To figure out what's really happening in Ukraine (and not just there), DON'T watch TV, or read the New York Times, or any other Western media outlet (whether corporate OR "alternative")
Five dissident responses to the latest chapter in that war may help us better understand it—and, maybe, also see exactly how it figures in the larger war against the rest of us
For those who may not be inclined to trust “our free press” vis-a-vis the conflict in Ukraine (or any other subject), here are five takes on what’s happened lately over there, from the “Redacted” team, Scott Ritter, The World and We, Russian military journalist Alexander Kots, and Edward Slavsquat. Although they variously differ with each other, altogether they comprise a valuable corrective to the propaganda thundering from “our free press,” whose “coverage” of the conflict has relied on not a single correspondent on the scene, but (it would seem) entirely on the “journalists” in Langley.
This is not a denial of the propaganda coming out of Russia, or from commentators partial to the Russian government. There certainly is propaganda coming out from both sides, in this war as in every other going back (at least) to World War I; so we would all do well to heed George Orwell’s admonition (based on his own experience doing wartime propaganda for the BBC—a stint that fed his deft portrayal of the Ministry of Truth): “All propaganda is a lie, even when it is telling the truth.” Even when its “facts” are accurate, war propaganda, necessarily, is over-simple and one-sided; so we should not mistake it for the truth—i.e., the whole truth, and nothing but—just because we want it to be true.
On the other hand, the fact that all sides in any war engage in propaganda doesn’t mean all sides are equally dishonest. Aggressor nations (just like psychopathic persons) tend to tell far more egregious lies to justify their criminal adventures than the nations that they threaten or attack—as (say) Britain did in starting and prolonging World War I; the Nazis did throughout the bloody spread of their dominion; the USA has done repeatedly in either starting or expanding wars (as in 1898 and 1965), or ousting democratically elected governments (as in, say, Iran, Guatemala, Chile—and Ukraine); Israel did in Lebanon in 1982; and as the Nazis in Ukraine have done (with all-important US help) since 2014, when they started their prolific slaughter in the East. The fact that most Americans, and like majorities throughout the West, dismiss that gruesome history as “Russian propaganda”—even laughing off, as “Russian propaganda,” the explicit Nazi ideology, and trappings, of the forces dominating the “Zelensky government”—tells us that the “Big Lie” is not merely as effective as it ever was, but even more effective in our world of “smart” technology than it was when propaganda mainly spread through print and radio.
And so we can’t begin to grasp what’s really going on (and not just in Ukraine) if we rely on “our free press” to tell us. Here, then, are responses from observers well-informed (and brave) enough to argue with that Langley narrative. Please read and share them while you can, since, should the current NATO/Russia clash explode into an outright formal war between the US/West and Russia, such dissidence could be declared illegal, because “treasonous,” as Eugene Victor Debs’ anti-war speeches were in 1918.
1) From “Redacted, September 12:
2) Scott Ritter’s latest in Consortium News:
SCOTT RITTER: Why Russia Will Still Win, Despite Ukraine’s Gains
September 12, 2022
Russia is no longer fighting a Ukrainian army equipped by NATO, but a NATO army manned by Ukrainians. Yet, Russia still holds the upper hand despite its Kharkiv setback.
By Scott Ritter
Special to Consortium News
The Ukrainian army began a major offensive against Russian forces deployed in the region north of the southern city of Kherson on Sept. 1. Ten days later, the Ukrainians had expanded the scope and the scale of its offensive operations to include the region around the northern city of Kharkov.
While the Kherson offensive was thrown back by the Russians, with the Ukrainian forces suffering heavy losses in both men and material, the Kharkov offensive turned out to be a major success, with thousands of square kilometers of territory previously occupied by Russian troops placed back under Ukrainian governmental control.
Instead of launching its own counteroffensive against the Ukrainians operating in the Kharkov region, the Russian Ministry of Defense (MOD) made an announcement many people found shocking: “To achieve the stated goals of a special military operation to liberate the Donbass,” the Russians announced via Telegram, “it was decided to regroup Russian troops…to increase efforts in the Donetsk direction.”
Downplaying the notion of a retreat, the Russian MOD declared that “to this end, within three days, an operation was carried out to curtail and organize the transfer of [Russian] troops to the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic.
