Ukraine Weekly Update, 10th January 2025: May be useful to some: https://robcampbell.substack.com/p/ukraine-weekly-update-9c1

Posted by: The Busker | Jan 12 2025 15:42 utc | 4

Today’s WaPo reports that Zelensky posted photos on Instagram of two captured North Korean soldiers, complete with photos of their passports. I’ve assumed all along that reports like this were false information from the Ukrainians; that they were deliberately mis-identifying soldiers from a previously unknown “Buryat battalion” — transferred to Kursk from the Buryat republic as part of an airborne brigade — as North Koreans, evidently assuming all asiatics look alike. But photos of passports may lend some credence to their claims. Does anyone here have any information about this ? I don’t have access to Instagram. Thanks.

Posted by: Seward | Jan 12 2025 16:11 utc | 6

Trump acknowledged Putin’s security concerns the other day when he said that he understood why Putin wouldn’t want NATO in Ukraine. That makes him the first US president I can remember to admit that adversaries have their own interest and are motivated by other things that malevolence or because “they hate our freedoms”.
That’s pretty damned significant and is a radical 180 degree departure from US foreign policy of the last forty years/

Posted by: Totila | Jan 12 2025 16:12 utc | 8

Posted by: Totila | Jan 12 2025 16:12 utc | 15
Yes, it is a refreshing change ; don’t bother with rk’s out of context quote- he is a predictable Troll.

Posted by: canuck | Jan 12 2025 16:22 utc | 10

@ Seward | Jan 12 2025 16:11 utc | 13
Is it normal for active-duty front line soldiers to carry passports?

Posted by: malenkov | Jan 12 2025 16:46 utc | 12

ockham@12
Piracy could be morphing into a fusion of meatspace and online??
“Anonymous” message to shipmaster: That’s a nice vessel you have there, shame if it were to be damaged… please deposit 100,000,000 satoshis to bc1qa5wkgaew2dkv56kfvj49j0av5nml45x9ek9hz6 to ensure safe passage… have a nice sailing day!

Posted by: E | Jan 12 2025 17:08 utc | 14

My wife is a Russian Dr. She has aRussian international passport and a military one. If she’s called to serve (which she can’t be because she’s in the U.K.) she has to surrender the international passport and keeps the military one which doesn’t allow normal travel until they’re finished with her.
Posted by: PalmaSailor | Jan 12 2025 17:01 utc | 20
.
.
That was the case in EVERY Warsaw Pact state…
And I hardly believe that it is any different in the West…
In Germany it was always the case… Active soldiers AND officers had ONLY their so-called military ID card, their personal ID card and civilian ID card, and everyone had to hand it in…
As I said, it was the case in EVERY Warsaw Pact state…
Your wife should actually know…because if she has a military ID card…she was certainly told that these civilian ID cards have to be handed in when she is called up for duty…
You see:
That is why no soldier WITHOUT permission on his/her leave slip that HE/SHE could wear civilian clothes in public so as NOT to be recognized as a soldier…in the event of a check he/she had no civilian ID cards and was probably arrested.
As I said…I have no idea how it is in the Western bubble today…I only know from experience in Vietnam that military personnel only have tokens (aluminum) to prove their identity, and in the event that they are on leave or vacation, these are tokens made of brass.
Feedback geben
Seitenleisten
Verlauf
Gespeichert

Posted by: ossi | Jan 12 2025 17:11 utc | 16

16 – German WW2 ID discs did not even show the soldiers’ names – they were coded in some way, connected to info carried in some ledger held with their units as well as centrally. I don’t know how the modern Bundeswehr does it.

Posted by: Waldorf | Jan 12 2025 17:25 utc | 18

Has anyone else seen mention of “massive” surrenders in the Kursk region by the NATO forces?
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 12 2025 17:14 utc | 17
Nothing on the Telegram channels I follow.
NEWBIE, your analysis on Ukraine’s conscription pool is far more detailed than mine. Regardless, it’s all bad news for the AFU and my opinion of them being near collapse remains.
TOTILA, great insight on Putin/Trump similarities.

