Sitrep Operation Z0V: Shifting sands and changing rhetoric

By Saker Staff for the Saker Blog

The question went out .. what are the most important actions over the last week, and how do we present those?

Mr Shoigu was number one, and this is how we present that by a machine translation from cont.ws:

ON ANY HIMARS THERE IS A POSEIDON. THE US QUICKLY UNDERSTOOD SHOIGU’S STATEMENT

The tactical pause that the Russian military took a little over a week ago is coming to an end, according to the American Institute for the Study of War. And here they were not mistaken: the head of the Russian Defense Ministry, Sergei Shoigu, ordered to step up efforts in all sectors of the front.

The key task is to prevent the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Ukrainian neo-Nazis from continuing to launch rockets and conduct massive attacks on residential areas and peaceful infrastructure of the People’s Republics of Donbass and other regions.

And then the question arises about the use by the Ukrainian side of the” intimidating ” American multiple launch rocket system HIMARS. Who manages these MLRS?

The Ukrainian military is only engaged in the protection of HIMARS. And they are controlled and attacked, including by objects in the liberated territories of Ukraine, by US and British military personnel. The Russian Foreign Ministry announced this officially. Captain of the first rank of the reserve Vladimir Yeranosyan also has no doubts about this. Most likely, the Russians in Ukraine are opposed by the Marine corps, which in Iraq received good shooting skills with HIMARS, the captain claims.

America uses HIMARS to kill civilians

For some reason, we don’t focus on this publicly. However, Russia responded very simply to the supply of American HIMARS-we launched the Belgorod submarine with Poseidon unmanned torpedoes. By the way, she has already taken up combat duty, said Sergey Lipovoy, chairman of the presidium of the public organization “Officers of Russia”, in an interview with Tsargrad. This news was not advertised on all world channels, but those who need it already understand everything.

And after that, the rhetoric of Europe, Canada and America began to change. We were allowed to transport cargo to Kaliningrad, and Sweden lifted the ban on entering the ports of our ships that deliver fuel and food to Svalbard. They said, ” Guys, we’re overreacting. And this is only because our submarine, equipped with weapons that have no analogues in the world, has gone into the depths and no one knows where it is now,

– said Sergey Lipovoy. If we talk about MLRS, then HIMARS can be launched by the APU calculations, but under the supervision of American instructors. In this situation, we just need to find an “antidote”, the expert stressed.

It’s no secret that HIMARS have increased range and increased accuracy, ” Lipovoy continued. – The American assurances that HIMARS will be used exclusively for military purposes, and not for civilian objects, do not stand up to any criticism. We can see that in fact these MLRS are used specifically for the civilian population and for civilian objects. That is, America kills civilians and does everything to ensure that there is as much destruction as possible. And the death of civilians is at the hands and on the conscience of American politicians – first of all, President Joe Biden.

Of course, history will charge them for every civilian death. Because this is a war crime, a genocide against the peaceful Russian-speaking population. America is no longer even shy and actually says that it is waging war not with a mythical enemy, but with Russia. But this is done by the hands of NATO.

And here Ukraine turned out to be a bargaining chip, a pawn that was allowed to be slaughtered as soon as a special military operation began,

– Linden is convinced.

The Americans and NATO have stated that they will not participate in this matter in any way, but will do everything to ensure that the war continues as long as possible, so that there is as much destruction as possible. So that the war goes “for the happiness of the Ukrainian people to the last Ukrainian”.

PHOTO: CPL. COLTON GARRETT/GLOBALLOOKPRESS.

Americans are trying to control the fate of their weapons

Military expert Alexey Leonkov also commented on the information about the presence of foreigners in Ukraine at the HIMARS consoles in an interview with Tsargrad. According to him, there is indeed such operational information that along with HIMARS, American officers appeared in Ukraine, who manage MLRS.

In addition, there is also evidence that a certain number of US military personnel are engaged in escorting M777 howitzers and counter-battery stations.

That is, America, first of all, by handing over such equipment and weapons, is trying to control its fate in order to avoid the sad fate of some types of weapons that fall to us as trophies. And secondly, such officers can control the shooting. When receiving certain data, the Americans most likely do not share it with the Ukrainians, so as not to leak it,

– the expert believes. It turns out that the Americans secretly manage all these processes.

British officers can also be present there, but only if British air defense systems appear in Ukraine, because no matter how much the Ukrainian press screams that they are easier to control than a game console, this is not true.

It remains only to add that our opponents, represented by the collective West, perfectly heard the warning of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu about increasing efforts on all sectors of the front. The United States has already issued an urgent statement to all Americans on the territory of Ukraine: they say, leave, do not push your luck. Diplomats are also ordered to leave Odessa and Kiev. The stakes are rising, and Russia will not be deterred.

……………

Regulars will immediately see the increase in impact from the Russian MoD and other reporters. Here is a summary from the Russian MoD

🔹 Russian precision strikes destroyed base of Ukrainian Kostyantynivka (DPR territory), eliminating around 250 foreign mercenaries, 7 armor units, 12 special vehicles;
🔹 Around 60 Nazi troops eliminated in Vitove (Cherkassy Oblast), 2 MLRS, 4 artillery pieces;
🔹 More than 10 Grad launchers destroyed in Udachne railway station;
🔹 2 Uragan MLRS and 17 Grad MRLS, Hyacinth-B and D-30 howitzers destroyed in artillery duels;
🔹 2 Mi-8 helicopters destroyed and 2 more damaged in airfield in Novy Donbas (DPR territory);
🔹 Army air force, missile forces and artillery landed strikes on 286 personnel and armor groupings and 14 operation rooms;
🔹 Buk-M1 SAM launcher destroyed in Kramatorsk (DPR territory), 3 weapons depots and fuel depot destroyed in Novooleksandrivka (Dniepr Oblast);
🔹 Air Defense shot down 6 UAVs and 2 Uragan missiles.

……………

The second place was taken by this piece by Andrey Martyanov and we take a quote from there but do read the full piece.

“Now, in a more important news, after the meeting with State Duma leaders on July 7, which officially was primarily about upcoming elections, Putin reiterated now well known position:

Today we hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield. Well, what can I say? Let them try. We have already heard a lot about the West wanting to fight us ”to the last Ukrainian.“ This is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people, but that seems to be where it is going. But everyone should know that, by and large, we have not started anything in earnest yet. At the same time, we are not rejecting peace talks, but those who are rejecting them should know that the longer it goes on, the harder it will be for them to negotiate with us.

It is more than position, it is Russia’s MO for the last 15 years and it is the one in which every next offer from Russia will always be much worse for those who didn’t accept the previous one.”

Andrei, (The Saker) calls this phenomenon The Pain Dial. On the front, the Russian forces are double-timing it. Take a look at the report – https://t.me/mod_russia_en/2803.

……………

Rybar created a special report on Avdiivka which you can see here: https://t.me/militarysummary/698

Then, we looked at many various commentators, and we still stand by Military Summary, flaws and all.

Enjoy your discussion and as always commentators are welcome to add fine detail.

With cities and villages falling, here is a good rule of thumb to follow. You can only take it seriously when you a) see the flag go up, i.e., pictures, and b) the MoD or reliable local authorities report.

Drips of information from Iran is coming through but let’s wait until there is some formal information. Already fascinating is a comment from Peskov this morning: Russia, Iran to shift away from estimating trade volume in dollars, says Kremlin

Russian Bear on July 19, 2022 · at 1:25 pm EST/EDT

Voenkor Kitten Z
Boris Rozhin: Russia is determined to win (Part 1)

Prolonging the Ukrainian conflict is in the plans of our opponents, but we have no other way but to fulfill the tasks of the NWO.

– After the inspection of the headquarters of the groupings by the Minister of Defense S. Shoigu, the RF Armed Forces stepped up strikes against the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the infrastructure of the enemy. Is the “operational pause” over or was it never?

– The operation, in fact, did not stop. The regrouping of troops or the withdrawal of individual formations for rest does not mean that offensive operations or missile strikes against enemy troops and infrastructure have ceased.

In the last week, we have seen how the focus of strikes has shifted to the destruction of concentrations of troops and equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as the destruction of artillery missile systems, which can be interpreted as a “softening” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donbass before the upcoming offensive operations on the Seversk-Soledar line and in the Artemovsk region, as well as increasing efforts to move into the Slavic-Kramatorsk agglomeration.

– The pace of progress towards Slavyansk slowed down. What is it connected with?

-The main efforts are now concentrated on breaking through the Seversk-Soledar front in order to provide access to Artemovsk from the north and to Slavyansk from the east. The group advancing on Slavyansk from the northwest is obviously in the phase of replenishment and regrouping after the past battles in the area of the Valley, Bogorodichny and Svyatogorsk. The terrain and large forest areas to the north-west of the city, as well as the line of the Seversky Donets covering Slavyansk from the north, make the offensive difficult.

– The DPR announced the semi-encirclement of Avdiivka. When can we expect the blockade of Donetsk to be lifted? What factors facilitate and, conversely, inhibit the process?

– Avdiivka is well supplied through Orlovka, and the Avdiivka-Konstantinovka highway could not be used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine before after they were kicked out of Novobakhmutovka and Novoselka-2.
The assault on Avdiivka from Kamenka and the industrial zone at this stage does not promise quick results, so here and in the future we will observe a positional front and intensive work of artillery and MLRS from both sides. The main problem is that the entire Adveevka and the adjacent territories have been turned into a solid fortification, a frontal assault on which, for military reasons, is impractical.

– The announced counter-offensive of Kiev still does not begin. Where to wait for the activation of the enemy? What are the manpower reserves of the regime, taking into account the heavy losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donbass?

– The most probable directions of the enemy’s offensive are Krivoy Rog, Nikopol and Zaporozhye (in the direction of Vasilyevka, Tokmak and Pologa).
The ongoing capture of random citizens on the streets, as well as mass cases of desertion from the front, indicate that the declared 1 million people in the Armed Forces of Ukraine is a purely propaganda figure. In fact, the total number of people under arms is significantly less. Nevertheless, work is underway not only to plug holes in the front with poorly trained cannon fodder, but also to prepare more well-coordinated brigades that can be concentrated for an offensive in one of the indicated directions.

Potential forces that are desirable for the Armed Forces of Ukraine for some serious actions – from 5-7 armored personnel carriers, to 80-100 guns, MLRS and heavy mortars + several aircraft and helicopters. In addition to the actual organization of such a grouping, an equally important problem for the Armed Forces of Ukraine is the problem of secretive concentration of these troops in order to avoid strikes by the RF Armed Forces even before advancing to the lines of attack.
The experience of failed offensives in the area of Gulyaipol and Davydov Brod has shown that the RF Armed Forces have the ability to stop enemy activity with concentrated artillery and air strikes.

@voenkorKotenok
309.5Kviews
02:59

Voenkor Kitten Z
Boris Rozhin: Russia aims to win (part 2)

– Following the “holy javelin” in Ukraine, the “holy haymars” has already been invented. Attacks on warehouses, headquarters and communications of the Allied Forces are not weakening. What does the tactics look like using the MLRS and OTRK supplied to Kyiv in targeting objects and overcoming air defense? Is there an antidote for the wunderwaffe?

– The United States operates within the framework of the concept of network-centric warfare, hoping to slow down the intensity of their fire impact on the Armed Forces of Ukraine and reduce their offensive potential by strikes against the command and logistics structure of the RF Armed Forces and the armies of the LDNR. The APU here is only performers and a screen. Target designation data is provided by American technical intelligence, as well as agents of the SBU on the ground.
Countermeasures – tracking down and destroying complexes (1 has already been destroyed, so that with proper work they are destroyed in the same way as the S-300 complexes, Tochka-U OTRK and Uragan MLRS), as well as the active use of the dispersal of fuel and lubricant depots and ammunition to reduce the effectiveness of such strikes. The same applies to the issue of protecting command infrastructure facilities. In general, it is necessary to adapt to this tactics of the enemy, since he, obviously, will adhere to it further.

– Are we ready to drag out the conflict in Ukraine and, in fact, does Russia have options other than victory?

-It is quite obvious that the Russian Federation has long been acting within the framework of the concept of a long-term conflict as part of the “Syrianization” of the war in Ukraine. The official position on achieving all the goals of the NWO has not changed since February. Specific terms, as before, are not indicated – the need for long-term work to achieve the stated goals has already been completely reconciled, and a number of processes to increase the grouping of troops in Ukraine and changes in the military-industrial complex also indicate preparations for a long confrontation with the United States and NATO in Ukraine.
Of course, Russia will strive only for victory, which will not only guarantee its sovereignty, but also provide advantageous positions in the formation of a new world order. In this case, the victory will write off all costs. The absence of a positive result in Ukraine will, in turn, have severe domestic political consequences for the country. This, in fact, is what the United States is betting on, dragging out the war in Ukraine in every possible way and raising the degree of escalation.

– How adequate are the statements that the collective West is running out of stocks of weapons and ammunition for deliveries to Ukraine?

– Supply problems are more of a logistical and production nature. In the long run, with the active production of the necessary range of weapons, they are quite solvable for the US and NATO.
This seems to be a less significant problem for the US than the economic and political costs of the sanctions war against Russia. In the first case, the consequences are exclusively military and Ukraine bears the costs. In the second case, the costs hit directly those establishment groups that unleashed the war.

– When will the Polish factor “shoot” in the Ukrainian theater of operations and how is this connected with the situation on the border with Belarus, Kaliningrad and the Baltic states?

– According to the data of the SVR, Poland has not abandoned its plans to occupy Western Ukraine and continues to actively build up its military capabilities by increasing the size of the army (the plans for increasing it increased to 400 thousand people) and re-equipping with American weapons.
The build-up of Poland’s military capabilities creates additional challenges for the Russian grouping in Kaliningrad and complicates the configuration of any conflict around the “Polish Corridor” in the event of a cessation of transit to Kaliningrad.
Poland in the current realities is a long-term threat to Russia, in the same sense in which the “Remediation regime” in Poland was a threat to the USSR from 1922 to 1939. In those years, the Polish General Staff directly pointed out that “the dismemberment of Russia lies at the heart of Polish policy in the East.” Now the goals of Poland are exactly the same. The revival of the Eastern European hyena in the same role is another consequence of the criminal actions of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, which we will have to deal with in the coming years and decades.

@voenkorKotenok

178 Comments

Dale on July 18, 2022 · at 9:25 am EST/EDT

This analysis blows my mind. I knew Putin was smart, certainly resolved, but an evil genius ? Rather than being goaded into war, by the West, did Putin instead bait the West, into war, so as to demilitarize the West along with Ukraine ?

https://natyliesbaldwin.com/2022/07/did-the-west-fall-into-a-russian-trap/
- xformbykr on July 18, 2022 · at 10:06 am EST/EDT
  
  Very interesting! We must keep our eyes and ears open to learn how the various authoritative commenters respond! Possibly analysis may see deeper into the matter than the players’ actual plans and intentions, e.g., US bankrupting EU as described by Michael Hudson and others.
- Aidan Lennon on July 18, 2022 · at 1:13 pm EST/EDT
  
  Shhhh, no-one is supposed to know.,😉
- Rokossovsky on July 18, 2022 · at 2:13 pm EST/EDT
  
  I think the West never bothered to study Russian military doctrine and considered the Russian Army a backward opponent.
  
  Here you can listen to Gen. Zhukov outlining the same strategy:
  
  The Great Commanders – 106 – Georgy Zhukov
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RNmz8ARKc8&t=1265s
  
  The last thing the Russian Army wanted was to engage the Germans in street fighting.
  
  And I believe that is what we are seeing now. The Russians approached Kharkov, saw it full of Uke troops, then retreated. The Ukes followed them out and the Russians re-engaged. Likewise, the Russians withdrew from Kiev and focused on the Donbas fortification belt, because it left Uke troops out in the open.
  
  This kind of thinking comes from living in a country that spans 13 time zones. The Russians have always had plenty of land and were willing to sacrifice huge amounts of it in 1812 as well as in 1917 when they ceded most of the Ukraine in the treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
  
  I think Andrei Martyanov does a great job in explaining this in his book “Losing Military Supremacy”. To defeat Russia you have to destroy its Army not take its land. And because the Russians understand this about themselves they fight to destroy armies and weapons, taking territory only after the enemy has lost the ability to resist.
  
  It is the same history repeating itself: Bonaparte, Hitler and now Biden. All were looking for a short war and quick Russian collapse.
  
