For those who are really interested, it's well worth the time and effort.
Personally, I was not impressed. I like hard-core documentaries, and this movie is far from it.
For those who are really interested, it's well worth the time and effort.
If Ukraine would lose, that would mean that within NATO, we are not talking about whatever 3% instead of the present spending commitments we have made with the NATO. Whatever, exactly the outcome of that debate will be - it will not be billions extra, it will be trillions extra. Because if Ukraine loses, then to restore the deterrence of the west, of NATO. Again, it will be a much, much higher price than what we're contemplating at this moment in terms of spending up, of ramping up our spending and ramping up our industrial production.
What I am giving is not entirely new, it is an excerpt from an interview in 2023. However, I was shocked by the amount of nonsense that can be uttered in 2.5 minutes. Obviously, Jen Psaki, who became a champion in voicing nonsense at the time, did not arise from scratch, she studied for a long time with such masters.A brand new gem worthy of Orwell (or a Monty Python sketch):
They might know that Ukraine has lost, but just like in April 2022, at the time of the negotiations in Istanbul, they are not interested in peace, they want to prepare Western Europe and the countries nearby like Finland, the Baltics, and so one for a battle later on. Perhaps they are like the German generals in late 1941, but then there were still more than three years to go, and the peace reached then was only a pause for more war.A brand new gem worthy of Orwell (or a Monty Python sketch):
If Ukraine would lose, that would mean that within NATO, we are not talking about whatever 3% instead of the present spending commitments we have made with the NATO. Whatever, exactly the outcome of that debate will be - it will not be billions extra, it will be trillions extra. Because if Ukraine loses, then to restore the deterrence of the west, of NATO. Again, it will be a much, much higher price than what we're contemplating at this moment in terms of spending up, of ramping up our spending and ramping up our industrial production.
'Go fetch': Russian MFA sees Trump's comments about Ukraine's rare earth metals as command
MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has interpreted US President Donald Trump's statement that the United States is interested in obtaining rare-earth metals from Ukraine and is seeking relevant guarantees from Kiev as his way of telling Zelensky and company to "go fetch."
"Apparently, the US president saw that Kiev was ready to sell Ukraine out for the sake of retaining US military and financial support and apparently decided to approach this conflict from a commercial point of view," Zakharova told a news briefing.
"You know, what US President Trump said to Vladimir Zelensky doesn't even look very much like a deal. It looks like he’s telling him to go 'fetch'. And this is a command that the Kiev regime knows how to follow," Zakharova said.
She stressed that the Americans have had their eyes on Ukraine's natural riches for some time.
"With the help of the corrupt Kiev regime, they managed to lay their hands on, in particular, farmland, including fertile land, without much effort. Now that they’ve gotten hold of this fertile soil, the sponsors of the Kiev regime are looking for what else is left there. This time, they’ve turned to what’s under the ground," she said.
Zakharova recalled that Zelensky expressed this idea implicitly in his so-called "victory plan" in October 2024, when he proposed to "partners" to shake hands on an agreement with Ukraine "on joint protection of Ukraine's critical resources, joint investment and use of Ukrainian economic potential."
"What do they mean when they talk about the country's critical resources? Of course, this concerns rare earth metals - uranium, titanium, lithium and so on. On February 4, Zelensky hurried to assure Washington that he was ready to jointly develop these minerals and thanked the United States for its efforts in supporting Ukraine," Zakharova noted.
MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. Russian forces struck Ukrainian military airfields and UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) launch preparation sites over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Thursday.
"Operational/tactical aircraft, attack unmanned aerial vehicles, missile troops and artillery of the Russian groups of forces struck the infrastructure of military airfields, the sites for storing and preparing unmanned aerial vehicles for launch and amassed enemy manpower and equipment in 142 areas," the ministry said in a statement.
Russia’s Battlegroup North inflicts over 25 casualties on Ukrainian army in Kharkov area
Russia’s Battlegroup North inflicted more than 25 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed an enemy ammunition depot in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.
"Battlegroup North units operating in the Kharkov direction inflicted casualties on formations of two territorial defense brigades in areas near the settlements of Volchansk and Okhrimovka in the Kharkov Region," the ministry said.
The Ukrainian army lost more than 25 personnel, four motor vehicles and a field artillery gun in that frontline area over the past 24 hours, it specified.
In addition, Russian forces destroyed an ammunition depot of the Ukrainian army, it said.
Russia’s Battlegroup West inflicts over 200 casualties on Ukrainian army in past day
Russia’s Battlegroup West inflicted more than 200 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed five enemy armored combat vehicles in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.
"Battlegroup West units improved their tactical position and inflicted damage on manpower and equipment of three mechanized and a mountain assault brigade of the Ukrainian army and a National Guard brigade in areas near the settlements of Peschanoye, Novaya Kruglyakovka, Zelyony Gai and Zagryzovo in the Kharkov Region, Shandrigolovo, Novoye, Yampolovka and Kolodezi in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the ministry said.
