WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/georgegalloway/status/1511297467698012164
1511297467698012164

https://consortiumnews.com/2022/04/04/questions-abound-about-bucha-massacre/


Questions Abound About Bucha Massacre
April 4, 2022
The West has made a snap judgment about who is responsible for the massacre at the Ukrainian town of Bucha with calls for more stringent sanctions on Russia, but the question of guilt is far from decided, writes Joe Lauria.


Victims in Bucha. (Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Development Mikhail Fedorov/Wikimedia Commons)

Within hours of news Sunday that there had been a massacre at Bucha, a town 63 kms north of the Ukrainian capital, the verdict was in: Russian troops had senselessly slaughtered hundreds of innocent civilians as they withdrew from the town, leaving their bodies littering the streets.

Unlike their judicial systems, when it comes to war, Western nations dispense with the need for investigations and evidence and pronounce guilt based on political motives: Russia is guilty. Case closed.

Except the case hasn’t even been opened yet and the sentence is already being proposed. French President Emmanuel Macron, for instance, has called for Russian coal and oil to be banned from Europe. “There are very clear indications of war crimes,” he said on France Inter radio Monday. “What happened in Bucha demands a new round of sanctions and very clear measures, so we will co-ordinate with our European partners, especially with Germany.”

Other voices are now perilously calling for the U.S. to go to war with Russia over the incident.

“This is genocide,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Face the Nation on CBS. “Mothers of Russians should see this. See what bastards you’ve raised. Murderers, looters, butchers,” he added on Telegram.

Russia has categorically denied it had anything to do with the massacre.

Where to Start

If there were to be a serious probe, one of the first places an investigator would begin is to map out a timeline of events.

Last Wednesday, all Russian forces left Bucha, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

This was confirmed on Thursday by a smiling Anatolii Fedoruk, the mayor of Bucha, in a video on the Bucha City Council official Facebook page. The translated post accompanying the video says:

“March 31 – the day of the liberation of Bucha. This was announced by Bucha Mayor Anatolii Fedoruk. This day will go down in the glorious history of Bucha and the entire Bucha community as a day of liberation by the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the Russian occupiers.”

All of the Russian troops are gone and yet there is no mention of a massacre. The beaming Fedoruk says it is a “glorious day” in the history of Bucha, which would hardly be the case if hundreds of dead civilians littered the streets around Fedoruk.

“Russian Defence Ministry denied accusations by the Kiev regime of the alleged killing of civilians in Bucha, Kiev Region. Evidence of crimes in Bucha appeared only on the fourth day after the Security Service of Ukraine and representatives of Ukrainian media arrived in the town. All Russian units completely withdrew from Bucha on March 30, and ‘not a single local resident was injured’ during the time when Bucha was under the control of Russian troops,” the Russian MOD said in a post on Telegram.

What Happened Next?

What happened then on Friday and Saturday? As pointed out in a piece by Jason Michael McCann on Standpoint Zero, The New York Times was in Bucha on Saturday and did not report a massacre. Instead, the Times said the withdrawal was completed on Saturday, two days after the mayor said it was, and that the Russians left “behind them dead soldiers and burned vehicles, according to witnesses, Ukrainian officials, satellite images and military analysts.”

The Times said reporters found the bodies of six civilians. “It was unclear under what circumstances they had died, but the discarded packaging of a Russian military ration was lying beside one man who had been shot in the head,” the paper said. It then quoted a Zelensky adviser, who said:

“’The bodies of people with tied hands, who were shot dead by soldiers lie in the streets,’ the adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said on Twitter. ‘These people were not in the military. They had no weapons. They posed no threat.’ He included an image of a scene, photographed by Agence France-Presse, showing three bodies on the side of a road, one with hands apparently tied behind the back. The New York Times was unable to independently verify Mr. Podolyak’s claim the people had been executed.'”

It is possible that on Saturday the full extent of the horror had yet to emerge, and that even the mayor was unaware of it two days before, though photos now show many of the bodies out in the open on the streets of the town, something that presumably would be difficult to miss.

In Bucha, the Times was close to the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, whose soldiers appear in the newspaper’s photographs. In his piece, McCann suggests that Azov may responsible for the killings:

“Something very interesting then happens on [Saturday] 2 April, hours before a massacre is brought to the attention of the national and international media. The US and EU-funded Gorshenin Institute online [Ukrainian language] site Left Bank announced that:

‘Special forces have begun a clearing operation in the city of Bucha in the Kyiv region, which has been liberated by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The city is being cleared from saboteurs and accomplices of Russian forces.’

The Russian military has by now completely left the city, so this sounds for all the world like reprisals. The state authorities would be going through the city searching for ‘saboteurs’ and ‘accomplices of Russian forces.’ Only the day before [Friday], Ekaterina Ukraintsiva, representing the town council authority, appeared on an information video on the Bucha Live Telegram page wearing military fatigues and seated in front of a Ukrainian flag to announce ‘the cleansing of the city.’ She informed residents that the arrival of the Azov battalion did not mean that liberation was complete (but it was, the Russians had fully withdrawn), and that a ‘complete sweep’ had to be performed.”

Ukraintsiva was speaking a day after the mayor had said the town was liberated.

By Sunday morning, the world learned of the massacre of hundreds of people. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “We strongly condemn apparent atrocities by Kremlin forces in Bucha and across Ukraine. We are pursuing accountability using every tool available, documenting and sharing information to hold accountable those responsible.” President Joe Biden on Monday called for a “war crimes” trial. “This guy is brutal, and what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous, and everyone’s seen it. I think it’s a war crime.”

The Bucha incident is a critical moment in the war. An impartial investigation is warranted, which probably only the U.N. could conduct. The Azov Battalion may have perpetrated revenge killings against Russian collaborators, or the Russians carried out this massacre. (Once again the Pentagon is dampening the war hysteria, saying it can’t confirm or deny Russia was responsible.)

A rush to judgment is dangerous, with irresponsible talk of the U.S. directly fighting Russia. But it is a rush to judgment that we are getting.

Joe Lauria is editor-in-chief of Consortium News and a former U.N. correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, and numerous other newspapers, including The Montreal Gazette and The Star of Johannesburg. He was an investigative reporter for the Sunday Times of London, a financial reporter for Bloomberg News and began his professional work as a 19-year old stringer for The New York Times. He can be reached at joelauria@consortiumnews.com and followed on Twitter @unjoe

22392

[Bill Ryan]

Today's update from The Saker. He (Andrei) has his own rather acerbic, opinionated style, but his information is good.


http://thesaker.is/day-39-of-the-russian-smo-a-few-developments

Day 39 of the Russian Special Military Operation – a few developments

First, in Hungary, Viktor Orban won a supermajority in the latest elections. This makes perfect sense, as Orban’s policies have guaranteed that Hungary will get her energy at a low and stable price for the next 15 years (if I remember correctly) while the Eurolemmings will get their at astronomic prices on the spot markets which they themselves chose over long term contracts. The same goes for food items, fertilizer, etc.

I want to congratulate the Hungarian people not only on being the smartest in Europe, but for showing and proving that even a nation which is part of the EU and NATO can defend its own national interests.

Now about the Bucha fake, I won’t repeat it all here, I rather simply refer you to these:


https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/04/the-bucha-provocation.html
https://www.indianpunchline.com/fake-news-in-kiev-heralds-cruel-april (https://www.indianpunchline.com/fake-news-in-kiev-heralds-cruel-april/)
http://thesaker.is/gonzalo-lira-propaganda-btfo (http://thesaker.is/gonzalo-lira-propaganda-btfo/)
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2022/04/larry-jonson-on-bucha-massacre.html

I also would like to use this opportunity to point you to the YouTube channel of Patrick Lancaster: https://youtube.com/c/PatrickLancasterNewsToday (https://www.youtube.com/c/PatrickLancasterNewsToday)

Unlike Gonzalo Lira who is in Kharkov, Lancaster reports from Mariupol. They have very different styles, but they both deserve the recognition for the crucial work they are doing.

I also noticed that the Chinese channel CGTN has very good correspondent in the Ukraine, although I have heard him only on the Russian-language CGTN chanel. Here is the main one, FYI: https://youtube.com/c/cgtn (https://www.youtube.com/c/cgtn).

Finally, it appears that the USA is trying to color-revolutionize Imran Khan in Pakistan and that this might even involve a plot to kill that man. Makes me wonder – did the CIA really learn nothing from Belarus or Kazakhstan???

In Russia the mass exodus of pro-western 5th columnists is continuing, which is a real cause for celebration. The sad part is that the official spokesman for the Kremlin, Peskov, seems to think that these folks are not traitors.

Considering how the Atlantic Integrationists in the Presidential Administration and the Russian Government have totally mismanaged PR war, and then sent a pitiful figure like Medinsky to talk, which resulted in a real panic in Russia as most Russians are much more afraid to have diplomats negate all the efforts of the military. Frankly, sending Ramzan Kadyrov to negotiate would have been a much better move.

If the first phase of the war has shown that the Russians could achieve amazing results against a major force with a smaller force and the focus on maneuver, it has, alas, also shown that Russian PYSOPs and Civil Affairs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_affairs) capabilities are minimal and mostly ineffective. Now, wars can be won with little or not efforts allocated to PYSOPs and Civil Affairs, but such wars are much more costly not only in time and money, but also in human lives.

Negotiations, PSYOPs, Civil Affairs and military operations have to work together, towards a common goal – then they act as a force multiplier. But when civilians do their own thing and the military their own, this needlessly complicates military operations and make wars much harder to end.

In all fairness to the Russians, they never had the kind of propaganda resources the Empire of Lies has. In fact, since US forces are typically of poor military value, the US has developed very sophisticated capabilities which they now bring to bear with great efficiency. So Russia faces two very different enemies:


The Ukrainian soldiers who are just the cannon fodder for Uncle Shmuel
The formidable propaganda machine of the Empire of Lies

The only good news here is that INSIDE Russia the Empire of Lies has totally failed, Putin’s personal popularity is now well above 80% and the popular disgust with the Russian fake “intelligentsia” (the self-applied label of “creative class” the Russian 5th columnist always claim for themselves) is real. So more and more of them are resigning, moving abroad, or openly caving into the immense pressure of the Empire to condemn their own President and country.

Lastly, remember how for YEARS I wrote that a Russian invasion of the Ukraine would be a dream come true for the Neocons?

Now that this has happened, do you see what I was referring to? We can now say that thanks to this war, the Empire of Lies can now officially “cancel Russia” – their 1000 year old dream.

That being said, I think that the West also overplayed its hand. Yes, they managed to make hatred for Russia and Russians a new type of woke virtue signalling, but they went so far overboard that they got the undivided attention of the Russian people who now see the true face and intentions of the Empire of Lies. And now that most Russians have understood that:


Russia and the Empire of Lies are in an existential war which only one side can walk away from, and
The Empire of Lies wants to genocide the Russian nation (by a combo of means), this is a fight for survival, and for the right to live in a sovereign country.

At this point in time, Zelensky has indicated that he will make no concessions, etc. etc. etc. so the negotiations are going nowhere. Good. I think that the Russians need to get rid of the Ukrainian force inside the Donbass cauldron first, and then offer negotiations again. But until that battle is over, I don’t see the point of talk unless these are talks about the surrender of this force.

[ExomatrixTV]

"World War Z": From Movie To Reality. Coincidence? + Elon Musk Makes Move On Twitter?

OsSOPHhKYe4

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/MoonofA/status/1511300246923579392
1511300246923579392

If The Pentagon Can Not Confirm The Bucha Tales, Who Can?
April 05, 2022

This was the most important one of yesterday's news items.

bigger
Pentagon can't independently confirm atrocities in Ukraine's Bucha, official says

WASHINGTON, April 4 (Reuters) - The U.S. military is not in a position to independently confirm Ukrainian accounts of atrocities by Russian forces against civilians in the town of Bucha, ...
...
"The Pentagon can't independently and single handedly confirm that, but we're also not in any position to refute those claims."
If the Pentagon, which includes the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, could not confirm what the government in Kiev claimed, who else could?

Certainly not the European minions who reacted to those dubious claims by removing more Russian embassy personal from their countries.

The U.S. is again pushing the Europeans into suiciding their economies. The U.S. would of course be the only country that would gain from that.

Its over. The Ukraine has lost the war. Its navy, air force and defense industry no longer exist. The Russia air force is doing hundreds of bombing runs per night eliminating any fuel and ammunition depot that is left in Ukraine.

Without fuel tanks and trucks are immobilized. Without ammunition artillery falls silent. The heavy Ukrainian units along Donbas are now unable to do maneuver warfare. They can not even flee. Replenishment and reserves are unable to reach them. They have the choice of giving up or getting destroyed in place.

Anyone who is still pushing more weapons into Ukraine or tells Kiev to prolong the war is putting more Ukrainian lives at risk for zero potential gain.

That's criminal.

[ExomatrixTV]

Sergey Karjakin banned from chess for 6 months. Also, Charity Cup recap from the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour.

dieM4IDbJsQ

[ExomatrixTV]

Priest: 'Ukrainian President Zelensky Is A Staunch Supporter Of New World Order':

https://sp.rmbl.ws/s8/2/7/N/y/L/7NyLd.caa.mp4


source (https://rumble.com/vzsu0r-april-5-2022.html)

Ukrainian President Zelensky (https://www.ninefornews.nl/?zoeken=Zelenski) is a staunch supporter of the New World Order. That's what priest Daniel Nolan of the archdiocese in the American city of Denver said during a sermon last month.

The New World Order, the Great Reset, the Davos conferences, Klaus Schwab and George Soros have one common goal: to establish a world government, said Nolan of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Littleton, Colorado.

“This is not a conspiracy theory. They are open about it: this is what they want to achieve," the priest emphasized. He added that there are disturbing parallels between the New World Order, world government and the former Soviet Union: communism, atheism and moral corruption.


Agenda 2030

He referred to the 2030 Agenda. “In 2030 you will own nothing and you will be happy. This is communism. This is the old Soviet Union," Nolan said in a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UICnfYZF9k) taken privately.

"This is not good. This is not good for the Ukrainian people,” the priest warned. “Who's worse? Putin, who physically invaded Ukraine, or Zelensky, who invaded Ukraine spiritually? What's worse? Putting someone in a grave or making someone go to hell?”


Hysterical, hypocritical propaganda

Member of Parliament Pepijn van Houwelingen (FVD) reacts (https://twitter.com/PvanHouwelingen/status/1510983296708186113?s=20&t=-VfLCwSH9DSRj2NgBxEwjA) : “Wow, this priest, based on his faith, thinks for himself instead of relying on the hysterical, hypocritical propaganda that the media cartel sells as 'news'.”

During the corona crisis, the priest was no longer allowed to publish videos after calling (https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/priest-banned-from-posting-videos-after-catholic-news-agency-report-on-his-anti-mask-comment/) on people not to wear face masks.

Watch the sermon here (https://rumble.com/vzsu0r-april-5-2022.html) .


source (https://www.ninefornews.nl/priester-oekraiense-president-zelenski-is-fervent-voorstander-van-nieuwe-wereldorde/) (Dutch 🇳🇱 + Multi-Language Options). 🦜🦋🌳

http://fssp.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Fr-Daniel-Nolan-FSSP.jpg (https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?110505-Covid19-Global-reports-news-and-updates&p=1492017&viewfull=1#post1492017)


Fr. Daniel Nolan reflects upon the old adage that those who ignorant of the past are bound to repeat it. Fr. Nolan offers a number of historical examples of when government officials conducted unethical scientific experiments on its citizens (https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?110505-Covid19-Global-reports-news-and-updates&p=1492017&viewfull=1#post1492017) and then lied about it. Knowing our history enables us to think for ourselves and hopefully avoid repeating similar mistakes in the future.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1511397801430814725
1511397801430814725

[Bill Ryan]

https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1511397801430814725
1511397801430814725This is a new tweet, dated today. Are these two more helicopters shot down, or is this referring to the apparently very similar incident of a few days ago?

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1511397801430814725
1511397801430814725This is a new tweet, dated today. Are these two more helicopters shot down, or is this referring to the apparently very similar incident of a few days ago?

I believe it’s new info but still checking on it.

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1511398418664493056
1511398418664493056

[Ravenlocke]

Not sure how true this is, but here’s a start.

https://twitter.com/SAvrakhova/status/1511402911246475272
1511402911246475272

The delegation of NATO Allied Land Command led by Commander Lieutenant General Roger Cloutier has begun a visit to Ukraine.
“A visit of a delegation of the NATO Allied Land Command to Ukraine has begun today. A meeting with my colleague, NATO Allied Land Commander Lieutenant General Roger Cloutier, has just ended. We discussed a number of issues regarding the development of military cooperation between the Land Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and NATO,” Colonel General Oleksandr Syrsky, Commander of the Land Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said at a joint press conference with Roger Cloutier in Kyiv.

He noted that the visit of the NATO Allied Land Commander proved that political and military leadership of NATO and the Allies saw Ukraine as a strategic and predictable partner aiming to become a full-fledged member of the world's most powerful collective security system.

As noted, the parties paid special attention to the development of military cooperation and acquaintance of the Alliance representatives with the process of combat training of units and subdivisions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the reform of the Land Forces.

In turn, Lieutenant General Roger Cloutier informed that his visit to Kyiv was the final stage of a multinational tour to acquaint partners with NATO land forces and their leadership.

"I am here to understand the structure of the Land Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and their tasks, as well as to strengthen our cooperation with the Land Forces Command, which has already begun, and with Ukraine as our important land partner," Cloutier said.


As Lieutenant General Roger Cloutier noted, Ukraine is one of the six NATO's Enhanced Opportunities Partners, having an opportunity to enjoy enhanced access to interoperability and training programs, as well as access to information, including NATO experience.

"As the NATO Allied Land Commander, who is responsible for bringing NATO to combat readiness and for interoperability, it is a great privilege for me to help the Ukrainian Land Forces take advantage of this unique opportunity and assist in their development," Lieutenant General Cloutier said.


In the following tweet, note what he says in the video, he says before Bucha they were working with “them”.
https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1511389619916455937
1511389619916455937

[JackMcThorn]

"As the NATO Allied Land Commander, who is responsible for bringing NATO to combat readiness and for interoperability, it is a great privilege for me to help the Ukrainian Land Forces take advantage of this unique opportunity and assist in their development," Lieutenant General Cloutier said.

This sounds like someone just signed their own death warrant.

[Bill Ryan]

Gonzalo Lira posted this on his Telegram Channel: (screenshot image below)

https://t.me/realCRP/4179

https://projectavalon.net/General_Roger_Cloutier.jpg

He also wrote:
The rumors going around that a US Major General Roger Cloutier has been captured by the Russian army at Azovstal in Mariupol.

IF — I must emphasize IF — this is true, then the political ramifications are impossible to predict.

It would be within the Russians’ right to execute this American officer as nothing more than a common criminal. Not kidding. Legally, by all the laws of war, they have the right to do this.

IF — I again insist, IF — this is true, that won’t likely happen. But it will be a major turning point politically and diplomatically.

