation-states which had been colonized, mostly in the 19th Century, but also in earlier times, tend to be hodgepodges of ethno-tribal groupings which are not generic, rather impositional by the colonizing powers in the first instance. Nigeria immediately comes to mind as a nation state which ought to be broken up in order to ultimately recover from colonialist imperialism.

Posted by: aristodemos | May 6 2024 16:20 utc | 232

Might seem a bit tangential but the sanctions are connected to the SMO and the situation mirrors a lot of what went wrong in Ukraine
Latvian state railways are asking to be exempted from sanctions to able to buy parts from Russia and Belarus for their trains.
The ironic thing here is most regional and commuter passenger trains in the USSR were made in the Latvian SSR, at the legendary RVR factory (like the one pictured above). These trains were the backbone of Soviet urban networks, exported all over the communist bloc and still heavily used by post soviet countries, Latvia included. After independence, Latvia was quick to privatize and dismantle the plant, and now they can’t even repair the trains they used to built.

Posted by: Newbie | May 6 2024 16:48 utc | 234

Well, it looks like I missed out on some fun. Lots of posts deleted (don’t tell me, let me guess), with a reshuffling of post numbers, which is why it‘s a good idea to include the time stamp when quoting posts, not just the post #.

“My name is Shadowbanned, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

~~~
Anyway, found this on Ukranews; looks attritional to me: https://ukranews.com/en/news/1003732-latest-russia-s-mass-attacks-cause-usd-1-billion-in-losses-to-energy-industry-halushchenko

Massive attacks by the russian occupiers in recent months have caused more than USD 1 billion in damage to the energy industry.
This follows from a statement by the Ministry of Energy, the Ukrainian News agency reports.
“Today, we are talking about the losses of more than USD 1 billion. But the attacks continue, and it is obvious that the losses will increase,” said Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko.
He emphasized that the main damage as a result of massive attacks was done to thermal and hydro generation facilities, as well as electricity transmission systems.
At the same time, daily attacks on various types of energy facilities by drones, ballistics, or artillery continue.
“The system is stable today, but the situation is quite difficult,” the minister said.
According to him, currently, due to favorable weather conditions, the energy system can be balanced with the capacities of renewable energy sources (RES).
“At the same time, in some regions, in particular in Kharkiv, which is subject to enemy fire on a daily basis, there are restrictions on electricity supply. In the region, work is being carried out to stabilize the situation and prepare for the autumn-winter period. To carry out restoration and repair works, as well as to increase the capacities of shunting generation, the help of international partners,” Halushchenko said.

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | May 6 2024 17:03 utc | 236

Jeremy Rhymings-Lang@327
“The system is stable today, but the situation is quite difficult,” the minister said”
From the Ministry of Funny Walks, “excuse me sir, but how many times will we need to keep blowing it up before it stops working.”
Might be an aim thing, or all the major electrical components are under bridges.
The best, most deadliest stand off weapons known to personkind and they dance the disco in Kiev, foreign dignitaries whine and dine there, soon they can vaca in the Black Sea, tiss good Russia is only prosecuting a SMO and not a war, otherwise visiting Brits might have something to fear……speaking of fear, smell any in the UK, nope, narry a wiff.
Do you know why, British lawyers have no fear of Russian lawyers, do you know why, if it were Brits issuing the ‘warrant’ it would have included the names of all the accomplices, at home, in the SMO, and, and this is the difference between the competence of said lawyers……those accomplices residing abroad….Hello, David Cameron, Blob Johnson, Cookieman Nuddles….and a host of others.
Cheers M

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | May 6 2024 17:27 utc | 238

After Great Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron spoke out in favor of deploying British long-range missiles into Russian territory, his country’s ambassador was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry today. There Nigel Casey received an unmistakable warning.
.
Moscow will retaliate against British targets in Ukraine or elsewhere if Kiev uses UK-supplied missiles to hit Russian territory. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced this to the British ambassador in Moscow on Monday.
.
Ambassador Nigel Casey was summoned to the ministry after British Foreign Secretary David Cameron told Reuters that Ukraine had the right to use long-range missiles supplied by Britain to attack targets deep in Russia.
.
“Casey was warned that the response to Ukrainian attacks with British weapons on Russian territory could affect all British military installations and equipment on the territory of Ukraine and also worldwide,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement after the meeting.