  How many times will the brainless West repeat the same mistake?
  - Black Cloud on July 18, 2022 · at 6:24 pm EST/EDT
    
    It’s not Biden, he’s just a sock puppet. Attacking Russia has been US policy since before 1945.
  - grr on July 18, 2022 · at 7:01 pm EST/EDT
    
    “How many times will the brainless West repeat the same mistake?”
    
    This will be the last time. The “West” will be incapable of launching an arm wrestle after this. For a very long time.
    - Ron Chapman on July 19, 2022 · at 3:41 am EST/EDT
      
      This is the last time that real warfare will occur on this planet.
      Russia will demilitarise the Ukraine, NATO and the EU.
      Thereafter Trump will ensure that the US military withdraws to the US and stays there.
      - Alan on July 19, 2022 · at 11:37 am EST/EDT
        
        You must be kidding. If there ever is a “last” war, it will be the one that destroys all human life on the planet.
      - Richard on July 21, 2022 · at 10:31 am EST/EDT
        
        A nice thought, but the military-industrial complex and it’s dogs of war will not go quietly into that long night.
  - Lodewijk Langeweg on July 19, 2022 · at 3:20 am EST/EDT
    
    It sounds like JUDO: Utiize the force your opponent is using against you. If he pushes you, pull him towards you and make him fall utilizing your and his own force.
  - John Dowser on July 19, 2022 · at 4:52 am EST/EDT
    
    @Rokossovsky: “the Russians withdrew from Kiev”
    
    Those troops and colones didn’t seem to have any intention of configuration for any really serious battle. The advanced surprise raid with helicopters and transport planes at Hostomel airport was the actual and serious attempt to take over or take out the government in Kiev. This failed badly but might have been worth the attempt. This all to prevent a more messy continuation. When this raid failed the rest of the supportive troops (meant to keep Kiev surrounding in check after surrender or treaty) retreated. The war for Donbas always was the end game. But how to get there was the open question.
    
    The other theory that it was supposed to “pin” down troops in Kiev sounds less convincing. Then they should have stayed there, right? Misdirection is possible but expensive.
    - Aaron Kulkis on July 19, 2022 · at 11:08 pm EST/EDT
      
      Not expensive at all. All it cost Russia was a few days of rations for a 40,000 troops and some diesel fuel.
      
      That’s cheap.
    - sean the leprechaun on July 20, 2022 · at 8:42 am EST/EDT
      
      Bio labs dude, noting to do with taking this or that…pie in the sky surrender…..the lighting speed, and the cost in lives and material was to get the info from the bio labs…..not sure if you are familiar with bio labs and pathogens. Maybe read the Russian report, they captured all the evidence in the first few weeks. The sites they couldn’t reach were destroyed in the first 48 hrs. Hopefully some Americanazis were liquidated at the same time.
      
      Cheers M
- Tommy Jensen on July 18, 2022 · at 2:24 pm EST/EDT
  
  As a Western man I would say that no cost is too high for our freedom, our pride parades and our values.
  We are Spartans and will never give up before Xerxes (Putin/Xi) has killed Leonidas (Biden) and the 300, and even then the next Western green generations after us will remember for all times our heroic fight to the last Ukrainian! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HMrYEjPMGY
  - Aaron Kulkis on July 19, 2022 · at 11:10 pm EST/EDT
    
    Tommy Jensen,. BIDEN’s puppeteers ARE Xerxes and Putin is Leonidas.
- Dane on July 18, 2022 · at 2:44 pm EST/EDT
  
  The West fell into the Bankers trap and now it will spiral downwards until starvation and riots demand Martial law and suspension of rights.
  - tonyE on July 20, 2022 · at 12:17 am EST/EDT
    
    My wife asked me a few years: “how do these things end?”
    
    I thought about it: “Well, in the West, wars. We invade the nation over or have a civil war, depose their government, change the laws and kill half their lawyers and bankers. The rest are put out of business”
    
    That’s where we’re going, I think. The US has an advantage here in that it is a Federation still. And there are lots of military and police that are pretty PO’d at the Feds in DC and the Progressives in the likes of Sacramentograd. I think the Second American Civil War will be much shorter, like the Poles found out: “When we hit the streets we realized there were many more of us!”.
    
    Western Euros…. I don’t know.
- Opport Knocks on July 18, 2022 · at 2:50 pm EST/EDT
  
  Seriously? Natylie S Brown did not write this. It was copy pasted from another site.
  
  And it is commentary and editorial opinion, not analysis, as there are no facts presented
  
  As for who goaded who into this conflict, I should note the US has been involved in making Ukraine a problem for Russia since 1991.
  
  It was only now that Russia decided a combination of US and EU weakness and their domestic stability made it possible to strike.
  
  I further guarantee that the economic and military “game theorists” on both sides were working overtime well in advance.
  - Dale on July 18, 2022 · at 3:40 pm EST/EDT
    
    To the contrary, I consider it quite plausible that the larger view is correct, regardless the author, which is irrelevant.
  - Alan on July 19, 2022 · at 11:41 am EST/EDT
    
    You are right about one thing: The article is an opinion piece, not factual reporting, regardless of who wrote it.
- countrumford on July 18, 2022 · at 7:32 pm EST/EDT
  
  I am in agreement and it is a bit like the M. Ghandi quote….”First they ignored us, then they ridiculed us, then they fought us, then they lost”
- user on July 19, 2022 · at 9:53 am EST/EDT
  
  You are missing tactics with strategy.
  
  Strategically,
  the Russians did everything possible to avoid a conflict with the West. For the better part of a decade, starting with Putin’s Munich speech in 2007.
  
  Tactically,
  it seems that, indeed, once a conflict was inevitable, i.e. it could not longer be prevented by Russian actions alone, they decided to fight it on their terms by choosing the time and place.
  
  So IMO both are true at the same time.
  
  West forced Russians into an open conflict – a War if you wish – in the general terms.
  
  At same, Russia forsaw this, and hence forced the initial engagements to happen on their choosing. This allows Russia to get some tactical edge but does not really change the overall dynamic that much.
- Dirk Manly on July 19, 2022 · at 10:55 pm EST/EDT
  
  The Ashkenazis don’t need to be baited to attack Russia.
WTFUD on July 18, 2022 · at 9:48 am EST/EDT

Doesn’t make any sense that Zelensky, America and the United Western MSM are screaming War Crimes if some Ukrainian civilians are the victims of Russian missile strikes on targets where the UAF are holed up, while the deadliest US WMD’s are used almost solely to batter civilians in their households in Donetsk.

This said, very little regarding US-NATO operations make sense.
- Steffen Bendel on July 18, 2022 · at 11:37 am EST/EDT
  
  We do not know, if Ukraine uses the weapons only on civilians. The Russians probably will not give a statement if something important is hit unless it is obvious like with the sunken ship. And the Ukrainian/US intel does not want to confirm their actions.
  - Rafael on July 18, 2022 · at 4:19 pm EST/EDT
    
    Of course Ukraine has been targeting Russian troops when it can, but it’s much less bother lobbing shells and missiles into civilian areas. Ukraine has had an awful lot of practice at shelling civilians ever since 2014.
  - U.N. out of USA, USA out of U.N. on July 18, 2022 · at 6:48 pm EST/EDT
    
    Steffen, the Ukrainian Nazi’s have indeed been shelling Donbass civilians since 2014 when those same citizens rejected the Maidan Coup. And the Nazis continue to this day to shell civilian bus terminals, market places, hospitals, etc. There is so much video evidence of this from many, many sources, including interviews with many, many people of the Donbass.
Akram abu Abs on July 18, 2022 · at 10:09 am EST/EDT

Why is Russia not using the TOS flamethrower?
- sean the leprechaun on July 18, 2022 · at 10:37 am EST/EDT
  
  Because when the Ukrainians know it’s coming, they run away, would you blame them? Can’t use it on something that isn’t there.
  
  Cheers M
- JackJC on July 18, 2022 · at 1:39 pm EST/EDT
  
  https://t.me/intelslava/32369
  
  Oh they are
- Ralph on July 18, 2022 · at 2:09 pm EST/EDT
  
  They are, and have been using it for weeks.
Thomas on July 18, 2022 · at 10:20 am EST/EDT

Hey Saker and Sakerites – Zerohedge has a story that Russia today announced legal term force majure aka they are shutting off gas to Germany for good. ??? Boy the Germans and Europeans are dumb.
- joey_n on July 18, 2022 · at 5:07 pm EST/EDT
  
  I don’t remember Zerohedge being known for delivering accurate news analyses. Or Reuters or any other zio-media for that matter.
- U.N. out of USA, USA out of U.N. on July 18, 2022 · at 6:50 pm EST/EDT
  
  The European “leaders” can’t be that dumb. CORRUPT (bought off by the US/NATO/DAVOS crowd) yes, but dumb no. They simply don’t care about their citizens. They only care about getting their payments/power. Hang them all.
- user on July 19, 2022 · at 9:58 am EST/EDT
  
  Thta story is part of the Western SpyOps. Basically FUD built around one small truth – that Gazprom declared the sanction impacts as Force Majeure.
  
  Absolving themselves of contractual penalties, should the West further prevent the contracts to be fulfilled.
  
  Nothing to see. This is just PR for the Zone B audience.
  
  Due to the actions of the West, all Contract and trade agreements/law between Russia and the West are a thing of the past. Neither side really takes them seriously. The same way West fulfulls now only those that benefit them Russia is fufilling only thos that benefit themselves.
  
  Things like force mejeure that mean a lot normally are now just the paperwork to be filled.
  - AHH on July 19, 2022 · at 1:04 pm EST/EDT
    
    “Due to the actions of the West, all Contract and trade agreements/law between Russia and the West are a thing of the past.”
    You may be unfortunately right. And this sitrep is very well named, these two weeks appear an inflection point.
    
    Beyond tone-deaf, the maintained scheduling of the next edition of The Free Nations of Russia Forum – Conference (this time from July 22-24 in the Czech Republic) on the dismemberment of Russia is suicidally obsessive. This was the last Warsaw edition, itself held in May when the success of Operation Z had been guaranteed!
    
    It puts into perspective the recent comments by Vucic, VVP, the July 15 meetings, launching of Poseidon-laden Belgorod submarine, the likely indefinite “force majeure” halt to gas deliveries, Moscow civilian nuclear drills, etc.. Europe has decided to settle in and nurture old fashioned Hate-lust, and thereby condemns itself to a Cold, Dark and Hungry winter. Pity
Haymer Doots on July 18, 2022 · at 10:27 am EST/EDT

And by a very strange coincidence (or not, as the case may be) Gazprom have just issued a notice of force majeur relating to gas deliveries from June 14 which releases iy from contractural delivery obligations to Europe due to circumstances beyond Gazprom’s control.

So it looks like there will be no gas to Europe whatsoever.
- the punisher on July 18, 2022 · at 12:23 pm EST/EDT
  
  That may depend on Canada’s interpretation of this recent article from a finance page.
  
  In par. 8: “(gas turbines), one of which was stranded in Canada. …” appears written to project blame for the repair hold-up on Russia’s shoulders. Including liability for future non-performance on it’s energy contracts, indirectly.
  
  The declaration now places it squarely on Canada’s shoulders. So, as more turbines become ready for service, when and how much gas EU receives starts with them. Ending with Russia having the final say.
  
  https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/gazprom-declares-force-majeure-european-131929630.html
amarynth on July 18, 2022 · at 10:35 am EST/EDT

GAZPROM – force majeure

Slow down everyone. It is to one major EU customer they say, and so far only reported by Reuters.

We don’t know if this is true. The details here are highly questionable.
- sean the leprechaun on July 18, 2022 · at 10:50 am EST/EDT
  
  read it over at warnews….. yes only mentions one customer, comes off as more sensational than anything. They need something to sell……the news, or what passes for it.
  
  I’m wondering, out in Russia’s far east, all the turbines are Siemans? Hopefully China produces their own line, otherwise turbine repair could become more weaponized.
  
  The only way Russia terminates gas deliveries and ‘contracts’ to EU will be a full out US NATO attack including a declaration of war on NATO from Russia. Otherwise Russia is at war with Western WEF ideology and not the people of the west, many of whom side with Russia on the SMO.
  
  Cheers M
- JackJC on July 18, 2022 · at 10:54 am EST/EDT
  
  Gas supply was supposed to restart 22 July, the Canadians held up the turbine so long that it won’t reach Russia till 26th July. This affects Nordstream 1 to Germany and constitutes Force Majeure
- Amerikanski on July 18, 2022 · at 10:57 am EST/EDT
  
  And here I was, set to post a link to the ZeroHedge article.
  
  In other off-topic but interesting news, I heard a rumor that Roscosmos will once again ferry NASA astronauts back and forth to the ISS. To me, this indicates immense strength on the part of Russia. There’s a war going on, and all sorts of hateful rhetoric in the ‘news’, and the international space program will continue in spite of it.
  - Deplorable Commissar on July 18, 2022 · at 8:30 pm EST/EDT
    
    ” To me, this indicates immense strength on the part of Russia. ”
    
    Or another act in the theater.
  - Dr NG Maroudas on July 19, 2022 · at 1:48 am EST/EDT
    
    Reminds me of an earlier example how science transcends politics: Sir Humphrey Davy and his scientific assistant Michael Faraday were able to visit France during the Napoleonic wars.
- John Henry Mackay on July 18, 2022 · at 11:33 am EST/EDT
  
  Well, June 14 was when they dropped Northstream 1 to 40%.
  I think it just means they wont pay for any trouble Uniper has because of this.
  Doesn’t say anything about supply in the future.
  - Exile on July 18, 2022 · at 12:55 pm EST/EDT
    
    ….Well, June 14 was when they dropped Northstream 1 to 40%.
    I think it just means they wont pay for any trouble Uniper has because of this.
    Doesn’t say anything about supply in the future…..
    
    This is the likeliest explaination
- Haymer Doots on July 18, 2022 · at 12:25 pm EST/EDT
  
  The ZH story claims Bloomberg is confirming the story and adds that the notice has gone to at least 3 customers, and quotes a response from Uniper, the German gas company, that they reject Gazprom’s notice. It’s reported as news rather than speculation and they speak of a letter dated 14 July rather than some source who refuses to be identified, so we will just have to see if really true or not.
KiwiNZ on July 18, 2022 · at 10:37 am EST/EDT

Russia just formerly declared force majeure- gas to Germany is now…..shut off. Talk about turning up the pain dial. How will Germanys master (UsA) respond?
- Stand Easy on July 18, 2022 · at 5:05 pm EST/EDT
  
  By popping a bottle of champagne and patting each other on the back…and Trudeau on the head, saying ‘good boy.’
  
  But seriously, that was the plan all along — to starve Germany of gas and later, for the benefit of the clueless Western public, use it to blame Russia for the gas starvation. Gazprom foresaw that and declared force majeure.
  
  It’s interesting that although it’s a German company, the largest shareholder (75%) of Uniper is Finnish.
- Robin on July 19, 2022 · at 2:54 pm EST/EDT
  
  I read that the force majeure declaration was in response to european demands to limit the cost of the gas.
  - user on July 20, 2022 · at 7:45 am EST/EDT
    
    Nope.
    
    The sactions prevented planned and contracted maintenance – the GERMAN Siemens was unable to fulfill its obligations.
    
    Gazprom, most likley, waited for a formal clarification from Siemens first – presumably Siemens declared force majeure here once Canada blocked them – and once they had a formal clarification from Siemenes, did the same vis-a-vis their customers.
    
    Russian do not play “games” in these things. When Russia will decide to *actively* sanction the West, you will know about it from the Russians first. Not from some newspaper speculators like in this case.
Lou Cypher on July 18, 2022 · at 10:38 am EST/EDT

The Russians cannot allow American mercenaries to operate 777 howitzer and Himars with civilian populations being bombed. There has to be a stiff price to pay for such actions.
- Englishman on July 18, 2022 · at 11:08 am EST/EDT
  
  Yes indeed,some of those bitches need to start dying,maybe the Russian special forces could locate some of them on the ground,although i can see that won’t be easy,try and capture some of those Nato rats who are operating these systems.
- Raven 6 on July 18, 2022 · at 11:28 am EST/EDT
  
  Russia replyed.
  https://www.rt.com/russia/559167-ukraine-mercenary-russia-missile-strike/
  - Ralph on July 18, 2022 · at 2:26 pm EST/EDT
    
    Apparently, some military brits happened to die there too. Anybody shed a tear for them? Half a tear? How about moist eyes then? Nothing? Then you must be normal.
Original Analyst on July 18, 2022 · at 10:58 am EST/EDT

The Poseidon is not just a a “wunderwaffe” or a “game-changer” ….but the reality is that it appears to be a “medicine” that appears to assist in the curing of psychopathic behaviour of NATO…I look forward to an accelerated Russian production of more of such “vaccines”…
- FWIW on July 18, 2022 · at 4:56 pm EST/EDT
  
  I read in some description of the Poseidon that the waters of the tsunami would have long lasting radioactivity. This seems problematic for the following reason:
  
  A conventional undersea nuclear device should radiate nearby seawater resulting mainly in some sodium and chlorine isotopes from the salt in the ocean. Chlorine isotopes should have generally low radioactivity (though a very long half life), while the sodium isotope has a 15 hour half life, meaning it essentially disappears after a couple of weeks even though it could initially be deadly.
  
