WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

Well, that was all fun to read. (Ukraine/US/Goba vs. Donbass/Russia/Mashika :) )

I'd have happily bet everything I owned that Mashika would come out with all guns blazing. (That's a metaphor! :P )

The problem here I think is this. It's sometimes been argued that in open discussion on social media of any kind, if all views are allowed to be presented, then "good ideas get to be acknowledged by more and more people and bad ideas go away."

But that's a kind of Socratean ideal that I just don't think is true. Or, if it was true in Socrates' forum (a real one) in Athens in 400 BC, it's not true any more.

Ideas tend to get polarized and defended, because ego is at stake, inasmuch as these days people tend to associate their ego-strength and their very identity, their sense of self, with the ideas they profess, believe, and hold as true.
One has to be immensely intellectually honest to change one's mind about a strongly held opinion or belief, and that simply rarely happens.I wrote this on this thread on 24 February, the day the Special Military Operation was launched.

Quote:

---

Posted by Bill Ryan

We all need to figure out together, if we can, what's happening here. We've done it very successfully with a whole bunch of other issues that seem to bewilder quite a lot of people, so this should not be beyond us.

I'll say again: it's not about whether Putin is a bad guy or not. I'd suggest it's about

• What the Globalist/NWO/WEF agenda may be;
• What the US agenda may be;
• What Putin's agenda may be;
• What the impact may be on regular people round the world;
• How this may escalate (or not);
• Reliable news reports (and/or other information that we may not have easy access to) about what the heck is really happening in various critical places;
• And while one's view of history may depend on where one lives and what one has been exposed to or influenced by, reliable historical information may also be very helpful to us all.

Many Avalon members are watching this thread, and all day there have been many more visitor guests. They're here because they're looking for reliable news updates, good information about every aspect of this, and/or because they may be concerned. I'd like to ask everyone to please do their best to share the highest quality information (and insights) that they can. THX.

---

It was interesting for me to read that again, the first time I've done so. What I do remember writing was

We all need to figure out together, if we can, what's happening here. We've done it very successfully with a whole bunch of other issues that seem to bewilder quite a lot of people, so this should not be beyond us.

I wrote that because I felt I didn't really know much about this for sure, though (as usual) Mashika was ahead of most of us. :) So I set to work on reading, watching, and listening to everything I could find (including much information shared here).

I continue to do that, literally every day, because this whole issue (and in particular, the wider consequence for us all) is very very important, and too important for simply held ideologies to be the dominating factor.It might be interesting for some to read what I wrote on 1 June to a close friend of mine in the UK. (This was before Boris Johnson's [No] Confidence vote.)

I was pretty sure she would hold mainstream opinions, simply because that was her only real source of information, listening to the BBC every day while driving long distances in her car for work, and overhearing her husband watching Rachel Maddow when at home. (Since then, I have not had a reply, which unfortunately may possibly mean something.)

Do read it, if anyone may be interested in a fairly detailed summary of my views. But none of this will come as any surprise, and I suspect that 90+% of people reading this, members or otherwise, have already reached the same opinions.

