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

Does anyone have an idea of the type of weaponry used by the Russian forces? It looks like a red sphere that has a non-straight trajectory and a low speed!


Just to mention that the rocket might be a 9M133 Kornet. There are several variants but they all travel between >250-320 m/s with a range between 100-10,000 m (up to 10 km) depending on the version. The target in the video could be several miles away but it looks close because the lens on the camera is really 'long' (1000 mm? More?). The camera is also located very close to the launcher so the rocket is in frame almost the whole way. It's like 'optical foreshortening' and makes the rocket look like it's travelling very slow with a flight path that is completely bizarre when it's actually zipping along.
 
Just to mention that the rocket might be a 9M133 Kornet. There are several variants but they all travel between >250-320 m/s with a range between 100-10,000 m (up to 10 km) depending on the version. The target in the video could be several miles away but it looks close because the lens on the camera is really 'long' (1000 mm? More?). The camera is also located very close to the launcher so the rocket is in frame almost the whole way. It's like 'optical foreshortening' and makes the rocket look like it's travelling very slow with a flight path that is completely bizarre when it's actually zipping along.
Could be also older version - Malyutka. It's path looks erratic because its guided by the operator's hand. Used a lot in the Yugoslav wars during nineties.
 
CNN did the same story: Exclusive: Video shows Russian soldiers killing 2 civilians

This apparently took place when Russians were still circling Kiev, so in March, but neither article gives the precise date.

Could be, but showing surveillance footage with their faces doesn't seem in line with that.

Looks convincing enough to me. Every military has some idiot hot-heads, including Russia. Unlike allegations like Bucha of intentional mass atrocities that are created out of thin air or massively exaggerated, this is the type of thing that is unfortunately common enough in war. (Though I'd be open to any convincing debunking - just doesn't strike me as implausible on the face of it.)
I really wouldn't trust ANYTHING from the western sources. Especially the CNN.
 
Dmitry Peskok commented to Reuters that this is "most likely" fake news (that they would cut the gas this soon). Interesting wording though, I guess we'll find it out soon anyway.

But Russia has already given plenty of warnings, and explained all the consequences (like an adult to a child) if and when Finland joins Nato:

So whatever the countermeasures will be, the Finnish government can't act surprised; they were told.

It's really sad, post WW2 Finland had smart leaders who outlined as their highest foreign policy goal to maintain good relations with Russia. This so called Paasikivi-Kekkonen doctrine paved way to rebuilding peaceful country with high living standard, and good grasp of geopolitical realities.

President Kekkonen (who was leader for over 25 years!) was famous from the way he handled the Soviet leaders, taking them to sauna and making diplomatic deals which benefited Finnish national interests (such as bilateral trade agreements). "By their fruits you shall know them", and looking back now Finland played well the cold war era.

Unfortunately today (after the decades of 'good times') majority of Finnish politicians are dumb as bricks, and blindly follow what the US and EU dictates, while waiting to get rewarded later with some EU position or similar nonsense. So just like in other Western countries, Finnish political leadership has slowly but surely been reduced to a bunch of shallow, self-centered 'career politicians' who parrot all the correct ideological catch phrases and make only decisions that are increasingly harmful to the large majority. But ultimately it's the Finnish citizens who voted these people, and as the saying here goes, "one gets what one orders".

It's clear to me now that neo-Nazi elements (el Banderistas) were installed in Ukraine and funded for many, many years. Are you aware of anything similar happening in Finland?
 
Dmitry Peskok commented to Reuters that this is "most likely" fake news (that they would cut the gas this soon). Interesting wording though, I guess we'll find it out soon anyway.

But Russia has already given plenty of warnings, and explained all the consequences (like an adult to a child) if and when Finland joins Nato:

So whatever the countermeasures will be, the Finnish government can't act surprised; they were told.

It's really sad, post WW2 Finland had smart leaders who outlined as their highest foreign policy goal to maintain good relations with Russia. This so called Paasikivi-Kekkonen doctrine paved way to rebuilding peaceful country with high living standard, and good grasp of geopolitical realities.

President Kekkonen (who was leader for over 25 years!) was famous from the way he handled the Soviet leaders, taking them to sauna and making diplomatic deals which benefited Finnish national interests (such as bilateral trade agreements). "By their fruits you shall know them", and looking back now Finland played well the cold war era.