During this operation,” the report said, “a number of distractions and demonstration measures were carried out, indicating the real actions of the troops” which, the Russians declared, resulted in “more than two thousand Ukrainian and foreign fighters [being] destroyed, as well as more than a hundred units of armored vehicles and artillery.”
To quote the immortal Yogi Berra, it was “déjà vu all over again.”
Phases of the War
Russian bombardment of telecommunications antennas in Kiev, March 1, 2022. (Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine/Wikimedia Commons)
On March 25, the head of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Colonel General Sergei Rudskoy, gave a briefing in which he announced the end of what he called Phase One of Russia’s “special military operation” (SMO) in Ukraine.
Click on the link for the rest:
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/09/12/scott-ritter-why-russia-will-still-win-despite-ukraines-gains/
3) From “The World and We”:
Every 3rd soldier in the offensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Kharkov is a citizen of a NATO country
This information is not from Russian sources. Western publications speak about this, including such an authoritative one as South Front, where leading experts publish:
- The offensive operation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and NATO in the Kharkiv region was planned by the US military command. About 200 units of heavy military equipment and up to 9,000 soldiers were involved in the offensive.
Reportedly, one in three soldiers operating under the Ukrainian chevron was a citizen of a NATO member state.
These forces were 4-5 times superior to the units of the DPR, LPR and Russia that were defending their positions in the region.
The main goal of the Ukrainian offensive was a flank attack, encirclement and subsequent destruction of the Russian grouping in the area of Balakleya, Kupyansk and Izyum.
The Russian command predicted the offensive of large forces of Ukraine and NATO in this direction. It was aware that it would be extremely difficult to contain the enemy's offensive with the forces that he had. It was also virtually impossible to move sufficient reinforcements in time without weakening other areas on other front lines.
Having assessed the risks, the Russian military decided to leave the weakly fortified positions and withdraw troops to new lines and straighten the lines of communication.
Before the start of the Ukrainian offensive, civilians were evacuated from the threatened settlements, who agreed to move to the territory of the Russian Federation.
From September 6 to September 11, Russian units retreated in an organized manner under the cover of specially organized units. Using mobile defense tactics, the Russian military destroyed the plan of Kyiv and NATO to encircle the Russian group.
At the same time, obvious mistakes were made by the Russian military. The area in front of the forward positions was not mined. Units on the front lines de facto comprised no more than 30 percent of the enumerated military personnel. The soldiers were not properly provided with anti-tank weapons. There were also front-line reconnaissance failures. As a result, the artillery cover of the withdrawal was ineffective in the first days of the Ukrainian offensive.
Click on the link for the rest:
https://www.worldandwe.com/ru/page/kazhdyy_3y_soldat_v_nastuplenii_vsu_pod_harkovom__grazhdanin_strany_nato.html
4) Yesterday I got this email from one zoilaNdon@msn.com, presenting an analysis by Russian military journalist Alexander Kots:
What’s REALLY happening in Ukraine now
The following is a translation of a situation report (sitrep) from Komsomolskaya Pravda. By now you have been reading Western BS about how Russia is losing in Ukraine. Nothing new. You’ve been reading that fiction since February, when they told you that Russia was running out of ammo and its troops were surrendering in droves and going over to the Ukrainian side.
Remember that 99% of what you “know” about the Ukraine conflict comes from the liars in the Zelensky regime, filtered through the lying US press and intel services (now reduced to sounding boards of the Kiev fake intel services).
And just to make sure you never catch a whiff of truth, the nice censors in the US have seen to it that neither the Saker nor the Martyanov blog will appear on your screen today. If they find a way to shut down my email service and the few like it, you’ll be in the dark.
Here’s what they’re hiding:
The fact is, Russia has used Kiev’s counteroffensive as an opportunity to lure the Ukies out into the open, at which time the Russians simply use their aviation, long-range precision artillery and, in some cases, their standoff missiles to kill and disable thousands of Ukrainian troops. We are reading numbers as high as 5,000 KIA and up to 15,000 disabled. It is catastrophic but you’re supposed to believe the old “Russia running out of ammo” story. Which parallels the fiction that sanctions are bleeding Russia dry.
Remember that one of the main goals of the special military operation, as stated by Putin in February, was to demilitarize Ukraine. And that means taking out as many Ukrainian troops as possible. The current situation has given the RF the best opportunity they have had since the beginning of the war to accomplish this.