I will of course stay on top of this.

~~~
I also found this long comment on The Saker, here (http://thesaker.is/day-39-of-the-russian-smo-a-few-developments/#comment-1061451): (dated yesterday, but no source links provided)

In what remains of the aircraft from the crash site, the Russians discover – or rather identify – one of the Azov leaders, Commander Palamar (known as “Kalina”), 2 other Azov officer members, Tymius Juri Vladimirovitch and Dyachenko Maksim, as well as 3 other people presented as 2 French instructors from the DGSE as well as an American officer, and not just any one please: General of the Marines Roger Cloutier (photo below). Is this a bluff from the Russians? Note that General Cloutier has always been a great supporter of Colonel Sirsky, commander of the Ukrainian Forces, to whom he was very close, so his presence would not be illogical in the device. Via Gleb Bazov and Ole Nkarei:

“Gen Roger Cloutier, commanding general of NATO Southern European Task Force and senior responsible officer for American Military forces in northern Italy is said to be trapped in Mariupol” and “If Gen Roger Cloutier, GoC/NATO Land-Command is trapped in Mariupol, as is being rumoured, the Russians will dig up every inch of that city to kill or capture. No escape. Some of his H/Q Staff, too. What a holy f*ck the Europeans are making of this Ukraine mess.” and DGSE would have been evacuated in the same helicopter as other officers of the Azov unit… (knowing that the CIA has been training Azov since 1998). Note that we know that one of the survivors speaks Russian without an accent, which leaves only one Frenchman possibly surviving the aircraft, the nuance is important here.

Indeed, if the Russians showed the interrogation of the Ukrainian, no information was given on the 2nd survivor, which is by definition suspect.

The information about these two French service officers who died in Ukraine in the company of soldiers from Azov even gained momentum, and I said to myself that – if it was true and if they did not survive – Putin then had quite a leverage over Emmanuel Macron, namely to recover their bodies and repatriate them so that they could benefit from a proper burial (not to mention the other consequences).

As a result, we better understand Macron’s sudden decision to immediately fire General Eric Vidaud, head of the Military Intelligence Directorate, the very old-fashioned DRM.

The reason? The DRM had given bad information to Macron (who, on this basis, would have taken the decision to authorize the DGSE to send instructors to help the Nazi “Azovians”?)! This will improve relations between Macron and the French military, not to mention the fact that it amounts to a kind of declaration of war on Russia!

But here is the most important part:

Not knowing if it was pure Russian propaganda (this possibility is logical, hence my use of the conditional in the first part of this article) or if 2 officers of the DGSE are really in the hands of the Russians, I wanted to check the information at any chance with one of my historical contacts early in the morning, frankly without much hope, given the level of secrecy and paranoia in which this world lives. Is it correct that 2 DGSE officers were killed in Ukraine?

My contact called me back much later that weekend and just said this: “YES. I got confirmation. And I can’t tell you more, you’ll understand later.”.

My translation: either the 2 are dead, or one survived but is in serious condition.

As a result, Macron will no longer be able to drag Vladimir Putin through the mud on the media too much, since there are 2 men to recover, even if they are dead (at least one).

And even if Putin still takes the President of France on the phone, what is certain is that Macron will now be forced to submit to the Russian President: there are indeed 2 DGSE officers to recover for the families, knowing that one is possibly still alive but seriously injured.

By extension of this confirmation, then there would also be the American general in the heap (dead or alive), and everything leads us to believe that this is going to be one hell of a negotiation, given the profile of Roger Cloutier who is still at the head of LANDCOM NATO from the Turkish base in Izmir. If he was captured or killed, then it would be a tragedy for Joe Biden, the US Army, the CIA and NATO!

“Allied Land Command formerly Allied Land Forces South-Eastern Europe (LANDSOUTHEAST) is the standing headquarters for NATO land forces which may be assigned as necessary (…) When directed by the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, it provides the core of the headquarters responsible for the conduct of land operations. The command is based at Sirinyer, Izmir in Turkey”.

Below, his taking command from General Thomson (with an intro from General Walters) on August 4, 2020 in Izmir:
https://www.jovanovic.com/blog.htm

But whatever the reasons, it is totally irresponsible on the part of Emmanuel Macron to have sent DGSE officers to a battlefield of the Russians with whom, to this day, we are still at peace, at the risk of triggering additional hostilities and, above all, to aggravate the situation.

In Syria 13 French instructors had been captured, but there was total silence from the media in France, only the London Telegraph had broached the subject.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/_TheRepublic_/status/1511357077557551108
1511357077557551108

( This was last year but might have some significance?)
https://twitter.com/colonelhomsi/status/1370038278485856257
1370038278485856257

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/gbazov/status/1511410269360119811
1511410269360119811

https://twitter.com/gbazov/status/1511415484889309185
1511415484889309185

https://twitter.com/razor_destiny/status/1511415766360510465
1511415766360510465

[Bill Ryan]

Veterans Today (which may or may not be a reliable source) posted this:


https://veteranstoday.com/2022/04/05/blockbuster-us-3-star-general-captured-leading-azov-nazis-in-mariupol-unconfirmed

Blockbuster: US 3 Star General Captured Leading Azov Nazis in Mariupol (confirmations coming in)

https://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/ScreenHunter-7319-scaled.jpg


Our sources on the ground report that the last two helicopters trying to evacuate foreign VIPs from Mariupol were shot down this morning. They were sent on a suicide mission to collect Lt.General Coultier, who was, we are told, hiding in a huge industrial complex with some Special Forces staffers and about 30 Ukrainian Army, not Azov, soldiers. This hours old story from Tass is below.
https://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/ScreenHunter-7325.jpg

From KP.Ru:

On the morning of April 5, another attempt by the Kiev regime to evacuate the leaders of the Azov nationalist battalion and “others” was thwarted near Mariupol. Two Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopters, which tried to break through to the city from the sea, were shot down from man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems, Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, said at a briefing.
Note that this is the third attempt by Kyiv to pull its war criminals from the crime scene. But it ended the same as the previous ones: the helicopters did not reach Mariupol.
Читайте на WWW.KP.RU: (http://WWW.KP.RU:) https://www.kp.ru/daily/27375/4568448/
Reports from our friends in the Pentagon say “something’s up” and panic has set in at the White House. Minutes ago, the general showed up on his Linkdin account and we are told that the ranks of retirees and crisis actors (yes they exist) are being scoured for fat bald types that can be green-screened into a show and tell with Zelensky, believed to be hiding in Poland.

https://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/ScreenHunter-7324.jpg
Twitter, YouTube and Facebook are busy erasing all posts tied to this, even faster than usual. We await broader confirmation but, if Russia is holding him, they are unlikely to announce it but rather use it as a secret bargaining chip to hold over Biden’s head.

Based on this, and having seen similar issues where an Israeli general was captured in Syria (confirmed, they sent us his ID card)…and VT helped negotiate his return to his family (for millions paid to Shiite militias).

We have sources that claim Cloutier had been in and out of Syria through Turkey, working with ISIS and al Qaeda there as well and with terrorist groups in Africa.

We say “no denial can be believed…we are now in ‘new territory'”

There are numerous reports currently circulating claiming that U.S. Army Lieutenant General Roger L. Cloutier was captured by Russian forces in or near Mariupol, Ukraine, where reports claim he was assisting the Azov battalion, which is the official Nazi unit of Ukraine.
Confirmation that as early as March 7, US Lieutenant General Roger Cloutier was in Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/0eiJYrAcHZ (https://t.co/0eiJYrAcHZ)
— TheRepublic (@_TheRepublic_) April 5, 2022 (https://twitter.com/_TheRepublic_/status/1511357077557551108?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
According to Wikipedia, Lt. Gen. Roger L. Cloutier:
Roger L. Cloutier Jr. is a lieutenant general in the U.S. Army and commander of Allied Land Command . He previously served as commander of the United States Army in Africa.
Allied Land Command (LANDCOM) formerly Allied Land Forces South East Europe
Oh boy. US General Roger Cloutier was most definitely involved in training Ukrainian soldiers, as this photo attests.
Two days ago, a Bulgarian news source claimed he was visiting Bulgaria — pic.twitter.com/gOMBDRgmTQ (https://t.co/gOMBDRgmTQ)
— OldGuyOnTheMove (@old_move) April 5, 2022 (https://twitter.com/old_move/status/1511357699493183499?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
(LANDSOUTHEAST) is a permanent headquarters for NATO land forces that can be appointed as needed. The commander of LANDCOM is the Alliance’s chief ground warfare advisor. When directed by the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, he provides the core of the headquarters responsible for ground operations. The command is based at Shirinya (Buka), Izmir in Turkey.
Unconfirmed sources from #Russia (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Russia?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) Military:
The #Russian (https://twitter.com/hashtag/Russian?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) army captured the U.S Major General Roger L. Cloutier Jr. Maj. Gen. Roger L. Cloutier, the #USA (https://twitter.com/hashtag/USA?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw) Africa Command HQ Chief of Staff in the besieged Ukrainian Azov camp in Mariupol !https://t.co/7Y8Jd2qU9X
— Su-57 5th Gen Fighter (@5thSu) April 5, 2022 (https://twitter.com/5thSu/status/1511376997318279171?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)
A letter to the Pentagon sent a few hours ago went unanswered, which, from a media perspective, is very unusual. If the message had been false, the Pentagon would have denied it immediately. They did NOT deny it. But there has been no official response from the Pentagon as of 6:10 p.m. EDT on Monday.

Links:
Lieutenant General Roger L. Cloutier Jr. assumed command of Allied Land Command in August 2020. Prior to this he served as the commander of U.S. Army Africa / Southern European Task Force. https://lc.nato.int/about-us/biographies/commander

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Russian Defense Ministry: two more Mi-8s sent to evacuate Azov leaders were shot down near Mariupol

According to the department, this happened on the morning of April 5.

MOSCOW, 5 April. /TASS/. Two Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopters sent to evacuate the leaders of the Azov nationalist battalion were shot down near Mariupol on Tuesday morning.

Igor Konashenkov, official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, told reporters about this.

“On the morning of April 5, another attempt by the Kiev regime to evacuate the leaders of the Azov nationalist battalion was thwarted in the Mariupol region. Two Ukrainian Mi-8 helicopters that tried to break through to the city from the sea were shot down from man-portable anti-aircraft missile systems,” he said.

[Ravenlocke]

This source says they captured the general, if true, who knows what the ramifications will be.

https://twitter.com/rick_riccck/status/1511342351977005069
1511342351977005069

https://twitter.com/tassagency_en/status/1511365665663377408
1511365665663377408

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/holste_max/status/1511410720046563333
1511410720046563333

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/gruenspan123/status/1511307162215137290
1511307162215137290

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/gbazov/status/1511424652970803206
1511424652970803206


https://twitter.com/gbazov/status/1511431196743544837
1511431196743544837

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/AZhileski/status/1511435353869238277
1511435353869238277

[shaberon]

Veterans Today (which may or may not be a reliable source) posted this:


https://veteranstoday.com/2022/04/05/blockbuster-us-3-star-general-captured-leading-azov-nazis-in-mariupol-unconfirmed




Seems to be a mixed bag. VT has some good stuff, mixed with their own independent motivations. The story has at least some other sources. It would have been cheaper just to run that pile of pig meat through the old sausage grinder, but, if it survives, it may be tradeable for something of high value, like a Purple Pokemon.

By now we are up to over 800 foreign mercs blown away by missile strikes, and, again, I have yet to see anyone particularly proud of claiming these martyrs. On the pieces of bodies, we found many of African origin...that's not NATO, I don't think. Neither is Ukraine. How much can you make the US/NATO bend and twist for one easily replaceable marble?

"Preventing embarrassment" tends to be more "important" than the destruction of thousands of human beings.

We can be more confident that there is some other helicopter facility that was available yesterday but not tomorrow. They have around sixty of them left, with the issues of fuel and maintenance and so forth...depending on the bird, it usually cannot fly more than three to five times without needing a touch up. Otherwise they can fall apart on their own.

Whatever is in Azovstal is very interesting, and probably only a hint of what may be in Odessa.

[Richter]

Nazis in Ukraine: Seeing Through the Fog of the Information War
By Gabriel Rockhill
Global Research, April 04, 2022
Liberation News 30 March 2022

On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin undertook what he referred to as a 'special military operation to de-militarise and de-Nazify Ukraine.´ Western media immediately decried these stated goals, regularly repeating that the allegations of Nazism in Ukraine are nothing more than Russian 'fake news.'

Former U.S. ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, went so far as to flatly state that “there are no Nazis in the Ukraine.” Similar claims resound throughout the mass media’s echo chambers, and the fact that the current president of Ukraine is Jewish is often short-sightedly presented as the only 'proof' necessary.

Disputing the existence of Nazis and fascists in Ukraine serves the purpose of constructing a twisted but simplistic narrative loosely based on WWII: Putin is an evil, Hitler-like figure intent on attacking the freedom-loving Ukrainian government and its innocent supporters. The goal of such a narrative is to foster blind and unquestioning support for the Zelenskyy government, NATO and the imperialist Western powers.

A 'humanitarian' war, meaning a brutal NATO intervention that would likely spark WWIII, is thereby presented as a viable option. In this context, any attempt to provide a sober and concrete analysis of the actual history of Nazism in the region runs the risk of being disingenuously labeled and dismissed as 'pro-Putin' because it does not support this war-mongering narrative.

But an examination that accounts for the complexities of concrete situations reveals that there is indeed a deep and expansive history of fascism in Ukraine, which has been aided and abetted by the US government. This does not however mean that fascism is necessarily the dominant force in the country or even in every domain in which it exists (the military, paramilitary forces, the parliament, society at large, etc.). Moreover, it does not imply in the least that one has to support Russia’s invasion, or even assume that ‘denazification’ is its primary goal. On the contrary, it is possible to understand that fascism is a very real force in Ukraine while opposing Putin’s decision to deploy troops.

CONTINUE: https://www.globalresearch.ca/nazis-ukraine-seeing-through-fog-information-war/5776451

[ExomatrixTV]

US Media Pushes “War Crime” Propaganda In Ukraine:

3pePfCOrysY
If you get your news about the Ukraine war from the mainstream media in the United States, you’ve been inundated with uncorroborated reports of the brutal and unconscionable war crimes the Russian military is committing in cities like Bucha and Mariupol. The possibility that pro-Ukrainian propaganda could be responsible for these reports is never broached or even considered.

¤=[Post Update]=¤


https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1511397801430814725
1511397801430814725


@RT_com's account has been withheld in Portugal, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Germany, Greece, Romania, Netherlands 🇳🇱, Bulgaria, Austria, Luxembourg, Latvia, Denmark, Lithuania, Croatia, Estonia, Cyprus, France, Spain, Belgium in response to a legal demand. Learn more (https://support.twitter.com/articles/20169222).


1511414078065057794


source (https://twitter.com/TRTWorldNow/status/1511414078065057794)

[ExomatrixTV]

Multiple inconsistencies in the so-called "Bucha Massacre"

https://i.postimg.cc/NMZNbYnx/2022-04-04-18-18-31-bucha-film-straat-MP4-VLC-media-player.png

The sequence, the balancing of interests, the follow-up, and the raunchy taste of the deployed campaign
Update : Also read this excellent analysis on RT (via archive) (https://translate.google.com/website?sl=auto&tl=en&hl=en&u=https://api.zaplog.pro/goto?urlencoded%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Farchive.ph%252Fop6X1) by former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter.


The sequence of events

The Russians leave on March 30, and on March 31, the mayor of Bucha broadcasts a video in which he seems mainly relieved that they are finally gone.
He's not talking about killing at all here.

https://seed306.bitchute.com/iHwjVibiteH2/bJ7t00iUpCZY.mp4

March 31 - Mayor of Bucha seems relieved and doesn't talk about corpses at all
The video report below of the arrival of the National Police on March 31 also barely shows dead bodies.

https://seed125.bitchute.com/KdJMac1GNnS3/8zXB3O1eLy0P.mp4

Bucha - cleansing of the city from the occupiers by special forces of the National Police
In the evening of April 1, the first reports of dead bodies come out. this tweet is from 10pm (https://translate.google.com/website?sl=auto&tl=en&hl=en&u=https://api.zaplog.pro/goto?urlencoded%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Ftwitter.com%252FViktoriiaUAH%252Fstatus%252F150998578940445901 1) .

https://i.postimg.cc/7ZfhpdVd/bucha-first-video-dead-people.png

There is, of course, a lot of speculation and fact-checking, this is a pretty nice (https://translate.google.com/website?sl=auto&tl=en&hl=en&u=https://api.zaplog.pro/goto?urlencoded%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.vrt.be%252Fvrtnws%252Fnl%252F2022%252F04%252F04%252Fcheck-beelden-boetsja%252F) MSM , but what goes wrong on both sides is that the positions are black and white: either it's all fake, or it's all real. The mixture, partly real dead, partly planted dead from elsewhere, civilians who are actually soldiers, and also actors here and there, nobody talks about that.


Satellite images are never evidence

New satellite images reportedly show dead on the streets in the weeks before Russia's departure (https://translate.google.com/website?sl=auto&tl=en&hl=en&u=https://api.zaplog.pro/goto?urlencoded%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.rfi.fr%252Fen%252Fsatellite-images-show-bodies-in-bucha-for-weeks-rebutting-moscow-claim) , but why weren't those people picked up and buried? Moreover, according to experts, satellite images can be manipulated untraceably (https://translate.google.com/website?sl=auto&tl=en&hl=en&u=https://api.zaplog.pro/goto?urlencoded%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.trouw.nl%252Fnieuws%252Flucht-en-satellietfoto-s-zijn-makkelijk-te-manipuleren%257Eb77d72cf%252F) because they are generated 100% digitally.

More research is therefore still needed, so let's take a look at the interests, to estimate the opportunities for a fair investigation.


The balancing of interests

Stepping back and looking carefully at exactly who has an interest in what is always very helpful in seeing through the inevitable fog of war propaganda.


Importance of Russia

Russia aims for demilitarization, denazification and hard agreements that Ukraine adopts a military neutral status. It has no objection to EU membership. So, inflicting a massacre on the civilian population does not serve Russia's goals. On the contrary, the negative PR mainly harms Russian interests .


Importance of Ukraine

Zelensky tries from day 1 to involve NATO in the conflict. That is an interest, and a great one, because Russia is militarily superior so aid is essential. Depicting the Russians as monsters who are killing the Ukrainian people is being taken up with fervor on social media, which has a strong impact on the international community, as well as on the peoples of Western countries, which will of course put pressure on any government. So this serves the interests of Ukraine, and the card played here is an emotional one.

Zelensky also has a personal interest. According to MP Illia Kiva, he earns 100M every month that he remains in power. This is done through payments to companies in which he and his associates would have an interest. Mr. Kiva gives no further details.

https://zb10-7gsop1v78.bitchute.com/iHwjVibiteH2/WaRqVjrYznbB.mp4

Illia Kiva - MUP - Zelenski makes 100M with each month he stays in Power

Update: Illia Kiva now (April 5) announces that Bucha is completely staged. Planned by MI6 and executed by SBU. He relies on 'official information', without giving further details.

https://seed171.bitchute.com/iHwjVibiteH2/haid5K7fng2H.mp4

Illia Kiva - MUP - Bucha Marracre was staged by SBU, prepared by MI6

Given how the interests lie, it is unlikely that a fair investigation will take place. Russia should just be blamed for this, even if it isn't. This is also the conclusion of former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter (https://translate.google.com/website?sl=auto&tl=en&hl=en&u=https://api.zaplog.pro/goto?urlencoded%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Farchive.ph%252Fop6X1) .


What will be done with the images

There is a wave of moral outrage going around the world. Understandable, but also dangerous, because emotion blinds, so no questions are asked, but everyone jumps into judgment. So this is a low-critical audience situation, and other agendas can piggyback pretty easily.


Intermezzo: The Emotional Weapon

Moral outrage has become America's main emopsyop weapon for a reason. It comes from the American Social Justice movement and has been further perfected on American college campuses (https://translate.google.com/website?sl=auto&tl=en&hl=en&u=https://api.zaplog.pro/goto?urlencoded%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Flegalinsurrection.com%252F2012%252F11%252Ffeigned-outrage-was-first-weaponized-and-perfected-on-college-campuses%252F).

Emotion can become a weapon, because when emotion is called for action, anyone who resists (or even asks questions) gets the whipped emotion thrown right in the face. With covid, the emopsyop ran through solidarity and the hijacked version of the concept (https://translate.google.com/website?sl=auto&tl=en&hl=en&u=https://api.zaplog.pro/goto?urlencoded%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.hartgroup.org%252Fbehavioural-psychology%252F) , which is a similar emotional gut. Everyone with questions was then with great energy (but without substantiation) smeared with mud (antisocial, far-right, anti-Semitic), and that is exactly what happens with Ukraine now (putinversteher, putinkuiper, kremlintrol, ....).

Bottomline : Walk in step. And that's what most do so far.


Huge twitter storm

On April 2, a huge twitter storm arose that really got going on April 3. Lots of huge accounts (100K, 500K, up to 2.5M followers I've seen) pouring out their moral outrage across the world in similar tweets. Many members of the Ukrainian parliament and many American opinion makers. there also seemed to be a group movement that it was no longer an option to say nothing about it. On April 4 and 5, the newspapers were added.


What is the message

Obviously further demonization of Putin and Ruland, and a very strong call for MORE sanctions and even stop altogether with everything Russia is exporting and planning to export in the future . That such a drastic approach is complete suicide disappears completely, and any politician who even considers arguing against it will think three times about it, because the weapon of moral indignation hangs overhead: he or she will condemned and banned if the dictated song is not sung along uncritically.

As far as at least enough politicians can think critically about Ukraine. Given the success of Zelensky's parliamentary speeches, I doubt that. For Belgium , Zelenski 's international PR team had decided to have (https://translate.google.com/website?sl=auto&tl=en&hl=en&u=https://api.zaplog.pro/goto?urlencoded%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.mintpressnews.com%252Fukraine-propaganda-war-international-pr-firms-dc-lobbyists-cia-cutouts%252F280012%252F)all members of parliament stand up and listen to the Ukrainian national anthem accompanied by a musician . There was no need to sing along.

https://i.postimg.cc/Xq87cvqR/Speech-Zelenskyy-2ekamer-gehersenspoeld.jpg


Raunchy emo porn in the propaganda campaign

In the video below, notice the emotional music and how beautifully it blends with the distorted voice of the speaking soldiers. Also note the careful production. This is made to hit you. The white bracelet is also the sign for a Russian soldier or civilian sympathizer.


https://seed126.bitchute.com/iHwjVibiteH2/6n9S9uDqrl6c.mp4



Carefully produced Bucha Emo Porn with tiny flaw

Actor Zelensky can also lose his acting experience again. Note the microphone, he is currently being interviewed and probably also filmed. Prime time!

https://i.postimg.cc/qvK8bChC/bucha-zelenski-actor.jpg

..and on April 4 he will go completely LOOSE to Russia.
Zelensky calls Russian army 'butchers, executioners and rapists'

https://i.postimg.cc/PJpWW41x/2022-04-05-09-09-32-Facebook-Mozilla-Firefox.png

From the article: "You cannot overlook that they are deprived of all that is human. No soul. No heart. They kill intentionally and with pleasure".

Thank you. The Russians could do with that. It's just a little THICK on top.


Defense tip against the emotion weapon

A card often played with the emotion weapon is generalization. This works like this: If you don't go along with forced emotion/empathy then you are 'emotionless', 'cold', or cysnical. This is not right. Not going along with manipulated empathy says nothing about your capacity for real empathy

Good luck. There's more to come.


Everything here is translated (https://zaplog-pro.translate.goog/post/29969/inconsistenties-in-de-zogenaamde-slachting-van-bucha?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en) from Dutch 🇳🇱 to English!




source (https://zaplog.pro/post/29969/inconsistenties-in-de-zogenaamde-slachting-van-bucha)

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealPepeEscobar/status/1511459954305257472
1511459954305257472

https://twitter.com/RealPepeEscobar/status/1511451123726618625
1511451123726618625

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/abunin/status/1511451584542171137
1511451584542171137

[Ravenlocke]

April 5
https://twitter.com/politblogme/status/1511297965100576768
1511297965100576768

https://twitter.com/politblogme/status/1511297969521373189
1511297969521373189

https://twitter.com/politblogme/status/1511318535930265607
1511318535930265607

April 6
https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1511554294448754691
1511554294448754691

[shaberon]

Here is an interesting confession from the 503rd Marines of Mariupol after a more than 50% casualty rate:

In the video below, a captured soldier from the 503rd battalion, excited to be alive and unbeaten, says that all the time their main task was to retreat.

Ukrainian military is about like a set of brakes for the inevitable. The apparently successful use of a British Starstreak is slightly nasty. As to whether that becomes a factor, we will see.






From Bill:
Can you add the video? Or a link to it?
THX :thumbsup:

[Tintin]

Godspeed this man :flower: :muscle: (Footage dated April 5th but may have been filmed on 4th)

Patrick Lancaster and team in Mariupol and probably on his most dangerous quest yet. Here he goes to the dividing line separating the Azov and Ukrainian Nazis and DPR/Russian held areas. Azovstal, where the remainder of the Nazi filth are hiding out, I'd imagine will fall any day soon and it can't come soon enough.

Fasten your seat belts as this gets pretty too darn close for comfort:

lRtLFT2sbBg

[Billy]

An interview with Igor Lapatonok, the Ukrainian director of the "Ukraine on Fire" documentary. 3.22 hours long.

Weu0h31__TY

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealPepeEscobar/status/1511606055503020041
1511606055503020041

http://thesaker.is/sitrep-operation-z-5/

By Nightvision for the Saker Blog

We must evaluate the timing of the Bucha false-flag, which is of great importance and will give us major clues as to the real unfolding of events behind the curtain. It is no coincidence that the single largest mass surrender of the conflict so far occurred literally in the latter part of the same day as the false-flag. There is a clear connection.

Here’s the surrender video for those who haven’t seen it: https://www.bitchute.com/video/aEanhNSwYPoR/

In short, Ukrainian command and the western Intel services that control it, are getting desperate. The fall of Mariupol would mean the beginning of a long chain of events that will start a domino effect of collapse for the AFU (Armed Forces of Ukraine). The Ukrainian elite obviously knew that one of the last remaining contingents holding Mariupol together at the seams was ready to fall and they needed an event that would somehow disrupt the momentum Russia was soon to have from the upcoming fall of Mariupol. Because it is now clear the battle for Mariupol is nearing its end – the fall of the 501st special marine battalion today was like a giant edifice crumbling from the face of a barely standing building.

The powers that be know that once Mariupol falls, the Russian, Chechen, and DPR forces therein will be freed to immediately begin Phase 2 of the operation. And all indications from my analysis points to the fact that Phase 2 will be much more brutal and swift than what we’ve seen so far, for the following reasons:

Particularly after the pullbacks from Kiev, Sumy, Chirnihiv regions, and the injection of freed Mariupol forces, Russia will have more forces than ever concentrated on a much smaller area of operations. This will have a big compounding effect.
Freed from the constraints of large urban warfare, where the Russian forces are at a disadvantage, they will instead be facing the open plains of the western Donbass and Dnieper regions which favor the Russian force disposition in every way imaginable. Not only are civilians much easier to evacuate from the small villages and settlements but Russia can much more freely use its ‘big guns’ like the Msta 2S19 self propelled 152mm artillery, the various MLRS including Tos-1 thermobarics, and its fleet of attack choppers – all of which have been completely locked out of the urban battles in Mariupol and Kiev for the reasons of preventing mass civilian death and civil infrastructure destruction. We’ve had a taste already of how a more unrestricted Russian attack can look in the battle of Volnovakha and it was not pretty. I won’t needlessly post the photos/videos but Ukrop forces were brutally gored there.
The Ukr command are desperately trying to forestall these events. They know they stand no chance without some major escalation from NATO and unwilling European friends have been dragging their feet and noncommital about providing the types of arms that would allow Ukraine to stand a chance in Phase 2, in short – things like actual good light armor / tanks. Germany has supposedly agreed to give ancient 1960 BMP-1’s from the GDR era, but even if it manages to effect this the delivery to the frontlines would take time and this is exactly why they need to forestall as much as possible with these ‘false flags’.

Also there’s now reports Czech Republic has sent many T-72s and BMP-1 equivalent (the Czech copies/versions)

https://twitter.com/CT24zive/status/1511315385173393415

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/czech-republic-sends-tanks-ukraine-czech-tv-reports-2022-04-05/

And on the topic of urban vs. open warfare. One thing that’s important to mention is, a lot of people claim Russia’s initial strategy of seizing cities was a ‘failure’ of intel because Russia hoped these cities would lay down their arms and embrace Russia and that didn’t happen. But if you really examine the opening more closely, it’s clear that Russia’s plan DID work to a large part – they seized several of their most important key cities in the exact way they wanted, without firing a shot nor destroying the cities in urban warfare. These are: Kherson, Melitopol, Energodar, Berdiansk. The ones they hoped would give up but failed were Kharkov, Kiev, and arguably Nikolayev. It’s obviously a partial success, and more so for the fact that the ones that fell were in the important region that Russia is likely to incorporate in one way or another into its sphere of control anyway. So how can one claim the strategy was a “failure” when Russia now controls this belt of important cities and life there has returned to normal, and the cities are being fully integrated into the Russian economy. New reports show how Kherson and Energodar have created economic commissions which are now coordinating trade economies with Crimea, and fiber internet from Crimea has also now been established linking Kherson directly to the RF and cutting it from the Ukraine.

But back to the first point: we still don’t know the exact objectives of Phase 2, and most of us just assume by far the main thrust will be to close the ‘Great Cauldron’ in Donbass. But there are some indications that Phase 2 will in fact either include or even favor an initial focus on Nikolayev and Kharkov. These are only rumors, but simply something to keep in mind. Western/Ukrainian intel ‘sources’ and chirps from their upper command claim that Russia is set to attack Kharkov, and there is an obvious RF force accumulation towards the Nikolayev axis.

One possibility is that Russia continues to play maneuver warfare and keep Kiev guessing to throw them off and strike them where they’re weak. Everyone fully expected the cauldron to be next and Kiev announced the sending of large reinforcements there, but Russia may instead choose to focus a powerful thrust onto a lesser defended Nikolayev instead, as an example.

Anyway, though there is mostly an operational pause on the ground, at least for the RF side while they regroup, reposition and wait for Mariupol to fall so that they can begin Phase 2, there are still some gains and frontline changes we can speak of.

Reinforcements continue pouring in: https://twitter.com/Suriyakmaps/status/1510996693487177732

https://twitter.com/Suriyakmaps/status/1510300795039883264

The DPR continue to break through the defensive line in NW Donetsk. There are very gruesome videos of Ukrainian trenches being overrun, littered with the UAF dead.

In the Izyum direction, UAF command has announced the loss of Brazhkivka, which is a town on the way towards Barinkove. Dovenkhe which can be seen here is under attack by RF forces as they appear to be pushing a possible two pronged direction towards Barinkove and Slavyansk.
In the LPR, it appears Ukrainian forces withdrew from the rest of Rubizhnoe and as is their usual tactic (remember the coke factory detonation when they withdrew from NW Donetsk?) they blew up a big chemical plant which now threatens large civilian populations with all sorts of toxic acid.



https://www.rt.com/russia/553347-ukraine-attack-chemical-plant-casualties/

On the Mariupol front, there appears to be more surrenders, exact numbers not confirmed yet but I heard 30+. As I said previously, Mariupol appears to be crumbling and speeding up.

Video: https://www.bitchute.com/video/NVHaU2dBHaY1/

Also there are several new videos of self-propelled artillery for seemingly the first time being brought in to the frontline. One of the suppositions is that, since the Azov militants are holed up in the factories, the allied forces now feel more comfortable being able to shell them with indiscriminate artillery without inflicting civilian casualties.

https://twitter.com/RWApodcast/status/1511365185965019141



Also, for those that haven’t seen it yet, a beret of some sort of French foreign legion or mercenary, as well as a pin were found by Semyon Pegov in Mariupol: https://www.bitchute.com/video/o0OLrq0fZTRv/

And there continues to be reports that French mercenaries are still trapped in Mariupol and have not yet been evacuated in those previously failed helicopter rescues.

Unconfirmed reports like this: “NATO officers from France, Germany, Britain and “neutral” Sweden got stuck at Azovstal in Mariupol. Right now they are getting in touch with the Russian troops with a request to help them leave, to organize a corridor for the exit. – journalist German Vladimirov.”

Now there are new reports at the time of this writing that RF forces have shot down 2 new Mi-8 helicopters in Mariupol, sources such as Colonel Cassad are reporting. Someone is getting extremely desperate to evacuate some VIPs there it seems. The choppers were allegedly coming over the Azov sea and were shot down on approach and fell into the sea, so we’re unlikely to see crash photos this time, but we’ll see how this report pans out.

Meanwhile Russian marines and DPR troops pour in towards the final frontlines near the factories:



Elsewhere in Dnipro, Ukrainian troops have been filmed committing monstrous brutality against civilians https://www.bitchute.com/video/9zqkSC40IuUw/ These are the ‘glorious heroes’ that we’re supposed to believe are the ones protecting civilians like in Bucha and elsewhere? Time and time again we see the absolute brutality of Ukrainian troops on civilians. There are countless videos of them shooting civilians from the start of the war. And in general civilians do not seem to be greatly valued in Ukrainian society as the Volkssturm terror wave continues unabated throughout the country, in fact recently it’s spread to taping children, old women, etc, to poles indiscriminately.

https://www.bitchute.com/video/w1zvj2TAyWhL/

https://www.bitchute.com/video/VMS5cET98HOU/

One thing that must be noted and expounded upon. What we’re seeing is a shift in Ukrainian tactics from actual, ostensible warfare to psychological warfare almost exclusively. What this means is, Ukraine has ceased even trying to win in the sense of operable offensives / counter-offensives and real strategic battlefield victories. Rather they have now devolved into a strategy where only psyops, intimidation, and propaganda aimed at reducing morale is their chief and primary ‘weapon’ against RF forces.

There hasn’t been a single recorded ‘victory’ of any sort from the Ukrainian side in a long time against actual Russian troops. They are retreating and losing manpower virtually everywhere apart from the places Russia willfully pulled back. But this is a huge difference between being forced to retreat due to suffering losses, and a reorientation in strategy. For instance, in every single place where Russia pulled back, they were actually gaining ground and taking victories against Ukrainian forces. Example: in west Kiev, Russia had captured several new towns and was pushing towards Byshiv and other areas SW of Kiev. But then they simply stopped and pulled back due to the decisions of high command. Same goes in areas like Chernuhiv where we know Russia had just recently made major gains, captured the town of Slavutych and encircled the city of Chernuhiv. Ukrainian forces on the other hand are being brutally driven back and killed en masse as many videos in my possession attest.

So the point is, Ukraine has shifted to conducting only a psychological war as its last resort. From Bucha, to the POW tortures/killings, to the pointless but ‘showy’ strike on Belgorod, which did nothing more than attempt to deal a psychological strike to the Russian morale. Remember, Russia is drowning in oil/fuel, that is the least of their problems. An attack targeting a minor, insignificant oil depot in a small backwater town is strategically irrelevant. The fact that Ukraine risked such a daring operation shows the shift into psychological war rather than actual strategically effective war against real targets. It is a sign of an enemy who is losing and desperate.

The Ukraine is now fighting a war primarily in the electronic/cyber/abstract sphere of influence, rather than the real objective sphere of physical battle and direct warfare. In short, they are doing anything possible to take the attention away from their own massive strategic losses on the real, physical battlefield. This is effectively a shift to a psychological operation rather than physical operation on their behalf. The types of attacks and “victories” we are likely to see from them from this point on will be things of this nature – small strategically insignificant but ‘showy’ and designed for psychological effect – and of course a likely initiative switch to increasing the scale and frequency of false flags of all types we will see from this point onward.

Now, I don’t want to paint an overly rosy picture. The RF continues to experience some losses as well but they are typically of an asymmetrical nature. UAF is not winning any ‘battles’ whatsoever or even engagements. They are merely bleeding our forces here and there with small guerilla attacks that manage to take out one or two vehicles from a supply convoy, or as seen recently, take a helicopter or plane every once in a while.

This takes me to the final topic, yes it appears true that after suffering little to no air losses for a couple weeks now, we have suddenly seen the shoot down of an Su-35 and a Mi-28. It is claimed that a new Wunderwaffen from UK called the Starstreak manpad was used for these shootdowns. I can confirm having viewed the videos that it is possible the Starstreak was used, as opposed to just ‘propaganda’. The reason is, the most notable characteristic of the system is its exorbitantly high speed, Mach 3-4 of the projectile, which is much greater than most/standard manpad systems. In the Mi-28 video in particular, the projectile does appear to come ridiculously fast nor has a smoke plume that is characteristic of typical rocket-engined manpads. The Starstreak has a rocket stage that falls off, sending a trio of metal penetrator rods at the target. This is exactly what I seemed to see in the video and if true, this weapon system does appear to be quite a problem because the DIRCM systems in use by Russia (or anyone in the world for that matter) cannot possibly consistently stop such a system. The simple fact of its speed means it takes less than a second or two for it to go from the launch to the hit, which makes a response nearly meaningless (depending on the height of the aircraft, but in this case the helicopter was low, as most RF choppers are as per their operating standard in these areas).

The Su-35 on the other hand seemed to fall straight down in a strange way that could be indicative of a hit from these metallic penetrator rods that would have severed the empenage causing a catastrophic fall. A typical manpad strikes with a smaller explosion that often just damages the engine and/or wings, causing the plane to fall in a characteristic pattern more in line with rapid forward descent, not catastrophic straight down flat stall.

And by the way, the pilot of the Su-35 was apparently captured by Ukrop forces, as I saw a photo of the bleeding tied up pilot who will likely now be tortured. But the Mi-28 pilots fortunately not only survived but were successfully evacuated by our retrieval forces.

So what can Russia do against such advanced anti-air systems? Not much really. The fact is, NO country can do much against them. If these same Starstreaks were used against the U.S. airforce, they would have the same exact problems as Russia is having. There is simply no real way to effectively and consistently stop them. The only difference might be that the U.S. has a far greater drone capability and the U.S. would likely cease using its airforce in the area and would instead hunt these targets with drones nonstop. But of course, the U.S. has never gone against a near-peer enemy of this sort that is supplied with such advanced weapon systems. Even in Iraq going against an enemy who literally lacked manpads at all and used only much larger and easier to spot/kill ancient legacy soviet anti-aircraft systems, the U.S. still suffered massive aircraft losses. Here’s a list of many of their air losses just to give you an idea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aviation_shootdowns_and_accidents_during_the_Iraq_War

The list is equally as long for Afghanistan.

But my point isn’t to make fun or imply the U.S. couldn’t have done a better job, but simply to illustrate that air losses are an undeniable mainstay of combat. You simply cannot stop them entirely without completely withdrawing your airforce from action. There is only stopgap measures you can use to ‘minimize’ the threat as much as possible, which are already being used – like flying at low altitudes and rapid speed, or conversely flying at extremely high altitudes out of the manpads’ range. But you can never get rid of the threat entirely and no electronic counter measure on earth is 100% effective against them but merely reduce the chances of the manpad functioning depending on a multitude of factors, such as the aircraft’s vector, velocity, atmospheric conditions, manpad range to target, number of simultaneous manpads fired, etc, etc. I have several videos showing the neutralization of enemy manpads by Russian counter-measure systems.

With that said, RF airforce is conducting a large amount of sorties daily, and their losses in the past few weeks have been extremely minimal for this level of conflict, and in fact videos appear all the time showing the effectiveness of the Ka-52 and Mi-28’s strikes on enemy positions.

I’ll finish with a map of current Mariupol. Time is ticking and the desperate rescue attempts are increasing, there can’t be much time left for Mariupol.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealPepeEscobar/status/1511614720540917760
1511614720540917760

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1511654438406340612
1511654438406340612

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1511644771051208705
1511644771051208705

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1511667659909201920
1511667659909201920

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/ASBMilitari/status/1511696049668300803
1511696049668300803

https://twitter.com/ASBMilitari/status/1511372059842166790
1511372059842166790

https://twitter.com/ASBMilitari/status/1511297550825013250
1511297550825013250

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/ASBMilitari/status/1511328782174539781
1511328782174539781
https://twitter.com/ASBMilitari/status/1511333301088407559
1511333301088407559

https://twitter.com/ASBMilitari/status/1511347966820470791
1511347966820470791

[ExomatrixTV]

This Is What Ukrainian Citizens Say About The Acclaimed Zelenski's Army

Independent journalist and army veteran Patrick Lancaster is in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol (https://www.ninefornews.nl/?zoeken=Marioepol) , where the Russian army is gaining ground. Lancaster spoke to local residents (https://youtu.be/lRtLFT2sbBg) near Azovstal, a large steel factory where the Ukrainian army is entrenched.

A man told him that he was nearly hit by a sniper twice. He heard the bullets flying around his ears. He explained that it was a sniper from the Azov Battalion. “They are shooting at civilians,” the man emphasized. “They don't shoot soldiers, only civilians. They kill civilians. They are purebred fascists.”

https://sp.rmbl.ws/s8/2/_/c/r/M/_crMd.caa.mp4


source (https://www.ninefornews.nl/dit-zeggen-oekraiense-burgers-over-het-leger-van-de-alom-geprezen-zelenski)
YouTube channel (https://youtube.com/PatrickLancasterNewsToday)



Russia doesn't shoot people at all

Another man told the reporter that the snipers are 'Nazis'. “Ukrainian Nazis shoot people and kill people. They kill civilians. Women, men, everyone.”

The man said that even men are being released from prison. They get a lot of money to kill people for no reason. Lancaster told the man that American and European media are claiming that Russia is destroying cities and killing people. “Russia doesn't shoot people at all,” the man replied.


Destroyed by Ukrainian tanks

A crying woman told the journalist that without the Russian aid she would have to go hungry and thirsty. The woman, who thanked the Russians, said her flat had been destroyed by Ukrainian tanks.

The Russians announced new fighting on Tuesday against Ukrainian forces defending the strategically important city on the Sea of ​​Azov. The Russian army said it had managed to prevent an evacuation of Ukrainian officers from the besieged city. According to the Ministry of Defense, these were leaders of the Azov battalion.


source (https://www.ninefornews.nl/dit-zeggen-oekraiense-burgers-over-het-leger-van-de-alom-geprezen-zelenski) (Dutch 🇳🇱 + Multi-Language Options). 🦜🦋🌳

[ExomatrixTV]

BREAKING: Volodymyr Zelensky is a cousin of George Soros. Pentagon official says.

Study (search for) REAL sources first (if any!) ... then search for "fact checkers" counter claims ... compare both and on top of that use your own discernment skills to determine if it is really valid BEFORE spreading it without any (skeptical) disclaimers!


I too must do that as much as I can, sometimes I have no time hoping others will dig in to it and I will join later to asses it better ... if that is the case better to add a skeptical disclaimer!

Having too fast assumptions (for or against) is the mother of all fck ups!

cheers,
John

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/tassagency_en/status/1511614814711390208
1511614814711390208

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/SputnikInt/status/1511533330516393985
1511533330516393985

https://twitter.com/timand2037/status/1511509913725374466
1511509913725374466

https://twitter.com/MarkSleboda1/status/1511633387508973568
1511633387508973568

¤=[Post Update]=¤



BREAKING: Volodymyr Zelensky is a cousin of George Soros. Pentagon official says.

Study (search for) REAL sources first (if any!) ... then search for "fact checkers" counter claims ... compare both and on top of that use your own discernment skills to determine if it is really valid BEFORE spreading it without any (skeptical) disclaimers!


I too must do that as much as I can, sometimes I have no time hoping others will dig in to it and I will join later to asses it better ... if that is the case better to add a skeptical disclaimer!

Having too fast assumptions (for or against) is the mother of all fck ups!

cheers,
John

https://twitter.com/KiratRohli/status/1511564051654254596
1511564051654254596

https://twitter.com/OsintUpdates/status/1511412673287639041

1511412673287639041

[ExomatrixTV]

...


so if I am correct is MODI-fied Kirat Rohli the only source with no additional proof? Just a claim without evidence! ... and anyone copying that suppose to be "sources" ... :facepalm:

[Ravenlocke]

...


so if I am correct is MODI-fied Kirat Rohli the only source with no additional proof? Just a claim without evidence! ... and anyone copying that suppose to be "sources" ... :facepalm:

No actually it started with a tweet from OSINTupdates which I also included in my post.

Sorry I thought that OSINT Was reliable

[Billy]

An interview with Igor Lapatonok, the Ukrainian director of the "Ukraine on Fire" documentary. 3.22 hours long.

Weu0h31__TY

Bumping this interview with more information.
Although the video is 3 hrs 20 mins long. The actual interview is only 1 hr 45 mins long, after which they play the Ukraine on fire documentary.

The interview is only a few days old and up to date with the situation in Ukraine.
Igor talks about the recent killings of civilians in Bucha, YouTube's censorship of the documentary after having been on YouTube since 2017. A 600/700% increase in demand from around the world to view the documentary in recent weeks. The rise of the Nazis in Ukraine up to the present day. Joe Biden's role with Ukraine and much more.
Worth a view in my opinion.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1511745107887755269
1511745107887755269

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1511760609280663552
1511760609280663552

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1511760141318000640
1511760141318000640


The reason for Suspension,

https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1511768607977525248
1511768607977525248

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1511759167895523335
1511759167895523335

https://twitter.com/StarboyHK/status/1511757317020155910
1511757317020155910

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1511741552963428353
1511741552963428353

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1511749053927030784
1511749053927030784

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/gbazov/status/1511766941555380225
1511766941555380225



https://twitter.com/VatnikCoPe/status/1510743609988984833
1510743609988984833

[Bill Ryan]

...so if I am correct is MODI-fied Kirat Rohli the only source with no additional proof? Just a claim without evidence! ... and anyone copying that suppose to be "sources" ... :facepalm:John, we're in the fog of war. All of us. :)

Yesterday, I was posting references to General Roger Cloutier having been captured in Mariupol. But that all turned out to be false.

I very much appreciate all of Ravenlocke's tweets, because I (like quite a few others, I suspect) don't have a Twitter account, so this thread is one of the handful of usually-very-reliable places I come to several times a day for good information. And sometimes the "good information" needs to be verified, but that's what we're all here to do, working together if we can.

:grouphug:

:focus:

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/anon_candanga/status/1511755644763836422
1511755644763836422

https://twitter.com/anon_candanga/status/1511754903265419278
1511754903265419278

https://twitter.com/anon_candanga/status/1511752577016291337
1511752577016291337

[Ravenlocke]

...so if I am correct is MODI-fied Kirat Rohli the only source with no additional proof? Just a claim without evidence! ... and anyone copying that suppose to be "sources" ... :facepalm:John, we're in the fog of war. All of us. :)

Yesterday, I was posting references to General Roger Cloutier having been captured in Mariupol. But that all turned out to be false.

I very much appreciate all of Ravenlocke's tweets, because I (like quite a few others, I suspect) don't have a Twitter account, so this thread is one of the handful of usually-very-reliable places I come to several times a day for good information. And sometimes the "good information" needs to be verified, but that's what we're all here to do, working together if we can.

:grouphug:

:focus:

Thanks Bill, I’m trying my best and I’m sorry if some info is unreliable, but there’s so much to sift through, although it looks like soon there won’t be much left on twitter.

[shaberon]

Here is an interesting confession from the 503rd Marines of Mariupol after a more than 50% casualty rate:

In the video below, a captured soldier from the 503rd battalion, excited to be alive and unbeaten, says that all the time their main task was to retreat.

Ukrainian military is about like a set of brakes for the inevitable. The apparently successful use of a British Starstreak is slightly nasty. As to whether that becomes a factor, we will see.






From Bill:
Can you add the video? Or a link to it?
THX :thumbsup:



Not sure how to get its embed link.

Surrender of 503rd (https://southfront.org/mariupol-remnants-of-ukraines-503rd-marine-battalion-surrendered-in-full/) as of yesterday, just a few seconds query translated for us in the remark.

[Bill Ryan]

John, we're in the fog of war. All of us. :)

Yesterday, I was posting references to General Roger Cloutier having been captured in Mariupol. But that all turned out to be false.

The fog of war, indeed! Just now Gonzalo Lira (cautiously) presents in his latest video how the General Cloutier story might actually be true.

The video is about a number of "vanished" people, but he discusses General Cloutier for 5 mins at 12:09, and again in more depth starting at 40:42.

Vanished: Is there a NATO General in Mariupol?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idOSxqsssZE

[Ravenlocke]

For Shaberon,

Mariupol: Remnants Of Ukraine’s 503rd Marine Battalion Surrendered In Full
VIDEO #FROMTHEFRONT#UKRAINE 05.04.2022 - 23607 views
On 4 April, 267 soldiers and officers of the 503rd Independent Battalion of the Ukrainian Navy surrendered in Mariupol. This was the entire surviving personnel of the unit.

The battalion was assigned to the 36th Independent Marines Brigade of the Ukrainian Navy.

The unit lost more than 50% of its personnel killed and wounded in the fighting for Mariupol.

https://southfront.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/video_2022-04-04_22-04-43.mp4
https://southfront.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/video_2022-04-04_22-04-43.mp4

In the video below, a captured soldier from the 503rd battalion, excited to be alive and unbeaten, says that all the time their main task was to retreat.

https://southfront.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/503-zrfhgzs.mp4
https://southfront.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/503-zrfhgzs.mp4

All surrendered AFU soldiers are in good health. The lightly wounded were given the necessary medical treatment. The soldiers have been provided with food and basic necessities in full.

This approach executed by the Russian army is radically different from what AFU soldiers do with captive, mostly wounded, Russian soldiers.

The Russian Defence Ministry also said that starting from 9:30 a.m. on April 5 it organizes a humanitarian corridor for soldiers of the AFU territorial defence units and foreign mercenaries to leave the encircled areas of Mariupol.

Mariupol: Remnants Of Ukraine's 503rd Marine Battalion Surrendered In Full

https://southfront.org/mariupol-remnants-of-ukraines-503rd-marine-battalion-surrendered-in-full (https://southfront.org/mariupol-remnants-of-ukraines-503rd-marine-battalion-surrendered-in-full/)

[Ravenlocke]

Found this in reference to post #2050 probably nothing...

https://twitter.com/kyparissiotes/status/1511494578192404483
1511494578192404483

https://jovanovic.com/blog.htm#voici-le-debat-

[Ravenlocke]

More...

https://twitter.com/kyparissiotes/status/1511495238178721799
1511495238178721799

https://twitter.com/kyparissiotes/status/1511504437407371268
1511504437407371268

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/georgegalloway/status/1511729349204103170
1511729349204103170

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1511632720295833607
1511632720295833607

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1511641242307866625
1511641242307866625

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1511644639245357059
1511644639245357059

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1511694289696346115
1511694289696346115

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1511690540668051460
1511690540668051460


https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1511679921634041858
1511679921634041858

[Ravenlocke]

https://consortiumnews.com/2022/04/06/jerks/

Jerks
April 6, 2022
Michael Brenner explains why he will abstain from any further writing on the subjects of Ukraine and U.S. relations with Russia, China or the Solomon Islands.


(White House, Adam Schultz)
By Michael Brenner

There will be no more from me on the subject of Ukraine; nor on our relations with Russia, China or the Solomon Islands.

There are a number of reasons for this abstention.

First, I’ve said just about everything I have to say about the macro issues and I see no reason either for repetition or examining day-to-day events which others do extremely well. (Moon of Alabama; Alexander Mercouris at YouTube).

Second, it is manifestly obvious that our society is not capable of conducting an honest, logical, reasonably informed discourse on matters of consequence. Instead, we experience fantasy, fabrication, fatuousness and fulmination. At a more personal level, this impression is reinforced by messages from persons whom I’ve known and respected telling me that I’m in the pay of Russian President Vladimir Putin, “mad,” “too clever by half,” “a Furtwaengler fan” (Netrebko=Furtwaengler=Hitler), a “closet Bolshevik,” a conspiracy monger, “never met a payroll” (? don’t ask me), and/or “crossed a line” — red, amber, green or any other damn color.

Third, it is self-evident that our national leaders, elected or appointed, are equally incapable of sober deliberation, of intellectual honesty (with themselves as well as us), of elementary logic, even of acknowledging factual realities. Consequently, the resulting behavior defies rational analysis. The capstone to these shambles came with U.S. President Joe Biden’s off-the-wall speech on Warsaw and ensuing botched attempt at cleaning up the mess.

Frankly, a president of the United States has to be pretty dim to talk about eliminating the leader of a strong, willful, enemy government. President John F. Kennedy went down that dark tunnel and paid with his life – and Castro didn’t possess 3,800 nuclear warheads (he later had to borrow them from Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev). Regime change in Moscow, of course, has been the administration’s goal since Day No. 1; the wet dream of juveniles visualizing cutting the Gordian knot with one magical stroke? But only a reckless and feckless leader broadcasts his intention while visiting his target’s hostile neighbor. So, it was left to our NATO ambassador, then U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, then the State Department’s public relations flack to “walk it back.”

[Related: Biden Confirms Why the US Needed This War]

Habitual use of that moronic term itself is an indicator of our conceit and arrogance. It is not an apology, nor an admission of error. What it really means is: “Look. I slipped up in saying what I really think – maybe jetlag; but now this one is causing me heartburn. So, let’s lighten up and just erase it from memory.”

Strolling It Back

Yet, you can’t simply erase things like that. People beyond the cowed press corps have heard it — like the guy to whom you passed the black spot. To add to the insult, Biden the next day told us (and “killer/war criminal” Putin) that he didn’t really “walk” it back; rather it was a sort of “stroll back.”

In the course of his stroll, he made a number of pit-stops to emit accusations that the Putin gang in Ukraine were the same Russians who suppressed the Hungarians in 1976, the Czechs in 1968 and the Afghans in the 1980s. It was in their DNA, thereby seconding James Clapper and Wendy Sherman, among others.

Of course, if this impeccable logic were applied to us, he would have to link his government to the Americans who ethnically cleansed the 10 million indigenous peoples from its territory, conquered Mexico and stole half of its territory, caused the death of 400,00 Filipinos who rebelled against the Yankee imperial yoke, fire-bombed Hamburg/ Dresden/Tokyo, nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki, wreaked death and destruction in Vietnam, financed and supplied “death squads” across Central America, illegally invaded Iraq with the heavy consequences we are still enduring, was an active accomplice in the mass killing of Houthis, committed atrocities at Abu Ghraib, Camp Bucca, Guantanamo and “black sites.”

And, just a few months ago, Biden personally stole outright $ 8billion belonging to the starving Afghans whose country we occupied on the specious grounds that we were escorting them into the land of milk & honey.

[Related: Biden’s Punishment of Desperate Afghanistan]

This is a record that should counsel caution before throwing around demands for a war crimes trial. Then again, being anointed by heaven as mankind’s savior nation, you need not say “sorry” – or even walk it back.

[Michel Leclerc]

(...)

Emotion can become a weapon, because when emotion is called for action, anyone who resists (or even asks questions) gets the whipped emotion thrown right in the face. With covid, the emopsyop ran through solidarity and the hijacked version of the concept (https://translate.google.com/website?sl=auto&tl=en&hl=en&u=https://api.zaplog.pro/goto?urlencoded%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.hartgroup.org%252Fbehavioural-psychology%252F) , which is a similar emotional gut. Everyone with questions was then with great energy (but without substantiation) smeared with mud (antisocial, far-right, anti-Semitic), and that is exactly what happens with Ukraine now (putinversteher, putinkuiper, kremlintrol, ....).

(...)

In the video below, notice the emotional music and how beautifully it blends with the distorted voice of the speaking soldiers. Also note the careful production. This is made to hit you. The white bracelet is also the sign for a Russian soldier or civilian sympathizer.



Actor Zelensky can also lose his acting experience again. Note the microphone, he is currently being interviewed and probably also filmed. Prime time!

https://i.postimg.cc/qvK8bChC/bucha-zelenski-actor.jpg

..and on April 4 he will go completely LOOSE to Russia.
Zelensky calls Russian army 'butchers, executioners and rapists'

https://i.postimg.cc/PJpWW41x/2022-04-05-09-09-32-Facebook-Mozilla-Firefox.png

From the article: "You cannot overlook that they are deprived of all that is human. No soul. No heart. They kill intentionally and with pleasure".

Thank you. The Russians could do with that. It's just a little THICK on top.


Defense tip against the emotion weapon

A card often played with the emotion weapon is generalization. This works like this: If you don't go along with forced emotion/empathy then you are 'emotionless', 'cold', or cysnical. This is not right. Not going along with manipulated empathy says nothing about your capacity for real empathy




That is precisely why we should avoid the term "emotional weapon".

Emotion is not our enemy, on the contrary. Only people with BOTH sufficiently high IQ in order to understand the complexity of the situations AND sufficiently high EQ to understand that only strong and good emotions can help people overcome their angst and despair and desire for violence can change the situation.

(As for that, I appreciate your emotional engagement as well as your anger John.)

It is not the emotion that is the weapon but the emotional manipulation.

What our beloved politicos

(how utterly I despise the Nato slave Belgian MP's standing up for the Ukrainian anthem – but how utterly I despise them also for standing up for the USA anthem: in any conflict (as in a brawl) one only stands up for the persecuted and their defenders)..

What our “beloved” politicos and media do is manipulating emotions: that is NOT emotion, as manipulation of anything (including emotions) is "inside-out rotten" cold-blooded intelligence used for evil. And what the people who watch them do, entrapped in their snares, is allowing to be emotionally manipulated because their own emotional quotient has rotted outside-in, so that they have become unable to recognise genuine emotion.

Over time I have come to realise – especially, and exclusively, in the genetical manipulation plague we’re in – that the “intellectual” sleight-of-hand of mentioning "in passing" that one is satisfied/proud to have had one's jabs or boosts (with the almost imperceptible undertone of virtue-signalling) can only be pierced if the discussion is re-contextualised by us emotionally : practically, by scolding the other party of being hypocritical and by refusing to be treated like that as well as refusing to allow the hypocrite to also treat the same way other, more meek or willing, conversational participants.

Gradually, also in discussions about the denatofication/denazification of Ukraine popping up around a glass of beer, in part the same happens – and in part the hypocrisy-unmasking moment it is not even necessary: one can go directly from emotion to emotion, pointing out that the other person’s emotional sensitivity has been betrayed (by media, politics etc.).

I have to admit however, that the social setting of a round of beer or coffee offers us a form of protection.

Encountering a Neonatonazi gang is something else.

[ExomatrixTV]

(...)

Emotion can become a weapon, because when emotion is called for action, anyone who resists (or even asks questions) gets the whipped emotion thrown right in the face. With covid, the emopsyop ran through solidarity and the hijacked version of the concept (https://translate.google.com/website?sl=auto&tl=en&hl=en&u=https://api.zaplog.pro/goto?urlencoded%3Dhttps%253A%252F%252Fwww.hartgroup.org%252Fbehavioural-psychology%252F) , which is a similar emotional gut. Everyone with questions was then with great energy (but without substantiation) smeared with mud (antisocial, far-right, anti-Semitic), and that is exactly what happens with Ukraine now (putinversteher, putinkuiper, kremlintrol, ....).

(...)

In the video below, notice the emotional music and how beautifully it blends with the distorted voice of the speaking soldiers. Also note the careful production. This is made to hit you. The white bracelet is also the sign for a Russian soldier or civilian sympathizer.


Actor Zelensky can also lose his acting experience again. Note the microphone, he is currently being interviewed and probably also filmed. Prime time!

https://i.postimg.cc/qvK8bChC/bucha-zelenski-actor.jpg

..and on April 4 he will go completely LOOSE to Russia.
Zelensky calls Russian army 'butchers, executioners and rapists'

https://i.postimg.cc/PJpWW41x/2022-04-05-09-09-32-Facebook-Mozilla-Firefox.png

From the article: "You cannot overlook that they are deprived of all that is human. No soul. No heart. They kill intentionally and with pleasure".

Thank you. The Russians could do with that. It's just a little THICK on top.



Defense tip against the emotion weapon


A card often played with the emotion weapon is generalization. This works like this: If you don't go along with forced emotion/empathy then you are 'emotionless', 'cold', or cysnical. This is not right. Not going along with manipulated empathy says nothing about your capacity for real empathy




That is precisely why we should avoid the term "emotional weapon".

Emotion is not our enemy, on the contrary. Only people with BOTH sufficiently high IQ in order to understand the complexity of the situations AND sufficiently high EQ to understand that only strong and good emotions can help people overcome their angst and despair and desire for violence can change the situation.

(As for that, I appreciate your emotional engagement as well as your anger John.)

It is not the emotion that is the weapon but the emotional manipulation.

What our beloved politicos

(how utterly I despise the Nato slave Belgian MP's standing up for the Ukrainian anthem – but how utterly I despise them also for standing up for the USA anthem: in any conflict (as in a brawl) one only stands up for the persecuted and their defenders)..

What our “beloved” politicos and media do is manipulating emotions: that is NOT emotion, as manipulation of anything (including emotions) is "inside-out rotten" cold-blooded intelligence used for evil. And what the people who watch them do, entrapped in their snares, is allowing to be emotionally manipulated because their own emotional quotient has rotted outside-in, so that they have become unable to recognise genuine emotion.

Over time I have come to realise – especially, and exclusively, in the genetical manipulation plague we’re in – that the “intellectual” sleight-of-hand of mentioning "in passing" that one is satisfied/proud to have had one's jabs or boosts (with the almost imperceptible undertone of virtue-signalling) can only be pierced if the discussion is re-contextualised by us emotionally : practically, by scolding the other party of being hypocritical and by refusing to be treated like that as well as refusing to allow the hypocrite to also treat the same way other, more meek or willing, conversational participants.

Gradually, also in discussions about the denatofication/denazification of Ukraine popping up around a glass of beer, in part the same happens – and in part the hypocrisy-unmasking moment it is not even necessary: one can go directly from emotion to emotion, pointing out that the other person’s emotional sensitivity has been betrayed (by media, politics etc.).

I have to admit however, that the social setting of a round of beer or coffee offers us a form of protection.

Encountering a Neonatonazi gang is something else.

How (short term) triggered emotions are designed/crafted for (short term) reactions/responses in such a way there was (or is) the assumption there was/is ''no time'' to stay calm and figure out what is really (https://projectavalon.net/forum4/forumdisplay.php?37-Conspiracy-Research) going on is what they want! ... Part of 'Mass Formation Psychosis' ... Mass conditioning allowing weird things to be normalized in a rapid increasing way! ... People stay uncritical to how they are being played because of over the top emotional triggered fears!


Nothing wrong having human emotions except when it is hijacked for a specific purpose ...

Emotions is what I use to power my own passion combined with wisdom & deeper insights HOW we are played/steered in a particular way ... Without having emotions I would be just a predictable robot.

So it is about knowing how you use emotions that can be beneficial for all ... not just serving a specific technocratic (https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?111148-The-Great-Reset) control freaks agenda!

E(motion) >>> motion is movement ... movement is action ... action needs a trigger ... for good or bad depends heavily how wise you were/are when you are doing it.


ps. without emotions I would NOT be here!

So I hear you bro!

cheers,
John Kuhles aka 'ExomatrixTV'
April 7th, 2022 🦜🦋🌳

[Ewan]

For Shaberon,

Mariupol: Remnants Of Ukraine’s 503rd Marine Battalion Surrendered In Full
VIDEO #FROMTHEFRONT#UKRAINE 05.04.2022 - 23607 views
On 4 April, 267 soldiers and officers of the 503rd Independent Battalion of the Ukrainian Navy surrendered in Mariupol. This was the entire surviving personnel of the unit.

The battalion was assigned to the 36th Independent Marines Brigade of the Ukrainian Navy.

The unit lost more than 50% of its personnel killed and wounded in the fighting for Mariupol.

--

All surrendered AFU soldiers are in good health. The lightly wounded were given the necessary medical treatment. The soldiers have been provided with food and basic necessities in full.

This approach executed by the Russian army is radically different from what AFU soldiers do with captive, mostly wounded, Russian soldiers.

The Russian Defence Ministry also said that starting from 9:30 a.m. on April 5 it organizes a humanitarian corridor for soldiers of the AFU territorial defence units and foreign mercenaries to leave the encircled areas of Mariupol.

Mariupol: Remnants Of Ukraine's 503rd Marine Battalion Surrendered In Full

https://southfront.org/mariupol-remnants-of-ukraines-503rd-marine-battalion-surrendered-in-full (https://southfront.org/mariupol-remnants-of-ukraines-503rd-marine-battalion-surrendered-in-full/)

Site down, or just me?



Secure Connection Failed

An error occurred during a connection to southfront.org. Peer’s Certificate has been revoked.

Error code: SEC_ERROR_REVOKED_CERTIFICATE






From Bill:
It loads fine here.
:thumbsup:


Update: Working now 07/04/2022 PM

[shaberon]

Site down, or just me?


Reception may be intermittent:


05.04.2022
SouthFront.org Is Under Attack


I just...copied that...but there is a combination of high traffic and multiple DDoS.

Usually the best thing they have is the Defense Ministry, which never said anything about a General, which Veterans Today did.

Plus a lot of graphic stuff I see no need to link.


We could start a rumour though.

12/2019, Hunter's laptop goes in for repair, but, actually, it winds up immediately getting "fixed" by Trump & co.

2/2022, Ukranian Armed Forces receive marching orders to assemble in the east by the end of the month. But we have not ever discussed why or by whom...to cover up the coming noise?

3/2022, Trump personally calls Putin to crank dirt on the Bidens; and now the laptop becomes "noteworthy".

Leaving around two years for armed conflict and sanctions, until Trump returns to the Oval Office in time to declare peace, drain the swamp, and restore normal trade, thanks to the combination of the laptop and all of the actual evidence from inside Ukraine.


Did he trick Joe into pulling that Ukranian trigger? Or why were they making this big move?

[shaberon]

This is a slightly different question from above. It's not so personal.


First, I am going to Tehran (https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/14010118000102/Repr-US-Spies-Reveal-Leaking-Ddgy-Inelligence-n-Rssia) to get my NBC news report, and now, although the press came out in the 90s to relieve itself of any claim of really reporting the truth, tonight, we are asked to believe it, while the exact same tactic is passed to the government:


TEHRAN (FNA)- US intelligence officials leaked information about the Ukraine conflict that wasn’t “rock solid” and outright made up some claims, all to win an “info war” against the Kremlin, according to an NBC News report on Wednesday. The officials admitted to, and boasted about, releasing this misinformation.

When the American media cited US “intelligence” to warn that Russia was preparing to use chemical weapons in Ukraine, and when President Joe Biden repeated these warnings, they were participating in a disinformation campaign, the NBC report revealed.

According to the intelligence officials who came up with the warning, the intention was to discourage Russia from actually using these weapons, even though they themselves rated the intelligence used “low confidence".

NBC quotes the officials involved in releasing such “low confidence” intelligence, who described their mission to misinform as part of an effort to “undermine Moscow’s propaganda and prevent Russia from defining how the war is perceived in the world".

Some releases were accurate. For instance, the Biden administration insisted for weeks that Russian President Vladimir Putin intended to launch an assault on Ukraine.

More were fabricated: A report that Putin was “being misled by his own advisers”, as NBC put it, was made up. So was an assertion by US officials that Putin had turned to China for military aid. Despite being fabricated, the latter was released to discourage China from actually doing what the officials stated it was doing – sending arms to Russia, they said.

One European official cited by NBC noted that the report was “a public game to prevent any military support from China".

“There’s no way you can prove or disprove that stuff,” a retired intelligence operative told NBC regarding the claims that Putin was being misled by his own team.

Prior to the outbreak of war, US media warned for weeks that Russia was laying the groundwork to attack Russian-speakers in the Donbass region and blame the attack on Ukrainian nationalists, thus generating a pretext for war.

These reports cited Pentagon and State Department officials and unnamed “intelligence sources”, none of whom provided evidence to back up their claims. When pressed, State Department Spokesman Ned Price said that those who doubted the claims were finding “solace in the information the Russians are putting out”. Now the NBC story reveals that the assertion was indeed cooked up by US spies.

“It doesn’t have to be solid intelligence,” one US official stated, adding, “It’s more important to get out ahead of [the Russians], Putin specifically, before they do something.”

While the officials cited in the report admitted to at the very least exaggerating their claims, another unnamed US official quickly responded to the network, insisting that the National Security Council and “intelligence community” made sure to “validate the quality” of everything they released to the public.

One of the authors of the NBC story is Ken Dilanian, a national security reporter shown in 2014 to have had a “collaborative” relationship with the CIA. He was disavowed by his then-employer, the Los Angeles Times, as the result.



You don't have to say something true, you have to say it first--Fox and CNN just as they explained themselves to us??

But, the actual real quote of what the guy really did say, is not real, either, and it's not intended to be, since whatever is said could just be a "message to China"...

Next, won't you know it, the CDC is going to pick up the baton...

However, if you don't want to believe it, you can actually find solace. Voila!

[Tintin]

Site down, or just me?



Secure Connection Failed

An error occurred during a connection to southfront.org. Peer’s Certificate has been revoked.

Error code: SEC_ERROR_REVOKED_CERTIFICATE





From Bill:
It loads fine here.
:thumbsup:


And worked for me too. :thumbsup:

If you're still having trouble perhaps try these links to a couple of articles?

https://southfront.org/pdf.php?hash=159633&code=230c7281aaa5179ec6693fd90b64fe34

https://southfront.org/pdf.php?hash=159474&code=6499a256a6c4eba0be8fdc23ffa49d88

[Tintin]

Scott Ritter is back on Twitter :thumbsup: My understanding is that there was quite the tsunami of pushback on Twitter's folly and misapplication of the term 'harassment' :)

https://twitter.com/anyaparampil/status/1511768607977525248

1511768607977525248

https://twitter.com/RealScottRitter/status/1511920079675576323


1511920079675576323

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Russ_Warrior/status/1512048500217122828
1512048500217122828

The head of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, on what will happen in Ukraine and in the world:
“Russia’s special military operation was a real moment of truth for the Russian world, firmly declaring its readiness to fully defend its right to an original existence in the face of aggressive globalism embodied in American hegemony, NATO expansion, the policy of “liberal interventionism” and LGBT propaganda.

The bitterness of the confrontation clearly indicates that we are talking about something much larger than the fate of the Kiev regime. In fact, the architecture of the entire world order is at stake. We can say with confidence: there will be no return to the old.

The Russian special operation will definitely put an end to attempts to turn Ukraine into a Russophobic puppet state, building its identity on the basis of manic denial and demonization of everything that objectively connects it with Russia.

At the current stage, Washington sees its main task in prolonging the conflict as much as possible, making it as costly as possible for both Moscow and Kyiv, and at the same time preventing the escalation from spreading further to the West. NATO, as American "strategists" emphasize, should try to turn Ukraine "into a kind of Afghanistan."


The rest is here:
https://t.me/dimsmirnov175/32157

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1511871527532204036
1511871527532204036

https://twitter.com/MoonofA/status/1511933254190116871
1511933254190116871

https://twitter.com/camilapress/status/1511826552090157058
1511826552090157058

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1512077821048356874
1512077821048356874

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1512011131661033475
1512011131661033475

[ExomatrixTV]

1511921482275999754
source (https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1511921482275999754)

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1511890045590028289
1511890045590028289

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1512057641463578624
1512057641463578624

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1512061681610145792
1512061681610145792

https://twitter.com/MarkSleboda1/status/1512015280255520771
1512015280255520771

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1512058854313451524
1512058854313451524

[Bill Ryan]

Another 5 star livestream from The Duran (Alex Christoforou, Alexander Mercouris and Gonzalo Lira), covering every current Ukraine-related topic, military, economic and geopolitical.

Interestingly, at 37:15 they branch off for a few minutes into Obama's recent visit to the White House (resulting in an ignominious and embarrassing publicly visible cold shoulder to Biden), and the three presenters all agree that Biden will step down and an Obama-supported Kamala will be president. Probably not the thread to discuss this, but I don't concur: Kamala is almost as much of an unsupportable liability as Biden, and she'd have to be sidelined (somehow!) as well.

:focus:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAqcyVTXlH4

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/TheOliverStone/status/1511729208233541635
1511729208233541635

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/TheOliverStone/status/1511729209823178757
1511729209823178757

https://consortiumnews.com/2022/04/05/patrick-lawrence-the-us-bubble-of-pretend/

PATRICK LAWRENCE: The US Bubble of Pretend
April 5, 2022
The lack of objective, principled coverage of the war in Ukraine is a degenerate state of affairs. The one thing worse is the extent to which it’s perfectly fine with most Americans.


Ukrainian government photo of soldiers during battle in Mariupol on March 15. (CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
By Patrick Lawrence
Special to Consortium News

It is perfectly obvious by now, to anyone who cares to look, that mainstream media in America and the other Western powers are not reporting the Ukraine crisis accurately.

Let me try that another way: The government-supervised New York Times and the rest of the corporate-owned media on both sides of the Atlantic lie routinely to their readers and viewers as to why Russia intervened in Ukraine, the progress of its military operation, the conduct of Ukrainian forces, and America’s role in purposely provoking and prolonging this crisis.

So far as I know, this is the first war in modern history with no objective, principled coverage in mainstream media of day-to-day events and their context. None. It is morn-to-night propaganda, disinformation and lies of omission — most of it fashioned by the Nazi-infested Zelensky regime in Kiev and repeated uncritically as fact.

There is one thing worse than this degenerate state of affairs. It is the extent to which the media’s malpractice is perfectly fine to most Americans. Tell us what to think and believe no matter if it is true, they say, and we will think and believe it. Show us some pictures, for images are all.

There are larger implications to consider here. Critical as it is that we understand this conflict, Ukraine is a mirror in which we see ourselves as we have become. For more Americans than I wish were so, reality forms only in images. These Americans are no longer occupants of their own lives. Risking a paradox, what they take to be reality is detached from reality.

This majority — and it is almost certainly a majority — has no thoughts or views except those first verified through the machinery of manufactured images and “facts.” Television screens, the pages of purportedly authoritative newspapers, the air waves of government-funded radio stations — NPR, the BBC — serve to certify realities that do not have to be real, truths that do not have to be true.

This leaves us in a sad and very parlous place.

Sad: Is there some state more pitiful than having no genuine connection to one’s own thoughts, perceptions, experience—altogether to one’s life? If Americans are not a profoundly sad people behind all the smiles we see in advertising, idiotic comedy shows, and on Facebook, then I must be missing something.

Parlous: Over the course of some decades — from the mid–Cold War years, I would say — Americans have been rendered highly vulnerable to the manipulations of those who control the images through which most people have come to live. Anyone who has read a history of the 20th century knows where this can lead.

The five weeks that have passed since the Russian intervention on Feb. 24 have been shocking on both these counts. The derelictions of the press and broadcasters are without precedent in my lifetime, and with Vietnam, the Iraq War, and the covert operation in Syria among the wreckage in the rearview mirror, this is saying something.

I will let the American public’s enthusiasm for the sinkhole that is Ukraine, the Azov Battalion, and the ridiculous posturing of President Volodymyr Zelensky, the comedian who is no longer funny, speak for itself.

‘Questionable Veracity’


Fan art of the “Ghost of Kyiv” by Andriy Dankovych. (CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimeda Commons)
Ten days into the Russian intervention, the propaganda coming out of Kiev was already so preposterous The New York Times felt compelled to publish a piece headlined, “In Ukraine’s Information War, a Blend of Fact and Fiction.” This was a baldly rendered apologia for the many “stories of questionable veracity,” as The Times put it, then in circulation. I do love The Times for its delicate phrasing when describing indelicate matters.

There was the “Ghost of Kiev” story, featuring an heroic fighter pilot who turned out to derive from a video game. There were the Snake Island heroes, 13 Ukrainian soldiers who held out to the death on some small speck in the Black Sea, except that it turned out they surrendered, though not before Zelensky awarded them posthumous medals of honor that were not posthumous.

After railing against disinformation for years, The Times wants us to know, disinformation is O.K. in Ukraine because the Ukrainians are our side and they are simply “boosting morale.”

We cannot say we weren’t warned. The Ghost of Kiev and Snake Island turn out now to be mere prelude, opening acts in the most extensive propaganda operation of the many I can recall.