The Ukrainian army’s losses in that frontline area over the past 24 hours totaled more than 200 personnel, a tank, five armored combat vehicles, including three US-made M113 armored personnel carriers, seven motor vehicles and five field artillery guns, among them two Western-made weapons, it specified.
In addition, Russian forces destroyed an electronic warfare station and four ammunition depots of the Ukrainian army, it said.
Russia’s Battlegroup South inflicts 180 casualties on Ukrainian army in past day
Russia’s Battlegroup South inflicted roughly 180 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed an enemy artillery system and an ammunition depot in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.
"Battlegroup South units gained better lines and positions and inflicted casualties on formations of two mechanized, an assault and a motorized infantry brigade of the Ukrainian army and two territorial defense brigades in areas near the settlements of Predtechino, Katerinovka, Orekhovo-Vasilevka, Nikolayevka, Zelenovka, Sukhiye Yaly and Chasov Yar in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the ministry said.
The Ukrainian army lost an estimated 180 personnel, three motor vehicles and a self-propelled artillery system in that frontline area over the past 24 hours, it specified.
In addition, Russian forces destroyed an ammunition depot of the Ukrainian army, it said.
Russia’s Battlegroup Center inflicts over 500 casualties on Ukrainian army in past day
Russia’s Battlegroup Center inflicted more than 500 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed seven enemy artillery guns in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.
"Battlegroup Center units improved their frontline positions and inflicted damage on manpower and equipment of two heavy mechanized, five mechanized and a jaeger brigade of the Ukrainian army and the Lyut assault brigade of Ukraine’s national police near the settlements of Druzhba, Shcherbinovka, Udachnoye, Novopavlovka, Tarasovka, Dzerzhinsk, Vodyanoye Vtoroye and Kotlino in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the ministry said.
The Ukrainian army lost more than 505 personnel, five armored combat vehicles, including a US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, two motor vehicles and seven artillery guns, among them a Western-made self-propelled artillery system in that frontline area over the past 24 hours, it specified.
Russia’s Battlegroup East inflicts 135 casualties on Ukrainian army in past day
Russia’s Battlegroup East inflicted roughly 135 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed two enemy armored combat vehicles in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.
"Battlegroup East units kept advancing deep into the enemy’s defenses and inflicted losses on formations of a tank brigade and three mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian army and three territorial defense brigades in areas near the settlements of Burlatskoye, Novosyolka, Novopol and Rovnopol in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the ministry said.
The Ukrainian army’s losses in that frontline area over the past 24 hours amounted to 135 personnel, two armored combat vehicles, three motor vehicles and two field artillery guns, including a US-made 155mm Paladin self-propelled artillery system, it specified.
Russia’s Battlegroup Dnepr inflicts 45 casualties on Ukrainian army in past day
Russia’s Battlegroup Dnepr inflicted roughly 45 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed an enemy naval drone over the past day, the ministry reported.
"Battlegroup Dnepr units inflicted damage on manpower and equipment of a mountain assault brigade and three coastal defense brigades of the Ukrainian army in areas near the settlements of Shcherbaki in the Zaporozhye Region, Dneprovskoye, Yantarnoye and Nikolskoye in the Kherson Region," the ministry said.
The Ukrainian army lost an estimated 45 personnel, two motor vehicles and an uncrewed boat in that frontline area over the past 24 hours, it specified.
Russian air defenses destroy 106 Ukrainian UAVs, 10 HIMARS rockets over past day
Russian air defense forces shot down 106 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles and 10 HIMARS rockets over the past day, the ministry reported.
"Air defense capabilities shot down two French-made Hammer guided aerial bombs, 10 rockets of the US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket system and 106 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles," the ministry said.
Overall, the Russian Armed Forces have destroyed 653 Ukrainian warplanes, 283 helicopters, 42,569 unmanned aerial vehicles, 590 surface-to-air missile systems, 21,047 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 1,513 multiple rocket launchers, 21,292 field artillery guns and mortars and 31,239 special military motor vehicles since the start of the special military operation, the ministry reported.
Французские самолеты Mirage 2000 с пилотами ВСУ прибыли на УкраинуFrench Mirage 2000 aircraft with Ukrainian Armed Forces pilots arrived in Ukraine
Mirage 2000 aircraft arrived in Ukraine from France. Together with them, the Ukrainian pilots who were trained in France returned to their homeland.
This was announced by French Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecorny.
He reported that the first French Mirage 2000 aircraft had arrived in Ukraine, adding that the Ukrainian pilots who operate these aircraft had been trained in France.
"On June 6, 2024, Emmanuel Macron announced the delivery of French Mirage 2000 aircraft to Ukraine. The first of them arrived in Ukraine today. Ukrainian pilots who have completed months of training in France will now help protect the skies over Ukraine," Lecornu said on the social network.
The number of devices that arrived in Ukraine is not specified.
