WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
🇷🇺⚔️🇺🇦Russian Defense Ministry report on the progress of the special military operation

11 June 2024

The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.

▫️The units of the Sever Group of Forces continue to advance into the depths of the enemy defenses and inflicted fire damage on manpower and hardware of the AFU 42nd Mechanized Brigade and the 36th Marine Brigade close to Glubokoye and Tikhoye (Kharkov region).

Two counter-attacks by assault detachments of the 13th Ukrainian National Guard Brigade have been also repelled.

The AFU losses were up to 265 Ukrainian troops, two motor vehicles, one German-made 155-mm Panzerhaubitzer self-propelled artillery system, one 152-mm Akatsiya self-propelled artillery system, one 152-mm D-20 howitzer, one 122-mm Grad MLRS combat vehicle, and one Nota electronic warfare station. In addition, one AFU field ammunition depot has been destroyed.

▫️The units of the Zapad Group of Forces has liberated Artyomovka (Lugansk People's Republic) and Timkovka (Kharkov region).

In addition, Russian troops have launched the attacks on AFU 3rd assault, 14th, 28th mechanised brigades close to Kupyansk (Kharkov region) and Nevskoye (Lugansk People's Republic).

The AFU losses were up to 560 Ukrainian troops, five motor vehicles, one Polish-made 155-mm Krab self-propelled artillery system, one U.S.-made 155-mm M777 howitzer, two 122-mm D-30 howitzers, and two electronic warfare stations. Two AFU artillery ammunition depots have been eliminated.

▫️The units of the Yug Group of Forces have improved the situation along the front line and inflicted fire damage on manpower and hardware of 54th, 93rd mechanized, 79th air assault brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Konstantinovka, Andreyevka, and Razdolovka (Donetsk People's Republic).

The AFU losses were up to 740 troops, two armored personnel carriers, 12 motor vehicles, one U.S.-made 155-mm M777 howitzer, one 152-mm 2A65 Msta-B howitzer, four 152-mm D-20 howitzers, one 122-mm 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, and two 105-mm U.S. M119 howitzers. In addition, three AFU ammunition depots have been destroyed.

▫️The units of the Tsentr Group of Forces have improved the tactical situation and inflicted fire defeat on 24th, 28th mechanized, 68th jaeger brigades of the AFU and the 109th Territorial Defense Brigade near Ozaryanovka, Rozovka, Mayorsk, and Umanskoye (Donetsk People's Republic).

In addition, five counter-attacks of AFU 23rd, 110th mechanised, and 142nd infantry brigades have been repelled.

The enemy losses were up to 350 Ukrainian troops, one U.S.-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, one U.S.-made 155-mm M777 howitzer, one 2A65 Msta-B howitzer, one 152-mm D-20 howitzer, and three 122-mm D-30 howitzers.

▫️The units of the Vostok Group of Forces have captured more advantageous lines and inflicted fire damage on manpower and hardware of the AFU 58th Motorized Infantry Brigade near Urozhaynoye (Donetsk People's Republic).

The enemy losses were up to 135 Ukrainian troops, one tank, five motor vehicles, one U.S.-made 155-mm M198 howitzer, and one 152-mm 2A65 Msta-B howitzer.

▫️The units of the Dnepr Group of Forces have hit manpower and hardware of the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade, the 14th Infantry Brigade, and the 37th Marine Brigade of the AFU near Kamenskoye, Nesteryanka (Zaporozhye region) and Tyaginka (Kherson region).

The AFU losses were up to 105 Ukrainian troops, eight motor vehicles, one 152-mm 2A65 Msta-B howitzer, two 152-mm D-20 howitzers, and one 105-mm U.S.-made M119 gun.

▫️Operational-Tactical Aviation, unmanned aerial vehicles, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces engaged AFU manpower and hardware clusters in 118 areas.

▫️In addition, Su-27 and Su-25 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force have been destroyed at airfields of departure.

▫️Air defense facilities have shot down 45 unmanned aerial vehicles, two French-made Hammer aerial bombs, and ten U.S.-made HIMARS MLRS projectiles.