1. I stand by everything I presented here.
2. I've not changed my conclusions since 1 June, and everything I was sure of them I'm sure of now.

~~~

It's going to be very tough in Europe later this year as the insane, suicidal, self-destructive sanctions policies against Russia really start to boomerang back and hit everyone in Europe except Russia.

Watching all this political lunacy play out is tough as well. It's the slow-motion train-wreck thing: hard to watch, but also hard to look away. One wonders if the policies of every European government except Hungary (and those of the US, too, hardly innocent in all this) are because of ignorance, unintelligence, or knowingly destructive malice. None of those three are encouraging, and there are no other possibilities.

I know you have little available time for videos, but here's the latest from Chris Martenson, a very very bright man who understands a LOT of stuff, and understands it well. You can miss all the analysis and go straight to the summary at 43:12 which runs for 8 minutes till the end. It's the kind of thing you could maybe listen to in the car. The title of the video is "Is Europe committing economic suicide?"

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0Sb-GsM2bfk

He's far from the only analyst who's talking with informed urgency about this, but he's probably the best, the most likeable and the clearest and most concise. I know the British government is starting to sound the alarm signals to the people there, but the situation is likely to be far worse than any European government feels safely able to explain — assuming that the governments understand it all, which may not even be the case.

You may know all this already! I do hope you do. :) But the summary is that the new oil sanctions against Russia won't hurt Russia one bit (they have willing buyers for everything they have to sell in China, India, and dozens of other countries). Meanwhile, wheat exports are way down (there's a serious global shortage of corn, wheat, and many other crops), and the BIG BIG BIG thing is lack of fertilizer. That means a poor harvest all over the world this year, with no end in sight.

Some countries will experience famine, riots and protests (which have already been seen in Sri Lanka, Peru and Iran), and there'll be a wave of tens of millions of hungry refugees to Europe, many more than at present. The economies of every European country will be in danger of collapse, with the US soon after.

There's good news from all this — after a fashion — which is a kind of least-worst option. The world will become a multipolar world, no longer a US-led unipolar one, and the major power bloc, both militarily and economically, will be centred around Russia/China/India, with Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Indonesia, the south-east Asian manufacturing nations, and probably many African and South American countries joining in.

That's most of the world, and North America and Europe will be marginalised and economically crippled, with immense domestic and social problems. It's hard to say what Australia, New Zealand and Japan will do.

I'm no fan of Chinese social policy, but the Russians (who are good people: don't believe a single propaganda word claimed by Rachel Maddow or the BBC!), the Indians, and all the others may be moderating influences.

And (in case you might not be aware, which you truly might not be, so I'm NOT saying this in any way aggressively) Putin is not ill, he's not crazy, he's not a tyrant, but he's a highly intelligent man of great patience who's regarded in his own country as a moderate.

The entire Russian nation is now solidly behind him as they've become more and more outraged and angered by the expressed irrational hatred of the western world against Russia, Russians, and everything Russian (even cats, trees, art exhibitions, music, and athletes). The Russians have had too much of that in their history and they wont stand for it any more. The west has burned all its bridges and there'll be little forgiveness or tolerance now in response.

Meanwhile, Zelensky, who was always a CIA-backed creation from the start, is a paid-for-and-scripted actor (literally) who is being puppet-controlled by Washington, the EU and Boris Johnson, who has blood on his hands and a LOT to answer for. (He surely can't survive long as PM, but the greater problem is that there are no credible alternative leaders in sight anywhere in the UK, from any party.)

Re Ukraine, the Russians (a) have been entirely justified in everything they set out to do — to call the the Nazi Ukrainian thugs evil, barbaric and inhuman is like a mild rebuke :) — and (b) have been overwhelmingly winning the whole military operation since Day 1.

Most if not all of the UK media reports about the conflict have either been the poorest of non-fact-checked shoddy journalism, or knowing downright lies. (Again, there are no other possibilities, and neither is good.)

What will happen is that Russia will capture Donbass, go on to claim Odessa, and eventually the west, with the citizens losing interest and becoming increasingly worried about serious domestic issues, will strongarm Zelensky in being willing to sit down and talk, which he initially wanted to do but Boris Johnson instructed him not to.

Because of that, Johnson has been the indirect cause of the violent deaths of tens of thousands of brave but hopeless and ill-equipped Ukrainian men, few of whom have a chance any more unless they disobey orders and retreat or flee, which they have been instructed not to do.

Several other things are possible now. It seems likely the Ukrainian army will collapse quite suddenly. I've heard good arguments that there may be an internal military coup against Zelensky which would be a good thing for Ukraine, as then the senior Ukrainian military commander would sit down with Putin to save the remains of his country, and Putin would respect him and listen.

I don't think the Poles will get involved, but they may do. If they do, it may be to claim some of western Ukraine for themselves, and the Russians may well just look the other way.

After the shooting stops, there's going to be little of Ukraine left as a country of its own. And it does seem like there are sane voices in the Pentagon which are making sure the thing does NOT escalate, as at one point it seemed that it could do.

The outcomes will almost certainly be:

• Russia absorbing much of south-eastern Ukraine (which will be greatly welcomed with relief by most of the people living there)
• The ruble will remain a strong, stable currency (which it has become already, to the horror of all EU/US politicians).
• There'll be new economic and military alliances formed between many of the non-EU and US countries in the world, maybe as much as 2/3 of the world's nations.
• The US and EU/UK will be isolated, weakened, and will face great hardship, social unrest, and possibly political upheaval.
• (probably) The dollar will cease being the world's reserve currency, but this might not happen till next year.

So there you have it. :) You may not hear any of that from Rachel Maddow any time soon.

Russian agitprop can be recognized easily mainly by the utterly outrageous claims they usually make. But then again, a new sucker is born every minute so I guess it works, somehow.

Much like the "we killed 50 generals with one rocket" I quoted earlier from DW (now DW has somehow retracted it but it can still be found there) someone here quoted this:


"78% of UK citizens are seriously considering emigrating to Russia"
https://en.news-front.info/2022/06/2...rer=google.com"

Pretty outrageous dont you think? well its easy to verify, if you look at the pages directly quoted here that is a Russian mouthpiece. - they however claim that the EXPRESS of London did this survey. OK, lets check, what do you get when you search EXPRESS for "emigrating to Russia" here are the relevant results:

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world...flee-abroad-vn

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world...eastern-europe

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/16...ry-ukraine-war

No amount of "liking" makes propaganda any more truthful.
This shows that many (!) here are not even willing to spend 10 minutes to verify something as outlandish as this.

As to the abysmal state of the Russian army, they are not alone, the German army looks considerably worse. But then again our ex chancellor Merkel did trust Putin - and consequently did not invest in defense. I am sure Scholz - being a lefty - would have loved to love Putin as well, but alas - he let his pants down.

this is an interesting review of German defense capability (or lack thereof):

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=CmjoDUk336U

https://twitter.com/Russ_Warrior/sta...86620230107137

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...ld-fading-away

Escobar: Exile On Main Street - The Sound Of The Unipolar World Fading Away
Authored by Pepe Escobar,

The future world order, already in progress, will be formed by strong sovereign states. The ship has sailed. There’s no turning back.



Let’s cut to the chase and roll in the Putin Top Ten of the New Era, announced by the Russian President live at the St. Petersburg forum for both the Global North and South.

The era of the unipolar world is over.

The rupture with the West is irreversible and definitive. No pressure from the West will change it.

Russia has renewed with its sovereignty. Reinforcement of political and economic sovereignty is an absolute priority.

The EU has completely lost its political sovereignty. The current crisis shows the EU is not ready to play the role of an independent, sovereign actor. It’s just en ensemble of American vassals deprived of any politico-military sovereignty.

Sovereignty cannot be partial. Either you’re a sovereign or a colony.

Hunger in the poorest nations will be on the conscience of the West and euro-democracy.

Russia will supply grains to the poorer nations in Africa and the Middle East.

Russia will invest in internal economic development and reorientation of trade towards nations independent of the U.S.

The future world order, already in progress, will be formed by strong sovereign states.

The ship has sailed. There’s no turning back.

How does it feel, for the collective West, to be caught in such a crossfire hurricane? Well, it gets more devastating when we add to the new roadmap the latest on the energy front.

Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, in St. Petersburg, stressed that the global economic crisis is gaining momentum not because of sanctions, but exacerbated by them; Europe “commits energy suicide” by sanctioning Russia; sanctions against Russia have done away with the much lauded “green transition”, as that is no longer needed to manipulate markets; and Russia, with its vast energy potential, “is the Noah’s Ark of the world economy.”

For his part Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller could not be more scathing on the sharp decline in the gas flow to the EU due to Siemens’ refusal and/or incapacity to repair the Nord Stream 1 pumping engine: “Well, of course, Gazprom was forced to reduce the volume of gas supplies to Europe by 20%+. But you know, prices have increased not by 20%+, but by several times! Therefore, I’m sorry if I say that we don’t feel offended by anyone, we are not particularly concerned by this situation.”

If this pain dial overdrive was not enough to hurl the collective West – or NATOstan – into Terminal Hysteria, then Putin’s sharp comment on possibly allowing Mr. Sarmat to present his business card to “decision-making centers in Kiev”, those that are ordering the current shelling and killing of civilians in Donetsk, definitely did the trick:

“As for the red lines, let me keep them to myself, because this will mean quite tough actions on the decision-making centers. But this is an area that shouldn’t be disclosed to people outside the military-political leadership of the country. Those who deserve appropriate actions on our part should draw a conclusion for themselves – what they may face if they cross the line.”

Baby please, stop breaking down

Alastair Crooke has masterfully outlined how the collective West’s zugzwang leaves it lumbering around, dazed and confused. Now let’s examine the state of play on the opposite side of the chessboard, focusing on the BRICS summit this Thursday in Beijing.

As much as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) and ASEAN, now it’s time for a reinvigorated BRICS to step up its game. In conjunction, these are the key organizations/instruments that will be carving the pathways towards the post-unipolar era.