Posted by: ossi | May 6 2024 18:12 utc | 240

Russia’s Foreign Ministry: Will treat F-16s as carriers of nuclear weapons
If F-16 fighter jets arrive in Ukraine, Russia’s armed forces will treat them as nuclear weapons carriers; their delivery to Kiev will be seen as a deliberate provocation on the part of the West. The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a press release:
“In the near future, US-made F-16 multi-role aircraft are expected in the Ukrainian theater of operations. As the Russian side has noted several times, we cannot ignore the fact that these aircraft will become dual-use platforms – non-nuclear and nuclear – Aircraft of this type have for years formed the basis of the aircraft fleet used in NATO’s so-called ‘joint nuclear missions’. Regardless of the specific modification of these aircraft, we will consider them as carriers of nuclear weapons and this step USA and NATO as a targeted provocation.”
The agency further announced that Russia would also respond in a mirror image to the stationing of US short- and medium-range missiles “wherever” and lift the self-imposed moratorium on these weapons. Regarding the further escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, the ministry warned:
Feedback geben
Seitenleisten
Verlauf
Gespeichert

Posted by: ossi | May 6 2024 18:17 utc | 242

Reality is more banal and worldly, and so the beatings will continue until morale improves.
Posted by: Skiffer | May 6 2024 16:14 utc | 231
——————————————————-
Progress is just that, by any measure. Ukie morale nor NATO morale might improve anytime soon. This will go on until it does no longer.

Posted by: Acco Hengst | May 6 2024 18:29 utc | 244

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | May 6 2024 17:27 utc | 239
Apologies, it’s not clear to me what your point is, might well be my fault, I don’t have a Guinness to English translation app installed.
Oh, btw, as you’re a leprechaun, you wouldn’t happen to have Ukraine’s gold reserves at the end of your rainbow? Asking for a friend (well, Western metals exchanges actually, they appear to be running out of the physical to back up the GLD certificates they’ve been issuing like confetti over the years).

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | May 6 2024 18:37 utc | 246

The agency further announced that Russia would also respond in a mirror image to the stationing of US short- and medium-range missiles “wherever” and lift the self-imposed moratorium on these weapons. Regarding the further escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, the ministry warned:
Feedback geben
Seitenleisten
Verlauf
Gespeichert
Posted by: ossi | May 6 2024 18:17 utc | 243
——————————————————
That is a great move. The Russians are ‘feeling their oats’ which is an American expression. I don’t know what the corresponding German, nor Dutch would be. The very fact that it is out there for public consumption, IMHO, is a big deal.

Posted by: Acco Hengst | May 6 2024 18:41 utc | 248

Posted by: Roger | May 6 2024 16:09 utc | 229
Yup, I’ve used the Normandy breakout, after a month long attritional battle, as a key exemplar of what a future operation might look like. I’ve also alluded to the race for the Dnieper crossings, in ‘43, as another possibility. All those prematurely burying the tank might want to think again, it’s in its element when rampaging in the rear areas, and drones are really only a force multiplier, as offensive weapons, whilst they have secure frontlines to operate behind.
Your point about the Allies seeing what the Russians are seeing is correct, but perhaps needs to be reversed. The Russians are probably seeing the summaries of the Allies SF ‘advisors’ and alphabet agencies daily reports on the state of their proxy, and how close they are to the dreaded break-point. Of course the Russians might be being fed dis-info and become victims of cyber maskirovka, but I bet some second-tier NATO handler, who couldn’t resist Natasha, or Nikolai’s charms (or both) is providing an info-conduit to those reports.
I would also suspect that some in the Ukrainian professional officer class are helping the Russians rid their armed forces of the neo-Nazi element. Which might be a reason some Azov battalions have become so battle shy recently, due to fragging or perhaps deliberate blue on blue droning.

Posted by: Milites | May 6 2024 18:43 utc | 250

Posted by: RB | May 6 2024 8:51 utc | 180

I think you are hopelessly uninformed. All forms of jihadists were created and used by the empire with an occasional blowback. So, they are friends of the empire.

What are you talking about, what empire, what jihadists, there are no jihadists in that video. They are all members of Russian Armed Forces.