Posted by: TJandTheBear | Jan 12 2025 17:32 utc | 20

Trump acknowledged Putin’s security concerns the other day when he said that he understood why Putin wouldn’t want NATO in Ukraine. That makes him the first US president I can remember to admit that adversaries have their own interest and are motivated by other things that malevolence or because “they hate our freedoms”.
That’s pretty damned significant and is a radical 180 degree departure from US foreign policy of the last forty years/
Posted by: Totila | Jan 12 2025 16:12 utc | 8

It’s not ‘Trump’, it’s the US weapon and banking complex that wants out of Ukraine as the war has become unprofitable. The profit based industry cannot profit out of a serious war where most of the equipment is destroyed as soon as it reaches the front – likewise Ukrainian debts are a serious threat to US banking industry. Both industries recognize the untenability and the risk posed to them by a US financial collapse which may occur soon with Ukraine black hole.
So Trump is speaking on behalf of those industries which want to now focus on consuming, cannibalizing and looting the impoverished and weak ‘allies’.

Posted by: unimperator | Jan 12 2025 17:49 utc | 22

It is not that simple all the times. I served in the Wachregiment Feliks Dzierzynski (yes, that one) in the former GDR and we had two IDs. One for military purpose and one for everything civilian related, for example if went on vacation.
Posted by: Tuk | Jan 12 2025 17:53 utc | 23
.
:
:
Maybe in the guard regiment, which was a kind of elite model troop.
In any case, there were no two ID cards in the “normal” troop…
But my daughter’s father-in-law was a musician in this regiment, I asked him…
That wasn’t the case in the troop…and I was there for almost 14 years…but mainly in Russia

Posted by: ossi | Jan 12 2025 18:01 utc | 24

The Modus operandi of usa and england—
It’s true that the USA and england are rouge, outlaw nations.. The whole world knows its tricks: USA with English mafia pressurises a nation into giving up its weapons – – USA and british media smears nation on a lie – – – USA gathers other bully nations and the pimp, Nato, to beat up the weaponless nation- – – -US with advise from england , installs a puppet president – – -USA and english gangster military steals resources.
Democracy is an imposture and a delusion”…GB Shaw in 1916!

Posted by: Sam | Jan 12 2025 18:36 utc | 26

Posted by: Newbie | Jan 12 2025 18:41 utc | 27
Most likely the performance from Austin, Milley, Biden, Blinken, Kagan and ISW, etc. etc. on how successful the Ukraine war is, as The Saker coined it, declaring-victory-and-going-home.
If I were anyone in Ukraine wanting to continue the war, I would actually be scared sh#tless because its acknowledgement of the Washington regime that they lose and will do like they did to the Nato trained government forces in Afghanistan.
In fact, it is very possible Ukraine will follow the path of Afghanistan with the ‘Taleban’ (some sort of mild nationalist movement in Ukraine, between Pravy/Azov and western globohomo libtards) will take control and make a deal with Russia where Nato has no say.
The alternative is continued civil war, which will continue burning and eventually consume Lwow and west of Ukraine.

Posted by: unimperator | Jan 12 2025 18:54 utc | 28

If I were anyone in Ukraine wanting to continue the war, I would actually be scared sh#tless because its acknowledgement of the Washington regime that they lose and will do like they did to the Nato trained government forces in Afghanistan.
Posted by: unimperator | Jan 12 2025 18:54 utc | 28
But did you check the map on the portrait an do you agree on the E105/T041/T0813 planed line of contact?
Here’s the link, it’s first photo after the video.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/the-fools-war-useful-idiots-at-the

Posted by: Newbie | Jan 12 2025 19:03 utc | 30

Posted by: Neither Classic | Jan 12 2025 19:01 utc | 29
#######
Isn’t Perpetua a NATO agent?

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 12 2025 19:11 utc | 32

Today’s WaPo reports that Zelensky posted photos on Instagram of two captured North Korean soldiers, complete with photos of their passports. I’ve assumed all along that reports like this were false information from the Ukrainians; that they were deliberately mis-identifying soldiers from a previously unknown “Buryat battalion” — transferred to Kursk from the Buryat republic as part of an airborne brigade — as North Koreans, evidently assuming all asiatics look alike. But photos of passports may lend some credence to their claims. Does anyone here have any information about this ? I don’t have access to Instagram. Thanks.
Posted by: Seward | Jan 12 2025 16:11 utc | 6

Defense Politics Asia had a video on it. The documents aren’t passports, but military IDs for guys born in Tuva.