Both China and India (which between them were the largest economies in the world for centuries before the brief Western colonial interregnum) are already close and getting closer to “the Noah’s Ark of the world economy”.

The G20 – hostages of the Michael Hudson-defined FIRE scam that is the core of the financialized neoliberal casino – is slowly fading away, while a potential new G8 ramps up: and that is directly connected to BRICS expansion, one of the key themes of this week’s summit. An expanded BRICS with a parallel G8 configuration is bound to easily overtake the Western-centric one in importance as well as GDP by purchasing power parity (PPP).

BRICS in 2021 already added Bangladesh, Egypt, the UAE and Uruguay to its New Development Bank (NDB). In May, at Foreign Ministry-level debates, Argentina, Egypt, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Senegal and Thailand were added to the 5 BRICS members. Leaders of some of these nations will be connected to the Beijing summit.

BRICS plays a completely different game from the G20. They aim for the grassroots, and it’s all about slowly “building trust” – a very Chinese concept. They are creating an independent Credit Rating Agency – away from the Anglo-American racket – and deepening a Currency Reserves Arrangement. The NDB – including its regional offices in India and South Africa – has been involved in hundreds of projects. Time will tell: one day the NDB will make the World Bank superfluous.

Comparisons between BRICS and the Quad, a U.S. concoction, are silly. Quad is just another crude mechanism to contain China. Yet there’s no question India treads on tightrope walker territory, as it’s a member of both BRICS and Quad, and made a vastly misguided decision to walk out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) – the largest free trade deal on the planet – opting instead to adhere to the American pie-in-the-sky Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF).

Yet India, long term, skillfully guided by Russia, is being steered to find essential common ground with China in several key issues.

BRICS, especially in its expanded BRICS+ version, is bound to increase cooperation on building truly stable supply chains, and a settlement mechanism for resources and raw material trade, which inevitably has to be based in local currencies. Then the path will be open for the Holy Grail: a BRICS payment system as a credible alternative to the weaponized U.S. dollar and SWIFT.

Meanwhile, a torrent of bilateral investments from both China and India in the manufacturing and services sector around their neighbors is bound to lift up smaller players in both Southeast Asia and South Asia: think Cambodia and Bangladesh as important cogs in a vast supply wheel.

Yaroslav Lissovolik had already proposed a BEAMS concept as the core of this BRICS integration drive, uniting “the key regional integration initiatives of BRICS economies such as BIMSTEC, EAEU, the ASEAN-China free trade agreement, Mercosur and SADC/SACU.”

It’s only (BRICS) rock’n roll

Now Beijing seems eager to promote “an inclusive format for dialogue spanning all the main regions of the Global South via aggregating the regional integration platforms in Eurasia, Africa and Latin America. Going forward this format may be further expanded to include other regional integration blocks from Eurasia, such as the GCC, EAEU and others.”

Lissovolik notes how the ideal path from now on should be “the greater inclusivity of BRICS via the BRICS+ framework that allows smaller economies that are the regional partners of BRICS to have a say in the new global governance framework.”

Before he addressed the St. Petersburg forum on video, President Xi called Putin personally to say, among other things, that he’s got China’s back on all “sovereignty and security” themes. They also, inevitably, discussed the relevance of BRICS as a key platform towards the multipolar world.

Meanwhile, the collective West plunges deeper into the maelstrom. A massive national demonstration of trade unions this past Monday paralyzed Brussels – the capital of the EU and NATO – as 80,000 people expressed their anger at the rising and rising cost of living; called for elites to “spend money on salaries, not on weapons”; and yelled in unison “Stop NATO.”

It’s zugzwang all over again. The EU’s “direct losses”, as Putin stressed, provoked by the sanctions hysteria, “could exceed $400 billion a year”. Russia’s energy earnings have hit record levels. The ruble is at a 7-year high against the euro.

It’s a blast that arguably the most powerful cultural artifact of the entire Cold War – and Western supremacy – era, the perennial Rolling Stones, is currently on tour across a “caught in a crossfire hurricane” EU. On every show they play, for the first time live, one of their early classics: ‘Out of Time’.

Sounds much like a requiem. So let’s all sing, “Baby baby baby / you’re out of time”, as one Vladimir “it’s a gas, gas, gas” Putin and his sidekick Dmitry “Under My Thumb” Medvedev seem to be the guys really getting their rocks off. It’s only (BRICS) rock’n roll, but we like it.

https://korybko.substack.com/p/lavro...west-is-scared

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/...a_800x600.jpeg

Lavrov’s Right: The West Is Scared Of Countries That Defend Their Sovereignty

The more that the Western elites “cancel” Russia, the more intrigued their people become about it as proven by Microsoft’s latest report confirming that its international media platforms reach more Americans nowadays than before the special operation and subsequent censorship began.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said on Friday in an interview with Belarusian media that “The West is scared of an honest competition, this is widely known. This is why they ‘cancel’ the culture of any country speaking from its own nationally oriented positions, prohibit TV channels from broadcasting, ban unwanted politicians on social networks and remove from the public space everything that disagrees with the neo-liberal concept of the world order.” His insight is sound since it’s indeed the case that the West is scared of countries that defend their sovereignty.

The New Cold War that’s being waged over the direction of the global systemic transition to multipolarity has catalyzed what can be described as “The Great Bifurcation” that’s unfolding over three levels: the systemic one between the Golden Billion vs. the Global South; the ideological one between the first-mentioned’s unipolar liberal-globalists (ULGs) and the second’s multipolar conservative-sovereigntists (MCS); and the tactical level between the establishment and populists. The Golden Billion’s ULGs fear the Global South’s MCS because the latter are genuinely popular.