  If there is a longer lasting but high radioactivity isotope, this sounds some alarms. Are they using cobalt or a similar deadly element to create a decades-long killer isotope?
  
  I hope not as this would be inexcusable under any circumstance. That would poison land and sea in a way that is not only anti-enemy for military purposes, but anti-life for any remaining humanity for decades to centuries. Does anyone have further info about this?
  - Original Analyst on July 18, 2022 · at 5:43 pm EST/EDT
    
    Yours is a good comment and whilst i do not know anything about the after effects of exploding such a weapon, the reality is that the mere knowledge of the existence and deployment of this weapon system “somewhere,” has concentrated minds. In this respect it is a very useful device to have handy, should NATO try any further mischief. If it helps to paralize psychopathic behaviour, then it is a wise investment.
    But indeed, may it never need to be used…
    but…if it were to have to be used…wow…what a weapon and i would not feel sorry for those on the receiving end……
  - Krollchem on July 18, 2022 · at 10:01 pm EST/EDT
    
    A 100MT would yield 41.84E16 J of energy. In case of an underwater nuclear explosion about 50% would be blast energy, 15% nuclear radiation and 35% thermal radiation. This would yield about 20E16 J of blast energy, or ten time that of the Kolumbo underwater explosion. Perhaps the initial wave might approach a nearby shore at a height of 40-100 m but would break at a corresponding water depths and end up as a very damaging storm surge. I would be more concerned by flooding caused radioactive rain due to some of the 1-5E12 tons of radioactive water raised in the column.
    (See: http://www.abomb1.org/nukeffct/enw77b2.html).
    
    A significant quantity of the radioactivity comes from non-fissile uranium-234, which is an alpha emitter with half life of 2.44E5 years , as well as isotopes of plutonium formed by the neutron irradiation of U-238 in the explosion (at 80% U-235 enrichment).
    http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2619320/the_forgotten_uranium_isotope_secrets_of_the_nuclear_bomb_tests_revealed.html
    
    In addition to other radioisotopes from the fission of U-235 there are seawater components that become radioactive from the 15% nuclear radiation of the detonation:
    Sodium-24 (half life of 15 hrs) and 0.1% of seawater
    Chloride-36 (half life of 300,000 years) and 0.1% of seawater
    sulfur -35 (half life of 87.5 days) and 0.09% of seawater
    
    The greatest seawater component concern is Na-24 which decays to Mg-24 by beta-minus decay emission of an electron and two gamma rays.
    Given that the thermal energy from a 100MT nuclear detonation = 3.5E19
    Calories, you get up to 2.21E10 megatons of steam or a lot of really hot water and steam! Anyone for a warm radioactive bath?
    - FWIW on July 19, 2022 · at 11:34 am EST/EDT
      
      I read several descriptions of the Poseidon – some were western and others Russian. One key idea was that it would be detonated at a depth (1000 m or more) such that there would be no water column. The extreme pressure at that depth would prevent it.
      
      Water is a potent moderator of neutrons – this is one reason it is used in nuclear reactors. Thus, the released neutrons would not travel far, in spite of the size of the bomb. For this reason, I expect the sodium and chlorine to be the primary isotopes as I discussed in my first note above. Air blasts above the ocean or near the surface can spray a larger area with isotope-producing neutrons.
      
      The nuclear tsunami idea is an old one and was discarded publicly by US scientists with the conclusion you mention above. But who knows whether that claim was information or disinformation? Do you really suppose the Russians are foolish enough to build this system (over a period of 30-40 years, I understand) if it will not work?
      
      They claim a very, very large tsunami moving at very high velocity such that it can destroy coastal cities. I personally do not know enough to model the hydrodynamic concept, but it is quite a stretch to imagine they would build these enormous nuclear torpedoes just to wash the feet of their enemies.
      - user on July 20, 2022 · at 8:00 am EST/EDT
        
        Another mixed up article it seems.
        
        The drone is /officially/ said to – travel – at 1000m depth, hence the 1000m value.
        
        In practice, such a weakpon can be used in three ways:
        A) – as a “conventional” nuclear “area” torpedo, against CBGs and such
        B) – as a “underwater cruise missile” where the torpedo would leave water close to the target at high speed and release the weapon in the air, possibly rocket-assisted the last few miles
        C) – as a “anti-base” / “anti-city” weapon, where it would get near to a major port/coastal area and detonate at a depth where it would essentially create a “void” in some bay, the real damage will then be done first by the initial wave and THEN by the secondary wave which will come when water will try to fill the “void” created by the explosion – in this the ocean-comming water will acquire speed which will wash it on the coast
        
        Point is, the last option is applicable only with proper depth of the seabed, not too deep and not too shallow. 1000m would be WAY too deep.
        
        Also, 100Mt is unlikely. Too deep and it risks damaging the earth crust. I would expect they did not develop a special warhead and instead used some existing design. So whatever they put there will be in the 20-30Mt range at most. Likely less.
        
        Either way, IMO this is, politically, a weapon of the MAD doctrine first and foremost. Should a conflict come where a “major first strike” scenario does not happen /yet/, it can be effectively used as a de-escalation weapon of choice. E.g. wiping a couple US CBGs on the open seas to “defang” any stupid ideas they might have.
        
        Detonating a couple tent MT under a CBG would be /environmentally/ pretty “clean” so would not really come to a “nuclear war” by some definition while the psychological impact would be huge.
  - ram on July 19, 2022 · at 12:23 am EST/EDT
    
    Depends on the architecture of the nuclear warhead. Some warheads don’t even require any Uranium or Plutonium, especially if the delivery mechanism is as big a bus and the detonation timing not super critical. This is the year 2022, not 1945.
    - Krollchem on July 19, 2022 · at 2:16 am EST/EDT
      
      Please elaborate. Doesn’t seem practical and is not how current warheads are configured.
  - Alex on July 19, 2022 · at 6:04 am EST/EDT
    
    Was the description you read Western in origin by any chance?
- Alan on July 19, 2022 · at 11:51 am EST/EDT
  
  The Russian sources claiming that the mere announcement of the Poseidon being deployed has already affected the behavior of western nations is a presumption of direct cause and effect. It may not be so. Coincidence is also possible.
tranquilocomp on July 18, 2022 · at 11:13 am EST/EDT

“Zelensky Says Traitors Could Undermine Ukraine War Effort”
“President Volodymyr Zelensky said hundreds of employees of the nation’s law enforcement agencies are suspected of working with Russia.” -NYT (7/18/22)

This could be an additional reason why Russia does not attack the leadership itself directly, besides what Peskov said recently about hoping to negotiate with them in the future. The Soviet Union was said to know the battle plans before all (all) the battles happened. German veterans said so.
- JJ on July 18, 2022 · at 1:10 pm EST/EDT
  
  more likely to me he wants to get rid of peoples who might challenge him….maybe Azov etc need new jobs after running away from front lines…just created a “suspicion list” just like they did the other day with western supporters of Russia….
  
  ..maybe those Russian hackers could also target Ukr supporters organisations on here
  
  https://ukrainianinstitute.org.uk/russias-war-against-ukraine-what-can-you-do-to-support-ukraine-ukrainians/
- JJ on July 18, 2022 · at 1:38 pm EST/EDT
  
  some kind of nonsensical explanation???
  
  The removal of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and the head of the SBU does not mean dismissal
  
  This was reported by the deputy head of the presidential office Smirnov: “We are talking about the fact that the prosecutor General has been removed from office, and the head of the SBU has been temporarily suspended from performing his duties.”
  
  Official checks will be carried out, after which Zelensky will decide whether to submit submissions on the dismissal of Venediktova and Bakanov to parliament.
  
  Well, that is, they are not fired from work, but they do not work at work, but they are not fired. But they can be fired, and they won’t work.
- Ralph on July 18, 2022 · at 2:28 pm EST/EDT
  
  Does anybody think of delusional, coked up zero like shitler in his last days? What about the tens of thousands working for the yank regime?
  - Sara on July 19, 2022 · at 12:50 am EST/EDT
    
    Illegal drugs cause paranoia. No doubt about that at all.
    
    You don’t think Zel ever would use drugs, do you?
    
    Hit was said to be ‘medicated’ with narcotics toward the end; maybe Zel is just ‘self-medicating’ and there was no one actually working against him. He could destroy his whole administration if he is delusional.
    - Aaron Kulkis on July 20, 2022 · at 12:52 am EST/EDT
      
      Zelinsky is a self-proclaimed coke head
Top Cat on July 18, 2022 · at 11:15 am EST/EDT

re: “America is no longer even shy and actually says that it is waging war not with a mythical enemy, but with Russia.”

America is engaged in what Professor Alfred McCoy calls “micro-militarism”, which is completely irrational and a sure sign of its decline as it desperately tries to maintain its global empire in the face of a changing world order.

This is an excellent discussion with Chris Hedges and Professor McCoy from a couple years back on RT:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=WmYfqbFeS6o

What I fear is that this irrationality will intensify and plunge us into a nuclear nightmare from which none of us will escape. The fact that the U.S. is ruled by complete idiots is frightening. The American people are suffering under them as they become increasingly disconnected from the needs of their own population in pursuit of maintaining a global empire – “full spectrum dominance” as they’ve called it.

The upcoming midterm elections will see a change in power but unfortunately not a change in direction as the Republicans are just as unhinged as the Democrats when it comes to maintaining global hegemony via militarism. They will continue to pour endless billions of $ and advanced weaponry into Ukraine in a bid to stave off the inevitable. As defeat looms, God only knows what other crackpot military schemes Biden’s deep state handlers will cook up that the Republicans will rubber stamp. Meanwhile, American citizens and everyone else will suffer.

Will citizens everywhere rise up? Will the dam finally burst and normal people will say “Enough!”? Signs of this are sprouting up around the west (Canadian truckers, Dutch Farmers, Boris Johnson’s demise, Macron’s power diminished) or will we all just be crushed by propaganda and mass media mind control and western societies devolve into economic depression and civil strife? Will nuclear weapons be used? Will we all perish?

God help us all. They’re already trying to normalize the possibility of nuclear war:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLV9_epcVz0
the pair on July 18, 2022 · at 12:16 pm EST/EDT

a lot of interesting stuff on AA’s daily post:

https://awfulavalanche.wordpress.com/2022/07/18/ukraine-war-day-145-zelensky-surrounded-by-traitors-and-spies/

the comparisons between zelensky and stalin seem apt as far as the growing paranoia; though the ukie government seems to be made up of berias at this point. hopefully they end up in the same dustbin of history as that scummy f_ck. i also doubt stalin did the metric tonnes of blow zelensky and his cadre go through in a day.

googling (or DDGing) the attack on the “aviation officers club” just brings up the same exact headline on a zillion sites which is always tells us “cut and paste from wire service”.

this raises some good points vis a vis air defense and how you can tell a lot from location:

https://chernayakobra.ru/caliber-in-vinnitsa-house-of-officers-turned-into-a-mass-grave/
Robert on July 18, 2022 · at 12:18 pm EST/EDT

“… and Sweden lifted the ban on entering the ports of our ships that deliver fuel and food to Svalbard …”

Norway, not Sweden!…
Steve on July 18, 2022 · at 12:41 pm EST/EDT

The cruelty and barbarism of the West have no limits. Please, be prepared to counter, and mitigate, all eventualities that the warmongering elites of our Western governments may bring to bear on your People.
I wish you every success as you lead the World into a new era of human cooperation and mutual benefit.
Uncle Bob on July 18, 2022 · at 1:01 pm EST/EDT

Hopefully we can put to bed the pro-Ukie claims that Russia hasn’t destroyed any of the US supplied HIMARS. This short video by one of the best analyst’s around shows clearly they have:

Debunking the “Debunkers” – Russian HIMARS Claims
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VO-Qo5qw4U0
Russian Bear on July 18, 2022 · at 1:13 pm EST/EDT

I’m not buying this analysis, because Russia isn’t stopping. They have underestimated Russia’s capabilities from before this all started:

Operation Z: Military commissars of the Russian Spring

Rhe fighting in Ukraine may end in a “frozen” conflict according to the Korean scenario, – ex-commander of NATO forces in Europe James Stavridis:

“I see that this leads to the end of the Korean War, i.e. to a truce, a militarized zone between the two sides, ongoing hostility, a kind of frozen conflict. We will see it within 4 – 6 months. Neither side can last much longer . ”

Note that the resources of Ukraine are the resources of the West. It turns out that Stavridis allocates a maximum of 6 months, after which the source of supply for Ukraine will dry up.

The admiral also believes that there will be no big compromise with binding mutual guarantees and recognition of new geopolitical realities between Russia and the West. a cold peace will come with the fading of fighting along some established line, along which a break will occur between the collective West and Russia along the territory of Ukraine.

This forecast has already caused alarm in the Office of the President of Ukraine. M. Podoliak, a talking head, tried to refute Stavridis’ forecast.

t.me/RVvoenkor
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- bonbon on July 19, 2022 · at 2:31 am EST/EDT
  
  Stavridis makes sense – a DMZ is needed, if only to prevent civilian losses from NATO shelling.
  Some future statesman – remember Trump and the Rocket Man, should then inherit the task of peace.
  This comes from the inner NATO circles. The UN would be dragged kicking and screaming to agree with this.
  Just waiting for how the vassal’s will inform their freezing, striking voters – that’s their problem of course.
  And I would be very curious to see Seoul’s reaction….
Russian Bear on July 18, 2022 · at 2:01 pm EST/EDT

Voenkor Kitten Z
Military expert Boris Rozhin with a brief summary of the results of the operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine at 20.20 July 18, 2022, specially for the channel Voenkor Kotenok Z @voenkorKotenok :

Part 1

1.
Seversk.
Fights for the dominant heights in the city area. Statements about the occupation of Seversk are still ahead of events. It is not the city itself that is of key importance, but the heights around it. The enemy seeks to hold on to them, despite the blows of the RF Armed Forces.
Fights in Serebryanka and Verkhnekamensky, Ivano-Daryevka. The enemy is transferring reserves here from the Slavic-Kramatorsk agglomeration.
2.
Soledar.
Fighting at Yakovlevka, Belogorovka and Berestovoye, so far without significant progress towards Soledar itself.
Fighting in the area between Stryapovka and Soledar and on the western outskirts of Novaya Kamenka. The Soledar-Seversk road is under attack by the RF Armed Forces, but is still accessible for the movement of enemy troops.
3.
Artemovsk.
Battles near Pokrovsky and Veselaia Dolina. Artemovsk is under attack. Strikes – on Krasnaya Gora, Kurdyumovka, Chasov Yar. In the area of Uglegorskaya TPP – no changes.
Kodem and Semigorye are still held by the enemy. From the Artemovsk area, the OTRK of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the western MLRS deliver pinpoint strikes deep into the territory of the LPR (Stakhanov, Alchevsk, Lugansk were attacked). The main targets are fuel depots, ammunition depots, command posts.
The RF Armed Forces are focusing on concentrations of manpower and equipment, artillery and missile systems.
“Friendly fire” shot down our plane (presumably Su-34), the pilots survived.
4.
Slavyansk.
Positional battles in the area of the Valley, Sidorov, Prishib. Attacks on the Slavic-Kramatorsk agglomeration. In Konstantinovka, up to 250 foreign mercenaries and a large number of equipment were destroyed.
Western media: after the loss of Seversk and Soledar, the battles for the Slavic-Kramatorsk agglomeration and Artemovsk will be decisive for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The RF Armed Forces are completing their regrouping and are preparing for the start of a major offensive. Shoigu’s visit with an inspection to the front is linked precisely with the upcoming big events.
5.
Kharkov.
Positional battles in the area of Uda, Upper Passages, Tsupovka, Dementievka, Upper Saltov. In response to attacks on Kazachya Lopan and Kupyansk, the RF Armed Forces attacked Kharkov, Chuguev and the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the northern outskirts of Kharkov.
The RF Armed Forces are intensifying operations in the border areas of the Sumy region, from where the border forces of the Belgorod and Kursk regions were shelled. and attacks on border guards. Attacks on the Sumy region are gradually intensifying.
6.
Raisins.
Positional battles in the area of Bolshaya Kamyshevakha and Kurulka are complemented by attempts by the Armed Forces of Ukraine to be active near Balakleya. The enemy is not taking large-scale actions against the flank of the Izyum grouping of the RF Armed Forces due to the impossibility of ensuring stable crossings across the Seversky Donets. Pontoon and makeshift bridges across the river are being destroyed, and DRG activity on the other side is of limited value.
7.
Avdiivka.
Positional battles near Kamenka, Novoselka-2, Novobakhmutovka and New York. The Avdiivka-Konstantinovka highway was cut in several places, but the enemy could not use it before. The Orlovka-Avdeevka road is under the control of the enemy, so there is no need to talk about the encirclement of Avdeevka. There is no serious progress in the area of Krasnogorovka. Active work continues on enemy artillery systems operating in Donetsk, Makeevka, Gorlovka, Yasinovataya. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, success was achieved in the destruction of cannon artillery and MLRS.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces, in addition to the terrorist shelling of Donetsk, continue to inflict pinpoint strikes with OTRK and heavy MLRS on the command and logistics infrastructure of the RF Armed Forces and the DPR army.