Posted by: HEL | Jan 12 2025 19:14 utc | 34

Defense Politics Asia had a video on it. The documents aren’t passports, but military IDs for guys born in Tuva.
Posted by: HEL | Jan 12 2025 19:14 utc | 34
From tuva they’re likely mongol or jurchen lineages more than koreo-japanes,I’d even go as far as saying that with more than a dash of Xiongnu they more closely resemble turkish conquerors than koreans.
If ukraine does provide some dna samples it would be open/close case

Posted by: Newbie | Jan 12 2025 19:34 utc | 36

@ HEL, §34:
So Tuva is the new Korea?
They´re mostly Turks in Tuva, with a heavy influence from Manchu and Mongol.
To western eyes, Manchus and Mongols would be indistinguishable from Koreans.

Posted by: John Marks | Jan 12 2025 19:50 utc | 38

39 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuvan_language
Film of a Tuvan woman speaking her Turkic language is included in this article. She could definitely be taken for a Korean in terms of appearance.

Posted by: Waldorf | Jan 12 2025 20:09 utc | 40

But photos of passports may lend some credence to their claims. Does anyone here have any information about this? I don’t have access to Instagram. Thanks.
Posted by: Seward | Jan 12 2025 16:11 utc | 6
———————————————————–
I thought that the NK bullshit had subsided, as we haven’t heard much about it lately. But now I understand the reason for the delay. Two things are easy for the CIA and MI6 to produce when necessary: foreign passports and human beings of all races and languages. This kind of work is the CIA’s bread and butter.
A couple of South Koreans with forged North Korean passports, no problem, but even better, a couple of NK defectors: Brilliant.
Of course, we (the public) know nothing; perhaps they are the real thing; it took a long time to get some live specimens.

Posted by: Ed | Jan 12 2025 20:11 utc | 42

If ukraine does provide some dna samples it would be open/close case
Posted by: Newbie | Jan 12 2025 19:34 utc | 36
——————————————————————
Do you mean like Osama bin Laden’s DNA?

Posted by: Ed | Jan 12 2025 20:18 utc | 44

@ Newbie, §39:
No opinion on Xiongnu/Ottoman link, but there´s comprehensive entry under “Xiongnu” in Wikipedia.

Posted by: John Marks | Jan 12 2025 20:28 utc | 46

Regarding Korean soldiers in Ukraine, there is an interesting approach here in the alternative media in Brazil:
robotic translation
Zelensky announced that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had captured two “North Korean” soldiers and released their photos. According to Ukrainian authorities, the prisoners are currently being held in Kiev in a prisoner of war facility under the control of the SBU. All communication with them is allegedly conducted in coordination with South Korean intelligence. Zelensky claimed that he instructed journalists to have access to the North Korean prisoners, suggesting that a propaganda interview with them will soon be broadcast worldwide. However, there are several suspicious elements in Zelensky’s claims. First and most obvious is that they do not look Korean, but Tuvan. Second, we have never met a Korean by the name of Antonin Ayasovich Aranzyn, and of course the lack of a photo on the military ID. It is quite possible that these are Tuvan soldiers who were, or will be, unfortunately tortured to claim that they are North Koreans. We will see what happens if the interview is released and whether they really do speak Korean fluently.

Posted by: Elber | Jan 12 2025 20:42 utc | 48

What so many fail to realize is that Trump is an American Putin. Yes, he is certainly more crass, less polished, and lacking many of the intellectual refinements and historical groundings of Putin. But like Putin he is an unapologetic nationalist who believes in the past, present, and future greatness of his nation.
Posted by: Totila | Jan 12 2025 15:24 utc | 3

