RUNNING UPDATES ON THE CONFLICT IN UKRAINE - 21.05.2023
Including geopolitical issues affecting the balance of power in the ongoing end game war to establish our common future, a closely monitored prison planet or tolerance for diverse modes of governance.
THE ROAD TO THE ULTIMATE CONCLUSION OF WORLD WAR III RUNS THROUGH HERE.
Please note: We will be in various locations in Southern India for the next four days. This will result in variations to the timing of updates and quite possibly their total absence on certain days.
*** ARTYOMOVSK FALLS. KRAMATORSK & SLAVYANSK IN RUSSIAN SIGHTS ***
…………
“Ukraine. What is the truth...?
Why won’t western media tell both sides…?”
***
VIRTUALLY UNREPORTED ATROCITY IN LUGANSK, 2nd JUNE 2014
A lot has been said about atrocities in the western media claimed to have been perpetrated by the Russians, for example at Bucha and Mariupol among others. These assertions are conveyed on the say so of the Ukrainian authorities. How willing though are western news broadcasters to convey atrocities attributed to the Ukrainians? The following will I think provide the answer.
If anyone wonders if they are receiving accurate coverage of the conflict in Ukraine I would suggest watching the video below of an event which occurred on the 2nd of June 2014 and ask themselves if they recall hearing about it on any mainstream media news channel at the time.
The video is harrowing to watch. The bodies (five women and three men) are real. Yet across western media there was only one single news report that occurred a day later. This was from CNN and occurred only because a CNN team happened to be nearby at the time of the atrocity and so the network could hardly ignore it as all others so obviously did.
The video below shows the unvarnished truth that was not considered newsworthy in western mainstream news.
THE SINGLE WESTERN MSM REPORT ON THE LUGANSK ATROCITY, 3rd JUNE 2014
The video at the CNN link below is the crime scene sanitised by CNN, though played straight with honest reporting on the scene not playing things to Kiev’s tune.
(There was a time early in the war in the Donbass when CNN were not afraid to contradict the Ukrainian regime in Kiev.) Watch because it's the first and last time you will see this.
5 women and 3 men died, all civilians.
Air attack on pro-Russian separatists in Luhansk kills 8, stuns residents.
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Lead feature:
ALEXANDER MERCOURIS of THE DURAN
Ukr Flank Attacks Stall; Ze Roadshow Hits Saudi, Japan; G7 Agrees F16s, Economic War with China.
ALEX CHRISTOFOROU of THE DURAN
Bakhmut under Russian control. Elenksy in Japan. Millie calls Zaluzhny. F16, new wonder weapon. U/1
THE DURAN
Assad returns to Arab League.
G7 Japan, more sanctions against Russia.
JACKSON HINKLE
Bakhmut LIBERATED By Wagner, Ukraine Loses ALL GROUND.
VREVELATIONS
Russia Claims Complete Control Of Bakhmut: The Fall Of The "Impregnable Fortress".
Dr. STEVE TURLEY
Bakhmut Has FALLEN! Media Lies EXPOSED!
HINDUSTAN TIMES
Wagner Chief declares victory in Bakhmut; 'Ukrainian City's takeover complete' | Watch:
Putin's new offensive on the cards? Russia sends elite units to border, Ukraine alarmed.
Putin ally's big declaration against Ukraine & Zelensky; 'No Talks With Half-Decayed Neo-Nazis'.
Zelensky's worries mount as Russia upgrades combat | New challenges ahead of counteroffensive.
U.S. to approve F-16 fighter jet strikes inside Russia? Watch Biden admin's response | Ukraine War.
SCOTT RITTER
Russia is WINNING in Bakhmut as Wagner PMC Defies All Odds.
Ukraine's Political Chaos.
VALUETAINMENT w/ TULSI GABBARD
"We're On The Brink To Nuclear War!" - Is The Military Industrial Complex Going Too Far?
RICHARD MEDHURST
This CIA Anti-Russian Video Is the CRINGIEST Thing I’ve Ever Seen.
BREAKING: US Allows F16 Fighter Jets for Ukraine.
JOHN PILGER
John Pilger on depleted uranium from Iraq to Ukraine, with Phil Miller.
‘This is a war of propaganda’: John Pilger on Ukraine and Assange | Talking Post with Yonden Lhatoo.
BORZZIKMAN
After the Shameful Failure of the US Patriot System, Israel Refused Ukraine to Transfer Iron Dome.
DUE DISSIDENCE
Marianne Staff QUIT, Manchin THIRD PARTY Rumors INTENSIFY, Zelensky's G7 Trip.