There was the maternity ward the Russians supposedly bombed in Mariupol. And then the theater, and then the art school. All filled with huddling citizens the Russian air force cynically targeted because “this is genocide,” as the ever-intemperate Zelensky does not hesitate to assert.

All of this has been reported as fact in the Times and other major dailies and, of course, by the major broadcasters. There have been pictures. There have been videos, all very persuasive to the eye.

And then, as evidence mounts that these incidents were staged as propaganda to frame the Russians and draw NATO forces directly into the war, a silence worthy of a Catholic chapel descends. We read no more of the maternity ward that turned out to be an improvised Azov base, or the theater, where citizens were herded, photographed in raggedy blankets, and sent away. Ditto the art school: Nothing more on this since the initial reports began to collapse. No body counts, no mention of the fact that Russian jets did not fly over Mariupol on the days in question.


Snake Island in Ukraine. (CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
Before proceeding to Bucha, the outrage of the moment, I must reproduce a quotation from that propaganda-is-O.K. piece The Times published in its March 3 editions. It is from a Twitter user who was distressed that it became public that the Ghost of Kiev turned out to be a ghost and the Snake Island heroes didn’t do much by way of holding the fort.

“Why can’t we just let people believe some things?” this thoughtful man or woman wanted to know. What is wrong, in other words, if thinking and believing nice things that aren’t true makes people feel better?

America the beautiful, or something like that.

Bucha is a suburb of 35,000 souls a few miles north of Kiev and one of the cities Russian forces began to evacuate on March 29 as peace talks in Istanbul progressed. Two days later the mayor, Anatoly Fedoruk, celebrated the city’s liberation in a selfie-speech to his citizenry. He made no mention of anything untoward in Bucha’s streets, backyards, or public spaces.

Four days later, April 2, a special unit of the Ukrainian national police deployed to Bucha. And suddenly the place turns out to be a hellhole: bodies in the streets — 410, according to the Prosecutor General’s office in Kiev — evidence of atrocities galore, people bound and shot point blank. The whole nine, in short.

Instant Outrage

The outrage from Washington, London and Paris — “worldwide outrage,” this would be — was instant. No demand for an impartial inquiry, forensic inspections, or any such thing. No one asked why corpses left in the street for five days appeared to be fresh, or why the relatives of the dead left them there until Kiev’s commando unit arrived.

António Guterres, the U.N. secretary-general, was level-headed enough to state, “It is essential that an independent investigation leads to effective accountability.” This is the only sound position at this point. But we know from a long history how far SGs at the U.N. get with this sort of talk.

In my read this is yet another of the false flags the Kiev regime flies almost by the day now. Paying-attention people will not miss the striking similarity between these incidents and the numerous put-up jobs that featured in Washington’s covert operation in Syria and the campaign of those famous “moderate rebels” who desperately wanted to draw the U.S. into the conflict.

As a matter of principle we must await evidence of what happened in Bucha, even as we know we are likely to see as much about events there as we have in Mariupol. We also know that to most people neither evidence nor its absence matters.

We have been told once again what to think and believe, and most of us will think and believe it.


Media engineer. (State Department/Ron Przysucha)
We are to add this to various other “truths” now almost universally accepted: The Russian intervention had nothing to do with NATO expansion and was “unprovoked” — that favored term in the Biden regime. Ukrainian forces have pushed the Russians into retreat: not that the pressure on Kiev was a Russian diversionary tactic to keep Ukrainian forces away from Donbass where the fighting is.

After the Pentagon Papers came out in 1971, Hannah Arendt published an essay in The New York Review of Books called “Lying in Politics.” In it she wrote of America’s slide into a sort of collective psychosis she termed “defactualization.” Facts are fragile, Arendt wrote, in that they tell no story in themselves. They can be assembled to mean whatever one wants them to mean. This leaves them vulnerable to the manipulations of storytellers.

“The deliberate falsehood deals with contingent facts,” Arendt explained in this remarkable piece of work, “that is, with matters which carry no inherent truth within themselves, no necessity to be as they are; factual truths are never compellingly true.”

A dead body in a Ukrainian street, in other words, can be assigned a meaning that, once it is established, evidence to the contrary cannot be used to erase.

It is a half-century since Arendt published “Lying in Politics.” And it is to that time, the 1960s and 1970s, that we must trace the formation of what now amounts to America’s great bubble of pretend. The world as it is has mattered less and less since Arendt’s time, the world as we have wished it to be has mattered more and more.

Nine years before Arendt published her NYRB piece, Daniel Boorstin brought out The Image: Or, What happened to the American Dream, an unjustly neglected work. “I describe the world of our making,” he wrote, “how we have used our wealth, our literacy, our technology, and our progress to create the thicket of unreality which stands between us and the facts of life.”

The press, as you can imagine, did not escape Boorstin’s scrutiny. “The reporter’s task,” he wrote memorably, “is to find a way to weave these threads of unreality into a fabric the reader will not recognize as entirely unreal.”

This is our condition. The Ukraine crisis is the mirror that reflects us as we are.

Now I will relate a peculiar coincidence, pertinent to our case.

Last week I took it upon myself to watch Marcel Ophuls’ The Sorrow and the Pity, all four hours of it. This is the famously explosive documentary that forced the French to come to terms with the extent to which they had collaborated with the Nazis during the three years and some they occupied France.


Movie poster of an eye with a single teardrop and a tiny swastika near the pupil. (Wikimedia Commons)
This film has a special meaning for me. It came out in 1969, just as I arrived in Paris for university studies. France was in an uproar over Ophuls’ film. It was banned from broadcast on French television until 1981. I did not understand much of this at the time.

The Sorrow and the Pity shredded to pieces, relentlessly, unblinkingly, the national myth that the French had all been heroes of the resistance, or had aided it, or had in some way stood against the collaborationist Vichy regime of Marshal Pétain, hero of Verdun in World War I, capitulationist in World War II. This was nothing like the case.

Now I understand what the young student long ago could not quite grasp. The French simply could not face Ophuls’ unyielding exposure of who they had been. Ophuls had punctured the enduring bubble of pretend within which they had lived for 25 years after the 1945 victory in Europe.

People can live in these bubbles a very long time. The unreality within them can be very persuasive. The French finally emerged from their bubble. It was painful, a passage full of angst, but they were fortunate to have escaped.

Will we have our interim of sorrow, of pity, and emerge from our bubble the better for it? May we someday be so blest.

Patrick Lawrence, a correspondent abroad for many years, chiefly for the International Herald Tribune, is a columnist, essayist, author and lecturer. His most recent book is Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century. Follow him on Twitter @thefloutist. His web site is Patrick Lawrence. Support his work via his Patreon site.

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.

[Ewan]

BBC-fixer-war-ukrainian-nationalist-pr-operative (https://thegrayzone.com/2022/03/25/bbc-fixer-war-ukrainian-nationalist-pr-operative/)

Not exactly current, article date 25th March, but another example of horrific reporting standards in the West.

BBC reports on the suspicious destruction of a theater in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol were co-authored by a Ukrainian PR agent tied to a firm at the forefront of her country’s information warfare efforts.

Max Blumenthal·March 25, 2022



Four days before the incident, Mariupol locals informed Russian media that the theater was to be the site of a false flag operation aimed at generating Western outrage and triggering NATO intervention.

One day after the incident took place, civilians evacuated from Mariupol testified to Donbas-based media that Azov fighters blew the theater up as they retreated. They went on to detail how Azov used them as human shields throughout the fighting, even sniping at them as they tried to escape.

Interview with #Mariupol refugee⬇️
You know what happened at the drama theatre?
–They blew up the drama theatre
So, it wasn´t a bombing but an explosion?
–Nothing landed on it, it exploded from inside
Did Azov let ppl leave the city?
–They didn´t let anyone leave#Ukraine #Russia pic.twitter.com/jKQDj8BLWj

— Prof. Marcello Ferrada de Noli (@ProfessorsBlogg) March 22, 2022

Meanwhile, Orysia Khimiak, the BBC go to suggested previously...

https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Screen-Shot-2022-03-24-at-11.12.12-PM.png?resize=970%2C1024&ssl=1


Meanwhile, CNN interviewed a Ukrainian self-proclaimed witness to the theater attack named Maria Kutnyakova who also happened to be a professional public relations operative. In fact, Kutnyakova had been the Digital Communications Manager for the United State Agency for International Development (USAID) in Mariupol.

https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Screen-Shot-2022-03-31-at-12.39.03-AM.png?resize=1024%2C725&ssl=1
Maria Kutnyakova

And so on..

For its part, the BBC turned to McKenzie Intelligence, a private contractor founded by a former UK military intelligence officer, to hypothesize that a Russian 500-pound laser guided missile was used to destroy the theater. But as the open source analyst Kobs pointed out, “the center of destruction sits right in the middle of the stage, so two dumb bombs can’t possibly be to blame.”

While the BBC seems intent on legitimizing the official Ukrainian narrative of the theater incident, other mainstream outlets have quietly moved on. “Even now, the fates of most of those people [inside the theater] remain unknown,” the NY Times noted in passing on March 21.

https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Screen-Shot-2022-03-25-at-12.42.46-PM.png?resize=1024%2C463&ssl=1

[JackMcThorn]

I lost a little confidence in the Irish to-day.

In the end of March [basically only just over a week ago], they bounced 4 senior Russian diplomats from Dublin.

Today, Russia bounced 2 of 6 Irish diplomats from Moscow.

The Irish Foreign Minister says "There is no justification for the taking of this measure."

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2022/0407/1291059-moscow-ireland-embassy/

I expect the Russian will be taking more steps like this. In fact, this response to Ireland was quite quicker than expected.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/TheScrum1/status/1512147573477359617
1512147573477359617

Real war, propaganda war."
The case of Mariupol.

5 hr ago

Tragedy in many acts. The Mariupol Drama Theatre, 2019. (Sergienkod, cc by SA 4.0/ Wikimedia Commons.)
The Scrum is pleased to introduce Tony Kevin to its pages. He has given us a piece of great distinction concerning one of the pressing questions of our time. It is famously said that truth is war’s first casualty. In the Ukraine case, it has been a cruel, gruesome death. In our estimation, the Western press has just made a paradigm shift: It is now fully and with no apparent compunction committed to serving as the propaganda arm of the invisible government, as Bernays so directly put it in Propaganda, his 1928 classic on the dark art he did so much to perfect.

Anthony Kevin served for 30 years as a career diplomat in the Australian foreign service, 1968 to 1998. His postings included the Soviet Union (1969–71), the U.N. in New York (1974–76), Poland (as ambassador, 1991–94), and Cambodia (as ambassador, 1994–97). Since retiring from the foreign service, Tony Kevin has been active as an independent commentator and author. His two most recent books, Return to Moscow (University of Western Australia, 2017) and Russia and the West (published privately, 2019), have defended the values of East–West détente and a stable U.N.–based world order against increasingly hostile anti–Russian and anti–Chinese Western narratives.

Tony Kevin lives in Canberra. His website is www.tonykevin.com.au. His email address is tonykevin@grapevine.com.au , and his Twitter account is @tonykevin. He is on Facebook at “Tony Kevin.”

We run this exceptional piece, of great documentary value, at length. Due to gmail’s technical limitations, to read the whole click here or on the headline above. This will make the piece available in its entirety.

This is the first in a two-part series.

— P. L.

By Tony Kevin

6 APRIL—The fate of Mariupol has come to symbolize and epitomize the larger question of the fate of Donbass and Ukraine as a whole. This has hung in the balance not only since the Russian military operation that began on 24 February; the crisis in Ukraine and the breakaway republics in the east has been coming slowly to a boil since the coup d’etat in Kiev eight years before this, in February 2014. This coup removed an admittedly imperfect but elected, pluralist government and replaced it with a violently anti–Russian nationalist regime, which thereafter enjoyed United States protection and support. There were momentous consequences in Crimea, Donbass and Odessa, during 2014 and subsequently.

This essay considers the context and course of the battle for Mariupol, now hopefully drawing to a close, and the illuminating case study of the mysterious major explosion on 24 March that wrecked the beloved Mariupol Drama Theatre, risking the lives of allegedly hundreds of people sheltering in its basements. It also suggests how the Mariupol story demonstrates the politically significant dynamics between the real war and the information war in and around Ukraine.

As a friend recently commented:

The success of “disinformation warfare” often stems from an initial, massively coordinated presentation to world media of a simple but false story, which no amount of scientific and rational argument can later dislodge. Such a story is framed to appeal to emotional triggers that enrage and incense people before they have the chance to see if the story is true….

We are now seeing this play out again, in respect of Bucha and other towns and villages to the north of Kiev, where a tactical or diplomatic withdrawal by previously occupying Russian forces has created opportunities for a skilful and profoundly evil Ukrainian government disinformation warfare blitz, involving carrying out disguised mass murders then wrongly blamed on Russia.

In Bucha during the night of 31 March–April 1, two days after Russian main forces had left the area, and during an obligatory curfew and announced purge of “saboteurs and collaborators,” Azov Battalion death squads went house-to-house on a killing spree, dragging out and killing almost 200 local civilians on a preselected kill list. They then dressed and rearranged the freshly killed bodies in the streets as props to support false claims that these were local civilians killed by Russian soldiers as they withdrew. The international media had meanwhile been primed and ready to run this story in real time and without time for checking or delays.

The international outrage created by this temporarily successful disinformation warfare offensive has had immediate negative effects. It has confused some wavering governments and peace groups as to which side to believe. It has diverted attention from the Russia–Ukraine peace talks, and possibly damaged them.

I do not know whether these effects will be long-lasting. In a few days, the war in the East will progress toward military resolution, and more reliable information about what happened in Bucha may emerge. Real wars prevail in the end over false information wars. When the dust settles, I will publish here a follow-up piece on Bucha.

My sources for the following essay on Mariupol are various. I finished a month in Russia on 7 March. I have studied this war fulltime on the internet since returning to Australia. I have consulted national presidential, foreign and defence ministry websites; official news agencies such as TASS and Donbass Amalgamated News, as well as semi-official sites close to governments, such as RT, the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and Xinhua. I have also made use of a variety of independent media I have come to trust.

The battle for Mariupol in context

MARIUPOL, A MAJOR Russian-speaking seaport on the Azov Sea, with a population estimated at 460,000 prior to the Russian intervention, was Ukraine’s tenth-largest city and Donbass’s third-largest city. It was theseaport serving the Donbass, the shorthand term for the Lugansk and Donetsk cities and oblasts, or provinces. These two resource-rich provinces are often compared with the Ruhr, Germany’s major industrial region. They are the most industrialized and populous parts of Ukraine, blessed with highly fertile black earth soils, rich deposits of iron ore and coal, and with major steel industries. The Donbass was depopulated and devastated during fierce Soviet–Nazi battles in the Great Patriotic War. The three cities were completely rebuilt from rubble after the German defeat, as handsome Stalinist-style planned cities. They were repopulated with returning prewar inhabitants and with new immigrants from other parts of Ukraine and nearby southern Russia. Their majority language was Russian.

The coup in Kiev in February 2014 triggered the subsequent incorporation of Crimea into Russia and destabilized the whole Donbass region. A popular protest movement quickly developed for civil rights for the Russian-speaking local majorities. As these regions did not support the coup, as was their right, this grew into separatist movements centered on the cities of Donetsk and Lugansk. They sought Russian protection, speaking even of secession and joining the Russian Federation, and they took up arms against Kiev.

In May 2014 Kiev reacted with a brutal military campaign of repression. The rebel cities at this point violently resisted. Kiev ordered full-scale artillery bombardments. Many civilians died in 2014, but this war has never ended. It has caused 14,000 civilian deaths in Donbass, according to data from the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The OHCHR reports a total of 1.6 million displaced persons.

A shaky, internationally monitored ‘line of contact’ was established in late 2014, indicated by the dotted line on our map. Even now, deadly shelling of Donetsk continues from the Kiev-controlled western part of Donetsk province, where the pride of the Ukrainian army—60,000 men in uniform, including from its nationalist battalions—now sit in concrete fortifications encircled by Russian forces. Their continued shelling of civilian areas in Donetsk city, sporadic but lethal, constitute militarily useless, pointless acts of malice. In coming weeks, these Ukrainian troops, which Russian forces have now trapped, will either surrender and evacuate under agreed terms or will be eliminated.


(Courtesy of The Economist.)
Just 70 miles to the south, Mariupol had the misfortune after the 2014 Donbass insurgency to find itself occupied by a powerful Ukrainian nationalist military force, units of the notoriously Russia-hating Azov Battalion. For the next eight years, the Azovs have garrisoned a sullenly hostile city. The local economy slumped, as Mariupol lost its main function as the Black Sea port for the now cut-off rebel Donbass cities. Inevitably, the Azov garrison attracted a Ukrainian population of opportunistic carpetbaggers and compradors, who filled city administrative posts. The citizenry made the best of a bad situation. Russian-speaking locals hated their Azov–Ukrainian overlords, and vice versa.

After the war began on 24 February, Russian forces from Crimea and the Donbass quickly encircled Mariupol and laid siege to the city. Both sides knew that if Russia took the city, there would be a continuous land bridge between Crimea and mainland Russia. Kiev thus called on the Azovs to resist to the last man.

https://thescrum.substack.com/p/real-war-propaganda-war?s=w

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Antiwarcom/status/1512179410195021860
1512179410195021860

https://twitter.com/Antiwarcom/status/1512133830055907330
1512133830055907330

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Antiwarcom/status/1511901798293860352
1511901798293860352


https://news.antiwar.com/2022/04/06/us-publicizing-bad-intelligence-in-information-war-against-russia/
US Publicizing Bad Intelligence in Information War Against Russia

The US has no evidence Russia was preparing a chemical weapons attack despite claims from Biden officials
In recent weeks, US officials, including President Biden, claimed that Russia was considering using chemical weapons in Ukraine. But three US officials told NBC News this week that there is no evidence Russia had moved any chemical weapons near Ukraine and that the claims were part of an information war against Moscow.

The US officials said that the Biden administration has been sharing declassified intelligence that wasn’t “rock solid.” The NBC report said that multiple US officials acknowledged that the US has used information as a weapon against Russia “even when confidence in the accuracy of the information wasn’t high.”

The report said the US has used “low confidence” information, like the chemical weapons claims, as a “deterrent effect.” One official told NBC that by sharing the information, the US is just “trying to get inside Putin’s head.”

Another example of the US sharing bad intelligence is the claim that Putin is being misinformed by his advisors about the war in Ukraine, which first surfaced in media reports last week. Two US officials told NBC that the intelligence about Putin’s inner circle lying to him “wasn’t conclusive” and was “based more on analysis than hard evidence.”

In another deceptive intelligence release, the US said Russia would view providing MiG fighter jets to Ukraine as escalatory, which bolstered the Pentagon’s position not to transfer the planes to Kyiv. But two US officials said that was also true for Stinger missiles, which the US and its allies have given to the Ukrainians.

A European official and two US officials said that the claim that Russia asked China for military help “lacked hard evidence.” Both Beijing and Moscow strongly denied the claim after it spread through Western media.

The NBC report said that by declassifying so much intelligence, the Biden administration was able to publicly predict Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But during the lead-up to the invasion and since, Western media reports have been full of other unsubstantiated claims about Russia and Ukraine.

Author: Dave DeCamp

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.

[indiana]

I lost a little confidence in the Irish to-day.

In the end of March [basically only just over a week ago], they bounced 4 senior Russian diplomats from Dublin.

Today, Russia bounced 2 of 6 Irish diplomats from Moscow.

The Irish Foreign Minister says "There is no justification for the taking of this measure."

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2022/0407/1291059-moscow-ireland-embassy/

I expect the Russian will be taking more steps like this. In fact, this response to Ireland was quite quicker than expected.

Deleted my comment. Probably doesn't belong here. Thanks

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Consortiumnews/status/1512152009624866840
1512152009624866840

Caitlin Johnstone: Defending Psychological War
April 7, 2022
We may be at the stage of narrative control where some in the public are trained to defend their government’s right to commit psychological warfare.

NBC News has a report out citing multiple anonymous U.S. officials, humorously titled “In a break with the past, U.S. is using intel to fight an info war with Russia, even when the intel isn’t rock solid.“

The officials say the Biden administration has been rapidly pushing out “intelligence” about Moscow’s plans in Ukraine that is “low-confidence” or “based more on analysis than hard evidence” or even just plain false, in order to fight an information war against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The report says that toward this end the U.S. government has deliberately circulated false or poorly evidenced claims about impending chemical weapons attacks, about Russian plans to orchestrate a false flag attack in the Donbass to justify an invasion, about Putin’s advisers misinforming him and about Russia seeking arms supplies from China.


Excerpt, emphasis mine:

“It was an attention-grabbing assertion that made headlines around the world: U.S. officials said they had indications suggesting Russia might be preparing to use chemical agents in Ukraine.

President Joe Biden later said it publicly. But three U.S. officials told NBC News this week there is no evidence Russia has brought any chemical weapons near Ukraine. They said the U.S. released the information to deter Russia from using the banned munitions.

It’s one of a string of examples of the Biden administration’s breaking with recent precedent by deploying declassified intelligence as part of an information war against Russia. The administration has done so even when the intelligence wasn’t rock solid, officials said, to keep Russian President Vladimir Putin off balance.”

So, they lied. They may hold that they lied for a noble reason, but they lied. They knowingly circulated information they had no reason to believe was true, and that lie was amplified by all the most influential media outlets in the western world.

Another example of the Biden administration releasing a false narrative as part of its “information war”:

“Likewise, a charge that Russia had turned to China for potential military help lacked hard evidence, a European official and two U.S. officials said.

The U.S. officials said there are no indications China is considering providing weapons to Russia. The Biden administration put that out as a warning to China not to do so, they said.”

On the empire’s claim last week that Putin is being misled by his advisers because they are afraid of telling him the truth, NBC reports that this assessment “wasn’t conclusive — based more on analysis than hard evidence.”

I’d actually made fun of this ridiculous C.I.A. press release when it was uncritically published disguised as a breaking news report by The New York Times:

The rest:

https://consortiumnews.com/2022/04/07/caitlin-johnstone-defending-psychological-war/

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/_AbolishPolice_/status/1512175078829867008
1512175078829867008

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1512156033233616897
1512156033233616897

[shaberon]

That is too bad that Kamala is not only un-electable, but actually un-appointable, great choice by Joe in providing his best job security right now.

As long as he has that, he has basically unlimited pardons, so, many legal actions at the current time are unrealistic.

Chances are that he is a common criminal who cannot actually achieve the level of hatred that seems sacred to British government.


I just salvaged at least a dozen fully cooked chicken breasts that were headed for the trash. My cook is from Peru, where they are enjoying a new month of emergency thanks to riots over the immediately-escalated prices of fuel and fertilizer. I bet if I ask her about that, she will blame Americans before I finish the question. Here, our best estimate is that around 40% of our food is actually wasted instead of ever getting to anyone. So, if we miss 15%, it is mostly going to hurt Peru, and places like that.

We are throwing away food, while ensuring availability problems to oh so many places.

That is how UNICEF stays in business, no one actually wants to solve world hunger.



According to Defense Ministry, this represents millions in essential aid for east Europe:


...a large concentration of foreign-made weapons and military equipment supplied to the Ukrainian Armed Forces was destroyed on the eve at the Lozovaya railway station in Kharkov Region.


Well, our Defense and State basically just said they lie just to have something to talk about, which means, they did not invent this for Russia's sake, but have a standing practice as of always. It includes the president. They even said this through a regular CIA mouthpiece--equivalent to all the NED broadcasts which were, for example, all over Ukraine.

They have even offered a solution--don't listen to them. I will vouch for the fact that it makes you think and feel a whole lot better. So far, this is not enough to make them quit providing problems with solutions.

I am waiting for the feedback to come rolling along about how much better off we are over mostly sanctioning ourselves. That probably will make it really easy for Trump, or, even a wind-up toy, to campaign in two years on some kind of "restore normal relations" platform. The gap from now to then is hard to find a way out of.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1512323343508201473
1512323343508201473

https://twitter.com/MoonofA/status/1512359184532189184
1512359184532189184

https://twitter.com/politblogme/status/1512363089106280448
1512363089106280448

https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1512335437502758913
1512335437502758913

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/gbazov/status/1512162045881458700
1512162045881458700

https://twitter.com/CathyVoganSPK/status/1512309176545939461
1512309176545939461

[kfm27917]

Here are some articles on Russian losses in Ukraine

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/45108/russias-increasingly-bizarre-artisanal-armor-looks-more-mad-max-than-major-power

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/44904/russian-landing-ship-destroyed-in-massive-explosion-in-captured-ukrainian-port-city

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/SputnikInt/status/1512401256064557058
1512401256064557058

https://twitter.com/SputnikInt/status/1512415662085394436
1512415662085394436

https://twitter.com/SputnikInt/status/1512401256064557058
1512401256064557058

[pyrangello]

Situation Update: Russian Soldiers Discover Underground Ukraine City, Seized Bioweapons Labs With Half Animal & Human Children! Hellish Experiments! Worse Than Under White House! - We The People Must Video

There's some pretty heart wrenching videos in this. Its long but you'll get the message. The narrative done by Macaliister is very detailed, touches on the DUMBs in Ukraine and DC, and touches on the reveal that is about to take place. God bless all the troops going in these tunnels and all the medical personal treating all these kids. May hell be waiting for those who ran these experiments in the most expedient way. God bless humanity to prevail so this never happens again, Ever!

https://beforeitsnews.com/opinion-conservative/2022/04/situation-update-russian-soldiers-discover-underground-ukraine-city-seized-bioweapons-labs-with-half-animal-human-children-hellish-experiments-worse-than-under-white-house-we-the-people-m-3624927.html

https://rumble.com/v105aom-situation-update-4722.html
vxj4o2

[pyrangello]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10699187/Thirty-dead-100-wounded-Russian-missile-hits-Ukrainian-railway-station.html
Twisted Russians wrote 'for our children' on missile used in attack on Ukrainian railway station refugees that killed at least 39 civilians - including four children - who were fleeing Putin's atrocities

Here's a front page headline on the daily mail this morning, look at the photo of the missile and look at the twitter photo of the missile from Ravenlocke just above this , Its the same missile, the exact same missile.

[bluestflame]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10699187/Thirty-dead-100-wounded-Russian-missile-hits-Ukrainian-railway-station.html
Twisted Russians wrote 'for our children' on missile used in attack on Ukrainian railway station refugees that killed at least 39 civilians - including four children - who were fleeing Putin's atrocities

Here's a front page headline on the daily mail this morning, look at the photo of the missile and look at the twitter photo of the missile from Ravenlocke just above this , Its the same missile, the exact same missile.


reminds me of the condition of the 911 bombers passports

[JackMcThorn]

Regarding the missile, I've seen on telegram the following:

The AFU has blamed the Russians, but this picture of the missile shows that it is indisputably a Tochka-U rocket — used exclusively by the Ukrainian side. It’s the same kind of missile that two weeks ago hit the center of Donetsk and killed 27 civilians.

Honestly, I have no idea.


Gonzalo Lira indicates that it must be a Ukrainian missile.

PpUsnNiHTaE

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RWApodcast/status/1512396027646681090
1512396027646681090

https://twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1512433943743811593
1512433943743811593

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1512324759647924224
1512324759647924224

https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1512324829407596547
1512324829407596547

https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1512326876953559042
1512326876953559042

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/MoonofA/status/1512380317847461894
1512380317847461894

Ukrainian Tochka-U Missile Killed Dozens At Kramatorsk Train Station
April 08, 2022

The current top headline of the New York Times is:

Live Updates: Russia Strikes Train Station, Ukraine Says, as Thousands Flee From East

“Dozens” were feared dead and injured, a local official said, after a missile strike in Kramatorsk, which had been a main point of evacuation for people trying to leave eastern Ukraine.
CNN quotes an Ukrainian military official who described it as an Iskander missile strike:

Two missiles struck the station, according to the head of Ukraine's national rail system, Oleksandr Kamyshin. Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of Donetsk regional military administration, said the Russian military used Iskander short-range ballistic missiles.
A pro-Ukrainian twitter account also describes this as a result of the missile attack (the time stamp is UTC+2):

bigger
The same account describes this as the remains of the booster section of the missile that hit the train station:


bigger
The picture in full size:
bigger
Another view of the debris from a different account:

bigger
A check with Tineye proves that the pictures above have not be published earlier. They are new.

The booster section of a missile typically departs from the war head in mid-flight and lands separately. However, the booster section shown in the above pictures is from a Tochka-U missile.

Here are pictures from GlobalSecurity.org of the SS-21 SCARAB (9K79 Tochka) system. The booster section is the aft half to the right:

bigger
When unfolded the fins and the grid stabilizers are clearly identifiable.

bigger
Russia, unlike the Ukraine, is no longer using Tochka-U missiles. They have been replaced by Iskandar missile systems. As the not recently edited Wikipedia entry about Tochka operators says:

Russia - 220 launchers. Missile systems have been upgraded since 2004 (replacing the onboard automated control systems) and are scheduled to be replaced by the 9K720 Iskander missiles by 2020
In a March 16 press release Russia denied that its forces still use Tochka-U missiles:

UNITED NATIONS, March 16. /TASS/. Tochka-U tactical missiles are not in service in Russian Armed Forces, Russian mission to the UN said in its letter to the UN Security Council and General Assembly.
"Given the proven record of the Kiev regime promoting false allegations and fake evidence, it should be noted that Tochka-U tactical missiles are not in service in the Russian Armed Forces," the letter says.

Ukraine, which has retained some 90 launcher systems for Tochka-U missiles from Soviet times, has recently fired several of these against Russian and Donbas forces.

I have failed to find any recent reports of the use of Tochka missiles by Russian forces.

This clipping from the most recent Southfront map shows Kramatorsk right in the middle and not immediately near the frontline.

bigger
A current situation report says that Russia has recently systematically disabled train tracks along the Ukrainian supply lines to the Donbas front:

As the big showdown in Donbass looms, a lot of forces are pouring in on both sides. Russia has shifted strategies and is now striking railway stations and reinforcement hubs / corridors, as many have hoped it would do. Overnight there were several reports of important railway hubs being hit by missiles. One near Zhytomir, which is possibly the single most important reinforcement hub to the frontlines in all of western Ukraine. Reinforcements being sent to frontlines were reportedly destroyed in the strike, though there’s no visual confirmation. And another in Kharkov region – just south, in Lozovaya – which evoked a video message plea from the Kharkov mayor who said railways were hit, oil has run out, but pleaded for people not to flee (presumably because the militants who control him need citizens to use as hostages / human shields just like in Mariupol).
...
As can be seen on this map, the Lozovaya junction is a critical resupply / reinforcement route for the Ukrop Donbass cauldron and specifically their stronghold of Kramatorsk, which had been the central headquarters of the entire JFO for some time. And other reports said a railway bridge was hit leading to that junction as well.

The rest:
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/04/a-ukrainian-tochka-u-missile-killed-dozens-at-kramatorsk-train-station.html

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1512345694710816769
1512345694710816769

[Ravenlocke]

Rumors....

https://twitter.com/NicDeJour/status/1511987804070297603
1511987804070297603

https://twitter.com/StLHandyMan/status/1512260240343019523
1512260240343019523

https://twitter.com/KimmySLee/status/1512423551000883200
1512423551000883200

[Ravenlocke]

The Rumors and the following post remind me of something I read long time ago in an Edgar Cayce book about the fall of Atlantis, part of the reason was the mixing of humans with animals. Makes you wonder if our world is repeating the same mistake and about to end again?

https://twitter.com/Anthony84218196/status/1512360234647494657
1512360234647494657

On April 4th from Pepe Escobar,
https://twitter.com/RealPepeEscobar/status/1511019331064324097
1511019331064324097

[Vangelo]

No idea if this is true or not, but here is a report that Major General Roger L. Cloutier has been captured by Russia.

https://francesleader.substack.com/p/where-is-us-major-general-roger-l?s=r

Where is US Major General Roger L. Cloutier?
Captured by Russia while trying to flee Mariupol

Frances Leader
Apr 7

NOW CONFIRMED: U.S Major General Roger L. Cloutier was captured by Russia while trying to flee Mariupol after giving military direction to Ukrainian and mercenary forces.

Roger Cloutier - Wikipedia Photo

Jim Stone writes “I had previously posted this as rumour. It is not rumour anymore. It is bad. An overt act of war the United States expected to get away with. Here is how he got caught, based on a summary of previous reports posted here.

Russian forces cut off all ground escape routes which "trapped the high command of Ukrainian forces", which ended up not being Ukrainian at all. The West was commanding the Ukraine war for most likely most of it. To avoid being caught, Western forces then attempted to clear their people via helicopter. Russia did a good job of shooting down helicopters. As the Russians advanced, military leaders from several countries, fed by American intelligence, sought refuge in a steel mill that American intelligence knew Russia wanted to avoid destroying at all cost. The steel mill was an excellent place to fight from which was a bonus, it was very easy to defend.

The American and Western forces kept sending helicopters only to have them shot down before reaching the steel mill. Then the Russians changed tactics. The tactical change was to allow the helicopters to reach the steel mill and land in open areas on the steel mill grounds, and then shoot them down when they tried to leave. They allowed, over time, 8 to land and pick up people from inside the steel mill. 2 of them got away, but in one of the six they shot down they found General Cloutier.

THAT IS BAD NEWS, because it proved beyond a doubt that the U.S. really was fighting the Ukraine war, on Ukrainian soil. Russia can rightfully do whatever it wants to retaliate now.
TO CLARIFY: Early on the Pentagon commanded the Ukraine war. The Pentagon ordered the use of the Ukrainian civilian population as human shields. I doubt the Pentagon ordered the killing of fleeing refugees but even the use of human shields, especially when commanded from abroad, is only one shade of grey off from that. The United States can rightfully be blamed for the atrocities that took place in Ukraine.

After the capture of the American general, the American MSM and American intelligence have kicked the lie factory into overdrive, and big tech got involved openly stating they'd de-monetize every media source that did not precisely push the lies in full form. Now all we are getting is how the Russians happily raped and murdered countless civilians, all the while the bodies of the dead civilians are still scarred by openly Nazi markings that were put on them for fun.
AFTER THE WESTERN MEDIA OPENLY STATED NAZI UKRAINIAN FORCES WERE FIGHTING THE WAR.
It was a complete flip of the narrative, like a switch, blaming Russia for leaving the Nazi markings on people when Russians are not that at all.

So now we get to see how well Russia responds to being slandered like that, AND how well Russia responds to being attacked for something they never did.”

Gonzalo Lira discussed the missing General in his live broadcast from Ukraine yesterday:
idOSxqsssZE

[shaberon]

Regarding the missile, I've seen on telegram the following:

The AFU has blamed the Russians, but this picture of the missile shows that it is indisputably a Tochka-U rocket — used exclusively by the Ukrainian side. It’s the same kind of missile that two weeks ago hit the center of Donetsk and killed 27 civilians.

Honestly, I have no idea.



None of us are there, but I would like to keep in mind on NBC, the Military/State Dept./President openly admitted they do not tell the truth.

The Defense Ministry does not make stuff up. They have taken mountains of facts to the U. N., to be ignored.

There is almost no one else to believe. Excited Russian troops might themselves get something wrong and spread it. In that case, if it was not real, it was still good for morale.

Sputnik (https://sputniknews.com/20220408/give-us-fg-weapons-or-bring-body-bags-us-army-vet-fighting-in-ukraine-pleads-with-nato-1094593129.html) quoting Daily Mail:

James Vasquez, 47, a home renovation contractor from Connecticut, is believed to have left for Ukraine in March. He has since been continuously posting updates on his adventures as a “mercenary” amid the Russian special operation to "demilitarize and de-Nazify" Ukraine.

The ex-US Army staff sergeant shared a video on social media on Friday where he revealed he had modified his own AK-47 out of his own pocket, while the Ukrainian government has given him a “naked” weapon.
The army vet bemoaned the fact that Kiev authorities expected him to “go into battle with just my drones, AK-47 and one grenade and nothing else.”

“Give us some f*****g weapons please. We will not win with trash weapons. We need m-16’s, M-4’s, ACOG’s, red dots, ammunition, ammunition, ammunition, javelins, f*****g old AT-4s I know are probably in some storage unit. Frag grenades, and if not… may as well bring Body bags,” Vasquez captioned the post.

Referring to the steady stream of weapons supplies promised to Kiev by the US’s NATO allies, he queried in his post:
“I don't know where all these weapons are supposed to be coming in from or all the rest of our governments. I haven't seen anything that I can really use, that I know I can reliably use. Please f*****g help and stop saying you are sending s*** and actually send it.”



Ok. Connecticut can be the first to go. I no longer wish to be under the same government as someone in Connecticut. How do we end this?

If they want that Federal thing--and, as I recall, they asked for it--then we must not be a part of it.

Remember, Antifa wants you to vote Biden.

Resolving the real issues does not really require that kind of destruction, but, it might be involved. The hubristic macaques right now as we speak are plotting to steal billions more dollars to try to "catch up" to Russian weaponry. These pathetic stools were just defeated by Taliban Afghanistan.


Information Clearinghouse cannot really compete with the military frenzy that is driving other blogs, but, it still keeps the statistics on the top of its landing page:


Number Of Iraqis Slaughtered In US War And Occupation Of Iraq "1,455,590"

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Sacrificed (Officially acknowledged) In U.S. War And Occupation Of Iraq 4,801

Number Of International Occupation Force Troops Slaughtered In Afghanistan : 3,487

Total Cost of U.S. Wars Since 2001: $7,599,219,334,968


Let's see. North Iraq is a Turkish and Israeli devil's playground right now, and, otherwise, the American occupation is slowly being ebbed out.

I would not be surprised if a few of them are in Azovstal, and maybe some French. What is worse is that a gas pump just played me a "Stand with Ukraine" video. Does it not realize I have many sledgehammers with which to interrupt enemy transmissions?

This does not end well.

45km is really close to have potentially intercepted the Tochka. That is not like Donbass where a lot of anti air systems are laid down. It is still really easy for Ukraine to shoot its own people.

I am not sure it is directly a contributor to the conflict, but, I guess we could add a fourth kind of hate:


Safari.


Just the ability to kill human beings.

It may be shared with the Supremacists, but, there is money in having tickets for the ability to just kill "someone". I am guessing the American quoted above comes under the classification "I hate Russia, the country". Bet he would be confused if he didn't know which color armband to shoot. Better hope he can trust his friends! I guess he's not aware they don't usually use body bags. It would probably be a bulldozer and a big ditch and a bunch of bedfellows he perhaps doesn't know very well.

Deceived by the Catholics for two thousand years yet?

[JackMcThorn]

The Defense Ministry does not make stuff up. They have taken mountains of facts to the U. N., to be ignored.


There are two schools of thought regarding the Russian and its media:

1. The Russian does not manage its media well.

2. The Russian does not lie in the media. [This includes its spokespersons.]

The great perspective of the Russian choosing not to lie in its media is a breath of fresh air. If you do not lie, you do not have to remember all the lies. This is really crucial to future communications, not to mention reputations.

The west continuing to lie has to remember [somehow] all of these misgivings. It is truly impossible, and yet the west generally has little to no repercussions for its steady stream of falsehoods [except for CNN, which has lost many viewers this past couple years]. The western media in concert is just another participant of propaganda. Even the U.N. is stuck in the propaganda war; which is why the Russian is being ignored.

I have been listening to 'Gonzalo Lira', 'Scott Ritter' and 'The Duran'. These three sources basically discount the projection of the western media. They admit that some aspects of their conversations might indeed be incorrect, but they seem to be correct more of the time than less. I am hoping to find some other sources. Telegram and even Twitter [thanks to Ravenlocke; since I got bounced from the twit] seem to have some good information.

There is some Irish news but I have one channel of Sky News which is from the U.K. and it is on constantly. I noticed at the beginning of the war Sky News was pretty much Russophobic in its presentation. The past few days they have been acknowledging the Russian side a little more often. In fact, regarding the rocket that struck the rail station, Sky News even mentioned the Russian indicated it did not use that type of soviet-era weapon.

I would be interested in a few more sources. I don't have a lot of time to watch live-streams or videos; but I will make the time if it helps us find the truth.

[chrifri]

For JackMcThorn

3 other sources that might be of your interest

https://thesaker.is/

https://www.moonofalabama.org/

https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/

[Tintin]

Ukrainian Agony: The concealed war. Full English version by Mark Bartalmai

I haven't quite finished watching this but it is very good. It's an hour 40 or so minutes long and documents on-the-ground the events precipitating the conflict, as already covered elsewhere on this thread, and shows German journalist Mark Bartalmai and team riding tanks into areas of conflict in Donetsk and the wider Donbass in 2014/2015.

Of particular interest from around or shortly after the half hour mark is footage from the crash site of MH17.

Further footage throughout this compellingly watchable documentary is also unlikely to have been seen anywhere before.

(I must add a disclaimer here: some of the footage towards the end of this film in the chapter 'The suffering' is graphic, so do please be aware :flower: )

U-P-tX04_LA

[Ravenlocke]

Back in 1999 He warned this would happen!

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1512682217511682055
1512682217511682055

https://twitter.com/raam_beart/status/1512751793687908365
1512751793687908365

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/MoonofA/status/1512738548784545796
1512738548784545796

More Evidence That Ukraine Fired The Missile Which Killed Dozens In Kramatorsk
April 09, 2022

This is a follow on to yesterday's Tochka-U missile strike on the Kramatorsk railway station. Russia no longer has Tochka missiles while the Ukraine, Belarus and several other states still use them.

There is now additional evidence that the missile was fired by Ukrainian forces. The facts do not matter in 'western' media who stick to whatever story they are told to produce. Still, I do believe that facts matter at least in the long term and that there is a historic value in documenting them.

The Tochka-U is a tactical missile with a maximum range of some 120 kilometer. It is typically fired from a transporter, erector, launcher vehicle (TEL) with little need of preparations.

The TEL vehicle for the Tochka is a six wheeled BAZ 5921 /5922. These are amphibious floating hull chassis. The picture below shows a BAZ TEL in parade mode with a Tochka missile slightly erected. In the normal transport mode the missile lies horizontally under a protective roof.

The rest here:
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/04/more-evidence-that-ukraine-fired-the-missile-which-killed-dozens-in-kramatorsk.html

https://twitter.com/ShankHu15/status/1512679567378419715
1512679567378419715

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealScottRitter/status/1512532911391756291
[LIST=1]
1512532911391756291

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1512646114985803776
1512646114985803776

https://twitter.com/arktinentuuli/status/1512477091773784066
1512477091773784066

[Bill Ryan]

In this new video update starting at 9:51, Alex Christoforou reports a fascinating statement from the Russian Ministry of Defence, referring to the Ukrainian forces trapped in Mariupol. He has some fun speculating what 6 "mostly European" languages these might be. :)

https://projectavalon.net/Mariupol_radio_intercepts.jpg



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTLoEBkjyqw

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1512705655680823300
1512705655680823300

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1512735806007488513
1512735806007488513

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1512775553601916930
1512775553601916930

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1512776337886490629
1512776337886490629

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1512613781255462916
1512613781255462916

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1512455887142727687
1512455887142727687

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1512462847527342081
1512462847527342081

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealScottRitter/status/1512532911391756291
[LIST=1]
1512532911391756291

https://twitter.com/govt_mule/status/1512794174961205252
1512794174961205252

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealScottRitter/status/1512615766709129221
1512615766709129221

https://www.forces.net/ukraine/ex-us-special-forces-commander-sets-ukraine-based-military-training-centre

Mozart Group: The counter to Russia's infamous Wagner Group mercenaries
A former US Special Forces commander has set up the Mozart Group, aiming to pass on his, and other veteran's, frontline experience.

Simon Newton 7th April 2022 at 6:53pm
A former US Special Forces commander has set up a military training centre in Ukraine aimed at passing on his, and other veteran's, frontline experience.

The ex-US commander Colonel Andrew Milburn was the first US Marine to lead a Special Operations Task Force during the war against the so-called Islamic State and is now set on training Ukraine's Special Forces in the military skills they lack.

Colonel Milburn's called his organisation the Mozart Group – a counter to Russia's infamous mercenary firm The Wagner Group.

The lessons learned by the West on Russia's military capabilities
Ukraine must be wary of refocused Russia in the east, analyst says
Drone footage appears to show Russian trenches near Chernobyl nuclear plant
Funded by donations those joining are paid an undisclosed fee for their expertise.

Colonel Milburn says he has already hired several British Army veterans and the scale and type of warfare happening in Ukraine is different to anything even he has seen.

An estimated 5,000 foreign volunteers have reportedly headed for the Ukrainian war zone to join a loosely organised Ukrainian Foreign Legion.

The ex-US commander says many that have lied about their military experience are now paying the price and emphasised the need for an assessment screening.

He says he was drawn to Ukraine by a desire to do something and even with the reported Russian troop withdrawal from Kyiv, he believes it is only a temporary pause as they consolidate forces in the east.

"The Russians are best in the defence. Yes, they've been inept in the offence but they use reams of mines and they've got no shortage of artillery shells.

"The barrages that they can bring down very quickly have to be seen to be believed."

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1512547671160016896
1512547671160016896

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1512696334855426049
1512696334855426049

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1512754748289695744
1512754748289695744

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1512794566411259904
1512794566411259904

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/gbazov/status/1512875845412700164
1512875845412700164

https://twitter.com/gbazov/status/1512875866413535237
1512875866413535237
https://twitter.com/gbazov/status/1512875867621531651
1512875867621531651

https://twitter.com/gbazov/status/1512875868745515022
1512875868745515022

https://twitter.com/gbazov/status/1512876609908391941
1512876609908391941

[Bill Ryan]

A new SitRep (situation report) published by The Saker, featuring the rather astonishing incident reported immediately above: another failed evacuation attempt, this time using a cargo ship.

Again (with apologies) I've only linked to the referenced videos and tweets... way too may to embed.


http://thesaker.is/sitrep-operation-z-7

Sitrep: Operation Z (9 April)

We start with the biggest scoop today. We finally have high level confirmation from Russian officials that NATO instructors and foreign fighters are in fact trapped in Mariupol.

Firstly Russian State Duma member Adam Delimkhanov in an interview with RT has openly stated he estimates around 100 such foreigners there, and that they are in communication with them and the rumors are true that they are trying to negotiate a release and escape corridor. It seems to imply all those Macron rumors were accurate.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/72MTe5On9t9Y (https://www.bitchute.com/video/72MTe5On9t9Y/)

Igor Konashenkov on the other hand, also confirms that significant numbers of foreign fighters are known to be there because Russia can hear them crying in over 6 different languages in intercepted radio calls.
https://sputniknews.com/20220408/radio-communications-indicate-significant-numbers-of-foreign-mercs-stuck-in-mariupol-russian-mod-1094598098.html

Not to mention there’s now a report that they tried to break through the blockade with a ship to rescue them (ran out of helicopters I guess?)
https://sputniknews.com/20220409/ukrainian-cargo-ship-tried-to-break-through-to-russian-black-sea-fleet-blocking-mariupol-port-mod-1094624584.html

So this is no longer the realm of speculation and fantasy.

Now about yesterday’s Kramatorsk strike – it had multiple objectives all of which we foresaw in the previous SitReps when I specifically said that Ukraine was now shifting to a psychological and terror war exclusively, because it cannot win a conventional one.

The goals were: to terrorize civilians into not fleeing so they can be used as human shields in the upcoming showdown in Kramatorsk, to blame the false flag on Russia for the same reasons as in the ‘Bucha massacre’ to continue extorting NATO sympathy and funds.

They cleverly did it right after Russia had announced the new measure of strikes against railyards, because they knew it would appear ostensibly as just the latest Russian strike targeting that category of infrastructure. But of course they messed up when Arestovych and their own side first reported it as a Russian Iskander, not knowing that a Tochka shell would be discovered.

Once again, this is proof of something else we wrote two sitreps ago when we said that Ukraine was forced to do the Bucha massacre to try and stem the momentum behind the soon-to-be liberation of Mariupol, and that the falseflag was in fact evidence that Mariupol was ready to fall since they must have known that the large 501st marine battalion was getting ready to surrender any moment.

Similarly here, rumors continue to mount that Phase 2 is very close to kicking off, or has already kicked off in part (as reported by those like Gonzalo Lira, etc) and so again Ukraine badly needed something to stem the coming momentum, and to make sure civilians don’t flee as they are the UAF’s only hope, as human shields.

We also wrote a couple sitreps ago that the frequency and intensity/seriousness of the falseflags will only increase from here on out, and this appears to already be happening. Clearly the civilian population has been deemed completely expendable by the UAF.

There are reports that Russia is still keeping a decent-sized force (1/3 of what was previously there) north of Kiev (on Belarus side). If true, this would effectively continue to pin UAF forces around Kiev, not allowing them to fully redeploy to Donbass or elsewhere (perhaps why Zelensky only requested 15,000 to be sent, and not the whole force in the area, which some have estimated anywhere in the 50k – 70k range or more). The reason being of course that if they were to leave Kiev undefended, the much faster Russian maneuver force could rapidly blitz in under their noses and capture Kiev.

Now the Pentagon is stating that Russia has positioned 40 BTGs around the Donbass, adding a new 10,000 troop infusion, and Phase 2 is ready to kick off any moment. This by the way is a confirmation of the new reality where they have backtracked on the original “180 BTGs” just as I’ve written previously, and are now using more realistic numbers. This is further evidence that Russia is not utilizing the amount of troops in theater as they wanted us to believe.

Now on this topic, as Phase 2 is set to begin, let’s talk tactics or ‘Why the UAF Is About To Get Smashed’.

One of the most important takeaways from the first phase of this conflict has been that the UAF stands no chance whatsoever against Russian forces in a straight up head-on, full frontal fight. To understand the reasons for why that is, you must understand the basic structure and functions of the Russian units, including the infamous BTG (battalion tactical group).

Without going into too much detail, just know that unlike U.S. forces which have some of the larger force coefficients like artillery, rockets etc more on the Corps level, the Russian units have them down to the battalion level, allowing faster maneuvering forces to have their own massive firepower capabilities and direct decision making.

But besides this ability to outmaneuver an equivalent Ukrainian force with far more firepower, just understand that the Russian BTG comes equipped with large precision artillery capabilities, in the form of 2S19 Msta for the more elite groupings. Ukraine’s artillery has been surprisingly well implemented, but it is still no match for a full Russian artillery unit equipped with its own detachment of spotters, counter-battery systems, scouts and the like. In general, the Russian units will have more fires(artillery) density per engagement, and at greater ranges with better accuracy differentials.

There has not been a single recorded Ukrainian victory in a full head-on fight, with the arguable exception of some of the engagements in the Bucha/Kiev area where we saw a column or two of Russian light cavalry forces take decent losses and retreat, but these were light VDV detachments with their own special objectives, not much protection, etc., and they took risky chances which led to ambushes.

But the majority of large scale engagements in these modern peer-to-peer conflicts mostly consist of medium to long range artillery duels. The only time tank/mechanized forces typically come into play is during transport or repositioning/redeployment, or once the artillery has softened the defense enough—or more commonly has ‘routed’ them—the other forces will begin moving in to finish them off.

The ONLY way the UAF has scored any recorded successes at all so far is via asymmetric and mostly ambush operations on MOVING columns. The reasons for this are many, such as the fact that U.S. feeds satellite intel to UAF forces to alert them of exactly where larger RF columns are moving and where they’re likely headed. This allows UAF forces to setup ambushes in depth at forward areas.

The secret to how they do this is via RTP (Registered Target Point). The concept is very simple: a UAF artillery unit will shoot at a road with spotters watching and feeding them corrections until the artillery ‘solution’ is perfectly honed onto the center of the road. That artillery will then be covered with camo. Then as the Russian convoy passes that RTP mark, a hidden spotter will give the signal by radio and the UAF artillery will score instant perfect accuracy kills.

This is all fine and good. But when two, let’s just say equally-sized, forces do a classic position battle where they have taken their positions, dug in, both are aware of each other’s dispositions more or less with an accuracy dependent on the effectiveness of their ISR scouts and drone surveillance teams, etc.

In this type of direct face off akin to a classic confrontation between two forces like in the days of Napoleon, the Russian force will always handily destroy the Ukrainian force 10 times out of 10 with minimal losses to itself, as all the advantage in this setup goes to the Russian side. As mentioned before, the reasons for this are simple:


Russia can bring a higher density of artillery firepower to bear – more units, higher quantity across the contact line, period.
Though Ukrainian units are no slouches (particularly the elite in Donbass) and should be commended for their skill, they are still inferior in training and capability compared to RF artillery troops. It may not even be a huge edge, but it’s an edge nonetheless. Sure they have the experience edge, but the RF artillerymen are highly trained, and are already gaining tons of valuable experience on the fly – they learn fast.
The RF equipment is far superior. We’re talking highly modern Msta 2S19s (superior to ANY artillery unit even in the U.S. arsenal, a fire rate 4-5 times higher than U.S.’s M109 equivalent, with greater range, etc.) with pinpoint accuracy, longer ranges, higher RPM (~10rpm to Ukraine’s maybe 3-4), better sights and optics, better surveillance capabilities as Ukraine mostly uses prosumer DJI drones which can be good for shortrange tactical stuff, but have limited range, duration, and optics compared to Russian Orlan-10s and the like. And don’t get me started on the legendary Krasnopol ammunition which the 2S19s can and HAVE been firing in Ukraine, which is a laser guided artillery munition that flies exactly to its pinpointed, laser-designated (by Orlan-10, etc) target, even if the target is moving. And keep in mind, in most cases the UAF won’t even have any 2S3 Akatsiyas or Gvozdikas or 2S7 Peonies anymore, but rather will use either BM-21 Grad or legacy Soviet towed artillery like D-30 howitzers or equivalent (the latter being far inferior for variety of reasons).

So in short, Russia can bring to bear firepower that is more accurate, longer range, faster shooting, and in greater number, all while having more ammo/fuel for it, etc. So what is the big point I’m making with all this. It is the following:

The ‘maneuver war’ which gave Ukraine certain ambush opportunities seems to be coming to an end. Russia is concentrating troops for the ‘final battle’ of Donbass, which will be a conventional, frontal war fought in the manner described above, with massive artillery fires opening the salvos and mechanized forces moving in to attrition off the routers.

The major problem for Ukraine this presents is, this may be survivable when you have space to retreat and can continue falling back, away from the massive artillery advantage. But when the noose continues to close on the cauldron, the UAF forces will find themselves in a situation of continual concentration. They will have a smaller and smaller area for the troops to consolidate into, with no room for maneuver.

And this area will have an increasing number of massive artillery firepower bearing down on it that will outgun and outrange them exponentially. There will be no more asymmetric cheap shots and ambush strikes because Russian forces will not be roaming in rapid, exposed columns on highways, but rather defensively postured with protected flanks, etc, dug in and inching forward one protected-in-depth section at a time. In short, this will be an absolute killzone onto the UAF troops.

We have already had a taste of this in what I’d call the first engagement of Phase 2, even if it hasn’t officially kicked off yet. But the battles in the south of Izyum, around Kam’yanka were in the spirit of what I described above. Not fast maneuvering and ambush/asymmetric warfare, but rather stand-off artillery duels in the spirit of what one commenter recently brought up as the famous Russian ‘Reconnaisance-Strike-Complex.’ And the results were brutal for UAF – I attached the video in the last SitRep showing the fields literally littered with UAF corpses after the battle of Kam’yanka while Russia had very little losses.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/eEictBBTEOQe (https://www.bitchute.com/video/eEictBBTEOQe/)

Read this military analyst’s twitter essay on Russian BTGs and how they can, in his opinion, be characterized as basically mobile artillery groups due to the sheer fires disparity:
https://twitter.com/ArmchairW/status/1511888189153185796

Excerpts: “This is a 1:1 ratio of maneuver to fires(artillery) elements. Western doctrine is 3:1. What this means is that a Russian BTG has an area of influence (where it can reach out and touch you) equal to or greater than a NATO-style brigade. (representative BTG organization pictured)”

If you read his post to the end, you’ll see he comes to the same conclusion as I do, in that Ukraine is about to get badly wrecked by RF artillery in the cauldron killzone. To think of it another way: picture the UAF forces very dispersed and not as susceptible to mass artillery as they have room to disperse/maneuver.

Then as the RF forces press in on them from one side, and DPR/LPR from the other, the UAF forces continually are concentrated into a smaller and smaller region where the massive artillery bombardments will now be hitting a dense zone of troops with increasingly greater casualty rates.

Anyone doubting some of these assertions need only to hear it from the horse’s mouth itself. We all know the MIC bigwigs have to tote a certain line in public for policy and marketing’s sake, where they say Russia is inferior or weak, etc. But behind closed doors in their own secret analyses they are saying much different things.
https://www.benning.army.mil/armor/earmor/content/issues/2017/spring/2Fiore17.pdf

From an interior army report at Fort Benning, here’s what the U.S. Army expert says about Russian BTGs as compared to the equivalent American BCTs (Brigade Combat Teams). Some salient excerpts:
‘Although some BTG systems are technologically superior to the corresponding U.S. equipment, the BTG doesn’t have the capacity to observe, target and attack the BCT simultaneously across a broad front.’

‘BTG capabilities are extremely lethal when concentrated against individual units.’

BTGs field a brigade complement of artillery that outrange and outgun U.S. BCTs, but the BTGs only have a reinforced battalion of maneuver detectors. Local fires superiority gives BTG artillery the confidence to remain in place, and it provides the BTG with constantly available indirect-fire support.’

BTGs assume that fires and air-defense superiority gives them the freedom to employ long-range strikes whenever visual or electronic contact is made, regardless of infrastructure and civilian damage. Local fires superiority gives BTG artillery the confidence to remain in place, and it provides the BTG with constantly available indirect-fire support.

‘Finally, the king of all Russian protection assets is their integrated air-defense system. Although Russian ADA was not employed against warplanes or bombers, the Ukrainian Army lost six helicopters and a transport plane early in the conflict to well-coordinated Russian ADA systems. Also, shoulder-fired missiles are ubiquitous at all levels of regular units.’

‘American BCTs, or at least American-led brigade-sized task forces of coalition units, may be deployed in the future to deter10 or defeat11 a BTG…If a conflict occurs in the near future, technology to overcome Russian ADA is unlikely to be available therefore it is unlikely that the conflict will start with a high-intensity CAM attack.

The BTG will presume fires, EW and ADA superiority in the anticipated fight, but numerically the BCT fields many more combat systems and has a much better sustainment reach.

‘Assume that the BTG strike will disrupt the U.S. C2 needed to coordinate a brigade-level attack. The attack may also neutralize the brigade reserve and fires batteries. Therefore, every U.S. battalion and company should have a ready-to-execute attack planned and rehearsed, including authority to initiate if communications are lost in an attack. The BCT must plan to counterattack on a broad front to assure that the threat is dangerous, because if the BCT counterattacks on a narrow front, the BTG will be able to mass to defend effectively.

Although several of the BTG’s high-end systems are technologically superior to the corresponding U.S. equipment, the BTG doesn’t have the capacity to observe, target and attack the BCT simultaneously across a broad front.

If the BTG construct continues to prove its utility in Ukraine, Syria and future conflicts, and American and Russian ground forces find themselves on opposing sides in a conflict, it is likely that BCTs will have to defeat Russian Army units organized as BTGs in the near future (before 2025)’
So what are our takeaways from the above? The most important being that the U.S. army admits to the following:


Russian air-defense is not only superior, but shockingly the army admits that by the time of a confrontation between Russia/U.S., “technology to overcome Russian ADA will unlikely to be available”. So they are counting on the fact that even in the distant future, they will not be able to innovate anything that can pierce Russian ADA.
Russian EW (electronic warfare) is superior and will likely disrupt American C2 (command & control).
Several other Russian systems are superior to anything U.S. has, in particular here they are referring to what I already mentioned earlier: Russia’s artillery systems are superior in every way to that of the U.S. This goes for both self-propelled units like the 2S19 Msta which is far superior to the M109, to the tube rocket and MLRS systems like BM-27 Uragon, etc. Also in my opinion Russian light IFVs are superior (though this is a more controversial view, while the others are widely accepted) due to the fact that BMP-2s and BTR-82s have much stronger 30mm cannons than American Bradley / Strykers which have 12.7’s and 25mm’s, and with higher RPMs as well. But that’s for another time.
Russian artillery outranges and outguns U.S. equivalent (see above)
In any upcoming conflict, U.S. army is to presume as a given that its C2 will be disrupted AND its fires (artillery) batteries will be neutralized (i.e. blown up by superior Russian counter-battery fire etc)

Now, of course they prescribe all sorts of antidotes on how they may still tactically overcome Russian units. But who can for a moment imagine that Ukrainian forces stand a chance in full frontal, non-asymmetric confrontation given these admissions by the U.S. Army itself about its own forces?

Also to add, this report was from 2017 and many of the weaknesses it attributes to Russian units have long been corrected or improved upon. And it’s quite ominously prophetic that they foresaw a confrontation between the super powers happening by 2025. Seems we’re ahead of schedule.

But with that said, here’s why I think a confrontation between Russia / NATO may be very unlikely. The simple reason is that, particularly in today’s global economic depression (which is really what it is if you look past the fudged figures), the U.S. economy is nearly kept afloat entirely by its MIC, which has emerged as probably the most significant remaining U.S. export and manufacturing potential – its military arms. To retain this final vestige of economic authority, the U.S. has to keep up the ‘mythos’ and image of invincibility of its arms and military products.

Given what you saw above in the report, it is an absolutely undeniable fact that at the minimum, in any Russia vs. Nato engagement, the opposing side would suffer some humiliating defeats to their vaunted systems like the F-35s, Patriots, U.S. Carrier Groups, advanced drones, missiles & PGMs, etc, etc. The scale of the shock and disruption this would create for the U.S. MIC is too heavy to bear. They would never risk their cashcows being ‘exposed’ on the world stage, and having all the mythical mystique stripped away.

Any even small incursion by the U.S. risks a massive image blowback that would destroy the credibility of American arms world wide. They cannot risk showing the world the superiority of Russian systems. Imagine the gungho U.S. sending in F-35s to help Ukraine only to see them get shot down by Russian S-400s?

Do you realize the symbolic shockwaves the shootdown of American F117s over Serbia sent around the world? And do you realize that the entire F117 line was literally retired due to that ONE highly humiliating and symbolic event? What would happen when several of U.S.’s key systems are shown in high-definition youtube videos to be completely overrated when Russian systems expose them? It is too great a risk to bear. They cannot allow the last dying profitable sector of their economic engine to be taken offline.

Just a few small on the ground updates today to keep the report from being overlong:

Mass Russian armor continues moving into the Donbass areas from every direction. Z’s are pouring north, V’s and O’s are pouring South and West from Lugansk.
https://twitter.com/RWApodcast/status/1512846971580600325
https://twitter.com/Militarylandnet/status/1512848390702444552
https://www.bitchute.com/video/vTo3UjIZlWuJ (https://www.bitchute.com/video/vTo3UjIZlWuJ/)

As reported last time, the artillery hammering on Mariupol industrial districts is heating up, even more units are now firing full time on the Azov positions:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/Qk3XiP2nA5jw (https://www.bitchute.com/video/Qk3XiP2nA5jw/)

Allied forces have finally reached the Mariupol port and taken most of it over. This is a big achievement, but if you look at the maps, there is still a large city district in that western section that will likely take long to clear. But these are still very good advances.

You can see Wargonzo reporting from the area already:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUCQ-BwSf-c
https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1512451886720421901

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/word-image-25.jpeg

The map is now something like this. The left-most section is where forces have captured the port and advanced. The middle blue is the big Azovstal factory complex which is besieged on all sides now. And the top blue is the last Kalmiuski district with the Illych Factory grounds as well.

The combat is heavier than ever because not only are the last most fanatical groups remaining (3000 or less of the 14,000 – 17,000 they started with), but they are now being compacted into an ever-tightening concentration of areas which means the density of urban warfare is increasing as the following videos attest:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/hryBpxC8jTK6 (https://www.bitchute.com/video/hryBpxC8jTK6/)
https://www.bitchute.com/video/6XsAIl2L0c58 (https://www.bitchute.com/video/6XsAIl2L0c58/)
https://www.bitchute.com/video/JjQ76QLz3rvX (https://www.bitchute.com/video/JjQ76QLz3rvX/)

That’s all for now, as we get closer to the big action of Phase 2 I will provide more in depth on the ground SitReps, but for now I felt the need to include the rubric above to contextualize what we are soon going to witness in the battle for the ‘Great Cauldron’.

I’ll leave you with this look at how proud Russian citizens give a farewell to their beloved reinforcement troops as they leave to the frontlines.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/i3TIzKjg9LzM (https://www.bitchute.com/video/i3TIzKjg9LzM/)
https://www.bitchute.com/video/q5bIjFBfEQli (https://www.bitchute.com/video/q5bIjFBfEQli/)
https://www.bitchute.com/video/qw66pUy04Tgk (https://www.bitchute.com/video/qw66pUy04Tgk/)
https://www.bitchute.com/video/6x7TVAhynfzq (https://www.bitchute.com/video/6x7TVAhynfzq/)
https://www.bitchute.com/video/ZNDpzZErs0SK (https://www.bitchute.com/video/ZNDpzZErs0SK/)
And this quick story of Mariupol: https://www.bitchute.com/video/g2Q68upErJ05 (https://www.bitchute.com/video/g2Q68upErJ05/)

[kfm27917]

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/with-4-000-staff-in-bunkers-mariupol-s-steel-mills-are-a-war-zone-1.1736606

to put thinks into perspective here is a write up of Mariupol's Steel Mills

[shaberon]

If you do not lie, you do not have to remember all the lies. This is really crucial to future communications, not to mention reputations.


That is actually hilarious to me personally because I go through this exact thing "in real life" many times. And for example from Dr. Assad interviews years ago about the "chemical barrel bombs", etc., the way he tried to patiently explain how absurd this whole accusation was...it really pleases a dry sense of humor. There he is with someone like McCain sneaking across the border illegally, and yet he, for some reason, is supposed to have an interest in harming "his people".

If I had to rag on state media such as Russia, Syria, etc., I might say the don't tell the "complete" truth. For one thing, they don't want to advertise when something goes horribly wrong. Secondly, they may very well have all the details about everyone who is inside Azovstal; but, as a civilian, I can live with the fact there is a certain need to fog me on this for a couple of weeks. I think if we get the main story and a fair assessment of what happened afterwards, that is fair in terms of not pulling a "rule by deception".

At the same time, they are willing to allow in a few independents who are willing to risk themselves by being in a conflict zone.


Russian and similar media may not be "great" in the sense that it does not hold a candle to NED which outvoices it by fifty or even a hundred times as much broadcast material.

[kfm27917]

lots of pictures and older reports at
https://timesnewsexpress.com/news/world/australia/ukraine-war-russian-troops-pushed-back-from-kyiv-but-capture-mariupol-city-hall/

[shaberon]

Eh...?

https://cdn.presstv.ir/Photo/2022/4/9/5b471e64-3758-4d2d-8103-df11f7cf7ad6.jpg


A handout photo released by the Ukrainian Presidential Press Service shows British Prime Minister Boris Johnson (L) and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky walking in central Kiev, on April 9, 2022. (Photo by AFP)

I don't really want to quote anything he said (https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/04/09/680042/Ukraine-Britain-military-financial-aid-Russia-prisoner-exchange).

Let's ask someone else (https://sputniknews.com/20220409/crew-of-ukrainian-heli-downed-in-botched-azov-rescue-mission-thank-russians-for-saving-lives---1094613942.html):


“I was taken away from the helicopter while I was lying down, and brought to a medical facility, presumably. I didn't see. They provided medical assistance, plastered my legs and arm. That is, they didn't let me die. Thank you very much,” gunner Ivan Gavrilenko said, while lying in recovery. The officer suffered multiple shrapnel wounds and severe burns to 55-60 percent of his body.

Burlakov, an officer of the 16th Separate Army Aviation Brigade of the 8th Army Corps of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, told investigators that the attempt to evacuate Azov’s commanders from Mariupol failed because it was poorly organised.

“Organisation of the mission was not carried out as well as it could have been,” he said.

“On 5 April, at about 4-5 am, we were ordered to fly from the city of Dnepro to a staging area between Dnepro and Mariupol, 20 minutes from the demarcation line,” Burlakov indicated. The officer said his chopper was designated to serve as a backup emergency search and rescue crew, with two Mi-8s flying on ahead of them to Mariupol itself.

“We flew to the staging area, landed, turned off our engines and awaited further instructions. At about 5 am, the commander received an order over the phone to start up,” the engineer said. While they were in the air, the crew received a message that one Mi-8 had been shot down, and were ordered to fly to the crash site –four km beyond the demarcation line. “We flew up, saw smoke rising from the ground from afar. We flew closer and a rocket struck us. I awoke on the ground,” he said.

Burlakov also recalled other details – saying, for example, that the Mi-8 was manufactured in the USSR in 1989, and that the crew were equipped with GPS and night vision goggles.



...an MoD analysis of radio communications intercepts determined that in addition to Ukrainian and Russian, at least six other languages, mainly European, were being used by fighters stuck in the city. These were not “defenders of so-called European values, but foreign mercenaries, who have come here to kill Slavs for American dollars while hiding behind a human shield of civilians,” Konashenkov said.



I am going to contemplate for a while this fly a helicopter to where a helicopter was just shot down idea. It might really be one for the books.

[Gwin Ru]

...


https://southfront.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/9april2022_Ukraine_map-1-424x300.jpg?x41789 (https://southfront.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/9april2022_Ukraine_map-1.jpg?x41789)
(click on picture for larger size)

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1513106329908482049
1513106329908482049

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1513103777251098628
1513103777251098628

Brian Berletic explains
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dSVcWUVfLCI&feature=youtu.be

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1512332460037607424
1512332460037607424

[Bill Ryan]

https://southfront.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/9april2022_Ukraine_map-1-424x300.jpg?x41789 (https://southfront.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/9april2022_Ukraine_map-1.jpg?x41789)
(click on picture for larger size)

Two other good sources for current military situation maps:


https://liveuamap.com
https://militaryland.net/ukraine/deployment-map

[Ravenlocke]

And again, not surprising...

https://twitter.com/caitoz/status/1513075712974286849
1513075712974286849

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RTUKnews/status/1513102939539214336
1513102939539214336

https://twitter.com/UPR_Asselineau/status/1513131296272396290
1513131296272396290

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1513031811626110976
1513031811626110976

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1512735123900350468
1512735123900350468

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1513153767549673484
1513153767549673484

Azovstal - Black Hole Of Corona?
Now Charges Of Azov Battalion Spreading Pathogens In China For The Breakout Of CoronaVirus Don't Seem So Far-Fetched.

In April 2020 in an interview with Donie O’Sullivan’s CNN, I brought a whiteboard with me exactly as it appeared a month earlier at an eighteen news gathering and fact-checking seminar on the Potomac River near Washington, DC.


As can be seen in the upper left panel, I held Igor Kolomoisky Azon Battalion, currently under siege in the Avozstal steel plant in Ukraine, as the most likely party to have vectored CoronaVirus at the NATO Wuhan Military Games in October of 2019. I also charged that several key NATO Generals and Admirals were fully under the supervision of the “live exercise”. I was immediately criticized by Forbes, Reuters, the Associated Press, and then a round the clock feature attack story of CNN for six months.

The rest:
https://georgewebb.substack.com/p/azovstal-black-hole-of-corona?utm_source=twitter&s=r

[mountain_jim]

^ I came here now (after a fatigue-based absence) to see if George Webb's latest twitter posts were appearing in this thread - very significant info I suspect.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1513156713410863104
1513156713410863104



https://twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1513167417995841538
1513167417995841538

https://twitter.com/Orwell_Now/status/1513110205021794314
1513110205021794314

https://twitter.com/G6Sven/status/1512738440730787842
1512738440730787842

https://twitter.com/theblogmire/status/1512688313337061376
1512688313337061376

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1513060622581497856
1513060622581497856

https://twitter.com/raam_beart/status/1513141248831684615
1513141248831684615

https://twitter.com/Cyberspec1/status/1512565970153316352
1512565970153316352

https://twitter.com/Cyberspec1/status/1512553599041040385
1512553599041040385


https://twitter.com/Al_Dimitrescu/status/1513135084282462208
1513135084282462208


Note: the crews of both vessels are being held hostage...international terrorism?

https://twitter.com/BrunoBertez/status/1513147053513351169
1513147053513351169

[ExomatrixTV]

Sean Penn Pushes Using Nuclear Weapons In Ukraine War:

LboKlvhxdqE
Academy Award-winning actor and acclaimed director Sean Penn recently appeared on Sean Hannity’s Fox News Channel show to discuss the Ukraine war and the options available to NATO in assisting with the Ukrainians’ cause. Surprisingly, the noted “leftist” Penn expresses concern that the United States might be “intimidated” by Russia into NOT deploying nuclear weapons and launching World War III. Jimmy and The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal discuss the Hollywood icon’s bizarre sideways call for nuclear annihilation.

[holcaul]

United States admits to spreading lies about the Ukraine war

C9_9iwv76mU

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1513195051031007237
1513195051031007237

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1513172705541038081
1513172705541038081

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1513197990416105488
1513197990416105488

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1513163013318193155
1513163013318193155

[TomKat]

Ukraine has lost according to military expert Larry Johnson

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/03/23/larry-johnson-ukrainian-army-has-been-defeated-whats-left-is-mop-up/

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/ILRUSSO1/status/1513189275730333711
1513189275730333711

[kfm27917]

https://www.unz.com/article/is-it-possible-to-actually-know-what-has-been-and-is-going-on-in-ukraine/

good historical analysis.
need to be read in its entirety!

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Navsteva/status/1513139429245923335
1513139429245923335


The Duran discuss Donbass cauldron and refer to map from “the saker”
https://twitter.com/Janamejayan/status/1512808143344095237
1512808143344095237

https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1513243966212390913
1513243966212390913

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1513249548826722309
1513249548826722309

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1513019005602353165
1513019005602353165

https://twitter.com/Hawkeye1745/status/1513262205990543367
1513262205990543367

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/anon_candanga/status/1513222567296913416
1513222567296913416

[Bill Ryan]

https://twitter.com/Hawkeye1745/status/1513262205990543367
1513262205990543367This is so astonishing (and just might be true, as well), that I've transcribed the whole text so it can be easily copied.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQAvzkBWQAEirfI?format=png&name=medium

