WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

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https://twitter.com/narrative_hole/s...34585874587658

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https://twitter.com/WorldWarNow_/sta...57753742151681

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Ukraine's Donbass defense system collapsing. (36 minute update)

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=HolYxZ6s4tY

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https://twitter.com/TobiAyodele/stat...67101357920256

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In English,

“They really need more help”…….”they’re fighting for our freedom”…

https://twitter.com/rybar_en/status/1612880057952833551

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https://twitter.com/colonelhomsi/sta...88058126340098

https://twitter.com/imetatronink/sta...94657318629376

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https://twitter.com/defnotfsb/status...29760463437824

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https://twitter.com/squatsons/status...84792562880539

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Russia Presses Ukraine in Soledar, Bakhmut, Ukraine Mulls Retreat; Patrushev Says Russia Fights West

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=1DMYp1MoPZE

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https://twitter.com/MaimunkaNews/sta...81942126465024

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https://twitter.com/miladvisor/statu...99316334485504

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https://twitter.com/Judgenap/status/1612924801668243456

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=q46eEGWekRQ

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https://twitter.com/Levi_godman/stat...22148506554372

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https://twitter.com/mdfzeh/status/1612923178740858887

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https://twitter.com/200_zoka/status/1612943219427315718

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https://twitter.com/GeromanAT/status...44643854843904

[Bill Ryan]

Light relief:

https://t.me/CyberspecNews/15993



But this is the sobering truth. (A battalion is anything between 300 and 1000 soldiers, so 14 Ukrainian battalions lost = probably 5,000—10,000 men.)

There are hundreds of Telegram posts now confirming this.

https://t.me/intelslava/43282

[Tintin]

A Saker update on the situation around Soledar from January 10th (yesterday)

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The Ukraine loses Soledar and Artemovsk


January 10, 2023

Source: The Saker

Having abandoned the Christmas truce, Kiev received painful breakthroughs in the defense line in the Donbass. The Russian Armed Forces have achieved decisive success in Soledar and Artemovsk-important strategic points that the Ukrainian command is trying to hold at any cost, including for political reasons.

As of January 9, fighting is already underway in the center of Soledar and in the area of five-story buildings in the north-east of the city. Two railway stations, a number of salt mines, and residential buildings in the south and southeast along Oktyabrskaya Street have come under the control of the Russian Armed Forces. The village of Bakhmutskoye in the south-west of Soledar has also been cleared. Units advancing from the east, from the village of Yakovlevka, went to the area behind the Transfiguration Church, and assault detachments – to Yurchina Gora, cutting the section of the highway to Blagodatnoye, that is, stopping the supply of the group in the strategically important Seversk.

According to the newspaper VZGLYAD, by midday fierce battles began for the building of the Soledar administration and for the neighboring House of Culture, in other words, for the city center. Satellite images show a large fire near the central square. The defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has become fragmented, it no longer has a single management and is divided into separate groups.

The day before, the withdrawal of the 128th separate mountain Assault brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine began, which quickly turned into a flight. The 61st Separate Mechanized Brigade also began to leave its positions, despite attempts to urgently strengthen it with reserve battalions. As a result, it abandoned its positions, which led to the flight of the 10th mountain assault brigade, as well as the 17th tank brigade-it was the last operational reserve that was supposed to hold Soledar and plug holes in the defense.

However, ideologically motivated units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including the special forces “Karpaty” and separate units of mountain assault brigades, tried to hold observation posts in five-story buildings on Karpinski Street, so it was premature to talk about the occupation of Soledar. But on Monday, Ukrainian units (or rather, their remnants) retreated to the north-west of the city in the area of “Artemsoli” and the railway station “Sol”.

Theoretically, this can be called the third line of defense, which boils down to an attempt to stay on the outskirts until the reinforcements announced by Zelensky appear (it is assumed that we are talking about newly formed “numbered” brigades from those mobilized in the Chernihiv region, which have been undergoing combat coordination at the Goncharovsky training ground for the last month).

The second task of the AFU remnants in the city is to prevent Russian troops from quickly reaching the north of Soledar and cutting the road to Seversk. In fact, it has already failed, since the intersection of the road to Seversk (the corner of Oktyabrskaya and Pionerskaya streets) has already been put under fire control by the Russian Armed Forces.

The situation also changed dramatically near Artemovsk (in the Ukrainian manner – Bakhmut). By the morning of January 9, units of the Russian Armed Forces had dislodged the combined detachments of the 60th and 17th Separate Mechanized brigade from the village of Podgorodne, which opened up the possibility of encircling Artemovsk from the north. In the south and south-east of the city, the destruction of fortified areas in the villages of Opytne and Kleshcheyevka and the cleaning of the territory around the gypsum factory (KNAUF) on Patrice Lumumba Street took place.