Posted by: hopehely | May 6 2024 18:48 utc | 252

The question really is whether or not NATO will lose the war without using nuclear weapons.
If the damn fools in France, Poland, and/or Washington manage to put enough troops in Ukraine (or try to take Transnistria) and start using air support flying out of Romania and Poland, then Russia will take out the airbases along with NATO troops in theater. Will NATO admit defeat or try to use nukes to prevent defeat on the battlefield?
Posted by: Perimetr | May 6 2024 14:08 utc | 212
———————–
Neo-s**t-libs don’t make good martyrs, particularly as they go higher up the chain.
As I’ve posted before, you need an actual army to fight. They’ve already neigh pissed away the best one they had in the AFU. Along with a lot of equipment & munitions.
The rest of EU-NATOland cant sustain the numbers of their peacetime armies, nor equip them properly. They’re auxiliaries at best, decorative toys at worst.
The one army NATO has left is the US and it’s actually in bad shape too, even before the awful logistics gathering it up & trying to enter Ukraine en-masse factor in.

Posted by: Urban Fox | May 6 2024 19:06 utc | 254

“I would also suspect that some in the Ukrainian professional officer class are helping the Russians rid their armed forces of the neo-Nazi element. Which might be a reason some Azov battalions have become so battle shy recently, due to fragging or perhaps deliberate blue on blue droning.”
Posted by: Milites | May 6 2024 18:43 utc | 251
You might be right that-‘ Azov battalions have become battle shy recently, due to the fragging or perhaps deliberate blue on blue droning’; I have a different, or accompanying, idea.
Avoz like all Nazis are , fundamentally, cowards-they only strike when they have the advantage.

Posted by: canuck | May 6 2024 19:20 utc | 256

the point, Russia is incapable of turning of the Ukraine’s power supply, couldn’t if they tried….and try they desperately do.

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | May 6 2024 18:44 utc | 252
But why would Russia seek to turn off Ukraine’s power supply completely? They are not waging war against the Ukrainian population as whole, especially the poor, suffering plebs who get kidnapped by the corrupt press-gang operatives.
Sure, it makes sense to attrite the power supplies feeding industrial/commercial enterprises (especially those producing military hardware), forcing a reconfiguration of the grid to primarily support civilian demand.
The goal of the SMO is to demilitarise and denazify Ukraine, has anyone in the Russian government said otherwise?

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | May 6 2024 19:28 utc | 258

Russia threatening to use tactical nukes if NATO enter the war in Ukraine. We live in interesting times.
https://sputnikglobe.com/20240506/russias-not-bluffing-tactical-nuke-drills-are-deafening-warning-to-nato-to-stay-out-of-ukraine-1118294192.html

Posted by: Surferket | May 6 2024 19:32 utc | 260

Dima: West Backs Off After Nuclear Warning
So, Russia managed to scare the West? Is that true?
If so. they should have done it much earlier.
Maybe, our Shadowbanned was right.

Posted by: vargas | May 6 2024 19:47 utc | 262

But why would Russia seek to turn off Ukraine’s power supply completely?
Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | May 6 2024 19:28 utc | 259
Besides the nuclear options, that is the only way Russia can escalate.
Ukrainian population is mainly against Russia.

Posted by: vargas | May 6 2024 19:55 utc | 264

Posted by: canuck | May 6 2024 19:20 utc | 257
Actually the reverse is often true, 12SS Hitler Jugend were noted for not surrendering in Normandy, when the British Crocodile flamethrower tanks shot a warning rod of flame at their bunkers, like most of their Wehrmacht compatriots, and on the Eastern Front the Nordic legions often fought with the bravery only fanaticism bestows.. So I’m wondering if this reluctance is a product of Azov REMF’s having to become front-line combat soldiers, to replace losses. Plenty of examples of that in WW2 fascist forces.

Posted by: Milites | May 6 2024 20:01 utc | 266

@Posted by: Acco Hengst | May 6 2024 18:20 utc | 244
I suppose age is relative! At 60 I am a “young man” to someone born in WW2. I follow Big Serge, and also the actual real history of the British Army in WW2 which is pretty ignominious; Singapore perhaps being its greatest failure and Market Garden the greatest tribute to Montgomery’s at best mediocrity. The Brits got the best terrain in Normandy and fucked it up royally through battle-weariness, lack of aggression and bad leadership. The Americans got “hedgerow country”, and Omaha Beach.