~~~

Inside the AZOVSTAL tunnels

There is a secret NATO facility PIT-404 and a secret NATO biological weapons
laboratory. They are NATO officers at facility PIT-404. The tunnels are equipped with
an armored bunker system.

About 240 foreigners are in the building, including officers from NATO and the French
Foreign Legion, as well as biolab staff. Their guards, funded by Akhmetov, number up
to 3,000 people.

The biolab under the Azovstal plant in Mariupol at what is known as the PIT-404
facility - built and operated by Metabiota, a company with ties to Hunter Biden, Rinat
Akhmetov and Volodymyr Zelensky.

Bioweapons testing was conducted in the labs at this facility. Thousands of Mariupol
residents became "guinea pigs” in these horrific tests. And it was mainly Western
"specialists" who took part in these inhumane experiments.

French intelligence officers and special forces officers could not get their comrades
out of Mariupol. That's why Macron has called the Kremlin so many times, asking for
“humanitarian corridors."

Some French intelligence officials died in the rescue operation. The head of French
intelligence, Eric Videaux, was fired on March 31, 2022 over failures by French
intelligence in the war in Ukraine.

Officers from the US, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, Sweden, Poland and
Greece are now trapped in the Azovstal dungeons. The US Lieutenant General Roger
Clothier, who was recently captured by the DNR people's militia from a downed
helicopter, has been tracked down by the Russian GRU and SVR in Mariupol from the
external surveillance of his loved ones in Turkey in Izmir.

The Ukrainian national, known to the secret service as Klute, had always accompanied
the general as a traveling wife, confidante and interpreter. As soon as information
was received that this woman had arrived in Mariupol, Russia launched a military
operation and blocked the city.

[Ravenlocke]

In regards to the post directly above this one in reference to “Klute” this is what journalist George Webb tweeted earlier today,
https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1513186117234876424
1513186117234876424

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1513177090203570181
1513177090203570181

Klute Female...Barbara Cloutier...
https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1513022147186380801
1513022147186380801

[Ravenlocke]

Also this but unconfirmed,
https://twitter.com/semper_vincit/status/1513241470429401090
1513241470429401090

https://twitter.com/semper_vincit/status/1513242369763598339
1513242369763598339

https://twitter.com/semper_vincit/status/1513242370833215488
1513242370833215488

https://twitter.com/semper_vincit/status/1513242371856605190
1513242371856605190

[Bill Ryan]

Two new reports from Russia Today:

1) https://rt.com/russia/553667-right-sector-commander-killed
(https://rt.com/russia/553667-right-sector-commander-killed)
Top Neo-Nazi commander killed in Ukraine – Russia

Taras Bobanich, a senior figure in the Right Sector group, was killed by Russian commandos, the Russian defense ministry said

https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.04/article/6253f90e203027070772457a.jpg

Russian commandos have killed a prominent member of Ukraine’s ultra-nationalist Right Sector group, the Russian defense ministry claimed on Monday. Taras Bobanich was accused by Moscow of causing hundreds of civilian deaths in eastern Ukraine during hostilities in 2014.

A Russian recon team killed the top Neo-Nazi while on patrol about 5km south from the city of Izium in Ukraine’s Kharkov region, the ministry statement explained. It said he was a deputy commander of the Right Sector responsible for reserve operations.

The ministry didn’t disclose the circumstances of Bobanich’s death. The Right Sector’s social media reported that he was killed on Friday near Izium, calling him a “legendary nationalist”.

The 33-year-old, whose nickname was “Hummer”, came originally from western Ukraine. He rose to national prominence during the mass protests and armed coup of 2013-2014, during which Western-backed Ukrainian nationalists served as a street fighting force against law enforcement.

The coup ended with the toppling of Ukraine’s democratically elected president and a rebellion in the east of the country, which the new authorities in Kiev tried to quash with military force. The nationalists formed so-called “volunteer battalions” to participate in the fighting.

According to Russia, Bobanich had personally ordered the indiscriminate artillery shelling of cities in eastern Ukraine during the hostilities, which allegedly resulted in hundreds of deaths.

In addition to serving as a nationalist military commander, Bobanich played a prominent role in the blockade of trade between Ukraine and Crimea in the autumn 2015. The blockade was organized by nationalist forces who wanted to punish people living on the peninsula for breaking away from Ukraine a year prior and voting to rejoin Russia.

Moscow attacked its neighbor in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements signed in 2014, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics in Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.

Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.

2) https://rt.com/russia/553662-s300-missiles-ukraine-slovakia

‘EU-supplied’ S-300 launchers obliterated – Russia

Slovakia reported delivering its only S-300 weapons system to Ukraine last week

https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022.04/article/6253f28185f54064f25a543b.jpg

S-300PS missile systems during a military parade in Kiev.

Russian forces have destroyed foreign-supplied S-300 anti-aircraft launchers in a number of precision strikes on Ukraine, the Defense Ministry, in Moscow, claimed on Monday. Days earlier, Slovakia reported the donation of a battery of old Soviet-made S-300 air defense missiles to Kiev.

In its regular briefing on the ongoing military action in Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry reported hitting a hangar “on the southern outskirts of the city of Dnepropetrovsk,” where “equipment from an S-300 battery supplied to the Ukrainian regime by one of the European nations” was hidden.

The barrage of sea-launched Kalibr missiles destroyed four S-300 launchers and as many as 25 Ukrainian troops in the Sunday strike, ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov claimed. He used the old name of the city, which Ukrainian authorities renamed Dnepro in 2016 to distance it from the Soviet period of the country’s history.

The Russian official also reported destroying an S-300 targeting radar in a separate overnight precision airstrike near Uspenovka. The general didn’t specify which of the multiple villages of that name in Ukraine he was referring to, and didn’t say whether the radar was part of the battery supplied by the foreign nation.

Last Friday, Slovakia announced that it had donated its only S-300 battery to Ukraine. The weapon system was part of the NATO member’s legacy from the Warsaw Pact days, when it formed part of Czechoslovakia. It was not clear how many vehicles were sent to Ukraine. A regular S-300 battery can have as few as four and as many as 12 launchers using a single radar to identify targets, and is controlled by a single command post.

Prime Minister Eduard Heger assured citizens that the country’s national security would not be compromised since “allies” agreed to boost its air defense in return. US President Joe Biden said his country would provide American Patriot missile battery as a replacement and thanked Bratislava for agreeing to give the S-300 to Kiev. Elements of the Patriot system started arriving in Slovakia three weeks ago, according to its defense minister.

Washington reportedly wanted another NATO member, Turkey, to strike a similar deal with Ukraine and send it a Russian-supplied S-400, which is more advanced than the S-300. Ankara rejected the idea, saying the system would remain in its possession. In 2020, the US imposed sanctions on Turkey for buying the S-400s from Russia under a deal signed in 2017.

Moscow attacked its neighbor in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements signed in 2014, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics in Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.

Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.

[ExomatrixTV]

Bad News From Ukraine: Is There A Secret Nato Base With A Bio Lab Under This Industrial Area?

Several journalists draw attention to strong reports from the Ukrainian city of Mariupol (https://www.ninefornews.nl/?zoeken=Marioepol) , where the infamous Azov battalion has entrenched itself in an industrial area. Under Azovstal, which is owned by Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, is said to be a 24 kilometer long tunnel system that is up to 30 meters deep.

According to various sources, that system contains a secret NATO base, called PIT-404, as well as a biolab where biological weapons are made. NATO officers are said to be in the buildings.


Guinea Pigs

The biolab is said to be run by Metabiota, a firm linked to Hunter Biden (https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?118157-Hunter-s-Laptop-Strikes-Back-at-Last), Akhmetov and Ukrainian President Zelensky. The lab would be experimenting with bioweapons, using the inhabitants of Mariupol as guinea pigs. Western 'specialists' in particular took part in these inhumane experiments, writes German journalist Alina Lipp on Telegram (https://t.me/neuesausrussland/3904).

Many people wonder why the Russians don't bomb Azovstal. This could be a reason. Canadian journalist Eva Bartlett writes (https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/1513388722968051713?s=20&t=W5yZrLYxPU21BJjnxkrE-Q) that more than 3000 nationalists from the Ukrainian army are hiding in the industrial area. She refers to a report (https://t.me/akutin_dpr_ru/15328) by journalist Alexei Akutin from the Donetsk People's Republic.


Caught

Journalist Joost Niemoller also draws attention (https://twitter.com/JoostNiemoller/status/1513284607730458625?s=20&t=CdxnTdrCuohZ2tN042epFQ) to the factory complex. “What is going on in the Azov enclave in Mariupol?” he asks.
Lipp further writes that officers from the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, Sweden, Poland and Greece are trapped in the tunnel system.


source (https://www.ninefornews.nl/heftig-nieuws-uit-oekraine-bevindt-zich-onder-dit-industriegebied-een-geheime-navo-basis-met-een-biolab) (Dutch 🇳🇱 + Multi-Language Options). 🦜🦋🌳


Hard news is coming from Mariupol:

Translated from German to English:


"Under the Azovstal industrial zone, owned by oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, the alleged illegitimate son of former Ukrainian President Kuchma, there are 24 km of tunnels up to 30 m deep.

There is a secret NATO facility PIT-404 and a secret NATO biological weapons laboratory. They are NATO officers at facility PIT-404. The tunnels are equipped with an armored bunker system.

About 240 foreigners are in the building, including officers from NATO and the French Foreign Legion, as well as biolab staff. Their guards, funded by Akhmetov, number up to 3,000 people.

The biolab under the Azovstal plant in Mariupol at what is known as the PIT-404 facility - built and operated by Metabiota, a company with ties to Hunter Biden, Rinat Akhmetov and Volodymyr Zelensky.

Bioweapons testing was conducted in the labs at this facility. Thousands of Mariupol residents became "guinea pigs" in these horrific tests. And it was mainly Western "specialists" who took part in these inhumane experiments.

French intelligence officers and special forces officers could not get their comrades out of Mariupol. That's why Macron has called the Kremlin so many times, asking for "humanitarian corridors."

Some French intelligence officials died in the rescue operation. The head of French intelligence, Eric Videaux, was fired on March 31, 2022 over failures by French intelligence in the war in Ukraine.

Officers from the US, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, Sweden, Poland and Greece are now trapped in the Azovstal dungeons. The US Lieutenant General Roger Clothier, who was recently captured by the DNR people's militia from a downed helicopter, has been tracked down by the Russian GRU and SVR in Mariupol from the external surveillance of his loved ones in Turkey in Izmir.

The Ukrainian national, known to the secret service as Klute, had always accompanied the general as a traveling wife, confidante and interpreter. As soon as information was received that this woman had arrived in Mariupol, Russia launched a military operation and blocked the city.

source (https://t.me/neuesausrussland/3904) (Journalist Alina Lipp)
neuesausrussland (https://www.instagram.com/neuesausrussland)

https://video.newsserve.net/v/20220321/1647879333-Full-Interview-Alina-Lipp-on-the-Real_hires.jpg (https://rumble.com/vy1az3-full-interview-alina-lipp-on-the-real-war-in-the-donbass-ukraine..html)


source (https://rumble.com/vy1az3-full-interview-alina-lipp-on-the-real-war-in-the-donbass-ukraine..html)

News from Donezk 23/02/22 # Alina Lipp:

_jS0GDQQ7kY

[Bill Ryan]

Scott Ritter is on with Gonzalo Lira in a new livestream, just started. (10 minutes in at the time of posting)

Scott Ritter and the Battle of the Donbas


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5RKNoIhE40

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1513488632463638535
1513488632463638535

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1513466675001274371
1513466675001274371

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1513504083990167554
1513504083990167554

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1513490663014346753
1513490663014346753

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1513432097503203328
1513432097503203328

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/anon_candanga/status/1513222567296913416
1513222567296913416

https://twitter.com/RealPepeEscobar/status/1513528167256006660
1513528167256006660

https://twitter.com/RealPepeEscobar/status/1513525543353921541
1513525543353921541

By Ukrainian National Women’s League of America Branch 143
https://twitter.com/RussianEmbassy/status/1513529073821274114
1513529073821274114

https://twitter.com/caitoz/status/1513506903468691463
1513506903468691463

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1513513648408481795
1513513648408481795

https://twitter.com/MaxvanderWerff/status/1513504600812568579
1513504600812568579

[Ravenlocke]

Scott Ritter is on with Gonzalo Lira in a new livestream, just started. (10 minutes in at the time of posting)

Scott Ritter and the Battle of the Donbas


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5RKNoIhE40

https://twitter.com/Navsteva/status/1513543571441389569
1513543571441389569

https://twitter.com/AZmilitary1/status/1513504188550029319
1513504188550029319

https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1513523055837990912
1513523055837990912

https://twitter.com/RWApodcast/status/1513562277785612293
1513562277785612293

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1513578650561568769
1513578650561568769

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealPepeEscobar/status/1513553285059330056
1513553285059330056

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1513639985546735617
1513639985546735617
https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1513640427777400835
1513640427777400835

[graciousb]

I am totally dubious about the whole thing. I put nothing past TPTB. I was in Iran in 1979 post revolution and nothing reported in Western news was accurate. The hostage thing was an intelligence set up. Russian /Putin is likely a fake enemy put out there to deflect attention and create sides. The areas on the globe where true horrors are happening? Crickets....

[shaberon]

New order to attack Russia (https://southfront.org/zelensky-ordered-ukrainian-army-to-attack-territory-of-russian-federation-video/):

On April 10, the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky ordered to attack the territory of Russian Federation.

The commander of the unit specifies the task for his fighters to advance to the territory of the Belgorod region of the Russian Federation, if possible.


Shortly, P. Lancaster's wife finds a Tochka crater in the backyard:

7qgRqYtuHC8






Near the Izyum (https://southfront.org/in-video-russian-tank-company-commander-described-battles-near-izyum-in-ukraine/) advance:


“The task was to take the settlements and provide a corridor for our armed forces to pass further to the south. When we advanced towards the village of Kamyshevakha, , and we come in ahead on our tanks. When took the settlement there, they (note: the AFU) were running away and shouting that they needed artillery help, they needed phosphorus to burn us out, because they could not do anything anymore. When they saw us, our tanks, they just raised their guns up and there was no firing. The tanks were new, minimum mileage, they were evidently out of storage. BC (combat kit) was full. Everyone was glad that they did not have to fire and people just surrendered, because they saw us, they saw our tanks, they saw our equipment and they did not want to fight with us anymore.”



And one of the examples from a criticism on the arms supply (https://news-front.info/2022/04/11/jurij-selivanov-svalka-natovskogo-nelikvida/):


“Although these missiles are used by the British only as ship-based, however, if desired, the rearrangement of their transport and launch containers with the appropriate equipment on land-based wheeled chassis for shore-based is unlikely to pose a serious technical problem. Previously, one variant of such adaptation was already known, when in the early 1990s the Danish Navy rearranged four four-container launchers with Harpoon Block 1C missiles from two Peder Skram-type frigates decommissioned from the Danish fleet to 8×8 commercial wheeled automobile chassis, the two batteries of semi-improvised mobile missile systems thus obtained were in service with coastal defense Denmark until 2003.”

Aha, now! Well, you understand — the Kiev army, in fact, is offered such a Do-it-yourself kit from which, with the help of improvised means in Ukraine, they will be able, if possible, to compose something remotely similar to the indescribable beauty mentioned above.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1513691493495885826
1513691493495885826

https://www.rt.com/russia/553716-ukraine-chemical-weapons-azov/

US, UK investigating Ukraine ‘chemical attack’ claims

Ukraine's neo-Nazi Azov Battalion has accused Russian forces of deploying a chemical weapon against its fighters during the siege on Mariupol, potentially creating a pretext for the US and its Western allies to step up efforts to punish Moscow over the conflict.

An unidentified chemical agent was dropped from a drone on Monday, leaving several Ukrainian fighters in the area struggling to breathe, according to unverified accusations posted on Telegram by the ultranationalist Azov Battalion.

“A poisonous substance of unknown origin” was used, the militants claimed, allegedly leaving three fighters suffering mild respiratory issues, dizziness and headaches.

However, an aide to Mariupol Mayor Petro Andryushchenko noted that the allegations of a chemical attack hadn’t been confirmed, according to Reuters.

Separately, the Ukrainian parliament accused Russian forces of “firing on nitric acid tanks” in the Donetsk region. “This was reported by the patrol police,” according to a post on the parliament’s Twitter account on Monday night. “Locals are urged to prepare protective face masks soaked in soda solution.”

Western officials quickly pounced on the allegations, warning of severe consequences for Moscow. “We are working urgently with partners to verify the details,” UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said. “Any use of such weapons would be a callous escalation in this conflict, and we will hold Putin and his regime to account.”

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said US officials are monitoring the situation in Mariupol. “These reports, if true, are deeply concerning and reflective of concerns that we have had about Russia’s potential to use a variety of riot control agents, including tear gas mixed with chemical agents, in Ukraine,” he added.

US confirms dispatch of chemical weapons protection READ MORE: US confirms dispatch of chemical weapons protection
US, UK and Ukrainian leaders have claimed for weeks that Russia might deploy chemical or biological weapons in its military operation in the former Soviet republic. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated those concerns on Monday, calling for stronger sanctions against Russia to deter the use of such weapons.

“It is time to make this [sanctions] package in such a way that we would not hear even words about weapons of mass destruction from the Russian side,” Zelensky said. “An oil embargo against Russia is a must.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki first set the stage for an alleged Russian chemical or bioweapon attack last month – while responding to reports from Moscow on US-funded biolabs in Ukraine. She called the charges “an obvious ploy” and said “we should all be on the lookout for Russia to possibly use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine, or to create a false flag operation using them.”

US clarifies position on use of chemical weapons READ MORE: US clarifies position on use of chemical weapons
Also last month, US President Joe Biden said NATO members would respond “in kind” if Russia used weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine.

Moscow launched a large-scale offensive against its neighbor in late February, following Ukraine's failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, and Russia's eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Lugansk and Donetsk, where the city of Mariupol is located. The German and French brokered protocols had been designed to regularize the status of those regions within the Ukrainian state.

Russia has now demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military alliance. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two rebel regions by force.

[shaberon]

This may be a better context (http://sana.sy/en/?p=269112) for one of the quotes I found earlier:


Moscow, SANA-The Russian Defense Ministry announced that its forces fought a battle in the Tobolsky district of Kharkiv province, where Ukrainian forces surrendered and abandoned new tanks with full ammunition on the battlefield.

The commander of the tank division that participated in the battle said “They had new tanks that were taken out of the warehouses with full ammunition… the Ukrainian forces surrender just because they see us, our tanks and our equipment… They don’t want to fight us .”

The commander indicated that his division’s mission was limited to establish control over nearby residential gatherings and securing a passageway for Russian units to the south.


Russian forces destroyed with missiles ammunition depot and aircraft hangar in Khmelnytskyi and Kyiv, Ukraine last night.

[Bill Ryan]

This was posted by Doug Hillman on https://www.moonofalabama.org's comments section. Unverifiable right now, of course, but it's very detailed and has the air of being well-informed.

~~~

There are now about 200 NATO officers and foreign instructors…[remaining] in the underground concrete premises of Azovstal.
...

In Mariupol there was a large intelligence center of the French Armed Forces, acting in the interests of the alliance and the Kiev regime … but by the time the battle for the city began, there were 53 officers of the French military intelligence DGSE … they could not leave, because the Azov militants … the Nazis decided to use them as a guarantee that they themselves would be pulled out of the boiler.

In addition to the French, there is a group of mercenaries in Mariupol … officers from Canada, Sweden and the UK, as well as a detachment of Syrian Turkomans… [and] among them there may be career intelligence officers from the Canadian CSIS, the Swedish MUST and the British MI-6, who like to use the status of a mercenary as a cover. In general, they, too, were in a trap.
...

On March 18, Chancellor Scholz came to help Macron, and on March 20, with the consent of Moscow, a rescue team was sent to Mariupol from officers of the German military intelligence BND. But the “Azov”, believing that this was the only hope for them to escape … turned the Germans into hostages, despite guarantees from the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the representative office of the Azov regiment located in Kyiv.
...

This was followed by attempts to evacuate the French and Germans with the help of helicopters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which … [resulted] in five downed helicopters. In one of those helicopters that fell into the sea, there were supposedly two Frenchmen… According to radio interception, 21 Frenchmen died on the territory of Azovstal.
...

Now all living (if there are still any) foreign intelligence officers and military specialists held in Mariupol are concentrated at Azovstal to serve as human shields for the Nazis. Since the intelligence officers of the NATO countries and Sweden are of great operational interest to the Russian special services, and the very fact of their capture can have a huge propaganda effect, as well as become a serious trump card for pressure on the Western countries, efforts were made to take them alive.

This circumstance greatly hampered the assault on Azovstal and did not allow powerful bombing and artillery strikes … But judging by the fact that now the intensity of the work of artillery and aviation has seriously increased, either information has appeared that the foreigners were liquidated by the “Azov” in order to avoid their detention by Russian special services, or, in order not to put the lives of our soldiers at unnecessary risk, they simply waved their hand at them.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1513841197302919174
1513841197302919174
https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1513802509411831810
1513802509411831810
https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1513801508135084033
1513801508135084033

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1513845285713334276
1513845285713334276

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1513811920796725252
1513811920796725252

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1513770593069547522
1513770593069547522

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1513766958738591747
1513766958738591747

[Tintin]

This was posted by Doug Hillman on https://www.moonofalabama.org's comments section. Unverifiable right now, of course, but it's very detailed and has the air of being well-informed.

~~~

There are now about 200 NATO officers and foreign instructors…[remaining] in the underground concrete premises of Azovstal.
...

In Mariupol there was a large intelligence center of the French Armed Forces, acting in the interests of the alliance and the Kiev regime … but by the time the battle for the city began, there were 53 officers of the French military intelligence DGSE … they could not leave, because the Azov militants … the Nazis decided to use them as a guarantee that they themselves would be pulled out of the boiler.

In addition to the French, there is a group of mercenaries in Mariupol … officers from Canada, Sweden and the UK, as well as a detachment of Syrian Turkomans… [and] among them there may be career intelligence officers from the Canadian CSIS, the Swedish MUST and the British MI-6, who like to use the status of a mercenary as a cover. In general, they, too, were in a trap.
...

On March 18, Chancellor Scholz came to help Macron, and on March 20, with the consent of Moscow, a rescue team was sent to Mariupol from officers of the German military intelligence BND. But the “Azov”, believing that this was the only hope for them to escape … turned the Germans into hostages, despite guarantees from the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the representative office of the Azov regiment located in Kyiv.
...

This was followed by attempts to evacuate the French and Germans with the help of helicopters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which … [resulted] in five downed helicopters. In one of those helicopters that fell into the sea, there were supposedly two Frenchmen… According to radio interception, 21 Frenchmen died on the territory of Azovstal.
...

Now all living (if there are still any) foreign intelligence officers and military specialists held in Mariupol are concentrated at Azovstal to serve as human shields for the Nazis. Since the intelligence officers of the NATO countries and Sweden are of great operational interest to the Russian special services, and the very fact of their capture can have a huge propaganda effect, as well as become a serious trump card for pressure on the Western countries, efforts were made to take them alive.

This circumstance greatly hampered the assault on Azovstal and did not allow powerful bombing and artillery strikes … But judging by the fact that now the intensity of the work of artillery and aviation has seriously increased, either information has appeared that the foreigners were liquidated by the “Azov” in order to avoid their detention by Russian special services, or, in order not to put the lives of our soldiers at unnecessary risk, they simply waved their hand at them.

Bill: could you link either directly to where this is, or to the article? Thanks. Your original link 404'd so I tweaked it (removed 's that was snarled in the link) but obviously this only lands on the homepage :thumbsup:

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1513754839121018887
1513754839121018887

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1513784987543293953
1513784987543293953

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/Parrots38/status/1513435574195171331
1513435574195171331

https://twitter.com/elenaevdokimov7/status/1513863254568992768
1513863254568992768

https://twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1513841765517832195
1513841765517832195

[ExomatrixTV]

French 🇫🇷 Journalist Awaits Big Surprise In Ukraine: 'The Americans Are Calling The Shots'

French journalist Régis Le Sommier (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Oagy30QdA) has been in Ukraine (https://www.ninefornews.nl/?zoeken=Oekra%C3%AFne) for more than a week and spent more than a week with three French Ukrainians, a former soldier and two men who fought against the terrorist group IS in Rojava.

When they wanted to join the Ukrainian army, a big surprise awaited them: the Americans are calling the shots. Le Sommier said at the table at news channel CNews (https://twitter.com/SierraTango74/status/1512710879464284165?s=20&t=PulNn8BZetnpivTa1igtDA) that they were almost arrested.

1513472576114372617
source (https://twitter.com/backtolife_2022/status/1513472576114372617) & backup (https://rumble.com/v10ouxf-april-12-2022.html) of above twitter video (with English 🇬🇧 sub-titles!)


Sign contract

An American walked up to them and said, “I'm in charge here. Not the Ukrainians, but me.” The Americans train the volunteers and determine who can fight against the Russians, according to the journalist.

“He even gave me his name. It turned out to be an Iraq veteran," said Le Sommier, who has verified the man's identity. When he discovered that he was a journalist, he was told to leave. He also had to take the SIM card out of his phone and even sign a contract.


Pentagon

“Who's in charge? The Americans. I've seen it with my own eyes. Not officially, of course. I thought I was going under international brigades but was confronted by the Pentagon,” said Le Sommier, the only French journalist to interview President George W. Bush.

Dutch 🇳🇱 Telegraaf reporter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Telegraaf) Wierd Duk also saw the fragment and responds (https://twitter.com/wierdduk/status/1513798438760112128?s=20&t=P8ytGn9JUmmSM2ppXTc8-w) : “French 🇫🇷 who want to fight in Ukraine encounter American instructors, according to CNews: 'We determine who can participate', they said. 'Not the Ukrainians'. This is the US-Russian war, fought on Ukrainian battlefields. That's how we should look at it."


source (https://www.ninefornews.nl/franse-journalist-wacht-grote-verrassing-in-oekraine-de-amerikanen-maken-de-dienst-uit) (Dutch 🇳🇱 + Multi-Language Options). 🦜🦋🌳


me:

'The Americans Are Calling The Shots' ??? ... You mean Deepstate CFR (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_on_Foreign_Relations) / Bilderberg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_meeting) / WEF (https://intelligence.weforum.org/topics/a1Gb0000000LHN2EAO?tab=publications) puppets of Nato calling the shots! ... The overwhelmingly vast majority of Americans are against proxy-wars (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_war)!

cheers,
John Kuhles aka 'ExomatrixTV'
April 12th, 2022 🦜🦋🌳

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1513832615593271302
1513832615593271302

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Tom_Fowdy/status/1513487262452879361
1513487262452879361

https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1513806198721560577
1513806198721560577

https://twitter.com/ARmckay82/status/1513834540938276867
1513834540938276867

https://twitter.com/Russ_Warrior/status/1513868615585775618
1513868615585775618

https://twitter.com/Russ_Warrior/status/1513872465193316362
1513872465193316362

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/LadyAvis20/status/1513556046471704577
1513556046471704577

https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1513863900269318145
1513863900269318145

[ExomatrixTV]

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1513832615593271302
1513832615593271302


I live approximately 20 Km (12.4 Miles) away to the north from Rotterdam :facepalm:


only 17 or 18 minutes travel using the train (https://www.ns.nl/reisplanner/#/?vertrek=Gouda&vertrektype=treinstation&aankomst=Rotterdam%20Centraal&aankomsttype=treinstation&type=vertrek&tijd=2022-04-12T16:01)

[Bill Ryan]