For that reason, they’re resorting to information warfare to discredit their opponents’ governments and thus manipulate their people into thinking that they’re out of touch with the population. This modus operandi is being done in parallel with the artificially manufactured food crisis in order to catalyze regime change processes across the Global South, all because the ULGs truly fear the popular MCS governments in that part of the world. Russia’s the poster child of this emerging Hybrid War scheme but it certainly won’t be the last victim, which is why its partners must brace themselves for what’s to come.

Apart from the economic restrictions that have been unilaterally imposed on Russia following its ongoing special military operation in Ukraine and the unprecedentedly intense information warfare that followed, the Eurasian Great Power is also being “canceled” by the Golden Billion exactly as Lavrov said. This doesn’t harm Russia in any way whatsoever but is being done for purely domestic political reasons related to the Western elite’s fear of that country’s sovereign example inspiring a populist uprising against them.

After all, President Putin predicted in his speech at this month’s Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) that the West will see an upsurge of populism that’ll result in so-called “elite change”. The more that they “cancel” Russia, the more intrigued their people become about it as proven by Microsoft’s latest report confirming that its international media platforms reach more Americans nowadays than before the special operation and subsequent censorship began. This means that Western elites have more of a reason than ever to fear Russia’s sovereign example to their people.

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/GonzaloLira1968/...97134871908352

https://twitter.com/GonzaloLira1968/...35409321562114

https://twitter.com/GonzaloLira1968/...35430196645889

https://twitter.com/GonzaloLira1968/...35434738974721

Alternatively the outcomes will possibly be:

- Russia will have to deal with severe economic problems - price hikes and possible revolts in some of the states that make up the Russian Federation.
- The Ruble, artificially kept at a high exchange rate towards the dollar, will reduce the state income severely because a strong currency only helps IMPORTS not EXPORTS. But Russia only exports stuff that is paid in Dollar (yes, they say they want Ruble but they are not getting any - instead a trick is used which ultimately exchanges Dollar for Ruble - but inside a Russian bank so the loss is the same)
- the dollar will still be the exchange currency for most commodities. Its demise has been predicted since the early 2000 but somehow it always comes out on top.
- meanwhile Russians wont be able to fly anywhere soon for lack of spares for the planes they highjacked. Forget about the Russia made Planes, the new ones dont have avionics nor turbines and the old ones are, well, old, and few.
- Oil exports to EU will seize around 2023 and come hell or high water there will be a sharp reduction in usage of Russian gas. How that happens I don't know but I guess German engineering will come up with a solution, or French, or British, or any of the other countries who do not want to be dependent on Russia anymore. Will India buy more? certainly, at a discount, and MUCH less in volume. The world at large is moving away from Fossil fuel. Time works against Russia, even without the war. And once the salt reactor problems are solved (I heard the Chinese did it) nuclear is safe and on the table again.
- Meanwhile the russian conventional army is reduced A LOT, not just by losses in Ukraine but also by the now evident obvious risk to join the army as a laid back job. One can actually get killed! Modern weaponry is all but impossible to produce as it is dependent on western supplies. Russia cant even make a mobile phone much less a precision guided shell like the tripple 7 one shot. Their cars now have no airbags and no ABS. Due to dashcams we will see the results soon enough. (Those dashcams are not only there for insurance reasons but also to keep the police from cashing in on stuff they made up).
- the extreme result may be (and that would depend on the amount of help Ukraine gets plus their willingness to keep fighting): Russian disintegrates and some parts get gobbled up by china and others declare independence. Not a nice prospect considering the nuclear stuff laying around everywhere.

we will know soon enough. Lets talk in June - next Year.

Quote:

---

Posted by Goba

Russian agitprop can be recognized easily mainly by the utterly outrageous claims they usually make. But then again, a new sucker is born every minute so I guess it works, somehow.

Much like the "we killed 50 generals with one rocket"

---

But you see, that's not correct either. The number of generals might only have been 2 or 3. That's been misunderstood or misrepresented by quite a few.

Here's the source statement:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...trip=1&vwsrc=0

[extract, an exact quote if you can't access the original, but with my added emphasis]

The attack has resulted in eliminating more than 50 generals and officers of the AFU, including those of the General Staff, the Kakhovka group, airborne assault troops and units that operate towards Nikolayev and Zaporozhye.

You have to get your facts right. That's important in these discussions. The Russian MoD often omits things, but what it does say is always accurate. They can't afford to make false claims, as they're under too much western scrutiny.

Quote:

---

Posted by Goba

we will know soon enough. Lets talk in June - next Year.

---

Yes! :) Maybe that's one thing we can all agree on. As I wrote yesterday:

In the end, the truth will have its way.

https://twitter.com/jaccocharite/sta...96137413410816

https://twitter.com/RWApodcast/statu...72289464877057

https://twitter.com/AZmilitary1/stat...76063096971264

https://twitter.com/Levi_godman/stat...68102584803329

https://twitter.com/Cyberspec1/statu...14386440724480

https://twitter.com/zerohedge/status...37364172652545