📊In total, 613 airplanes and 276 helicopters, 25,559 unmanned aerial vehicles, 528 air defense missile systems, 16,312 tanks and other armored fighting vehicles, 1,332 combat vehicles equipped with MLRS, 10,332 field artillery cannons and mortars, as well as 22,445 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.

Russian Defense Ministry

https://x.com/dana916/status/1800507418998141389

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
US lawmakers appear rattled by arrival of Russian warships in the Caribbean

The arrival of a small Russian naval taskforce to Cuba elicited mixed signals from the United States, as US legislators and officials took stock of Russian military assets showing up practically on their country’s doorsteps.

Senator Marco Rubio tweeted that the Biden administration “must impose real consequences” on Cuba if the latter decides to allow a “Russian submarine carrying nuclear capable missiles” to make port.

Meanwhile, House Representative Carlos Gimenez blasted the Biden administration for “rewarding” Cuba’s behavior with “sanctions relief” while Havana welcomes Russian naval ships.

Meanwhile, US government and military officials offered a calmer take on the subject, with White House national security spokesman John Kirby telling CBS News that the US has no indication that the Russian vessels are carrying nuclear weapons, and that Washington does not expect these ships to pose any threat to the region.

“We don't anticipate, we don't expect that there'll be any imminent threat or any threat at all, quite frankly, to American national security in the region, in the Caribbean region, or anywhere else," Kirby said.

Pentagon spokesperson Charlie Dietz also told CNN that this arrival of the Russian ships is “part of Russia’s routine naval operations and pose no direct threat to the United States.”

The Russian naval taskforce is expected to make a port call in Havana on June 12 before participating in a military exercise in the Caribbean. It is comprised of three surface vessels – frigate Admiral Gorshkov, replenishment oiler Academic Pashin and tug Nikolay Chiker – and nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine Kazan.

While none of the vessels involved is carrying nuclear weapons, Admiral Gorshkov and Kazan armaments include Zircon hypersonic missiles and Kalibr cruise missiles respectively, both of which are nuclear-capable.


https://x.com/SputnikInt/status/1800629328289440101

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
Nuclear weapon drills help Russia prepare for possible NATO invasion - expert

The ongoing Russian tactical nuclear weapon drills, whose second phase began this week, is not some kind of act of showmanship, warns military analyst Igor Korotchenko, editor in chief of National Defense magazine.

The purpose of this exercise is to rehearse the “practical mechanisms” of tactical nuclear weapon use if a decision to resort to such drastic measures were to be made.

“This is not signaling someone, not some underscoring of some ‘red lines’ - this is about practice,” Korotchenko tells Sputnik.

The various aspects of tactical nuclear weapon use being tested during this exercise include the delivery of presidential authorization to the troops, unlocking the warheads, flight data input and targeting – basically everything involved in an actual nuclear strike, he says.

The drills are essentially meant to ensure that the Russian Armed Forces would be prepared to launch a tactical nuclear strike against a NATO military contingent if the latter were to be deployed to the Ukrainian conflict zone to attack Russian troops there, Korotchenko claims.

“This is a response mechanism in case NATO enters a war with Russia,” he surmises.

“We do not need to send signals to anyone. We do not need to once again draw ‘red lines’ that lost their value already,” he adds. “We must be prepared for full-scale military action involving the use of tactical nuclear weapons.”

Thus, Korotchenko argues, such drills “should be held regularly and without warning,” and Russian troops should be ready for action if a decision to use tactical nuclear weapons is made.


https://x.com/SputnikInt/status/1800578147512918251

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
Azov battalion: US says ‘no evidence’ of human rights abuses, but facts prove otherwise

The US State Department allowed American arms supplies to Ukraine’s Azov battalion (banned in Russia) after it “passed inspection for compliance with the Leahy Law,” which prohibits the provision of US military aid to foreign units convicted of serious human rights violations.

The State Department claimed it found “no evidence” of such abuses committed by Azov militants. It seems, however, the US executive body is deliberately turning a blind eye to a mountain of reports from various international organizations, listing their crimes:

▪️Since its foundation in 2014, the Azov battalion, created as a radical nationalist militia and eventually brought under Ukraine's National Guard, has repeatedly tortured civilians and POWs, in addition to committing violent criminal felonies such as rape, robbery and terrorism.