@voenkorKotenok
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Voenkor Kitten Z
Military expert Boris Rozhin with a brief summary of the results of the operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine as of 20.20 July 18, 2022, specially for the Voenkor Kotenok Z @voenkorKotenok channel :

Part 2 (the first part is at the link )

8.
Ugledar.
Positional battles continued in the area of Ugledar, Velikaya Noveselovka, Novomikhailovka and in Maryinka. The enemy, after an unsuccessful offensive attempt in the Ugledar region, again went over to the defensive.
9.
Zaporozhye.
On the line Kamenskoye-Orekhov-Gulyaipole-Velikaya Novoseloveka without significant changes. Positional battles for the settlements between Gulyaipole and Velikaya Novoselovka continue. The enemy continues to slowly accumulate troops in the area of Zaporozhye, Orekhov and Gulyaipol, trying to create the prerequisites for offensive operations.
Shelling of Novaya Kakhovka and drone raids on Energodar also continue. The RF Armed Forces fire at the enemy in the Zaporozhye region. The State Administration of Zaporozhye calls on residents of the capital of the region to leave the city in order to avoid the role of another “human shield”.
10.
Nikolaev.
The enemy continues to put pressure on the Krivoy Rog and Nikopol directions in the area of Potemkino and Ivanovka. As before, this direction is the most likely for a potential offensive by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in accordance with the requirements of the United States and NATO to organize an offensive with operational-tactical goals before the beginning of autumn.
The RF Armed Forces are engaged in strengthening defensive positions and systematic strikes against the Armed Forces of Ukraine in potentially threatening areas. On the Nikolaevsky direction without significant changes. Nikolaev is hit almost daily with missile strikes, the losses from which hamper the activity of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kherson direction.

@voenkorKotenok
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Uncle Bob on July 18, 2022 · at 2:09 pm EST/EDT

We should keep our eyes on the prize. There are many reasons the West wants Ukraine. And the same number of reasons Russia should have her instead:

https://i.redd.it/n3xxtovnzk191.jpg
Uncle Bob on July 18, 2022 · at 2:13 pm EST/EDT

I great analysis on what is happening in Ukraine:

The coincidence in time of the preparation of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the counteroffensive and the surrender of Ukrainian sovereignty by Zelensky to Poland cannot be accidental. This is clearly a coordinated action. Accordingly, Russia will have to respond to a change in the format of hostilities being waged against it by the West. We’ll have to start something that hasn’t been started yet.

I don’t think it will happen instantly. Russia usually swings for quite a long time, but always manages to make it on time. From my point of view, this is an advantage. I myself do not like to rush and act according to the principle: if you can not do something, do not do it (especially in the case of a confrontation). The main thing is not to miss the moment when it is already impossible not to do it. Judging by the gradual increase in the scale and severity of Russian strikes against the Ukrainian rear, Moscow has already left the pinpoint strike regime and is rapidly not only increasing the force of strikes, but also expanding the range of targets.

So far, Zelensky and his Polish colleagues are still being given an opportunity to change their minds. But this is not for long. The last chance of Zelensky and Duda is not Russia’s charity, but is connected with the need to transfer additional weapons to the Ukrainian front for their appropriate massing. Judging by the decree on the distribution of Russian passports to all citizens of Ukraine, as well as Putin’s thinly veiled warning about a tough response to Western intervention in the Ukrainian crisis, the Kremlin decided to no longer stand on ceremony with either “friends and partners” or with the remnants of Ukrainian statehood: died, so died .

Among other things, this means a very likely Mariupolization of all major cities of Ukraine. I doubt that the gang of Duda and Zelensky will surrender Kharkov, Kyiv, Odessa, Nikolaev without a fight. Under certain conditions (which are also not guaranteed), Zaporizhia and, less likely, Dnepropetrovsk may be lucky. In the same way, I doubt that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the DPR and the LPR, forced to smash Mariupol, Severodonetsk and other cities of Donbass to dust, in which the Armed Forces of Ukraine used the population as a “human shield”, will be especially ceremonious with the habitats of those who unleashed this massacre, who brought death to the Donbass, who claims that “there are no good Russians, everyone must be killed, including the elderly, women and children.” Moreover, the very military situation created by the same Duda and Zelensky requires not to reflex, but to destroy the enemy’s manpower, equipment and infrastructure throughout the entire depth of the Ukrainian (not yet Polish, but the beginning of trouble) territory.

In the end, in May 1945, Soviet troops deployed field kitchens on the streets of Berlin and fed the population, but only after blowing the city to dust with the help of artillery and aircraft convinced the garrison to capitulate. And the Germans would have surrendered on time, they would not have had to stand in line for field kitchens – they would have cooked food in their own whole and unharmed kitchens and would have drunk Zhigulevskoye.

Zelensky betrayed Ukraine, as Petlyura betrayed it in his time. The result of this betrayal will be death and destruction much greater than Petliura could even imagine: new times, new opportunities.

Rostislav Ischenko
( https://aurora.network/articles/153-geopolitika/10474.. )
- Alabama on July 18, 2022 · at 4:50 pm EST/EDT
  
  Yet, I think this same ideology is rather strong here in the states too.
  
  A few well paid gvt bone heads can ruin it for a whole society, in the end it was found they refused to listen to reason.
  
  But I don’t believe the kitchens will be an option here in the end, it will be every man or tribe for themselves.
- Richard L on July 18, 2022 · at 7:38 pm EST/EDT
  
  What else? A winter blizzard will cover the dead of with a shroud of white snow.
maskazer on July 18, 2022 · at 2:34 pm EST/EDT

Russia, Iran to shift away from estimating trade volume in dollars, says Kremlin. This is the best news for me to hear at this time. It would even be better if Iran starts trading Rubles for its energy and other exports until a BRICKS currency and monetary system become operational. Russian Ruble is quiet solid which is ideal for Iran right now. The world’s order is shifting towards Eurasia and there’s not much the uncle Sam could do about that except displaying irrational behavior or childish tantrums. Biden got nothing for his trip to SA. Now the entire strategic ME region is ready to join the new Eurasian Union led by responsible members of the UN for a new world order.
Jams O'Donnell on July 18, 2022 · at 2:49 pm EST/EDT

If the yanks or the British want to operate these missiles within the Ukraine, then it is only just that they get blown to pieces along with the launchers when they are targetted, and the more the bettetr, as these clowns are in law, mere mercenaries.
António Ferrão on July 18, 2022 · at 3:00 pm EST/EDT

Alastair Crooke

Excerpt

Of course, the conflict, to all intents, is settled – though is far from over. It is clear that Russia will prevail in the military war – and the political war too – by which is meant that whatever emerges in Ukraine after the military action is complete will be dictated by Moscow on its terms.

Plainly, on the one hand, the regime in Kiev would collapse were it to have terms dictated to it by Moscow. And, on the other hand, the entire western agenda behind the Maidan coup d’état in 2014 would implode, too.

Reading the Runes of War, The Mad Trither, JULY 18, 2022
- bonbon on July 19, 2022 · at 5:29 am EST/EDT
  
  Crooke’s piece is at :
  https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/07/18/reading-the-runes-of-war/
  He basically looks Hudson’s article, also at Saker.
  
  Then implies that an economic catharsis (instead of nuclear) is the Russia-China strategy.
  
  But what if Crooke, Hudson, and yes Russia.China are not grasping the essential?
  
  Crooke especially, is aware of Percy Shelley’s Defence of Poetry :
  
  The most unfailing herald, companion, and follower of the awakening of a great people to work a beneficial change in opinion or institution, is poetry.
  
  At such periods, there is an accumulation of the power of communicating
  and receiving profound and impassioned conceptions respecting
  man and nature. The persons in whom this power resides, may
  often, as far as regards many portions of their nature, have little
  apparent correspondence with that spirit of good of which they
  are the ministers. But even whilst they deny and abjure, they are
  yet compelled to serve, the power which is seated upon the throne
  of their own soul. It is impossible to read the compositions of the
  most celebrated writers of the present day without being startled
  with the electric life which burns within their words. They measure
  the circumference and sound the depths of human nature
  with a comprehensive and all-penetrating spirit, and they are
  themselves perhaps the most sincerely astonished at its manifestations: for it is less their spirit than the spirit of the age.
  Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present; the words which express what they understand not; the trumpets which sing to battle, and feel not what they inspire; the influence which is moved not, but moves. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. ”
  
  Military, and journalists, politico’s may sneer at mere poets – but look the complete mess all of those have wrought!
  To conceive of a new physical economic and cultural futurity, the gigantic shadows of which now appear, is poetry.
  - Lawrence Miller on July 19, 2022 · at 10:13 am EST/EDT
    
    bonbon: “But what if Crooke, Hudson, and yes Russia.China are not grasping the essential?”
    
    They aren’t but you are? Hubris unbound!
Haymer Doots on July 18, 2022 · at 3:13 pm EST/EDT

Is Mr Shogiu seriously suggesting that Russia will retaliate using a tactical nuclear weapon if HIMARS are used in Ukraine? If the Americans operate these weapons will Russia attack American assets with the Poseidon? This is an incredibly serious escalation if so.
- Dale on July 18, 2022 · at 3:47 pm EST/EDT
  
  I wonder if he’s trolling ? Saying in effect, “You boast of your wonder weapon the American HIMARS. For perspective, for every HIMARS America sends we can field an underwater drone that can destroy an entire port city.”
- Exile on July 18, 2022 · at 4:33 pm EST/EDT
  
  Moscow has been consistent since December – they will attack command and control ‘decision centers’ where ever they may be. Moscow has also repeatedly stated they will retaliate against those ordering attacks.
  
  Moscow has never mentioned tactical nukes, nor does Moscow have a first strike policy ( unlike Washington )
- Mary on July 18, 2022 · at 6:14 pm EST/EDT
  
  I think he meant if they use Himars against Crimea or other Russian territory.
arkx Brasil on July 18, 2022 · at 3:50 pm EST/EDT

After almost 5 months of the Russian SMO in Ukraine, what can we deduce?

So far, the military characteristics of the operation indicate that Russia’s priority has not been a military victory. It is to militarily conquer a situation in order to force negotiations that will favor it politically.

War and politics are nothing more than the continuity of each other.

It is only in this aspect that the approach to Kyev in the first days of the operation makes sense, with the subsequent withdrawal of troops (including from Belarusian territory) after the Istanbul negotiations.

Similarly Phase 2 of the SMO has turned from a supposed massive attack to liberate the Donbass into the continuation of a protracted war (started in 2014), in which the main military resource is artillery paving the way for slow and methodical advances.

To maintain the negotiation channel there is also no decapitation of the current government of Ukraine.

There are several other examples, from the exchange of neo-Nazis from Azov, to the withdrawal from Snake Island and the lack of reaction to the sinking of the cruiser Moskva.

Even the recent Russian attack in Vinnitsa (killing the Ukrainian and Western participants in a meeting to settle arms supplies), shows both the Russian ability to make a complex operation viable (militarily and intelligence-wise) and its self-restriction in multiplying them.

About Vinnitsa, more information:

《Head of the Armament and Logistics Service of the Ukrainian Air Force, Colonel Oleg Makarchuk. Eliminated as a result of a strike in Vinnitsa.
Already the 3rd Colonel casualty of the Ukrainian Air Force has surfaced over the past couple of days.

Of undoubted interest are the personalities of the foreign military who were liquidated at the same meeting, along with high-ranking officers of the Ukrainian Air Force.

Hence, in fact, the scale of the hysteria around Vinnitsa, and the US warning to American citizens to leave the country, and the resignation of the head of the SBU.》
https://t.me/Slavyangrad/3231
- Lone Wolf on July 18, 2022 · at 5:21 pm EST/EDT
  
  @ arkx Brasil on July 18, 2022 · at 3:50 pm EST/EDT
  
  “…After almost 5 months of the Russian SMO in Ukraine, what can we deduce?
  
  So far, the military characteristics of the operation indicate that Russia’s priority has not been a military victory. It is to militarily conquer a situation in order to force negotiations that will favor it politically.
  
  War and politics are nothing more than the continuity of each other…
  
  Excellent deduction.
  
  By its nature, the objective of an SMO is not a military victory, which under Clausewitzian thought would be annihilation of the enemy. However, Clausewitz’s principle of forcing the opponent to comply with our will, is still part of an SMO, a “combined arms and police operation”, as described by A. Martyanov.
  
  Simple logic, when the police arrests someone, they are submitting he or she to their will.
  
  Russians have mastered the political-military balance, using one to advance the other, and vice versa.
  
  The real objective of the drive into Kiev, will remain a state secret for decades to come. I have read many “experts” analysis of that move, and remain unconvinced. Last I read was by a commander who was at Kiev’s doors stating they could have taken Kiev if Russia wanted to. There were many ways the SMO could have gone, however, their triage gave Donbass priority, aligning their military operations with the original political objectives.
  
  I beg to differ about your assessment of the SMO as a “protracted war.” In fact, the SMO as it is going has nothing protracted about it. The destruction of 404 core military power has been achieved. You’re seeing it in terms of conquering territory, that is not the right perspective. Ukraine’s elite forces were lined up against Donbass, their dislodging has been done in a surgical operation that has primordially protected the civilian population.
  
  Along the way, Ukraine’s elite and special forces, armed and trained by NATO, have been decimated to the point of inoperability. Right now Allied forces are face to face with the last line of defense 404 built, after which there is nothing but open fields, in any direction. They are rushing to build more defenses west of the Slavyansk/Kramatorsk hub, and the Seversk/Soledar/Artemovsk line, unfortunately they don’t have the manpower or the hardware to do it.
  
  They pulled elite forces from Seversk toward Slavyansk/Kramatorsk/Artemovsk, replaced them with teroborona to go die as cannon fodder under the pretenses of fighting the Allied forces. They are pulling Krakenovtsy from Kharkiv toward Slavyansk by force, they refused to go knowing the road to Slavyansk is under Allied control by fire. They had to go under a direct command.
  
  They are done for, there is nothing protracted about the tempo of the SMO.
  
  Thanks for linking the Vinnitsa bombing with the dismissal of the SBU thug, who might have been drinking in a night-club while the Russians were destroying his and others’ future.
  
  Lone Wolf
  - arkx Brasil on July 18, 2022 · at 6:25 pm EST/EDT
    
    –>”I beg to differ about your assessment of the SMO as a “protracted war.”
    
    Of course! I fully understand your remark regarding my reference to a “protracted war”.
    When I wrote the comment, always trying to make it as concise as possible without losing clarity of content, I noticed how the characterization of “protracted war” could give rise to some kind of misunderstanding.
    That is why I added in parentheses: “(started in 2014)”.
    There are many wars within this same war. For the Donbass People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) it is a protracted war of national independence.
    For Ukraine as a whole, it is also a civil war.
    For Russia, it is a war imposed by a need for survival. After all, Russia has learned from the historical lessons of Napoleon’s and Hitler’s invasions. It will never allow a third time to occur.
    There are many other wars within this same war. This is an extremely dangerous, delicate and decisive moment.
    