The AFU constantly transferred reinforcements from the reserves of the 60th Separate mechanized brigade, as well as two armored groups of the 28th mechanized brigade, separate special forces companies and teroborona to Artemovsk. Presumably, the nearest reserve of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be the 58th ompbr and 93rd ombr from the same Chernihiv region. A couple of numbered brigades, which are being hastily transferred from the Zaporozhye direction to Bakhmut, will not have time to go there.

The main form of defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Soledar and Artemovsk was indiscriminate shelling by the artillery division of the 60th Separate Mechanized brigade and the 17th tank Brigade, which are located outside the contact combat zone. Five Su-25s and two MiG-29s were also connected from the Mirgorod airfield.

The comical fortifications built on the central streets of Soledar in the form of traditional anti-tank shafts made of welded rails turned out to be of no use to anyone.

According to some data, the active transfer of AFU reserves near Soledar and Artemovsk will be able to begin no earlier than January 20. Consequently, they will hold a new line of defense, west of the broken Artemovsk – Soledar – Seversk system.

In the middle of the day on January 9, reports began to arrive that assault detachments began clearing Opytne south of Artemovsk and entered the villages of Krasnaya Gora and Paraskoviyevka. The last two are small, even by local standards, settlements along the railway, but they are tactically important positions, as they close the encirclement of Artemovsk from the north, cutting off the local Ukrainian garrison from Soledar. When this success is consolidated, the entire area between Artemovsk and Soledar will come under the control of the Russian Armed Forces.

The clearing of small villages south and southwest of Artemovsk threatens the supply of the local garrison. The new line of defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be built, as in Soledar, along the western outskirts of the city, and then along the settlement of Chasov Yar, which over the past few months has been turned by the Armed Forces of Ukraine into the main stronghold of the entire Ukrainian group, as well as into a distribution point for incoming reserves.

Chasov Yar is a good position, historically located in this town are quarries of refractory clay (the factories themselves have not been working for a long time, but they are a convenient “promka”for defense). In addition, the Seversky Donets – Donbass canal flows right in front of Chasoviy Yar, which even in cold weather (on Monday in the Donbass minus 12-15 Celsius) is a defensive position.

The loss of the entire Artemovsk – Soledar – Seversk defensive line threatens the Ukrainian Armed Forces with far-reaching consequences.

First, the pressure on Kremennaya and Lysychansk will stop, and the entire flank of the Ukrainian front will sag in this direction.

Secondly, the creation of a new line of defense (approximately around Chasova Yar) will require special efforts from Kiev. Already, about six numbered brigades that made up the garrisons of Artemovsk and Soledar have been almost destroyed, and they need to be rotated and re-equipped with new recruits.

In recent weeks, these garrisons have been maintained at the expense of “veteran” units, including mountain assault units, highly motivated “svidomykh” and special forces. The new numbered brigades, made up entirely of ideologized sergeants and veteran officers mobilized with a small participation, show poor effectiveness.

At the moment, the line of defense of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is broken, and the Ukrainian command will not be able to return the situation back. However, it is still too early to talk about the full occupation of Artemovsk – Kiev will hold this locality until the last one for ideological reasons.

Even now, its further defense is meaningless, but there are no signs of withdrawal of the AFU units from the city. Moreover, there is evidence that in the center of Artemovsk, fortified areas are being created on the model of Soledar, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to insist on strengthening the grouping in the city, including at the expense of units from the southern direction.

On the other hand, there are reports that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are increasing their presence in Ugledar, which may also mean preparations for a counteroffensive in the southern direction. So far, the pace of the Russian Armed Forces ‘ advance in Soledar and around Artemovsk is quite high, but unpleasant surprises are still possible.

[Tintin]

Ukraine Arms Trafficking: The Waltz of Bloody Clowns
Source: 21st Century Wire
Published January 2nd 2023
Author: Arnaud Develay

Ukraine has a long and sordid history in the illegal arms trade, and the recent proxy war between NATO and Russia has turned what used to be an obscured black market into a major international weapons enterprise – financed and supplied with western public money.



Arms trafficking by Ukrainian gangs has made it possible to diversify stocks placed on the market at unbeatable prices in the countries of the European Union.

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Through an unprecedented outpouring of solidarity (especially with regard to the management of the health crisis), Europe has sent massive arms to Ukraine. Weapons that will undoubtedly end up killing Pierre, Jacques, Anne, even you or me.

This is the boomerang effect already seen through the ridiculous imposition of “sanctions trains”: before releasing 100 million euros to equip the Ukrainian armed forces, it is hard to believe that French President Emmanuel Macron did not understand the risk that its weapons will be used to equip entities that do not care about France’s interests in protecting its own population. (1)

Since last March, the NATO and G7 countries have been massively feeding President Zelensky and his clique with weapons of all kinds. (2)

The hunger of Kiev’s bloody clown is never satisfied, however.