▪️Prior to the Russian special military operation, international organizations, including rights groups, reported on “Ukraine’s neo-Nazi problem,” and the war crimes carried out by Azov militants in Donbass.

▪️The US-based Anti-Defamation League listed the Azov brigade in 2019 as a “Ukrainian extremist group” with ties to the US-based neo-Nazi organization, Atomwaffen, and similar white supremacist movements in Europe.

▪️A previous UN report highlighted that the Azov militants committed mass acts of the looting throughout Donbass and regularly shelled residential areas.

▪️The head of the UN monitoring mission, Matilda Bogner, stated that there was "reliable information" regarding the torture of Russian servicemen by Ukrainian soldiers.

▪️Human Rights Watch for its part expressed concern that cases of torture and other crimes by the Azov battalion could go "completely unchecked."

https://x.com/SputnikInt/status/1800554998910075102

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
🇷🇺 Northern Fleet's ships have exercise using high-precision missile weapons in Atlantic Ocean

A combined surface action group of the Northern Fleet made up of Project 885M multi-role nuclear submarine cruiser Kazan and frigate Admiral Gorshkov, carrying out long-distance missions, started an exercise on the use of high-precision missile weapons in the Atlantic Ocean.

As part of the exercise, the frigate and nuclear-powered submarine missile cruiser practise the use of high-precision missile weapons by computer-based maritime simulation at targets indicating the ship-based groupings of a mock enemy and located at a distance of more than 600 kilometres.

A few days before, frigate Admiral Gorshkov, which is carrying out long-distance voyage to the waters of the Atlantic Ocean as part of the Northern Fleet detachment, conducted a training exercise to repel the air attack. As part of the exercise, the crews practised interaction of command posts and combat posts, and launching attacks with AK-192M naval artillery systems and Palash surface-to-air missile and artillery system against simulated air targets.

Russian Defense Ministry

https://x.com/dana916/status/1800518513934663714

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
"This train has been slowed down" — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on the results of the European Parliament elections

Orban pointed out what needs to be done to prevent war and achieve peace:

The first is to achieve the victory of the "peace parties" in the European Parliament elections. The second condition, according to Orban, is the victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential elections.


https://x.com/SputnikInt/status/1800538421611335803

[Ravenlocke]

https://x.com/SputnikInt/status/1800490518570521022

[Ravenlocke]

https://x.com/SprinterFamily/status/1800559618822713450

https://x.com/Zlatti_71/status/1800480788246643005

[ExomatrixTV]

[shaberon]

Posted by Tintin (here)

Posted by Kryztian (here)
Lindsey Graham, who has demonstrated zero compassion for the human beings who find themselves living in war zones, shows that that he has great compassion for the billionaires who would be loosing billions in profits that would go to Russia and China. Sometimes it just takes a psychopath to reveal the deep truths of U.S. foreign policy.

Ukraine is a ‘gold mine’ – US senator
Allowing a Russian victory in the conflict would deprive America of access to vast mineral resources, Lindsey Graham says

Absolutely, but not the only issue at the core here of course. All sorts of other drivers are going on here not just the 'promise' of the mineral resources (many of which would largely be squirreled away into black budget projects I suspect: SSP - secret space programs; other advanced tech which would likely be weaponised, etc.. - all parties have an interest in that) but as discussed on the thread before, its spiritual and symbolic aspect. I'm thinking of Ihor Berkut and his openly stated and advocated New Heavenly Jerusalem project - a Zionist homeland project right where the newly Russian federated regions are geolocated...

With Graham, you get "Love of Zion" par excellence--just ask him!

The mineral wealth is significant, so would be agriculture, and, oh, prostitution, human trafficking, drugs, you know, all the big money winners. It would have been Paradise!

I believe it is all under one hat, the components cannot be separated.

More importantly, this refutes the idea that Ukraine is being intentionally devastated for divide-and-conquer, this was supposed to have been a stable operation to divide and conquer Russia.

It gives us the bleak but accurate picture that wealthy Capitalists are great friends amongst themselves, viewing other humans as if they were maggots, cockroaches, or fleas.