    PS: I will watch the videos you indicated. I spend most of my time on a small farm in the mountains. Internet connection is not always good.
    - Lone Wolf on July 18, 2022 · at 7:01 pm EST/EDT
      
      @ arkx Brasil on July 18, 2022 · at 6:25 pm EST/EDT
      
      –>”I beg to differ about your assessment of the SMO as a “protracted war.”
      
      Of course! I fully understand your remark regarding my reference to a “protracted war”.
      When I wrote the comment, always trying to make it as concise as possible without losing clarity of content, I noticed how the characterization of “protracted war” could give rise to some kind of misunderstanding.
      
      I stand corrected.
      
      You made your point loud and clear.
      
      Lone Wolf
      - arkx Brasil on July 18, 2022 · at 7:36 pm EST/EDT
        
        ->”Right now Allied forces are face to face with the last line of defense 404 built, after which there is nothing but open fields, in any direction.”
        
        So… Where to go?
        For sure, it will be very interesting. It is about to happen, but it seems that few are noticing it.
        There will still be troops in Kiev, also in the South. But in the unoccupied distance between them, only the void of a Ukraine already unable to exist.
        How will the US be able to occupy this void?
        
        Lone Wolf on July 18, 2022 · at 10:17 pm EST/EDT
        
        @ arkx Brasil on July 18, 2022 · at 7:36 pm EST/EDT
        
        ->”Right now Allied forces are face to face with the last line of defense 404 built, after which there is nothing but open fields, in any direction.”
        
        So… Where to go?
        ———————————–
        
        Not so fast.
        
        Before we go anywhere, cracking this one, is going to take time.
        
        Let’s hope for the best, but Avdiivka could be a second Mariupol in steroids. The Ukronazis are sitting on a chemical plant, are using civilians as human shield, as in everywhere, and are ready to fight to their last stand. I saw a picture of the SOB that leads the Avdiivka garrison, a conceited POS in a military pose of nazi “ubermensch.”
        
        They know they are hated by the LDNR troops, and there will be no mercy. Will they be allowed to go west? Don’t know.
        
        Kramatorsk has been the HQ of the AFU for the Donbass, they have fortified the site for years, in preparation for the Russians, in and out of Ukraine. And they are waiting for the Allied forces to fall on them. They had all the time to get ready. If Seversk is a sample of what is waiting for the Allied forces in Slavyansk/Kramatorsk, it is not going to be pretty. This is not going to be another Lisichansk.
        
        This is a “Military Chronicle” most recent report on Seversk.
        
        https://voenhronika.ru/publ/vojna_na_ukraine/zhest_s_frontov_ukrainy_poslednie_novosti_seversk_soledar_bakhmut_jurij_podoljaka_karta_boevykh_dejstvij_segodnja_20_video/60-1-0-12626
        
        “…Opinion from our people regarding Seversk, from places: “All plantings and forests in the Seversk area are dug up with trenches. The enemy effectively uses anti-tank weapons, so do not expect tank breakthroughs of Russian troops here.
        
        The approaches to Seversk are heavily mined. Going forward without tanks and thralls is dangerous. In addition, remote mining methods will be increasingly used. Even on proven roads, an armored personnel carrier can be left without rubber, running into “petals”.
        
        Thanks to Western support, the Ukrainians now have highly mobile artillery. They have learned how to maneuver their firepower and create the necessary density of fire in the areas of our offensive in the shortest possible time…”
        
        In the meantime, I leave you with an article posing the very same question you’re asking. Reading it next to a map helps to visualize the potential offensive axis.
        ——————————————————————————
        
        https://m.vz.ru/politics/2022/7/18/1168277.html
        
        Where will the Russian army strike in the coming days?
        
        “…According to experts, the neutralization of the AFU group, which controls the industrial zone of Avdiivka (this is actually a suburb of Donetsk, 13 kilometers from the capital of the DPR), means if not an end, then a sharp decrease in the number of “arrivals” in Donetsk. A member of the expert council of the organization “Officers of Russia” Alexander Perendzhiev believes that at this stage, the priority will be to secure the Seversk-Soledar line. Although, the interlocutor added, there is an opinion that now it is necessary to develop an offensive on the Slavyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration.
        
        “Preparations are underway for a massive offensive on the Slavyansk – Kramatorsk defense line, which over the past years has been carefully prepared for defense as a backup option in case Ukrainian troops have to withdraw to reserve positions,” Artamonov said. He recalled that it is in Kramatorsk that the entire operation in the Donbas is managed by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
        
        “At the same time, I would adhere to a slightly different scenario – movement from the Izyum direction to the Lozovaya railway station (south of the Kharkiv region) and its liberation. This, in turn, would limit the supply system of the AFU grouping located in the DPR. Further development of the offensive on Pavlograd is possible, ” Perendzhiev believes. – All this should create good conditions for encircling the enemy, and then completely allow them to move it away from the Donbass deep into Ukraine. Well, you can’t take Slavyansk and Kramatorsk head-on, as they say, because they are “waiting” for us there. For sure, the Ukrainian militants have created a number of fortifications that will cause us a lot of trouble.”
        
        “There will be an offensive along the entire front. In particular, the offensive will be in the southern direction – along the line of Nikolaev and Odessa, in the central direction – Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and further Dnepropetrovsk, and in the northern direction-Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, ” military expert Konstantin Sivkov suggested. In his opinion, the speed and intensity of offensive actions will be higher than in the previous stages of the SVO.
        
        According to Artamonov, now we can expect the development of offensive actions, primarily in the south. “In the Kherson region, it was possible to thwart an attempt of the AFU counteroffensive from the Mykolaiv area, and at the same time, the development of an offensive initiative on Mykolaiv is being prepared,” the military expert noted. Artamonov expects that active actions can begin on the thousand-kilometer arc. “It is difficult to determine what is more important, because all the named points and objects: Kharkiv, Kramatorsk, Avdiivka – Pisky district, Mykolaiv, Kherson – are fundamental,” the source said.
        —————————————–
        
        Lone Wolf
        
        arkx Brasil on July 20, 2022 · at 6:39 am EST/EDT
        
        -> “Not so fast.”
        
        I have no intention of being inconvenient or causing embarrassment, which is why I avoid posting comments about the increasingly obvious and dangerous Russian military deficiencies presented in the course of this SMO.
        
        There are several examples. Some of them are cited in no order of relevance:
        
        – in the last few days 2 fighters were shot down by friendly fire;
        – the Antonovskiy bridge in Kherson is being systematically attacked and is in danger of collapsing;
        – the Russian border continues under almost daily bombardment.
        – the lack of all kinds of equipment for the DPR troops is glaring;
        – the use of radio-communicators of low efficiency and safety, besides being produced almost entirely with imported components (although this seems to be a prosaic example, it is telling of how the Russian economy is market-oriented and not focused on its own sovereignty).
        
        There are also more serious structural problems, among them (also in no order of importance)
        
        – low use of drones, either for reconnaissance or mainly for attack;
        – no action to neutralize the Starlink satellite network, which provides vital information to the Ukraine decrease the operational capability of Russian aviation;
        – little coordination between the various troop types and their actions.
        – inability to suppress terrorist bombings against the civilian population in Donetsk;
        – weakness of the Black Sea fleet in the face of U.S. ability to provide intelligence for Ukraine’s attacks.
        
        All these shortcomings (quoted on Russian channels on Telegram), and others even more serious, are being meticulously analyzed by the US.
        The best way to support Russia, is not to turn a blind eye to them.
        
        Although it has been forced by circumstances to the military option, Russia demonstrates to give priority to the political solution.
        This is clear by avoiding attacking the “Decision Centers.” However (as Vinnitsa made clear) this kind of attack has immense disruptive power over the current Ukrainian government.
        
        ->”Right now Allied forces are face to face with the last line of defense 404 built, after which there is nothing but open fields, in any direction.”
        
        After breaking through this last line of defense in the Donbass, the road to Kiev opens up again. Not to take the city through a grueling urban fight, but to surround it (in a move complemented by an advance from the North and Northeast again) and make it impossible for the Ukrainian government to function.
        
        But it all depends on what in fact the Russian government wants.
Mr Lorcan Dunne on July 18, 2022 · at 3:53 pm EST/EDT

Where is Gonzalo Lira?
- eagle eye on July 18, 2022 · at 4:59 pm EST/EDT
  
  And Patrick Lancaster, nothing from him on Telegram since the 4thof this month.
- sean the leprechaun on July 18, 2022 · at 8:05 pm EST/EDT
  
  GL is in Karakov, he hosted a live round table on Saturday with Andrei M, Larry J and Alexander M.
  
  Cheers M
Lone Wolf on July 18, 2022 · at 4:34 pm EST/EDT

@ the Saker Staff for the Saker Blog

Excellent report, thanks.

Added to A. Martyanov’s quote could have been his assessment of Poseidon, recently released in a video. Unfortunately, I don’t remember which one.

Number three runner up could have been Zelensky’s paranoia, now seeing enemies under the bed, a clear signal of his desperation. Allied forces are winning, someone needs to be blamed, he cannot get the Russians, but he can get the SBU chief and other minor thugs who have been stealing too much from him.

“…and Sweden lifted the ban on entering the ports of our ships that deliver fuel and food to Svalbard…”

Svalbard archipelago is in Norway.

I don’t believe Norway and Lithuania were moved out of their capriciousness by the threat of Poseidon.

Russia has legal leverage and the Duma was ready to denounce the 1920 Svalbard treaty, which could have allowed Russia to send an expeditionary force to Svalbard and claim Russia’s historical rights to the archipelago, which would kick NATO’s article 5, and all hell would break loose. The other option was to renege on a concession of part of the Barents Sea stupid Medvedev made to Norway, with an estimated 2 billion barrels of oil.

Lithuania was easier. A cyberattack that paralyzed government institutions, the lack of support from the EU, afraid of opening another front while losing on Ukraine, plus other not so nice Russian “insinuations,” (I am going to make you an offer that you can’t refuse), were enough to change the tune of the yappy-yappy dog, barking like my Rotties.

“…and we still stand by Military Summary, flaws and all…”

Well, it is almost the end of July, and I am still waiting for the massive mobilization they announced for early July. Or they should sue their pythoness, this time the oracle was as accurate as Ukraine’s air defenses. :-)

“…Drips of information from Iran is coming through but let’s wait until there is some formal information. Already fascinating is a comment from Peskov this morning: Russia, Iran to shift away from estimating trade volume in dollars, says Kremlin.”

The approaching between these two has been slow, but the steps have been solid. They have many interests in common, however, they needed mutual strategic assurances they will go the long haul together. Recently, Russia sent the first cargo by train from Moscow to the port of Bandar Abbas, Iran, headed to India, marking the official launch of the eastern sector of the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).

Sanctions? What sanctions?

https://tvbrics.com/en/news/first-russian-rail-transit-cargo-to-india-arrives-in-iran/

First Russian rail transit cargo to India arrives in Iran

Marking the official launch of the eastern section of the North-South railway corridor, the first rail transit cargo from Russia to India entered Iran on Tuesday through the Sarakhs border crossing.

Carrying 39 containers, the Russian transit train left Chekhov station on July 6, traveling 3,800 kilometers through Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to enter Iran. The cargo will be transported to Bandar Abbas port in southern Iran through a 1600 km rail route to finally be sent to India’s Nhava Sheva Port via sea, reported Tehran Times…

Lone Wolf
Lucky Larrikin on July 18, 2022 · at 4:54 pm EST/EDT

In 2017 Oliver Stone arranged to screen the movie, ‘Dr. Strangelove’ for President Putin’s first ever viewing. You can remember the film ends with deployment of, the ‘doomsday bomb’.

Five years on from that screening, Russia launches the Belgorod submarine armed with Poseidon unmanned torpedoes.

Coincidence???
- bonbon on July 19, 2022 · at 4:42 am EST/EDT
  
  Movie is a hard lesson – never assume your adversary is actually sane.
  It has become clear Russia is dealing with applied irrationality , and that is the keystone of the Straussians now in charge of NATO – an attack on human creative reason itself.
  Many utterances from Medvedev, Glazyev, Peskov, Lavrov, even if in religious terms, show this is quite clear.
  This goes way back to Socrates v. Thrasymachus which Leo Strauss used to brainwash his ‘disciples’, often linked here at the Saker. V.Putin is a student of Greek thought.
  How to defeat a Thrasymachus_
  Prove that the sheer power of human creative reason, works!
  How to measure that?
  The relative potential population density increases in leaps and bounds, beyond any mere oligarch’s henchman Thrasymachus could possible imagine.
  These henchmen fear the EAEU, for an irrational dread – grand ideas do work!
Russian Bear on July 18, 2022 · at 5:12 pm EST/EDT

Voenkor Kitten Z

Armed Forces of Ukraine will be destroyed in the Avdiyivka cauldron: my comment to the Federal Press

agency The end of the operational pause has already come, there is clear and indirect evidence. Shoigu said that we can strike long-range American systems. They are destroyed. After the visit of the Minister of Defense, the allied forces – the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the People’s Militia of the DPR and LPR – are unwinding enemy positions near Donetsk.

Today it was announced that the Avdeevka fortified area of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was taken into a semicircle, the Avdeevka-Konstantinovka highway was cut by our forces in at least two places. This is literally a cauldron into which the APU grouping in Avdiivka fell.

Serious blows are being dealt to the enemy in Maryinka, south of Avdiivka. Ukrainians are conducting bloodthirsty shelling of Donetsk, here, too, the situation for the Armed Forces of Ukraine is becoming difficult.

Further – taking into the operational encirclement, and then into the direct encirclement of the groups of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Donetsk, suppression of attempts to help them and complete destruction.

In the southern direction, offensive actions were ripe in the Ugledar direction, on the border with the Zaporozhye region. The enemy there became insolent to the extreme, tried to counterattack, but these attempts were suppressed. You need to bring him to his senses and deal a crushing blow.

In addition to the Donetsk direction, all our attention is riveted to Slavyansk. Ahead is the final capture of Seversk, Soledar, Artemovsk and access to the Slavic agglomeration.

In the Kharkov direction, it is also necessary to neutralize the enemy’s attempts to reach the Russian border. If all these tasks are solved in a comprehensive manner, using all the means and forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the result will certainly be.

@voenkorKotenok
53.8Kviews
edited
15:51
Cookie on July 18, 2022 · at 5:37 pm EST/EDT

The best way to track American troops in Ukraine -if any- is through special catering to certain units.

If there is a high instance of Hamburgers and cardiovascular destroying fructose sugar in a ration then a good chance there are Americans with snouts at the trough.

The American is even more expendable than the Ukrainian to the corporate criminals that run that state that is the U.S.

If truth be told the American should be fighting with the Russian to remove these criminals from the world.
- Roger G. Mattingly on July 18, 2022 · at 6:18 pm EST/EDT
  
  If the truth be told, Americans make some of the best food in the world. The Italians created the pizzas that American servicemen enjoyed. But, the Americans made pizza making an art. No one makes better hamburgers than Americans. Americans created the chocolate malted ice cream drinks. Americans created potato chips, Coca-Cola, Barq’s Cream Soda, meat loaf, Kentucky Fried Chicken, apple pies, cinnamon toast, pan cakes, corn bread, hot dogs, and a whole host of other things.
  
  There are many other good things to be said about the US. If Russia destroys the US, the world will lose the best cowboy movies ever filmed, Bluegrass and country music, Levi jeans. Elvis was born in the US, not anywhere else. There’ll never be another Jim Reeves or Patsy Cline.
  
  In Spain they eat snails, in Thailand they eat bot bugs, in Japan they eat raw fish. I rest my case.
  - amarynth on July 18, 2022 · at 7:08 pm EST/EDT
    
    Oh Roger, it is just so wrong. So, about food, I know a few things. This is so totally off topic!
    
    Pizza is a flatbread with toppings. Been around for ages. It is certainly not an American invention but far as we know, a European one and some say an eastern one – flatbreads being popular.
    Nobody makes better hamburgers than Americans? This is just a change in the food made in England. Ever heard of Lord Sandwich.
    Apple pies? European and everyone has their own – ever heard of strudel? Apples were not even native to North America before the Europeans brought first trees. Apple deserts of many kinds are traced back as far as the Ottoman Empire as early as 1390—centuries before the Pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock.
    Coca Cola was stolen, go check it out. Anyway, nobody in their right mind drinks coca cola. We use it to take rust off rusty things and to clean patio or cement-type floors.
    Pancakes, it is all over the world and everyone has their own pancake. Ever heard of blini? Ever heard of crêpes?
    Snails? with garlic butter, a wonderful meal. Sashimi – a very old method and magically good fish and based in high protein and very often food that is truly properly fermented .. fermented rice for example.
    Icecream has been around since folks figured out that they could take snow, add some flavor and eat it – in 11th century BCE China. There is reference of people in China eating a combination of milk and rice that was frozen in the snow. No, the US did not invent ice cream.
    
