Putin Recognizes Donbass Republics, Sends Russian Military to 'Denazify' Ukraine

Caught this meme, seems to sum a few things up.
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One of the stories that is going semi-noticed is the total failure of the great train-robbery enacted by the EU in its initial shock and awe sanctions package when they claimed to have successfully frozen over €300 billion in Russian Central Bank assets. For months they have been salivating in public on how they will divvy this sum up when they finally get their hands on it... until the big problem finally hit home last week... having decided not to involve either the banking sector or the Fed or other central banks in this policy (all of which opposed it by the way) they have once more it seems engaged in their favourite act of wishful thinking. As we the untouchables cannot be told 'no, this just wont work and its completely illegal' by people who know about these things, we shut out the experts and went ahead anyway... with something that didn't work. For its now creeping out that they can find no more than $16 billion worth. The rest has 'vanished' - back to Russia it seems, because as the banks and other central banks were not party so they just let it all quietly go away to wherever the account holder (the Russian Central Bank) determined it should... possibly to China? Or some other untouchable 3rd party - of even back home.

Meanwhile, it seems the Russians have actually successfully frozen over $150 billion in western assets :phaser:. And for obvious reasons, next to no one is talking about this... but it is starting to creep out... as reported by Bloomberg.

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... because apparently the EU never thought to think about this matter and so did nothing to ensure such action wasn't possible...
So on some basic math, the Russian's are up $134 billion... :bacon:

Boy, do those mean minded unilateral sanctions work! Some mighty bright people running the EU.
 
While reading about John Quincy Adams, I found this quote, which really captures the events of the past year with the SMO. Substitute the neocons for Napoleon and there you have it:

Appointed by President James Madison as the US ambassador to Russia , serving from 1809 - 1814, he was there when Napoleon invaded in 1812, and he watched with fascination as Russia's entrapment strategy unfolded, destroying Napoleon's army. His comments on Napoleon:

"It may well be doubted whether in the compass of human history since the creation of the world a greater, more sudden and total reverse of fortune was ever experienced by a man, than is now exhibiting in the person of a man whom fortune for a previous course of nearly twenty years had favoured with a steadiness and a prodigiality equally unexampled in the annals of mankind... It has pleased heaven for many years to preserve this man and make him prosper as an instrument of divine wrath to scourge mankind. His race is now run, and his own punishment has commenced."
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Interesting interview and Colonel Senator Black I feel like he is part of our gang. I really like these ex-military people who are full of knowledge, experience, and wisdom. It's amazing what we are learning these days about war on all levels, especially militarily speaking. It's like going to a course on the military, and these ex-military people are kind of like teachers who give us a little lesson at each interview.

This interview is exciting because the woman asks questions that we (at least I) have about the purpose of this war. Is it like the Cold War, where nothing happened but at the same time a lot of weapons were bought and sold? What is the objective of all this? And the old teacher says: it's pure madness.

 
The process has started. It would be more interesting
In the DPR , a battalion named after Bogdan Khmelnitsky was formed from captured soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

DONETSK, Feb 27 - RIA Novosti. A volunteer battalion named after Bogdan Khmelnitsky, formed from Ukrainian prisoners of war, appeared in the Donetsk People's Republic, one of the unit's commanders, Andrei Tishchenko, told RIA Novosti.
"I am now responsible for the newly created Bogdan Khmelnitsky combat unit. This story began at a time when the Ukrainian government did not need its people, and against the background of all this, when the Ukrainian government had to protect its people, it simply abandoned them. And looking at all this, I had the opportunity — both I and my comrades who will be with me in this unit — to pay tribute," said Tishchenko, a former tank commander and senior sergeant of the Ukrainian troops, and now a senior unit of the battalion.

According to him, there are now about 70 people in Tishchenko's unit, of which 95% are former Ukrainian military with combat experience, while he expects replenishment.
"The formation of the battalion at the stage of obtaining Russian citizenship, obtaining a passport, signing a contract and going to the camp for further training, retraining and formation," the serviceman added.

A volunteer battalion is formed from prisoners stationed in different colonies. Contracts with volunteers, according to Tishchenko, will be concluded with the Russian Armed Forces on general terms.
The authorities, the senior of the unit noted, provide all possible support, without infringing on the volunteers in any way. "The guys in the battalion are in a fighting mood, the guys are ready, there are no people who agreed, and then changed their minds, the guys initially said yes. And I think that all the guys are up to the end," Tishchenko added.
The criteria for selection to the battalion are moral and physical condition, and each volunteer is tested to ensure that future servicemen do not commit military and criminal crimes, the agency interlocutor concluded.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Human Rights in the LPR, Victoria Serdyukova, reported that some of the Ukrainian prisoners of war held captive in the territory of the Luhansk People's Republic refused to be included in the exchange list. According to Serdyukova's estimates, about 1,400 Ukrainian soldiers are currently in captivity on the territory of the republic.
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В ДНР создали батальон из украинских пленных

So far, it seems that Belarus has not been involved
Details of the attack on a military airfield in Belarus and the perpetrators of the attack became known.