Unfortunately today (after the decades of 'good times') majority of Finnish politicians are dumb as bricks, and blindly follow what the US and EU dictates, while waiting to get rewarded later with some EU position or similar nonsense. So just like in other Western countries, Finnish political leadership has slowly but surely been reduced to a bunch of shallow, self-centered 'career politicians' who parrot all the correct ideological catch phrases and make only decisions that are increasingly harmful to the large majority. But ultimately it's the Finnish citizens who voted these people, and as the saying here goes, "one gets what one orders".
What is the stance of the ordinary Fin people?
 
Since this thing started I've been pleased to see that the news site The Duran, which, if I remember correctly, was established around 2014–2015 after the Maidan/CIA coup, is highly active again (maybe they've been active since then without me paying any attention). In any case, the best thing with The Duran, IMO, is Alexander Mercouris. I remember appreciating his analyses back in 2014 when he freuqently featured on RT's Crosstalk, and now I equally find him to be one of the most intelligent commentators around.

I mostly listen to their talks via the podcast versions that they upload, and one of the more recent interviews that I enjoyed very much was with a guest named Robert Barnes. I'm not familiar with him from before but in this interview he gave one of the best overviews of what has been going on in geopolitics and with Ukraine for quite some time. If you've got the time I highly recommend listening to this:

 

It is not the most important part of the analysis, but it is interesting how so far there are no videos on twitter or tik tok of this event or propaganda, all elements that the Zelensky regime loves.

What really happened at the Seversky Donets crossing?​


A person who says he is a Ukrainian combat engineer has already claimed the glory of destroying a whole Battalion Tactical Group and killing 1500(!!!) Russian soldiers at a river crossing near Belogorovka. Ukrainian propaganda twitter & BrOSINT are all over it, coming up with ever higher numbers, sharing photos of the battle. What actually happened there?
Let’s take a look. This post will be a mix of my own observations, as well as a translation of the analysis provided by Greatwarchannel.
First off, some basic premises:
1) Photos and short videos with no proper geolocation & date given are inherently not representing a complete picture & even in the best case are nothing more than a snapshot.
2) We don’t know the time period over which the events depicted in such a snapshot occurred.
3) Both sides use a similar set of military equipment. It is difficult, and often impossible, to determine from the available photos and videos the identity of a particular vehicle.
4) Both sides have trophy vehicles from the other side, further complicating the analysis.
5) People pretending to be “Open Source Intelligence” specialists on Twitter are biased to a ridiculous degree, media uses them as “objective” sources, thus disproving Ukrainian war propaganda is an often thankless task of having to “defend” against the most extreme pseudo-analysis.
In addition, one side of the conflict has lied a lot more than the other side about such things, including blunders like using video game footage. If anything, you should try to be as unbiased as possible about tactical claims, but if something comes from the side that posts ArmA 3 videos, some extra scrutiny is in order.

Photo 1
There’s something interesting in Photo 1, namely wreckage of BMP-1s (1, 2 and 4) and also turrets torn off by ammo detonations, from the same type of vehicle (3 and 6)
Another interesting exhibit is 5, which looks like a BTR-D.
BTR-Ds are used by the Russian Airborne Forces, but Ukrainian air and ground forces also have them. The Donbass republics also captured several of them as trophies.
As for the BMP-1s, everything is more interesting. The Russian Army no longer uses the base variant of the BMP-1. They use BMP-1AM "Basurmanin" and BRM-1K, but both of them differ in combat compartment, and here we can clearly see the small single turrets of BMP-1.
The BMP-1 is, however, in service with the LPR and DPR People's Militias.
Photo 2
On this photo, we can see a bunch of BMP-1s. Numbers 6, 7, 11, 12, 20, 21, 15, 16 and 19 are clearly identifiable. A turret can be discerned around 12. Nine pieces, plus three in the previous shot. Twelve BMP-1s. Yes, number 6 is a BMP-1, it is better visible in another shot.
This cannot be ascribed to a random battlefield trophy the Russian army picked up.
The gem of this frame is number 10, which with a high degree of probability is none other than the Ukrainian "armored ambulance" based on the MT-LB, namely the MT-LB C, which has been supplied to the AFU since 2015. According to open data, the AFU has about 70 vehicles of this type, which is not that rare.
The nine is clearly an old "motolyga" (MT-LB) which has a small turret.
Numbers 8, 13, 17, 18 and 14 are harder to identify. Most likely these are machines of MT-LB family, number 13 even has a small turret.
Next slide.