    Have you ever been outside of your county?
    
    Anyway, there are truly North American foods. Pemmican, succotash, various game like wild turkey and others, and old enough to count, the three sisters .. corn, beans, squash.
    
    I guess we can say the US invented fructose corn syrup.
    - ram on July 19, 2022 · at 12:30 am EST/EDT
      
      Coca Cola also kills fire-ants, a big problem in the Southern USA and Mexico
    - Dr NG Maroudas on July 19, 2022 · at 2:37 am EST/EDT
      
      @Amarynth: “Pizza is a flatbread with toppings”
      
      And flatbread is called Pitta in Palestine. Pitta is Pizza cut half-open and a creamy tomato salad, olive oil and savoury protein “topping” is bedded in between the two crusts. Both rank high among great street foods of the world.
  - Lone Wolf on July 18, 2022 · at 7:11 pm EST/EDT
    
    @ Roger G. Mattingly on July 18, 2022 · at 6:18 pm EST/EDT
    
    If the truth be told, Americans make some of the best food in the world. The Italians created the pizzas that American servicemen enjoyed. But, the Americans made pizza making an art. No one makes better hamburgers than Americans. Americans created the chocolate malted ice cream drinks. Americans created potato chips, Coca-Cola, Barq’s Cream Soda, meat loaf, Kentucky Fried Chicken, apple pies, cinnamon toast, pan cakes, corn bread, hot dogs, and a whole host of other things.
    —————————————————————————————
    
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy
    
    Average Life Expectancy
    ———————————
    
    All Male Female
    —- ——- ———-
    
    Japan 84.62 81.64 87.74
    
    Spain 82.33 79.70 85.10
    
    Thailand 77.34 73.68 81.06
    
    USA 77.28 74.50 80.20
    
    I rest my case.
    
    Lone Wolf
  - Aaron on July 18, 2022 · at 7:29 pm EST/EDT
    
    Potato chips ?…
    A English potato farmer was in Paris having dinner. The French sliced full potatoes, I think they called them “Chipotle” not sure. The farmers sent the meal back to the kitchen twice…not thin enough. French chef poised off sliced the potatoes razor thin and into the deep fryer.
    The farmer tasted them and the rest is history.
    
    The Italians invented take away food. Cooked meat collected by housewives.1400 ‘s
    Restaurant is French. Country homes on main roads serving / selling a hearty soup called restaurant.( spelt different in French.) The migrants in slum dwellings brought their skills and favourite food with them to America.
    
    “Cold shoulder”…English! When travellers knocked on the door hungry and the home owners didn’t like the look of them, instead of a meal it was a slice of cold meat and “f” off.
    
    Nothing exceptional about America but the obsession of everything rectum. Quote “Blow it out your ass!
    
    Trans fat, additives, preservatives, sugar, sugar and more salt. Cheap bread that refuses to go stale.
    All you can eat, and make your first million shovelling anything with cheese on it into open mouths.
    And getting a ass whooping in the Ukraine. Add UK, France and the Sausage.
    
    Russian bears eat their meat raw….just sayin.
  - grr on July 18, 2022 · at 7:46 pm EST/EDT
    
    “…hamburgers, chocolate malted ice cream drinks. potato chips, Coca-Cola, Barq’s Cream Soda, meat loaf, Kentucky Fried Chicken, apple pies, cinnamon toast, pan cakes, corn bread, hot dogs,…”
    
    All high in harmful fats and sugars. Obesity and diabetes type 2 causing. Many destructive to the environment to produce.
    
    “…snails, bugs, raw fish”
    
    All high in protein, low in harmful fats, no added sugars and tasty when cooked correctly. All easy on the environment.
    
    I rest my case.
  - Praxis on July 18, 2022 · at 7:56 pm EST/EDT
    
    Surely Roger was being sarcastic and provided examples of what the US has inflicted on the world? If not, he seriously needs to not “rest his case” but continue to give further examples as all he has stated is examples of meaningless, artless, inane and horrible trash !
    - Abelard on July 19, 2022 · at 3:25 am EST/EDT
      
      I want to see NATO broken, thousands of Western and especially US politicians on the end of a rope. But a clear thinker must face facts. Lots and lots of people want to come to the states. I want them to stay where they are. I ratted out a Taiwanese employee for trying have his baby surreptitiously in the US. I sabotaged an Indian employee’s H1B application, sending him back to square one. I feel good about my actions.
      
      But nobody is moving their family to Russia. I mean Nobody. Maybe this will change. I hope so. Russia can call itself the New Old World or something. Everyone will buy real estate and start new businesses. All this while the “native population” dwindles due to infertility, the mark of a successful country.
      - Exile on July 19, 2022 · at 6:35 am EST/EDT
        
        … But nobody is moving their family to Russia. I mean Nobody….
        
        Errr; you are about 15 years behind the curve on this. Take a look at some photos of Moscow these days.
        
        BTW – net Mexican migration has been slightly negative to the US since around 2008. yeah more Mexicans are leaving the US than coming. The net negative is tiny but consistent.
  - tranquilocomp on July 18, 2022 · at 10:42 pm EST/EDT
    
    The United States contributed greatly to the progress of many nations. I think – pretty sure – it brought the first refrigerators to many nations and other appliances. The first car? And who invented the internet? The U.S. did (Ole!).
    
    “Elvis was born in the US, not anywhere else.”
    
    In the South, really, places like California or New York wouldn’t bring him forth anymore than Mexico or Canada (I guess they would have stunted his artistic development). The thing about him is that he became as great in the other countries as he was in the U.S. This is true of Europe and all of Latin America. I think it’s true of Asia too. I think he is the most underestimated singer even though we know that voice. Imagine the star power that made the actual gift smaller than the overall figure! Another one that I think no other country could produce is Dean Martin, not so much the voice but the style is unique. Nowhere else has it ever been done like that. Both were good looking and had great voices – unfair. B.B. King explaining the success of Elvis Presley (1:57 min)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aznpMRCvK6s
    - sean the leprechaun on July 19, 2022 · at 8:21 am EST/EDT
      
      Marketing started by National Insurance to push their product on the public trough the new medium of radio waves. Shear marketing….Tallent, as with art music architecture……beauty and greatness lie within the mind of the beholder…Martin and Presley were entertainers….neither being able to write a short charting ditty never mind write a First We Take Manhattan.
      
      Cheers M
      
      I still enjoy them both just smart enough to know how one ‘makes it’ in any of those fields.
      Micky Mouse Club spits them out on a regular basis.
      - tranquilocomp on July 19, 2022 · at 3:06 pm EST/EDT
        
        “just smart enough to know how one ‘makes it’ in any of those fields.
        Micky Mouse Club spits them out on a regular basis.”
        
        They pretend that it is so while ‘spitting’ new ones, but there haven’t been any real replacements. Las Vegas is still wonderful, but once there, I realize I arrived too late.
  - james1 on July 19, 2022 · at 1:53 am EST/EDT
    
    Is that list of so called Amerian greatness satire ? If not then its all a load of BS !
  - si vis pacem, para bellum on July 19, 2022 · at 4:00 am EST/EDT
    
    As an Italian ex-expat who has lived and worked, among many other places, also in the US (which in many ways I LOVED)… this surely is sarcasm, right?!?
    
    Sorry but the Anglos in general (not just the Americans) have simply a poor cuisine culture, many of their native food/receipts aren’t very unappealing and much of the good food they have today is mostly something coming from somewhere else…
  - Roger G. Mattingly on July 19, 2022 · at 4:14 am EST/EDT
    
    Here’s one thing no one can argue with. The only book in the world that explains the book of Revelation correctly is “The Avenging of the Apostles and Prophets” by Arthur M. Ogden. It was written by an American Christian. You will have to read it to see if what I’m saying is true.
    - tranquilocomp on July 19, 2022 · at 2:56 pm EST/EDT
      
      You may want to check Isaac Newton’s book, “Daniel and the Apocalypse” (1733).
    - Glen Batterham on July 21, 2022 · at 5:23 am EST/EDT
      
      Check out “Daniel and the revelation.” By Uriah Smith. 1882.
  - Haymer Doots on July 19, 2022 · at 6:45 am EST/EDT
    
    But Roger, you forgot that truly great American invention, the banjo!
  - amarynth on July 19, 2022 · at 7:34 am EST/EDT
    
    Ok, let’s step off from Roger’s challenge on what is exceptional in the US and get back to this sitrep please. Yes, I fell for it. Forgive me, i’m a passionate foodie ;-)
Anne Brit on July 18, 2022 · at 6:05 pm EST/EDT

Sweden couldn’t lift any ban on Svalbard, as it is controlled by Norway. Just to set things straight.
Cookie on July 18, 2022 · at 6:18 pm EST/EDT

Its starting to unravel fast in the Ukraine leadership…Zalenski now sees traitors everywhere…usually a sign of impending defeat.

Why did Kherson fall so quickly? Simple Ukraine prioritized its largest cities at the cost of strategic cities…no traitors…just poor planning.
Tony Kaku on July 18, 2022 · at 6:50 pm EST/EDT

Over at Southfront there’s a story about Kiev using US himars to attack a dam just upstream from Kherson. I know the Brits “busted” German dams in the second world war and then crowed about it, but isn’t it a war crime? What’s the latest word?
- Anton Gorbatow on July 18, 2022 · at 8:06 pm EST/EDT
  
  A few days ago, I watched a discussion with Alex M, Dima from Military Summary and Gonzalo Lira about the possibility of a counteroffensive by Ukraine in southern Ukraine. Alex thought that it might happen. Dima thought that it definitely is going to to happen in days or weeks and that it will be “indescribable”. Gonzalo thought that it isn’t going to happen. I agree with Gonzala. I think that Ukraine saying that they are about to counter attack in southern Ukraine is just information warfare bullshit in response to the imminent Ukraine defeat in Donetsk.
- A.Deplorable, PhD on July 19, 2022 · at 3:00 am EST/EDT
  
  @Tony: “I know the Brits “busted” German dams in the second world war and then crowed about it”
  
  When the film “Dambusters” came out we Lab students were only interested in the ingenuity of “bouncing bombs”, but our supervisor — who was into public services — gently told us that the major flooding had caused major civilian damage but little of military significance.
Nate on July 18, 2022 · at 9:26 pm EST/EDT

Some videos for today.

Russian troops restore order in freed towns:

https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/Gazdiev_LPR_1807:6

Ukrainian POW states that Kiev regime forces kill Ukrainian troops that attempt to retreat or surrender:

https://www.bitchute.com/video/3fsK5v6CQbTT/

Russia-led forces continue their advance in Donbass:

https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/Sargon_DPR_1807:b

Russian missile strike destroys US-supplied “HIMARS” launcher:

https://www.bitchute.com/video/gdVnGmLwpvwd/

Iskander ballistic missile system in combat amid Ukraine conflict:

https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/MOD_Iskander_1807:c

Russian cruise missile strikes Kiev regime arms depot in Odessa:

https://www.bitchute.com/video/ftKWU5i5XzYS/

Russian Su-34 in action:

https://rutube.ru/video/ddd60e01043004aa4adde7abc94e7362/
CD Waller on July 18, 2022 · at 9:59 pm EST/EDT

The American Institute for the Study of War is arch neocon zionist Kagen family. Allegedly it’s run by Kimberly Kagen but have also heard Robert Kagen mentioned in connection with them.
Victoria Nuland is Robert Kagen’s wife. A literal example of the incestuous thinking now being attributed to neocons. An Martinov nightmare.
Kimberly is listed as a military historian.
The institute is funded by defense contractors
General Dynamics, Dyncorp and previously Raytheon.
Cookie on July 18, 2022 · at 10:31 pm EST/EDT

I don’t know why the actor Zalenski is so angry at his fellow actor he accused as a traitor.

Zalenski is paid to play his role…puppet ruler and his friend is paid to play his role…Judas Iscariot!

Oh these artistic types are so jealous of each others performances!
nsa on July 18, 2022 · at 11:03 pm EST/EDT

Again, Russians have a well deserved reputation for doing everything the hard way. Why not just end the carnage and destruction by taking down the west Ukie power grid and get the farce over with quickly? 50 to 100 missiles could take out all the major electrical substations, casting west Ukiestan into darkness……no lights, no internet, no communications, no transportation, no nothing. No modern society functions in the dark. Eventual capitulation or mass exodus (Zelenski could be the new Moses?) are the only options. The substations are easily and cheaply rebuilt following capitulation, and west Ukiestan is up and running again, under new management.
- Exile on July 18, 2022 · at 11:45 pm EST/EDT
  
  Attacking civilian infrastructure is a war crime – electrical grids and power stations are civilian.
  
  Difficult concept for people used to NATOland style wars to grasp for sure.
  - bertdilbert on July 19, 2022 · at 2:18 am EST/EDT
    
    Who makes the rules as to what is a war crime? Military takes funding and funding comes from tax dollars. If you pay taxes, you are funding the government and war effort. Why exactly should you get a pass?
    
    If you bomb oil refineries and power plants, economic activity comes to a halt. When the economy comes to a halt, so does tax collection and ability to fund the war. If all of that is too painful for you, then the cost of war is “too high” and people might reconsider before starting a war in the first place.
    
    If you voted for a government that started a war, who was responsible for putting those people in office? If people understood their vote mattered, perhaps they would pay attention.
    
    War is over when the cost is deemed too high. By raising the cost, a war is shortened. If you like war, lower the cost. If you hate war, raise the cost and there will be less of it.
    
    Why should NATO countries get a pass for funding and supplying the war? Was it because they “played by the rules” that somehow they are immune? Who exactly made those rules?
    - amarynth on July 19, 2022 · at 7:41 am EST/EDT
      
      International law, fully subscribed to by all countries. The most well known are the Geneva Conventions. This is wiki, but there is a list at the end both the international treaties on war and there also is a section on International Declarations. I would suggest ignore the wiki commentary, but this answers your question.
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_war
Michael Dubin on July 18, 2022 · at 11:47 pm EST/EDT

Why would putin be open to peace talks? It’s obviously a stall tactic to enable NATO to re arm Ukraine to continue attacking donbass. It’s amazing the Russians can’t understand this.
Pennsylvania Chuck on July 18, 2022 · at 11:56 pm EST/EDT

Good Russia is stepping up their efforts. May the Lord continue to bless Russia with victory. Ukraine being the Zionists second homeland isn’t going to work out. They’ll just have to be grateful for the one they got and for most of the ones ruling the west they probably think like Trotsky they’re international.

For us in America and the west, when reality painfully sinks in they failed and were so close to world domination., they’ll turn inwards and we the average people will bare the burden of their incompetence. The people ruling over us are definitely psychopaths, pure evil. When they speak you can hear the demons within them. They’re rabid in their behavior towards Russia for opposing their rule. They’re surely very dangerous people. God help us all no matter the out come. Yes their victory will be worse for the entire world but their defeat will also have consequence. Really the only celebrating will be for hope for future generations wont have to live under their rule of filth, destruction, and perversion.