This was posted by Doug Hillman on https://www.moonofalabama.org's comments section. Unverifiable right now, of course, but it's very detailed and has the air of being well-informed.

~~~
There are now about 200 NATO officers and foreign instructors…[remaining] in the underground concrete premises of Azovstal.
...

In Mariupol there was a large intelligence center of the French Armed Forces, acting in the interests of the alliance and the Kiev regime … but by the time the battle for the city began, there were 53 officers of the French military intelligence DGSE … they could not leave, because the Azov militants … the Nazis decided to use them as a guarantee that they themselves would be pulled out of the boiler.

In addition to the French, there is a group of mercenaries in Mariupol … officers from Canada, Sweden and the UK, as well as a detachment of Syrian Turkomans… [and] among them there may be career intelligence officers from the Canadian CSIS, the Swedish MUST and the British MI-6, who like to use the status of a mercenary as a cover. In general, they, too, were in a trap.
...

On March 18, Chancellor Scholz came to help Macron, and on March 20, with the consent of Moscow, a rescue team was sent to Mariupol from officers of the German military intelligence BND. But the “Azov”, believing that this was the only hope for them to escape … turned the Germans into hostages, despite guarantees from the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the representative office of the Azov regiment located in Kyiv.
...

This was followed by attempts to evacuate the French and Germans with the help of helicopters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which … [resulted] in five downed helicopters. In one of those helicopters that fell into the sea, there were supposedly two Frenchmen… According to radio interception, 21 Frenchmen died on the territory of Azovstal.
...

Now all living (if there are still any) foreign intelligence officers and military specialists held in Mariupol are concentrated at Azovstal to serve as human shields for the Nazis. Since the intelligence officers of the NATO countries and Sweden are of great operational interest to the Russian special services, and the very fact of their capture can have a huge propaganda effect, as well as become a serious trump card for pressure on the Western countries, efforts were made to take them alive.

This circumstance greatly hampered the assault on Azovstal and did not allow powerful bombing and artillery strikes … But judging by the fact that now the intensity of the work of artillery and aviation has seriously increased, either information has appeared that the foreigners were liquidated by the “Azov” in order to avoid their detention by Russian special services, or, in order not to put the lives of our soldiers at unnecessary risk, they simply waved their hand at them.

Bill: could you link either directly to where this is, or to the article? Thanks. Your original link 404'd so I tweaked it (removed 's that was snarled in the link) but obviously this only lands on the homepage :thumbsup:

Apologies. It's just before half way down this page:
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/04/sane-voices-explaining-the-reasons-for-and-dangers-behind-the-war-in-ukraine.html?cid=6a00d8341c640e53ef027880766cb7200d#comment-6a00d8341c640e53ef027880766cb7200d
(Search for any unusual keyword on the long page and you'll find it)

But the original source seems to have been a post on the Above Top Secret forum — whatever that may be worth:

https://abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread1308880/pg1

[shaberon]

Despite some British quackery about options (https://sputniknews.com/20220412/uk-warns-all-options-on-the-table-amid-reports-about-use-of-chemical-weapons-in-mariupol-1094696002.html), in Mauriopol, the Port is clear, and Ilyich Plant is wearing down:


Also on Tuesday, Russian Ministry of Defence spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said an attempted overnight break-out by Ukrainian forces surrounded in another factory in the city had failed disastrously.

"On 11 April, in Mariupol, the remnants of Ukrainian troops surrounded on the territory of the 'Ilyich' plant made an unsuccessful attempt to break out of the city at night", Konashenkov said. "A group of up to 100 Ukrainian soldiers in armoured vehicles tried to fight their way out of the plant and leave the city in a northern direction".

"Air and artillery strikes foiled this breakthrough attempt", the Russian general added, saying three Ukrainian tanks, five infantry fighting vehicles, and seven light vehicles were destroyed and up to 50 troops killed, while "another 42 Ukrainian servicemen voluntarily laid down their arms and surrendered".

On Monday, DPR leader Denis Pushilin said Mariupol's civil port in the west of the city had been finally cleared of hostile militants.

[Bill Ryan]

Another long (4+ hrs) livestream from The Duran, discussing everything related to Ukraine militarily, economically and geopolitically. Gonzalo Lira joins the two hosts at about 1hr 25 mins.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GR8fd8iUeI

[shaberon]

We know there is a pretty horrible history to Ukraine. The current conflict is essentially the last bead on a strand of post-Cold War aggressions by NATO, starting in Yugoslavia. Even then, Ukraine was already combed with stay-behind stuff from WWII. In that war, it had a lot of messy conflicts which provided refugees for Zion and the legend of the Holocaust. But even this was a slightly secondary copy.

One sometimes wonders why a British political hatred of the Russian country would have much in common with the Catholics who hate the Orthodox religion. Here are a few reader comments plucked from the Serbia article at today's Saker:



Tito and the Partisans would shoot at Germans around the villages and then would flee when the Germans came after them. The Partisans would be gone so Germans would destroy the villages.

The destruction of the villages and murder of the people would help in recruiting more fighters for the Partisans as the people would be left with no home nor farm to care for and their relatives would be dead.


Tito was a British creation to impose an anti Serb government in Yugoslavia. The reason for this otherwise inexplicable project was the desire on the British to save the Vatican’s usefulness in the Cold War, which the British were planning since the Battle of Moscow in Dec. 1941. And what were the British saving the Vatican from? From justice at Nuremberg for the Catholic Church role in the Serbian Holocaust in the Independent State of Croatia where between 750,000 to a million Serbs were murdered for the simple reason the were Orthodox and not Catholic. The US got away Scot free with killing millions in Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, Honduras, etc, however Pope Pius XII beat the US for that distinction thanks to Winston Churchill.

Churchill and the BBC were doing propaganda for Tito and were intent on seeing him win, even if it meant killing a huge number of Serb anti-communists, and even though most all of Serbs didn’t want him nor communist. Tito and the Partisans literally invaded and attacked Serbia, with help from U.S. an British air force – they acted as his air force the way they later did for the KLA in Kosovo.


... the orthodox during 1941-45 suffered unspeakable extermination campaigns. The Holocaust arguably started on 28.April 1941 in Gudovac where for the first time in WWII a entire population was executed only because of their orthodox religion. The first death camp in WWII was created on Rab (Prag?) . the only death camp for children in WWII was at Stari Gradinski. The 750,000 – 1,000,000 who were murdered at Jasenovac are just a small portion of the orthodox victims in Yugoslavia during WWII.





Neither Zionism nor Catholicism fully explain British anti-Russianism, but, have been used in such a manner.

[ExomatrixTV]

If Nato sends their latest most advanced powerful weaponized drones over Ukraine how is that not an act of war?


I hope it is not happening ... :peep:

[Bill Ryan]

If Nato sends their latest most advanced powerful weaponized drones over Ukraine how is that not an act of war?I think the line-in-the-sand factor is who's operating the weapons. A simple example: it's "okay" to send guns to Ukraine, but not NATO troops carrying and firing the guns.

So drones could be supplied to Ukraine, for the Ukrainians to fly. But if they're controlled from the EU or the US, then that would cross the [rather wobbly!] line.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1513931078029148161
1513931078029148161

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1513926547664617475
1513926547664617475

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1513925067683500034
1513925067683500034

https://twitter.com/RealPepeEscobar/status/1513814259251261444
1513814259251261444

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/_TheRepublic_/status/1513933879266189316
1513933879266189316

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1513930793478930438
1513930793478930438
https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1513930794854666248
1513930794854666248

[Ravenlocke]

More recent,

https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1513938172153143296
1513938172153143296


https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1513936704041799680
1513936704041799680

https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1513940399609548802
1513940399609548802


https://twitter.com/pandanjudin/status/1513932469938053127
1513932469938053127

[Ravenlocke]

Russian briefing posted 10 hours ago,
https://twitter.com/zrada2022/status/1513779450470613003
1513779450470613003

https://t.me/levigodman/453

Briefing of the Russian Ministry of Defense (12.04.2022)

◽️ The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to conduct a special military operation in Ukraine.

◽️ During the night, high-precision air and sea-based missiles destroyed: an ammunition depot and a protected hangar with Ukrainian aviation equipment at the Starokonstantinov military airfield in the Khmelnytsky region, as well as an ammunition depot near the village of Gavrilovka, Kiev region.

◽️ Operational-tactical aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces hit 32 military facilities of Ukraine. Among them: in the Novomikhailovka area, the Buk-M1 anti-aircraft missile system, in the Zolotarevka area, a radar for illumination and guidance of the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system, as well as one command post and 18 areas of concentration of Ukrainian military equipment.

◽️ Russian air defense systems shot down two unmanned aerial vehicles in the air in the areas of the settlements of Berdyansk and Melitopol.

◽️ Yesterday, April 11, in Mariupol at night, the remnants of Ukrainian troops surrounded on the territory of the Ilyich plant made an unsuccessful attempt to escape from the city.

◽️ A group of Ukrainian servicemen numbering up to 100 people in armored vehicles tried to break through from the territory of the plant and leave the city in a northern direction. This attempted breakthrough was thwarted by air and artillery strikes. Three Ukrainian tanks, five infantry fighting vehicles, seven vehicles and up to 50 personnel were destroyed. Another 42 Ukrainian servicemen voluntarily laid down their arms and surrendered

https://twitter.com/zrada2022/status/1513781371193470977
1513781371193470977

https://twitter.com/zrada2022/status/1513772567533867012
1513772567533867012

https://twitter.com/zrada2022/status/1513757475538939905
1513757475538939905

https://twitter.com/zrada2022/status/1513745684930965508
1513745684930965508

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/zrada2022/status/1513734931742089216
1513734931742089216
https://www.blackstoneintel.com/post/ukraine-torturing-civilians-in-donbass

Ukraine Torturing Civilians in Donbass
Ukraine Torturing Civilians in Sloviansk

By Jake Morphonios

Blackstone Intelligence

April 11, 2022

According to the Chief of Russia's National Defense Control Center, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, nationalist militants of the Ukrainian territorial defense forces are targeting civilians in the Donbass town of Sloviansk. Mizintsev has commanded Russia's forces in Mariupol since the outbreak of the war.


Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev (far left) updates Russian President Putin

According to Mizintsev, the Ukrainian militants are detaining locals and questioning them to see if they have any ties to Russia or have Russian sympathies. The militants check civilians' phones for calls/texts to Russia, subscriptions to Russian social media channels, etc.

If anything seemingly pro-Russian is discovered, the locals are taken to undisclosed locations and tortured. They are also threatened that unless they pay the nationalists a minimum of $500, they will track down the victim's relatives and rape their wives and daughters. Scores of these civilians who were seen being taken away have not returned home and their fates remain unknown.

Though, this claim is consistent with the treatment we've seen of other Donbass residents by Ukrainians since the war began, in the fog of war, it's best to take all such reports with a grain of salt until confirmed by verifiable evidence.

Blackstone Intelligence has produced over 2,000 information-packed Tweets that have received over 10 million views since the start of the 2022 Ukraine War. Due to the success of these Tweets, Twitter has arbitrarily locked us out of our account for at least a week.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/SpritersEvents/status/1513947645705871360
1513947645705871360

https://twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1513952688312049668
1513952688312049668

https://twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1513952690962841603
1513952690962841603

https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1513959793584660493
1513959793584660493
https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1513962179850125318
1513962179850125318

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/SpritersEvents/status/1513849772796518405
1513849772796518405

https://twitter.com/SpritersEvents/status/1513849809895104514
1513849809895104514






From Bill:
As best I can see, this Twitter account has now been suspended, which is why the tweets aren't visible when embedded.

[ExomatrixTV]

MSNBC Host’s Psychotic Warmongering – Called Out!

qfDsf9gBAWA
MSNBC host Ali Velshi claims to be a peacenik, but you wouldn’t know it from recent statements he’s made on the air and on Twitter. Velshi even got into something of a tiff with The Greyzone’s Aaron Maté on Twitter after demanding that he United States send armed forces into Ukraine to directly confront Russia, with Maté wondering why Velshi is so eager for World War III in a conflict that was largely of NATO’s own making. Jimmy and The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal discuss the critical events that led up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and why the media so rarely provides this essential historical context.

[Richter]

RT News Livestream: https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/RTlivestream:8

[Bill Ryan]

Today's SitRep (situation report) posted on The Saker's blog. (Quite a long one! Really for those readers who want to dig deep into all the details.) As before, I've not embedded the many videos and tweets, some of which are very graphic.


http://thesaker.is/sitrep-operation-z-8

~~

A lot of very big scoops and important updates today.

The biggest news of this cycle is that yesterday was one of the single worst days of the conflict so far for the UAF: in a single day, the UAF lost over 1,100 people total as killed, wounded, or captured.

This is in large part due to massive strikes on various transportation/reinforcement hubs such as Dnipro and Nikolayev, which have taken out an estimated 200-300. As mentioned before due to strict new laws, Ukrainians are not allowed to film or report accurately on this, but on social media channels many “remembrances” from the families of the troops lost have appeared, verifying the damage.

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/word-image-26.jpeg

Dnipro has become the major logistics/resupply/reinforcement hub from western Ukraine. Everything going to the cauldron has to pass through there. And Russian reports indicate a lot of the new weaponry and mercenary troops were hit in major Dnipro strikes.

On top of this another estimated 200-300 have surrendered in Mariupol and many more are due to surrender soon. This happened in several phases. Firstly a huge ‘breakout’ was orchestrated by the trapped Marines of the UAF where they took 30-50 civilian vehicles plus some remaining light armor and put ‘Z’ signs on them to try and trick Russian troops, then tried to storm out of Mariupol towards the north as high command in Kiev promised them support if they can just make it towards Zaporizhzhia oblast. But RF had intercepted every part of their plan and captured/killed all of them.

Here Wargonzo shows the destroyed vehicles they used and the aftermath of the escape battle:
https://ok.ru/video/3389452585600

Then, separate from that group, another large group of Marines surrendered. Videos here:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/NPgRCf29WS14 (https://www.bitchute.com/video/NPgRCf29WS14/)
https://www.bitchute.com/video/V5CZputaCLJJ (https://www.bitchute.com/video/V5CZputaCLJJ/)

Not to mention several groups surrendered on the Lugansk axis:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/0ySkC3FfHvkL (https://www.bitchute.com/video/V5CZputaCLJJ/)

And dozens of troops were liquidated in battles along the Rubizhnoe / Lugansk axis (graphic 18+)
https://www.bitchute.com/video/vTO597qvbvUt (https://www.bitchute.com/video/vTO597qvbvUt/)
https://www.bitchute.com/video/tU27vpOkTAov (https://www.bitchute.com/video/tU27vpOkTAov/)

And Chechens captured/killed a bunch in Mariupol as well:
https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1513889986906669062

Meanwhile some of the remaining Marines trapped in the Illych Plant have made videos
https://ok.ru/video/3390640818816
https://ok.ru/video/3390640687744

And here’s a Russian soldier giving more details on the foreign mercenaries
https://mobile.twitter.com/_TheRepublic_/status/1513289253609955335

The most interesting bit of info though, is that we have the first confirmation of foreign mercenaries captured amongst the surrendered in Mariupol. ‘Famous’ British mercenary Cossackgundi, real name Aiden Aslin, who fought for the YPG for years in Syria, had his phone call intercepted where he cried about the likelihood of being ‘used for propaganda’ once he’s captured.

Phone call: https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1513754839121018887
His relatives running his social media account broke the bad news to his tens of thousands of followers:
https://twitter.com/cossackgundi/status/1513768135375077379
“COSSACKGUNDI (https://twitter.com/cossackgundi)
@cossackgundi (https://twitter.com/cossackgundi)
We’ve gotten word from Johnny. “It’s been 48 days, we tried our best to defend Mariupol but we have no choice but to surrender to Russian forces. We have no food and no ammunition. It’s been a pleasure everyone, I hope this war ends soon.””

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/word-image-27.jpeg

At the same time, a video featuring an Afghani mercenary has also appeared: https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1513841197302919174

“With the following information: “#MARIUPOL (https://twitter.com/hashtag/MARIUPOL?src=hashtag_click) #NEW (https://twitter.com/hashtag/NEW?src=hashtag_click) 37 Afghan special forces from the Afghanistan Ghani government are embedded with Azov and stuck in Azovstal. After American withdrawal from Afghanistan they were send to Ukraine by the Americans as PMC.

@wargonzoo (https://twitter.com/wargonzoo) reports that the Afghani special forces have requested a safe corridor with the DPR units in Mariupol City, however the Azov militants are withholding the Afghanis from leaving.”

By the way here’s what Wargonzo himself reports on the big breakthrough/escape that the Ukrainian marines attempted:
“On a breakthrough from Mariupol. There are many rumors and discrepancies. Here’s what the @wargonzo project knows, I’m breaking it down into numbers and numbers.

At the time of the breakthrough, there were about 1,500 neo-Nazis (Azov militants and AFU fighters) at the Ilyich plant.

Of these, about 800 were going to go for a breakthrough in the first column, the rest had to go out along the corridor cut by them.

The column consisted of about 120 pieces of equipment, including automobiles. At the head was a tank, 2 Gvozdika self-propelled guns and up to 10 infantry fighting vehicles, as well as MTLBs, armored cars and trucks.

More than 100 Ukrainian marines surrendered. Including the political officer of the 36th Marine Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

More than half of those who were going to break through retreated back to the plant. Several dozen were destroyed by artillery strikes of the NM DPR. Up to 10 groups of 3-4 people were scattered and tried to seep through the environment. The search and elimination operation continues.

Hence the data on the second smaller breakthrough. We are talking about these wandering groups, which the special forces and fighters at posts enter into battle with if they are detected. Hence, a more thorough check of the car on the Volnovakha-Mariupol highway.

So no panic.”
He also reports about 2 retired American “officers” trapped there. Could this be the general everyone is talking about?
“⚡️”Azov” can eliminate 2 US officers in Mariupol⚡️
According to the @wargonzo project from sources on the Donbas frontline, based on an analysis of radio intercepts of enemy communications, there are at least two high-ranking retired American officers in the air raid shelters at Azov-Stal.

According to our sources, they entered Mariupol together with PMC “Academy” and most likely are not active employees of the Pentagon. However, at the same time they are extremely important persons for Washington.

“These officers are aware of many covert US operations in third countries and are the bearer of information that is extremely sensitive to Washington,” a source familiar with the analysis of radio intercepts told the @wargonzo project.

It is also noted that in order to conceal this “sensitive information”, the American intelligence services are ready to order the Azov militants to eliminate these two officers. Whether they are alive at the moment is not yet known for sure.”
With all this news, the end really seems in sight for Mariupol. Troops continue advancing, having fully captured the port and now in the Primorski district in southwest Mariupol. Pretty much all that is left is the Azovstal factory, the Illych factory north of it in the Kalmiuski district, and this last stretch of city in the SW by the port. It’s likely they will wait until the capture of this final piece before focusing fully on the two factory positions and deciding on how to deal with it or whether it should be smoked out in some way.

Meanwhile Basurin has denied the usage of chem weapons but has stated the DPR forces are instead using ‘flamethrowers’ to burn out the trapped Azovs. Although it appears he’s referring to the RPO-Shmel thermobaric launcher, and not the classic flamethrower most people imagine.

Also this information is unconfirmed but this is the rumor going around:
“The Nazi drowning operation is said to begin today in Mariupol..

At least ten fire engines to be either on the road or already at the factory to start pumping water from the river or sea and pumping water to above-ground ventilation shafts that carry fresh air to the cavernous network of tunnels below the Azovstal metallurgical complex..

If Azov close the ventilation shafts, they will drown within a few days. If they do not close the ventilation shafts, they will drown in a few days. In any case, the siege of the factory will be terminated in such a way that the factory itself can remain intact..”
In other news Russian MOD has announced the destruction of the S-300 system supplied by Slovakia:
https://www.rt.com/russia/553662-s300-missiles-ukraine-slovakia (https://www.rt.com/russia/553662-s300-missiles-ukraine-slovakia/)

There are some conflicting reports because they said it was destroyed south of Dnipro, but there are videos of a new S-300 system also destroyed around Kiev that claim a Russian special forces unit destroyed it on the ground:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/N0mxvnYVX15z (https://www.bitchute.com/video/N0mxvnYVX15z/)

Could be part of the same system, or something else, hard to tell for now.

Russian MOD has also announced another use of the Kinzhal hypersonic missile to destroy a very fortified underground command center of the AFU south of Kramatorsk.

There have been many debates here whether a hypersonic missile can be used as a bunker buster, but clearly Russia is using it as such successfully.

Kadyrov has also stated that all Ukraine including Kiev will be taken.
https://news.yahoo.com/chechen-chief-kadyrov-says-russian-003543233.html

Whether one wants to regard that as simple braggadocio or truth, we must understand that not only is that a distinct possibility but is also likely. Too many people have now been propagandized by the west to believe Russia somehow “failed” and is incapable of taking the western part of the country, but that is not even close to reality. Russia is not capable of taking it all at the same time from 5 different fronts.

There’s a huge difference and distinction there. But once Donbass and everything east of the Dnieper is cleared, Russia can and likely will take the rest with concentrated forces. There will likely then be only 2 fronts, one coming up from the south that will cut off Odessa and take Nikolayev and one that returns from the north into Kiev. But we’ll save that for another time as either way that’s far off in the future.

In logistical news, Poland has reportedly begun its shipment of (supposedly) 100 T-72 tanks and Bmp-1s to Ukraine. While Australia ships Bushmasters.
https://youtu.be/hFmMVL5NTNg

In other interesting news which shows that Turkey’s “closing of the Bosphorous” straits was not what it seemed, and was in fact a more than subtle blow against NATO, Turkish defense minister has confirmed that Turkey is strictly prohibiting any NATO ships from passing the straits as well.

“Turkey will not let NATO warships into the Black Sea,” said Minister of Defense of this country Hulusi Akar. At the same time, he referred to the Montreux Convention and said that the passage would be closed to warships of countries that do not have access to the Black Sea, A Haber TV channel reports.

Akar also admitted that the presence of mines in the sea could be deliberate: they could have been fired as part of a plan to pressure Ankara to let NATO minesweepers into the Black Sea, which is contrary to the Montreux Convention.

“We have a suspicion that the mines were deliberately introduced. Perhaps they were fired as part of some plan to put pressure on us in order to let NATO minesweepers [through the straits] into the Black Sea. But we are committed to the rules of the Montreux [Convention] and do not Let warships enter the Black Sea,” the minister said.
https://www.rt.com/news/553636-turkey-bars-nato-warships-from-black-sea (https://www.rt.com/news/553636-turkey-bars-nato-warships-from-black-sea/)

So much for NATO solidarity.

Also, the first formal appeal for the following: “In the State Duma of Russia, Crimean deputy Mikhail Sheremet today proposed to unite the Republic of Crimea with the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions into the Tauride province within the Russian Federation. “Residents of the regions do not seem to mind – they raise Russian flags everywhere and complain about the attitude of the Ukrainian authorities.”

American Secretary of Defense Lloyd addresses Ukrainian troops:
https://twitter.com/SecDef/status/1513205552700174340

This comes on the heels of new revelations of how deeply embedded U.S. and NATO command structures (and troops) are in Ukraine. A French journalist here describes what he saw in his time in Ukraine:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/aVZeyycQgXBk/ (video with translations)

In short, he says he was shocked to see American generals running the entire show on the ground, and he says the names of them will be revealed in his new exposé in the French Figaro newspaper this week.

This is further proof that this conflict is truly NATO vs. Russia, and NATO is losing badly.

Another report states: “the United States is moving its advanced headquarters units to the western borders of Ukraine. In particular, the 5th Corps is being relocated. This suggests that it is not the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine that controls military operations, but NATO officers. And we are at war not with some puppet regime in Kiev, but with the collective West.”

Of course as things progress towards a potential showdown, we continue to hear how badly unprepared NATO really is:
https://twitter.com/Navsteva/status/1513149802527313929

But a new 8 mile convoy of Russian reinforcements is heading towards the northern front:
https://twitter.com/Dr_ShahidPk/status/1513115975847223296
https://twitter.com/Suriyakmaps/status/1513084749081985026/photo/1

And other videos pour in of the long lines of Russian reinforcements in preparation for Phase 2
https://www.bitchute.com/video/qGXWoFHX6PPF (https://www.bitchute.com/video/qGXWoFHX6PPF/)

By the way, we were told to believe that these same Russian troops were “out of ammo, fuel, food” etc. Only further proof of the utter laughable propaganda from the west and Ukraine.

And to speak a little more on Phase 2, as continuation of the last report. Here is some further corroboration of things I’ve been saying:
“⚡️⚡️⚡️#Inside
Mi-6 warned the Office of the President and the General Staff that Russia is changing the tactics of warfare, now there will be no deep breakthroughs into the interior of Ukraine, but a methodical sweep of squares with phased campaigns. The new commander of the Russian troops will use the experience of the war in Syria, transforming it under Ukraine, in order to achieve success in specific military operations.”
There is a video that is a must-watch as companion piece to the last SitRep where we discussed the Fort Benning internal U.S. Army report about the superiorities that Russian BTGs have over American equivalent BCTs.

This video is a must watch from about the 27 minute mark to the end.
https://youtu.be/_CMby_WPjk4?t=1578

This army specialist gives a talk to West Point, detailing his discoveries and insights into Russian operations in Ukraine. He basically confirms every single point of the Fort Benning report but in greater detail and with explanatory visual aids, etc.
Some of the highlights of his presentation:


Russia has the most advanced and dense, data-linked air defense on earthenware
In a war against Russia, U.S. army cannot expect much air assistance for at least the first several weeks. Even stealth aircraft will not be of much use for various reasons he explains
Russian EW (electronic warfare) is much more advanced and more ‘combat-ized’ than in the U.S. RF utilizes it in combat squads whereas U.S. barely has any and only at the divisional level
Russian EW shuts down all communications in huge areas along the front, no cellphones, military radios etc. They break GPS links with drones, making them useless and can even fry the fuses on artillery shells midflight.
U.S. army produces 10x the frequency emissions of a Ukrainian brigade, which would make it extremely visible to all sorts of Russian EW, drones, advanced weapons
Russia has far more artillery than U.S. and far greater variety of munition types

And there’s much more.

And here’s another corroboration of what I wrote previously, about how artillery is the only real effective force Ukraine has left, and is how Ukraine has created the vast majority of its kills against Russian forces. Pretty much all the western supplied weapons have been proven near worthless and the legacy soviet artillery systems continue to be the workhorses creating results.
https://voenhronika.ru/publ/vojna_na_ukraine/artillerija_glavnaja_opora_vsu_zachem_na_ukraine_gotovjat_tysjachi_minometnykh_raschetov_dlja_letnik h_bojov_2022/60-1-0-11858

As for NATO and the U.S., many people don’t seem to know that the U.S. is really not as trained or powerful as they’d like you to believe. I’ve previously highlighted how in the past month alone the U.S. has almost suffered more aircraft losses than Russia, and U.S. is not even in a war. Multiple F-22, F-35, F-18s, Awacs, and Ospreys all lost in the last month. Another good example is, the U.S. has held tank competitions in Europe for the past decade called the Strong Europe Tank Challenge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_Europe_Tank_Challenge

You can check the results yourself. The highest that the U.S. team ever scored was 3rd place. Other years they were 6th and 7th place, damn-near last place – bottom of the barrel.

Meanwhile, in Russia’s own Tank Biathlon hosted as part of its International Army Games (over 30 countries), here are Russia’s results for the last few years https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tank_biathlon

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/word-image-28.jpeg

Gold in every single year.

And as many of you have probably seen several years ago India, operating the Russian Su-30’s, badly humiliated and dominated the British RAF piloting NATO’s most advanced ‘Typhoon’ jets.
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/indian-air-forces-top-guns-score-wins-in-the-uk-1204336

You can see many articles on this:
https://www.rediff.com/news/report/defence-news-iaf-sukhoi-vs-raf-typhoon-controversy-in-the-skies/20150811.htm

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/word-image-29.jpeg


The most shocking part about the humiliation is the fact that there were different rounds, first 1v1, then 2v2, and then 2v1 of each variety. Not only did India win with a 12-0 perfect score, but even when 1 Indian Su-30mki faced off against 2 simultaneous Eurofighter Typhoons, it beat them both 2 on 1.

But the western public is so propagandized they can’t even imagine that their equipment might be inferior, or worse – that their actual personnel may be inferior to those of other ‘lesser’ countries.

What most people don’t know, and wouldn’t know unless they followed the Ukraine events intimately since the 2014 days, is that when U.S. instructors first started pouring in, in the subsequent years, they were often viewed as laughing stocks by the Ukrainian veterans of the Donbass war. They felt they had nothing to learn from the “elite” U.S. instructors and in fact knew more about combat/warfare than they did.

The fact of the matter is, many Ukrainian troops are much more experienced and trained than even U.S. equivalent troops, AND the Ukrainian troops are better armed. This fact is corroborated by the video posted above in the West Point presentation, where he explains that most U.S. units don’t even have anti-aircraft systems and even Manpads in the modern U.S. army are in fact not widespread. There are videos like this one:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/UUidj4zPmDAV

Which show a Georgian legion in Ukraine, and they are FAR better armed than any U.S. equivalent army combat unit. They have every of the latest weapons, bristling with firepower. There are other photos showing 4 soldiers, each one of them armed with a manpad of a different type. The fact is, Ukraine is so flush with advanced ‘western’ weaponry that many of their teams are simply armed better than any standard western counterpart.

So this goes back to the concept that Russia is truly fighting not only a NATO equivalent force here, but arguably a force stronger than most NATO countries. The only thing Ukraine is missing is the U.S. airforce, which is at the end of the day by far the most powerful and important weapon the U.S. has. In every other category U.S. stands no chance against Russia.

I’ll leave with this map of the Donbass cauldron that can give a good idea of the force dispositions there. The circled red is where the Kinzhal was said to have struck a command bunker by the MOD. If you consider each one of those blue crosses as a company of about 300 men, it would roughly give a disposition of 40-50k in the cauldron. If you believe the higher figures as Basurin himself has stated over 90-100k for the cauldron, then count each blue stroke as a battalion.

The white lines represent breakthroughs, like the one south of Niu York (north of Donetsk city) and near Svitlodark towards Bakhmut by LPR forces. At the NW end where you see Kramatorsk and Slavyansk, Russian forces are pushing in towards Krestyshche. But for the most part not much progress is expected until Phase 2 begins in full. With all the things happening in Mariupol now, that finally seems to be closing in.

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/word-image-30.jpeg

[Bill Ryan]

Some analysts are already looking ahead to a conclusion of the hostilities where the Russians would hold their own war crimes tribunals, whether or not they were recognized by the west.

This interesting comment was posted (http://thesaker.is/sitrep-operation-z-8/#comment-1067872) on The Saker's blog below the long SitRep copied above, and I'm sharing it here because I didn't actually know this about the legal status of mercenaries in a war. As best I know, no-one's been talking about their potential fate once they're captured.

~~~
POWs are treated as a lawful combatant and therefore a Protected Person which for a soldier is as a Prisoner of War (POW) until the soldier has faced a competent tribunal (GC III Art 5). That tribunal may decide that the person is a mercenary using criteria in APGC77 or some domestic law equivalent.

At that point the mercenary becomes an unlawful combatant but they must still be “treated with humanity and, in case of trial, shall not be deprived of the rights of fair and regular trial”, because they are still covered by GC IV Art 5.

If after a regular trial, a captured soldier is found to be a mercenary, then they can expect to be treated as common criminals and may face execution. As they are not POWs they can not expect repatriation at the end of the war.

The best known, post World War II, example of this was on June 28 1976 an Angolan court sentenced four mercenaries to death and nine others to prison terms ranging from 16 to 30 years. The three Britons and an American were shot by a firing squad on July 10 1976.

As Russia has been assiduously following international law, it is expected that they will continue to do so.

[shaberon]

Here are a couple of extra snippets about the British mercenary who turned up surrendering with some unit in Mariupol, in the context of being without food or ammo:


The merc's (https://twitter.com/cossackgundi/status/1513768135375077379) account was used by his family at first to say he went offline since last Thursday.


The feed (https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1513754839121018887) having the intercepted phone call gives the detail:

Have been trying to escape for three weeks.


This guy claims to have served alongside the YPG in Syria, so, it is entirely possible he may face criminal charges from there as well.

Is this a sterling example? Counts as a survivor, so far. Who knows what this guy has seen, probably no actual battles, but perhaps mixes of random and first degree murder? Sounds pretty gloomy so far, trying to rely on whatever may have been expected from Kiev. All you had to do was guard a very strategic location around some rich guy's secret. Have a drink on me--the Azov Sea!

[shaberon]

As best I know, no-one's been talking about their potential fate once they're captured.


I am guessing it is similar to having "human rights", which is about the same as I would have, if I leave this country and get in trouble elsewhere. If I am arrested, they cannot torture me, and I have to receive food and medicine, but my American rights such as an attorney, speedy trial, ability to post bail, etc., are gone. I have no protection against the sentencing, such as the first famous case I remember of an American putting down a piece of chewing gum in Singapore and getting thirty cane lashes.

And so yes, once captured, then Russia will probably at least humanely treat the prisoners. No one else is likely to have much say in what happens to them.

Their main problem is to survive to be captured like the guy above. If not, anywhere on the field there will not be mercy.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1514006451588632577
1514006451588632577

https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1514001594999787535
1514001594999787535

[Ravenlocke]

About Cossackgundi
https://twitter.com/cossackgundi/status/1513815407194423298
1513815407194423298

Aiden Aislin
https://twitter.com/anon_candanga/status/1513906298856910868
1513906298856910868

[shaberon]

That would be another interesting legal question. Here, I don't think you can actively serve in the armed forces of another country. So we don't know if this guy is "British citizen" or not really, nor exactly who employed him. Maybe Ukraine Armed Forces do not care if you are Ukranian, or, maybe this guy had become Ukranian, except then why is he calling family back home? Maybe they have duals like Israel?

It is not going to affect anyone's opinion much what his "status" is. "Gone" is perhaps the most satisfying part of it.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/TelegraphWorld/status/1492233512837079040
1492233512837079040

https://twitter.com/TelegraphWorld/status/1492233536107126788
1492233536107126788

[shaberon]

A few hours (https://sputniknews.com/20220413/some-1026-ukrainian-marines-including-162-officers-surrender-in-mariupol-russian-mod-says-1094724566.html) ago, it got bigger:


"In the city of Mariupol ... as a result of successful offensive operations by the Russian armed forces and police units of the Donetsk People's Republic, 1,026 Ukrainian servicemen of the 36th Marine Brigade voluntarily laid down their arms and surrendered", Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told reporters.

Among the surrendered are 162 officers and 47 female soldiers, the official noted.



I'm guessing maybe that was it for Ilyich plant. Doesn't say. I am pretty sure it is a new batch for Tuesday, since the previous one of around 800 has already coughed up:


...the interrogation of the surrendered deputy commander of the Ukrainian 36th Marine Brigade Rostislav Lomtev.

The shape they were in:

...According to the Monday-published post, "the mountain of wounded makes up almost half of the brigade."

[shaberon]

I was mistaken about the previous assumption, it is quite regular for militaries to recruit foreigners (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_militaries_that_recruit_foreigners), to the extent that Bahrain hardly has any Bahrainis in the armed forces.


The difference between a "volunteer" and "signing up for the regular military" is tricky. Unpaid employee? If in the Marines, that counts as state forces, and apparently you can do that.

Maybe I was mixed up with governmental offices. You can't have those in other countries.

Three tours of a frontline against civilians, that was impressive, wasn't it?


There may not be a lot of advantages to being a POW: communication, lack of interrogation, supposed to be paid for any work. Theoretically you don't face additional criminal charges just for being captured. You would be let go reasonably soon after the end of conflict.


None of those terms exactly mean anything, such as "unlawful combatant" was revised by the United States during the Guantanamo era, when prisoners were trying to press the Justice Department to get hearings and trials:


In the United States, the Military Commissions Act of 2006 codified the legal definition of this term and invested the U.S. President with broad discretion to determine whether a person may be designated an unlawful enemy combatant under United States law.


Along with various Wiki information:


Title 10 of the United States Code was amended to include a definition of an "unlawful enemy combatant" as
a person who has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States or its co-belligerents who is not a lawful enemy combatant (including a person who is part of the Taliban, al-Qaida, or associated forces); or a person who, before, on, or after the date of the enactment of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, has been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant by a Combatant Status Review Tribunal or another competent tribunal established under the authority of the President or the Secretary of Defense.


No alien unlawful enemy combatant subject to trial by military commission under this chapter may invoke the Geneva Conventions as a source of rights.

The term "competent tribunal" is not defined in the Act itself. It is defined in the US Army Field Manual, section 27–10, for the purpose of determining whether a person is or is not entitled to prisoner of war status, and consists of a board of not less than three officers.


The term 'lawful enemy combatant' means a person who is —

(A) a member of the regular forces of a State party engaged in hostilities against the United States;
(B) a member of a militia, volunteer corps, or organized resistance movement belonging to a State party engaged in such hostilities, which are under responsible command, wear a fixed distinctive sign recognizable at a distance, carry their arms openly, and abide by the law of war; or
(C) a member of a regular armed force who professes allegiance to a government engaged in such hostilities, but not recognized by the United States."


If your command breaks down, even as the Army, you might become unlawful. That describes most of Ukraine. Judging by this standard, three Russian Lieutenants could declare almost everyone illegal and court-martial them. Depends on what Russian Code says.

But in the UN Mercenary Convention:

States Parties shall not recruit, use, finance or train mercenaries and shall prohibit such activities in accordance with the provisions of the present Convention.


The U. S. says a state can hire a militia, the U. N. seems to say otherwise. The U. S. seemed to say Taliban, Al Qaeda are not lawful, since they were not hired by states.


These will be some interesting cases.

[Bill Ryan]

Dear Friends, I've heard from Malisa, who is on sabbatical right now. She asked me if I could post this on her behalf.

:flower:

https://t.me/nolito_now/370

https://projectavalon.net/A_soldier_died.gif

A soldier died

It is scary to lose friends, relatives and relatives, but, oddly enough, it is easier than losing strangers. When loved ones leave, they leave a memory. How they smoked on the balcony, how they argued until they were hoarse at an exhibition in Moscow. Or how they clapped their hands at the entrance, they say we'll meet again ...

And how to lose a stranger? This can only be in Russian thinking.
Somewhere there, an unknown, unfamiliar guy fell to the ground. And he was gone. There was a void. You could get to know him, you could discuss something, you could joke or teach him. Now you can't. He's gone, but he's still with you. Because Russians last.

We are connected in one endless continuity. And the fighter you didn’t know near Stalingrad, and the one that liberated your city as part of the 256th rifle, and now lies on the “Bagpipe”, and the guy who remained somewhere near Kursk - all of them are you. It's just that now you have to do a little more in this world. Make it kinder, more honest and better. Both for myself and for him.He, that guy, is now behind you. He is Denchik, Ilyukha, those two helicopter pilots in Karabakh, your great-grandfather near Staraya Rusa, and private 256th. A lot of them. Known and unknown. And you can't betray them.
This is the meaning of Russian. His ongoing, inseparable being.

Sleep, soldier. Whatever you haven't done, we'll do.

And live forever. Stay behind me. Cover and support. After all, now we are forever one.

[Tintin]

Pictures, more than words....

1513852265974616067

Source: https://twitter.com/bobscartoons/status/1513852265974616067

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FQJIfLUWQAY12Xl?format=jpg&name=900x900

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/SpritersEvents/status/1513849772796518405
1513849772796518405

https://twitter.com/SpritersEvents/status/1513849809895104514
1513849809895104514






From Bill:
As best I can see, this Twitter account has now been suspended, which is why the tweets aren't visible when embedded.


Yes Spriter*events have been suspended, they just posted the names of the Russian reporters that reported about the Afghan special forces embedded with Azov. They were previously suspended under the name Spriter.
Now even Russians with Attitude have been suspended.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/zrada2022/status/1514182393938206721
1514182393938206721

https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1514220444924186626
1514220444924186626

https://twitter.com/1_plus_1equals3/status/1514058383028101123
1514058383028101123

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/wyattreed13/status/1514168996953739270
1514168996953739270

https://twitter.com/Russ_Warrior/status/1514201799276003331
1514201799276003331

https://twitter.com/Navsteva/status/1514219431718760448
1514219431718760448

[Ravenlocke]

The Second Great Patriotic War and Russia’s Reformatting

The Just War theory, originally Just War theology, correctly refused to deduce the just or unjust character—and thereby the legitimacy—of a war solely from the fact of who attacked first. Similarly, the patriotic character of a war cannot be deduced from whether or not a state is fighting on its own soil. If Russia is the intended target, then the war assumes a patriotic character which is not negated by its preemptive or preventive nature.

The U.S. is experimenting with a new model of warfare, an upgrade of both the Vietnamization model and the hybrid war model. Economic extermination; over-the-horizon presence; no boots on the ground; supply of force multipliers and real-time battlefield intelligence to local forces; and a spectrum of conventional, mobile and guerrilla modes of combat.

The West is waging a political-military war of total or absolute character against Russia. This total or absolute character must not be obscured by the fact that the political and military roles involve a division of labor and that the military component itself is hybridized, where actual combat operations are conducted by the Ukrainian forces while weaponry and intelligence are provided by the West.

When Newsweek magazine recently interviewed ranking U.S. experts about the possibility of U.S. drone strikes on Russian military targets in Ukraine, its intentionality revealed that in the Western military mind the line is blurred and Russia is regarded as the target.

The goal of the political-military war is total and absolute: destroying Russia’s material base and attacking the economy, livelihoods and social fabric of the Russians, thereby bringing the country to its knees and forcing it to install a puppet leadership which will turn Russia into a vassal state of the West.

Russia is being punished by a sanctions regime that was never imposed on apartheid South Africa. The sanctions against and divestment from Russia is so massive that it could be described as “shock and awe” intended to create a global system of economic and cultural apartheid, which isolates, marginalizes, and suppresses Russia.

Russian culture and arts have been ‘cancelled’ as a component of Western culture and civilization, while Western arts and culture have been pivoted away from Russia.

Any TV channel now shows that the West, at the level of its political and opinion-making elite, is filled with bloodlust against Russia and Russians. The West is openly using Ukraine as a proxy to inflict a death of a thousand cuts on Russia. As never before, the conversation in the mainstream is about inflicting casualties on Russian forces and maximum damage on the Russian economy and society. The Western official discourse at the highest levels is about cutting the “main artery” of the Russian economy—oil and gas exports. These actions and language indicate collective punishment and sociopathic rage towards Russia.

Such sentiments were hardly absent in the West, starting with the urge to strangle the Bolshevik infant in its cradle (Churchill) to Radio Free Europe during Hungary 1956, to the Santa Fe document. But these sentiments were held in check and retained at the margins, by the reality of the existence of the USSR. With the implosive collapse of the Soviet Union and the birth of a unipolar moment, these sentiments, though unexpressed in public, shaped the actual bipartisan agenda as was seen in the destruction of Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya and, above all, in the successive waves of NATO expansion.

The West will not even be satisfied with a return to the compliant and wretched 1990s because it knows from experience that the Russian spirit could cyclically produce another strong leader. Instead, it will want permanent satellization of Russia, its turning into what the West calls a “normal” country, i.e., a larger version of one of its Eastern European allies.



Russian Reset

If this new model of warfare succeeds, then, as its inherently self-expansionist logic dictates, it will be repeated on Russia’s rim, on Russia’s soil. Therefore, Russia has to solve a complex equation: prevail so decisively in Ukraine that the model of warfare fails, a lesson is administered, and the effort is not repeated. But Russia must do so without getting into an Afghanistan-type quagmire, a trap of the sort Brzezinski set for Moscow in 1979. The approaches of such military thinkers as Tukhachevsky and BH Liddell Hart, as well as Cuban tactics in Angola and the Ogaden now assume great relevance.

While no one is privy to the thinking of the Russian General Staff, logic indicates that the Western trap of turning Ukraine into a quagmire for Russia could perhaps be avoided by evading the focus on seizing territory and cities, and privileging the doctrine of the greatest military mind of the post-WWII era, Vietnam’s General Vo Nguyen Giap who urged a counterforce strategy, or in his words, “the annihilation of the living forces of the enemy,” that is, the liquidation of the adversary as a fighting force.

Given that the Ukrainian military are a quasi-NATO machine, certain parallels could be less than fully relevant, but it may be useful to recall the contrast between Russia’s and America’s failures in Afghanistan and the success of Vietnam in its Cambodia operation and Cuba in Angola.

To face the economic siege machines of the West, Russia must reach into its past when it was determinedly blockaded by imperialism. The restoration of some form of economic planning will be necessary. Russia has experience of many models of planned economy, ranging from that of Nikolai Bukharin to Lieberman and Prof Kudratsyev to Yuri Andropov’s idea of a fusion of planning and cybernetics.

This perhaps will have to be combined with a return to Stalin’s emphasis on heavy industry, including self-reliance in the manufacture of machine-making machines (the capital goods sector or the so-called Dept I).

My experience tells me that Russia has in its economic research institutions, all the brainpower necessary for a creative policy to face and overcome the sanctions. Cuba survived the sanctions and the collapse of the Soviet Union and has gone on to produce two anti-COVID vaccines of its own.

Much depends on the actual dynamics of the system of decision-making in Russia. If it is bottle-necked, then matters will be more difficult. Russia has a power-bloc which may now have to be reformatted to handle the existential challenge of a state of global siege, which is part of the strategic offensive by the West. The war against Russia cannot be defeated solely by the state. In the extreme historical situation facing Russia today, it will take a united front of Russian patriots, Russian statists and Russian communists; of traditionalists and modernists; conservatives and radicals; romantics and realists to resist and prevail against its adversaries.

The Great Patriotic War could not have been waged successfully if not for the new instrument, the Communist Party, which was at one and the same time a vanguard party and a mass party, functioning as a “transmission belt” (in Stalin’s terminology) between the people and the state. It was also a party capable of linking the deep patriotism of the Russian people with a broad international appeal. In Soviet Russia, among the top academicians were also members of the Communist Party. The Communist Party of China is a meritocratic Confucian mandarinate with a mass base and is therefore a filter and elevator for the best brains and talent.

The biggest error that the Russian state could make is to think that the situation of conflict and blockade could be faced without a united front with the Russian Communists. No tendency or tradition in Russia has the doctrine and experience of facing and waging a political-military-ideological war on a world scale against Western imperialism than Russian Communism has. When the Communist Party of the Soviet Union lost its way, it was the Russian Communists who broke away, reconstructed the party, and fought ideologically against the appeasement of NATO and the neoliberal economic reforms that were aimed at liquidating the state. No other political force has greater experience in fighting ideological war internationally.

The incorporation of the Russian Communists in the ruling bloc would also cement ties with the Communist parties of China, Vietnam, and Cuba—most crucially, of China.

Russian Communists have a more robust tradition of ‘agit-prop’ than any other political force. They also have a history of rallying international solidarity for Russia, which purely nationalist-statist appeals cannot. As the repository of the memory of Soviet Russia, Russian Communists can be helpful in keeping social support, especially of the Russian working class, high.

The thirty-five countries that abstained during the UN vote on Russia and those few who voted with Russia did so not only because of the current relations with the Russian Federation but also because their leaderships, governing parties and publics had a residual memory of the USSR which made them relatively devoid of Russophobic reflexes. That, together with the memories that these countries have of Western hypocrisy, have given them a certain skepticism and agnosticism. That was not a memory of tzarist Russia but of Soviet Russia. These countries, mainly Asian and African, are the embryo of a multipolar world order.

The broad global front that Russia could count on, based on state sovereignty, is fissured by the fact of secessionism and the master-theme of state sovereignty is itself turned against Russia by the West. There is only one doctrine that reconciled the state’s leading agency in the struggle against imperialism with the right of nations and peoples to self-determination, and that was the Lenin-Stalin tradition.

Russia needs to reach into its own political and intellectual history for a doctrine that has a dimension of universality. The only one that contains a universal dimension is Russian Communism. It cannot and must not be a substitute for Russian statist-nationalism, but it is an existentially and grand-strategically imperative supplement.

Nobody has a better fighting tradition than the Red Army and nobody has a better culture of political combat than the Russian Communists. To cope with the extreme challenge Russia is facing today, the red banner may be required alongside with the red-blue-and-white banner.

Stalinization’?
Stalinization is the crime that President Putin is accused of by The Economist, UK, in a recent cover story, illustrated by a photograph of a Russian tank with its ‘Z’ in place of the letter ‘z’ in the word ‘Stalinization’.

But what would Stalinization, not in its Western propagandistic sense but in its historical, strategic and conceptual sense, mean for Russia today?

For Russia, it would not be strategically realistic to base itself on the postulate that the West will eventually return to its senses. As Stalin said in a debate within the Bolshevik party under Lenin’s leadership, about the German revolution, “that is a possibility, but we cannot base ourselves on possibilities, only on facts.”

There was and still is a considerable debate about the wisdom of Stalin’s policies in the run-up to the 1941 Germany’s attack on Russia. It includes his strategy in Spain, the purge of the Red Army, the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, and the insufficient attention paid to Richard Sorge’s dispatches. Did Stalin buy time to move the industries beyond the Urals or did he lose time and allow Nazi Germany to become stronger? Whichever the case, we know that there was unpreparedness and shock when the Nazi attack came.

Yet what is vital today is the lesson of that time: the Russian people and army, as well as those the world over who understood the global and historical significance of the existence of Soviet Russia, buried all doubts and rallied round the State and Stalin’s leadership, despite whatever errors he may have made.

At a time when the European revolution expected by Lenin, Trotsky, and the majority of Bolshevik leaders was effectively blocked after the defeat in Poland, and the USSR suffered the shock of Lenin’s death a few years after, it was Stalin who gave the Russian people the perspective and the hope that they could build a strong country on the basis of Russia’s own resources and potential, even if the European transformation was indefinitely delayed. This was the famous ‘Socialism in one Country’ formular. Of course, he allowed the formular to lapse after World War II and the extension of socialism to Europe by the Red Army and, more importantly, the massive event of the Chinese revolution in 1949.

Stalin was able to recognize the necessity and possibility of building an industrial civilization, albeit on an alternative pattern (socialism), even in an isolated Russia. This gave the Russian people a perspective of hope and a concrete, even if utterly challenging, task.

In terms of global strategy, unlike other Bolshevik leaders, only Stalin, following the ambidextrous Lenin, was able to understand the potential of the East, from Iran (Persia) to China. When all eyes were on the European revolution, Stalin wrote in November 1918, an essay entitled “Don’t Forget the East” followed up the December 1918 essay “Light from the East.” It took enormous perspicacity and originality to do so at that time: “At a time when the revolutionary movement is rising in Europe… the eyes of all are naturally turned to the West… At such a moment one “involuntarily” tends to lose sight of, to forget the far-off East, with its hundreds of millions of inhabitants…”

He went on in this essay to list “Persia, India, China.” While this was five years after Lenin’s superbly unorthodox “Backward Europe, Advanced Asia” (1913), it was prior to Lenin’s last essay in which he placed his final bet on Russia, India, and China (providing the basis of the Primakovian perspective). Stalin was the author of the strategic and paradigmatic pivot to Asia and in that sense the first Eurasian strategist of modernity or of alternate (‘Soviet’) modernity.

Obviously, Stalin’s most famous contribution was recovering from his costly initial mistakes and giving political leadership of genius to the Soviet Union and the Red Army in defeating the Nazis, as well as negotiating the postwar order at Yalta and Potsdam. He also had a clear understanding of the West’s intentions in the first years of the Cold War.

Both in the domestic and international arenas, it was under Stalin that a new bloc was formed on patriotism, even nationalism, statism, and leftism; an amalgam that fueled the victory in the Great Patriotic War and helped Asia for half a century in its fight against Japanese and Western predatory imperialism.

While history recognizes the negative aspect of Stalin’s domestic repressions (and in that sense the criticism and relaxation from Khrushchev to Gorbachev were positive), his external policies proved to be less so.

In the overall historical balance, Stalin’s contribution was far more positive than negative, and that positive aspect is relevant to Russia’s situation in the world today and indispensable to Russia. The Western charge of Stalinization could, in a dialectical inversion (or judo throw), be an essential ingredient for Russia’s survival and success, as it once was. If the question facing Russia is “NATO-ization or neo-Stalinization?”, there can only be one rational and patriotic answer.


https://eng.globalaffairs.ru/articles/russias-reformatting/

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/peterpobjecky/status/1514190064917655552
1514190064917655552


https://twitter.com/Russ_Warrior/status/1514182805357740037
1514182805357740037

Americans Are "In Charge" Of The War Says French Journalist Who Returned From Ukraine
Authored by Paul Joseph Watson via Summit News,

A French journalist who returned from Ukraine after arriving with volunteer fighters told broadcaster CNews that Americans are directly “in charge” of the war on the ground.

The assertion was made by Le Figaro senior international correspondent Georges Malbrunot.

Malbrunot said he had accompanied French volunteer fighters, two of whom had previously fought against ISIS.

“I had the surprise, and so did they, to discover that to be able to enter the Ukrainian army, well it’s the Americans who are in charge,” said Malbrunot.

Adding that he and the volunteers “almost got arrested” by the Americans, who asserted they were in charge, the journalist then revealed that they were forced to sign a contract “until the end of the war.”

“And who is in charge? It’s the Americans, I saw it with my own eyes,” said Malbrunot, adding, “I thought I was with the international brigades, and I found myself facing the Pentagon.”

Malbrunot also mentioned America providing Ukraine with switchblade suicide drones, something highlighted by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a tweet that revealed Ukrainian soldiers were being trained to use the devices in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Citing a French intelligence source, Malbrunot also tweeted that British SAS units “have been present in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, as did the American Deltas.”

Russia is apparently well aware of the “secret war” being waged in Ukraine by foreign commandos who have been in the region since February.





Both the United States and the UK have publicly asserted that there won’t be “boots on the ground” in Ukraine, but apparently there has been a US-UK military presence since the start of the war.

“Polls showed in the run up to the war the overwhelming majority of Americans wanted our government to stay out of it but our leaders know best and are more than happy to risk World War III in defense of Ukraine’s puppet regime,” writes Chris Menahan.

* * *
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/americans-are-charge-war-says-french-journalist-who-returned-ukraine

[Ravenlocke]

From Ukrainemaps while they’re still on twitter,

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1514232128342577158
1514232128342577158

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1514155878743789569
1514155878743789569

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1514163535563169795
1514163535563169795

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1514164125215113216
1514164125215113216

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1514206780146040837
1514206780146040837

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/zrada2022/status/1514154807233290240
1514154807233290240

https://twitter.com/zrada2022/status/1514178910174552066
1514178910174552066

https://twitter.com/zrada2022/status/1514139460170141696
1514139460170141696

https://twitter.com/Vick_top55/status/1514204688962445317
1514204688962445317

https://twitter.com/Vick_top55/status/1514260313557852162
1514260313557852162

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1514215845517475852
1514215845517475852

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1514215233224589316
1514215233224589316

[Ba-ba-Ra]

LIES AND LIARS

NBC reports that US intelligence agencies have been deliberately laundering phony stories about the war in Ukraine through the media. Those of us who have watched the conflict carefully suspected this all along. When you are losing an argument or a war, the first line of defense is to lie.

I suspect the Europeans will wake up to the truth sooner than those in USA. The media here seems to have the public hypnotized into accepting just about anything, imo. I hope I am wrong.


https://www.rt.com/shows/crosstalk/553645-nbc-ukraine-laundering-phony-stories/

[Eva2]

This video is from April 10 - I don't see it posted yet - if its a repeat please delete
'Shocking News From Hell on Earth'

At the end of this video is a seconds long video (supposedly) taken by a Russian officer of one of the "experiments" from the underground labs.

https://rumble.com/v10jc8w-shocking-news-from-hell-on-earth.html?fbclid=IwAR3-PDF3k-sFksAOz9lhcA6z8noWxzu67fJqUF0wV5VudgRdHHF8M8t5gCg

[Vicus]

This video is from April 10 - I don't see it posted yet - if its a repeat please delete
'Shocking News From Hell on Earth'

At the end of this video is a seconds long video (supposedly) taken by a Russian officer of one of the "experiments" from the underground labs.

https://rumble.com/v10jc8w-shocking-news-from-hell-on-earth.html?fbclid=IwAR3-PDF3k-sFksAOz9lhcA6z8noWxzu67fJqUF0wV5VudgRdHHF8M8t5gCg


that thing is a just born T-Rex, when it should be real... Jurassic Park next ?

reptiles hatched from eggs... :sherlock: ( in this planet...)

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1514303670866911239
1514303670866911239

https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1514303342717149185
1514303342717149185

https://twitter.com/SputnikInt/status/1514287309952151552
1514287309952151552

https://sputniknews.com/20220413/mod-russian-forces-will-hit-decision-making-centres-in-ukraine-if-attacks-against-russia-continue-1094741041.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

MoD: Russian Forces Will Hit 'Decision-Making Centres' in Ukraine if Attacks Against Russia Continue

Earlier, the governor of the Kursk region in Russia reported several attacks at border crossings perpetrated on the Ukrainian side of the crossing. The attacks with mortars and small firearms have not yet caused any casualties, the governor said.
Russia's Defence Ministry has warned that Russian armed forces will launch strikes on Ukrainian "decision-making centres", including Kiev, if Ukraine doesn't stop trying to hit objects on Russian territory. The ministry added that, so far,Moscow had avoided hitting these centres, but this policy might change.
Russia announced its decision drastically to scale down its military activities near Kiev after making such progress in the last in-person bilateral talks with Ukraine, which took place in Istanbul on 29 March. Moscow explained that key decision-makers, who can make the final call in peace talks, live in Kiev and hence the city should be spared any hostilities in the near future.
The defence ministry's announcement comes in the wake of several incidents, in which the Ukrainian Armed Forces carried out attacks on Russian territory. Governor of the Kursk region, Roman Starovoit reported that a border crossing was shelled from the Ukraine side on 9 April and that the mortar position was suppressed when the Russian side returned fire. Starovoit also said that a group of Russian border guards came under small arms fire from the Ukrainian side on 13 April. There were no casualties among Russians in both incidents.

[Ravenlocke]

Tsarevna crew rescued!

https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1514308006091141137
1514308006091141137

https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1514308000290418692
1514308000290418692

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1514325757027356673
1514325757027356673

SCOTT RITTER: Twitter Wars—My Personal Experience in Twitter’s Ongoing Assault on Free Speech
April 13, 2022
, , , , , , , , , , ,
At some point, the U.S. people, and those they elect to higher office need to bring Twitter in line with the ideals and values Americans collectively espouse when it comes to free speech and online identity protection.


(Cathy Vogan/Consortium News)
By Scott Ritter
Special to Consortium News



Monday, April 4, 2022: It was, from my point of view, just another day in the life of @RealScottRitter—my Twitter “handle.” I had a phone call scheduled with the editor of a publication I write for where we would discuss topics for a weekly column I was responsible for. I was also under deadline for another article I was writing for a second outlet that published my work, and was preparing a pitch to a third platform for another article. Such is the lot of a freelance writer—it is literally publish or perish.

Part of my routine is to watch the news and keep up to speed on breaking events. This usually involves sitting in an overstuffed arm chair surfing news channels using a remote while simultaneously monitoring the various news feeds and social media applications on my smart phone. On this morning I was monitoring the breaking news out of the Ukrainian town of Bucha, north of Kiev, where the bodies of civilians had been discovered strewn along a major thoroughfare.

The Ukrainian government was blaming the Russian troops, while the Russian leadership blamed Ukraine. As usual, getting to the bottom of an issue like this from my vantage point thousands of miles distant from the literal scene of the crime was a mission impossible.

On the television screen before me, the President of the United States was making a live appearance, where he addressed the Bucha killings. “You may remember I got criticized for calling Putin a war criminal,” Biden told the gathered reporters. “Well, the truth of the matter,” he continued, “you saw what happened in Bucha. This warrants him [Russian President Vladimir Putin]—he is a war criminal.”

Biden went on to declare that his administration was gathering evidence for a possible war crimes trial. “We have to gather all the details so this can be an actual—have a war crimes trial,” Biden said. “This guy is brutal, and what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous, and everyone’s seen it.”

I had just finished an article for Russia Today (RT) on the Bucha incident, and had assembled what I believed to be the available data regarding what had transpired on the ground there. As such, Biden’s words took me by surprise.

The available data coming out of Bucha was ultimately inconclusive but, if anything, strongly suggested Ukrainian culpability, not Russian. The certainty expressed by the President led me to believe that he was privy to classified information otherwise unavailable to the general public.

My curiosity was piqued as much as my ego was pickled—RT had published my article, and now it looked like I might be in the uncomfortable position of having to withdraw my conclusions and correct the record. That, however, was the price of credibility—if you are wrong, say so, correct the mistake, and move on.

Shortly after Biden spoke, however, my cellphone alerted me to a Reuters article with a headline proclaiming, “Pentagon can’t independently confirm atrocities in Ukraine’s Bucha, official says.” The article quoted an unnamed “senior defense official”, speaking on condition of anonymity, that “the Pentagon can’t independently and single handedly confirm that, but we’re also not in any position to refute those claims.”
I turned off the television, and proceeded to spend the next 40 or so minutes researching the available information about the Bucha incident. One of the leading news stories was a New York Times report based upon commercially available imagery which the authors of the article, Malachy Browne, David Botti and Haley Willis, claimed was taken on March 19, 2022, putting a lie to Russian claims that when its troops pulled out of Bucha on March 30, no bodies were present.

However, when I examined the video and still photographs of the Bucha bodies, I was struck by the fact that they didn’t appear to have been left in the street to decompose for two weeks (the bodies were “discovered” by the Ukrainian National Police on April 2.) Bluntly speaking, bodies begin to bloat some 3-5 days after death, often doubling in size. They will remain this way for up to ten days, before they burst, spilling a puddle of putrid liquid into the ground around the corpse.

In comparing The New York Times’ image with the video of the bodies on the ground, I was struck by a scene in the movie My Cousin Vinny, where Vincent Gambini, a streetwise New York lawyer played by Joe Pesci, cross examined a witness on the issue of the preparation of Grits. “Are we to believe that boiling water soaks into a grit faster in your kitchen than on any place on the face of the earth? Well perhaps the laws of physics cease to exist on your stove!”

All I could do is stare at the satellite image and the bodies and wonder if the esteemed journalists of The New York Times expected their audience to suspend belief for a moment and accept that the laws of biology that govern the decomposition of human remains were suspended in Bucha.

The available evidence that could be extracted from the images from Bucha showed bodies that by appearance appeared to have been killed within 24-36 hours of their discovery—meaning that they were killed after the Russians withdrew from Bucha. The exact time of death, however, could only be determined after a thorough forensic medical examination.

Many of the bodies had white cloth strips tied to their upper arm, a visual designation which indicated either loyalty to Russia or that the persons did not pose a threat to Russians. The bodies that lacked this white cloth often had their hands tied behind their backs with white cloth that appeared similar to that which marked the arms of the other bodies.