What's ironic is that Hitler "on his own" was able to send the Third Army and mess up Moscow before his megalomania unraveled, but Graham wasn't even able to get the Ukrainian army past the border before Russia thwarted it. I would rate the experts behind this as egregious as, but far dumber than, Adolf Hitler. The Senator could really use a barbed wire noose attached to an Iranian Fateh missile. I have zero interest of continuing a dialogue with that kind of faction any longer. The only discussions I would be interested in are those which dissolve any possible power base for them to dominate. Remove the opportunity. There is no excuse for there to even be a position from which such assertions about Ukraine could even be thought of. There is no good reason the idea should even be available, to anyone, let alone any "system" that delivers it.

[Bruce G Charlton]

@shaberon

"this refutes the idea that Ukraine is being intentionally devastated for divide-and-conquer, this was supposed to have been a stable operation to divide and conquer Russia."

I don't think it "refutes" the idea; but instead demonstrates that there were several agendas for Ukraine and Russia at different levels within the hierarchy of power.

LG is not at the top of the hierarchy but is clearly under-orders - a kind of middle manager. So what he says (if honest! - a big "if") is just what his bosses have told him - or told him to say.

I believe the top level (demonic) agenda for this was was primarily destruction of the West, secondarily destruction of as many other nations and people as possible - not for strategic gain, but destruction from sheer hatred; but the lower levels are given quasi plausible rationales for this and various up-front incentives (money, power, fame, sex - the usual stuff), so they can pretend to themselves (or perhaps sincerely believe!) that there is some long term plan for "the greater good" behind it all.

[Vicus]

Scott Ritter: Why did it take Russia so long to realize Donbass was worth fighting for? 11 Jun, 2024

As its military operation enters a critical stage, the question of why it took Moscow eight years to intervene remains a sensitive topic



On May 26, the Donetsk People’s Republic marked the tenth anniversary of the first battle for the region’s international airport. This was a key clash in the fight between Ukraine and local citizens who opposed the nationalist-dominated government that had seized power in Kiev as a result of the US-backed coup in February 2014. The anniversary was but one in a succession of similar commemorations of events which, together, draw attention to the fact that the war in Donbass has been ongoing for a decade.

Resume:

But why did it take them so long? (for Russia intervention?)
This is the eternal question, one that Russia today struggles to find an adequate answer for.

Russia’s path of redemption ends in Donbass. Here, the sins, errors, and evil which combined to create the current Russian-Ukrainian conflict are manifest. Questions have been asked to which there may be no adequate answer. Today, the situation on the ground increasingly points to a Russian victory over both Ukraine and its supporters in the collective West. But this victory has come at a huge physical and psychological cost. While the dead may be buried and honored, the living will always have to struggle to come to grips over the sacrifices that have been made in support of the cause they were fighting for.

And, in the end, if they believe that the cause was a just one – and it is my firm position that they do, in fact, believe this to be the case – then the answer to the question as to why it took Russia so long to intervene on behalf of Donbass will hang there, unanswerable, if for no other reason than that the pain any honest answer will generate may be too much to bear for those who had been fighting for the liberation of Donbass these past ten years.

https://www.rt.com/russia/598862-rus...ary-operation/






.

[Vicus]

How Russian troops confronted NATO forces in Yugoslavia, in a significant post-Soviet first FIRST PART

RT remembers a key moment of the 1999 conflict that ultimately helped to change Russia’s view of the West

Twenty-five years ago, a significant event brought the seemingly weakened Russian army of the 1990s back into the global spotlight. On the night of June 12, 1999, a combined battalion of airborne troops, part of the international peacekeeping contingent in Bosnia and Herzegovina, covered over 600 kilometers to capture the Slatina airfield in Pristina. They managed to outpace NATO forces by mere hours. This audacious secret operation, which even caught many high-ranking officials off guard (including those in Russia) as they learned about it from CNN broadcasts, nearly resulted in an armed standoff.

o commemorate the anniversary of the march to Pristina, RT has once again featured a piece dedicated to these events on its main page.

This feature was originally published on June 11, 2022.

The events of the 1990s in Yugoslavia are often overlooked in discussions about today's relations between Russia and the West. Many fail to grasp why public opinion in Russia, which had looked favorably on the US and Western Europe after the Soviet collapse, suddenly shifted to a position of increased skepticism.