Photo 3
We continue counting BMP-1s.
Numbers 23, 25, 27, 28, 29, and 30. Twelve BMP-1s plus six more, that's eighteen! Too many to be a coincidence.
Also another MT-LB, number 22.
Photo 4
Seven more BMP-1s: 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 37, 41. Already twenty-five of them.
41, 31 and 35 have visible invasion marks, thus proving that they most likely belong to the Allied Forces of Russia & the Donbass republics (probably the latter, or actually Russian trophies). This, of course, begs the question why all the other BMP-1s, even those in reasonably “good” condition, don’t have invasion marks if they’re supposed to be Russian?
Number 36 is another MT-LB, looks like the turret was also blown off.
Number 38 is not clearly identifiable.
Numbers 39 and 40 are T-72 tanks, possibly the B modification. Both look mostly undamaged. We’ve called the war a “Late Soviet Tech Genocide” before, most of the vehicle losses are among the APCs and IVFs.
Photo 5
Number 42 is a Kamaz 8x8 with a pontoon.
Numbers 43 to 47 are various river crossing equipment, much of it used by both sides (e.g. the the PMP-60).
48 and 49 are tugboats.
Now, what does this tell us.
1) According to the composition of the burned equipment, we see the presence of the Russian and Ukrainian armies, as well as forces of the LPR or DPR. We can no longer write off the entire pile as Russian casualties.
2) As can be seen from photo 5, the path there is well-traveled, which is understandable. After the bridges got blown up, such a convenient crossing place could not go unnoticed by both sides.
3) Thus we come to the most likely version of what happened at the crossing near Belogorovka. Both sides liked the place of the crossing. First the Ukrainians, but the Russian (Allied) forces suffered losses during the crossing as well.
4) The "mix" of equipment and its condition indicates that the sides fought over the crossing for some time (probably about a week) until it fell into the hands of the Allied Forces.
5) This is also indicated by Ukrainian photos and videos taken from a respectful distance. The crossing is clearly not under the control of the Ukrainian forces, otherwise the internet would have been FLOODED by close-ups of corpses and vehicles. They are notoriously prone to TikTok victories.
6) There are no bodies in the shots, which suggests that one of the parties had the opportunity to remove them.
7) The Ukrainian General Staff stated that in the evening of May 11, "The enemy is trying to seize positions on the right bank," and by the next morning "the enemy is crossing the Seversky Donets River to carry out an offensive.”
Later there were reports that Russian troops not only had not retreated from the area, but were expanding the bridgehead. It is difficult to say how large the bridgehead is now, but on May 11, judging by the published satellite images, the Seversky Donets crossing was intact. Right now, fighting is reported on the other side of the river, implying a successful crossing.
It looks like most of the fighting was done by the LPR & DPR in this area, with Russian forces carrying out the river crossing itself.
Two independent private sources on the ground have stated to me that Allied Forces vehicle losses were “around 20” and “fewer than two dozen”, respectively, with casualties between 30 and 50.

 
'Protection through occupation: The European "allies" are paying to be occupied.'

US sending fresh troops to Europe

14 May, 2022
[...]
“And I believe that a lot of our European allies … they are very, very willing to establish permanent bases,” Milley added. “They’ll build them, they’ll pay for them.”
Article in full:

US sending fresh troops to Europe​

The deployment will maintain US troop levels at around 100,000 on the continent

The United States will send more than 10,000 soldiers to Europe, who are expected to replace forces deployed to the region following Russia’s attack on Ukraine, many positioned along the “eastern flank” of the NATO military bloc.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby confirmed the deployment during a Friday press conference, noting that the “security environment has now changed” in the region due to the conflict in Ukraine.

“The deployments are one-for-one unit replacements, which will leave our overall force posture in the region – approximately 100,000 – unchanged,” Kirby told reporters. “The units being replaced will return to their home station following an appropriate turnover of responsibilities.”

Troop turnovers are expected to continue throughout the summer, the spokesman continued. However, he added that the military could soon “take a look at the permanent footprint in Europe and make an assessment” about whether it should remain at its current levels, although no decision has yet been made.

Before Moscow sent troops into Ukraine in late February, US forces in Europe numbered around 80,000, some stationed there permanently on bases, while others rotated on training deployments with NATO partners.

As some members of the alliance, such as Baltic state Lithuania, have pressed for a larger and more sustained American troop presence in recent months, US officials have proposed ways to meet those requests, including by constructing new bases.