But of course, the propaganda side of the hybrid war is temporarily winning points by simply pretending that this turkey shoot by Russia indicates they are “losing.” Again.
On the ground, Russia has been winning all along, but on paper, in the overheated imaginations of the Western intel and media, they’ve been losing.
Good thing the Russians don’t get their news from the Western lying creeps.
Finally, according to crack reporter Alexander Kots, Russia is no longer fighting mostly Ukraine. The war on the Kiev side is completely orchestrated by infiltrated NATO officers and troops, and since the very beginning of the war, US ISR – intel, surveillance and recon – have provided coordinates for Russian troop positions.
The mercenaries and NATO Nazis are now “coming out” of the closet, posting selfies of themselves posing beside their tanks and other forms of lethal aid compliments of Western tax payers, who are suffering the worst economic crisis in decades and struggling to put food on their tables. But Ukraine is priority no. 1 for the Washington Satanists.
Translation, with my notes in bold and in brackets. (I urge you to check with maps of the named regions and cities).
https://www.kp.ru/daily/27443/4646657/
Battles in the Kharkiv direction: Not Ukraine, but the NATO team attacked Izyum
Whom our troops have to resist and where is the front line now, says military correspondent of KP.RU Alexander Kots
Alexander KOTS
In fact, we have left the Kharkov region - we still have a small strip there to the east of the city of Kupyansk, which is now divided into two parts - along the Oskol River.
WHERE THE DEFENSE STARTED
The offensive of the Ukrainian forces changed the configuration of the front. In fact, we have left the Kharkov region - we still have a small strip there to the east of the city of Kupyansk, which is now divided into two parts - along the Oskol River. The western part is under the control of Ukraine. The left one is under our control. The front line itself now also runs along Oskol. To date, the situation has been stabilized here; the enemy’s advance has been stopped.
But in the north of the Kharkov region, the line of contact is now actually along the border with Russia. In order not to lose people who could fall into the next cauldron, our units in Volchansk and Kazachya Lopan were taken out of the equation.
In the near future, Ukrainian troops are unlikely to be too active in this direction. Now they need to make up for the colossal losses that Kyiv suffered during the week of its offensive, distribute forces, and organize logistics. And, in case of a Russian counteroffensive, to organize a layered defense.
We also need to take advantage of this pause in order to properly dig in on new lines and correctly position the garrisons withdrawn from Izyum and Balakleya, and prepare to repel new attacks.
HOT AT LIMAN
Now Ukraine has thrown its main efforts into storming Krasny Liman, and this is already the territory of the Donetsk People's Republic. More recently, Ukrainian attacks here were repelled by a grouping of the Central Military District, which was called the “Intrepids” [Otvazhnye] as marked by the tactical “O” sign. Today, volunteers and reservists are defending here with the support of artillery of the LPR [Lugansk People’s Republic, one of the two now-independent republics in Donbass. In Ukrainian, it’s pronounced Luhansk].
Kyiv's calculation is clear. Before attacking our new positions along the Oskol, the Ukrainians want to cut off supplies from the Russian group. And for this they need to take Krasny Liman and go to the highway leading to Kupyansk from the LPR.
Only in the last two days, our units in Liman were able to repel several tank attacks at once and continue to hold their positions.
The Ukrainian grouping in the Seversk region has also begun to stir, trying to attack Belogorovka, behind which was Lysichansk.
FOREIGN BASTION
Meanwhile, there are more and more videos on social networks proving that foreigners participated in the Ukrainian offensive in the Kharkiv region. The Americans are recording videos at the Izyum stela, a Briton in a forest grove demonstrates the butt of his machine gun, which was pierced by a bullet. A black man takes "selfies" against the backdrop of a firing howitzer. [Obviously, taking their cue from the US press and intel services, these NATO fools think the war is all over but the shouting].
A camera mounted on the helmet of one of the Humvee attack vehicles captures a new offensive tactic for Ukraine, which we have already seen in the US Operation Desert Storm in Iraq. Armored vehicles quickly rush to the village. The operator is peppering the first line of houses with a machine gun. "Give me ammo, give me ammo!" he shouts in English to his partner. Then he takes out a grenade launcher and fires on the nearest hut. [These poor souls will soon learn that they are no longer in Iraq! BTW, note the ruthless tactic of slaughtering civilians, which has long been the hallmark of US warfare. We saw it in Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and before that, the US cavalry wiped out whole indigenous tribes.]