What jolted the naïve and idealistic illusions of many Russians was NATO’s infamous operation against Yugoslavia in 1999.

The formal pretext for the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia was the Kosovo War. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a group of ethnic Albanian rebels, had been fighting a guerrilla insurgency and organizing terrorist attacks on Serbian government forces, while the Serbs had tried to retaliate. Both sides committed atrocities, but the West, motivated by political considerations, chose to support the Albanians.

This was seen as a tragedy by the Russians. Historically, Russia has had strong ties, and an emotional connection, with Serbia.

The USSR had just fallen apart and the Chechen rebellion was still a major concern, so Russians understood the Serbs' situation very well. Many believed at the time, and still believe now, that Russia avoided the Yugoslavia scenario only because it was a nuclear state.

Moscow wanted to be included in the peacemaking operation in Kosovo and, ideally, to get a mandate to deploy its peacekeepers in the north of Kosovo, which was home to the local Serbian population.

This was a very reasonable idea, since ethnic Serbs had no one to protect them against ethnic cleansing after the Yugoslavian army was expelled from the area. But to NATO, this looked way too ambitious. Given that the US-led bloc was unwilling to cooperate, the Kremlin decided to try and force its hand into accepting Russia’s participation.

https://www.rt.com/news/556955-yugos...-peacekeepers/

[Jaak]

[Vicus]

SECOND PART

The plan was pretty simple and consisted of a maneuver by Russian troops that were part of the Stabilization Force in Bosnia and Herzegovina (SFOR). A combined Russian battalion was to enter Kosovo, reach the city of Pristina, and secure its airport. This was then to be used as leverage in talks about Russia’s participation in the international peacekeeping effort.

On June 10, the Russian SFOR received covert instructions to prepare 200 troops and light armored vehicles and march to Slatina Air Base in Pristina. The combined battalion of Russian paratroopers was to accomplish the mission under the command of Colonel Sergey Pavlov. Today, Pavlov trains cadets at a military academy.

Politically, the plan was produced by the Russian Foreign Ministry and the GRU, the country’s military intelligence agency, although there were significant factions within the Russian government that didn't support the idea. Precautions were made to prevent any leaks. Only six people had full access to the information about the plan.

A separate small unit was already stationed in Kosovo. It consisted of 18 soldiers from the GRU special task force commanded by Yunus-Bek Yevkurov. As agreed with the Serbs, Yevkurov was appointed commander of this group, tasked with a reconnaissance mission – they were to prevent any unexpected occurrences at the airfield when the main forces arrived there.

The special task force operated in an efficient and unobtrusive manner, carrying out reconnaissance missions and keeping the situation under control, while trying to avoid encounters with NATO troops and KLA fighters.

Meanwhile, preparations for the planned operation were underway in Bosnia. The Russian airborne unit organized a military drill as a cover allowing them to get the equipment and troops ready for the launch of the operation. Each soldier was issued a double ammunition load and enough dry rations to last for 10 days.

At 4am on June 11, the group left the Bosnian town of Ugljevik, driving their APCs and trucks across Yugoslavia towards Pristina. There was a total of 15 APCs and 35 military vehicles carrying 206 soldiers. Apart from common military trucks, there were several refueling vehicles and a communications vehicle in the column. They had to cover a distance of over 600km to get to their destination. Because of the emphasis on speed, initial plans calling for a larger convoy were pared down to just the essential vehicles.

The column moved forward at a high speed – approximately 80 km/h – because the Serbian police had cleared the road for them, thus securing a ‘green corridor’.

In Yugoslavia, the column received a very warm welcome from enthusiastic crowds. In Pristina, Serbs showered the Russian APCs with flowers as they passed. This was indeed a very pleasant experience for the troops, but it also slowed down their march. The APCs finally reached the concrete tarmac of the Slatina Air Base just before dawn. The Serbian soldiers greeted them very cordially, then delegated control of the airfield to them and left their positions.

At approximately 11am, British and French troops moved out towards Pristina from Macedonia. The British attempted to use Slatina’s runway to land their helicopters, but the Russian APCs patrolling the airfield prevented this from happening.