In doing so, many of these weapons also end up in the hands of various terrorist groups around the world, including in Africa, fueling political instability there. (3)

The director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power, indicated that Ukraine spends “the staggering amount of six billion dollars each month” on the war, this sum being provided to Zelensky by his Western ‘partners.’ (4)

These are hundreds of thousands of pistols, assault rifles, submachine guns and grenades, and hundreds of millions of cartridges of various calibers exported to Ukraine over the past eight months. Even NATO-supported Kosovo Albanians have not benefited from such largess.

Based on multiple western mainstream media reports, it can be argued that all deliveries to Ukraine are controlled by arms barons, be they Ukrainian criminal syndicates linked to Kiev oligarchs and politicians, as well as international crime. This is in no way Russian contraband. The operation is completely under Ukrainian control. Although the Finnish authorities have already raised this threat, Helsinki has been asked not to make waves. (5)

These “warlords” are building fortunes by reselling the various systems on the black market. The latter is fed thanks to the diversion of all the models of portable arms which happen to be registered on the so-called lists of “solidarity supplies” for the Ukrainian army. In some cases, darknet traders boast that the weapons were “tested in the war against Russia”.

By taking a closer look at this most lucrative market, we learn, for example, that packs of 5.45 mm NATO caliber cartridges (1,080 cartridges) are selling like hotcakes at 120 dollars apiece. The prices are convertible in all currencies. An old Kalashnikov (AK-74, AKMS) assault rifle with a barrel that fired 10,000 rounds costs barely $300. The Makarov pistol (9 mm, Soviet standard) is estimated at $400. A model F.1 grenade (prized during the Soviet era and similar to the French Alsetex LU 213) is resold for $100.

Ukrainian Kalashnikovs are sold and bought by mafia networks at prices lower than those parlayed during the conflict in Serbia. At the time, all the mafias in Europe were supplied with assault rifles through Albania.

Today, it is not only AK-74s that can be bought from Ukraine. The list has been expanded and completed to the delight of buyers.

Manual bazookas are on sale starting at $500 a piece. The blackmarket price of the SPG-9 grenade launcher is set at roughly 3,000 USD. A sniper rifle with NATO unification optics is available for 1,200 USD.

The price of a Javelin ATGM anti-tank guided missile (stolen or sold at the point of delivery from the United States to the Ukrainian army) is 30,000 USD.

Among the latest Ukrainian offerings is the remotely piloted Turkish Bayraktar TB2 with 4 suspended guided munitions.

Prominent Ukrainian blogger Shariy investigated Ukraine’s massive purchase of these combat drones and concluded that it was a corruption scheme involving the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. (6)

In view of the profits at stake, we should not expect Europol, which from The Hague has been fighting against the arms market in the European Union, to launch an investigation.

By way of illustration, our readers will note with interest the screenshots (see photos under the article) of the correspondence exchanged between the participants in one online transaction among many others.

They both have Russian names…..and communicate in Russian (it is easier for Ukrainians to communicate in Russian). The Bayraktar system (Turkish-made drone) arouses the lust of the buyer.

“Information on this topic (sale of combat drones) appeared,” writes the seller. The two individuals negotiate the price of a drone bearing the serial number 211100021 (PN-11005220100) (See photos below).

Buyer Mikhail acknowledges that the product is of good quality. He offers Dmitri (presumably a Ukrainian army officer) to buy the pilot block and the missile block from him for $20,000. Dmitri demands 25,000: “Moldovans demand more” (the arms smuggling corridor from Ukraine to the EU market passes through Moldova and Romania). The parties agree to use crypto money “as usual”.
The risks and threats linked to mafia wars, religious extremism and psychopaths have not disappeared from Europe after Macron and Ursula von der Leyen showed their solidarity with Zelensky.

Tens of thousands of automatic weapons, hand grenades and bazookas, tons of Semtex and TNT, were shipped to Europe through the same Albanian arms trafficking channels, via Romania. Interpol and Europol turn a blind eye.

We will all be sad and heartbroken to learn that a Ukrainian Fort 301 sniper rifle bullet shattered the fragile little hope of a president working for peace on the steps of the Élysée Palace. But beware of the boomerang effect.

If France engulfs 155 mm Caesar howitzers in the black hole of deals concluded with the Mafia Banderiste, we should not be surprised one day to see these individuals appear in our towns and villages.

Meanwhile, dreams of democracy in Ukraine have spawned a monster in Europe.