The performance of the Brits (and I am British!) showed what would have happened if Rommel had been properly supplied (and perhaps a few more U-boats stationed in Italy/Greece/Crete to hinder British supplies), they got completely blown away by the much better trained and effective German tank formations. In Operation Cobra the US used its overwhelming superiority on a small area of the front to break the German lines. Then it drove south, then east, then north to close the pocket on the Germans (the Falaise pocket). The Brits hardly moved.
A quote from Big Serge:

Operation Cobra and Patton’s subsequent explosion into the rear marked a stunning acceleration of the war, relative to the preceding slog in Normandy. From the D-Day Landings on June 6 to the start of Operation Cobra on July 25, it had taken the Americans 49 days just to reach St Lo – a midsized Normandy town just 20 miles from the beaches. Just 28 days later, on August 21, the Falaise Pocket was liquidated. Four days later, Paris was liquidated. The pace change was shocking – like a straining dam, the Wehrmacht had done everything to hold the water back for months, and when it burst it did so in astonishing fury.

Once the dam broke things accelerated very fast, that is exactly what I am proposing with the “dam” of the massive entrenchments around Donbass – Bakhmut, Pisky, Pervomaiske, Krasnohorivka, Marinka, Novomyhailavka, Avdeevka, NY-Toretsk agglomeration, Vuhledar etc. The many months of attrition have also destroyed the professional Ukrainian army (perhaps 3 such armies in the past 2 years), with up to 45,000 a month now being killed, irreversibly injured, MIA and surrendered. Plus all the equipment and the Ukrainian military industrial complex. While the Russians add men and material every day. Last year’s Ukrainian offensive can be paralleled to the German Operation Luttich, the former allowed for a massive level of attrition of the Ukrainian forces while the latter moved the Germans deeper into the Falaise pocket and thus ensuring their greater destruction.
Big Serge: Apex Predator: The American Army in Normandy
An excellent book on the realities of British wartime leadership is “Hollow Heroes An Unvarnished Look at the Wartime Careers of Churchill, Montgomery, and Mountbatten” by Michael Arnold. Also Tariq Ali’s biography of Churchill gives a clear view of the kind of man Churchill was, and how he quite liked fascism as long as it was not aimed at Britain (the reason why he became anti-Hitler, as he saw that Nazi Germany could not be easily controlled and would seek victory in the West as well as the East).
The current state of the Ukrainian Army:
UKRAINE ARMY LARGELY DESTROYED, BATTLEFIELD LOSSES, MOBILISED WITH MENTAL ILLNESS, CANCER, FOREVER WAR CRIPPLING WEST, THE $61BN FARCE, NOVOROSSIYA PEACE BASIS

According to retired Ukraine State Security Service colonel Oleg Starikov the new Mobilization law (and the attempt to force Ukrainian refugees of military age abroad to return) will not help Kyiv turn the tide of the war; untrained recruits cannot defeat the Russian army. According to Starikov Ukraine no longer has a regular army; the NATO trained army of 400,000 has been largely destroyed by Russian troops in two years of fighting. There remain a few professional brigades with unexperienced officers and recent poorly trained recruits.
There is massive internal resistance to the war inside Ukraine with 12m having left the country, some 650,000 men of military age living abroad, even more in “internal exile” fleeing the government’s press gangs who kidnap them off the streets, the daily flight of potential soldiers over the borders to Moldova and Romania (often with border guard help, doubtless at a price) and as People’s Deputy of Ukraine Yuri Kamelchuk said:
“At least 15 thousand Ukrainian military personnel received disciplinary punishments for refusing to follow orders”
They are apparently not sent back to the battlefield. So, desperate for new bodies to be hurled into the front line, Kiev’s new mobilisation law declares the mentally ill and mentally retarded will be drafted into the Armed Forces. Men and women will also be considered fit for service even if they have HIV, hepatitis, tuberculosis or cancer.

Also, the widespread corruption that has served to undermine the Ukrainian war effort. The supposed extra defence lines have not been anywhere near fully built as funds were siphoned off into private bank accounts.

Widespread corruption has siphoned off much of the $200bn of western civil and military aid to Ukraine. So much money meant for the building of defence lines as the Ukrainian army retreats have been misappropriated by middlemen and contractors.