Near to many of the bodies were the green cardboard box adorned with a white star which contained Russian military dry rations that had been distributed to the civilian population of Bucha by Russian troops as part of their humanitarian operations.

In short, the evidence suggested that the bodies were of civilians friendly to, or sympathetic with, Russia. It would take a leap of faith to conclude that Russian troops gunned these unfortunate souls down in cold blood, as alleged by the Ukrainian government.

Rest is here:
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/04/13/scott-ritter-twitter-wars-my-personal-experience-in-twitters-ongoing-assault-on-free-speech/

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1514305282377199621
1514305282377199621

Army’s Cavoli to be next EUCOM chief and NATO commander in Europe, report says
John Vandiver

STUTTGART, Germany — Gen. Christopher Cavoli, a Russian speaker who has led the Army in Europe for the past four years, has been tapped to serve as the next head of U.S. European Command, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Cavoli would replace Gen. Tod Wolters, who is slated to retire, the Journal reported Monday, citing unnamed U.S. officials.

The shakeup comes at a crucial time in Europe, where Russia’s war on Ukraine has prompted the U.S. and its allies to send thousands more troops to NATO’s eastern flank. If confirmed, Cavoli also would serve simultaneously as NATO’s supreme allied commander.

During his tenure at U.S. Army Europe and Africa, Cavoli has overseen a mission that was growing even before Russia’s Feb. 24 full-fledged invasion of Ukraine. Additional units, such the Army’s 56th Artillery Command, have taken up new positions in Germany, marking a reversal from the decadeslong post-Cold War drawdown of U.S. troops in Europe.

In October 2020, Cavoli was promoted in connection with U.S. Army Europe and Africa’s elevation to a four-star headquarters.

Going forward as EUCOM chief, Cavoli is expected to play a key role in designing what the future U.S. mission in Europe will look like.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Army Gen. Mark Milley and other military leaders have said they anticipate more U.S. troops being based on NATO’s eastern flank in the future in connection with concerns about further Russian aggression. That increase could involve rotational forces or a mix of revolving and permanently based troops.

Cavoli, who was born to an Army family in Wuerzburg, Germany, during the Cold War, grew up at various military bases around Europe.

A graduate of Princeton University, he served multiple tours in Afghanistan. He also is a foreign area officer and held a previous staff job as director for Russia on the Joint Staff.

A replacement for Cavoli at Army headquarters in Wiesbaden, Germany has not yet been announced.

https://www.stripes.com/branches/army/2022-04-12/cavoli-eucom-nato-army-europe-russia-5661257.html

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/rumblevideo/status/1514243124830392325
1514243124830392325
https://twitter.com/rumblevideo/status/1514243132187201541
1514243132187201541

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/peterpobjecky/status/1514190064917655552
1514190064917655552

Three drones found
https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1514226904093450242
1514226904093450242

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/MoonofA/status/1514256658003861514
1514256658003861514

U.S. Military Intelligence Official Refutes 'Russian Atrocities' Claims
April 13, 2022

Russian soldiers left the town Bucha in Ukraine on March 30. Two days later the Ukrainian Gestapo like SBU and men of the fascist Azov battalion moved in to find and remove 'traitors'. On April 2/3 video was published that showed freshly killed men laying on the streets of Bucha. Several of them had white arm bands signaling to Russian forces to see them as friendlies.

The 'west' and Ukrainian officials immediately called those dead the result of 'Russian atrocities'.

I had called it a provocation:

The Bucha 'Russian' atrocities propaganda onslaught may have worked well in the 'west' but it lacks evidence that Russia had anything to do with it.
The former Indian ambassador M.K. Bhadrakumar calls it an outright fake: ...

And a fake it was.

Thankfully there are still some sane U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency officials and William Arkin is talking with them:

Last Wednesday, Bucha Mayor Anatolii Fedoruk said that 320 people had been killed in the town of 37,000.
...
"It is ugly," a senior official with the Defense Intelligence Agency tells Newsweek. "But we forget that two peer competitors fought over Bucha for 36 days, and that the town was occupied, that Russian convoys and positions inside the town were attacked by the Ukrainians and vice versa, that ground combat was intense, that the town itself was literally fought over."
...
"I am not for a second excusing Russia's war crimes, nor forgetting that Russia invaded the country," says the DIA official. "But the number of actual deaths is hardly genocide. If Russia had that objective or was intentionally killing civilians, we'd see a lot more than less than .01 percent in places like Bucha."
320 of 37,000 is not .01 percent. But we do not know how many of those dead were Russian or Ukrainian soldiers. Some of the dead were so called 'civilian defenders' which were supposedly local civilians to whom the government had handed guns to 'fight the Russians'. During a war a 'civilian' with a government issued gun shooting at enemy soldiers is a combatant, not a civilian.

The DIA official continues:

"Have the Russians been indiscriminate? Absolutely. But it shouldn't too surprising. It's part and parcel of the Russian way of war, lining up their artillery guns and letting loose," the DIA official says. "But here in particular, in Bucha and the other towns around it—Irpin and Hostomel—there was intense ground fighting that involved almost 20 battalion tactical groups."
I doubt that there is really intentional 'indiscriminate' Russian artillery fire. The Russians have held back quite a lot and paid in blood for it.

One should also note that the often shown mass graves in Bucha were not from recent actions but had been dug on March 10 after heavy fighting when Russian soldiers tried to enter the town:

Maxar Technologies, which collects and publishes satellite imagery of Ukraine, said the first signs of excavation for a mass grave at the Church of St. Andrew and Pyervozvannoho All Saints were seen on March 10.
"More recent coverage on March 31st shows the grave site with an approximately 45-foot-long trench in the southwestern section of the area near the church," Maxar said.

The DIA official clearly says the civilian casualties in Ukraine, which are quite low, get overplayed and that attributing them solely to Russia is wrong:

On Monday, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said it had recorded 1,793 deaths and 2,439 injuries to civilians in all of Ukraine since the war began on February 24. U.S. intelligence believes that the true number is some five times greater, as previously reported by Newsweek.
"It's bad," the DIA official says. "And I don't want to say it's not too bad. But I can't help but stress that beyond the clamor, we are not seeing the war clearly. Where there has been intense ground fighting and a standoff between Ukrainian and Russian forces, the destruction is almost total. But in terms of actual damage in Kyiv or other cities outside the battle zone, and with regard to the number of civilian casualties overall, the evidence contradicts the dominant narrative."
...
The official says that it is dangerous to attribute one or even several graves and scenes of civilian disaster to Russian barbarism rather than just being realistic about the depredations of war.

The official also worries that attributing the destructiveness only to Russian conduct, rather than to war itself, creates future dangers.

"If we blame all the damage on Putin, as if he commanded it and that it is due solely to Russian war crimes, we are going to walk away from Ukraine with some illusion in our heads that modern warfare can be fought more cleanly, that the Ukraine war is an anomaly solely created by Russia's behavior. This war is just demonstrating how destructive any war on this scale would be."

One should avoid to wage war whenever possible but it also important to end wars as quickly as possible:

"Maybe it's heartless to urge that we look at Ukraine with precision, without human emotion," says the DIA official.
"But for those who think tens of thousands have died and Russia is intentionally killing civilians and pursuing genocide, I say that's even more of an argument to find a diplomatic solution to cease fighting. But nothing is going to happen in the coming days or weeks to change the reality on the battlefield. That's why stopping the fighting should be our highest priority."

Unfortunately ending the war is not a priority for the U.S. nor the EU. Their leaders are drunk on the idea that the Ukraine defeated Russia around Kiev. They seem to believe that the Ukraine can defeat Russia everywhere.

But the retreat from Kiev was ordered because the deceptive move towards it had fulfilled its purpose of keeping a large number of Ukrainian soldiers in place around Kiev while the Russian army opened the land corridor to Crimea.

The Ukraine has no chance to defeat the Russian army no matter how many old tanks or airplanes the U.S. and EU countries move to it.

Sending more weapons only prolongs the war and inevitably creates more military and civilian casualties on both sides.


https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/04/us-military-intelligence-official-refutes-russian-atrocities-claims.html

[kfm27917]

I would guess Greneral Cloutier to die soon in a helicopter accident in Turkey ?

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1514379747450576897
1514379747450576897

https://www.rt.com/russia/553838-russia-cruiser-blast-black-sea/

Russian warship ‘seriously damaged’ by explosion – military

The entire crew of the missile cruiser ‘Moskva’ was evacuated after an ammunition explosion caused by a fire, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement cited by Russian media on Wednesday night. The cruiser suffered “serious damage,” the Russian military said, adding that the cause of the fire was under investigation.

The Slava-class missile cruiser, launched in 1979, is armed with 16 anti-ship missiles and many more air defense missiles, torpedoes and guns. It is part of the Black Sea fleet, and has been engaged in operations off the coast of Ukraine since February.

Ukrainian officials on Wednesday evening claimed that a battery of their Neptune anti-ship missiles hidden in Odessa had successfully struck the Moskva twice, setting the cruiser ablaze. Among those making the claim were Maksim Marchenko, head of the military administration in Odessa, and Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the Interior Ministry in Kiev.

They did not provide any evidence for their claims, however. One Ukrainian Telegram channel reportedly posted – then deleted – a photo of an Iranian vessel that caught fire and sank in the Gulf of Oman last year.

Turkey suspects conspiracy behind Black Sea mines READ MORE: Turkey suspects conspiracy behind Black Sea mines
The alleged strike against Moskva comes just a day after Ukraine released a postage stamp depicting the – fictional – “Snake Island” incident in which 13 Ukrainian soldiers supposedly cursed out that very ship before heroically dying. In reality, 82 servicemen surrendered to the Russian Navy without a fight, and there was no proof the alleged exchange ever took place.

Ukraine also claimed to have destroyed Vasily Bykov, another ship involved in the taking of Snake Island. Ukrainian media announced on March 7 that a volley of artillery rockets hit and sank the Bykov, after two speedboats baited into a trap – only for the ship to show up in Sevastopol on March 16, unharmed.

Moscow attacked the neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements signed in 2014, and Russia’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French brokered Minsk Protocol was designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.

Russia has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.


https://sputniknews.com/20220413/russias-moskva-missile-cruiser-seriously-damaged-by-fire-blast-of-ammunition-ministry-says-1094745904.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Russia's Moskva Missile Cruiser Seriously Damaged by Fire, Blast of Ammunition, Ministry Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia's Moskva missile cruiser, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, has been hit be heavy fire and the following detonation of ammunition, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday.
"As result of the fire that hit the Moskva missile cruiser, the ammunition has detonated. The ship has been seriously damaged," the ministry said in a statement.
The statement added that all the crew members had been safely evacuated, causes of the fire are being investigated.
Other details of the incident, as well as the cause of the fire, are not given at the moment.
In early February, the cruiser conducted exercises to defend the Crimean peninsula in the Black Sea.


https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1514362803020206084
1514362803020206084

[shaberon]

Here is an interesting gambit from Eric Zuesse in an article about American lies, and then lies about lies (https://southfront.org/how-the-u-s-regime-lies-about-its-lying/). Here is what he tried, and the snarky title of his forthcoming book:


(This article is being submitted by email simultaneously to all English-language newsmedia, to publish free-of-charge. Let’s see which ones of them make it public — publish it — and which ones instead hide it from their public.)

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s next book (soon to be published) will be AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change. It’s about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.


https://southfront.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Biden_War-768x432.jpg





Will it be freely published? It's not very big. Same subject as NBC played last week. It is not bad but begins with a critical error:

If the public are voting on the basis of beliefs that were created by lies, then the public are being treated as dupes, not as citizens — they are actually “subjects,” instead of “citizens.” What results from this is inevitably a dictatorship — the U.S. empire.



The mistake is that a citizen is a subject. He has followed the French model, I suppose, in saying that a subject citizen is educated. It misses the American truth that one is not intended to be a citizen.



Well, one of the presidential stats looks to be costing each individual taxpayer around $200 so far. I don't have it. Did you get a loan based on my future productivity? And has this already become a rehypothecated derivative, stuffing the Fed? Gah:


The US has already delivered $2.4 billion in military assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of Biden’s term in office, though much of that aid has come since Russia’s military operation against Ukraine began in late February.

US President Joe Biden has authorized $800 million in additional military aid to Ukraine, which includes artillery, helicopters and armored personnel carriers.

“The Ukrainian military has used the weapons we are providing to devastating effect..."



Anyone looking for gold better consider the fact that each ounce has around 300 paper claims to it. It's not a derivative, but, it is similarly rehypothecated. Meanwhile, the gold collector has people working for him who only make non-bluffing statements, such as on biolabs by D. Medvedev (https://www.farsnews.ir/en/news/14010124000240/Rssia-Accses-US-Fnded-Labs-f-Develping-Bi-Weapns):


"Therefore, we consider such activities as a whole absolutely unacceptable both in Ukraine and other countries surrounding us," he said, adding that such activities should be transparent and under control.


Right. Ready for a Bird Flu factory in New York? How about hemorrhagic fever?? No, you're not, you hide it in places like Tajikstan, because there is no such thing. This man must be making a "ploy"! And, it is "obvious", according to my mentors, there at the State Department. Oh take me back to NBC or at least most of the stuff that Zuesse says.

Mariupol only has a few small pockets of resistance other than the Azovstal. The Chechen officer Kadyrov who has much to do there, says he has been busy fighting:

Shaytan

That is interesting that Christians now want to hear Allahu Akbar since they have figured out it means something like "we have a common enemy". This makes it an anti-Crusade or something like that, not sure if we have a word for it. End of the Dark Ages? If it works, I suppose so.

It, of course, will not happen here, unless we clean up our own backyard. Since that is not likely to happen, the survivalist guys in Idaho may have the best idea.

What do you do in a regime that is unsustainable both morally and materially? Watch it die? How is that so-called future supposed to work?? I don't think it can. If possible, human beings will out-consume the resources and cast off toxicity. Maybe the Amish have a better idea.

RIP Petrodollar 1971-2022?

[Tintin]

SCOTT RITTER: Twitter Wars—My Personal Experience in Twitter’s Ongoing Assault on Free Speech
April 13, 2022

Source: Consortium News (https://consortiumnews.com/2022/04/13/scott-ritter-twitter-wars-my-personal-experience-in-twitters-ongoing-assault-on-free-speech/)

At some point, the U.S. people, and those they elect to higher office need to bring Twitter in line with the ideals and values Americans collectively espouse when it comes to free speech and online identity protection.

https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/wounded_twitter.png

Monday, April 4, 2022: It was, from my point of view, just another day in the life of @RealScottRitter—my Twitter “handle.” I had a phone call scheduled with the editor of a publication I write for where we would discuss topics for a weekly column I was responsible for. I was also under deadline for another article I was writing for a second outlet that published my work, and was preparing a pitch to a third platform for another article. Such is the lot of a freelance writer—it is literally publish or perish.

Part of my routine is to watch the news and keep up to speed on breaking events. This usually involves sitting in an overstuffed arm chair surfing news channels using a remote while simultaneously monitoring the various news feeds and social media applications on my smart phone. On this morning I was monitoring the breaking news out of the Ukrainian town of Bucha, north of Kiev, where the bodies of civilians had been discovered strewn along a major thoroughfare.

The Ukrainian government was blaming the Russian troops, while the Russian leadership blamed Ukraine. As usual, getting to the bottom of an issue like this from my vantage point thousands of miles distant from the literal scene of the crime was a mission impossible.

On the television screen before me, the President of the United States was making a live appearance, where he addressed the Bucha killings. “You may remember I got criticized for calling Putin a war criminal,” Biden told the gathered reporters. “Well, the truth of the matter,” he continued, “you saw what happened in Bucha. This warrants him [Russian President Vladimir Putin]—he is a war criminal.”

Biden went on to declare that his administration was gathering evidence for a possible war crimes trial. “We have to gather all the details so this can be an actual—have a war crimes trial,” Biden said. “This guy is brutal, and what’s happening in Bucha is outrageous, and everyone’s seen it.”

I had just finished an article for Russia Today (RT) on the Bucha incident, and had assembled what I believed to be the available data regarding what had transpired on the ground there. As such, Biden’s words took me by surprise.

The available data coming out of Bucha was ultimately inconclusive but, if anything, strongly suggested Ukrainian culpability, not Russian. The certainty expressed by the President led me to believe that he was privy to classified information otherwise unavailable to the general public.

My curiosity was piqued as much as my ego was pickled—RT had published my article, and now it looked like I might be in the uncomfortable position of having to withdraw my conclusions and correct the record. That, however, was the price of credibility—if you are wrong, say so, correct the mistake, and move on.

Shortly after Biden spoke, however, my cellphone alerted me to a Reuters article with a headline proclaiming, “Pentagon can’t independently confirm atrocities in Ukraine’s Bucha, official says.” The article quoted an unnamed “senior defense official”, speaking on condition of anonymity, that “the Pentagon can’t independently and single handedly confirm that, but we’re also not in any position to refute those claims.”

1511393230532878340?

I turned off the television, and proceeded to spend the next 40 or so minutes researching the available information about the Bucha incident. One of the leading news stories was a New York Times report based upon commercially available imagery which the authors of the article, Malachy Browne, David Botti and Haley Willis, claimed was taken on March 19, 2022, putting a lie to Russian claims that when its troops pulled out of Bucha on March 30, no bodies were present.

However, when I examined the video and still photographs of the Bucha bodies, I was struck by the fact that they didn’t appear to have been left in the street to decompose for two weeks (the bodies were “discovered” by the Ukrainian National Police on April 2.) Bluntly speaking, bodies begin to bloat some 3-5 days after death, often doubling in size. They will remain this way for up to ten days, before they burst, spilling a puddle of putrid liquid into the ground around the corpse.

In comparing The New York Times’ image with the video of the bodies on the ground, I was struck by a scene in the movie My Cousin Vinny, where Vincent Gambini, a streetwise New York lawyer played by Joe Pesci, cross examined a witness on the issue of the preparation of Grits. “Are we to believe that boiling water soaks into a grit faster in your kitchen than on any place on the face of the earth? Well perhaps the laws of physics cease to exist on your stove!”

All I could do is stare at the satellite image and the bodies and wonder if the esteemed journalists of The New York Times expected their audience to suspend belief for a moment and accept that the laws of biology that govern the decomposition of human remains were suspended in Bucha.

The available evidence that could be extracted from the images from Bucha showed bodies that by appearance appeared to have been killed within 24-36 hours of their discovery—meaning that they were killed after the Russians withdrew from Bucha. The exact time of death, however, could only be determined after a thorough forensic medical examination.

Many of the bodies had white cloth strips tied to their upper arm, a visual designation which indicated either loyalty to Russia or that the persons did not pose a threat to Russians. The bodies that lacked this white cloth often had their hands tied behind their backs with white cloth that appeared similar to that which marked the arms of the other bodies.

Near to many of the bodies were the green cardboard box adorned with a white star which contained Russian military dry rations that had been distributed to the civilian population of Bucha by Russian troops as part of their humanitarian operations.

In short, the evidence suggested that the bodies were of civilians friendly to, or sympathetic with, Russia. It would take a leap of faith to conclude that Russian troops gunned these unfortunate souls down in cold blood, as alleged by the Ukrainian government.

https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Bucha_civilians_massacred_by_Russian_soldiers_c._April_2022_-_02.jpg

On April 2, an article appeared in an official Ukrainian government website (https://lb.ua/society/2022/04/02/512039_polk_spetspriznachennya_safari_pochav.html), LB.ua, entitled “Special forces regiment ‘SAFARI’ began to clear Bucha of saboteurs and accomplices of Russia.” According to the article, “Special forces began clearing the liberated, by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, city of Bucha of the Kiev region from saboteurs and accomplices of Russian troops.” According to the article, the Safari Regiment was comprised of personnel from various special police units, including the Rapid Operational Response Unit and the Tactical Operational Response Police.

There was other information—a video (https://t.me/Ukr_G_M/1859) where a Ukrainian official warns the citizens of Bucha that on April 1 a “cleansing operation” was going to be conducted in Bucha, and that the citizens should remain indoors and not to panic. Another video (https://t.me/rybar/30347), also from April 1, purported to show members of the Safari Regiment shooting civilians who were not wearing the blue distinguishing armbands signifying loyalty to the Ukrainian cause.

A Tweet

By the evening of April 5, I believed I had more than enough information to try and put forth a counter-narrative to the one being pushed by The New York Times and President Biden, namely that Ukraine, not Russia, was responsible for the Bucha killings.

“The Ukrainian National Police,” I composed on Twitter, “committed numerous crimes against humanity in Bucha.” Drawing on the precedent of the Nuremburg International Military Tribunal established at the end of the Second World War to prosecute Nazi war criminals, I then went on to state that “Biden, in seeking to shift blame for the Bucha murders onto Russia, is guilty of aiding and abetting these crimes. Congratulations, America…we’ve created yet another Presidential war criminal!”

At 9:42 p.m. I hit “send,” and the deed was done.

As far as Twitter metrics go, this tweet didn’t do so badly—5,976 “likes”, 2,815 retweets, and 321 comments, for a total of what Twitter calls 265,098 “impressions.”

It also got me suspended from Twitter.

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The next day, April 6, at 11:57 a.m., I received an email from Twitter Support, notifying me that my account, @RealScottRitter, “had been suspended for violating Twitter Rules,” specifically for violating rules against abuse and harassment. “You may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone or incite other people to do so. This includes wishing or hoping that someone experiences physical harm.”

I re-read the tweet in question, wondering how anyone could possibly interpret its contents as violating the rules cited by Twitter Support. Who had I harassed or incited others to harass? I followed the procedures to appeal the suspension and went on with my daily routine—minus the part where I interact with the people I follow, and those who followed me, on Twitter.

My suspension caught the eye of several people who follow my tweeting activity. Several of these people reached out to inquire as to what happened and were as confused as I was over the grounds cited by Twitter for the suspension.

The end result of this was a very heart-warming grass-roots protest against the Twitter decision to suspend my account of such intensity, that one had to believe it caught the eye of one of the Twitter bureaucrats tasked with monitoring the temperature in Twitterdom. On April 6, at 11:54 p.m., I received an email from Twitter Support notifying me that “After further review, we have unsuspended your account as it does not appear to be in violation of the Twitter Rules.”

Life, it seemed, could return to normal, with me safely ensconced in my overstuffed arm chair, frantically working the controls to the television remote while monitoring my all-important, and recently restored, Twitter account.

Nothing good, however, lasts forever.

I went to sleep on Saturday night, April 9, content that all was well in the world. I woke up to find yet another email from Twitter Support notifying me that my Twitter account had, yet again, been suspended. The offending tweet this time pre-dated the original alleged rule-breaker by three days.

On April 3, sometime prior to 7:16 p,m., Matt Gallagher, an Iraq War veteran-turned author who uses the Twitter handle @MattGallagher0, had tweeted out a tweet that has since been deleted. I took umbrage at Gallagher’s remarks and tweeted the following reply:


“The Marines [murdered] more Iraqis in Haditha than the Russians killed Ukrainians in Bucha, for the simple fact that Haditha wasn’t a case of false flag mass murder. Bucha, on the other hand…”

Once again, I was accused of violating Twitter’s rules against abuse and harassment.

I repeated the appeals process, spelling out my position in detail. “The tweet you have singled out,” I wrote, “is a response to a tweet that has since been deleted by its author, so it is difficult to put it into its full context.”

My understanding of the now deleted tweet is that its author, @mattgallagher0, made the argument that the U.S. had not engaged in acts of violence against civilians similar to what Russia had been accused of in Bucha. My response, which you have flagged for suspension, pointed out, factually, that the U.S. Marine Corps had actually murdered more innocent civilians in Haditha (my tweet inadvertently left out the word ‘murdered’). I then pointed out that the Haditha case had actually been prosecuted, meaning it wasn’t a false flag incident.

I then reiterated my long-standing position that Bucha was a false-flag event where the Ukrainian National Police carried out the murder of Ukrainian civilians and that the blame for these deaths is being wrongly transferred onto Russia (i.e., a ‘false flag’).

This tweet is fact based, expressing a point of view derived from a consistent fact set, and in no way constitutes harassment or abuse. Likewise, this tweet does not wish or hope that anyone experiences physical harm. No rules have been broken. Please restore my account to its full capacity as soon as possible.

Twitter Support replied to my appeal, noting that “it looks like this is connected with your original case, so we’ve added it to that first report. We’ll continue our review with this information. If you have more details you think we should know, please respond to this email to send them our way. We appreciate your help!”

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Concepts of Free Speech

I was flummoxed, to say the least. I fired off a reply to Twitter Support. “Just a reminder,” I wrote,


“that you decided in my favor in the original case, and lifted the suspension imposed then. How this can be a continuation of an already resolved issue is disconcerting, to say the least. Please lift this current suspension, since no rules have been violated, and fix whatever issue within your system, whether human or algorithm, which flags my tweets on the basis of somehow being connected to a past case that had been resolved in my favor.”

The silencing of any voice, let alone one which had gained a semblance of traction in the national debate about the war in Ukraine (one of my threads assessing Russian military operations had gone viral, amassing some 1,639,386 “impressions”), should be a disturbing event for all those who claim to respect the concepts of free speech enshrined by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

U.S. courts have often struggled to determine what exactly constitutes protected speech when it comes to social media platforms such as Twitter. A recent case, Knight First Amendment Institute v. Donald J. Trump, has argued that Twitter’s actions in blocking an account represent a violation of the First Amendment, which on the face of it, seems like a legally questionable assertion, given that the First Amendment only protects free speech from government infringement.

The argument in support of this position holds that Twitter is essentially a state actor, and as such bound by the First Amendment. According to this line of thinking, a private corporation can be classified as a state actor if it has been working with the government, either from collusion or coercion, to accomplish the state’s agenda.

Such an exception is important because it stops the government from simply using private businesses to accomplish otherwise unconstitutional goals. Indeed, in Norwood v. Harrison (1973), the U.S. Supreme Court held that the government “may not induce, encourage, or promote private persons to accomplish what it is constitutionally forbidden to accomplish.”

The extent to which Twitter qualifies as a state actor has not been fully tested in the U.S. court system. A key element to any such consideration would be the degree to which the various congressional hearings, which have been convened for the purpose of chastising the CEO’s of social media companies including Twitter for allowing disinformation to be posted in forums they control, is congressional pressure that, it can be argued, rises to the level of inducement to violate speech otherwise protected by the First Amendment.

If Twitter is found to be acting as a de facto “state actor”, then, under the First Amendment, it may not exclude speech or speakers from the [public] forum on the basis of viewpoint, a point driven home by the Supreme Court in its decision in Hartman v. Moore (2006), which affirms that “the First Amendment prohibits government officials from subjecting an individual to retaliatory actions…for speaking out.”

The bottom line is that Twitter’s suspension of my account on the basis of activity Twitter itself has determined did not violate its rules, runs dangerously afoul of First Amendment free speech protections.

Fake Scott Ritter

https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/New-Scott-Ritter.png

It would be one thing if Twitter stopped at simply trampling my First Amendments rights. But the icing on the cake, so to speak, regarding the insanity that is the brain-dead world of Twitter policy, was revealed to me when, on April 12, I was approached by people on another social media platform noted for its ability to censor free speech—Facebook/Meta—who asked me if I was back on Twitter. “Hi Scott,” this person asked. “Are you on Twitter? If so, what exact name/moniker is it? I got people who follow your work asking.”

I responded by noting that “I’m currently banned, awaiting resolution of an appeal. But when I’m not banned, my Twitter is @RealScott Ritter.”

This individual wrote back. “Scott, it appears there is a new account using your name…I have a friend checking it out and says there are followers gaining fast.”

I investigated the issue, and sure enough, there it was: @NewScottRitter. Same profile set up, same photographs—the cover art for my new book, Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika, and the iconic image of U.S. inspectors posing with the U.S. flag outside the gate of a Soviet missile factory in Votkinsk.

“Scott Ritter—new account for @RealScottRitter,” it proclaimed. “Banned from Twitter for speaking the truth Formerly @RealScottRitter.”

Joined in April 2022, the page noted, and already had 5,394 followers (as of Wednesday morning).

I knew it was fake. I joined in July 2018, and it took me three years to accumulate 4,000 followers.

A quick review of the Twitter content made it clear that this was no parody account, and that someone was using my name and identity to promulgate policy issues, such as Hunter Biden’s laptop, that I assiduously avoid.

I reached out to Twitter through their online help platform, where I filed a complaint about someone impersonating me. “My account, @RealScottRitter”, I wrote, “is currently suspended. I have appealed this suspension. I have been informed by others that a new account, @NewScottRitter, has emerged, pretending to be me. It is not, and should be removed from Twitter as soon as possible.”

As a parting shot to the insanity of my current suspension, I closed with, “The sooner you lift the unjustified suspension of my account, the less opportunity will exist to impersonate me on your platform.”

Twitter responded in short order, asking me to verify that I was, in fact, Scott Ritter. To do this, I had to provide an image of a government issued photo identification. Twitter got my current New York driver’s license, which still uses the photograph from my first New York State driver’s license, issued back in 1992.

The 1990’s haircut and oversized eyewear notwithstanding, Twitter seemed to accept my submission as de facto proof that I was, indeed, the real Scott Ritter. I waited for justice to prevail, and the fake New Scott Ritter to be unceremoniously kicked off Twitter for impersonating me.

It was not to be.

Twitter replied, having taken all of one hour to review this issue (my suspension, by way of comparison, was closing in on its 96th hour of review.)

“We have an update about @NewScottRitter,” the email from Twitter Support announced, providing me with the case number. “We investigated the reported account,” the email read, “and determined it is not in violation of Twitter’s misleading and deceptive identities policy.”

My jaw literally hit the floor.

“In order for an account to be in violation of the policy,” the email continued, “it must portray another person or business in a misleading or deceptive matter. For more information, please make sure to read and understand our full policy.”

I dutifully clicked the link provided by Twitter, and was taken to a page that read “Misleading & Deceptive Identities.”

“You may not,” the page started, “impersonate individuals, groups, or organizations to mislead, confuse, or deceive others, nor use a fake identity in a manner that disrupts the experience of others on Twitter.”

https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Twitter-Support.png

I may be a simple Marine, but @NewScottRitter literally starts off by proclaiming “I’m back on Twitter!” Who, if not the real Scott Ritter, was the new Scott Ritter purporting to be? There is no other way to read “I’m”, literally “I am”, to mean anything other than “I”, meaning “me.”

“We want Twitter to be a place where people can find authentic voices,” the policy continues. How nice. “That means one should be able to trust that the person or organization featured in an account’s profile genuinely represents the account owner. While you are not required to display your real name or image on your profile, your account should not engage in impersonation or pose as someone who doesn’t exist in order to deceive others.”

News flash, Twitter Support: @NewScottRitter is using my name and image to deceive over 5,000 people that “he” is “me.” If that doesn’t fit the definition of “impersonation,” nothing does.


“Accounts that use deceptive identities can create confusion, as well as undermine the integrity of conversations on Twitter.”

You mean like when I have people contacting me on Facebook/Meta to find out if the person their friend is interacting on Twitter is really me?


“For this reason, you may not misappropriate the identity of another person, group, or organization, or create a fake identity for deceptive purposes.”

Unless, of course, you’re misappropriating the identity of Scott Ritter. Then it’s fair game.

Twitter Support then went on to explain what it defines as a “misleading or deceptive identity.”


“One of the main elements of an identity on Twitter is an account’s profile, which includes a username (@handle), account name, profile image, and bio.”

For example, @RealScottRitter uses my real name, a profile image of a real book I really authored accompanied by a real photograph of the real me with real inspectors outside a real Soviet missile factory holding a real U.S. flag, backed up by a real bio that informed the reader that I was a “former United Nations Weapons Inspector, former Marine Corps Intelligence Officer, author, and analyst.”

“An account’s identity is deceptive under this policy,” Twitter Support notes, “if it uses false profile information to represent itself as a person or entity that is not associated with the account owner, such that it may mislead others who use Twitter. Deceptive identities may feature the likeness of another person or organization in a manner which confuses others about the account affiliation.”

When Twitter suspended me, I was put on notice that any effort to bypass the suspension by creating a new account was prohibited. I made it clear to Twitter that I was currently serving a suspension under appeal. As such, one would think that, when I declared that the account @NewScottRitter was not in any way, shape, or form affiliated with me, the real Scott Ritter, that it was, by definition, using “false profile information to represent itself as a person or entity that is not associated with the account owner.”

The fact is that people out in Twitterdom who had followed me when I was able to tweet under my actual account were, in fact, confused by the existence of this fake account.

Twitter’s rules are very specific about what sort of behavior is prohibited under its rules regarding “Misleading & Deceptive Identities.” For instance: “You can’t pose as an existing person, group, or organization in a confusing or deceptive manner.”

You can’t use “stolen profile pictures”, particularly those depicting other people. This, apparently, is a big no-no in Twitterdom. “One of the main factors in our review,” Twitter Support proclaims, “is whether a profile uses an image that depicts another person or entity.”

For instance, a picture of a book cover with the name “Scott Ritter” emblazoned on it, or a picture of a group photo where Scott Ritter features prominently. “If we find evidence that demonstrates an unauthorized use of an other’s image (such as from a valid report from the individual or organization depicted), we will then assess whether the profile image is used in a misleading or deceptive manner.”

Twitter Support then describes the next step—determining whether the account is intended to deceive others. “We are most likely to take action if an account falsely claims to be the entity portrayed in the profile photo.”

A quick review of @NewScottRitter has the fake me claiming to be the real me by using my stolen profile images and then declaring “I’m back” after being “Banned from Twitter for speaking the truth.”

Twitter allows exceptions to its policy if the profile in question contains “context that indicates the account is not affiliated with the subject of the profile image, as with parody, commentary, or fan accounts.”

A cursory review of @NewScottRitter contains nothing that would remotely fit this description. According to Twitter’s own rules, the account @NewScottRitter represents a flagrant violation of its “Misleading & Deceptive Identities” policies.

Unless, of course, the account you are seeking to deceive others about belongs to the real Scott Ritter.

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I reside in the State of New York. In 2008, New York amended its Internet impersonation law (section 190.25 of the Penal Law) by adding Subdivision 4, making it a crime to impersonate another person by electronic means, including through use of a website, with the intent to obtain a benefit or injure or defraud another person.

Internet impersonation, it turns out, is a Class A misdemeanor which carries a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine and a one-year term of imprisonment for each violation or act of impersonation. According to the law firm of Hunton, Andrews, Kurth, the law covers “social networking sites … that make it easy to upload someone else’s photo and pretend to be that person.” The law is designed to deter cases of “misrepresenting oneself through the use of the Internet.”

I’m not a lawyer, I don’t play one on television, and I didn’t spend the night at a Holiday Inn Express, so my legal opinion is worth less than the paper it would be written on. Having said that, I believe someone who impersonates through deception for purposes not directly related to parody or commentary can be found to have engaged in behavior which has the real potential to injure or defraud another person.

How one defines injury from a legal perspective is a job best left to lawyers, but I would imagine that issues such as reputation and financial harm would qualify. How do you gauge reputation online? I don’t really know.

What I do know is that I have done my best to be assiduous with the facts when it comes to tweeting about issues of importance, especially when those issues fall under the umbrella of topics that my life’s experience lends some credibility to when commenting on them—arms control, military affairs, Russian and Middle Eastern relations, intelligence, and national security. One metric which is popularly used to measure the impact, or “clout,” of a given account is the number of followers one attracts.

Building a “following” was never on my mind when engaging on Twitter—it just happened. I do my best to interact responsibly with the people I follow, and with those who follow me. Twitter, like most social media platforms, has an addictive quality that lends itself to becoming an integral part of one’s daily routine—check your twitter account, see what’s happening and, if the topic lends itself to it, participate in the on-line conversation by contributing tweets of your own. I would also post articles I had written that were published on other platforms, as well as links to interviews I had given.

Why Go on Twitter?

https://consortiumnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Twitter_headquarters_San_Francisco.jpeg

One of my reasons for joining Twitter was to contribute to the overall process of engaging in responsible debate, dialogue, and discussion about issues of importance in my life and the lives of others, in order to empower people with knowledge and information they might not otherwise have access to, so that those who participate in such interaction, myself included, could hold those whom we elect to higher office accountable for what they do in our name.

To me, such an exercise is the essence of democracy and, for better or for worse, Twitter had become the primary social media platform I used to engage in this activity.

From my perspective, credibility is the key to a good Twitter relationship. I follow experts on a variety of topics because I view them as genuine specialists in their respective fields (I also follow several dog and cat accounts because, frankly speaking, dogs and cats make me laugh.) People follow me, I assume, for similar reasons. Often I find myself in in-depth exchanges with people who follow me, or people I follow, where reasoned fact-based discourse proves beneficial to both parties, as well as to those who are following the dialogue.

Before my Twitter account was suspended, I had close to 95,000 “followers.” I’d like to believe that the majority of these followed me because of the integrity and expertise I brought to the discussion.

Having someone hijack my identity and seek to resurrect my suspended account by appealing to those who had previously followed me can only be damaging to whatever “brand” I had possessed that managed to attract a following that was pushing 100,000. When one speaks of injury, one cannot ignore the fact that reputations can be injured just as much as the physical body.

Indeed, while a body can heal itself, reputations cannot. The fact that Twitter has facilitated the wrongful impersonation of me and my Twitter account makes it a party to whatever damage has been accrued due to this activity.

A Law Unto Itself

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It is not as though Twitter can, or ever will, be held accountable for such actions. Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934, enacted as part of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA), holds that internet platforms that host third-party content — think of tweets on Twitter—are not (with few exceptions) liable for what those third parties post or do.

Like the issue of Freedom of Speech, the concept of holding Twitter accountable for facilitating the fraudulent misappropriation of a Twitter user’s online identity is a legal bridge too far. Twitter, it seems, is a law unto itself.

My Twitter War came to an end today when I received an email from Twitter Support proclaiming that “Your account has been suspended and will not be restored because it was found to be violating the Twitter Terms of Service, specifically the Twitter Rules against participating in targeted abuse,” adding that “In order to ensure that people feel safe expressing diverse opinions and beliefs on our platform, we do not tolerate abusive behavior. This includes inciting other people to engage in the targeted harassment of someone.”

This ruling, it seems, is not appealable.

At some point in time, the U.S. people, and those they elect to higher office to represent their interests, need to bring Twitter in line with the ideals and values Americans collectively espouse when it comes to issues like free speech and online identity protection.

If Twitter is to be absolved of any responsibility for the content of ideas expressed on its platform, then it should be treated as a free speech empowerment zone and prohibited from interfering with speech that otherwise would be protected by law.

The U.S. Constitution assumes that society will govern itself when deciding the weight that should be put behind the words expressed by its citizens. Thus, in a nation that has outlawed slavery and racial discrimination, organizations like the Klu Klux Klan are allowed to demonstrate and give voice to their odious ideology.

America is a literal battlefield of ideas, and society is better for it. Giving voice to hateful thought allows society to rally against it and ultimately defeat it by confronting it and destroying it through the power of informed debate, discussion, and dialogue; censoring hateful speech does not defeat it, but rather drives it underground, where it can fester and grow in the alternative universe created because of censorship.

In many ways, my Twitter Wars represent a struggle for the future of America. If Twitter and other social media platforms are permitted to operate in a manner that does not reflect the ideals and values of the nation, and yet is permitted to mainstream itself so that the platform controls the manner in which the American people interact when it comes to consuming information and ideas, then the nation will lose touch with what it stands for, including the basic precepts of freedom of speech that define us as a people.

Mainstreaming censorship is never a good idea, and yet by giving Twitter a free hand to do just that, the American people are sowing the seeds of their own demise.

[Tintin]

Dated April 11th 2022 but worth posting from source concerning the Kramatorsk incident, for the record.

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (https://mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/news/themes/id/1808940/)

11.04.2022 19:01
Statement by the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the OSCE A.K. Lukashevich at a special meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council on another war crime by Ukrainian armed forces in Kramatorsk, April 11, 2022
790-11-04-2022



Mr Chairman,

I would like to appeal to those participants in today's discussion who with particular fury accused Russia of shelling the station square in Kramatorsk. What arguments, what facts, besides sweeping judgments in the style of “highly like” or statements that “it’s already clear to the whole world who did this,” are you able to bring? The answer emerged during today's special meeting: you simply do not have a credible invoice or evidence. You do not own a picture of the real situation "on earth" and are openly engaged in the spread of gross lies. Appoint the guilty, based on political expediency. Ignoring obvious evidence pointing to the involvement of the Ukrainian side in the shelling. Because the truth does not interest you, you are driven by the only goal - to denigrate Russia.

First of all, we draw attention to the fact that the Polish Chairmanship-in-Office once again convenes a special meeting of the Permanent Council with an openly confrontational formulation of the main issue, reflecting exclusively the position of Ukraine and its Western sponsors. We proposed a more neutral designation of a topic on which everyone could speak. We consider such actions of the chairmanship categorically unacceptable. They question the desire to act as an "honest broker".

Now about the actual side of the situation. On April 8, 2022, in the city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk People's Republic , which is currently controlled by Ukrainian armed formations, a large-caliber projectile hit the territory of the forecourt in front of the railway station building. The number of victims - both dead and wounded - is in the tens.

Immediately after the incident, Aleksey Arestovich, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, and Pavel Kirilenko, head of the so-called “military-civilian administration of the Donetsk region,” made statements that the strike was allegedly carried out using the Russian operational-tactical complex Iskander. However, parts of the missile munition used for the strike on Kramatorsk remained on the ground, and numerous witnesses took photographs and videos of them. The materials they published unequivocally testify: it was a projectile from the Tochka-U missile system. Such shells are used exclusively by the armed forces of Ukraine.

After the appearance of the materials filmed by the witnesses, the President of Ukraine V. Zelensky actually made a self-disclosure, which confirmed that the blow was nevertheless delivered by the Tochka-U tactical complex. However, he also blamed the Russian military for the shelling, deliberately spreading disinformation.

It is worth noting that for greater "visibility" on the tail of the rocket before its launch, the inscription "For Children" was applied in Russian. This gave Ukrainian propaganda a reason to trumpet that if the inscription was made in Russian, then Russian troops were responsible for the shelling. This thesis, by the way, was quickly picked up by a number of Western publications - which are increasingly resorting to relaying fake Ukrainian propaganda instead of real journalism and analysis.

Now for the concrete facts. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, on April 8, 2022, the Russian Armed Forces did not have any fire missions and were not planned. Tactical missiles "Tochka-U", the fragments of which were found near the railway station of Kramatorsk, have not been in service with the Russian Armed Forces for a long time.

An analysis of the radius of destruction of the warhead, as well as the characteristic position of the body of the tail section of the Tochka-U rocket unambiguously confirm that it was launched from the south-western direction from Kramatorsk. According to available reliable data, one of the divisions of the 19th missile brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, armed with Tochka-U complexes, was in the area of ​​the settlement of Kramatorsk at the time of the strike on Kramatorsk. Dobropolye, 45 kilometers southwest of Kramatorsk. This area of ​​the Donetsk People's Republic is still under the complete control of the Ukrainian group of troops.

In an attempt to give their version of the shelling of Kramatorsk an international sound, the Ukrainian authorities ordered the admission of foreign journalists to the scene. But they miscalculated badly: in the evening report of the Italian television company "TG la7" for April 8, 2022, the serial number of the projectile was shown. The journalists managed to capture him, passing behind the cordon close to the wreckage of the rocket. This is the number Ш91579, which unequivocally confirms that the projectile belongs to the armed forces of Ukraine. Moreover, shells from the same batch, for example, Sh91565 and Sh91566, have already managed to “light up” during the shelling of the city of Alchevsk, LPR (February 2, 2015), and the village of Logvinovo, DPR (February 13, 2015). Photos of the tail parts of these shells, with which the Ukrainian military fired at the territories of the DPR and LPR, are available in the public domain.

On March 14, 2022, with a similar Tochka-U missile, a division of a separate missile brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked the center of Donetsk, as a result of which 20 people were killed on the spot, another 28 civilians, including children, were seriously injured. And to which, by the way, neither the leadership of the OSCE, nor the countries of the West reacted in any way, not even expressing regret in connection with the death of civilians.

The above facts indicate that on April 8, 2022, the Ukrainian armed formations again carried out a targeted strike against civilians. The goal is obvious: to prevent the population from leaving Kramatorsk in order to continue to hide behind them as a "human shield" - just like they did in Mariupol. Is this exactly what NATO instructors taught the Ukrainian military during numerous joint exercises ? Here we can recall how tightly the program of such exercises included tactical exercises on the topic "Combat in urbanized areas" - which, by the way, we repeatedly drew attention to during speeches in the Permanent Council last year.

The events in Kramatorsk on April 8 are an obvious crime against the civilian population by the so-called Ukrainian “defenders” of Donbass, who do not shun bloody provocations. At the same time, we see mediocre attempts to slander and slander the Russian Armed Forces, which are responsibly performing tasks in the zone of the special military operation. In the same series of provocations are the explosion of Ukrainian military tanks with chemicals in Rubizhne on April 5 and 9, 2022, and the alleged discovery of “mass graves” in Bucha, Borodianka, Irpin, Buzova and many other monstrous staging of the Kiev regime.

In addition, we inform you that the Investigative Committee of Russia has opened a criminal case on the mass death of the civilian population after a missile attack by Ukrainian armed forces on Kramatorsk. Russia will do its best to ensure that all those responsible for this heinous crime are severely punished.

Against this background, NATO countries continue to transfer lethal weapons to Ukraine, which fall into the hands of irresponsible Ukrainian armed groups. At the same time, the leadership of Ukraine, as we see, covers up the war crimes they commit.

The question arises - what are the countries supplying weapons to Ukraine waiting for, what are they counting on? How many more civilians at Ukrainian railway stations and cities must die from provocative shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and paramilitary nationalists in order for the West to realize who the Ukrainian armed formations are actually fighting? And do the NATO countries feel their share of responsibility for the continued death of Ukrainians?

Under these conditions, it is quite obvious that the lives of civilians in Ukraine do not matter to the leadership of the countries that supply weapons there. It is no coincidence that British Prime Minister B. Johnson and EU High Representative J. Borrell, who recently visited Ukraine, as well as Pentagon spokesman J. Kirby from Washington, spoke in favor of a military solution to the situation in Ukraine. We see how the foreign curators of the current Ukrainian authorities stubbornly continue to dissuade their wards from the political and diplomatic path. We also note that after such “encouraging” signals from Western capitals, the leadership of Ukraine is sharply changing its rhetoric, once again relying on militarism.

We will not now evaluate all these actions. Let us only note that this path is disastrous for Ukraine, from which the West is so stubbornly trying to make an instrument of struggle against Russia.

We emphasize that the Russian military special operation in Ukraine is designed to put an end to the protracted conflict in the Donbass, with the assistance of a political settlement of which the OSCE failed. The main tasks of the special operation - the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine - will be completed.

I request that this statement be attached to the Journal of the day of today's special meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council.

Thank you for attention.

[Bill Ryan]

https://twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1513952688312049668
1513952688312049668A little more about Viktor Medvedchuk. He featured extensively in Oliver Stone's 2019 follow-up documentary to his must-see 2014 Ukraine on Fire, titled Revealing Ukraine.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jhu3lfgHhCI
Oliver Stone asked Vladimir Putin about his relationship with Medvedchuk. Putin said he was the godfather to Medvedchuk's daughter Daryna (because it was always an honor to be asked, and as a Christian he could hardly refuse), and told Stone: "I would not say that we are very close, but we know each other well."

Also featured in the film is Medvedchuk's wife, Oksana Marchenko, who has now asked Turkish President Erdogan for assistance in freeing her husband.

[Vangelo]

...

The U.S. Constitution assumes that society will govern itself when deciding the weight that should be put behind the words expressed by its citizens. Thus, in a nation that has outlawed slavery and racial discrimination, organizations like the Klu Klux Klan are allowed to demonstrate and give voice to their odious ideology.

America is a literal battlefield of ideas, and society is better for it. Giving voice to hateful thought allows society to rally against it and ultimately defeat it by confronting it and destroying it through the power of informed debate, discussion, and dialogue; censoring hateful speech does not defeat it, but rather drives it underground, where it can fester and grow in the alternative universe created because of censorship.

In many ways, my Twitter Wars represent a struggle for the future of America. If Twitter and other social media platforms are permitted to operate in a manner that does not reflect the ideals and values of the nation, and yet is permitted to mainstream itself so that the platform controls the manner in which the American people interact when it comes to consuming information and ideas, then the nation will lose touch with what it stands for, including the basic precepts of freedom of speech that define us as a people.

Mainstreaming censorship is never a good idea, and yet by giving Twitter a free hand to do just that, the American people are sowing the seeds of their own demise.


Scott Ritter's last few paragraphs (above) are foundational to the importance of free speech regardless of the country you live in. You can't have freedom without speech.

Mods, if you think this should be moved to another thread, please do so.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1514559272633384962
1514559272633384962

More info,

https://twitter.com/porelmorro/status/1514563576148729856
1514563576148729856

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1514542046043942913
1514542046043942913

https://twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1514542937467719687
1514542937467719687

[Ravenlocke]

From investigative journalist George Webb

https://twitter.com/RealGeorgeWebb1/status/1514480250859798529
1514480250859798529

I’m also including this “interesting” tweet to George in response to his tweet above. It’s questioning the incident of the Moskva flag ship.

https://twitter.com/FredericaIatti/status/1514528660623081475
1514528660623081475

However regarding the Moskva, Gleb Bazov has this to say,

https://twitter.com/NuestraIraSLG/status/1514592751169462275
1514592751169462275

[Ravenlocke]

This video from Vice News on YouTube, well worth a watch.

https://twitter.com/mrgubkin/status/1514426680772730881
1514426680772730881

[Tintin]

This is extraordinarily lengthy so to keep the focus relevant to the thread I won't post it in its entirety here. Maria Zakharova doesn't mince her words either :)

I've included some of the more interesting historical references she makes, as well as embolding certain passages.

-------------------------------------

13.04.2022 20:14
Briefing by MFA Spokesperson Maria Zakharova, Moscow, April 13, 2022

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation (https://mid.ru/tv/?id=1809211&lang=ru)
--------------------------------------------------------------------

On the situation in Ukraine


Exactly eight years ago, on April 13, 2014, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine adopted a criminal decision "On urgent measures to overcome the terrorist threat and preserve the territorial integrity of Ukraine." It took effect the next day. Under the name "Anti-terrorist operation", a civil war of the Kiev regime began against the civilians of Donbass, who refused to accept the anti-constitutional coup d'état of neo-Nazi forces. All this happened in the total silence of the European Union "lambs".

For eight years, we have witnessed the war crimes of Kyiv and the indifference of the West to the tragedy of Donbass. In September 2014 and February 2015, the Ukrainian authorities signed "Minsk-1" and "Minsk-2" after a military defeat by the forces of the DPR and LHP. Our attempts to force Kyiv to fulfill its obligations were unsuccessful, incl. because of the position of the Western countries, which played their own game, carrying out the military development of the territory of Ukraine and turning it into a springboard against Russia. At the same time, hiding behind the words about a certain "involvement" in the political process of peace negotiations.

Having exhausted the diplomatic means of protecting the Donbass and ensuring its security, Russia was forced to launch a special military operation. The Russian armed forces are targeting military targets with precision-guided weapons and are doing everything they can to avoid civilian casualties.

The same cannot be said of the Ukrainian militias, whose barbaric methods of warfare horrify those who know about it. But how can one know about this if the leading world media of the Western world do not show the real picture, but form the public's perception, solely on the basis of the propaganda guidelines that Washington and NATO structures give them? The Ukrainian side places tanks and artillery in schools, kindergartens and hospitals. Firing points are equipped in residential buildings in order to hide behind the population as a "human shield".