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...-single-strike

Zelensky Says Russian Attacks To Intensify During EU Summit As Moscow Claims Kalibr Strike Killed '50 Officers & Generals'
Earlier this month Ukrainian officials already described a more intensified Russian bombardment of its forces in the Donbas - which they stressed is more so that at any prior point in the war - but President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is now predicting that Russia will escalate its attacks even more this week in connection to the much anticipated European Union summit.

Last Friday the European Commission recommended Ukraine for EU candidate status, which will be the focus of discussion among the 27-nation bloc's leaders at their scheduled summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday. "Obviously, this week we should expect from Russia an intensification of its hostile activities," Zelenskiy said Monday in a video address. "We are preparing. We are ready."

Ukrainian military drone monitoring station, via EUObserver

Indeed there are signs the fight is intensifying, as it's widely believed Russian troops are on the cusp of gaining total control of the large Luhansk city of Sievierodonetsk - scene of heavy, weekslong fighting - which would solidify Russia's hold over the whole of the province, after which it's expected to mount another attack on Ukraine's second largest nearby city, Kharkiv. Ukraine officials have begun sounding a dour tone related to the fight for Sievierodonetsk as the reality of overwhelming Russian troop numbers and sustained artillery capability become evident.

Zelensky and his top officials have been ramping up their call for urgent, heavier arms if they hope to stall the Kremlin advance over all of Donbas. The EU summit for end of this week is expected to answer that call, with officials stressing they will be "unwavering" in authorizing more arms, according to a draft memo seen by the EU Observer:

"The European Union is unwavering in its dedication to assist Ukraine train its inherent proper of self-defense towards Russian aggression," it additionally says.

EU states have to date pumped in €2bn of weapons into Ukraine from a joint fund, and rather more in bilateral phrases — regardless of Russian concentrating on of Western arms convoys and complaints a couple of "proxy battle".

Also high on the agenda will be the wheat blockade crisis which has been enduring for months, threatening to unleash famine in North African/Middle East regions which are most heavily dependent on Ukraine grain exports.

According Sunday reporting in Deutsche Welle:

EU foreign ministers will discuss ways to free a huge cache of grain stuck in Ukraine due to Russia's Black Sea port blockade at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday.

More than 20 million tons have been trapped in silos since Russia invaded the country in February.

Brussels says it supports a United Nations effort to resume Ukraine's sea exports in return for facilitating Russian food and fertilizer exports.

Meanwhile, there are signs from the Russian side that its military is ramping up heavier bombardments of Ukrainian command and control centers, with the defense ministry (MoD) on Sunday claiming a major direct hit on a command target, killing "dozens" of officers - though the statement couldn't be verified.

Russian officials said Monday that Ukraine has attacked Russian Black sea oil drilling platforms:



Russian state sources asserted that "Russian warships have destroyed a Ukrainian command center with Kalibr cruise missiles, killing dozens officers, Moscow's Defense Ministry reported on Sunday."

"More than 50 generals and officers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were killed," the official MoD statement said, detailing that it took place near the Shirokaya Dacha in Dnepropetrovsk Region, allegedly striking a compound that was being used as a meeting of trop brass from multiple Ukrainian army units.

Prior footage of Kalibr cruise missile launches...



The ministry additionally detailed that "Kalibr missiles were also used to destroy 10 M777 howitzers and up to 20 armored vehicles that were recently delivered from the West, and had been stored inside a factory building in the southern city of Nikolayev," according to the readout in state media.

I wrote in my long post just above:

Quote:

---

Posted by Bill Ryan

1. I stand by everything I presented here.
2. I've not changed my conclusions since 1 June, and everything I was sure of them I'm sure of now.

---

I'm thinking I might say a little more.

• I don't have a crystal ball.
• There's much that none of us know. (As Alexander Mercouris often says, "The Russian MoD doesn't share its plans with me.")

But besides what I feel confident will be outcomes, I can share what I would be happy, and also not happy, to see as outcomes.

That might give any reader an idea of what I'm rooting for. (Not WHO I'm rooting for. But WHAT.)

I'd be happy to see:

• The disintegration and demise of the EU. (And NATO too, but that's far less likely.)
• The decline of the US as a largely criminal, global bully.
• The fall from power of all European and American politicians and advisers who are trying to escalate this conflict.
• The fall from grace of Zelensky and all his cohorts.
• The exposure of all US covert activity (financial and biological) in Ukraine.
• The establishment of a "Fair World Order". (I'm using that term as shorthand as it's often been used by others.)

I'm not happy to see:

• Innocent people suffering or dying.
• Germany (or any other European country) losing its industrial base.
• Famine, food shortages, and/or worse, anywhere in the world.
• Corruption and despotism anywhere being rewarded in any way.
• Any kind of escalation of the conflict.

https://twitter.com/ProdanIonel1/sta...22928026996736

https://www.dw.com/en/russia-claims-...witter-sharing

Russia claims Ukrainian generals killed in missile strike — as it happened
Russian officials claim dozens of Ukrainian officers, including generals and members of Ukraine's high command, were killed in a missile strike. NATO chief Stoltenberg said the war "could take years." DW has the latest.

Pictured in this video grab is the March 2022 launch of Kalibr cruise missiles by a Russian Navy guided missile corvette in the Black Sea during a high-precision strike on Ukrainian military facilities located in the Zhitmomir Region. Image taken from Russian Defense Ministry video.