”We have nothing!” complained Ukraine General Krivonos angrily on live television about a lack of ammunition. Krivonos emphasized that military operations cannot rely solely on the sacrifice of soldiers’ lives.
“If we (the Ukrainian authorities) had not embezzled funds but instead invested them, we could have allocated 25-35 million – but unfortunately, this is not the case! We have numerous factories capable of quickly repairing equipment, but unfortunately, this is not happening.”

Posted by: Roger | May 6 2024 20:07 utc | 268

@Posted by: Milites | May 6 2024 18:43 utc | 251

I would also suspect that some in the Ukrainian professional officer class are helping the Russians rid their armed forces of the neo-Nazi element. Which might be a reason some Azov battalions have become so battle shy recently, due to fragging or perhaps deliberate blue on blue droning.

I hope so, the faster the indoctrinated die-hards can be eliminated the faster this conflict can end, and the rebuilding begin. The cancer which is a Western-dominated Ukraine needs to be excised and replaced once again with fraternal Russian-Ukrainian relations, with the Banderite scum sent to Valhalla.

Posted by: Roger | May 6 2024 20:13 utc | 270

Europe launching open war against Russia instead of proxy war is close now. As for the ‘mutual security agreements or military technical means, in Ukraine, Russia has hit Nato were it hurts.
Russia practicing tactical nuke drills means they see a very real threat of war with Europe, and with France and Britain both possessing their own nuclear weapons, others likely having access to American nukes… madness in the way Europe is going, but then so many wars through history involve an element of madness. Logic, common sense ect goes out the window – unneeded…

Posted by: Peter AU1 | May 6 2024 20:27 utc | 272

Posted by: ossi | May 6 2024 18:12 utc | 241
More important than what is said is what not is said.
If the USA does not state, clearly and without ambiguity, that any attack on French or UK assets will be answered by a US attack on Russia, then the American bluff will have been called.

Posted by: Passerby | May 6 2024 20:45 utc | 274

“Europe launching open war against Russia instead of proxy war is close now. As for the ‘mutual security agreements or military technical means, in Ukraine, Russia has hit Nato were it hurts.”
Posted by: Peter AU1 | May 6 2024 20:27 utc | 273
You are right on the money, Peter.

Posted by: canuck | May 6 2024 20:48 utc | 276

“Posted by: Milites | May 6 2024 15:53 utc | 226
Always excepting the tried and true around here (all long term visitors know who they are), this post of yours/all your posts, are like rubies dumped into a tank of lard.”
Posted by: Robert E.Smith | May 6 2024 19:05 utc | 254
A wonderful and accurate simile; Hail to Milites!!

Posted by: canuck | May 6 2024 20:51 utc | 278

UK and US have an equal allegiance. In response to Cameron publicly saying UK weapons can be used to strike into Russia, Russia has said they will strike British assets any where, in Ukraine or outside Ukraine.
The Brits have been working hard at drawing the US into direct conflict with Russia since the first Ukrainian army was destroyed.
The Brit deep state/city of London or whatever obviously works closely with the globalist faction of the US deep state. In the US, Trump who wants to dump the war against Russia to Attack China now threatened with jail time – wars revolve around US election cycles and virtually all post WWII wars involve the US…
Posted by: Peter AU1 | May 6 2024 20:51 utc | 278
————————
Please mark me, when I say with all cordialness.
You vastly overrated the capability, influence and courage. Of the UK.
Lord Pigf**Ker has no pull in DC, nor does anyone else in London.
Whatever else you can say about them, no-one in DC: is truly listening to, being influenced by or has respect for these cucks. For ego reasons if nothing else, it’d be beneath them.
The UK is thevUSA’s Renfield, not it’s ally or hidden puppet-master.

Posted by: Urban Fox | May 6 2024 21:24 utc | 280

“Posted by: canuck | May 6 2024 19:20 utc | 257
Actually the reverse is often true, 12SS Hitler Jugend were noted for not surrendering in Normandy, when the British Crocodile flamethrower tanks shot a warning rod of flame at their bunkers, like most of their Wehrmacht compatriots, and on the Eastern Front the Nordic legions often fought with the bravery only fanaticism bestows.. So I’m wondering if this reluctance is a product of Azov REMF’s having to become front-line combat soldiers, to replace losses. Plenty of examples of that in WW2 fascist forces.”