April 8 this year Ukrainian formations attacked the railway station in Kramatorsk with a Tochka-U tactical missile. Dozens of civilians were killed, more than a hundred were injured. March 14 this year they hit Donetsk with the same rocket. Again, those who saw it remember, who were told by the media what the projectile was, from what territory it flew, how many people died in the end. The Western community saw a different picture. The tragedy of March 14 this year in Donetsk was presented as a result of the actions of the Russian armed forces. This completely contradicted reality. Then 17 people were killed and 36 people were injured. Where was the world community? They did not talk about civilian casualties, or about children, or about the elderly, or about civilians. Exactly the same as they haven't talked about it for eight years. April 5 and 9 this year in the city

Against this background, Western countries continue to pump up the Armed Forces of Ukraine with weapons, including obsolete Soviet-made models, the disposal of which is more expensive than the transfer to Ukraine. Terrible, cynical, criminal logic. Why would Western countries spend their own money if they can “package” it and send it to Ukraine so that the conflict never ends at all, and the number of victims is even greater. Well thought out. Then someone will have to answer for it.

The main "donor of death" - the United States - since the beginning of the special operation has supplied weapons worth more than $ 1.7 billion. This is only in the last month and a half. The European Union is confidently following - 1.5 billion euros. Among other suppliers of the Ukrainian Nazis are Great Britain, Germany, Canada, the Baltic countries, France, and the Czech Republic. This once again shows that the EU has ceased to be a purely economic association and is rapidly evolving towards a military-political entity. I would say degraded. And not because military-political formations are something bad, but because what NATO and the European Union are doing now is a crime. The supply of the regime, which for eight years has been hitting unarmed citizens, despite the fact that the conflict has "outgrown" the previously outlined frameworks and formats. Kindling, kindling and kindling.

To divert attention from its crimes, Kyiv uses fakes to show the alleged brutal treatment of civilians by the Russian military. Last week we analyzed in detail the staging in Bucha . Instead of sending forensic experts to this city, a landing force of journalists and European politicians landed there. They did not ask the question of the proportionality of what they were doing, they did not find anything better than to start taking pictures, giving interviews in the city center, where there was a criminal provocation of the Kiev regime, which they themselves created and armed. You ask yourself: is this the limit of cynicism, or can there be more "exploits" of the "collective West" in this direction? Yes, you can fall below what is happening now with the countries of the "collective West", primarily the United States and the NATO backyard.

It is noteworthy that the bodies that were cynically used in the staging in Bucha were not buried, so that five days later the EU leadership - U. von der Leyen and J. Borrell - could be photographed against their background. At least against the background of black packages. This is beyond even a staged stunt. There must be some limits. We are people. We live on the same planet. Something has to "jump" inside the hearts of Western politicians. Not everything can be cynically betrayed. Now Kyiv is preparing new productions in the settlement. Seredina-Buda and Nizhnyaya Syrovatka of the Sumy region, where Russian troops were previously located. We urge you not to succumb to these other provocations.

More and more blatant facts of illegal reprisals and abuse by Ukrainian militants against detained Russian military personnel are being revealed. In the West, they pretend not to notice the numerous videos on the Internet. We expect that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other organizations will insist that Kiev comply with the norms of international humanitarian law. According to my information, the Kyiv regime is doing everything to oppose the humanitarian mission of the ICRC.

We continue to seek the release and transfer of Russians held by Ukrainian forces. Recently, four employees of the Atomspetstrans company managed to return to their homeland, who delivered nuclear fuel to the Rovno NPP a month and a half ago and since then have been illegally detained by Kiev. We call on the IAEA and other international structures to give a legal assessment of such actions.

Yesterday, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the arrest of the leader of the Opposition Platform - For Life party, V.V. Medvedchuk, and his readiness to exchange him for Ukrainian servicemen. We consider this trend extremely dangerous, given that there are a lot of opposition-minded politicians and public figures in the country. Passed the use of such "tactics" in the 1990s. in the North Caucasus. Journalists, public and political figures, including foreign ones, were actively "invited" to the territory of the conflict, where militants and terrorists were operating. Then they were kidnapped and demanded a ransom. Their fate was different. This "tactic" is reminiscent of what is currently happening in Ukraine. The statements of the Kiev regime are similar to what our country went through in the North Caucasus in the 1990s.

For our part, we pay close attention to the humanitarian situation in Ukraine. Since the beginning of the special military operation in the DPR and LPR, as well as in the Kharkiv, Zaporozhye and Kherson regions of Ukraine, more than 13,000 tons of humanitarian goods have been delivered, including essentials, medicines and food.

The Russian Armed Forces open humanitarian corridors on a daily basis so that civilians can leave dangerous areas. Since the start of the operation, more than 740,000 people have left for our country, including 140,000 children. A sea corridor has been opened for the exit of foreign vessels blocked in the ports of Ukraine. However, Kyiv refuses to give civilians the opportunity to exit towards Russia and keeps foreign ships and crews. There are now 76 such courts out of 18 countries.

Russian-Ukrainian negotiations continue on an agreement on the settlement of the situation in Ukraine. They are conducted online. On the agenda are the issues of the neutral, non-bloc and non-nuclear status of Ukraine, its demilitarization and denazification, the restoration of the status of the Russian language, the recognition of territorial realities, including the Russian ownership of Crimea and the independence of the DPR and LPR. Unfortunately, the Ukrainian delegation, as it has been for seven years in the Contact Group and the Normandy format, is directing its efforts not at reaching agreements, but at dragging out negotiations.

We know this "tactic". This led to February 2022. Each time during the negotiations, we saw how the Ukrainian side “throws the hell out”, invents the non-existent, rejects the real. The Ukrainian side called it "arrogant offensive diplomacy", which was supposed to lead the country "to success." Now we are all seeing this "success". Want to fix it, repeat? Then we must honestly tell our citizens that they are not going to go through negotiations. They are not interested.

They are satisfied with what their sponsors in the European Union said the other day. J. Borrell urged to solve not peacefully, but on the battlefield. Until now, the EU member states cannot understand - did he make a statement on their behalf? Did they agree in any way? Is it the collective position of the European Union or the personal opinion, aspirations, night dreams of J. Borrell? Maybe the third option is that his assistants and the environment are formed in such a way that “tweets” are published at the right time, which are not agreed with anyone, but are sent “from where it is necessary” and set up as the position of the EU. Member countries of the European Union, journalists, politicians tried to quickly clarify why J. Borrell called for wars, and not for peace. The participating states cannot understand: is this their position? Has anyone asked them about this?

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate. No supplies of Western weapons to Kiev, terrorist methods of warfare by Ukrainian armed groups, intimidation, propaganda, fakes, disinformation, threats - nothing will prevent the fulfillment of the goals and objectives of the special military operation to liberate Donbass, demilitarize and denazify Ukraine and eliminate the threats to Russia that came from from its territory.

This has been repeatedly stated by the leadership of our country and the Russian Foreign Ministry.

On the discussion in the OSCE of the rocket attack on Kramatorsk by the Ukrainian side


On April 8 this year, on the day of yet another barbaric crime committed by Ukrainian armed forces against the civilian population – the rocket attack on the railway station square in Kramatorsk – the Russian side on its own initiative requested the Polish OSCE Chairmanship-in-Office to hold a special meeting of the Permanent Council. We proposed to discuss the topic in a purely factual manner and under the neutral title of the agenda item, so that all participating States have the opportunity to freely express their point of view on what happened, to understand what really happened. They offered to talk about specifics, without pre-politicized and polarized approaches.

However, the chairmanship at first shied away, and then, citing a similar request from the Ukrainian delegation, convened the Permanent Council with an openly confrontational formulation “about the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine.” Doesn't it remind you of anything? A week ago, the United Kingdom, which presides over the UN Security Council, "performed" the same thing. Russia convened the UN Security Council on Bucha. We were denied twice. Then it was said that the program already includes a meeting on Ukraine, and we will hold it. Without "your emergency". You know what happened next.

The same tactic. Countries follow the same logic. This is important to understand. They are not concerned about the question of what really happened there, what data, facts, information "on the ground" are. They are interested in the implementation of the course and approach, formed in advance - not yesterday, not a month ago, but for eight long years.

Thus, the mandate of the chairmanship was again grossly violated, requiring Warsaw to perform the functions of an “honest broker” - not taking a pre-engaged position, but performing presiding functions (logistics, support, organization, etc.). Instead, Poland continued with great zeal to promote the position of Ukraine and its Western patrons.

The meeting of the OSCE decision-making body on a serious issue was turned into an anti-Russian show that has already become a “tradition”. We have presented objective data, incl. the facts established by foreign (I emphasize, not Russian) journalists of the use of the Tochka-U missile, which is in service with the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and not the Armed Forces of Russia. On the part of the Westerners, there is only a stream of unsubstantiated insinuations, emotions and insults, screams, swearing, etc.

There should be only one approach here - you need to give them time to “go crazy”. This is not even an attempt to return the situation to the mainstream of calm, normalization, negotiations. Exactly the opposite. They can't even articulate what they're accusing us of. unconscious flow. Because they don't really have anything to say. People break into shouting, rudeness and swearing when there are no arguments. And they are not. All this invented "story" crumbles before our eyes. Despite, that the “organism” of the media capabilities of the West is loaded with “military shells” towards Russia, each time a ricochet of lies, fakes hits them. Everything that they "charge" with.

Once again we are forced to acknowledge the toxic, Russophobic atmosphere in the OSCE. It is created on purpose. It is forced by the functionaries of the Organization headed by the Polish Chairmanship-in-Office. Nevertheless, we will continue to bring truthful information about what is happening in Ukraine on the Vienna site. Even if individual Westerners behave like in a wild circus during our report: they jump up from their seats, run out of the hall, shout and go to the buffet, fearing to find out the true state of affairs, which is offered to them in the form of speeches, information, data. I see this in Western journalists with whom I talk and give interviews. Answering the question, I try to show them the materials - they turn away. I have never seen such a thing. They wave their hands so that nothing is shown to them. As if afraid to touch the truth. Are afraid that suddenly for a second they will allow themselves to move away from a pre-formed position - all the “castles in the sand” will collapse. They will be face to face with the truth. Then it becomes scary.

We invite all those who are interested to regularly read the speeches of our Permanent Representative to the OSCE and other materials on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry, in social media accounts. We answer questions, comment in detail, with all the invoice.


On the exclusion by Japan of the "Azov" battalion from the "Review of the situation in the field of international terrorism"


I saw a lot of things, but did not expect this from Japanese politicians. On the one hand, this is not surprising, given the anti-Russian intensity of the current leadership in Tokyo. At the same time, the cynicism with which they approached one of the important aspects of this story around Ukraine is surprising.

The Japanese side removed the mention of the Ukrainian nationalist battalion "Azov" from the national "Review of the situation in the field of international terrorism" for 2021. Japan has a list of terrorist organizations or atrocities committed by them. It was published based on information received over the past year. Factual data collected by Japanese researchers (diplomats, international affairs, journalists). Now they have made a withdrawal. But this is not the worst.

Japanese experts apologized for the fact that they dared to include this formation in the mentioned list of terrorist organizations. As if at one moment they forgot that "Azov" was repeatedly marked by bloody crimes in the Donbass. Official Tokyo has shown itself to be an accomplice of neo-Nazism.

Unfortunately, in the history of Japan, this is not the first time that the government of the country takes the side of inhuman regimes. Japan never learned the lesson from the alliance with fascist Germany and today, following the actions of its own military in World War II, it is ready to cover for its “ideological associates” in Ukraine, as F. Kishida’s administration emphasizes.

In Tokyo, apparently, they forgot how until recently the citizens of Japan were subjected to terrorist attacks in different regions of the world. At the same time, Russia has repeatedly provided active assistance in settling such incidents.

Whitewashing the terrorists and neo-Nazis, the Japanese side, first of all, damages their own security.

On the seizure by the Polish authorities of the object of Russian diplomatic property in Warsaw


The Polish authorities seized Russian diplomatic real estate in Warsaw on the street. Sobieski 100. These are illegal actions.

We would like to remind you that the site for the construction of this facility was provided in accordance with the intergovernmental agreement of December 27, 1974. The building was built by the Soviet side on legal grounds, at its own expense and is the diplomatic property of the Russian Federation. Thus, the actions of the Polish side are a flagrant violation of international law, including both the bilateral intergovernmental agreement and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961. A question for Warsaw: do you have any more buildings? Are you that poor? Nowhere else to "get hold of"? Turned to theft? Is that all the Polish administration is capable of? If we had said earlier, we would have known.

Particularly shameful in this situation is the position of the Polish Foreign Ministry, which, instead of ensuring the protection of a foreign diplomatic mission from encroachment on its property, said that it “accepts with satisfaction” the procedure for seizing and transferring the building to the State Treasury of Poland on the street. Sobieski 100.

At the same time, the Polish Foreign Ministry is engaged in demagoguery, talking about the “liquidation of disparity” in the field of real estate in Russian-Polish relations. Is that what they call stealing? Dont know. I will fill up the diplomatic dictionary.

The Ministry is well aware that over the past two years the Russian side has been actively and purposefully working to resolve this problem, and in July 2021 we handed over to the Ambassador of Poland in Russia a list of real estate objects that we were ready to transfer to the Polish side. She refuses to talk.

Once again we are forced to confirm: any unfriendly step by Warsaw will entail an adequate and effective response from our side.

Two Europes or how to read news in a historical context


According to the agencies, the union of port workers in Sweden has decided to blockade the ships associated with Russia. According to the organization, a letter was sent to Infrastructure Minister T. Enerut with a demand to ban the entry of Russian ships into Swedish ports, or the trade union itself initiates a blockade. “We have notified the organization of employers and intermediaries that a blockade will be introduced,” explained vice-chairman of the trade union E. Helgeson.

They introduced a "blockade" against the Russians. It turns out, against Russian sailors, our merchant fleet and its main home port in the Baltic - St. Petersburg. Again. Sweden imposed a blockade against the main port in St. Petersburg. Doesn't it remind you of anything? This is not the first blockade in the history of the northern capital. You don't know anything about it anymore. You are told only about how the Americans "saved" everyone during the Second World War, "liberated", brought you "freedom". Were they "threatened" from the Soviet Union and from Germany? It's not like that at all. The Swedish trade union put itself on a par with the Nazis. Although, probably, he again considers himself on the right side of history.

During the Great Patriotic War around Leningrad, the Nazis also gathered a noble European "union". There were also hundreds of Swedish volunteers. Look, maybe in the ranks of the current trade union activists there are relatives of those who were then, 80 years ago? 72 people even fell into Soviet captivity. We remember this every time we see Swedish neo-Nazis in the ranks of Ukrainian punitive formations in the Donbass since 2014. Does Sweden know that for eight years their volunteers have been killing civilians in the Donbass? Where have you been? To whom was the blockade announced? Nobody? And why?

The predecessors of the current Swedish port lovers of the “blockade” regularly shipped millions of tons of iron ore to the Reich, without which the Nazi seizure of all of Europe would not have happened. Do you feel any guilt? Maybe there is some day when you ask for forgiveness for the way you behaved then? How many troubles, including by your "mercy", the whole world has experienced. Then you did not immediately figure out which side of the story to stand on. They just supplied the Reich with resources. As now, you supply neo-Nazis with weapons, money, medicines. People who have a swastika on their sleeves. They greet each other like collaborators during World War II. They read the same books, watch the same films, follow the same logic.

The Holocaust and the atrocities experienced by its victims also happened thanks to the “unclear” who did not immediately take the right side of history. Every third German tank, gun, rifle, cartridge was made from Swedish raw materials. They left everything to the Reich. For those who were then considered "heroes". Is there a day when you apologize for not understanding? Do not celebrate May 8 - the liberation of Europe from Nazism, but simply apologize. If it existed, it would be easier now to sort out the right side of European history.

This is not Russian data. These are the calculations of the Swedish historian R. Karlbum: in 1933-1943. German consumption of iron ore, taking into account its iron content, depended on Swedish supplies by an average of 43%. Even Grand Admiral E. Raeder, the commander of the German fleet, said that it would be "absolutely impossible to wage war if the fleet cannot ensure the supply of iron ore from Sweden." She was placed. The Reich fought on the basis of Swedish supplies.

This is only about ore, but there were also supplies of pulp, lumber, bearings, machinery and equipment, which the Reich really needed. Sweden then it was profitable and honorable. There was also a Swedish military "transit". On the Swedish railways in 1940-1943. 2 million 140 thousand German soldiers and more than 100 thousand wagons with German military supplies were transported.

Are you now copying yourself from 80 years ago? When you supply weapons to neo-Nazis, ship provisions and humanitarian aid, pay money. And block us. You are welcome. Watch CNN and other American channels. With the same success, you can stick photo wallpapers and look at them. Think you see the world. The Nazis also used Swedish airspace and local airfields.

Everything that was then is copied: blocking the airspace, money transfers - everything that is possible. At the same time, you provide unlimited opportunities to those who have been killing civilians for eight years, based on nationalist ideology. It is not new, which is yet to be understood. They never hid that they supported the collaborators, the Reich, Hitler, the SS. They wear the same uniform, march with torches, hang portraits of those who were Nazi collaborators 80 years ago.

When we hear about the NLAW anti-tank grenade launchers that Britain supplied to the Kiev regime, we know that they are made in Sweden. It is unlikely that they could be re-exported without the consent of Stockholm. They armed the Nazis, blockaded our cities then, they do it now. As if nothing has changed. "Rise from Hell"

Greece is a country that, according to some estimates, lost about 1 million of its citizens in the war against fascism. We know the position of the population of this country today. They write to us, screaming in pain and impotence. They cannot influence their government, which has become a puppet regime.

Employees of the Greek railway company TrainOSE did not want to take part in the transfer of US and NATO military armored vehicles to the border of Ukraine. Because ethnic Greeks lived and live there. They are on the territory of Ukraine, in the south-east of this country, in the Crimea. They tell the truth. There are not many ethnic Swedes living there as minorities. There are a lot of instructors, militants who came as volunteers.

According to the information portals of Greek public organizations, employees of the electric locomotive department of Thessaloniki refused to move to Alexandroupolis to service the trains that NATO tanks are taking out of the port these days. They are planned to be sent to Romania and Poland, then to be delivered to the Ukrainian border. When none of the railroad workers agreed to go voluntarily, TrainOSE began to force them, citing obligations under an employment contract. After that, the trade unions in Thessaloniki intervened. They adopted a resolution demanding that the Greek railroad not be used to transport NATO equipment and stop threatening workers who oppose it. I would like to ask a question to official Athens: Are you for peace or for war? The document was supported by a dozen local trade unions of workers in various industries.

It begs a conclusion. There are two Europes. They have always been the same as they were 80 years ago. Europe, which missed, and sometimes “waving” after the fascist tanks leaving to the east, helped to quarter the SS men, soldiers of the Third Reich, still enjoying life.

And the Europe that went underground, realizing that there should be no place for a misanthropic ideology in their country. It is the same now: one, like 80 years ago, Europe in every possible way at all levels directly assists neo-Nazis, using propaganda, material resources, taking away from its citizens, giving everything away. The other continues to resist. Yes, (the same with a capital letter) Resistance to the authorities and employers, following the lead of an aggressive, Russophobic and Euro-Atlantic bloc and de facto being accomplices of neo-Nazis? This is what they are resisting. They are confronted by a car "refueled" according to all the rules of the "cancellation culture".

If you did not swear allegiance to those who supported the neo-Nazis, you will be "erased with an eraser." It will not be easy to persecute you, but they will make sure that you are gone, that you yourself are not happy with yourself. This is what they worked out. In Russian it is called - persecution.

On the historical significance of the manifesto of Catherine II on the annexation of Crimea to Russia



On April 19, 1783, Empress Catherine II signed the Manifesto on the accession of the Crimea, Taman and Kuban to the Russian Empire. This step was dictated by the desire to ensure the security of Russia's southern borders. It is symbolic that Crimea also had an important ideological significance for Russia - in 988 Grand Duke Vladimir was baptized in Chersonese.

After the end of the second Russian-Turkish war (1768-1774), the Ottoman port recognized the independence of the Crimea under the Kyuchuk-Kaynardzhiysky treaty of 1774. The fortresses of Kerch, Yenikale and Kinburn and a significant part of the steppe between the Dnieper and the Bug became part of the Russian Empire. Russia was able to get access to the Black Sea, as well as confirm its rights to the territory of Kabarda, Azov and the Azov lands conquered by Peter I. However, the Ottoman Empire did not give up hope of regaining its dominion on the peninsula, raiding and devastating the lands.

Assessing the advantages of joining the Crimea to Russia, one of the closest associates of Catherine II and the ideologist of the annexation of the peninsula, G.A. Potemkin, wrote at the end of 1782: it cannot strengthen or enrich you, but only bring you peace... With the Crimea, you will also gain dominance in the Black Sea.”

The manifesto completed an important stage in the struggle with the Ottoman Empire for influence on the northern coast of the Black Sea and provided access to natural borders in the south of the country. Russia was now able to build the Black Sea Fleet and had the right to pass through the Bosporus and Dardanelles. All this has become a powerful impetus for the economic and demographic development of the Northern Black Sea and Azov regions. This is me especially for E. Truss, who must know where which seas are.

The date of the annexation of Crimea to Russia was approved at the federal level (No. 336-FZ of August 3, 2018).

Despite the fact that the region borders on Ukraine, where a special military operation is currently taking place, life in Crimea is going on in a constructive way. April 11 this year The Day of the Constitution of the Republic was celebrated there. The region is developing dynamically. It is going through a special time now, given both the influx of refugees and the challenges it has faced in recent times, despite all the attempts to make life more difficult that our opponents are making. The Crimeans will survive. They are people with a historically tempered character. It is a culture, part of a tradition. They are transmitted.

President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin instructed the federal government to extend the term of the state program for the socio-economic development of the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol until 2027. Large Russian banks, Russian Railways, and telecommunications companies come to Crimea. Mobile roaming has been cancelled.

The North Crimean Canal, which was blocked by the Ukrainian authorities in 2014, is now fully operational and has now been unblocked by Russian specialists. This opens up new opportunities for the development of agriculture. Already this year, it is planned to allocate 850 hectares for rice production, and the area under this crop will only expand.

Undoubtedly, Crimea will develop in other directions as well. We expect further growth in the tourist flow, which will lead to the accelerated development of the service sector, the hotel sector, and the catering network.

Crimeans provide all possible assistance to refugees arriving on the peninsula. What future was prepared for the inhabitants of Crimea is clearly demonstrated by the facts of the atrocities of the Nazis, neo-Nazis, which come to light during the liberation of the territories of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions that were under the control of the Kiev authorities.

Like it or not, the future of Crimea is with Russia. For us, this question is finally and irrevocably closed. No sanctions from the US and their satellites, NATO members will change our position. They can only help to strengthen it. So the "masters of the world" can rest.

On the completion of the battle for Right-Bank Ukraine (Dnieper-Carpathian operation)

The Dnieper-Carpathian operation is a strategic offensive operation of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War, carried out from December 24, 1943 to April 17, 1944 in order to liberate Right-Bank Ukraine.

This operation included 11 operations of the fronts connected by a single concept - Zhytomyr-Berdichevskaya, Kirovogradskaya, Korsun-Shevchenkovskaya, Rivne-Lutsk, Nikopol-Krivorozhskaya, Proskurovsko-Chernovitskaya, Bereznegovato-Snigirevskaya, Polesskaya, Odessa, Tyrgu-Frumosskaya, Umansko- Botoshanskaya. The 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Ukrainian fronts under the command of N.F. Vatutin, I.S. Konev, R.Ya. Malinovsky, F.I. Tolbukhin, respectively, were involved in the offensive. The actions were coordinated by the Marshals of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov and A.M. Vasilevsky. In total, more than two million soldiers and officers, about two thousand tanks, more than 30 thousand guns and mortars, and 2.4 thousand aircraft were involved from the Soviet side. They were opposed by the German-Romanian troops, numbering about 1.8 million people and more than 25 thousand weapons.

In December 1943, Soviet troops took Zhitomir and Kirovograd, in January 1944 Novograd-Volynsky, Berdichev, Rovno and Lutsk, in February the advancing units of the Red Army managed to eliminate the Nikopol bridgehead, liberate Nikopol and Krivoy Rog.

The last stage was the Uman-Botoshanskaya operation of the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, which ended on April 17, 1944, as a result of which the southwestern regions of the Right-Bank Ukraine and part of the Moldavian SSR were liberated, the 8th German army was almost completely defeated. During the offensive carried out in late winter and early spring of 1944, the 2nd Ukrainian Front sequentially, on the move, crossed six rivers under seasonal flood conditions.

As a result of the Dnieper-Carpathian operation, Ukraine with a population of tens of millions of people was completely liberated, and the enemy was driven back 250-450 km to the west. The Red Army restored the state border on the southwestern borders of the USSR and transferred the fighting to the territory of Romania.

Military successes came at a high price. On February 29, 1944, the famous Soviet commander, commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, General of the Army N.F. Vatutin, was mortally wounded at the hands of Ukrainian nationalists.

The victory of the Red Army in the Right-Bank Ukraine ensured the entry of our troops to the approaches to Poland, to the border with Czechoslovakia and to Romania, had a great influence on the activation of the national liberation movement in the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe. The front came close to Germany's vital sources of food, oil and other types of strategic raw materials in Romania and the Balkans. The successes of the Soviet troops had a huge international political effect. Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria began to look for ways out of the war (they immediately figured out where the right side of history was), and the allies of the USSR accelerated preparations for the landing of their troops in France.

In honor of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. On September 29, 2014, the Bank of Russia issued a commemorative commemorative coin - "Dnieper-Carpathian Operation".

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Question: “A group of French technical and scientific gendarmes is in Lviv to help Ukrainian colleagues in investigating war crimes,” the French ambassador to Ukraine said. How would you comment on this post?

Answer: As far as I know, the Russian Ministry of Defense has already commented on this topic.

We hope that the mentioned experts will approach their work impartially, if possible, and impartially - they will interview witnesses, they will do it without segregation based on nationality. We hope that the shelling of Kramatorsk and Donetsk by Ukrainian nationalists will also be duly investigated. They actively called for this, including on international platforms.

It is not clear why such an initiative has never appeared, in particular, among the French over the past eight years. No one ever considered it necessary to send at least some kind of delegation, for example, to help the Kiev regime to investigate the crimes of the "House of Trade Unions" in Odessa, when not the house was burned, but the people in it. Where were the French specialists? Or, for example, for some reason, the European community also “rottenly” worked on snipers, without showing any desire, except in words (absolutely in solidarity with the Kiev regime), but in deeds, without showing any interest in establishing the truth. Although we remember the negotiations conducted by Brussels officials. Then, unambiguously saying among themselves that it is clear who opened fire on the Maidan in 2014, that these were forces that were supported by the very opposition,

Where were all the eight years of crimes, when children were killed, when they were buried alive, when mass graves were now found, mass graves of civilians, when people were tortured, kidnapped? Where were all these "investigators"? And what about those who were kept in prisons without trial or investigation? The same KV Vyshinsky. Have you ever seen statements from the French Interior Ministry that it would be nice to interview KV Vyshinsky in order for him to tell how he was treated as a journalist in Ukraine.

Where was everyone? Where was the Union of Journalists? Maybe France showed some desire? They only blocked any attempts by residents of Donbass, Donetsk and Luhansk. It was necessary to tell about how they all lived and survived all these years. Zero information came out. Moreover, they did everything to ensure that not a single Western journalist ended up there. But now there is not a single Western mainstream newspaper that does not write what is happening there, but, of course, only from one angle. Segregation in the 21st century? Some lives matter, others don't?

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Question: How could you comment on the information about the use of the OSCE SMM technical equipment in Ukraine to correct the fire of artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine?

Answer: The OSCE Special Monitoring Mission worked for 8 years on both sides of the line of contact in Donbass, using various technical equipment, incl. small, medium and long-range unmanned aerial vehicles, various types of cameras. The data from these devices was intended to monitor violations of the ceasefire and agreements on the withdrawal of military equipment. The OSCE leadership has repeatedly assured us that the Mission does not transmit any operational information to Kiev. Interesting, really, how does it work?

From March 7 this year. all international personnel of the Special Monitoring Mission were withdrawn from Ukraine, the DPR and the LPR. Monitoring activity has actually ceased. March 31 this year the Mission's mandate has also expired, which excludes the continuation of its work, incl. use of technical equipment. It is necessary to find out in whose hands the equipment of the Special Monitoring Mission, which has not yet been removed, is currently located and how it is being used.

So where is the equipment, where was it taken or to whom was it given? If the information about the use of technical means of observation of the Special Monitoring Mission to adjust the fire of artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is confirmed, this will completely discredit the Mission and the leadership of the OSCE Secretariat. All those who "covered" it all. Then the role of the OSCE will be completely different from that declared in this story.

Unfortunately, there were precedents for the misuse of OSCE property (this information). Back in February of this year. Armored vehicles of the Special Monitoring Mission in Mariupol ended up with the militants of the Azov National Battalion. OSCE Secretary General H. Schmid ignored our warnings. She did absolutely everything so that these facts were not made public and said that "there is no need to spread fake news." Everything we love. We know it.

We demand that the OSCE leadership honestly, and not like last time, report by whom and how exactly the organization’s equipment left on the territory of Ukraine, the DPR and the LPR was used. There is no politics here. These are facts, data. The organization is obliged to provide them to the public and report.

We remind you that in the current political and legal realities, the performance of its functions by the Special Monitoring Mission has become impossible. Further activities of the Mission do not have the consensus support of the participating States and cannot be carried out.

We call on the Secretariat and the Polish Chairmanship-in-Office of the Organization to promptly prepare and submit for consideration by all participating States a draft decision of the OSCE Permanent Council on the parameters for the closure of the Special Monitoring Mission, which would make it possible to allocate funds for the removal of the remaining property and close the financial obligations of the Mission.

On the territory of Russia, after the evacuation of the international personnel of the Special Monitoring Mission from Ukraine, the DPR and LPR, 75 armored SUVs of the Mission remain, the further purpose of which - sale, transfer to another OSCE field presence or, for example, donation to the civilian authorities of the DPR and LPR - is also to be determined.

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Question: Does Moscow see the risk that, under the new prime minister of Pakistan, cooperation with Islamabad in the gas sector may be curtailed and the Pakistan Stream gas pipeline construction project frustrated?

Answer: I would like to remind you that the current Prime Minister of Pakistan, Sh. Sharif, is the head of the very party - the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz), which was in power at the time of the signing in October 2015 of the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on cooperation in the implementation of the North-South gas pipeline construction project, later renamed "Pakistan Stream".

An objective reality is the fact that the project is mutually beneficial. In Pakistan, this is well known. Its implementation will give a good impetus to the development of the Pakistani energy sector and help solve the problem of energy shortages in the country. Also beneficial to us. Based on this, we expect that work on this project will continue under the new government of Pakistan.

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Question: Russia's withdrawal from the UN Human Rights Council was carried out after the General Assembly voted the day before to suspend its participation due to a special operation in Ukraine. Among others, Serbia also voted for it. Such actions were quite unexpected, since the country had previously been neutral on the issue of the conflict in Ukraine, and in early March, the population staged rallies of 50,000 in support of Moscow's actions. How will this affect relations between Moscow and Belgrade?

Answer: We have seen a series of identical votes, not only at the UN site, but also at other sites. These were identical votes in recent weeks. All of them were against our country.

We record the statements of Serbian politicians regarding the pressure that is being exerted on them, as well as statements by the Serbian side that Russia is their friend. Maybe we have different views on what friendship is. We always support our friends in difficult times. We always proceed from the fact that those who call us their friends profess the same approaches.

Representatives of many states striving to pursue an independent, balanced policy tell us (this was repeatedly said by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia S.V. Lavrov) that they are under tremendous pressure from Western countries, primarily the United States, who want to “incite” Russia the whole world, launch the "cancellation culture" mechanism. Accordingly, they go to "compromises". We don't understand this. We know there is pressure. But if we are talking about those who declare themselves our friends, then this is impossible to understand.

We presume that our traditional partners in their activities within the framework of international organizations, at various multilateral platforms, will consistently adhere to positions that reflect their true national interests and a true, friendly attitude towards us.

This is not about the fact that we encourage them to make a deal with conscience by substituting facts. No, not only the Russian position, but also the origins of this crisis are well known in Belgrade. This has been repeatedly discussed at the highest level. They have the full range of materials. Most importantly, they lived through no less difficult historical moments, which are similar in many respects to what is now happening on the territory of Ukraine. After all, the sponsors of this perennial hell are the same. Here it is also important to understand that we are talking not just about supporting our country on the basis of friendship or on fundamental grounds,

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Question (translated from English): Russian officials have previously stated that they do not rule out expanding cooperation, including in the field of defense, with partners in the Western Hemisphere in response to growing US and NATO military activity near Russia's borders. The Western powers have begun to do just that, by deploying additional US soldiers and military equipment on NATO's eastern flank. Given this situation, has Russia considered expanding its presence in partner countries in Latin America, including Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua?

Answer: Let me remind you that the events that took place in Ukraine, as well as the United States and NATO countries behind Kiev, crossed the well-known "red lines", showed that Latin America continues to be an independent, original direction of our country's foreign policy.

We understand that Latin Americans are currently under powerful pressure from the United States and the “collective West”. For this, the whole arsenal of means is used, which has nothing to do with diplomacy and something legal, this is political influence, economic leverage and individual blackmail. In their pressure, the United States and the "collective West" frankly do not care about the global socio-economic consequences of anti-Russian sanctions, including for the region of their own residence. If we are talking about the two Americas - South (Latin) and North, this is a single organism and structure.

As a result of the imposition of illegal restrictive measures against Russia, global supply chains have been disrupted, and there has been a sharp increase in food prices. Naturally, due to the fact that there has been a sharp increase in fuel prices around the world, we hear the “baby talk” of American politicians who have come up with nothing better than every day to blame Russia for the rise in fuel prices. They say that V.V. Putin raised the price of gasoline in the USA.

No, it's not because of V.V. Putin that gasoline prices have become high in America and in this region, no matter what N. Pelosi, J. Biden, J. Psaki say. This is because of those who developed sanctions and did not assume that they were a boomerang, they would quickly return to them. Or, if it is more convenient for them, they will rebound on their own economy.

Traditionally, Russian-Latin American interaction was free from any ideological restrictions. It was not subject to any opportunistic factors and was never directed against third countries.

We have always been open to mutually beneficial cooperation, further constructive cooperation with Latin Americans in all areas - from politics and trade to the humanitarian and military-technical spheres. At the same time, we emphasize that our current cooperation in the field of military-technical cooperation is carried out strictly in accordance with bilateral agreements, with respect for national legislation and international legal norms, and is not aimed at changing the military-political balance of forces in the region, much less directed against other countries.

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Question: Jean Borrell, head of EU diplomacy, spoke not so long ago about a "military solution" to the problem of Ukraine. Earlier, with obvious regret, he said that Russia “prepared” for sanctions and transferred part of the funds to countries where they would not be blocked. Where do you see the value for Russia of maintaining relations with the European Union as an organization?

Answer: A commentary with appropriate assessments of the statements made by the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Jean Borrell , made by him following his visit to Ukraine, was posted yesterday on the official website of the Ministry. I recommend that you familiarize yourself with it, as well as with the answers of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Sergey Lavrov to the relevant questions, transcripts and videos are available on our website.

I can only note once again that the statements of a European official that “this war will be won on the battlefield” confirm that today's European Union has finally renounced its lofty peacekeeping ideals laid down by the founding fathers. They wanted a new war in Europe to be "unthinkable and impossible." J. Borrell came today and ruined everything.

Before the eyes of the whole world, the EU is degenerating into a militarized and aggressive instrument of external expansion, reinforcing its far from market methods of work with such militaristic aspirations. There is no limit to the hypocrisy of the European Union - assistance to Kiev in order to help Ukrainian neo-Nazis continue to kill people with impunity is provided through the European Peace Foundation.

The true values ​​of the exceptional "enlightened West" are evidenced by the widespread use by EU politicians of the Nazi slogan, I will not repeat it - it is a tracing from the greeting used in Nazi Germany. Maybe the Brussels officials do it thoughtlessly, but they also have ideologists, speech writers, people who are engaged in fact-checking, they could tell what kind of greeting this is? N. Pelosi in the USA got out of the situation, now says “Glory to Wuhan”. They, too, could come up with something for themselves.

The EU media space is being "cleansed" of alternative views everywhere, unprecedented pressure is being exerted in the EU countries on Russians and Russian-speakers, ranging from citizens, the media, public figures, ending with business, humanitarian organizations. There is only one desire: for them to abandon today's Russia, from their historical homeland. They signed some papers, literally and figuratively, or gave some kind of virtual oath of allegiance to the Western world.

This is 1930s Germany. Burning of books in the squares, torchlight processions, greetings and refusal in written or oral form (dissociation) from national feelings, traditions, cultural roots in favor of the current (then called so) liberal democratic community. All the same.

The theses about the need for a political solution and support for negotiations have disappeared from the EU lexicon. There is none of this. It is clear why: a political decision will interfere with their main goal - the continuation of the proxy war to the last Ukrainian.

And this is actually so. At first, they looked at how some Ukrainians blocked accounts, railway routes, logistics, money transfers from other citizens of Ukraine. They watched for eight years how one part of Ukraine mocked another part. At that time we were not involved in such an open phase of the conflict, but we helped with food, money, medicines, humanitarian aid. The EU did not help. They were satisfied with this situation of destruction of one part of Ukraine by another. Now the “bonfire” is even bigger. Apparently, there is no limit to their joy.

Such "diplomacy" of the EU runs counter to the interests of the inhabitants of European countries, striving for peace and stability, preventing manifestations of Nazism and discrimination on our common continent.

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Question: The United States and Great Britain responded to Ukrainian media reports based on statements from the secretariat of the People's Militia of E.A.Basurin about the alleged use of chemical weapons by the DPR forces and the Russian military during the liberation of Mariupol, saying that they were "preparing a response" to the possible use of this type of weapon. Is it planned to publish a separate commentary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a refutation on this issue?
Would the Russian authorities be ready to allow representatives of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) into the territory of the DPR or into Russia to provide the necessary evidence of the work done in 2017, if such a request is received? (In 2017, work was already underway to eliminate all chemical weapons, and the same organization recorded that at the time of 2017 there were no chemical weapons left in Russia?)

Answer: It has already been fixed. Or do you mean what to do with the British, American and Ukrainian accusations? We know what to do with them. The Russian Foreign Ministry continues to record the appearance of various insinuations in the West and in Kyiv regarding the alleged use of toxic chemicals and chemical weapons by the people's militia of the DPR or LPR, as well as by the Russian military in the Donbass. Today there was news of an exotic plan that the Pentagon or one of the American security officials or J. Psaki said that there were no such data, but they could be (this is their favorite phrase). But they can use the means of spraying that are used against demonstrators. Some sort of fantasy.

Speculation on this subject is absolutely groundless. Regarding the fact that we said that there will be special messages, we comment on this regularly. Now, answering your question. I can say that this is absolutely baseless speculation. At the same time, I would like to recall that information from the Russian Ministry of Defense was recently made public that it was the Kiev authorities that were negotiating with the Turkish manufacturer of BYKAR UAVs on the subject of "improving" Bayraktar Akinci military aircraft manufactured by this company with mechanisms for spraying certain substances from 20 liter containers. I'm guessing it's not water. There are doubts that this is holy water.

Moreover, we are talking about people who do not shun anything. These footage of bullying is not just "leaked" to the network. They do it all with pleasure. This is a matter of their special pride, for them it is absolutely the norm to use means that provide opportunities for greater destruction - no matter the enemy, the civilian population, the territory, etc.

According to experts, the use of such aircraft in equipment with the indicated volumes, even chemical warfare agents, is ineffective from a military point of view, but the delivery of biological weapons in this way, which, even in such small quantities, can cause much more significant damage to the population, which has been exposed for eight years of genocide by nationalists in Ukraine is quite real. Moreover, the scale of the US military biological activities in the order of 30 specialized laboratories on the territory of Ukraine, operating under the auspices of the Pentagon, is already well known to everyone.

We emphasize once again that any insinuations about the use of chemical weapons by Russia have no basis and only remind of a series of accusations of a similar nature against the Syrian authorities, the Russian Aerospace Forces on the territory of Syria, against the backdrop of endless chemical provocations carried out by the pseudo-humanitarian NGO "White helmets." The White Helmets have now become more active, they came to London and received instructions. There is evidence of their activation in the context of events in Ukraine. So look there. I think soon everything will become clear and will be confirmed by facts.

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Question: In a recent interview, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia's special military operation is aimed at ending US dominance in the world. Does this mean that Russia does not rule out an escalation of the war, including a possible direct military confrontation with NATO?

Answer: I would like to immediately remind the rest of our colleagues of the full quotation from Sergey Lavrov's interview with the Rossiya 24 TV channel: “Our special military operation is designed to put an end to the reckless course of complete US dominance in the world. We are talking not only and not so much about Ukraine. Not everyone is ready to obey their dominance. Russia, of course, with its history and with its traditions, is one of those countries that will never occupy a subordinate position.” Now this is a test of the strength of the whole world.

Who is a friend, who is an enemy, and who is so. Who can oppose, who has the potential to conduct an independent sovereign foreign policy, and who has exchanged, sold, surrendered this sovereignty, lost it for a while, forgot about it. Anything can happen. There are no single patterns. Now there is a global check.

This meant (when S.V. Lavrov spoke about this) that the United States and NATO countries. Before - it is the cultivation, feeding, training of militants, who later proved themselves on the "Maidan", in camps in the Baltic countries and Poland, then the implementation of an anti-constitutional coup at the expense of these resources, which were well-trained trained militants with weapons in their hands, who knew how to fight in the street, with material and political support, etc.

After this coup, a process of a different level, when the hidden forces that trained as militants gradually began to receive military weapons and legitimize on the territory of Ukraine, and began to join the ranks of the armed forces of Ukraine, infecting regular Ukrainian troops with this neo-Nazi bacillus. Here's what to remember. On this base, “anti-Russia” was created from Ukraine, in a historical context, it was actively pumped up with weapons, turning its territory into a military foothold against our country. And not only against our country. 30 biological laboratories are not only against our country. With whom else does Ukraine neighbor? Biological weapons spread regardless of borders, they have no limit.

Russia has always done everything to prevent a military confrontation with NATO. We hope that the West will have enough common sense to avoid further escalation. But you are asking the right question. Escalation from the West is underway. Arms deliveries, material support, complete political, ideological, moral carte blanche, deliberate suppression of these facts, propaganda. This is part of the escalation.

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Question: French intelligence claims that the US and UK are waging a "secret war" against Russia in Ukraine. The same information was published in the Russian media. What is Moscow's position on this matter?

Answer: I don't see anything "secret" in their actions. Of course, there is also an underwater part, which is not visible to ordinary people, but it is clearly visible to specialists.

It seems to me that the “surface” part is quite enough to understand the role of these countries. I already talked about this today. We've been talking about this all these years. Creation of a springboard for conducting a hybrid war against our country, training militants under neo-nationalist cover, then incorporating them into the armed forces of the state and legitimizing them, creating dangerous "points" for the development of biological weapons under the guise of supposedly the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, but in fact they acted under the auspices and with Pentagon money. We are talking about creating a real monster on the territory of Ukraine. Training and testing of all these methodologies was carried out on citizens of Ukraine who live in the south-east of Ukraine and border on the territory of Russia. The role of these countries is obvious, it is not hidden.

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Question: The British "The Times" reported that the "White Helmets", remembered for a number of provocations in Syria, offered assistance to Ukraine. What do you think, what could such “cooperation” turn out to be, given how many fakes come from the Ukrainian side during the Russian special operation?

Answer:It will turn into a whole series of provocations, similar to those that took place on the territory of Syria. With a large number of informational staged materials, a number of actions that are well known to the Western media community and understandable to the local inhabitants. Now they will blame Russia at a new level and at the same time use everything that has been worked out on the territory of Syria. There is no doubt about it. They received instructions. The British special services, the main ones on "poisons", instruct them, their specialists are both on the territory of Ukraine and abroad.

The White Helmets are back in the game. They are financed by the State Department, Great Britain, NATO structures. They were created for this and, in practical terms, taught everything on the territory of Syria. Now a new task has been set. The methodology is the same. They are familiar to the media space of the West. They don't need to be unrolled. They went through an Oscar nomination, received a number of prestigious international awards, and became a transnational company. At the same time, being a front for the unsightly and illegal activities of Western intelligence services, primarily American and British.

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Question (translated from English): ITV News and many other organizations have documented numerous alleged war crimes in Ukraine. US President Biden accused Russia of genocide in Ukraine. What is your answer to this?

Answer: The press service of the White House should comment on President Joe Biden. As a rule, after his statements, the press service issues two or three denials. Let's wait, maybe they will refute it once again.

With all due respect to democratic institutions that allow people in America to make their choice by voting, and recognizing this choice as legitimate, we respect the opinion of the American people and recognize American President Joe Biden. But not all of his statements are, frankly, adequate. This is proved by the work of his administration, which constantly makes adjustments to what he said, disavows or gives additional explanations.

But the most interesting thing is that even the formation of his statements occurs with the help of some people who write theses to him. Did he read them correctly? Did he hit all the words and letters? I can not tell you. It is impossible to take seriously at such an important moment such statements that are made with regularity as the official position of the state. Because the press service of the White House constantly disavows what was said by its own president. I will not comment on these words and statements.

Speaking in general, regarding the position of the US Administration, we can talk not only about the current position and accusations against Russia. Let's look in retrospect. When was it different? When have we not been accused by the US administration or Downing Street of something? Can you remember the year when there was no announcement of another "guilt" of our country? There hasn't been a single year like this in the last 15 years. Every year we were guilty of something. There is only one small nuance. After these statements, no evidence was presented.

Today's accusations are made against the backdrop of an eight-year silence of the administration of the current and previous US presidents, the silence of Downing Street, Brussels regarding the real genocide that took place in the Donbass. Now, if US President J. Biden, D. Trump, the presidents of other NATO countries, British Prime Ministers B. Johnson, T. May, if they had made at least one statement over the course of eight years reproaching the Kiev regime with calls to stop shelling of civilians, I would believe in their sincerity.

As of today, you cannot present me with a single statement from Washington, London, Brussels regarding the Ukrainian presidents V.A. Zelensky or P.A. Poroshenko with an urgent demand to stop shelling civilian objects, killing children for eight years, transport routes for food, medicines, sending humanitarian aid to the residents of Donbass. These statements have never been made. And there were victims. And there were thousands of them. Accordingly, one must sign one thing - the hypocrisy of those who make such statements. If they do not see the killing of the civilian population for eight years, there is no trust in their assessments either.

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Question (translated from English): You spoke about Western governments, including the UK, who were talking about fakes about the brutal actions in Ukraine. What evidence do you have for this?

Answer: When an allegation is made that someone is involved in a crime, evidence must be presented.

The Kyiv regime, Washington, London, a number of Western capitals accused Russia of the events in Bucha. I address your question to them - where is the evidence? As alleged evidence, they presented photographic and video materials, which were disavowed by us. They stated that these are either photographic materials that were taken after the departure of the Russian armed forces from there, or are not reliable at all. Therefore, the evidence of the accusation should be presented by those who originally made these accusations.

Second moment. A lot of materials were presented in support of our position. There is an interview and a public statement made by the mayor of the settlement of Buchi, A.P. Fedorchuk, immediately after the armed forces of the Russian Federation left from there. He said that the city was without the Russian military, that life was getting back to normal. He did not say a single word about what we were then accused of.

For any normal person, this situation will no longer have a logical continuation. Because if the mayor of Bucha A.P. Fedorchuk says that life is getting back to normal, he says it on camera and no one stands behind him with a gun barrel, he is free in his assessments, joyful, careless, it means no tragedy he did not see. The tragedy appeared a few days later, when Ukrainian militants arrived there.

There is another moment. In the village of Bucha, when Russian servicemen were there, the people who lived there had their mobile phones working. People had the Internet, communication with the outside world. They could take photos, send messages, make calls to the media, send relevant photos, leave voice messages, and so on. There was none of this. Do you know why? Because there were no facts on which they could call, tell and send materials. These facts appeared only when the Ukrainian military arrived there. We talked about how this is a staged story. Made exactly according to the same patterns that have been used for staged stories in Syria for several years, using chemical materials. And before that, one of the biggest staged stories in Europe is Srebrenica. She was passed off as one thing, but then

Therefore, the evidence base of the accusations made by the West against us crumbled. Do not have another one. Some experts are now sent there, who will sort it out on the spot. We presume that they will find the strength to conduct a real depoliticized investigation. But I strongly doubt it. Do you know why?

May I ask you a rhetorical question (I think you will not answer it):
what about the Skripals? You represent a British TV channel. Have you ever seen them? Have you spoken to them? How many years have passed. We were accused of being poisoned. Only once, on the camera of an unknown TV channel, most likely on the camera of the British special services, was a recording of the daughter of S.V. Skripal. And they did not answer any questions from journalists, the public, or investigators that could be presented to the whole world.

No one knows where they are, what happened to them and what happened then. Scotland Yard took over the investigation. How much more time does Scotland Yard and all the rest of the British intelligence services need to figure out what happened then. At the same time, measures were introduced against our country, accusations were made and statements were made from the Prime Minister, British Foreign Secretary. This is the provocative behavior that lies at the heart of Western politics.

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[Ravenlocke]

General Cloutier caught!!!??

https://twitter.com/LuMan_/status/1514347800447836168
1514347800447836168

However this says no,
https://twitter.com/pierrejovanovic/status/1514549824934318084
1514549824934318084

https://twitter.com/AFPFactCheck/status/1514519351365632008
1514519351365632008

[Satori]

General Cloutier caught!!!??

https://twitter.com/LuMan_/status/1514347800447836168
1514347800447836168

However this says no,
https://twitter.com/pierrejovanovic/status/1514549824934318084
1514549824934318084

Really? The person’s face is blurred out. I’m not convinced by this.

[Bill Ryan]

General Cloutier caught!!!??

https://twitter.com/LuMan_/status/1514347800447836168
1514347800447836168

However this says no,
https://twitter.com/pierrejovanovic/status/1514549824934318084
1514549824934318084

Really? The person’s face is blurred out. I’m not convinced by this.Whoever this is, his face would have been blurred because of the Geneva Convention requirement (https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/7c4d08d9b287a42141256739003e63bb/6fef854a3517b75ac125641e004a9e68) to "protect POWs from public curiosity".

The film was from РИА НОВОСТ, which is RIA Novost, a Russian TV channel. Website here: https://ria.ru. It'd be important to see if the insert at the top left (definitely showing Cloutier!) was edited in by the TV channel, rather than post-edited by someone on Twitter.

This is a translation of their Mariupol-tagged articles and videos, but I've not found the video clip yet.


https://ria-ru.translate.goog/location_Mariupol/?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Their Ukraine-tagged articles and videos are here: (all pretty interesting to read in English)


https://ria-ru.translate.goog/location_Ukraine/?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

[Ravenlocke]

https://www.rt.com/russia/553872-ukrainian-helicopters-attack-russia/

Russia says Ukrainian helicopters carried out strikes on its territory

Russia has claimed that two Ukrainian helicopters were responsible for an attack on the border village of Klimovo in Bryansk Region on Thursday, which left seven people injured. The incident had earlier been attributed to the Ukrainian military by the region’s governor.

An update on the attack was given by Russia’s Investigative Committee, which said it was treating the incident as a criminal conspiracy. Its statement said two Ukrainian military attack helicopters crossed into Russian airspace at around midday local time, flying at a low altitude.

The aircraft fired heavy weapons at the village, delivering at least six strikes on residential buildings, the statement said. Seven people were injured and six houses were damaged in the attack, the investigators said.

Earlier, health officials said a two-year-old boy and his mother, who is pregnant, were among the seven victims of the attack. Two people were said to be in a serious condition.

The attack was one of two separate incidents in the border area on Thursday that Russian officials blamed on Ukrainian forces. The second one was an alleged Ukrainian shelling of a border crossing some 40km southwest of Klimovo.

Russian border guards said a group of some 30 refugees from Ukraine came under mortar fire as they were passing the checkpoint. Nobody was hurt in the attack, but two civilian cars were damaged, the report said.