Arch Bishop Sheen spoke saying communism was like a manure spread across Russia but from it would come new growth and we see it so. And he also said America may (not sure if he said it would or maybe) go through the same with communism as Russia endured. Maybe you can not classify his words as prophecy but they are prophetic. He also said the Russians have zeal and no one can deny that. They endured and over came. They most surely have zeal. Praise God in heaven. God bless Russia and President Putin and all God fearing people.
Uncle Bob on July 19, 2022 · at 1:02 am EST/EDT

A Russian friend posted this interesting letter:

A woman from Ukraine writes…. – “How was it necessary to make people so massively, hate with all the fiber of their soul everything (I emphasize – EVERYTHING – from embroidery to a flag with a coat of arms) Ukrainian? This is scary …. We have lost the Ukraine. And Putin is not to blame for this. And our unknown Russophobes from ZU are to blame for this. WE, OURSELVES are to blame for this. It is we – Ukrainians from Poltava, Cherkass, Kiev, Khmelnitsky, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv with all central Ukraine, who allowed these assholes Galichians to impose their Nazi orders over Ukraine. Remember, Ukrainian! Remember how during the feasts we picked up their Bandera songs, how we laughed with them at the anecdotes “may chas ta inspiration, pidu popilâ moscoviala”, we closed our eyes to their forging of the Ukrainian language on all these “shpytali”, “narazi”, “summer” higher” and other “maps” with “policies” and “cathedrals”. We were indifferent to the installation of monuments in their cities and villages to those who shot in the backs of our grandfathers in WWII 1941-1945. Then they “unsignificantly” began to put portraits of Bandera and Shukhevich on their meetings. And then to march in the open, first on our own, and then in our cities with SS flags and fascist slogans …. We consciously closed our eyes to it: “Well, they have their own story, you have to understand … “. And these -THEIR monuments have begun to appear here as well….. They called us “skhidnyaki”, the whole South-East – “slaves”, “soviet” and “descendants of Stalinist Katsap executioners”, and the miners were “a bunch of bandits. living with the same bunch of “angels”.. And we, of course, realizing that it was not so, kindly patted them on the shoulder “Come on, you – there are normal people there too… “. This is what we put them in Kyiv . And Kyiv , Kyiv ! I silently watched as visiting Galychians and students from ZU march with torches in honor of the birthday of Bandera along Khreshchatyk and these marches grew more and more numerous year by year. They rewrote all of our history. Our ancestors, according to this story, have become worthless “poturakamas of the Russian empire” and their collaborators, raguls and trivialities – the new heroes of Ukraine. We swallowed it as well. When in Kiev, during Maidan, they began to beat in the subway for the Russian language (and in this Russian-speaking KIEV) Russian-speaking Kievans it was deep on the side, “they are children” will cry, they are against Yanukovych, somehow uncomfortable to put in their place. They shitted and destroyed the whole center of Kiev and we kept silent. Now we are getting the answer. For our indifference, for our cowardice and for our stupidity – We LOST UKRAINE. It will never again be not only in the previous borders. PEOPLE ARE P O M E N Y !!! The South-East’s patience is overflowing. Ukraine turned out to be an evil stepmother for them, with tips under their nose and SWASTIKA on their sleeve…. …. I do not have a single argument for the Russians against their just hatred of this broken Ukraine. “…
- si vis pacem, para bellum on July 19, 2022 · at 4:08 am EST/EDT
  
  Do you have a link to the original (in Russian/Ukrainian)?
  - Uncle Bob on July 19, 2022 · at 11:14 am EST/EDT
    
    Sorry no,she posted it in the (badly) translated English.
Lodewijk Langeweg on July 19, 2022 · at 3:11 am EST/EDT

I can’t say with certainty that this is true, but for your information. If true it would mean Ruxxia decided to have an equal ammount of troops involved:

“120,000 Ukrainian troops amassed at Donbas contact line: DRP”
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/120000-ukrainian-troops-amassed-at-donbas-contact-line:-drp

“Dutch Journalist: ‘We are here, in Donbass, to awaken Westerners deluded by propaganda’”
https://mronline.org/2022/04/11/dutch-journalist-we-are-here-in-donbass-to-awaken-westerners-deluded-by-propaganda/

“UKRAINE:CRIMEA REFERENDUM POLLING STATIONS”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5aQyu-UG3A

“Azov Regiment On Ukraine Russia Frontline l Putin’s Denazification Goal Aimed At White Supremacists?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoqZ8gPKKis

“Donbass Under Fire | Life in the Donetsk Republic under bombs | Dig Deep Documentary”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8wkOyxq1Fo

“Ukraine Donbass: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow Documentary”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTIQ8YExniQ
- bernie on July 19, 2022 · at 8:08 am EST/EDT
  
  good that there is something in Dutch very necessary What about de ommekeer do they report something
  - Englishman on July 19, 2022 · at 9:21 am EST/EDT
    
    Most of those vids have been taken down by Youtube,now i wonder why? LOL!! people can still watch them on RT.
Travis on July 19, 2022 · at 3:14 am EST/EDT

I see this war as an instrument to fasten the move from unipolar to multipolar world. The era of post WW2 Elvis-Beatles westcentric worldview has reached its final stage. There is no “all you need is love” left. All masks are pulled down. It was all just illusions for fools and useful idiots. “All you needed was just hegemony and money printing”, that’s the true story.

Now it’s time make George Harrison Part II trip, this time to real modern Global South where the global highway is. The relatively short around 200 years western hegemony era is all over, at least without succesful western nuclear attack. The ball has thrown to western culture enclaves, media, politicians, decision makers – and folks. How are they going to explain why multipolar world would be dangerous?
- tonyE on July 20, 2022 · at 12:27 am EST/EDT
  
  I feel sorry for Europe, but here in the US this exactly what we needed: the Globalists and Progressives to over reach and then we’ll get the change to get rid of the Deep State.
  
  By a Civil War if needed. Which I think will be mostly short and a clean split with the criminals in charge.
  
  As President Trump said, he was the President of the US, not the World. Those were a good four years world wide. Hopefully we can bring that back.
  
  The US has the gift that we could easily just close our shell, ignore the World and we could become nicely self sufficient. I guess we might have to deal with Mexico and Canada, but that’s doable.
  
  The UK… Ay caramba! They are so hosed.
bonbon on July 19, 2022 · at 6:09 am EST/EDT

Otto Schily, Interior Minister under Chancellor Schroeder, Schily accuses parts of the country of glorifying war
From DPA, in SZ Sueddeutsche Zeitung, a major daily.

And he stands by his comment that Germany’s nuclear exit was foolish, proposes a Swiss model for Ukraine, and accuses the Greens of glorifying war.
Bellicism means a form of glorification of war. “The Greens of all places are too one-sided,” said Schily.

Most importantly he says : “”Necessary is political imagination” – to me a reference to Percy Shelley’s Defence of Poetry I posted above….
- Chrissie on July 19, 2022 · at 8:21 am EST/EDT
  
  It’s a sad and recurring observation, that people who have been in power only come to their senses once they are retired and free from external pressure. They literally have nothing to loose, and maybe they become increasingly aware that the day of reckoning for them is fast approaching – who knows?
  
  Otto Schily was one of the worst hardliners while in office, like every minister of interior before him and ever since.
  - bonbon on July 19, 2022 · at 9:36 am EST/EDT
    
    He says , at least some journalist picked it up, what is being said behind closed doors.
    It is a recurring mistake to think we are well informed, propaganda aside.
    
    During Schily’s time in Gov’t the Greens were anti-war.
    Not bad for 1 day – NATO’s Stavridis, and Germany’s Schily.
    
    And this is just July!
Wim on July 19, 2022 · at 9:05 am EST/EDT

Just a little speculation: is the US getting closer involved?

The Kherson offensive was cancelled without much noise. Nobody expected it to succeed.

The head of the SBU was fired. He was a childhood friend of Zelensky and didn’t seem to have much control over the organization.

The last two weeks the frontline hardly moved. It is easy to attribute it to the Russian “rest period” after Lisychansk. But the reports are that there is some tough resistance. And then there was that video a week ago where a couple of Russian tanks were destroyed somewhere to the East of Seversk.

There are reports of war weariness in the US. There is some speculation that the US might give up after the fall of Slavyansk and Kramatorsk. Not likely. But it would be a good motive for America’s war mongers to become a bit more hands-on.
- sean the leprechaun on July 19, 2022 · at 10:10 am EST/EDT
  
  Kherson was perhaps a ruse, Russia switches focus to there and then the Ukies resupply and refresh other units along the line, doing the SMO on a less than war scale can stretch forces thin. Military Summary said something along the line if the Donbas Arc falls western support will falter or stop. Russia still needs complete capitulation or a 300k DMZ along its border……a dmz will make the Ukraine like Occupied Palestine, Russia can play whack a Nazi whenever it chooses.
  
  Cheers M
  
  Maybe Z was serious wanting to turn Ukraine into an Occupied Palestine.
  - Johnny Dollar on July 19, 2022 · at 12:42 pm EST/EDT
    
    “a dmz will make the Ukraine like Occupied Palestine, Russia can play whack a Nazi whenever it chooses.”
    
    Don’t see an ongoing “whack a mole” in Putins stated war objectives.
    
    Rather, I see him going for the “whole enchilada.” Meaning he wants all the Ukrainian people to love him. It’s the old winning hearts and minds thing from back in the day – which failed back in the day.
    
    To me, it seems an ambitious, sort of underlying goal that’s going to take him awhile. The question becomes does he have the stamina and charisma to see it through?
- Exile on July 19, 2022 · at 10:26 am EST/EDT
  
  Make no mistake – Kiev Military is 100% commanded by Washington/NATO.
- El Contraro on July 20, 2022 · at 1:51 am EST/EDT
  
  Russia does not want to destroy Ukraine, who would feed the people? How long can they feed a large number of their own soldiers who are there to keep the land? US know this. Biden said a key thing before the Special operation started: “Maybe Putin can get Ukraine, but he can’t keep it!” But Putin knows that Europe needs gas and food. Both Biden and Putin are playing a waiting game.
  
  For Russia, any government in Kyev is better than no government at all. Neither Putin or Zelenski said anything bad about the other guy because in the end, they will need each other; Putin to negotiate way out of the mess and Zelenski to save his life.
Marc Anthony on July 19, 2022 · at 10:35 am EST/EDT

It is not hard to understand – the more Russia is forced to pay, the more it will want in return.
In ancient rome, they had a principle that served them well.
They would gladly negotiate with their enemies, until hostilities had ensued in ernest. But once the ram had touched the wall, there would be no pause, no negotiation. Mars would decide the issue at that point, not Mercury.

I would say that at this point, the ram has well and truly touched the wall.

The way things are going, I would be surprised if there ends up being any place called Ukraine, once all is said and done.
amarynth on July 19, 2022 · at 10:57 am EST/EDT

First Time Ever – the Russian MoD has the entire mapping of the full theater of SMO.

You can read the comments from Defense Politics Asia

https://t.me/defensepoliticsasia/2358?single
Wobblie on July 19, 2022 · at 12:14 pm EST/EDT

For those who find it difficult to navigate the intricacies of all the conspiracies running the planet, I recommend a thorough reading of “The Foucault Pendulum” by Umberto Echo.

It explains all the conspiracies and their inter-connections.
Pamela St on July 19, 2022 · at 12:52 pm EST/EDT

Keeping in mind that fact that the UK has been avidly supporting the Kiev Nazi Ukrainians, and Boris Johnson not only did a 180 degree about turn regarding relations with Russia after a meeting with the Intelligence services not long after taking Power, it is interesting to note his comment in a speech to the House yesterday, in which he stated

“The PM also insisted that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer ………and the ‘deep state’ ………..would fail in their ‘plot’ to move Britain back towards the EU, while he pledged that British support for Ukraine would not weaken under a new Tory leader.

I believe it’s the first time that political leader in any nation of the collective West has done this. I think it’s actually quite significant. Perhaps Russia is fighting the Deep State of the West, more than any one nation.
Lone Wolf on July 19, 2022 · at 1:22 pm EST/EDT

Fight Putin – Ride a Bike
———————————

https://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/7745205.html

Fight Putin, ride your bike. News of the fight against Russia in Britain.
——————————————————————————————-

Oh, the Brits…who still believe their “queen” doesn’t use the “powder room,” now “fighting” Putin not only to the last Ukrainian, but also by biking. How can we take these people seriously? The UK is a circus, BoJo is one of many clowns.

Biking is the only choice for many of them, who cannot afford the price of gas. Instead of protesting their government stupid policies (unthinkable), they turn scarcity into a Russophobic cause.

Good luck, idiots.

Lone Wolf
Russian Bear on July 19, 2022 · at 1:25 pm EST/EDT

Voenkor Kitten Z
Boris Rozhin: Russia is determined to win (Part 1)

Prolonging the Ukrainian conflict is in the plans of our opponents, but we have no other way but to fulfill the tasks of the NWO.

– After the inspection of the headquarters of the groupings by the Minister of Defense S. Shoigu, the RF Armed Forces stepped up strikes against the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the infrastructure of the enemy. Is the “operational pause” over or was it never?

– The operation, in fact, did not stop. The regrouping of troops or the withdrawal of individual formations for rest does not mean that offensive operations or missile strikes against enemy troops and infrastructure have ceased.

In the last week, we have seen how the focus of strikes has shifted to the destruction of concentrations of troops and equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as the destruction of artillery missile systems, which can be interpreted as a “softening” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donbass before the upcoming offensive operations on the Seversk-Soledar line and in the Artemovsk region, as well as increasing efforts to move into the Slavic-Kramatorsk agglomeration.

– The pace of progress towards Slavyansk slowed down. What is it connected with?

-The main efforts are now concentrated on breaking through the Seversk-Soledar front in order to provide access to Artemovsk from the north and to Slavyansk from the east. The group advancing on Slavyansk from the northwest is obviously in the phase of replenishment and regrouping after the past battles in the area of the Valley, Bogorodichny and Svyatogorsk. The terrain and large forest areas to the north-west of the city, as well as the line of the Seversky Donets covering Slavyansk from the north, make the offensive difficult.

– The DPR announced the semi-encirclement of Avdiivka. When can we expect the blockade of Donetsk to be lifted? What factors facilitate and, conversely, inhibit the process?

– Avdiivka is well supplied through Orlovka, and the Avdiivka-Konstantinovka highway could not be used by the Armed Forces of Ukraine before after they were kicked out of Novobakhmutovka and Novoselka-2.
The assault on Avdiivka from Kamenka and the industrial zone at this stage does not promise quick results, so here and in the future we will observe a positional front and intensive work of artillery and MLRS from both sides. The main problem is that the entire Adveevka and the adjacent territories have been turned into a solid fortification, a frontal assault on which, for military reasons, is impractical.

– The announced counter-offensive of Kiev still does not begin. Where to wait for the activation of the enemy? What are the manpower reserves of the regime, taking into account the heavy losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Donbass?

– The most probable directions of the enemy’s offensive are Krivoy Rog, Nikopol and Zaporozhye (in the direction of Vasilyevka, Tokmak and Pologa).
The ongoing capture of random citizens on the streets, as well as mass cases of desertion from the front, indicate that the declared 1 million people in the Armed Forces of Ukraine is a purely propaganda figure. In fact, the total number of people under arms is significantly less. Nevertheless, work is underway not only to plug holes in the front with poorly trained cannon fodder, but also to prepare more well-coordinated brigades that can be concentrated for an offensive in one of the indicated directions.

Potential forces that are desirable for the Armed Forces of Ukraine for some serious actions – from 5-7 armored personnel carriers, to 80-100 guns, MLRS and heavy mortars + several aircraft and helicopters. In addition to the actual organization of such a grouping, an equally important problem for the Armed Forces of Ukraine is the problem of secretive concentration of these troops in order to avoid strikes by the RF Armed Forces even before advancing to the lines of attack.
The experience of failed offensives in the area of Gulyaipol and Davydov Brod has shown that the RF Armed Forces have the ability to stop enemy activity with concentrated artillery and air strikes.

@voenkorKotenok
309.5Kviews
02:59

Voenkor Kitten Z
Boris Rozhin: Russia aims to win (part 2)

– Following the “holy javelin” in Ukraine, the “holy haymars” has already been invented. Attacks on warehouses, headquarters and communications of the Allied Forces are not weakening. What does the tactics look like using the MLRS and OTRK supplied to Kyiv in targeting objects and overcoming air defense? Is there an antidote for the wunderwaffe?

– The United States operates within the framework of the concept of network-centric warfare, hoping to slow down the intensity of their fire impact on the Armed Forces of Ukraine and reduce their offensive potential by strikes against the command and logistics structure of the RF Armed Forces and the armies of the LDNR. The APU here is only performers and a screen. Target designation data is provided by American technical intelligence, as well as agents of the SBU on the ground.
Countermeasures – tracking down and destroying complexes (1 has already been destroyed, so that with proper work they are destroyed in the same way as the S-300 complexes, Tochka-U OTRK and Uragan MLRS), as well as the active use of the dispersal of fuel and lubricant depots and ammunition to reduce the effectiveness of such strikes. The same applies to the issue of protecting command infrastructure facilities. In general, it is necessary to adapt to this tactics of the enemy, since he, obviously, will adhere to it further.

– Are we ready to drag out the conflict in Ukraine and, in fact, does Russia have options other than victory?