STEPHEN GARDNER
The White House is LYING TO US!
GEOPOLITICAL ECONOMY REPORT
US backs Ecuador dictator: Right-wing banker dissolves parliament to stop impeachment for corruption.
FIRSTPOST
Snub to US: Arab World Embraces Bashar al-Assad's Syria Despite Pressure.
CYRUS JANNSEN
China Just Found a MASSIVE Loophole to Survive US Sanctions!
CGTN - LEE CAMP
American comedian: U.S. blaming China while ignoring own citizens.
ShanghaiEye魔都眼
China's first yuan-settled LNG trade cargo arrival signals rising Yuan internationalization.
G7 expects economic ties with China; Beijing: 'unrealistic' to decouple, 'not needed' to de-risk.
ASIAN QUICKTAKE
GET RID OF THE DOLLAR! LOCAL CURRENCY TRADING has STARTED in ASEAN Countries.
LINE FLUX
China's Chip breakthrough force U S Universities into Building New Semiconductor Workforce.
THROUGH THE EYES OF…
RADIATION THREAT IN POLAND?AN OFFICIAL ANNOUCEMENT. "ZELENSKY SHOULD APPOLOGIZE FOR WOLYN."
MEANWHILE IN KRAKOW. (FYI PL IS THE LAST ON THE RAINBOW LIST FROM THE EU COUNTRIES).
ALEXANDRE GUERREIRO
Bakhmut caiu e nasceu Artyomovsk?
LIU SIVAYA
Ukraine loses more Western weapons and postpones the offensive | liusivaya. (In Spanish.)
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
GEORGE GALLOWAY: ADDRESS TO U.S. SENATE COMMITTEE (2005).
Article published by Russia Today (RT) - 21st May 2023:
Key Donbass city captured – Wagner chief.
The battle against Ukrainian forces for Artyomovsk has gone on since last year.
The key Donbass city of Artyomovsk, known as Bakhmut in Ukraine, has been fully liberated by the Russian forces, Evgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner private military company has announced.
“Today at noon, Bakhmut was fully captured,” Prigozhin said in a video address published on Saturday.
The last part of an area of high-rise buildings where the Ukrainians were holed up is now under the control of Russian forces, he stated.
The Wagner Group will remain in Artyomovsk until Thursday, Prigozhin said, adding that during this period, fortifications will be created across the city.
Control will then be passed on to the Russian Defense Ministry, and Wagner Group servicemen will go on leave to rest and regroup following months of intense fighting.
According to Prigozhin, the PMC’s operation in the city, which he called ‘the Bakhmut meat-grinder’, had gone on for 224 days. “We’ve taken the whole city – every building – so that nobody could say that we didn’t capture some small part of it,” he said.
Kiev has denied Prigozhin’s claims that Artyomovsk has been captured. Ukrainian military spokesman Sergey Cherevaty told Reuters: “This is not true. Our units are fighting in Bakhmut.”
The Wagner chief also personally addressed Ukraine’s president, Vladimir Zelensky, saying, “without sarcasm” that the Ukrainian troops “fought bravely, fought well” defending Artyomovsk.
“Today, when you see [US President Joe] Biden, kiss him on the top of his head and tell him that I said ‘hi,’” he said.
Earlier on Saturday, Zelensky arrived at the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, where he is expected to hold talks with Biden.
Article published by Russia Today (RT) - 21st May 2023 : Key Donbass city captured – Wagner chief.
MAPPING/ANALYSIS CHANNELS
* Updates will be added here as and when they become available.
MILITARY SUMMARY UPDATE
THE FIRST NUMBERS | The End Of Battle Of Bakhmut. Military Summary And Analysis 2023.05.21
The Donbass Zugzwang | The Russian Victory. Military Summary For 2023.05.20
NWE WAR REPORTS UPDATE
Bakhmut Falls To Russian Forces.
DEFENSE POLITICS ASIA UPDATE
[ Ukraine SITREP ] Day 450-451 (19-20/5) - ZALUZHYNY INJURED IN PAVLOHRAD STRIKE; Bakhmut captured.
[ Bakhmut Front ] PRIGOZHIN/WAGNER ANNOUNCE CAPTURE OF BAKHMUT; Not acknowledged by Ukraine side yet.
DPA WAR UPDATE
[ DPA Open Mic 30 ] GEOPOLITICAL / MILITARY / ECONOMICS / POLITICS / FINANCE / MULTIPOLAR WORLD.
THETI MAPPING UPDATE
No update posted so far today
BALKAN MAPPING UPDATE
Bakhmut Front Update [21 May 2023].