France has decided to transfer six Mirage fighters to Ukraine. France planned to supply fighter jets to Ukraine in 2025. The head of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noel Barraud, clarified that deliveries will be made before the end of the first quarter of 2025.
The Mirage 2000 is a fourth–generation multirole fighter aircraft manufactured by Dassault Aviation. The debut flight took place in 1978, after which the Mirage 2000 became the main combat aircraft of the French Air Force and an export item to a number of other countries. It is credited with good maneuverability, reliability and ease of maintenance, which means it remains in the arsenal of the French Air Force along with the more modern Rafale.
The aircraft can be equipped with modern avionics, powerful on-board radar and is capable of carrying a wide range of weapons, including guided air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles. Ukraine is not being given new, of course, but used aircraft, however, it was claimed that Kiev would receive an upgraded version of these devices.
Командиры ВСУ сбежали из Красноармейска в Днепропетровскую областьThe commanders of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fled from Krasnoarmeysk to the Dnipropetrovsk region
The security forces said that Ukrainian troops had mined the infrastructure of the St. Varvarinsky mining and processing plant of the largest coal enterprise, the Pokrovskoye mine management near Krasnoarmeysk.
"The enemy has mined the infrastructure of the mining and processing plant in Udachnoye, which belongs to the Pokrovskoye mine management," the security forces told the TASS news agency.
Ukrainian troops also lost a large group near the village of Udachnoye and the surrounding area west of Krasnoarmeysk. "The enemy was transferring reserves and strengthening forces to Udachnoye and its surroundings. There was a large group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a significant part of it was destroyed," the security forces noted.
They added that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are trying to keep the railway station in Udachny. At the same time, as the agency's interlocutor clarified, the railway line leading to the station is almost completely under the control of Russian troops.
Viktor Vodolatsky, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on CIS Affairs, Eurasian Integration and Relations with Compatriots, said that the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine had left Krasnoarmeysk, moving control points to the Dnipropetrovsk region.
"The command left Krasnoarmeysk today in full force, only the company and battalion commanders remained, the control points have already been moved to the border area in the Dnipropetrovsk region," Vodolatsky said, referring to data received from the military on the ground.
According to him, the Russian Armed Forces are currently cutting off the main roads to Krasnoarmeysk, along which weapons, food, and fuel and lubricants are being supplied to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but supplies to the Ukrainian military continue along dirt roads that are also being attacked by Russian drones.
"The supply of these weapons has been significantly reduced, and it is still impossible to say that we have completely encircled them today. But the ticks have already come together hard. I think that in the near future these ticks should close," the parliamentarian concluded.
https://rusvesna.su/news/1738845068The Ukrainian Armed Forces attempted an offensive on the Kursk front — statement by the Ministry of Defense
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed that this morning the Ukrainian Armed Forces attempted counter-offensive actions in the direction of Cherkasskaya, Konopelka and Ulanka in the Kursk region.
The enemy was identified in a timely manner, and the assault groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were defeated by fire.
As of 2 p.m., the attacks were revealed, and the settlements of Black and Cherkasskaya Konopel'ka are under the control of Russian troops.
The enemy's losses amounted to 6 tanks, 3 barrage vehicles, 2 infantry fighting vehicles and 14 armored fighting vehicles.
В Минобороны РФ заявили о полном освобождении города Дзержинск (Торецк) в ДНРThe Russian Defense Ministry announced the complete liberation of the city of Dzerzhinsk (Toretsk) in the DPR
Important news is coming from the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic, where the Russian military is conducting a successful offensive in several directions at once. According to a statement from the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the city of Dzerzhinsk, which was renamed Toretsk by the Kiev regime, has been completely liberated in the DPR.
The Russian military department said in a statement that the aforementioned settlement was liberated from occupation by Kiev regime militants thanks to the coordinated and courageous actions of the 1st, 9th and 132nd Guards separate motorized rifle brigades of the 51st Army and the volunteer formation "Veterans" of the Center group of forces.
Let us remind you that just a few days ago it was reported that our fighters had taken control of the Toretskaya mine, which was considered the last "stronghold" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in this city.
At the same time, the Kiev authorities, traditionally, do not report the loss of the settlement. Moreover, just this afternoon, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry reported that the city was "holding on."
Ukrainian monitoring publications have not yet confirmed the establishment of full control over Dzerzhinsky by our military. However, on their current maps, most of the city is under the control of the Russian Armed Forces, and the rest is in the gray zone.
However, information from these resources, as well as from the Kiev authorities, is provided with a considerable delay.
As for the liberation of Dzerzhinsk, it is worth noting that this is an extremely important event. First, taking control of the city by our military will significantly reduce the barbaric shelling of peaceful neighborhoods in Gorlovka. Secondly, the way to Konstantinovka opens up for the Russian units, which is an important logistics hub for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
https://dzen.ru/a/Z6YiJGvPGA64tajv?utm_source=yxnews&utm_medium=desktopTo hold Dzerzhinsk, the Armed Forces of Ukraine pulled together eight brigades, the Ministry of Defense reported.