-It is quite obvious that the Russian Federation has long been acting within the framework of the concept of a long-term conflict as part of the “Syrianization” of the war in Ukraine. The official position on achieving all the goals of the NWO has not changed since February. Specific terms, as before, are not indicated – the need for long-term work to achieve the stated goals has already been completely reconciled, and a number of processes to increase the grouping of troops in Ukraine and changes in the military-industrial complex also indicate preparations for a long confrontation with the United States and NATO in Ukraine.
Of course, Russia will strive only for victory, which will not only guarantee its sovereignty, but also provide advantageous positions in the formation of a new world order. In this case, the victory will write off all costs. The absence of a positive result in Ukraine will, in turn, have severe domestic political consequences for the country. This, in fact, is what the United States is betting on, dragging out the war in Ukraine in every possible way and raising the degree of escalation.

– How adequate are the statements that the collective West is running out of stocks of weapons and ammunition for deliveries to Ukraine?

– Supply problems are more of a logistical and production nature. In the long run, with the active production of the necessary range of weapons, they are quite solvable for the US and NATO.
This seems to be a less significant problem for the US than the economic and political costs of the sanctions war against Russia. In the first case, the consequences are exclusively military and Ukraine bears the costs. In the second case, the costs hit directly those establishment groups that unleashed the war.

– When will the Polish factor “shoot” in the Ukrainian theater of operations and how is this connected with the situation on the border with Belarus, Kaliningrad and the Baltic states?

– According to the data of the SVR, Poland has not abandoned its plans to occupy Western Ukraine and continues to actively build up its military capabilities by increasing the size of the army (the plans for increasing it increased to 400 thousand people) and re-equipping with American weapons.
The build-up of Poland’s military capabilities creates additional challenges for the Russian grouping in Kaliningrad and complicates the configuration of any conflict around the “Polish Corridor” in the event of a cessation of transit to Kaliningrad.
Poland in the current realities is a long-term threat to Russia, in the same sense in which the “Remediation regime” in Poland was a threat to the USSR from 1922 to 1939. In those years, the Polish General Staff directly pointed out that “the dismemberment of Russia lies at the heart of Polish policy in the East.” Now the goals of Poland are exactly the same. The revival of the Eastern European hyena in the same role is another consequence of the criminal actions of Gorbachev and Yeltsin, which we will have to deal with in the coming years and decades.

@voenkorKotenok
Liz on July 19, 2022 · at 2:26 pm EST/EDT

Things are moving so fast it is hard to track, but here are some big picture developments that have been in my mind the last few days maybe someone can connect the dots for me:

– Zelenski seems to be shifting around high-level members of his government a lot lately, is this a sign of a coming collapse of his regime?

– I have seen other commenters bring this up but the question I have is who is Zelenski replacing these people with?

This makes me suspect that there are disagreements among the members of the regime to on one hand simply capitulate to Russia, and on the other to invite NATO into Ukraine to protect it like Syria did with Russia, and de facto surrender to NATO instead of Russia. Maybe the ‘surrender to Moscow’ crowd has been sacked in order to prepare for the arrival of NATO forces.

Or, maybe Zelenski is purging the nazi/nato/etc. shadowy figures from the government before negotiations in order to play down the reason d’être of the SMO before anticipated negotiations with the Russians?

We are at the 5 month mark and Ukraine looks no closer to victory, I can’t imagine morale among the Ukrainian armed forces is very high. Support for the war is also starting to fade among the regular people in western countries, it isn’t new anymore and they hate the high gas & food prices. The leaders of western countries know full well the cold weather is coming soon and Russia will have all the cards… and I could go on, but what I gather is that the end looks near for this war.

The front line action is relatively less impressive than the asymmetrical strategic action. Putin is in full swing chopping down the petrodollar tree, and his visit to Tehran today is another large step in that direction. While the front line moves small and slowly, the big picture moves large and quickly.

And also,

– Did Iran just de facto proclaim that they are at the point of nuclear breakout, right before the visit by Putin?

– Now that the Belgorod submarine is launched, does this mean that it could have *already* launched a swarm of conventional Status 6/Posidon torpedos to swim the North Atlantic and North Pacific?
- sean the leprechaun on July 20, 2022 · at 10:48 am EST/EDT
  
  Just from rumours…..the non Ukrainians killed at the air force/weapons meeting rattled the lever pullers, hence the US embassy shuttle out of Kiev. Everyone was screaming traitors gave up the location, so those responsible for that command, had to be removed or shuffled, even if they themselves were not involved. Not really infighting, more optics.
  Front line action from way out here seems slow, try being there, life speeds up, real fast.
  24/7 artillery all along the front for days and days, non stop. Even leaving that zone alive, one is scarred for life.
  
  Be cool if the RF parked a non loaded Kalibar out front on the lawn of the US Embassy in Livi(sp)….and just for fun, in English, German, and Polish….lettering on its side..”you can run, but you can’t hide”. Oh, and for effect, a loop tape of GL’s mocking laugh…….
  
  Cheers M
Uncle Bob on July 19, 2022 · at 3:48 pm EST/EDT

An insightful post on a pro-Russian Ukrainian site. He talks about one of the top Ukrainian air force officers killed in the Vinnitsa officer club bombing. That the officer was born in Russia and at the break-up of the USSR he was in Ukraine at school and became a Ukrainian citizen (bad mistake I’d say):

The flyer who died in Vinnitsa turned out to be from Stavropol, graduated from Suvorov in Minsk, and entered the flight school in Kharkov right before the fall of the USSR.

Here is such an intricate fate, and she says that most of the participants in this war are not divided into Russians and Ukrainians, but are divided into those who drown for the West and those who drown for the USSR or what is left of it.

By the way, in Russia, as well as in Ukraine, there are also a lot of those who are for the West. We have Bandera, and you have Vlasov.

https://t.me/OpenUkraine/21701
esskumar on July 20, 2022 · at 12:10 am EST/EDT

Guys, just read a very illuminating article “Ukraine’s ‘Great Game’ surfaces in Transcaucasia” about US and EU moves in Azerbaijan and a great analysis of the strategic aspects of the operations in Kherson and Mariupol.
https://www.indianpunchline.com/ukraines-great-game-surfaces-in-transcaucasia/
amarynth on July 20, 2022 · at 10:31 am EST/EDT

Oh boy!

So heavy shelling from the Ukrops and they send 3 reaper drones for the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant – by all reports, plant is not damaged.

But, a civilian was killed on Russian territory: ONE killed in Ukrainian shelling of Ukraine-bordering village of Nekhoteevka, Belgorod region, Western Russia – Belgorod Governor.
https://t.me/IntelRepublic/2084

This is bad bad news and retaliation is certain to come.
Russian Bear on July 20, 2022 · at 10:40 am EST/EDT

Operation Z: Military commissars of the Russian Spring
‼️🇬🇧Report from the front:

🚀The Russian Armed Forces killed up to 40 nationalists with high-precision weapons, hitting the weapons depot of the Armed Forces brigade in Soledar and the installation of the US-made Harpoon missile system in the Odessa region;

✈️Aviation of the Russian Aerospace Forces in an air battle destroyed two Ukrainian aircraft – one MiG-29 in the Nikolaev region and one Su-25 in the DPR;

💥The RF Armed Forces, as part of counter-battery combat, hit five platoons of the Grad MLRS of two brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in a day;

☠️The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation killed more than 200 personnel with a strike on the temporary deployment point of the marine corps brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Odessa;

🏹The air defense of the Russian Federation shot down 4 UAVs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kharkov region and the DPR in a day, in the Kharkov and Kherson regions intercepted nine shells of the Uragan MLRS.

More details in the briefing of the Ministry of Defense:
https://t.me/rusvesnasu/20940
Stein on July 20, 2022 · at 12:16 pm EST/EDT

It was of course NORWAY not Sweden (which is landlocked in the northwest) that lifted the ‘ban’ on Russian goods to Barentsburg (Svalbard) – this was a ban on shipping it through Tromsø port. if you look at the map both Tromsø and the Russian port city Murmansk are quite close, I don’t know why the Russians need to use Tromsø at all – some matter of expediency or lacking facilities in Murmansk probably. Interesting to note that our foreign minister used Lithuania’s provocation in Kaliningrad as a reference – Lithuania’s action since having been annulled by EU (recognized as US meddling/provocation). This is the level of incompetence of the West’s so called leaders – they are by now powerless managers and bank/corporate lobbyists.
Russian Bear on July 20, 2022 · at 4:04 pm EST/EDT

It wasn’t me!:

Russian Bears Eat Wealthy Tourist And Famed Athlete in Helicopter Crash Tragedy

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/07/russian-bears-eat-wealthy-tourist-famed-athlete-helicopter-crash-tragedy/
- Lone Wolf on July 20, 2022 · at 8:11 pm EST/EDT
  
  @ Russian Bear on July 20, 2022 · at 4:04 pm EST/EDT
  
  It wasn’t me!:
  ——————-
  
  Glad it was not you.
  
  You could have gotten an indigestion. :-)
  
  Poor bears, hope they are ok, have no idea how filthy humans are.
  
  Lone Wolf
  - Russian Bear on July 20, 2022 · at 10:43 pm EST/EDT
    
    Hahahaha!
    
    Speaking of bears, last night my bear friend showed up again.
    
    He ate:
    
    9 jelly donuts
    4 apple fritters
    4 blueberry muffins
    1 package (2 pounds) of lemon crème cookies
    2 suet cakes
    - Lone Wolf on July 21, 2022 · at 1:25 am EST/EDT
      
      @Russian Bear on July 20, 2022 · at 10:43 pm EST/EDT
      
      Hahahaha!
      
      Speaking of bears, last night my bear friend showed up again.
      
      He ate:
      
      9 jelly donuts
      4 apple fritters
      4 blueberry muffins
      1 package (2 pounds) of lemon crème cookies
      2 suet cakes
      ————————————————————-
      
      That’s quite a rich sugar diet. But they love anything sweet.
      
      Glad the bear has found a good friend.
      
      Now you are going to have sweets at hand all the time, otherwise the bear can get upset. And you don’t want to be around an angry bear.
      
      Just ask the Ukronazis. :-)
      
      Lone Wolf
Nate on July 20, 2022 · at 9:09 pm EST/EDT

Some videos for today.

A large grouping of “Kraken” Banderite death squad members attempted to attack the LPR’s Belogorovka, but were defeated (must see video):

https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/lugansk-shelling:1

Russian VDV forces in action:

https://rutube.ru/video/e9f82e1f831a4e1665f18e651e6afafe/

Russian Mi-28 helicopters fire missiles at low altitudes:

https://odysee.com/@RT:fd/mi-28-combat:b
- Lone Wolf on July 20, 2022 · at 10:44 pm EST/EDT
  
  @ Nate on July 20, 2022 · at 9:09 pm EST/EDT
  
  Some videos for today.
  
  A large grouping of “Kraken” Banderite death squad members attempted to attack the LPR’s Belogorovka, but were defeated (must see video):
  ——————————————————————
  
  Regardless of who they are, nazis, fascists, mercenaries or war criminals, on the battlefield they are soldiers like everyone else, and they have the right to be given a chance to fight and die like who they are, soldiers.
  
  These Krakenovtsy didn’t have that opportunity.
  
  They were forced to double time to Slavyansk from Kharkov, knowing well the Allied forces had fire control on all access roads to Slavyansk/Kramatorsk, these cities have already fallen inside the preparations for the northern wedge of the “Donbass Arc,” a cauldron that will encircle the line Slavyansk-Konstantinovka-Toretsk.
  
  They refused the order, but were forced by command to march south.
  
  After all, they are the “Krakenovtsy,” “Glory to Ukraine” and all the bullshit, just enough to be used as cannon fodder. Sad to see the UkroWerhmacht is using their own soldiers as meat for the grinder, not sad at all about their end. They chose that path, as the nazi “Kraken” battalion are one of the many nazi militias armed and trained by the criminal west.
  
  Lone Wolf
Russian Bear on July 20, 2022 · at 9:49 pm EST/EDT

Voenkor Kitten Z
Military expert Boris Rozhin with a brief summary of the results of the operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine as of 22.10 July 20, 2022, specially for the Voenkor Kotenok Z @voenkorKotenok channel :
1.
Seversk.
Fighting in the area of Serebryanka and Verkhnekamensky, processing the heights around the city, on which the Armed Forces of Ukraine are still holding.
The enemy withdrew part of the forces from the city. Reports about the capture of Seversk are still ahead of events.
The Seversk-Soledar road is controlled by the enemy, but is subjected to artillery strikes by the RF Armed Forces.
2.
Soledar.
The enemy was practically ousted from Berestovoye, but so far there is no complete control over the destroyed village.
Battles near Yakovlevka, Belogorovka and Ivano-Daryevka. The enemy has completely withdrawn from Novaya Kamenka, but still continues to try to challenge the control of the RF Armed Forces over Stryapovka.
The assault on Soledar itself has not yet been carried out.
3.
Artemovsk.
Fighting in Pokrovsky, part of the village is controlled by the RF Armed Forces. The capture of Pokrovsky will allow the RF Armed Forces to begin advancing to the eastern and northeastern outskirts of Artemovsk.
Fights at Veselaia Dolina, Zaitsevo, Semigorye and Uglegorsk TPP.
4.
Dzerzhinsk.
Without changes. It is worth noting the work from the cabriolet of Ukrainian helicopters in the village on the outskirts of Gorlovka.
5.
Avdiivka.
Fighting at Novoselka-2, Kamenka, Novobakhmutovka, New York. There are no significant changes. The enemy continues to shell Donetsk and other cities. There are civilian dead. Our troops continue to work along Avdiivka.
6.
Slavyansk.
Fights at the Valley, Bogorodichny, Prishib, Sidorovo. No major progress yet.
The RF Armed Forces continue to inflict intensive strikes on targets in the region of Kramatorsk and Slavyansk. The enemy expects the start of an offensive on Slavyansk immediately after the breakthrough of the Seversk-Soledar line, as well as a possible strike on Barvenkovo in the Izyum direction, where the front has taken on a positional character.
7.
Kharkov.
In addition to the ongoing fighting near Verkhniy Saltov, Veseloe, Tsupovka and Uda, there is some movement of the RF Armed Forces towards the Pitomnik in the area of the Great Passages.
Attacks on the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Kharkov and Chuguev continue. The enemy continues to shell Cossack Lopan, from where the evacuation of the population began. Border villages are also shelled.
8.
Carbon.
The front, after the recent battles for Pavlovka and Yegorovka, has now stabilized. Fighting continues in Maryinka and for Novomikhailovka. Our troops cleared Staromayorskoye and somewhat improved their positions in the area of Velikaya Novoselovka.
9.
Zaporozhye.
On the line Kamenskoye-Orekhov-Gulyaipole-Velikaya Novoselovka without major changes. The enemy is preparing for activation in the Zaporizhia direction.
The RF Armed Forces launch pre-emptive missile strikes.
Today, the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant with a kamikaze UAV. Radiation background is normal. The very fact puts on the agenda both the very vulnerability of nuclear power plants with all the ensuing consequences, and the possibility of retaliatory strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure + accelerating Ukraine’s disconnection from the Zaporizhzhya NPP.
10.
Nikolaev.
The enemy continues to prepare for an offensive in the Krivoy Rog direction and strikes at the logistics infrastructure of the RF Armed Forces. Another blow was struck on the Antonovsky bridge, which was significantly damaged. With current trends, the bridge can be rendered unusable within 1-2 weeks.
The RF Armed Forces continue to strike at the Nikolaev grouping, inflicting significant losses on it and hindering the preparation of possible active operations in the Kherson direction.
Gauleiter Nikolaev threatens to clean up the disloyal population of Nikolaev, who on a regular basis surrenders the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the RF Armed Forces, as a result of which the enemy suffers considerable losses.

@voenkorKotenok
- Russian Bear on July 21, 2022 · at 12:20 pm EST/EDT
  
  Voenkor Kitten Z
  Report of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation dated July 21, 2022. The main thing:
  
  – According to updated data, on July 16, more than 600 militants were destroyed during an attack on a temporary deployment point in Konstantinovka, including. up to 120 mercenaries;
  – Another 320 militants were destroyed on July 17 during an attack on a vegetable base in Nikolaev;
  – Operational-tactical and army aviation, missile forces and artillery destroyed nine command posts and six warehouses;
  – As part of the counter-battery fight, one battery of Akatsia howitzers and Uragan MLRS, eight platoons of Grad MLRS, nine artillery platoons of D-20 howitzers and seven artillery platoons of D-30 guns were hit;
  – A Ukrainian Su-25 was shot down near Kramatorsk;
  – Mi-8 helicopter was destroyed over the Nikolaev region;
  – Five Ukrainian UAVs were shot down.
  
  @voenkorKotenok