FREE RUSSIA UPDATE
No update posted so far today
THE RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE UPDATE
No update posted so far today
PROJECT GREAT UPDATE
Ukrainian DRG Got Brutally Ambushed. Russia Captured Khromove. Wagner's Are Leaving Bakhmut.
MILITARY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS UPDATE
Battlefield Ukraine Russians Re-enforce Bakhmut.
Battlefield Ukraine Bakhmut has Fallen.
RYBAR UPDATE
No update posted so far today
M MAPPING UPDATE
Ukranian Forces Are Retreating Further Away From Bakhmut l Khromove Next.
HS MAPPING
No update posted so far today
HISTORY OF MAKUS UPDATE
No update posted so far today
WEEB UNION UPDATE
No update posted so far today
Detailed situation reports can be found on a daily basis concerning events in Ukraine over the past 24 hours at the ‘A SKEPTIC’ Substack account:
Link to 'A SKEPTIC' Substack channel.
***
SUPPORTING SCOTT RITTER
I've been listening to Scott Ritter describe how things are for him and I suspect have been for him for quite some time now.
He has been doing a LOT of unpaid work with a great many interview requests coming in that he has been ready and willing to agree to. But the work where receives some pay for have suffered due to this, being left until the wee small hours of the night to complete work on.
Scott, I think you will agree, has been one of the most influential voices out there on Russia and Ukraine.
I was moved by Scott's words to take an annual subscription to his Substack account that he runs in coordination with his colleague on 'U.S. Tour of Duty', Jeff Norman. This is the main way that Scott recommends to help him with finances with which to upgrade his delivery of comment on Russia and Ukraine, via a better microphone etc. and perhaps the creation of a recording studio in his basement to create a more professional and impressive look. To invest in these things he would like to be sure that this has a viable financial future.
Would you also like to help by subscribing at one of the various levels to Scott's Substack account? I hope so. If so the link is here:
Below you'll find the edited part of the video where Scott talks of his commitments to get the facts out on events in Ukraine and of the finances that would come in handy to enhance their delivery:
***
VICTORY BELONGS TO RUSSIA: IT IS ONLY A MATTER OF TIME
Each day that passes makes a conclusive Russian victory in the Donbass and beyond more certain. As Russia bolsters her forces, and weaponry, those of Ukraine decrease. Russian forces gain ready access to rest and recuperation as troop numbers increase. The increasingly exhausted and demoralised Ukrainian troops have an ever decreasing prospect of such respite. This situation is likely to bring them to complete breakdown as Russia unleashes the firepower of the more modern and advanced weaponry that is arriving with the newly mobilised Russian troops.
The various Ukrainian offensives are now weak when confronted by the reinforced Russian lines. A few futile efforts achieve quite miserable results before fire reigns down on the Ukrainian troops and they are forced back to their starting positions.
And now, all this being said, we have arrived at the wet, and later, freezing conditions where these pathetic Ukrainian forces will be subject to myriad forms of abject misery with death and injury all around them while they lie sodden or frozen, abandoned to their fate by Kiev.
The pitiable young and old of Ukraine have been frogmarched to their deaths as cannon-fodder while the bestial elites of the collective West urge their "president" to add more to their number there at the gates of Hell and their doom. We must feel for the majority of them as they are not the Nazis we revile, in most part they are decent men, fathers, sons, brothers, husband and uncles, who no doubt saw through the coup of 2014 for what it was. But sadly, their fate seems sealed.
Nothing will stop Russia now. Every factor favours them. Victory will be Russia's. In Donbass and beyond and in due course across the world.
Victory belongs to Russia: It is now only a matter of time.
UPDATES TO BE ADDED HERE AS AND WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS.
UPDATES TO BE ADDED HERE AS AND WHEN THEY BECOME AVAILABLE OVER THE NEXT 24 HOURS
CAN THERE BE AN END TO THE UKRAINE WAR BEFORE NUCLEAR ANNIHILATION?
Many of us clearly believe in the justice of one side or another having the greater degree of supportive historical precedent. That, this or that side is totally justified in its actions and the other totally wrong. However, I suspect the violent conflict showing no signs of winding down but on the contrary being escalated to greater and greater heights, has moved far beyond such easy to understand concepts.
We are in an area of many shades of grey.
By most expert accounts Russia did attempt to mount a campaign where a minimal number of civilian casualties would be created and where an equally minimal amount of damage to vital infrastructure and the minimal damage to the most fundamental civilian needs would occur. However, initial, hopeful goals of a short campaign where the Kiev authorities would accept Russian demands faced with the consequences of not doing so, did not transpire.