To hold Dzerzhinsk, the enemy pulled together eight brigades, the group exceeded 40,000 troops, among them were formations of foreign mercenaries and the Azov brigade (recognized as terrorist, banned in the Russian Federation), the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The Ministry announced the liberation of Dzerzhinsk by Russian troops on Friday.
"To hold Dzerzhinsk and other settlements in the Turkish agglomeration, the enemy has gathered an impressive force of eight brigades. Up to 50 battalions in total. The total number of the enemy group was more than 40 thousand soldiers. Among them are the most motivated nationalist formations loyal to the Bandera regime, including the Azov brigade, as well as units of foreign mercenaries," the report says.
https://dzen.ru/a/Z6ZQ32vPGA64xBU-The United States made an alarming statement after the liberation of Dzerzhinsk
The liberation of Dzerzhinsk by Russian troops in the DPR indicates that the Ukrainian defense is bursting at the seams, writes the Washington Post.
"The Russian army has conducted a continuous year—long campaign on the eastern front, gradually loosening the grip of small and exhausted Ukrainian troops on their strongholds," the newspaper notes.
The article also added that the liberation of Dzerzhinsk will accelerate the advance of the Russian military in the DPR.
On Friday, the Ministry of Defense announced that Dzerzhinsk had been taken under control. The city was liberated as a result of the successful actions of units of the 1st, 9th and 132nd Guards separate motorized rifle brigades of the 51st Army and the volunteer formation "Veterans" of the Center group of forces.
Dzerzhinsk (renamed Toretsk by the Kiev authorities in 2016) is a powerful fortified area of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with a developed railway network, where Ukrainian troops have been entrenched since 2014. It was from here that Gorlovka, one of the largest cities of the DPR, was regularly shelled. His release opens the way to the enemy—controlled north of the DPR, in particular the Konstantinovka—Druzhkovka—Kramatorsk-Slavyansk agglomeration.
Vladimir Putin: In the war of propaganda it is very difficult to defeat the United States because the United States controls all the world’s media and many European media. The ultimate beneficiary of the biggest European media are American financial institutions. Don't you know that? So it is possible to get involved in this work, but it is cost prohibitive, so to speak.
After all, only a few Mirage planes have been delivered. In literal terms, it has been planned for months, Macron would not go a far as you suggest, considering the discussion in this thread: Brigitte Macron is a man?The French are still jumping out of their pants in an attempt to support the Bandera regime.
The Ukrainian Air Force has received the first French supplied Mirage 2000 fighters at an unknown airbase in the country, following the announcement in early June of plans to transfer the ageing combat jets as part of France’s support for the Eastern European state’s ongoing war effort. “With Ukrainian pilots on board who have been trained for several months in France, they will now participate in defending the skies of Ukraine,” France’s Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu stated, with six fighters thought to have comprised the first batch. Lecornu previously announced that the second hand fighters would receive new electronic self-defence systems before delivery to facilitate more effective air to surface operations, since the fighters’ avionics were previously configured for air to air operations.
[...]
Mirage 2000s are similarly expected to be employed as elevated launchers for cruise missile attacks, but to operate well behind the frontlines. The French fighter class does not introduce any fundamentally new capabilities not already provided by the F-16 or MiG-29, and has the least remarkable flight performance of the three, but it will allow Ukraine to field more fighter squadrons as its fleet of Soviet built fourth generation aircraft is depleted.
Whether Macron will go far or not is a matter of subjective assessment. It is obvious to me that he goes much further than many other Ukrainian allies.After all, only a few Mirage planes have been delivered. In literal terms, it has been planned for months, Macron would not go a far as you suggest, considering the discussion in this thread: Brigitte Macron is a man?
Великая деглобализационная войнаThe Great Deglobalization War
Do you remember how Soviet textbooks in relation to World War II described how "in a world of pure money and profit" German factories owned by American shareholders produced military products for the Reich, regularly transferring profits to their American shareholders. And the American aviation did not bomb these factories (sometimes, however, they did, but they really tried not to destroy American property in Europe).
In fact, it's always been that way. Not literally so, but fundamentally so. From ancient times until the end of the 19th century, the states that started the war basically only closed their market for the direct entry of enemy goods. It is for the direct one. That is, merchants of a hostile state could not trade on the territory of their military opponent.
The neutrals quietly profited from this. The need for some goods did not disappear with the outbreak of hostilities, and it is still difficult to replace a supplier, and the further down the centuries, the more difficult it was to do so. For example, in the XVI–XVII centuries, wheat was not yet grown in Canada, Kazakhstan and Australia. The Northern Black Sea region, the breadbasket of ancient Greece, as well as North Africa and Egypt, the granaries of ancient Rome, belonged to the Turks and were included in their trade. At that time, Russia grew mostly rye and increasingly for its own consumption (it traded timber, hemp, flax, honey, wax, and furs with foreign countries).