"General Wesley Clark was furious. I couldn't fault him for that, but I knew that, fortunately, we weren't on the brink of World War III," US President Bill Clinton recalled later.

General Sir Michael Jackson, who was in command of NATO's Kosovo Force, stepped forward and ordered British tank crews to move out towards the airfield. At that moment, the Russians’ interpreter, senior lieutenant Nikolay Yatsikov, told the British that if they were to proceed the consequences would be dire. At this time a single Russian soldier, whose last name was Ivanov, stepped out and moved defiantly toward the tank, clutching a grenade launcher and ready for combat.

https://www.rt.com/news/556955-yugos...-peacekeepers/

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Vicus (here)
But why did it take them so long? (For Russia's intervention in Donetsk?)

For those who well remember Mashika's many posts about the war — and all her personal experiences, too — Putin's reluctance to step in early and assist was one of the things that hugely infuriated her at the time when she was fighting with all her heart and soul for the Donbass militia.

[Vicus]

THIRD PART
The British would have had no trouble defeating the 200-strong Russian battalion. However, that could have ignited a war between two nuclear powers. And that is exactly what Jackson said to his superiors: "I'm not going to have my soldiers be responsible for starting World War III."

The British personnel surrounded the airfield. Russian paratroopers spent the next few days encircled. Meanwhile, the politicians continued to negotiate.

The result of these negotiations was, by and large, a disappointment. Russia was able to send a contingent of its troops to Kosovo, but it didn't get its own separate sector. Effectively, that meant that Kosovo's Serbs would never receive adequate protection from the Albanian fighters' campaign of terror. Russia was a weak nation at the time, and it couldn't make up for its lack of political, economic, and military power with a few bold moves.

Over the next few years, a Russian peacekeeping force (a total of 650 men) served in Kosovo. The troops withdrew from the province in 2003.

Throughout these years, ethnic cleansing took place in Kosovo, with NATO's silent approval. The majority of the Serbs left the province; many were killed. Serbian monuments and historic sites were wiped off the face of the earth.

Ultimately, Russia's seizure of Pristina airport did not result in any major political change. Moscow ultimately failed to even secure a sector of its own.

For modern Russia, however, this episode retains a somewhat symbolic significance. For the first time since the demise of the Soviet Union, Russia had involved itself in foreign matters and pursued a policy of its own – one that ran counter to the Western narrative. Meanwhile, NATO’s operation in Kosovo had a sobering effect for those in Russia that supported West.

In Russia, the Serbs were mostly seen as a kindred and ultimately friendly people, a sentiment that remains today. Because of this, Russians resented the demonstrative horror the Serbs were subjected to by the US-led forces.

More importantly, the EU and American stance on the Kosovo conflict was morally ambiguous at best. In this complicated theater, where each side had some legitimate claims and neither was innocent, the West sympathized with one and condemned the other. It bombed Belgrade under the pretext of protecting the Albanians from ethnic cleansing but did nothing to stop the ethnic cleansing of the Serbs in the same territory after its own triumphant operation.

This inconsistency made many Russians question Western moral values and view them as nothing more than doublespeak and hypocrisy.

Moscow was also grappling with a domestic problem – Islamic terrorism in the Northern Caucasus. Just a few months later, the invasion of the Russian Republic of Dagestan by the fighters of Shamil Basayev and the Saudi commander Khattab ignited a conflict known as the Second Chechen Campaign.

Russians couldn’t help but imagine being in the Serbs’ shoes. The moral posturing by the Europeans and Americans about the war in Chechnya, against the backdrop of NATO’s bombing of Belgrade, invoked a sense of spiteful irony.

While the operation in Pristina isn’t remembered by Russians as an example of a brilliant political victory, it is still perceived as the first time that Russia, in its post-Soviet history, was able to say a decisive ‘no’ to the West, regardless of the final outcome.

https://www.rt.com/news/556955-yugos...-peacekeepers/

Vicus comment:
There is a movie about this operation, when I find it I will post it here.
UPDATE:
Movie title: Balkan Line
Naturally Wikipedia call it Russian patriotism propaganda, well wtf expect they?
Everything we watch should be only degenerate West propaganda?
First time watched this movie in original Russian with English sub titles.
https://watchseries8.to/watch-movie/...ch-266/1082212
the version funded today is in French... yikes! forget it!