Backed by the western powers to the hilt Zelensky took an entirely different path to that which I suspect the Russians believed he might. I don’t say they banked on the outcome of Zelensky bowing to the pressure he was put under but I am sure they very much hoped for it with the desire to cause as little death and destruction as possible. It is not a fiction that Russians feel extremely close in many ways to the Ukrainian people. Putin himself wrote a long essay on this topic. For most Russians, Ukrainians are, simply put, their brothers and sisters.
Tragically for the Ukrainians and also for the Russians this war has become an almost internecine conflict, a battle within a family almost and this can’t help but make both sides grieve terribly. Russia, for its part wants to take out the weeds from the good crop if it can, always a back-breaking job that depletes the energy and often fails to completely satisfy. Weeds have evolved to be very strong and resilient to attack, they tend to persist stubbornly even when you think for a moment you have rid the good earth of each and every one of them.
Russia is hurting due to casualties in this war… but the Ukrainian people are quite clearly hurting more. Millions have left Ukraine seeking safety from the storm that has embodied them and which is none of their doing. Hundreds of thousands of families have been split apart with men having to stay, and possibly fight. To possibly die. In Russia the anxiety without doubt runs deep due to that most feared occurrence within Russian society has returned once more to haunt them. There must be few, if any societies that fear the effects of war more than that of Russia.
What of the West?
In Europe there has been a huge outpouring of fellow-feeling for Ukraine and for Ukrainians. Many households shelter Ukrainians in their hour of greatest need. There has been a huge outpouring of anger too, against Russia. Russia is seen as having brought the evil scourge of war to their doorstep and, due to there being no understanding of Russian motivations and indeed a general consensus that there can be NO adequate motivation for what is going on, there is a very evident one-sided view on the conflict.
Western mainstream press and media have taken the view also that there can be no possible justification for Russia’s attack upon Ukraine, that it is totally without merit, unjustifiable, unwarranted and unprovoked. This very simple analysis is generally, as far as I can tell, held to be true by the vast majority of westerners, though not by all it must be said. With most westerners believing Russia has no case whatsoever to pursue this war and holding the opinion that this is a case of pure evil and deadly, highly oppressive and destructive evil at that, the case regarding justice is closed.
Western political leadership both leads and reflects this black and white view by the general public described above which permeates western societies all across Europe and within the United States. With press, media, public and political elites more or less thinking and acting as one there is no evident appetite at all for compromise or giving any thought whatsoever to the Russian position.
What is the Russian position?
The leadership of Russia considers that what it is doing in Ukraine is an existential question for Russians and the Russian state. They consider that Russia has been brought to make a decision it attempted to avoid and ameliorate for the better part of a decade. They feel that the western world has been consistently aggressive and has used Ukraine as a kind of battering ram with which to shake the foundations of their societal cohesion and the state itself. They saw NATO coming ever closer and in the last two decades have reacted increasingly badly to this fact. This was predicted by the architect of the West’s containment policy of the Soviet Union before he died, Mr George Kennan who said this explicitly. His life work was to manage the West’s relationship with Russia and he saw his life’s work being ruined by the advancement of NATO upon Russia.
Where is all this going?
At this point in time we have a dangerous, highly entangled mess where compromise on neither side looks at all likely. In fact the prospects for this appear to recede further with every day that passes. One escalation follows another with both sides completely unable or unwilling to back down but seeing only the necessity to counter the tactics of the other with ever greater determination. Where that will eventually lead and by use of what further tactical approaches or involving what advanced weaponry can only be a matter for speculation, but at this point there are no good signs to provide hope that a halt will be called at any given point along the way.
What of the rest of the world?
Our world is again at war. Though having said that, in reality it is only two portions of our world to whom this war represents an existential issue. Most of the global south see it as a hopefully limited quarrel in a distant location that they hope will not spill over in too many aspects onto them. For them it is an unpleasant occurrence equivalent to a bitter and noisy dispute between two neighbours within earshot that disturbs the relative calm of their own lives.
These are incredibly dangerous times. Two powerful blocs with opposing belief systems are locked in battle. Neither can afford to lose and both are utterly determined to win.
The weapons each is willing to use are not particularly limited in scale or power and dangerously, even the most extreme may be contemplated as each new rupture in relations between them takes place.
The end result which everyone fears of course hardly requires a mention to clarify it. As the stakes become ever higher for both sides who feel that losing would mean absolute disaster for them and therefore they MUST win and by every means possible… or risk annihilation, humiliation and destruction of all hope, respect and security we must all ask ourselves if they will halt at the doorway to that final weapon of all weapons that has the potential to annihilate us all.