Western leaders prepare for long war
Luhansk governor demands more long-range weapons
G7 will support Ukraine 'for as long as necessary,' says Scholz
Russia's Defense Ministry claims senior Ukrainian officers eliminated in missile strike

Quote:

---

Posted by Goba

Russian agitprop can be recognized easily mainly by the utterly outrageous claims they usually make. But then again, a new sucker is born every minute so I guess it works, somehow.

Much like the "we killed 50 generals with one rocket" I quoted earlier from DW (now DW has somehow retracted it but it can still be found there) someone here quoted this:


"78% of UK citizens are seriously considering emigrating to Russia"
https://en.news-front.info/2022/06/2...rer=google.com"

Pretty outrageous dont you think? well its easy to verify, if you look at the pages directly quoted here that is a Russian mouthpiece. - they however claim that the EXPRESS of London did this survey. OK, lets check, what do you get when you search EXPRESS for "emigrating to Russia" here are the relevant results:

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world...flee-abroad-vn

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world...eastern-europe

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/16...ry-ukraine-war

No amount of "liking" makes propaganda any more truthful.
This shows that many (!) here are not even willing to spend 10 minutes to verify something as outlandish as this.

---

It is almost as if you live in some alternative reality, you did not even bothered to post the original link correctly

That was a sample of how fake news are distributed, and you fell for the kind of thing that says "This is fake news but i will use it to attack 'the enemy' because i don't care, i'll just use it even if i know this did not came from a serious/valid source"

In your effort to discredit, you discredit yourself, you are being played badly dude and you just lost it by now :) lol

A person can be a victim of propaganda at several levels, at this point, when a person uses fake news to attack the enemy, they are, in the very end, attacking their own intellect and mind

Never allow yourself to become irrational out of pure hate driven by old obsolete ideologies , you lose yourself to other people's agendas and wills and become a tool and a bot in the zombie army

Quote:

---

As to the abysmal state of the Russian army, they are not alone, the German army looks considerably worse. But then again our ex chancellor Merkel did trust Putin - and consequently did not invest in defense. I am sure Scholz - being a lefty - would have loved to love Putin as well, but alas - he let his pants down.

this is an interesting review of German defense capability (or lack thereof):

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=CmjoDUk336U

---

"As to the abysmal state of the Russian army"

I bet you could not describe what that 'state' is, with evidence or anything but talking points once again

Care to elaborate so that we are educated about what that truly means? As in numbers? stats, facts?

I'll wait peacefully for it not to happen once again :)

• Eu, Ukraine And Moldova; Rearranging Deck Chairs On The Titanic:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_Fn4vNYNRzA

https://yt3.ggpht.com/kJ9IEExbbxFmC2...00ffffff-no-rj

• Ula Myson quote:
  

"I'm an ordinary Russian teacher and I don't do politics. However, finding The Duran was like the breath of fresh air. I found myself literally crying! Thank you, gentlemen, for content-aware analysis, deep insight into international affairs and your open-mindedness". :pray:

Quote:

---

Posted by Bill Ryan

I wrote in my long post just above:

Quote:

---

Posted by Bill Ryan

1. I stand by everything I presented here.
2. I've not changed my conclusions since 1 June, and everything I was sure of them I'm sure of now.

---

I'm thinking I might say a little more.

• I don't have a crystal ball.
• There's much that none of us know. (As Alexander Mercouris often says, "The Russian MoD doesn't share its plans with me.")

But besides what I feel confident will be outcomes, I can share what I would be happy, and also not happy, to see as outcomes.

That might give any reader an idea of what I'm rooting for. (Not WHO I'm rooting for. But WHAT.)

I'd be happy to see:

• The disintegration and demise of the EU. (And NATO too, but that's far less likely.)
• The decline of the US as a largely criminal, global bully.
• The fall from power of all European and American politicians and advisers who are trying to escalate this conflict.
• The fall from grace of Zelensky and all his cohorts.
• The exposure of all US covert activity (financial and biological) in Ukraine.
• The establishment of a "Fair World Order". (I'm using that term as shorthand as it's often been used by others.)

I'm not happy to see:

• Innocent people suffering or dying.
• Germany (or any other European country) losing its industrial base.
• Famine, food shortages, and/or worse, anywhere in the world.
• Corruption and despotism anywhere being rewarded in any way.
• Any kind of escalation of the conflict.

---

A friend sent me this article from 2017 or so, i have to think about it, but comparing it to now, it looks odd for sure :)
"5 Reasons Why America Will Not Collapse Like the Roman Empire"
https://bigthink.com/the-present/5-r...-roman-empire/

Quote:

---

The exposure of all US covert activity (financial and biological) in Ukraine

---

When the USSR fell, a lot of stuff was going on in Ukraine and in other places, but no one knew about it and it was suppressed from the world, i suppose if the US were to fall, the same thing would happen, other countries would hide that stuff away for their own purposes and gains. We'll never know the full truth since once the US falls everyone will scavenge all they can and lie about it so they get an advantage over every other country

Alina Lipp

She is aware that Germany considers anyone that supports the Russian special operation in Ukraine as committing a criminal act.
She explains the documents she has received from the German authorities notifying her that a criminal case has been opened against her and why specifically for a telegram post from February 24 as well as for a video she published on March 12.

However she is told she cannot be present at the hearing because it would disturb the prosecution.