Seven injured in cross-border shelling from Ukraine
Seven injured in cross-border shelling from Ukraine
On April 1, a similar Ukrainian air raid targeted an oil storage facility in the Russian city of Belgorod. Investigators reported that two helicopters fired at least four missiles, causing significant damage on the ground.

The Russian Defense Ministry on Wednesday warned it may escalate military action in Ukraine if the country’s military conducts more attacks on targets in Russia. “Decision-making centers” in Kiev may be targeted, the statement said.

Russia attacked its neighbor in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German- and French-brokered Minsk Protocol was designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.

Russia has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.

[Bill Ryan]

Okay, I found it. (It's not Cloutier :) )

https://twitter.com/labiocca/status/1514373152968687619
1514373152968687619
:focus:

[Ravenlocke]

General Cloutier caught!!!??

https://twitter.com/LuMan_/status/1514347800447836168
1514347800447836168

However this says no,
https://twitter.com/pierrejovanovic/status/1514549824934318084
1514549824934318084

Really? The person’s face is blurred out. I’m not convinced by this.Whoever this is, his face would have been blurred because of the Geneva Convention requirement (https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/applic/ihl/ihl.nsf/7c4d08d9b287a42141256739003e63bb/6fef854a3517b75ac125641e004a9e68) to "protect POWs from public curiosity".

The film was from РИА НОВОСТ, which is RIA Novost, a Russian TV channel. Website here: https://ria.ru. It'd be important to see if the insert at the top left (definitely showing Cloutier!) was edited in by the TV channel, rather than post-edited by someone on Twitter.

This is a translation of their Mariupol-tagged articles and videos, but I've not found the video clip yet. If it's not Cloutier, he definitely looks like he might be a US/NATO senior officer.


https://ria-ru.translate.goog/location_Mariupol/?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Their Ukraine-tagged articles and videos are here: (all pretty interesting to read in English)


https://ria-ru.translate.goog/location_Ukraine/?_x_tr_sl=ru&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp



This tweet besides the AFP fact check tweet that I added to post 2228, also claims it’s a fake news. So the mystery of his whereabouts remains.

https://twitter.com/StratcomCentre/status/1514506959109738499
1514506959109738499

[Ravenlocke]

Regarding the Skripals

https://inteltoday.org/2022/04/09/four-years-ago-the-skripals-drama-begins-march-4-2018-update-vladimir-pozner-who-would-do-this-and-why/

Four Years Ago — The Skripals Drama Begins (March 4 2018) [UPDATE — Vladimir Pozner : “Who would do this, and why?]
Posted on April 9, 2022 by L
“This is a carefully constructed drama as part of the propaganda campaign that has been building now for several years in order to justify the actions of NATO, Britain the United States, towards Russia. That’s a fact. The whole role of Porton Down has been integral to the Cold War apparatus of this. And this is so dangerous, with Russia being effectively pushed into a corner with these accusations, it’s part of a propaganda campaign. I can tell you that, I’m a journalist who has spent almost all my career working in the mainstream [media] in Britain. This is a propaganda campaign promoted specifically in the media and in the Government.”
Journalist John Pilger

March 4 2021 — No one who has looked into the case in any detail can possibly be satisfied that the account given by the UK Government and The Metropolitan Police is correct. The narrative put out by the Metropolitan Police is not simply questionable, it is plain impossible. I believe that this affair is a carefully constructed drama to push Russia in a corner and justify Western foreign policies in various places such as Ukraine, Iran and Syria. Who really tried to assassinate Sergei Skripal? And why?

[Bill Ryan]

Who really tried to assassinate Sergei Skripal? And why?See this long Avalon thread, from March 2018:


Sergei Skripal: who was behind the Salisbury poisoning? (https://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?102079-Sergei-Skripal-who-was-behind-the-Salisbury-poisoning)

[syrwong]

He Xin is a renown Chinese scholarly who worked at the Academy of Social Science in China. In the early days of the reform and open door in China he often gave political analysis to the top leaders like Deng. He made many predictions which turned out true, the most famous one was his prediction of the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1988, saying that as the consequence of the inevitable failure of Gorbachev's reform. He was not valued by the later leaders but continued to do research in many fields. Quite outspoken at times but remained in low profile after publishing books some ten years ago on Masonry that made it well known to the Chinese intellectuals (and some leaders). The current Chinese environment is more restrictive on free speech. BTW, his later interest in Masonry came as the result of watching Bill's documentary on Anglo Saxon Mission, after which he immediately did a great deal of research on the secret society and published a few books and articles on it. He said it's existence solved some political puzzles he could not explained before. In his seventies now, he recently wrote a short note on what would be the outcome of the Russian Ukrainian conflict. Here is the translation.

***

The war is in its final stages. Both sides are close to exhaustion. There is no winner in this battle.

The final stage will be a stalemate, a stalemate, and the inevitable outcome will be peace, peace talks.

But the post-war world is a very unpleasant place. Pandemic and war have demonised the world. The world is in tatters, the New World Order that followed the end of the Cold War has collapsed completely, the process of globalisation has been halted and the world has lost its direction. Looking ahead to the post-war future, crises and dangers abound.

Firstly, if the US and the West continue to isolate and blockade Russia and, by association, China, it will lead to an extremely tragic financial war.

If China and the US and Europe impose sanctions on each other, it will force non-Western countries to choose sides.

Second, this confrontation would inevitably force China into a broad economic and political alliance with Russia.

In this alliance, Russian energy, raw materials as well as food can replace US-Canadian supplies, and Chinese industrial consumer goods can be used as an exchange item. The two economies would be highly complementary, scientific research could cooperate, and a new system could be formed strong enough to counter the US and Europe in the long term.

However, there would be a painful transition period. The spread of technology will be cut off. Many unpredictable things will happen.

Thirdly, the Russian and Chinese systems will distance themselves from US Western capital, and the global free-market process that has followed the end of the Cold War will be brought to an end. The system of central planning will be strengthened during the transition period.

Fourthly, the Russian and Chinese systems will compete fiercely with the US and Europe in Asia, Africa and the peripheral countries of Europe and America.

This would mean a new global competitive dynamic, not quite a cold war, but possibly a local hot war, and even, towards a world war.

But let's hope that this will not be the case.
***

Note. Apparently he is foressing an open confrontation between East and West, first beginning with peripheral states in between. Maybe wars between the Koreas, Chinese and Taiwan, Israel and Iran? Then the third world war. But I think it will come very late and we may have middle scale wars for the next twenty years.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1514666337448169474
1514666337448169474

The whole thread (seven tweets ) can be read here:
https://twitter.com/threadreaderapp/status/1514667105853091850
1514667105853091850

https://twitter.com/realGonzaloLira/status/1514672219770785794
1514672219770785794

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/TheCradleMedia/status/1514633742622597124
1514633742622597124

https://thecradle.co/Article/interviews/9135

By Pepe Escobar April 14 2022
Sergey Glazyev is a man living right in the eye of our current geopolitical and geoeconomic hurricane. One of the most influential economists in the world, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and a former adviser to the Kremlin from 2012 to 2019, for the past three years he has helmed Moscow’s uber strategic portfolio as Minister in Charge of Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU).

Glazyev’s recent intellectual production has been nothing short of transformative, epitomized by his essay Sanctions and Sovereignty and an extensive discussion of the new, emerging geoeconomic paradigm in an interview to a Russian business magazine.

In another of his recent essays, Glazyev comments on how “I grew up in Zaporozhye, near which heavy fighting is now taking place in order to destroy the Ukrainian Nazis, who never existed in my small Motherland. I studied at a Ukrainian school and I know Ukrainian literature and language well, which from a scientific point of view is a dialect of Russian. I did not notice anything Russophobic in Ukrainian culture. In the 17 years of my life in Zaporozhye, I have never met a single Banderist.”

Glazyev was gracious to take some time from his packed schedule to provide detailed answers to a first series of questions in what we expect to become a running conversation, especially focused to the Global South. This is his first interview with a foreign publication since the start of Operation Z. Many thanks to Alexey Subottin for the Russian-English translation.

The Cradle: You are at the forefront of a game-changing geoeconomic development: the design of a new monetary/financial system via an association between the EAEU and China, bypassing the US dollar, with a draft soon to be concluded. Could you possibly advance some of the features of this system – which is certainly not a Bretton Woods III – but seems to be a clear alternative to the Washington consensus and very close to the necessities of the Global South?

Glazyev: In a bout of Russophobic hysteria, the ruling elite of the United States played its last “trump ace” in the hybrid war against Russia. Having “frozen” Russian foreign exchange reserves in custody accounts of western central banks, financial regulators of the US, EU, and the UK undermined the status of the dollar, euro, and pound as global reserve currencies. This step sharply accelerated the ongoing dismantling of the dollar-based economic world order.

Over a decade ago, my colleagues at the Astana Economic Forum and I proposed to transition to a new global economic system based on a new synthetic trading currency based on an index of currencies of participating countries. Later, we proposed to expand the underlying currency basket by adding around twenty exchange-traded commodities. A monetary unit based on such an expanded basket was mathematically modeled and demonstrated a high degree of resilience and stability.

At around the same time, we proposed to create a wide international coalition of resistance in the hybrid war for global dominance that the financial and power elite of the US unleashed on the countries that remained outside of its control. My book The Last World War: the USA to Move and Lose, published in 2016, scientifically explained the nature of this coming war and argued for its inevitability – a conclusion based on objective laws of long-term economic development. Based on the same objective laws, the book argued the inevitability of the defeat of the old dominant power.

Currently, the US is fighting to maintain its dominance, but just as Britain previously, which provoked two world wars but was unable to keep its empire and its central position in the world due to the obsolescence of its colonial economic system, it is destined to fail. The British colonial economic system based on slave labor was overtaken by structurally more efficient economic systems of the US and the USSR. Both the US and the USSR were more efficient at managing human capital in vertically integrated systems, which split the world into their zones of influence. A transition to a new world economic order started after the disintegration of the USSR. This transition is now reaching its conclusion with the imminent disintegration of the dollar-based global economic system, which provided the foundation of the United States’ global dominance.

The new convergent economic system that emerged in the PRC (People’s Republic of China) and India is the next inevitable stage of development, combining the benefits of both centralized strategic planning and market economy, and of both state control of the monetary and physical infrastructure and entrepreneurship. The new economic system united various strata of their societies around the goal of increasing common wellbeing in a way that is substantially stronger than the Anglo-Saxon and European alternatives. This is the main reason why Washington will not be able to win the global hybrid war that it started. This is also the main reason why the current dollar-centric global financial system will be superseded by a new one, based on a consensus of the countries who join the new world economic order.

In the first phase of the transition, these countries fall back on using their national currencies and clearing mechanisms, backed by bilateral currency swaps. At this point, price formation is still mostly driven by prices at various exchanges, denominated in dollars. This phase is almost over: after Russia’s reserves in dollars, euro, pound, and yen were “frozen,” it is unlikely that any sovereign country will continue accumulating reserves in these currencies. Their immediate replacement is national currencies and gold.

The second stage of the transition will involve new pricing mechanisms that do not reference the dollar. Price formation in national currencies involves substantial overheads, however, it will still be more attractive than pricing in ‘un-anchored’ and treacherous currencies like dollars, pounds, euro, and yen. The only remaining global currency candidate – the yuan – won’t be taking their place due to its inconvertibility and the restricted external access to the Chinese capital markets. The use of gold as the price reference is constrained by the inconvenience of its use for payments.

The third and the final stage on the new economic order transition will involve a creation of a new digital payment currency founded through an international agreement based on principles of transparency, fairness, goodwill, and efficiency. I expect that the model of such a monetary unit that we developed will play its role at this stage. A currency like this can be issued by a pool of currency reserves of BRICS countries, which all interested countries will be able to join. The weight of each currency in the basket could be proportional to the GDP of each country (based on purchasing power parity, for example), its share in international trade, as well as the population and territory size of participating countries.

In addition, the basket could contain an index of prices of main exchange-traded commodities: gold and other precious metals, key industrial metals, hydrocarbons, grains, sugar, as well as water and other natural resources. To provide backing and to make the currency more resilient, relevant international resource reserves can be created in due course. This new currency would be used exclusively for cross-border payments and issued to the participating countries based on a pre-defined formula. Participating countries would instead use their national currencies for credit creation, in order to finance national investments and industry, as well as for sovereign wealth reserves. Capital account cross-border flows would remain governed by national currency regulations.

The Cradle: Michael Hudson specifically asks that if this new system enables nations in the Global South to suspend dollarized debt and is based on the ability to pay (in foreign exchange), can these loans be tied to either raw materials or, for China, tangible equity ownership in the capital infrastructure financed by foreign non-dollar credit?

Glazyev: Transition to the new world economic order will likely be accompanied by systematic refusal to honor obligations in dollars, euro, pound, and yen. In this respect, it will be no different from the example set by the countries issuing these currencies who thought it appropriate to steal foreign exchange reserves of Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Afghanistan, and Russia to the tune of trillions of dollars. Since the US, Britain, EU, and Japan refused to honor their obligations and confiscated wealth of other nations which was held in their currencies, why should other countries be obliged to pay them back and to service their loans?

In any case, participation in the new economic system will not be constrained by the obligations in the old one. Countries of the Global South can be full participants of the new system regardless of their accumulated debts in dollars, euro, pound, and yen. Even if they were to default on their obligations in those currencies, this would have no bearing on their credit rating in the new financial system. Nationalization of extraction industry, likewise, would not cause a disruption. Further, should these countries reserve a portion of their natural resources for the backing of the new economic system, their respective weight in the currency basket of the new monetary unit would increase accordingly, providing that nation with larger currency reserves and credit capacity. In addition, bilateral swap lines with trading partner countries would provide them with adequate financing for co-investments and trade financing.

The Cradle: In one of your latest essays, The Economics of the Russian Victory, you call for “an accelerated formation of a new technological paradigm and the formation of institutions of a new world economic order.” Among the recommendations, you specifically propose the creation of “a payment and settlement system in the national currencies of the EAEU member states” and the development and implementation of “an independent system of international settlements in the EAEU, SCO and BRICS, which could eliminate critical dependence of the US-controlled SWIFT system.” Is it possible to foresee a concerted joint drive by the EAEU and China to “sell” the new system to SCO members, other BRICS members, ASEAN members and nations in West Asia, Africa and Latin America? And will that result in a bipolar geoeconomy – the West versus The Rest?

Glazyev: Indeed, this is the direction where we are headed. Disappointingly, monetary authorities of Russia are still a part of the Washington paradigm and play by the rules of the dollar-based system, even after Russian foreign exchange reserves were captured by the west. On the other hand, the recent sanctions prompted extensive soul searching among the rest of the non-dollar-block countries. western ‘agents of influence’ still control central banks of most countries, forcing them to apply suicidal policies prescribed by the IMF. However, such policies at this point are so obviously contrary to the national interests of these non-western countries that their authorities are growing justifiably concerned about financial security.

You correctly highlight potentially central roles of China and Russia in the genesis of the new world economic order. Unfortunately, current leadership of the CBR (Central Bank of Russia) remains trapped inside the intellectual cul-de-sac of the Washington paradigm and is unable to become a founding partner in the creation of a new global economic and financial framework. At the same time, the CBR already had to face the reality and create a national system for interbank messaging which is not dependent on SWIFT, and opened it up for foreign banks as well. Cross-currency swap lines have been already set up with key participating nations. Most transactions between member states of the EAEU are already denominated in national currencies and the share of their currencies in internal trade is growing at a rapid pace.

A similar transition is taking place in trade with China, Iran, and Turkey. India indicated that it is ready to switch to payments in national currencies as well. A lot of effort is put in developing clearing mechanisms for national currency payments. In parallel, there is an ongoing effort to develop a digital non-banking payment system, which would be linked to gold and other exchange-traded commodities – ‘stablecoins.’

Recent US and European sanctions imposed on the banking channels have caused a rapid increase in these efforts. The group of countries working on the new financial system only needs to announce the completion of the framework and readiness of the new trade currency and the process of formation of the new world financial order will accelerate further from there. The best way to bring it about would be to announce it at the SCO or BRICS regular meetings. We are working on that.

The Cradle: This has been an absolutely key issue in discussions by independent analysts across the west. Was the Russian Central Bank advising Russian gold producers to sell their gold in the London market to get a higher price than the Russian government or Central Bank would pay? Was there no anticipation whatsoever that the coming alternative to the US dollar will have to be based largely on gold? How would you characterize what happened? How much practical damage has this inflicted on the Russian economy short-term and mid-term?

Glazyev: The monetary policy of the CBR, implemented in line with the IMF recommendations, has been devastating for the Russian economy. Combined disasters of the “freezing” of circa $400 billion of foreign exchange reserves and over a trillion dollars siphoned from the economy by oligarchs into western offshore destinations, came with the backdrop of equally disastrous policies of the CBR, which included excessively high real rates combined with a managed float of the exchange rate. We estimate this caused under-investment of circa 20 trillion rubles and under-production of circa 50 trillion rubles in goods.

Following Washington’s recommendations, the CBR stopped buying gold over the last two years, effectively forcing domestic gold miners to export full volumes of production, which added up to 500 tons of gold. These days the mistake and the harm it caused are very much obvious. Presently, the CBR resumed gold purchases, and, hopefully, will continue with sound policies in the interest of the national economy instead of ‘targeting inflation’ for the benefit of international speculators, as had been the case during the last decade.

The Cradle: The Fed as well as the ECB were not consulted on the freeze of Russian foreign reserves. Word in New York and Frankfurt is that they would have opposed it were they to have been asked. Did you personally expect the freeze? And did the Russian leadership expect it?

Glazyev: My book “The Last World War” that I already mentioned, which was published as far back as 2015, argued that the likelihood of this happening eventually is very high. In this hybrid war, economic warfare and informational/cognitive warfare are key theaters of conflict. On both of these fronts, the US and NATO countries have overwhelming superiority and I did not have any doubt that they would take full advantage of this in due course.

I have been arguing for a long time for replacement of dollars, euro, pounds, and yen in our foreign exchange reserves with gold, which is produced in abundance in Russia. Unfortunately, western agents of influence which occupy key roles at central banks of most countries, as well as rating agencies and key publications, were successful in silencing my ideas. To give you an example, I have no doubt that high-ranking officials at the Fed and the ECB were involved in developing anti-Russian financial sanctions. These sanctions have been consistently escalating and are being implemented almost instantly, despite the well-known difficulties with bureaucratic decision making in the EU.

The Cradle: Elvira Nabiullina has been reconfirmed as the head of the Russian Central Bank. What would you do differently, compared to her previous actions? What is the main guiding principle involved in your different approaches?

Glazyev: The difference between our approaches is very simple. Her policies are an orthodox implementation of IMF recommendations and dogmas of the Washington paradigm, while my recommendations are based on the scientific method and empirical evidence accumulated over the last hundred years in leading countries.

The Cradle: The Russia-China strategic partnership seems to be increasingly ironclad – as Presidents Putin and Xi themselves constantly reaffirm. But there are rumbles against it not only in the west but also in some Russian policy circles. In this extremely delicate historical juncture, how reliable is China as an all-season ally to Russia?

Glazyev: The foundation of Russian-Chinese strategic partnership is common sense, common interests, and the experience of cooperation over hundreds of years. The US ruling elite started a global hybrid war aimed at defending its hegemonic position in the world, targeting China as the key economic competitor and Russia as the key counter-balancing force. Initially, the US geopolitical efforts were aiming to create a conflict between Russia and China. Agents of western influence were amplifying xenophobic ideas in our media and blocking any attempts to transition to payments in national currencies. On the Chinese side, agents of western influence were pushing the government to fall in line with the demands of the US interests.

However, sovereign interests of Russia and China logically led to their growing strategic partnership and cooperation, in order to address common threats emanating from Washington. The US tariff war with China and financial sanctions war with Russia validated these concerns and demonstrated the clear and present danger our two countries are facing. Common interests of survival and resistance are uniting China and Russia, and our two countries are largely symbiotic economically. They complement and increase competitive advantages of each other. These common interests will persist over the long run.

The Chinese government and the Chinese people remember very well the role of the Soviet Union in the liberation of their country from the Japanese occupation and in the post-war industrialization of China. Our two countries have a strong historical foundation for strategic partnership and we are destined to cooperate closely in our common interests. I hope that the strategic partnership of Russia and the PRC, which is enhanced by the coupling of the One Belt One Road with the Eurasian Economic Union, will become the foundation of President Vladimir Putin’s project of the Greater Eurasian Partnership and the nucleus of the new world economic order.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1514661009566412811
1514661009566412811

https://www.rt.com/russia/553878-ukraine-biolab-human-experiments/

US conducted ‘inhumane’ lab experiments in Ukraine – Russia
A biolab in Ukraine has allegedly conducted unethical human experiments on behalf of the US government, Russia’s defense ministry claimed on Thursday, in its latest update on Pentagon-funded research in the country.

The allegations concern a laboratory located in Merefa, a city in Ukraine’s Kharkov region, located about 20 kilometers (12 miles) southwest of the provincial capital. The Russian military claimed that “American scientists from the lab” conducted a series of human experiments between 2019 and 2021, using patients at a psychiatric ward in Kharkov as subjects.

The research involved testing “potentially dangerous biological preparations,” the ministry claimed, without explaining what exactly was being tested.

The subjects were screened based on their age, nationality, and immunity status and were closely monitored, the ministry said. The ward kept no records about the alleged trials while its staff members were made to sign non-disclosure agreements, it alleged.

The Russian military claimed it had eyewitness testimonies of the “inhuman experiments,” but declined to provide any evidence of that, citing the necessity to protect them.

It said the lab shut down in January and all its equipment and research materials were moved to western Ukraine.

US outsourced dangerous infections studies to other countries – Lavrov to RT
Russia suspects the Pentagon of funding clandestine bioweapons research in Ukraine and many other nations. The US government says the labs operating under the US military’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DRTA) act as biological outposts monitoring the environment for potentially dangerous infections emerging naturally. Moscow says the research may have military applications.

The Russian defense ministry has conducted a number of media briefings regarding the program and labs in Ukraine since Moscow launched an attack on the country. The Russian government has argued that the evidence presented confirmed its long-held suspicions about American intentions.

Beijing supported Russia in its calls to Washington to open up DRTA labs for international scrutiny.

Russia attacked its neighbor in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French brokered Minsk Protocols was designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.

The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1514674944210259972
1514674944210259972

[Ravenlocke]

G7 (Unipolar) vs Multipolar group

https://twitter.com/Angelo4justice3/status/1514640738944155649
1514640738944155649




https://twitter.com/vanessa_p_831/status/1514661738964262912
1514661738964262912

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/CNLKH_68/status/1514658304471216129
1514658304471216129

https://www.sott.net/article/466706-Independent-Journalists-We-are-here-in-Donbass-to-awaken-Westerners-deluded-by-propaganda

Independent Journalists: 'We are here, in Donbass, to awaken Westerners deluded by propaganda'
Independent Press in Donbass
There are only a handful of Western journalists on the ground in Donbass, while the Western mainstream press is rubber-stamping fake news about the Ukrainian crisis using the same templates it previously exploited in Iraq, Libya and Syria, says Dutch independent journalist Sonja van den Ende.

Sonja van den Ende, an independent journalist from Rotterdam, Netherlands, went to the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics as an embedded reporter with the Russian army to see how the special operation is unfolding with her own eyes.

The sound of shelling and explosion does not frighten her: she's gotten used to it. Seven years ago, van den Ende worked in Syria, months before the Russians stepped in at the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and changed the tide. The parallels between the Western mainstream press' coverage of the Syrian and the Ukrainian conflicts are striking, according to her.
"They lie continuously about everything just to implement their own agenda," van den Ende. "Like in Syria, President Assad was 'the murderer' and now President Putin is 'the butcher.' They had used this script for many years in Iraq, Venezuela and [other] countries which don't comply with their agenda; they need a bad "guy". But they (media) are not even there on the ground, they can't judge. Only a handful of journalists from the West are here: Graham Philips, Patrick Lancaster, Anne-Laure Bonnel and me."
However, this is not the only parallel, according to the Dutch journalist. She has drawn attention to Kiev's fake reports and "false flag" operations including the Snake Island hoax, hype over Russia's alleged "attack" on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (NPP), the now-debunked story of Russia's "strike" on a Mariupol hospital, and the most recent Bucha provocation, to name but a few. Van den Ende says that it resembles nothing so much as jihadists' false flags and the White Helmet's staged "gas attacks". She specifically recalls the 4 April 2017 chemical provocation in Khan Sheikhun, Idlib, which was debunked by investigative reporters including Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh.
"The same happened in Bucha," says the Dutch journalist. "Many witnesses are saying that the Russian army left on 30 March. Even the Ukrainian military who came in on 1 April didn't report about corpses on the streets. This happened on 3 April, according to the Western media. Also, evidence is saying that the bodies had white armbands, the sign of the Russian army, the soldiers wear them. So the soldiers are killing the Russian Ukrainians? No way."
Ukrainian Neo-Nazism is No Myth

Van den Ende talked to many Ukrainian civilians while travelling across Donbass. According to her, nearly everyone condemned the Kiev government for prohibiting the Russian language and depriving them of many cultural and domestic human rights.
"The majority of the people whom I spoke with were very happy that the [Russian special] operation has started," the Dutch journalist says. "Of course, nobody wants violence and war, but they have been suffering already eight years from the war, carnage and destruction by the Ukrainian forces. The worst were the Nazi battalions, who were fighting along with the regular army."
Ukrainian neo-Nazism is not a myth, emphasises van den Ende. When she visited the Ukrainian port city of Odessa in 2016 and 2017 she noticed the fascist sentiment which has been spreading across the nation for quite a while. Actually, Ukrainian Nazism has been there since the Second World War, says the Dutch journalist.

The ideological successors of Stepan Bandera, the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), the 14th SS-Volunteer Division "Galicia," and the Nachtigall Battalion went underground during the Soviet period. However, after many years these forces are alive again with the U.S., the UK and EU using them to destabilise Ukraine, she says. Previously, these Western geopolitical actors much in the same vein used Islamists to unseat Assad, adds the journalist.

According to van den Ende, after carrying out a 2014 coup d'etat in Ukraine, the minority of neo-Nazis grabbed power and have been terrorising mainly the eastern part of the country using very vicious and cruel Nazi-style methods for eight years.

Feeling Protected at Long Last

The West is continuously trying to blame Russia for all the damage inflicted on Ukrainian villages and towns. However, Eastern Ukrainian eye-witnesses say that most of destruction in the civilian areas was caused by the retreating Ukrainian army and neo-Nazi formations, including the notorious Azov Battalions, according to the Dutch journalist. In addition to using civilian facilities as shields, the Ukrainian military are reported to have indiscriminately shelled the positions they left and cede to the Russian forces.

To illustrate her point, van den Ende describes the shelling of a hospital in Volnovakha, in the Donetsk People's Republic. The building was not bombed from the air, but attacked with grenades and rockets, she says, citing a Volnovakha resident.
The West claims it was bombed by the Russians, but as a lady told me, that she worked there all her life, and that the Ukrainian [military]-who were quartered in the hospital-shelled and destroyed the facility and her house, which was next to the hospital.

According to the Dutch journalist, Eastern Ukrainians are treated very well by the Russian army and regularly receive humanitarian aid in most locations. What's more, the locals say that at long last they feel protected, she adds.
Fierce fight between the Ukrainian armed forces and neo-Nazi battalions on the one side and the Russia-backed DPR and LPR militias on the other side left many houses ruined. However, the people of Donbass have not given up, highlights the journalist.
"As a woman said: 'We are strong, we can rebuild it, for our children and grandchildren, to have peace,'" notes van den Ende.
Is Russia Losing an Information War?

Some observers suggest that Russia is losing the information war with the West. The Western Big Media machine is working day and night with the backing of Big Tech, while most Russian news outlets have been either censored or completely silenced in the Western countries.
"No, Russia is not losing the information war completely," argues van den Ende. "I think it's up to us, the handful of Westerners, to awaken the majority of Westerners who are still asleep and getting bombarded with fake news and made-up stories day by day."
One should bear in mind that this conflict is being fanned by the Western politicians in the first place, says the Dutch journalist. According to her, the West did completely the same in Syria but has largely lost that war.

The world is changing and the Western establishment has yet to reconcile itself with the emerging multipolar world order, according to van den Ende. She notes that Russian President Vladimir Putin outlined the beginning of this change in his 2007 Munich speech.

Although they opted to neglect his words at that time, it is becoming obvious that a unipolar world is gone for good, the journalist concludes.
Comment: Control of the narrative is the most important thing for the West in order to control not least its own population. Thus all Russian media outlets are being censored across the board and the Tech giants are happily helping. It is admirable what these independent journalists do when they then do go to the war zone to report on what is happening as they not only risk their lives but also get smeared online for their courageous acts.

Van den Ende mentions Putin's famous speech in 2007 where he made it clear that the unipolar world had to end. It was the day when the West discovered that Putin was not on their side and the demonization of him picked up speed. Here is the speech for those who would like a refresher:

[url]hQ58Yv6kP44[\url]

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/InfraHaz/status/1514440017917222915
1514440017917222915

https://twitter.com/InfraHaz/status/1514440581208064000
1514440581208064000

https://twitter.com/InfraHaz/status/1514443929445412872
1514443929445412872

https://twitter.com/InfraHaz/status/1514447883604578305
1514447883604578305


Amazon’s Twitch bans some channels after researchers find pro-Russia propaganda
Livestreaming platform has sought to block ‘harmful misinformation’ after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine yesterday

The article is at this link:

https://www.ft.com/content/ff2bfc46-6cda-43a2-9db2-c912c986ce77

[ExomatrixTV]

Google Threatens YouTubers Over Ukraine War Coverage:

CWlNK3sEsg8
YouTube has issued new guidelines to video partners producers that content on the platform will not be monetized that “exploits, dismisses, or condones” the war in Ukraine. Also demonetized: any videos “that imply victims are responsible for their own tragedy or similar instances of victim blaming, such as claims that Ukraine is committing genocide or deliberately attacking its own citizens.” Jimmy and The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal discuss how social media platforms are using monetization to choose sides and silence opponents of the US/NATO narrative on the Ukraine war.

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Hawkeye1745/status/1514601843032166409
1514601843032166409

https://twitter.com/Hawkeye1745/status/1514599624039751689
1514599624039751689

https://twitter.com/Hawkeye1745/status/1514584813117837312
1514584813117837312

[Bill Ryan]

News just officially released:

https://rt.com/russia/553902-flagship-sank

Russian flagship sank – military

Missile cruiser ‘Moskva’ went down in the Black Sea while being towed to port, the Russian Defense Ministry said

Министерство обороны РФ сообщило, что крейсер “Москва” затонул. Дотащить до Севастополя не смогли.
При буксировке крейсера «Москва» в порт назначения из-за повреждений корпуса, полученных в ходе пожара от детонации боезапаса, корабль потерял устойчивость.
В условиях штормового волнения моря корабль затонул

Translation:

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that the cruiser “Moskva” sank. They could not reach Sevastopol. When the cruiser “Moskva” was towed to the port of destination due to damage to the hull received during the fire from the detonation of ammunition, the ship lost stability. In the face of stormy sea waves, the ship sank.

[Bill Ryan]

The latest SitRep (situation report) from The Saker.

It discusses the Moskva incident, but the announcement about the ship having sunk (see above) had not been made at the time the SitRep was posted.

http://thesaker.is/sitrep-operation-z-9

~~~

Let’s start with the biggest news today, the Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva cruiser suffered some sort of major ‘incident’. I had an entire writeup planned to explain how Ukraine could (or could not) possibly have shot it, but now I won’t waste valuable analysis time because more and more it appears Ukraine either was not overtly involved, or if it was it was through some sort of asymmetric/sabotage methods, etc.

Even the Pentagon now reports there’s no data to confirm that Ukraine hit it with any missiles and all such claims come only from Ukrainian OSINT propagandists on twitter.

In fact they seemed to have cleverly combined several real life data points to try to weave their tale, i.e. using the fact that a Russian frigate shot down a TB2 drone a couple days ago as a means to “prove” that Ukrainian TB2’s are operating over the Black Sea and that their alleged strike on the Moskva consisted of a TB2 running a decoy/screen op to “distract” the ship’s crew, while Ukrainian Neptune missiles simultaneously were fired on it.

This is not very believable as these ships are capable of tracking dozens of objects, nor is the damage now being reported consistent with massive ship-killing missiles (based on the Soviet Kh-55) successfully hitting the ship.
“The nature of the damage to the cruiser is still unclear. According to the statement of the RF Ministry of Defense, the main caliber of the cruiser survived, which hints that either the artillery ammunition or the anti-aircraft gun detonated, which caused damage to the ship. There is not enough information yet to talk about the cause of the fire and explosion, whatever it was caused by.”
Anti-ship missiles like Neptune are sea-skimming and would have hit low on the hull and not on top where the ‘artillery/AA’ are stationed.

The latest reports state that the ship has reached Sevastopol on its own power and that the ammunition fires were contained. We have no info how accurate any of this is, so we have no choice but to standby for further updates. All photos/videos released by the Ukr side so far have been fake, various manipulations of photos of burning Iranian ships, fake Norwegian missile strike test videos, etc.

It seems logically that Ukraine was somehow involved but we simply don’t have any real data to even speculate as to what could have happened. All we know is Russian MOD claims they are ‘investigating the cause’ of the fires to the ammunition on board. It could be negligence, to sabotage, to a number of other things. Very unlikely but, nothing is impossible. After all just last year the U.S. lost an entire modern amphibious assault ship, completely burned down via sabotage. U.S. is supposed to be the ‘greatest Navy on earth’, right?
https://theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/14/sailor-charged-over-fire-that-destroyed-us-warship-disgruntled-prosecutors-say (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/14/sailor-charged-over-fire-that-destroyed-us-warship-disgruntled-prosecutors-say)
“On 12 July 2020, a fire started on a lower vehicle-storage deck while the ship was undergoing maintenance at Naval Base San Diego (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Base_San_Diego). It took four days for firefighters to extinguish the fire, which injured at least 63 sailors and civilians and severely damaged the ship. After a long investigation into the cause of the fire, a sailor was charged with arson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arson).[3] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Bonhomme_Richard_(LHD-6)" \l "cite_note-charged-3) Repairs to the ship were estimated to take up to seven years and cost up to $3.2 billion so the ship was decommissioned on 15 April 2021 and sold for scrap.”
Not to mention the general incompetence of the U.S. Navy – who remembers this incident:
https://youtu.be/SYwglnZ7Qyo?t=35

The damage was over $2 billion.

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/word-image-32.jpeg

In fact it was a string of incidents:
https://maritimecyprus.com/2017/08/25/why-do-u-s-navy-ships-keep-crashing (https://maritimecyprus.com/2017/08/25/why-do-u-s-navy-ships-keep-crashing/)

The USS John McCain only a year later had another collision, with 10 dead sailors:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-navy-crash-singapore/u-s-destroyer-mccain-collision-which-killed-10-sailors-caused-by-sudden-turn-singapore-idUSKCN1GK0HU

And USS Champlain collided with a South Korean vessel in a display of “shoddy seamanship” according to the Navy: https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2017/11/07/shoddy-seamanship-to-blame-in-lake-champlain-collision (https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2017/11/07/shoddy-seamanship-to-blame-in-lake-champlain-collision/)

Or the U.S.’s most expensive ship in history breaking down immediately after launch:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/most-expensive-destroyer-zumwalt-navy-history-breaks-down (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/most-expensive-destroyer-zumwalt-navy-history-breaks-down/)

Or how about “the second breakdown in 2 years” for the Navy’s most advanced and expensive (13 billion) aircraft carrier:
https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a20521726/americas-newest-aircraft-carrier-suffers-a-breakdown (https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a20521726/americas-newest-aircraft-carrier-suffers-a-breakdown/)

And the fact that tests of its anti-air/interception systems failed and there were doubts that the carrier could even ‘protect itself’:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-25/navy-s-13-billion-carrier-sows-doubt-that-it-can-defend-itself
The Navy’s $13 billion supercarrier still can’t do the one thing it’s absolutely required to do (https://taskandpurpose.com/military-tech/navy-gerald-r-ford-aircraft-carrier-emals-problems/)
So in short, accidents do happen, things fail: in fact they happen much more in the U.S. Navy than any other navy on the planet. So before anyone raises too many questions on how the Russian navy can suffer an incident during high-stress wartime, then you should first investigate how the U.S. lost over $10-20 billion worth of warships in the past few years alone in peacetime.

And let’s not forget this thing from the infamous crash a few months ago belonged to the Navy as well, when it failed to land on the aircraft carrier:

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/word-image-33.jpeg

Add another $100+ million down the drain.

With that said, in regard to the Moskva. It is still a terrible and huge loss, even if the loss is ‘temporary’ (as “temporary” in Naval parlance usually means years). This is not only the flagship but one of the most powerful ships in the entire Russian Navy, even modest damage will likely keep it out of action for years as repairs on these capital ships take a very long time.

This will reduce the firepower projection capabilities of the Black Sea fleet by as much as 10-15% alone, if not more. IF the loss is in fact confirmed to be from a Ukraine strike I’ll write up a separate analysis on it, but for now don’t want to waste valuable space on ‘hypotheticals’ as even the Pentagon refuses to say Ukraine did it.

As pertains to this specific conflict however, the loss is irrelevant as the ship was not doing anything in terms of abetting the military actions against Ukraine. The ship does NOT have Kaliber missiles or any ground-target cruise missiles so it was not really involved in the hostilities apart from adding an extra layer of S-300 and various air defense protection over the Black Sea. The ship is basically a carrier killer and its most potent armament of P-500 missiles is specifically designed to kill other large warships.

But since Ukraine has no real navy left the loss is only one of prestige, not of actual current combat capability. However it does weaken Russia against future/potential NATO intervention and makes Russia’s ‘deterrence’ in the Black/Mediterranean Sea areas much less effective. But with all that said, the official reports from MOD indicate the main missile payloads on the ship are undamaged and so there is a small chance that the damage in general was such that it could be repaired in a semi-timely fashion. We’ll have to see.

Of course this all comes on the heels of a new wave of Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil, after days ago the order was reportedly given by Zelensky for the armed forces to begin attacks on Russian soil. Afterwards, Russia released a statement that if Ukraine continues over-the-border strikes, Russia will begin targeting Ukrainian leadership in Kiev and elsewhere, something they have obviously refrained from doing previously.
https://www.rt.com/russia/553830-kiev-strike-possible (https://www.rt.com/russia/553830-kiev-strike-possible/)

Not only did Ukraine initially strike the oil depot in Belgorod, but they then shelled some farms and settlements on the Russian side of the border. Then two days ago, after Zelensky’s order, a Ukrainian sabotage DRG group snuck over and blew up a Russian railway bridge in Nezhegol, Belgorod region.
https://theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/12/key-russian-railway-bridge-destroyed-in-belgorod-border-region-with-ukraine (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/12/key-russian-railway-bridge-destroyed-in-belgorod-border-region-with-ukraine)

Of course western sources inflate its importance to “key bridge” which it’s not, nor did the Ukrop forces manage to blow it up, in fact having failed and mostly ‘damaged it’.
“Apparently – the work of the Ukrainian DRG. There was not enough wearable mass of explosives or time for a serious undermining – but near the abutment they were able to blow up the RSHP, without visible damage to the power structure of the bridge spans. For a day or two of work for the restorers.”
Now today there is new additional attacks where Ukrainian helicopters have shot up a village/settlement in a Russian region north of Kiev. For the first time there are now wounded casualties (no killed), with one Russian person said to have their leg torn off in the attack. Now keep in mind the village of Kimovo that was attacked is 5km from the Ukrainian border. A Mi-24 would travel this distance in about 1 to 2 minutes or less, and the location can also be shelled from within Ukraine itself, so this is not a deep border breach.

And another village was reportedly shelled as well:
https://www.rt.com/russia/553876-village-shelling-ukraine-belgorod (https://www.rt.com/russia/553876-village-shelling-ukraine-belgorod/)

In short, Ukraine has taken up Russia’s challenge and threat of attacks on its leadership. The question is why? There are several possible reasons:


Zelensky and co. are not really in charge of the nationalist forces and in fact the nationalists want to escalate as much as possible even at the expense of Ukrainian leadership being hit, because after all that would actually serve their purpose of escalation since they know such a hit on the leadership would create more international support.
Zelensky and the leadership believe themselves safe enough from these strikes as they’ve all bunkered up, and Zelensky mostly lives in Poland now anyway apart from when he has to make a photo-op appearance in Kiev (as for Boris Johnson, etc) and so is not worried about such ‘strikes against leadership’.

This brings us to the greater point of all this – the Moskva cruiser (let’s assume Ukraine had SOME hand in this), the cross-border strikes. All of these are ‘prestige’ incidents. Not a single one of them is actually aimed at crippling the Russian military nor are objectives for Ukrainian military victory. The new cross-border attacks were on civilian targets in villages. The Moskva I’ve already explained above has no real relevance to the actual Ukrainian conflict as Ukraine has no navy of their own, nor does the Moskva launch missiles at ground targets.

This underlines the thesis we’ve established in earlier SitReps, which is:


Ukraine’s chief strategy at this point has devolved into a ‘psychological war’ of prestige targets and sowing political controversy within Russia
Ukraine absolutely needs the ‘image’ and illusion of victory to keep the morale of its own diminishing armed forces afloat, after every single major Russian victory.

To the above point, we know that in the past two days, Russia has won a major victory in the mass-surrender that occurred in Mariupol. This was a huge psychological blow to the UAF and the UAF leadership clearly needed an immediate boost to its morale. They require “media victories” they can show to their soldiers to continue the illusion that the UAF is actually winning against Russia.

One of the key revelations of the past week was that some of the captured soldiers had a complete ignorance of other major important setbacks that occurred in the same time period. It is clear they are being kept completely in the dark by their own leadership. UAF soldiers in Lugansk had no clue Mariupol was surrendering and vice versa, POWs in Mariupol seemed to have little clue as to the condition of any other part of their forces apart from the fake psychological reinforcement that they are ‘winning’ or ‘help will arrive soon’, etc.

So let’s look again in a broader scope at the Ukrainian’s current objectives in general. They know they can’t win militarily, so what is it they’re really trying to accomplish lately?

I posit the following main objectives:


To prolong the conflict long enough that an accumulation of ‘tragedies’ (by way of falseflags) can mount political consensus against Russia more and more towards an eventual presumed goal of NATO intervention.
To psychologically affect Russia’s political class (the ones that lean westward, 5th columnists, etc) into putting increasing pressure on Russia’s leadership, thereby creating tension, disagreement/conflict, etc., with the eventual “ideal” goal of the complete rebellion of one side of Russia’s political class against Putin and his ‘siloviks’.
The presumed goal of also affecting Russia’s citizenry by demoralizing them to such a way that they would revolt against Russian leadership. However this goal by far is the least realistic as the West has greatly overcalculated in how much they can influence the Russian ‘narod’. The increasing confirmed atrocities from the Ukraine side, which now even openly target Russian civilians, is something that continues only to galvanize Russian solidarity for their troops and leadership. In fact the only anger Russian citizens are currently reporting is that Putin and the leadership are going too soft on Ukraine.
To slowly affect Russia’s allies into viewing Russia as weak, militarily incapable, etc, and demoralizing the allies (particularly the ones closer to being ‘on the fence’) into decreasing their support for Russia’s SMO and becoming gradually more critical of the SMO on the world stage (via supporting UN resolutions against Russia, etc). Also combine this with the first point – the hope that the prolongation of conflict can allow the accrual of enough tragedies (falseflags) for Russian allies to start reconsidering their support.
To keep afloat the morale of UAF troops under the illusion that Ukraine is winning, by amplifying militarily insignificant ‘achievements’ into a status of relevancy.

Like I said earlier, it’s no ‘coincidence’ that right after the single largest surrender not only of the current conflict but probably of modern history, there is suddenly all sorts of Ukrainian sabotage activity – maybe the Moskva hit – but at the least the cross-border attacks on Russian civilian / village targets. It’s obvious to anyone with a brain that Ukraine is desperate to go ‘tit-for-tat’ on Russian ‘psychological victories’ in order to keep morale afloat in its troops, which by the way are surrendering more and more all over the place. Not only was there an ADDITIONAL surrender in Mariupol today, but there was another large surrender in Lugansk as well (this is on TOP of the earlier Lugansk surrenders from 2-3 days ago).

In fact, their morale is so low, that some units have resorted to selling their tanks to Russia for Rubles.

cqBS1rVILCjB
“It is significant that the Ukrainian military is happy to accept Russian rubles as payment, obviously assuming that this currency will soon become their main one.”
The problem for them is, Russia continues to accrue actual battlefield victories, while Ukraine desperately fights to keep morale afloat with fake psychological ones. On the topic of real victories we have several in the new cycle.

Let’s start with the surrenders. We now have confirmation the British mercenary Aiden Aslin / Cossackgundi is apprehended, and the famed “warrior” is now claiming – “I did no actual fighting!”
https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1514612970050842626

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/word-image-34.jpeg

His family, meanwhile, begs for him to be treated kindly (read: opposite to how Russian POWs are treated)

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/word-image-35.jpeg

Unconfirmed reports from the DPR state that he will NOT be viewed as an official enemy combatant / POW adherent to Geneva codes, but as a mercenary.

Other videos of the mass surrenders that occurred that might not have been seen yet:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/GSxwz3BDD3cr (https://www.bitchute.com/video/GSxwz3BDD3cr/)
https://www.bitchute.com/video/ocILorNO4pgj (https://www.bitchute.com/video/ocILorNO4pgj/)
https://www.bitchute.com/video/VlaPo16Xwz84 (https://www.bitchute.com/video/VlaPo16Xwz84/)
https://www.bitchute.com/video/pCx9sE4xLFHH (https://www.bitchute.com/video/pCx9sE4xLFHH/)
https://www.bitchute.com/video/PFkTNt0jBLQ7 (https://www.bitchute.com/video/PFkTNt0jBLQ7/)

LDPR now report they have around 3000 total POWs of the UAF. Presumably Russia itself has many more as well.

An American mercenary is also said to be caught:
https://twitter.com/MapsUkraine/status/1514559272633384962

As for Mariupol, the map currently looks something like this:

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/word-image-36.jpeg

A small swath of Primorski district by the captured port in SW. Then the Illych Factory (north area) and Azovstal factory (south) is all that’s left. During the breakout attempt where mass amounts of UAF marines were caught, some of them reportedly made it from the Illych to the Azovstal to consolidate there, while others attempted to scram north to freedom. They were hunted by drones/artillery and gunned down.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/VQVnvgZX1b8H (https://www.bitchute.com/video/VQVnvgZX1b8H/)

Azovstal is being saved for last, after they clean up the other two. Contradicting reports state that Illych factory is fully clear while some state there are still some stragglers hanging on in its bowels and are being cleared.

Some even have the map like this, with Illych gone:
https://twitter.com/Suriyakmaps/status/1514397409723432960

Elsewhere:
A Russian strike completely obliterated a field camp of the AFU where many soldiers were sleeping, presumably many dead
https://twitter.com/200_zoka/status/1514003279365259276
(alt link https://ok.ru/video/3392651463296)

And the most important advances once again occurred in Izyum where Russian forces reportedly captured the village of Borova to secure Izyum’s eastern flank:
https://twitter.com/michaelh992/status/1514589758554529798

While simultaneously attacking Lyman https://twitter.com/GeromanAT/status/1514585692600475653/photo/1

And more importantly, made large headway westward to capture Velyka Komyshuvakha
https://twitter.com/War_Mapper/status/1514393355802791940

This would likely allow RF forces from Balakleya in the north to link up with this new salient, thus capturing a swath of territory to secure Izyum’s western flank. And further puts a lot of pressure on the very strategic/important town of Barvinkove, which has been in RF’s sights for a while now and may soon become the next objective.

This are fairly major captures in a single day which seems to imply that Phase 2 may be starting to kick off in a gradual way. We know Russia has not fully repositioned everything yet but on some axes they have already begun major advancements.
Here is further confirmation of my previously written thesis on the new strategies Russia will employ. From an Austrian Military source:

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/word-image-14.jpg

http://dxczjjuegupb.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/word-image-15.jpg

Other western sources report (from the Pentagon): “There are 65 Russian BTG’s in all of Ukraine right now focused on south and east says sr. US defense official. Recall that Russia had amassed 130 BTG’s prior to invasion.”

What happened to the alleged 180 BTGs? The numbers keep dwindling, proving the accuracy of our reports that Russia never had anywhere near the numbers they claimed. By the way, 65 BTGs could represent as much as 130,000 men due to Russian brigades on paper being divided into 50% BTGs, the other 50% regular brigade structure. But as reported previously it’s impossible to really tell how widespread these dispositions are.

A few other random tidbits:
“⚡️🇬🇧🇬🇪 The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation revealed the names of 24 militants of the “Georgian Legion” who are fighting on the side of Ukraine and involved in the executions of Russian soldiers:
According to the investigation, they were Georgian citizens aged 22 to 58: Levan Fifia, Lasha Rukhaya, Levon Hayrapetyan, Vasil Alibegashvili, Erekle Amiranashvili, Veka Apresovi, Elguja Bagration, Vakhtang Barabadze, Giorgi Baramidze, Beka Basilaya, Zurab Bedoshvili, Gela Belashadze and 12 others.
❗️ Soon you will receive yours!”
And by the way here’s confirmation that the UAF continues to ‘reinforce’ by way of mass civilian transport as they have relatively very little ‘armor’ left (all armor is kept in strategic areas, cities etc for defense purposes, but has almost no fuel)
https://twitter.com/Militarylandnet/status/1514665125692772352

Anyway, it was a day of major military defeats for Ukraine, but a few illusory and ‘symbolic’ (albeit ephemeral) psychological ‘victories’, which is pretty much characteristic of the conflict so far. Once Mariupol falls and Phase 2 kicks off in full stride, the UAF will be decimated with with an unprecedented scale. But there are some dark clouds on the horizon in the form of massive NATO/U.S. arms escalations which we will expound on next time.

P.S. there are several new videos of extremely gruesome kills of Ukrainian military in the past day. Not only was a new Su-25 shot down https://www.bitchute.com/video/bnqF4lYfir4g (https://www.bitchute.com/video/bnqF4lYfir4g/) (vid without the gruesomeness) and photos of the pilot appeared which are extremely nasty, but a Russian Spetsnaz force ambushed some Ukrops near Kharkov with very disturbing results which I won’t post (if anyone is interested I can maybe show you where to find it). In short, the UAF continues to suffer very horrid losses each day.

Here’s one that’s not too bad though (still 18+):
https://www.bitchute.com/video/C1aTkj4lGtwJ (https://www.bitchute.com/video/C1aTkj4lGtwJ/)

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/AZmilitary1/status/1514704779418783749
1514704779418783749

https://twitter.com/AZmilitary1/status/1514686870655021060
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https://twitter.com/AZmilitary1/status/1514676900953735172
1514676900953735172

https://twitter.com/AZmilitary1/status/1514626095076847624
1514626095076847624

[ExomatrixTV]

The slander of this guy around the world makes me crazy. He is smart. He understands the world. He wants to help people. He is not extreme but uses common sense to solve complex problems. Why can people not see this?

1514455616143699975
source (https://twitter.com/ivan_8848/status/1514455616143699975)

[jaybee]

The slander of this guy around the world makes me crazy. He is smart. He understands the world. He wants to help people. He is not extreme but uses common sense to solve complex problems. Why can people not see this?


well said... it drives ME nuts how the leaders in the West are behaving - like thugs and gangsters and idiots while hiding behind fancy words and the image of respectability...lies and more lies every day - a never ending stream of lies - we are infiltrated up to the hilt with agenda driven wannabe dictatorial globalists - either willing participants or coerced / bribed / blackmailed ones...

they didn't / don't care how many people suffer and die because they forced/coerced them to take an experimental, dangerous injection.... and they don't care now how many people are displaced and die because THEY want to bring Russia in line with the Globalist Agenda... basically our Western political leaders are a disgrace and an embarrassment...a real danger to us all and the future of the human race...

end of mini rant...