The only supplier of wheat to the European market was the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The volumes were small at the present time: in most of Europe, subsistence farming still prevailed and rare "megacities" of that time needed imported bread. But there was no one to replace Rzeczpospolita as a supplier. Therefore, the Polish-Lithuanian state in its wars with Russia, as a rule, was sympathetic and provided weak (as much as possible at that time) support by France and England, the main consumers of Polish bread, as well as the Hanseatic cities, which ensured its delivery from the seller to the consumer and profited from it.
And Moscow needed a "window to Europe" through the Black Sea (Russia, which did not have the Vistula River Route, was far and unprofitable to transport through the Baltic), the more the southern grain-producing provinces passed from the Commonwealth under the rule of Russia. It is no coincidence that the creation of Russian Novorossiya, focused on the transit of goods through the powerful Black Sea ports built there (Odessa, Nikolaev, Kherson) coincided with the sections of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, which finally made Russia a supplier of bread to Europe. Russia adopted this trading position from the vanished Poland.
The same applies to other positions. Russian metallurgists began to compete with Swedish ones as suppliers of pig iron and iron to Europe only from the first quarter of the 18th century, and in the 19th century competition intensified with the beginning of active development of the Ruhr area (weapons for export in Rhineland Germany have been produced for centuries, but metal began to be exported only in the 19th century). However, soon almost all of it was needed for the military programs of the newborn Second Reich.
That is, Sweden has been a monopoly supplier of iron for a couple of centuries. It's not that it wasn't produced in other European areas, but it was impossible to compensate for the hypothetical instant disappearance of Swedish exports before the appearance of a Russian competitor.
Therefore, trade through neutrals continued. Largely because of this (due to the interest of all European countries in the continuity of trade, despite the constant wars), a code of maritime law began to be gradually developed. So far, in his articles (which have long been adapted to the requirements of the "civilized world"), two initial tasks are easily visible.:
• combating disorganized piracy (let me remind you that privateering — piracy based on a government patent — was not considered a crime, and the last privateer patent was issued in 1943, but privateering is still a legal activity today, although it is temporarily not applied);
• Ensuring unhindered trade of neutrals in the ports of warring States.
Now, anything can fit the definition of "military smuggling", up to baby food (humanists), previously, weapons, gunpowder and military materials such as lead (which was directly used to produce bullets on the battlefield) and materials for equipping warships (timber, hemp, canvas) clearly referred to military smuggling., resin). Moreover, military materials were forbidden to be imported only to the ports of the warring countries: if, for example, France was at war, but Holland was not, then it was possible to unload in Amsterdam and deliver goods to France either through the Spanish Netherlands (future Belgium), or, if Spain was also at war, through the German Rhineland provinces.
So, throughout the history of mankind, during wars that were waged almost continuously, in addition to the task of defeating one of the parties, the task of maintaining the achieved level of world trade was constantly solved by everyone, and the more extensive the trade relations were and the larger the segment of the national economy depended on the rhythm of foreign trade, the more important this task was. It would seem that in the era of globalization, it should, in principle, become paramount. And here we are faced with a truly miraculous change in the attitude of the warring countries towards global trade and global economic cooperation in general.
At the first stage of the global confrontation, sometime before 2014, the parties were still trying to play by the old rules. However, 2014, with the seizure of Ukraine, which they did not need, and the provocation of a senseless civil war there, followed by an equally senseless clash with Russia, was needed by the United States and its allies precisely in order to legalize a new approach to trade and economic relations during military operations.
Think about it, the United States has invested a lot of money (and other resources) in the Ukrainian crisis, putting its global credibility on the line. And all this in order to give Ukraine to Russia. In any other scenario, even Crimea and Sevastopol would have remained under Kiev's control, and a much more self-sufficient Ukraine would in any case have been a geopolitical competitor of Russia and, as far as possible, would have played along with the West.
In the 70s and 80s, the United States would have relied on just such a development, on playing the long game. Now they quickly brought the matter to a military crisis and openly declared in 2022 that they had no doubt about Ukraine's military defeat within two to three months, or even faster. Moreover, at that time, by military defeat, the United States meant the complete occupation of the territory of Ukraine by the Russian army, followed by the annexation of a significant part of it to the Russian Federation and the creation of a puppet state on the remnants, completely dependent on Russia.
I emphasize that they deliberately sacrificed Ukraine, as they sacrifice a pawn or an easy piece in chess. The American strategy has not changed since 2022. They just helped Ukraine to fight longer, since such an opportunity appeared. But, from the pace and volume of arms supplies to the planning of military operations, they have done nothing to really save the pro-Western regime in Ukraine.