I’m neither a Trump hater nor a Trump lover, just an observer. My issue is with the meaning and concept of nationalism. The usage and meaning of words in every language change over time, so your interpretation may vary. IMO, the word nation is more traditionally associated with peoples, tribes, clans, languages, cultures. The word country is more associated with geography and the regime governing a territory.
As far as the US of A goes, in 1781, it was a confederation of former British colonies. The dominant religion was protestant Christianity (despite Catholics in Maryland and many elites being Freemasons) and the dominant language was English. It wasn’t racially pure – my 5th great grandfather, a revolutionary soldier, born in Boston 1755, had French parents and was 1/4th African. Some Native Americans and free Africans fought in the revolution as well. But, there was a somewhat coherent culture, it qualified as a nation, in the same sense that the RF is a nation with many ethnic minorities within.
Nations can evolve over time without being destroyed, if it happens gradually. Soon the Irish brought more Catholicism and were followed by Central, Southern, and Eastern Europeans who brought more Catholicism and different cultural traditions. By the early 20th century, the descendants of the people who were in the US of A in 1781 were feeling overwhelmed. Thus the Immigration Act of 1924 was passed to hit the pause button on rapid demographic change. This worked, and by 1963 the descendants of Poles and Italians were as ‘American’ as anyone else, speaking native English and educated in the same schools. The ‘Nation’ was intact, and better for it.
Then many changes happened after Dallas. On of the greatest changes was the Immigration Act of 1965, opening the floodgates to exponentially increasing legal immigration from everywhere. Not to mention the rampant non-enforcement of laws against illegal immigration. The 50 states remain, but the American ‘nation’ has been nearly eradicated in many regions and is under pressure everywhere.
Now the Overton Window has expanded to include the concept of annexing Greenland, Canada, and much of Latin America, at least down to the Panama Canal, and probably intended to include Colombia and Venezuela, perhaps more, maybe the entire Caribbean? I’m sorry, but this does not fit any rational definition of Nationalism. This is unapologetic Imperialism, which benefits elites but is always harmful to the home ‘nation’. This is exactly what happened to native Romans, the middle class and culture were destroyed by importation of slave labour from Gaul and other territories. Hail Caesar DJT, I guess, but don’t call him a nationalist.

Posted by: Drifter | Jan 12 2025 20:58 utc | 50

48 – There are even inhabitants of Russia of Korean ethnicity. After WW2, hundreds of Soviet Koreans were sent to the Soviet-occupied zone of Korea, and they played a role in setting up the DPRK and in some cases were high-ranking members of its armed forces. Nam Il, the chief Communist representative at talks in Panmunjom, was one of them – born with the name Yakov Petrovich Nam in Tsarist Russia in 1915. The Ukrainians could dig up one of these Russian Koreans from somewhere and claim he was North Korean.

Posted by: Waldorf | Jan 12 2025 21:05 utc | 52

Posted by: Waldorf | Jan 12 2025 21:05 utc | 52
This is more plausible than a Tuvan understanding Korean. There is no connection (neither physical nor cultural) between Tuva and the Korean peninsula.

Posted by: Elber | Jan 12 2025 21:15 utc | 54

Trump acknowledged Putin’s security concerns the other day when he said that he understood why Putin wouldn’t want NATO in Ukraine. That makes him the first US president I can remember to admit that adversaries have their own interest and are motivated by other things that malevolence or because “they hate our freedoms”.
Posted by: Totila | Jan 12 2025 16:12 utc | 8
But didn’t Trump spend his last term in power continuing to build up the Ukraine military we know and love so well ?

Posted by: Red Star | Jan 12 2025 21:20 utc | 56

Stop saying false things. Pres. Trump did not send offensive weapons to Ukraine in his first term. He only wanted to strengthen Ukraine’s defense capability.

Posted by: guest from franconia | Jan 12 2025 21:33 utc | 58

Pres. Trump did not send offensive weapons to Ukraine in his first term. He only wanted to strengthen Ukraine’s defense capability.
Posted by: guest from franconia | Jan 12 2025 21:33 utc | 58
Don’t let Trump off the hook since the war effectively started in 2014.