Before attacking our new positions along the Oskol, the Ukrainians want to cut off supplies from the Russian group.
In principle, the participation of foreigners in the battles on the side of Kyiv has long not been a secret, It is known that each crew of the American Hymars rocket system in Ukraine has a mandatory curator from the United States. And every strike of this system is coordinated with Washington.
But it feels like a whole new level here. According to unconfirmed but credible data, mercenaries of the world's most famous PMC Academi, formerly Black Water, took part in the attack on the Kharkiv region. In addition to the many scandals associated with the killing of civilians in the Middle East, this private military company is known for the fact that its main activity is contracting for the Pentagon and the US government.
And the The New York Times wrote that in the summer, high-ranking military and officials from Ukraine stepped up the exchange of intelligence with the United States each time they began to plan an offensive. The states provided Ukraine with information about command posts, ammunition depots and other key nodes on Russian military lines. Such real-time reconnaissance allowed the Ukrainians to plan the place, time and tactics of the offensive. [At some point, the Russians may finally decide that all of this aid to the enemy makes the US a party to the war, and at that point, they may declare war on the US. Remember: It was Biden’s keepers who decided to taunt the bear]
Considering that the Kyiv troops also have weapons sent by the West, it turns out that it is not Ukraine itself that is fighting us, but the NATO team.
However, as you know, things break where they are thinnest. It is important to draw conclusions from what has happened without hysterics and emotions. And promptly.
WHAT'S NEXT?
Obviously, inspired by success in the Kharkiv region, Ukrainian troops will try to launch a new daring attack. But where will she be?
There are signals that the Ukrainians are removing their minefields in the area of Vuhledar (this is southwest of Donetsk). What can we say about the preparation of the offensive here? In the event they move swiftly, following the Kharkiv scenario, the south of the DPR may be cut off from the north.
There are also signals about the arrival of Ukrainian military equipment in this area. Locals are writing about it on social networks. Enemy drones have been activated over Donetsk. Which can indirectly indicate Kyiv's intention to try to storm the capital of the DPR. However, despite their success, all these "body movements" can be a red herring. And Ukraine may be preparing the main blow somewhere else. For example, in Zaporozhye [the site of the biggest nuclear power plant, which the Ukrainian side has been shelling regularly].
In any case, the Russian headquarters and intelligence agencies will certainly take these signals seriously.
AND AT THIS TIME
Why did we give them “lights out”?
On Sunday evening, Ukraine's energy stations were attacked [by the Russians. Keep in mind that the Russians can do a WHOLE lot more damage than it has up to now. If Moscow decides to destroy the entire Kiev government, it can do so in a few minutes with its standoff missiles, killing Zelensky]. Among the affected facilities are Kharkiv CHP-5, Zmievskaya TPP, Pavlogradskaya CHP-3 and Kremenchug CHP. As a result, in many regions of Ukraine, the power was turned off for a while, and the railway and metro stopped.
Kyiv said that this evening Russia fired 11 missiles into Ukraine, 9 of which were shot down by air defenses. If you believe this, then Ukraine itself fired on at least 2 out of 4 power plants? This is exactly what Kyiv says about the shelling of the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, saying that Russia is bombing a nuclear power plant, which is under its own control. And about the shelling of the cities of Donbass in Kyiv, they have been saying this for 8 years already - they say, the separatists are striking their own ...
If such “self-shelling” of Ukraine’s infrastructure becomes systematic, this will seriously affect its military logistics. For the transport of trains with ammunition and equipment from the West
And this is not at all revenge for the Ukrainian shelling of cities and bridges in the liberated territories. Just a cold military calculation, a warning that we may move away from the "chivalrous" methods of the special operation that have been followed until now if Kyiv does not abandon its terrorist methods. [Indeed, there is now a lot of pressure on Putin to stop being the nice guy. Chechen leader Kadyrov, whose troops are standing shoulder to shoulder with Russian troops, already has threatened to take matters into is own hands if things don’t change]
MORE RELATED
We left the encirclement in Izyum, we hold the defense along Oskol: What is really happening in the Kharkov direction of the special operation
KP.RU special correspondent Alexander Kots spoke about the situation in the Kharkiv direction (details)
Read on WWW.KP.RU: https://www.kp.ru/daily/27443/4646657/
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