They had such an opportunity. The Ukrainian Armed Forces broke down as a result of the failed summer offensive of 2023, planned by American and British military advisers. The same thing happened to the Ukrainian army as to the Germans at Stalingrad: it could have continued to fight, but it had already received a fatal blow, as the losses of trained, motivated soldiers were irreparable. By the end of 2023, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, like the Wehrmacht in 1943, had lost the ability to compensate for losses both quantitatively and qualitatively. The inability to make up for losses, and especially the decline in the quality of incoming troops, makes the destruction of any army inevitable and even calculated.
Let me remind you that the West has stated that it is waging a war of attrition with Russia in Ukraine. If this statement had concerned the battlefield, then, given the disparity between Russian and Ukrainian economic and demographic resources, Western advisers should have forced the Ukrainian Armed Forces to sit on the defensive, not waste their strength on offensive adventures and try to inflict maximum losses on the Russian Armed Forces, accumulating their own forces, including Western equipment. The West initially knew that Kiev would not capture Chukotka, Moscow, or even Belgorod, which means that its winning military strategy was to force the Russian army to storm solid fortified lines stretching from the outskirts of Donetsk to Kiev, Zaporizhia, and Kherson, and to prepare new ones in the deep Ukrainian rear and at its own training grounds. formations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, recruit mercenaries for Ukraine and supply Kiev with weapons and ammunition in increasing numbers. That is, to do what he was doing from May 2022 to June 2023.
In this scenario, the West could count on the fact that at some stage the cost of resources would become unacceptable to Russia and it would agree to the very freeze that the United States has been offering since December 2023.
But the fact of the matter is that the West needed a pro-Western Ukraine even less than a pro-Russian one. It is impossible to defeat Russia on the battlefield. Even if the West could muster enough forces to win a conventional war, Moscow always had a nuclear argument. But even in a conventional war, one could not count on anything more than a draw. The destruction of the army only creates the prerequisites for victory. Victory is achieved by occupying and controlling the territory. Russia is too big, but it has too little population, and because of this, the West cannot occupy Russia, and Russia cannot occupy Europe, meaning that any partial victories cannot be converted into a final victory in the war.
There were no plans to start a nuclear war in the West either. They planned nuclear blackmail at the dangerous edge, but they were not going to launch missiles, and they did not expect a first strike from Russia.
Russia and China in the West have gathered to defeat economically, through the imposition of sanctions. The West received a sufficient reason to impose sanctions against Russia back in 2014, when it supported Ukraine on the Crimean issue. In 2022, the West received an additional reason, which, by and large, it no longer really needed: it was possible to tighten sanctions anyway. But already in 2014, Ukraine turned out to be a moor that had fulfilled its task, and could have been written off the ship of history. The United States and the EU did not believe that Russia would hold out and in the spring of 2014 would not move the army to Kiev and beyond. Ukraine was already being written off then.
But once Moscow launched a political and diplomatic maneuver, the West accepted this challenge. Ukraine was supported just enough so that it would not die. Do you remember how many years Poroshenko has been begging for some lousy "Javelins" that no one remembers anymore? But hundreds of tanks, thousands of armored personnel carriers, hundreds of guns, multiple launch rocket systems, dozens of air defense/missile defense systems, a couple of hundred aircraft and at least a number of helicopters, millions of shells and cartridges could have been supplied to Kiev even then. From the point of view of the West, the Crimean Spring was, if anything, different from its own, then only in scale. Moreover, I repeat that the West was counting on the fact that Russia would not limit itself to Crimea, and for this, the Americans and the Europeans provoked a civil war under Russophobic slogans in Ukraine.
In fact, Ukraine has been fighting for ten years because Russia did not accept the gambit proposed by the West, leaving the Kiev regime under attack, but on the board, forcing the West to build a further game around defending this position, which it does not need in principle.
But let's see what happened in the name of the Ukrainian crisis, as well as in the name of the Taiwan crisis and due to Tehran's accusations of intending to produce nuclear weapons "yesterday." Over the years, the West has consistently and more openly dismantled the system of global trade and economic ties. The United States deliberately destroyed the globalized economy, trying to gather the most promising assets and the most powerful resource base under its regional dominance.
The task that was solved and was not solved by previous American administrations is to ensure American global dominance through regional dominance. By destroying global trade and economic ties, the United States intended to literally burn out the entire economy outside of its own regional cluster. Initially, it was assumed that such a cluster would be the collective West (USA, EU, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Taiwan and a number of smaller satellites). They were supposed to become a global workshop and the sole buyer of raw materials, which would allow them to dictate prices for them. The rest of the economies collapsed, and the states became colonial peripheries.
The plan was based on an overestimation of the technological indispensability of the West, an overly optimistic view of its ability to control major sources of resources and trade routes, as well as an exaggerated view of the role and indispensability of the dollar as the world's reserve currency and the currency of global trade settlements. The West believed that it had all the trumps in its hands, but it turned out that only part of it.
Nevertheless, the West's bet on winning the economic war remained unchanged. What has changed is that the West has now shrunk to the size of the United States. Everything else is an exploited periphery, whose task is to allow the American center to survive.