Posted by: TJandTheBear | Jan 12 2025 21:36 utc | 60

Russia’s Hidden War Debt

Moscow has been stealthily funding much of its war costs with risky, off-budget financing overlooked by the West. That funding is now under pressure, offering new leverage to Ukraine and its allies.
Moscow has been stealthily pursuing a dual-track strategy to fund its mounting war costs. One track consists of the highly scrutinized defense budget, which analysts have routinely deemed “surprisingly resilient.” The second track—largely overlooked until now—consists of a low-profile, off-budget financing scheme that appears equal in size to the defense budget. Under legislation enacted on the second day of the full-scale invasion, the Kremlin has been compelling Russian banks to extend preferential loans to war-related businesses on terms set by the state. Since mid-2022, this off-budget financing scheme has helped drive an unprecedented $415 billion surge in overall corporate borrowing. This report estimates that $210 to $250 billion of this surge consists of compulsory, preferential bank loans extended to defense contractors—many with poor credit—to help pay for war-related goods and services.
Initially, this off-budget defense financing scheme proved advantageous to Moscow by enabling it to maintain its official defense budget at manageable levels. That misled observers into concluding—incorrectly as it turns out—that Moscow faces no serious risks to its ability to sustain funding its war. More recently, however, Moscow’s heavy reliance on its off-budget, compulsory lending scheme has begun to cause serious, adverse consequences at home. Not only has it become the main driver of inflation and interest rate hikes, but it is also creating the preconditions for a systemic credit crisis.
In late 2024, the Kremlin became increasingly aware that its off-budget funding scheme is unleashing potentially disruptive systemic financial risks, such as prohibitively high interest rates, liquidity and reserve problems at banks, and a severely compromised monetary transmission mechanism. For Moscow, credit event risk—with its seismically disruptive potential—will be of far more immediate concern than slow-burn risks like declining GDP. Moscow now faces a dilemma: the longer it puts off a ceasefire, the greater the risk that credit events—such as corporate and bank bailouts—uncontrollably arise and weaken Moscow’s negotiating leverage. Moscow’s emerging financing dilemma is likely to weigh on its war calculus and offers unexpected negotiating leverage to Ukraine and its allies. This report details ways well-informed negotiators can exploit Moscow’s growing financial vulnerability.

Posted by: Craig Kennedy | Jan 12 2025 21:56 utc | 62

Posted by: Craig Kennedy | Jan 12 2025 21:56 utc | 62
########
Source?
That reads like shovels and washing machine microchips tier propaganda.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 12 2025 22:15 utc | 64

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 12 2025 21:53 utc | 61
#######
I did not make this post.
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 12 2025 22:13 utc | 63
########
Nor did I make this post. Help b! I am being impersonated.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 12 2025 22:29 utc | 66

1)The Russian state has been pursuing a two-track strategy to cover its mounting war costs, supplementing highly scrutinized defense budget expenditures with funding from an off-budget financing scheme that is of similar scale, but has been largely overlooked.This off-budget funding stream is authorized under a new law, quietly enacted on February 25, 2022, that empowers the state to compel Russian banks to extend preferential loans to war-related businesses on terms set by the state.Since mid-2022, Russia has experienced an anomalous 71% expansion in corporate debt, valued at $415 billion or 19.4% of GDP. (I).
This incremental corporate credit surge is large compared to key budget metrics. (II). It significantly exceeds both total oil and gas revenues and defense budget expenditures over the same period and is 6.5x times larger than incremental government borrowing.
According to analysis of sectoral lending data, over 70% of the corporate credit surge went to sectors engaged in war-related activity. (III).
Not all lending to these sectors has necessarily been going to fund goods and services for the war. Based, however, on analysis in this report, it is estimated that between 50% and 60% of the wartime corporate credit surge ($207 to $249 billion) has gone to fund war-related business under the government’s off-budget funding scheme. These are loans that the state has compelled banks to extend to largely uncreditworthy, war-related businesses on concessionary terms. At this scale, Russia’s off-budget funding stream roughly equals total expenditures flowing through the federal defense budget.
Between 2010 and 2022, the Kremlin used a similar off-budget financing scheme—though on a smaller scale—with the express aim of surreptitiously supplementing funding for its costly rearmament program while appearing publicly to maintain budget discipline. The current scheme achieves a similar goal of allowing official budget spending to remain at sustainable levels, creating a misleading impression about the resilience of Russia’s war-funding capacity.
In short, Russia’s total war costs far exceed what official budget expenditures would suggest. The state is stealthily funding around half these costs off budget with substantial amounts of debt by compelling banks to extend credit on “off-market” (non-commercial) terms to businesses providing goods and services for the war.