The court document has the letter “Z” printed at the top and the letter “Z” is forbidden in Germany.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=J8Dsd1HiuE0

Mountains of corn burned by UAF

https://twitter.com/TaranQ/status/1539697247998431232

https://twitter.com/ChannelOne_eng/s...96965420535810

https://twitter.com/TaranQ/status/1539484147659554816

Quote:

---

Posted by ExomatrixTV

• EU, Ukraine And Moldova; Rearranging Deck Chairs On The Titanic:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_Fn4vNYNRzA

https://yt3.ggpht.com/kJ9IEExbbxFmC2...00ffffff-no-rj

• Ula Myson quote:
  

"I'm an ordinary Russian teacher and I don't do politics. However, finding The Duran was like the breath of fresh air. I found myself literally crying! Thank you, gentlemen, for content-aware analysis, deep insight into international affairs and your open-mindedness". :pray:

---

It's part of my schedule to be sure I listen to The Duran every day. Alex Christoforou doesn't actually do or say very much, but Alexander Mercouris knows more than almost anyone else I'm aware of concerning the very wide-spectrum combo of law, history, economics and geopolitics (as well as many aspects of traditional music and culture).

His very British style may be an acquired taste for some (it actually was even for me), but now I take note of his every word, and inflection, and caveat, and very carefully constructed sentence. He continually takes me by surprise with his evident depth of knowledge, and not that many people do that. He has his own channel here, which I also follow daily, just as valuable a source of analysis as The Duran.

Quote:

---

Posted by Bill Ryan

Quote:

---

Posted by ExomatrixTV

• EU, Ukraine And Moldova; Rearranging Deck Chairs On The Titanic:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_Fn4vNYNRzA

https://yt3.ggpht.com/kJ9IEExbbxFmC2...00ffffff-no-rj

• Ula Myson quote:
  

"I'm an ordinary Russian teacher and I don't do politics. However, finding The Duran was like the breath of fresh air. I found myself literally crying! Thank you, gentlemen, for content-aware analysis, deep insight into international affairs and your open-mindedness". :pray:

---

It's part of my schedule to be sure I listen to The Duran every day. Alex Christoforou doesn't actually do or say very much, but Alexander Mercouris knows more than almost anyone else I'm aware of concerning the very wide-spectrum combo of law, history, economics and geopolitics (as well as many aspects of traditional music and culture).

His very British style may be an acquired taste for some (it actually was even for me), but now I take note of his every word, and inflection, and caveat, and very carefully constructed sentence. He continually takes me by surprise with his evident depth of knowledge, and not that many people do that. He has his own channel here, which I also follow daily, just as valuable a source of analysis as The Duran.

---

I found that the way he 'pronunciates' words helps me a lot to understand what he's saying, as opposed to the more 'fluid' usual way of talking, marking the words the way he does helps a lot when you are not native english speaker :)

And yes he's amazingly aware of what's going on, i wonder how much time he spends reading and watching about what's going on, does he even have a day job? He's always on top of things, it requires lots of energy to be able to do that :)

Quote:

---

Posted by Mashika

Quote:

---

Posted by Bill Ryan

Alexander Mercouris

---

And yes he's amazingly aware of what's going on, i wonder how much time he spends reading and watching about what's going on, does he even have a day job? He's always on top of things, it requires lots of energy to be able to do that :)

---

Yes, he has paid-for subscriptions to the Financial Times, The Times, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph (all from the UK) and The Washington Post and the New York Times in the US, as well as many other journals, blogs, periodicals and substacks which he reads every day.

The only other alt media commentator that does anything like that is Richard Dolan, who carefully reads the mainstream media every morning as he feels (maybe correctly) that he needs to keep up to date with what "regular" people are being fed and persuaded to believe all the time.

Quote:

---

Posted by Mashika

I found that the way he 'pronunciates' words helps me a lot to understand what he's saying, as opposed to the more 'fluid' usual way of talking, marking the words the way he does helps a lot when you are not native english speaker :)

---

I do the same — to some degree! It's an English public school thing. (Translation: English "Public Schools" are actually quite expensive and exclusive private schools. :) )

Being an imbecile has never been the way to show education, or awareness, or anything at all but displaying to the full world that you are an uneducated arrogant imbecile

This is one way to awake the monster, to the detriment of the imbecile :P

https://www.youtube.com/post/Ugkxisl...Iyz5-eqvYkh4YH

Quote:

---

Sorry, this has been bugging me. At 10:13 Sergey Lavrov asked Steve Rosenberg a fair question; "What do you call what happened in 2014 in Ukraine? In Russia, we call it a coup"
To which the BBC journalist replies "I'm the one asking the questions"

Arrogant. Rude. Insulting.
A perfect example of the behaviour, attitude and hypocrisy of the collective West.

To paraphrase the supremely masterful Mr Lavrov "You want to bring Russia to it's knees? Try it".

---

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=hjWkfCSF52g

It's also very telling that at second :10 they show Ukraine hitting a building and that the western media and Ukraine claimed it was Russia, only to later be found out that it was Ukraine using an air defense missile they could not shoot properly because they lacked training. But here they still show it as some kind of 'Russian' attack, deplorable... :)

Garbage channel, garbage interviewer, garbage is all i can see, lies and more lies, manipulation and shameless lies. It's rotten to the very core

A few days ago another video got posted that showed the result of Ukraine's shelling of a market in Donetsk, and the video conveniently left out that part, it made it look like it was a Russian attack :)

Updated map of the current Donbass situation :P

https://t.me/DonbassDevushka/12218