“My advice would be to create permanent bases, but don’t permanently station [US troops],” General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers last month. He argued that would, in effect, mean long-term deployments, as “rotational forces” could cycle through “permanent bases.”

“And I believe that a lot of our European allies … they are very, very willing to establish permanent bases,”
Milley added. “They’ll build them, they’ll pay for them.”
Interesting!

'After "NATO territory" comes "NATO sea".'

Baltic Sea ‘becomes NATO sea’ – EU member

13 May, 2022
Latvia’s foreign minister has embraced Finland and Sweden’s plans to join the alliance

Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics has said his country approves of Finland and Sweden joining NATO, noting that their addition to the alliance turns the Baltic Sea into “a NATO sea” in a Friday interview with the Financial Times.

Along with his counterparts in Estonia and Lithuania, Rinkevics expressed his eagerness to ratify the membership applications of the two Nordic countries. All three told the Times they would benefit from Finland and Sweden’s military strength, particularly Finland’s US fighter jet fleet.

Despite his unmitigated support for the accession of Russia’s northern neighbors to NATO, however, Rinkevics is hoping for more NATO troops in his country. The transformation of the Baltic into a NATO asset “does not change our demands for NATO increase in [the] Baltic region,” the FM said, adding that “there are still issues to be addressed” and that “the current security situation requires bolder plans by the alliance.

While NATO sent 1,000 extra troops each to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania from European member states earlier this year, the countries have demanded more, calling for brigades of 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers and an air defense upgrade that would let them shoot down Russian planes in case of aggression.

Before the invasion of Ukraine, the Baltics claimed to be concerned about Russia potentially invading their region via the Suwalki gap, the comparatively short (65km) border region between Poland and Lithuania sandwiched between Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad province, also located on the newly-christened “NATO sea.” All three nations are reportedly increasing their defense spending to 2.5% of GDP, compared to the NATO requirement of 2%.

Russia warned on Thursday that Finland joining NATO would pose a direct threat and require a response from Moscow following the country’s announcement that it planned to seek such membership with an eye toward submitting a formal application as soon as next Monday. Finland shares an 833-mile (1,340-kilometer) land border with Russia and while Helsinki has admitted that its neighbor poses no direct threat, membership in the bloc represents a direct escalation, placing a hostile alliance directly on Russia’s border.

Sweden reportedly plans to make its own formal request to join NATO next week, though some factions of the government are more enthusiastic than others regarding the prospect.
(Translated by Google)

US Navy landing craft heading for the Baltic Sea

2022-05-14
 
Putin spoke with the Finnish president:


"Putin discussed with the Finnish president Helsinki's announced intention to apply for NATO membership, the Kremlin said. The conversation stressed that:

▪️ Finland's rejection of its traditional policy of military neutrality would be a mistake

▪️ there are no threats to Finland's security

▪️ Changes in Finland's foreign policy could have a negative impact on relations with Russia

▪️ Putin also shared his assessments of the state of the negotiation process on Ukraine, which has actually been suspended by Kiev

▪️ It was noted that Kiev was not interested in a serious and constructive dialogue."
 
It's clear to me now that neo-Nazi elements (el Banderistas) were installed in Ukraine and funded for many, many years. Are you aware of anything similar happening in Finland?
There's some marginal ultranationalistic groups in Finland, but they don't have much public support. Back in 2015 with migrant crisis there was heightened activity with groups such as Soldiers of Odin and pre-WW2 fascist 'Blue and Black' -group were revived, but they served more as a tool for mainstream media to polarize the population and ignite the culture war themes - currently they don't seem to have much going on.

But who knows, perhaps with some conflict created against Russia the PTB could stir up the support for these groups, if that would be the plan. In some parts of Finland there's IMO nostalgia and sympathy for the pre-WW2 nationalistic "spirit", which may have increased with the culture war madness going on, and even more due to the ingrained anti-Russia sentiments, which are still a part of Finnish collective psyche with varying degrees. So I suppose this could be exploited under right conditions.