About a day ago, at the Machulishchi military airfield, located on the outskirts of Minsk, where four Russian military aircraft are currently based – 3 MiG-31K fighters with hypersonic Kinzhal missiles and an A-50 long-range radar detection and control aircraft (AWACS). According to preliminary data, as a result of the attack, one of the military aircraft was damaged – the attack was carried out using drones.

According to Belarusian sources, a total of three explosions could have occurred at the military airfield – one of them occurred at night, while the other two were heard in the morning. According to preliminary data, one of the military aircraft suffered as a result of the attack – the Belarusian newspaper Nasha Niva reports that the target was a Russian A-50 aircraft, however, there are no official statements on this matter from the command of the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation so far.

Information about the attack is also confirmed by Russian journalists, in particular, information on this subject is confirmed by Semyon Pegov.

"Most likely, we are talking about drone attacks on the military infrastructure, on which the lenses of the Russian Aerospace Forces can be deployed, among other things. Sources compare this attack with the incidents in Saratov. We don't have any more specific data. We are waiting for official confirmation," WarGonzo project reports.

The publication "Military Affairs" spread false information that an attack was allegedly carried out on Belarus from the territory of Ukraine, even stating about the battles on the territory of Belarus with the death of the Ukrainian military, however, these data were denied by the Border Committee of Belarus.

According to Belarusian information resources, the attack was carried out by Belarusian radicals opposed to their own, in particular, the initiative group "BYPOL" provides similar information, while it is reported that drone control panels were also found near the military airfield.
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Взрыв на военном аэродроме в Белоруссии: стали известны подробности и исполнители
 
Searched for any mentioning of it and it seems there is nothing yet, so here we go. For hyperlinks, images, references see the original article.

covertactionmagazine.com

Evidence Emerges: United States is Planning to Interfere in 2023 Parliamentary Elections in Ukraine

[Source: hromadske.ua] In October 2023, Ukraine will hold elections for the Verkhovna Rada, the unicameral parliament of Ukraine. In the previous elections Vladimir Zelensky’s party “Se…
covertactionmagazine.com covertactionmagazine.com

Excerpts:
Evidence Emerges: United States is Planning to Interfere in 2023 Parliamentary Elections in Ukraine
By Valeriy Krylko - February 14, 2023

In October 2023, Ukraine will hold elections for the Verkhovna Rada, the unicameral parliament of Ukraine. In the previous elections Vladimir Zelensky’s party “Servant of the People” received 43.16% of the vote. Since then the popularity of the party and Zelensky himself has been gradually declining, but in 2022 it rose again.

However, the U.S. has already begun active preparations for these elections. In particular, the U.S. has allocated more than 1 million dollars to the NGO Civil Network Opora through the United States Agency of International Development (USAID). [USAID history follows]

... NGO Civil Network Opora specializes in monitoring and advocacy in the areas of elections, parliamentarianism, education, and local government. ... “Since 2013, we have been systematically monitoring the activities of parliament and political parties, preparing recommendations to improve the quality of work of people’s deputies and parliamentary committees… We conduct educational campaigns to raise the level of political culture of voters…”

After the start of the special operation in Ukraine, this organization supported the Kyiv regime’s ban on the activities of opposition parties, such as the “Shariya Party,” “Opposition Platform—For Life,” “Party “Ours,” and others. ...

This list includes the “Shariya Party,” which was created in 2015. The founder and members of the party denounced manifestations of Nazism in Ukraine. They staged protests against the persecution of journalists and social activists by right-wing Ukrainian forces.

“Opposition Platform—For Life” opposed (1) forced restrictions on the right to use Russian and languages of national communities in the media, public and cultural life, as well as (2) the refusal of the authorities to support the UN General Assembly resolution condemning Nazism.

On March 19, 2022, the National Security and Defense Council suspended the activities of the Nashi political party during martial law. Party leader Yevgeny Muraev advocated an end to hostilities in Donbass, that Ukraine should adopt neutral status, and respect for the memory of the Great Patriotic War. ....

At the moment, Opora continues its anti-Russian activities in Ukraine: it replicates fake news about Russia’s “collapse,” and identifies countries and deputies in Europe who have opposed recognizing Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

The U.S. is supporting the Ukrainian government’s banning of political opposition parties considered to be pro-Russian as it prepares in advance for the upcoming elections.

The main task of the U.S. in these elections is to block certain factions of the oligarchy and people from parties deemed to be pro-Russian from coming to power, and to strengthen the position of transnational corporations. Quietly, during the war, Zelensky and his party have supported regressive new labor legislation and openly courted turning over Ukraine’s economy to foreign corporate interests. Recently, Zelensky even boasted before a meeting of the National Association of State Chambers of Commerce in Florida, that “We have already managed to attract attention and have cooperation with such giants of the international financial and investment world as BlackRock, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.”

In the Office of the President of Ukraine, one of the methods of maintaining control over the parliament and meeting U.S. demands is the use of electronic voting through the “DYA” (Action) application, which is characterized by serious vulnerability and possibilities for rigging the results, which will allow the Zelensky regime to control the outcome of the electoral process.