I wrote a long time ago that in this century, direct military operations have become only an action serving information and political warfare from a central event. But it turned out that the very purpose of the war has now changed: not the destruction of the enemy in order to gain control over an additional part of the global trade and economic system, as it was before, but the destruction of the global trade and economic system as a condition necessary to destroy the enemy and ensure the global dominance of its own economic cluster.
The hegemon is not just destroying the economic base of its hegemony, it is literally trying to organize an economic "Great Flood" that should wash away all economies except the expanded one at the expense of the American allies. Unlike his predecessors, Trump, who has absolutely no time left for maneuvers, is building his "Noah's Ark" and is trying to activate the flood openly. There is no longer any hope for the US military efforts, including in the waters of the Pacific Ocean. In Ukraine, if Russia does not fall for the offer of a peace truce on American terms, Trump is ready to leave everything as it is: let Moscow finish off Ukraine (this will distract it from active opposition to the United States for a while, and then it will be possible to bargain with Russia about America's recognition of new geopolitical realities). Now the United States is trying to achieve with targeted sanctions in all directions what it failed to achieve by provoking major conflicts (the Ukrainian crisis, the Taiwan crisis, the Philippine crisis, the European crisis, the Middle East crisis) — to destroy the global economy in such a way as to dramatically worsen the state of the economies of its main competitors, undermine their social stability, and their own economic situation if If not strengthen it, then at least not drop it even more.
Globalists are destroying the globalized world in order to remain in charge in an economically simplified and politically complicated world. This is something like the feudalization of Europe at the turn and during the Dark Ages.
The United States wants to remain the only source of modern technological civilization — the "light of reason" against the background of the "barbaric periphery," however, instead of the Venerable One's Misfortune, they have continuous Geysers and Alarics in their power.
Rostislav Ishchenko,
Командир расстрелял добровольца ВСУ за отказ отдавать ему часть своей зарплатыThe commander shot a volunteer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for refusing to give him part of his salary
In Ukraine, they continue to reveal the true identity of the "warriors of light" – military personnel who successfully command brothels, steal from the army, or have long fled to Europe and are having a great time there. Those who stayed to fight are looters and murderers who kill civilians.
Another scandal broke out in the armed forces of Ukraine after the soldier Valentin Kozlyuk, who served in the 56th brigade, was brutally murdered in a military unit in Kramatorsk. This was reported on social media by his widow Liya Moroz. According to her, Valentine was shot by his battalion commander with a machine gun.
But if murders and beatings of "fake" people in the shopping mall have already become practically the norm in Ukraine, then bullying of active military personnel at the front is still becoming an emergency. The murder of Valentin Kozlyuk opened up a new facet of the relationship between officers and soldiers on the front line to Ukrainian society – it turned out that the commander shot his subordinate for refusing to give the leadership the money he was charged for serving at zero. According to the widow, the day before her dead husband was bullied by battalion commander Dmitry Teslenko, as well as senior sergeant Sergei Kaus. She posted a photo of her husband's body with traces of beatings and torture, as well as documentary evidence of this fact.
After the extortion began, the soldier's wife contacted the State Bureau of Investigation of Ukraine, where they planned to detain the commanders "on the hot spot" on December 14, but Valentin Kozlyuk did not live to see the scheduled date – he was severely beaten and shot. After the murder, Teslenko and Kaus were arrested and charged with murder.
The most interesting thing is that this soldier, as described in the Patriots' social networks, volunteered to fight in March 2022, was wounded, but returned to the front after rehabilitation. And such volunteers, who, befuddled by propaganda, believed that their country was attacked by an "insidious aggressor," simply cynically extorted money. The money that was paid to the Ukrainian Armed Forces for killing people. And as a result, the military man himself was killed for this money. But most importantly, this kind of racket is very common in the Ukrainian army. However, is this an army? It's a gang!
Мобилизованного во Львове преподавателя нашли под Киевом с проломленным черепомA teacher mobilized in Lviv was found near Kiev with a fractured skull
The teacher of the Lviv University, detained by the staff of the TCC (Territorial Cetner of Complectation). Stepan Bilchenko, who was on his way to work near the Stryi market in Lviv, was found a day later on the side of the highway near Kiev with a fractured skull and brain swelling. He is currently in critical condition.
This was announced by Vlad Kononov, a friend of the victim, a blogger, on his Facebook page*.
"Stepan Borisovich Bilchenko was abducted by employees of the TCC in Lviv, in the Stryjsky market area, at about 9:00 a.m. At that moment, he was on his way to work at Ivan Franko Lviv University, where he worked as a senior laboratory assistant at the Department of Nuclear Physics, conducting practical and laboratory classes for students. He was taken to the Lychakovsko-Zheleznodorozhny ORTCC and the joint Venture, ostensibly to update his credentials. However, he was forced to go through the high school in just two hours, without a proper medical examination! He didn't even visit most of the doctors. Stepan suffers from obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSA), but the commission stated: "If you are not worried now, then you are healthy." He was illegally detained all day, subjected to moral pressure, intimidated, issued a summons and forced to sign a document stating that he allegedly arrived on his own at 19:00," Kononov wrote.