[Vicus]

Slava EUkraini: Zelensky drives the EU anti-establishment to massive gains

The right wing’s gains in the European elections are a logical pushback against leaders that care more for Kiev than their own citizens

Hey, are we sure that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky isn’t a Kremlin stooge?
Because he just managed to accomplish exactly what European elites are constantly accusing the Kremlin of trying to do – getting the so-called far-right elected in a bloc-wide surge in the European parliament. Although it was really just a vote for anti-establishment populists.

Arguably, nowhere were the results of Zelensky’s efforts more obvious than in France, where Macron’s establishment party took the biggest electoral beating, against Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party, whose candidate list was headed up for the EU vote by Jordan Bardella. The 28-year-old grew up in the Parisian suburb of Saint Denis, which now stands as a shining example of how establishment policies can transform a real life place into something out of a ‘Grand Theft Auto’ video game. Thanks to Zelensky, no one in charge cares though, because Saint Denis isn’t in Ukraine.

It didn’t take French President Emmanuel Macron walking around the Élysée Palace in a Zelensky-style hoodie to telegraph his priorities, though he did it anyway for anyone who may not be well-versed in jackhammer-grade subtlety. And now for the ‘pièce de résistance’ – or final death-blow, depending on how you look at it. On the last day in the French parliament before the European parliamentary elections, Macron invited Zelensky to monopolize the floor of the National Assembly. So forget any debate about all the damage that Macron’s policies have done to France. Zelensky was there to speak, totally unopposed, about his own needs and those of Ukraine, which isn’t actually in the EU, even though Europeans are paying for it like it is.

continue: https://www.rt.com/news/599077-europ...zelensky-kiev/

[Vicus]

Ukraine To Keep Many F-16 Jets Abroad On Fears Russia Will Immediately Destroy TUESDAY, JUN 11, 2024



Ukraine's armed forces are expected to begin receiving the first of dozens of F-16 fighter jets within weeks. In total over 60 are expected to arrive from Belgium, Denmark, and the Netherlands - at a moment Ukrainian pilots are still undergoing lengthy and highly technical training programs in the Europe and the United States.

But decision-makers in Brussels and Kiev already fear that they will make for highly attractive targets for Russian long-range and aerial strikes before they ever see aerial combat in Ukraine's skies.

"Ukraine may keep some of the F-16 fighter jets it’s set to receive from its Western allies at foreign bases to protect them from Russian strikes," a senior Ukrainian military officer was cited in the Associated Press as saying Monday. Likely the jets will be "hidden" hosted at bases in Romania and Poland, which are both NATO countries.

Serhii Holubtsov, who is head of aviation for Ukraine's air force, confirmed that "a certain number of aircraft will be stored at secure air bases outside of Ukraine so that they are not targeted here."

He described that warplanes kept outside of Ukraine can be used for further training of Ukrainian pilots, and can be held in reserve in instances where jets actively engaged in combat have to be grounded for repairs.

"This way, we can always have a certain number of aircraft in the operational fleet that corresponds to the number of pilots we have," he said. "If there are more pilots, there will be more aircraft in Ukraine."

But we might ask: what's the point? Zelensky has since the start of the war been begging the West to "close the skies". The F-16s were pledged toward that end (as a 'compromise' short of the West directly setting up a NFZ), but they haven't even arrived yet and Kiev is essentially going to hide many of the expensive aircraft from the start.

It was once thought that US-made fighter jets could be used for Ukrainian forces to go on the offensive against entrenched Russian front lines, but that doesn't look like it's going to the case.

Stationing the transferred warplanes at airfields outside Ukraine also increases the chances of Moscow stumbling into a direct shooting war with NATO. Kremlin officials, including President Putin himself, have long warned Russia will strike airbases from which attacks against Russian forces are launched, even if outside of Ukraine's borders.

Last year Putin began warning of Western aircraft, "If they are stationed at air bases outside the Ukrainian borders and used in combat, we will have to see how and where to strike the assets used in combat against us."

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitic...diately-target

[Vicus]

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=ke5oL9KNN18

1 hour ago