Currently, Ukrainian sources report that the Office of the President will go to the parliamentary elections for the Verkhovna Rada by three main political forces: “Servant of the People,” “Prytula’s Party” and “European Solidarity.”

The very fact that the U.S. is preparing for the parliamentary elections in Ukraine is evident. A number of politicians, economists, media outlets and investigative journalists point out that the U.S. is deriving significant financial benefits from the conflict in Ukraine and that the U.S. military-industrial complex is receiving super profits. So no wonder they are trying to further manipulate Ukrainian politics—and to perpetuate a war that has cost the lives of tens of thousands of people already.
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I'm beginning to lean towards the possibility that the Russians will not launch a large spring offensive after all.

If you examine their winning tactic of attrition as witnessed by the hell hole of Bakhmut, what they are achieving is the slow, peace meal evisceration of the cream and core of what is in reality the 3rd - and final - Ukrainian army they have thus far faced. The constant complaints and derision about how it is they have taken seven months taking such a comparatively small target misses the whole point of Russian tactics. The Russians are simply not interested in territory per se as a primary goal (though Bakhmut does have a secondary strategic imperative as witnessed by the Ukrainians desperation in holding on to it) but rather as stated from day one, their primary goal is the destruction of Ukraine's capacity to fight. Bakhmut has fitted this strategy to a T. Ukrainian losses are unconscionable and yet they keep pouring in more men and more equipment - hence the terrible and now ubiquitous use of the term 'meat grinder'. So yes, the Russian's want to capture the area for the high ground it gives them plus the puncture hole it will create in the second line of Ukraine's defences, likely forcing them back across the whole front to their final and third line. But it is the destruction of the Ukrainian war machine that matters most not kilometers on a map. The Russians are more than happy to continue to draw the Ukrainians into a kill zone rather than bursting out themselves and going looking for them on Ukrainian terms with all the risks that entails.

If you look at the recent shift of Russian strategy to go on the attack across a number of locations on the front it is being done so with existing and limited resources and not by the use of the 300,000+ new recruits. Many of these actions look more like (1) means to place further strain on the Ukraine military's already thinly spread resources (2) to strengthen and 'straighten up' certain vulnerable areas of their defense line.

And still the reserves prepare with March being said to be the earliest they will be ready for utilization.

Well this date coincides with the growing talk of another major Ukrainian spring offensive - a last desperate gamble being pressurized by the US/West against all the instincts of the Ukrainian high command. It looks pretty certain - in fact definite - this will happen.

And that brings me to the 1943 Battle of Kursk, arguably other than Stalingrad, the single most important and decisive engagement of World War II. In that massive tank battle, the German Wehrmacht summoned up all its remaining mass resources on the eastern front into what was to prove a last ditch attempt to push back against the tide and puncture a huge hole in Russian defense lines top and bottom of a vulnerable bulge so as to sweep once more on towards Moscow. However it didn't work out quite like that.

Over a bloody and grueling period between July and August the extremely well prepared Russian defences slowly but surely decimated the remaining strength of the German army in the east as it kept on coming on to them, particularly their panzer forces. This tactic of defense as a form of attack then led to the German army breaking and essentially from that point on it was a rout all the way to Berlin.

The-battle-of-the-Kursk-Salient-5-July-to-23-August-1943-source-map-IIIV7.png
Map showing how the German's attempt to bite off the Russian Bulge around Kursk top and bottom turned into a rout as the Russians weathered the initial storm before themselves going on the offensive. What the German's did not realize was the Soviets had deliberately created this inviting trap and spent months secretly preparing their forces expecting that the German's could not resist the trap that was set for them.

I think this may be what the Russians are intending. They want the Ukrainians to come onto them with all their remaining strength so they can sit there and decimate the last gasp of their opponents resources on their terms (hence the enormous work Surovikin has done in creating impenetrable defense lines behind the line of contact), thus finally breaking them on Russian terms and following after with what one might term a great counter offensive to end the war.

Since there is zero evidence to suggest the Ukrainians can and will resist the US pressure, despite all the evidence to the contrary that this would be extremely dangerous for the already teetering Ukrainian army to attempt, then it makes total sense for the Russians to hold back and set this trap for them rather than taking on the initiative themselves against heavily fortified and dug in defenses across the remaining lines of contact as they stand now.

Above all else, the Great Bear has patience. It is this long game strategy that the west cannot fathom and I believe they simply cannot grasp how the Russians are very happy to lose the media war so as to win in the end on the battleground and on their conclusive terms.
 
youlik said:
The process has started. It would be more interesting
"In the DPR , a battalion named after Bogdan Khmelnitsky was formed from captured soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine"
В ДНР создали батальон из украинских пленных
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Well, last time Khmielnicky, by the means of his 6 years (or 9, depending on which historian you ask) long uprising, filled with mass atrocities, against civilian population included, brought to Ukraine The Ruin period and eventually, the partition of Transnistrian Ukraine between the Republic of Poland and the Russian Empire. Is history going to repeat itself?
 
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