Here is SOTT -article I wrote in 2015 that has some background collected about pre-WW2 Finnish history based on the recent war history research, which I think isn't too widely known (some conclusions may not be up to date, but the main points with the history holds true). For example the level of cooperation with Nazi-Germany and the 'Greater Finland' ideology, which drove the elite to push Finland into war with Russia (average Finns didn't care about this ideology). This 'Greater Finland' mindset of the elite is in a way still alive; it's just morphed into 'Greater Nato' with the desire to join it's eastwards expansion.
What is the stance of the ordinary Fin people?
Difficult to say as there was no referendum, only few polls which are easy to manipulate with leading questions, and the first shock of war is inflating the data, with the help of MSM war propaganda. Historically Finns have always opposed joining Nato.
If I remember correctly Jussi Halla-aho (leader of the Finns Party) got his 'higher' education in western Ukraine (Lviv?).
Halla-Aho is definitely interesting character to follow, with all that has been going on. He's the Finnish populist leader and had highest support of all Finnish candidates in 2019 elections with over 30 000 votes, although last year he stepped down as official party leader, and has stayed in the background as a regular MP. During the 2019 elections Halla-aho basically challenged the radical leftist talking points with great success, and seemed to make a lot of sense, just like elsewhere in Europe the populist movements have often had the main opposition voices in their ranks, speaking against the liberal globalist agenda and wokeness hysteria.

Signs of HA's attitudes towards Russia were already visible in his blog writings, but the Ukraine war has exposed him to be a total madman. Here's what he had to say at the start of the war to the Russian people (there's a video in the link, he makes a weird "music" performance at the end of his vitriolic message):
My name is Jussi Halla-Aho. I am a Finnish MP and chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee. Every honest person has to feel joy when Russian soldiers are dying, and wish that there would be dying as many as possible. Your economy will be destroyed, your standard of living will collapse, your savings will disappear. Russian soldier have no morale, which is of course not a surprise. Everything you've gathered and build last 30 years will be demolished. You, ordinary Russians, will be paying for this for a long time.
Here's another example of him calling collective punishment for all Russians:
No one should go to Russia, no one from Russia should be allowed anywhere. Mr Putin has remained popular because Russians do not suffer enough for his criminal behaviour. It is not about guilt or innocence. It is about effect.
Halla-Aho is the current chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Finnish parliament (it's purpose is to deal with "significant treaties, as well as matters pertaining to general foreign and security policy, foreign trade policy, development cooperation, and international organisations"). His predecessor Mika Niikko had to step down earlier this year for daring to question the rationality of Ukraine's Nato plans, and was replaced by Halla-aho. And now he is allowed to spew this hatred on Russians in the very same position. It looks like the Finnish political elite finally found good use for Halla-Aho after all these years.
 
What does Popasnaya look like today, which has come under the full control of the troops of the LPR and the Russian Federation

https://anna-news.info/kak-segodnya...eshedshaya-pod-polnyj-kontrol-vojsk-lnr-i-rf/

Ukrainian military banned from criticizing foreign equipment
14.05.2022 19:31

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine forbade soldiers and officers to publicly criticize foreign military equipment

The new order has already been received by the troops. Military personnel are prohibited from publicly speaking negatively about military equipment delivered from abroad in the media and social networks.

Violators will face disciplinary penalties, as well as removal from office. The new document was developed at the request of Zelensky's office media workers.

The Kiev leadership is closely monitoring the situation. It has been revealed that now Ukrainian militants are actively criticizing American M-113 armored personnel carriers, Javelin complexes, British anti-aircraft systems. In addition, Polish tanks and Czech howitzers "Dana" began to be criticized.
https://news-front.info/2022/05/14/ukrainskim-voennym-zapretili-kritikovat-inostrannuju-tehniku/

Ukrainian authorities have banned Kharkiv nursing homes from accepting help from the Russian Federation
14.05.2022 21:00

Kiev has banned Kharkiv nursing homes from accepting humanitarian aid from Russia.

The Ukrainian authorities threaten the management of nursing homes in the liberated territories of the Kharkiv region with reprisals against relatives for receiving humanitarian aid from Russia.

The corresponding order was received by the social institutions of the Kharkiv region from the regional center. By this order, the Ukrainian authorities deprived nursing homes and hospitals of funding, and also prohibited them from receiving assistance from the Russian side.

However, representatives of the civil-military administration still convinced the leadership of the Volchansk nursing home, which houses 97 elderly people, to accept medicines, food and a generator from the Russian Federation. Deprived of pensions, the residents of the nursing home have not received proper nutrition and care for three months.
https://news-front.info/2022/05/14/...kim-domam-prestarelyh-prinimat-pomoshh-ot-rf/
 
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