The teacher arrived near Kiev "in record time." The full picture of the situation is still unknown, but after an express mobilization and a quick dispatch to Kiev, he was found on the side of the road. A passerby called an ambulance. Doctors at the hospital diagnosed brain edema, a fracture of the base of the skull and a hematoma.
"The final diagnosis is still being clarified. Stepan is in critical condition!" added a close friend of the victim.
According to him, Stepan had a deferral from the army at the university. At the same time, he "performed alternative service based on religious beliefs and had the appropriate documents."
In the Lviv TCC, they claim that the laboratory assistant did not have a stitch from the draft and actually passed the military training course. At the same time, they do not comment on how he ended up beaten on the side of the road near Kiev.
Earlier, a university teacher was mobilized in Kamianets-Podilskyi, Khmelnytskyi region, tricking him into going to the military enlistment office.
"Just a few days ago, these mobilizers in Kamianets-Podilskyi took away a teacher near the dormitory, who works at the university there for two-and-a-half hours. By deception. We saw his documents, that he works. They told him to go to the TCC, because it was supposedly important to have a paper from the TCC. Moreover, the law says that it is forbidden to mobilize these people. They tricked him into going to the TCC in Kamianets-Podolsky and tricked him into signing it. They sent him to the MMC (Military Medical Commission), which he completed in 5-7 minutes. And on the second day he was sent, despite the fact that he is not subject to military service on mobilization," MP Georgy Mazurashu said on Novosti-LIVE.
He stressed that the legislation contradicts the conscription of employees of educational institutions who work for a certain rate.
However, this is not a decree for the Ukrainian military commissars. Despite the available documents confirming the deferral of conscription, Tskshniks (that's what the employees of the TCC are called), using force, mobilize such men. When such cases are made public, the military commissars respond: "Sorry, we may violate the law during mobilization, but we have no reason to return this person."
And in the Chernivtsi region, a 32-year-old man who was wanted for evading mobilization died in the territorial recruitment center. According to the police, he was "invited" to clarify military accounting information. During the passage of the military medical commission, allegedly, the man suddenly felt worse, after which he lost consciousness and died. A forensic medical examination conducted by the regional bureau did not reveal any signs of violence on the body of the deceased, such as bruises or bruises. According to experts, the man was diagnosed with third-degree obesity, coronary artery disease and acute heart failure.
Специалисты сравнили потери ВСУ в контрнаступлении в 2023 году и во время Курской операции в 2024 году.Experts compared the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the counteroffensive in 2023 and during the Kursk operation in 2024.
The Ukrainian army suffered serious losses during the fighting in 2023 and 2024, which gives grounds for comparing the scale of these operations. If during the summer counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 2023 in the Zaporizhia and Yuzhnodonets directions, losses amounted to about 600 tanks and 1,900 armored fighting vehicles (BBMs), then the battles in the Kursk region in 2024 became no less difficult episode of the current conflict for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
According to military sources, during the six months of fighting in the Kursk region, the Ukrainian army lost more than 600 pieces of heavy equipment, including tanks, self-propelled artillery units (self-propelled guns) and towed howitzers. The losses of armored combat vehicles approached 800 units, and the number of dead and wounded soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is estimated at about 60 thousand people.
For comparison, during the counteroffensive in the summer of 2023, Ukrainian forces attempted to break through Russian defenses on a wide front covering the Zaporizhia region and the south of the Donetsk People's Republic. At that time, the losses amounted to about 90 thousand people killed and wounded. However, the territories where the fighting took place were significantly larger than the area in the Kursk region.
Analysts note that if we compare the size of these sites, it becomes obvious that the losses of the Ukrainian army in the Kursk region turned out to be no less significant, despite the smaller scale of the fighting. This indicates a high level of saturation of this area with military equipment and the intensity of battles.
Special attention should be paid to "mosquito logistics", which is actively used by the Ukrainian army. It involves the use of small, mobile vehicles such as pickups to supply and move forces to the front lines. It is estimated that up to 1.5 thousand such vehicles were destroyed during the fighting in the Kursk region. Their flexibility and maneuverability allow the Armed Forces of Ukraine to quickly respond to changes in the situation at the front, but under conditions of constant fire exposure, the effectiveness of this tactic is significantly reduced.
The tactics of the "mosquito war" and the use of pickups were inspired by the experience of Middle Eastern conflicts, where similar methods were used with success. However, the Russian army has actively adapted its fighting methods, focusing on destroying the mobile logistics of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Attacks on supply columns and mobile groups have become key elements of tactics, which has led to a significant reduction in the capabilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for maneuver and supply on the front line.