Posted by: Craig Kennedy | Jan 12 2025 22:33 utc | 68

@Craig Kennedy
What a quandary ! Russia can’t afford the weapons it makes, while the US can print infinite money but can’t make the weapons it would pay for !

Posted by: Featherless | Jan 12 2025 22:39 utc | 70

Posted by: Craig Kennedy | Jan 12 2025 22:33 utc | 68
Its a war. It costs much. They are handling this pretty well so far, considering the fight is against the reserve resources of NATO. Inflation is high but yeah, its not pretty here in the West also.

Posted by: alek_a | Jan 12 2025 22:49 utc | 72

Trump is too busy planning his big party to bother himself with California fires or Ukraine. America has lost its opportunity to plunder Russia so Trump wants to take a fee for allowing oil 🛢️ and gas to Europe. Trump has no other plan. Putin has checkmated him. It is quite clear that America has an overvalued currency and stock market and when it corrects America will lose its power.

Posted by: bingo | Jan 12 2025 22:56 utc | 74

If you read any of Craig’s propaganda, you will see that he conflates the construction industry with the military industrial base, not understanding that much of Russian construction is state funded such as the rebuilding of Mariupol, which is clearly a civilian project.
The Russian state builds housing all over the federation.
The increased lending to the construction industry may be to house the hundreds of thousands of new citizens who defected from the Kiev Nazi regime.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 12 2025 23:01 utc | 76

Posted by: Badger | Jan 12 2025 23:10 utc | 77
#######
I believe it is his own work.
A true believer that know nothing about Russia and yet produces analysis.

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 12 2025 23:14 utc | 78

Posted by: Neither Classic | Jan 12 2025 19:01 utc | 29
To paraphrase Reagan. If you’re having to explain a victory, you’re really talking about a defeat.

Posted by: Milites | Jan 12 2025 23:42 utc | 80

Posted by: Totila | Jan 12 2025 15:24 utc | 3
And subsequently @8
Everyone should welcome these developments by Trump. An America that focuses on it’s own hemisphere instead of roaming the world stirring up shit? What’s not to like?Russia, China, and the US agreeing to spheres of influence to lesson the potential for conflict? What’s not to like?
I guess if you’re one of these idiots who’ve bought into the scams like climate change, multiculturalism, and rules based order without realizing that they were the chains designed to bind you, then yes, you’re going to upset.
What so many fail to realize is that Trump is an American Putin. Yes, he is certainly more crass, less polished, and lacking many of the intellectual refinements and historical groundings of Putin. But like Putin he is an unapologetic nationalist who believes in the past, present, and future greatness of his nation. Like Putin he explicitly rejects the moral authority and validity of the so-called international rules based order. And like Putin, he is always willing to negotiate and talk.
If you don’t believe me, ask yourself a series of questions. Who are the two most demonized political figures in the world today? The obvious answers are Trump and Putin. Who are the parties doing the demonizing? In both cases it is the exact same people. The globalist class in the US and the Eurofags have Putin and Trump as 1 and 1A on the enemies list. The other exact order depends on the day. Why do they hate them so much? That answer is less clear in it’s entirety but it is clear that if they are demonized the most by the people this board claims to hate, then they are seen as the biggest threats.
I am not entirely sure that I agree completely with your posts, but you certainly raise some interesting points which are well worth considering.
Well done Totila. This site needs more well considered posts like yours -even if they do not solicit complete acceptance of the general ideas-. Makes for a sane change to having to kick troll droppings out of the path so as to go forward.

Posted by: Barrel Brown | Jan 12 2025 23:47 utc | 82

Russia Turns Towards Kramatorsk
Kiev has confirmed the acceleration of the process of losing territory in the western part of Donbas. Over the past few days, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost control of more than 200 square kilometers of territory, including key settlements such as Kurakhovo, Peschanoye, Novovasilyevka, Neskuchnoye, and Yantarnoye.
In addition to their successes in the Kurakhovsky and Pokrovsky directions, the Russian army is also making significant progress in the unexpectedly active Kramatorsk direction.
Recent reports indicate that the UAF has suffered losses and been driven out of Orekhovo-Vasilyevka, located between Artemovsk and Kramatorsk. This area had remained static for at least 13 months, with Russian troops liberating the village in 2023. However, the enemy managed to regain control through a counterattack.
The decisive attacks by the Russian Armed Forces towards Kramatorsk, coupled with the transition of most of Chasov Yar under Russian control, present the enemy with extremely challenging tasks. They must now strategise on how to reinforce positions on the approaches to the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration with personnel. This may require withdrawing troops from other sections of the front or utilising reserves that were potentially earmarked for offensive actions, such as another attempt to break through in the Kursk region.