Posted by: Milites | May 6 2024 20:01 utc | 267
I bow to your greater knowledge-thanks for the tutorial.

Posted by: canuck | May 6 2024 21:43 utc | 282

The BLUFFS become more serious as Ukraine loses more land.
But thats what they are ….BLUFFS.
Western leaders have basically left their populations defenceless against a nuclear attack. Where are the underground shelters? Where are the leaflet instructions as to what to do in a nuclear attack? Where is the discussion in western press?
Its a complete bluff. France and the UK and US will not be sending troops to Ukraine. Its merely an effort to bolster morale in Kiev.

Posted by: HERMIUS | May 6 2024 22:05 utc | 284

Russia cannot attack NATO countries without going nuclear.
Today’s open Russian warning to UK means just that.
Posted by: vargas | May 6 2024 20:35 utc | 274
That’s what Russia wants them to think. Although, there can be a war between Russia and NATO countries without nuclear weapons. It will start as a conventional war, it could escalate to all-out nuclear war, although it could also look like the current attritional war.
But since there is a risk of nuclear weapons, I seriously doubt the West wants to find out if Russia is bluffing or not.

Posted by: James M. | May 6 2024 22:24 utc | 286

Most military collapses replicate this illusion, in their pre-collapse state, hence the, ‘slowly then all at once’, maxim. Veterans often talk about bitter fighting one day, then the next day it’s over, with the cessation being so rapid and unexpected that many of them suffer a severe sense of dislocation.
Posted by: Milites | May 6 2024 15:53 utc | 226
Indeed, everyone seems to be in agreement that this will happen with Ukraine. The West/NATO/US/France know this, Ukraine knows this, and Russia knows this. Even, I suspect, our more earnest trolls here know this. The only question is the timing of the collapse. Good post, by the way.

Posted by: James M. | May 6 2024 22:31 utc | 288

Macron has threatened NATO / French intervention if there is a collapse of the Ukrainian Military.
The Ukrainian Military is in the process of collapse.
There is huge ongoing NATO exercise, (Steadfast Defender) currently taking place, which leaves masses of NATO military assets poised and ready to enter the battle zone.
Russia’s nuclear exercise is intended to make it clear to NATO that any attempt to enter the Ukraine theatre will be met with whatever means are necessary to repel that invasion, up to and including nuclear weapons.
That is where we are.

Posted by: CitizenSmith | May 6 2024 22:37 utc | 290

That is a great move. The Russians are ‘feeling their oats’ which is an American expression. I don’t know what the corresponding German, nor Dutch would be. The very fact that it is out there for public consumption, IMHO, is a big deal.
Posted by: Acco Hengst | May 6 2024 18:41 utc | 249
Den sticht der Hafer.

Posted by: persiflo | May 6 2024 23:30 utc | 292

There is huge ongoing NATO exercise, (Steadfast Defender) currently taking place, which leaves masses of NATO military assets poised and ready to enter the battle zone.
Posted by: CitizenSmith | May 6 2024 22:37 utc | 291
Those NATO exercises have been ongoing since January, and are scheduled to end in three weeks. At which time the assets in place will be returned to their proper bases. It’s all a big bluff, and it hasn’t deterred the Russians on the front.

Posted by: James M. | May 6 2024 23:57 utc | 294

Posted by: Barrel Brown | May 6 2024 23:03 utc | 292
But I should add that comments by Roger and James M, among others should also be seriously considered. But Milites clearly has pretty extensive military knowledge, particularly when assessing overall strategic situations.

Posted by: Barrel Brown | May 7 2024 0:10 utc | 296

Barrel Brown | May 7 2024 0:10 utc | 297
Russia, Putin’s Russia, does not think ‘in the box’.

Posted by: Peter AU1 | May 7 2024 0:18 utc | 298

I must say, I find the silence of the western MSM concerning direct Russian military action against England quite deafening. Here are people who fall all over themselves trying to convince everyone that Russia has military objectives against Western Europe, not saying a word about any of this. Same goes for snap nuclear drills. Not even happening. I think it lends credence to Hermius’ bluff theory (sorry, can’t think of a better word).

Posted by: Caveman | May 7 2024 0:36 utc | 300