[norman]

When all the human battalions of selectively gathered fight capable men are dead and defunded, and the war is conducted by autonomous drones, using a global satellite intelligence and control network, how will anyone know 'who' is doing it ? The combatant distinctions are already becoming blurred as more remote controlled devices are deployed.

The current rules and diplomatic trigger points will be obsolete by then, just as the law has not kept up with silicon valley's developments and big pharma's developments. When all of these sectors become one big corporate technological unity it will be a global technological killing machine active in all regions, versus low social credit score humans.


Drone use is widening in Ukraine, bringing with it potential dawn of robotic killing machines
Tuesday, January 10, 2023 by: JD Heyes

https://www.naturalnews.com/2023-01-...-machines.html





Like all wars, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine nearly a year ago has spawned a wave of new and innovative ways to kill other human beings, as both sides adapted to standard weapons platforms and looked for ways to defeat them.

And while the use of drones as killing platforms predates the Ukraine war, uses and tactics involving the use of the devices have dramatically advanced over the past roughly 11 months.

The Associated Press reported this week that the longer the fighting lasts, the faster “a long-anticipated technology trend” will move, bringing about “the world’s first fully autonomous fighting robots to the battlefield, inaugurating a new age of warfare.”

“The longer the war lasts, the more likely it becomes that drones will be used to identify, select and attack targets without help from humans, according to military analysts, combatants and artificial intelligence researchers,” the AP added.

If — or rather, when — this happens, experts say it will usher in a revolution in military technology that was as monumental to warfare as was the machine gun, which actually began with the hand-cranked Gatlin guns at the end of the American Civil War (which also ushered in other advances, such as the rifled bullet, improving accuracy, and the cartridge, which signaled the end of the musket).

Already, Ukraine is employing semi-autonomous attack drones on the battlefield as well as counter-drone weapons that utilize artificial intelligence, the report added. And while Russia is also claiming to be employing AI weaponry, so far, those have yet to be confirmed. Still, there are no confirmed cases where any country has deployed a fully robotic combatant on a battlefield that has killed humans entirely on their own. But experts warn those days are coming sooner rather than later, and it could be either country that deploys them.

“Many states are developing this technology,” Zachary Kallenborn, a George Mason University weapons innovation analyst, told The Associated Press. ”Clearly, it’s not all that difficult.”

The AP notes that liberal activists aren’t going to be happy:

The sense of inevitability extends to activists, who have tried for years to ban killer drones but now believe they must settle for trying to restrict the weapons’ offensive use.

Ukraine’s digital transformation minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, agrees that fully autonomous killer drones are “a logical and inevitable next step” in weapons development. He said Ukraine has been doing “a lot of R&D in this direction.”

“I think that the potential for this is great in the next six months,” he told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

Unfortunately, the development of autonomous systems will also come as a result of manpower shortages. Ukraine is much smaller, population-wise, than Russia, and President Vladimir Putin’s army is getting beaten up badly, with more than 100,000 lost thus far, according to reports, which is making the war very unpopular in his country and will complicate efforts for him to recruit enough men to refill depleted ranks.

Lt. Col. Yaroslav Honchar, a Ukrainian military officer, is a co-founder of the combat drone innovation nonprofit Aerorozvidka. In a recent interview near the front lines in the country’s east, he said human soldiers cannot make decisions and process information nearly as fast as a machine. He added that while Ukrainian military leaders and the country’s civilian leadership currently do not permit the use of fully autonomous lethal weapons, that may change in the future, especially if Russia continues targeting the country’s infrastructure and neighboring Belarus joins forces and sends troops into Ukraine as expected.

“We have not crossed this line yet – and I say ‘yet’ because I don’t know what will happen in the future.” said Honchar, whose group has led drone innovation in Ukraine, converting cheap commercial drones into highly lethal weapons.

These systems will make their debut on some Ukrainian battlefield in the not-too-distant future. Count on it.

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https://twitter.com/RWApodcast/statu...03453949485059

https://twitter.com/RWApodcast/statu...06441401139201

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https://twitter.com/AZgeopolitics/st...84304938369024

https://twitter.com/AZgeopolitics/st...75593851564032

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8 minute analysis with topographical images,

Front Update | Bakhmut Analysis | The Implications of The Fall of Soledar | What's Next?


https://twitter.com/WeebUnionWar/sta...02433907347459

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https://twitter.com/AZgeopolitics/st...61179743981569

https://twitter.com/AZgeopolitics/st...61190158368772

https://twitter.com/AZgeopolitics/st...61197045534721

https://twitter.com/AZgeopolitics/st...61203177512960

https://twitter.com/AZgeopolitics/st...61209439875072

https://twitter.com/Trollstoy88/stat...79519162290177

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https://twitter.com/MaimunkaNews/sta...07823193604096