Posted by: HERMIUS | Jan 12 2025 23:59 utc | 84

Posted by: HERMIUS | Jan 12 2025 23:59 utc | 84
Beware the K’s. It’s not only the Ukrainians who can divert units to launch attacks from an unexpected direction.

Posted by: Milites | Jan 13 2025 0:05 utc | 86

“Posted by: canuck | Jan 12 2025 20:45 utc | 49
What number Award are we up to now? I know Vargas won the first 17 Awards, but the field of well-qualified candidates seems to be broadening … probably only cos Little Vargas is still asleep or maybe out chopping winter wood. Vargas’s Mom will be very dissspointed.”
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 12 2025 21:53 utc | 61
vargas [that’s his name, non capitalized]has won 11 awards not 17, so you can’t count-The real Love Donbass would be much more intellectual or , at least, a modicum of wit which you post does not at all provide.
I figure you are an imposter.

Posted by: canuck | Jan 13 2025 0:10 utc | 88

Posted by: Craig Kennedy | Jan 12 2025 22:33 utc | 68
Mr Kennedy, you do realise that Donbas has some of the rarest resources on this earth? This includes lithium, a highly sought-after resource. Donbas also is a bread basket in itself.
So, whatever your weird, unsourced report says, Russia stands to gain far more from the war than it costs to win it.

Posted by: HERMIUS | Jan 13 2025 0:37 utc | 90

@68
The old war hurts economies scam.
It does indeed!
USwar culture is why USA owes $36 trillion bucks and the US’central bank runs the money and banking system to cover US debt.
BTW: Nazi Germany built a war machine able to conquer all Europe from a totally bankrupt country with a tiny fraction the natural wealth of the Russian Federation.
I do not read FT tripe passed around by the propaganda media.

Posted by: paddy | Jan 13 2025 1:02 utc | 92

“The Neocons represent a very old strain of American internationalist thought that goes back to Woodrow Wilson. The first “Progressive” American President.”
Posted by: LoveDonbass | Jan 13 2025 0:52 utc | 91
In my opinion Teddy Roosevelt was the first progressive American president, a decade before Wilson..
1. “With the assassination of President McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, not quite 43, became the youngest President in the Nation’s history. He brought new excitement and power to the Presidency, as he vigorously led Congress and the American public toward progressive reforms and a strong foreign policy.”(2)
2.https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/presidents/theodore-roosevelt/#:~:text=With%20the%20assassination%20of%20President%20McKinley%2C%20Theodore%20Roosevelt%2C%20not%20quite,and%20a%20strong%20foreign%20policy.

Posted by: canuck | Jan 13 2025 1:43 utc | 94

Posted by: Totila | Jan 12 2025 16:12 utc | 8
One has to be very gullible and naive to believe the word of a yankee. Ask the Amerindians.

Posted by: Naive | Jan 13 2025 1:48 utc | 96

Craig Kennedy is total bullshit. He is exposing what the ukronazis and their supporters are dreaming of. Same propaganda as at the beginning of the SMO explaining that Russia will run out of missiles, weapons, ammunitions and what else and will have to use washing-machines chips and shovels.
The shovels win.

Posted by: Naive | Jan 13 2025 1:58 utc | 98

Our sanctions are effective, the economic and financial sanctions are even of formidable effectiveness and I don’t want to leave any ambuiguity hanging over the European determination on this subject, we are going to wage a total economic and financial war on Russia. So we will provoke the collapse of the Russian economy.
Bruno Le Maire, French economy ministry, at the beginning of the SMO.
Nothing you with the new agent provocateur anti-russian and supporter of the ukronazis.

Posted by: Naive | Jan 13 2025 2:01 utc | 100