RUNNING UPDATES ON THE CONFLICT IN UKRAINE - 29.06.2023
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.
*** HOW WILL UKRAINE WAR END: PEACE TREATY OR MUSHROOM CLOUD? ***
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“Ukraine. What is the truth...?
Why won’t western media tell both sides…?”
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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.
…………
Lead feature:
ALEXANDER MERCOURIS of THE DURAN
Ukr Southern Offensive Stuck, Ukr Refocus Bakhmut, Rus Claims Kramatorsk Strike Killed Ukr Generals.
RICHARD MEDHURST
EXPLAINED: Russia Strike on Ukraine Pizzeria in Kramatorsk.
THE DURAN
NATO to offer security 'promises' and Ukraine must keep fighting.
ALEX CHRISTOFOROU of THE DURAN
BREAKING: Putin clearly losing war in Iraq. Biden and Romania. Meloni, EU must ditch China. U/1
JACKSON HINKLE
Russia STRIKES US Soldiers In Ukrainian Pizza Restaurant.
GEORGE GALLOWAY - SCOTT RITTER
INTERVIEW: The Wagner finale. Cashing out.
GARLAND NIXON
RUSSIAN STRIKE ON MERCENARY HQ OR INNOCENT PIZZA SHOP?
PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN
LIVE: Russian President Vladimir Putin Speaks at a Forum 'Strong Ideas of Our Time' in Moscow.
SCOTT RITTER
The Possible Fate of Odessa and Kharkov.
THE GRAYZONE
Ukraine counter-offensive stuck in a ditch.
acTVism Munich
What WikiLeaks reveals about the lead-up to the Ukraine war.
DMITRY MIRONCHIK
Ambassador of Belarus: Principles of Global Civilization Dialog.
LEV PANIN
Russian View of China's Global Civilization Initiative.
GLENN DIESEN
The Old Geopolitical Unipolar Order is Finished - The New Is Based on Economics!
LEVAN GUDADZE
Ukrainian counteroffensive, Switzerland-Neutrality, Sweden-NATO-Provocation, Russian GDP growth.
SERGEY LAVROV
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s interview with the Great Game programme on Channel One.
RICHARD MEDHURST
Russia Strike on Kramatorsk, Putin Gives Wagner Ultimatum, Paris Clashes & More.
RICHARD MEDHURST - SCOTT RITTER
Scott Ritter on the Danger of Depleted Uranium in Ukraine.
GEORGE GALLOWAY
Bush, Biden and a bloody Freudian slip.
AFTER WAGNER | MOATS with George Galloway Ep 251.
SCOTT RITTER
Ukrainians killing their own because they refuse to fight.
RUSSIAN NEWS - SERGEY LAVROV
No one should argue with the United States.
COLONEL DOUGLAS MACGREGOR
False Flag.
The Russian Army Has Finished It & Much More.
JUDGE ANDREW NAPOLITANO - GERALD CELENTE
U.S. MEDIA = CIA MOUTHPIECE.
JIM RICKARDS
Cracking the Code: 🪖 What Really Started the Ukraine War - Jim Rickards.
HINDUSTAN TIMES
Putin Walks With Adoring Crowd as West Touts Diminishing Popularity After Wagner Revolt | Watch:
Putin's Ka-52, Su-34, Su-25 Fighter Jets Decimate Ukrainian Positions in Donetsk | Watch:
THROUGH THE EYES OF... ANIA
HOW MUCH DO WAGNER GROUP MERCENARIES EARN? DUDA NOT HAPPY WITH PRIGOZHIN STATIONED IN BELARUS.
EMIL COSMAN
Poland military escalation. Deploys more troops to Belarus' border. Claims "security" concerns.
Fierce battles in Lyman, Bakhmut, Marinka directions. Ukraine war Front Update. June 28.
The "War of Worlds." is on. "Russia no longer trust any deals with the US or its allies.Lavrov says.
TFIGlobal
#TheNewWorldOrder : Zelensky runs on PR. Well! Not anymore!
BREAKTHROUGH NEWS
Wagner’s Coup-tastrophe: What Now for Russia-Ukraine War?
CGTN - PEPE ESCOBAR
U.S. uses NATO as 'war machine' to maintain global hegemony: Brazilian analyst.
SEYMOUR HERSH
🐻 Do Not Provoke the Bear: Messing with Putin Is a Bad Idea.
TELESUR ENGLISH
China seeks to work with Russia towards sustainable development.
Russian FM does not rule out possible US involvement in Wagner group rebellion.
KATIE HALPER
Russian-American Journalist Reacts To Prigozhin Mutiny.
TFIGlobal
Guess who Dropped a Bombshell on NATO's 2% Target.
BORZZIKMAN
Russia Continues to Shock NATO and Pentagon.
MILITARY TUBE TODAY
Russian T-80BVM gave no chance to US made Ukrainian Bradley toward Kupyansk.
LIU SIVIYA
POR QUÉ FRACASA LA CONTRAOFENSIVA: el análisis más completo del fiasco militar ucraniano | liusivaya.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
PROFESSOR JOHN J MEARSHEIMER: WHERE IS THE UKRAINE WAR GOING?
Article published by Russia Today (RT) - 29th June 2023:
Sergey Karaganov: Here’s why Russia has to consider launching a nuclear strike on Western Europe.
If things continue as they are, Moscow will have no choice but to use the ultimate weapon.
This month, there has been an active debate in Russia about the possibility of Moscow preemptively using nuclear weapons. Which would be at variance with the established doctrine. It began after the publication of an article by Professor Sergey Karaganov, which prompted a wide response from the domestic expert community.
While Karaganov has been advocating relaxing the rules, others have different opinions: for example, Fyodor Lukyanov thinks the West cannot be 'sobered up' by using the bomb, and Ilya Fabrichnikov believes Russia should not 'take NATO's bait' and unleash the ultimate weapon.
This is Karaganov’s follow up response to his critics.
During over seventy years of mutual deterrence, atomic weapons have saved the world. People just took this for granted. However, now we see that things have changed and the unthinkable is happening: the West is responsible for a major war in the underbelly of a major nuclear power.
The official history of the creation of these weapons is known, but in my opinion there is also a higher power at play. It is as if the Lord God saw that a large part of humanity had gone mad, having started two world wars in a generation, and gave us these nuclear weapons, which are weapons of the apocalypse. He wanted them to be, to be in the front of our minds, at all times, and to scare us.
But now people have lost their fear.
Over the last few decades in the United States, Western Europe and even partly in Russia, what I call “strategic parasitism” has spread: the belief that there can never be a major war and that there will never be a major war. People are accustomed to peace, and it is on this basis that modern Western ideology has grown. In addition, there is now an unprecedented amount of propaganda around, to an extent unprecedented even during the Cold War.
People are simply being fed lies, and they are afraid to say what they really think. As a result of more than 70 years of peace, the public's sense of self-preservation has become dysfunctional, and it is further stifled by the extraordinarily virulent agitprop, part of which claims that Russia would never be able to attack Western Europe.
Official Western propaganda pumps the idea that the West can do anything it likes and Moscow will just put up with it. This has now become very clear and vivid.
In recent years, Russia has begun to strengthen its nuclear deterrent, but the steps taken so far are woefully inadequate. We, too, became complacent at some point, following Western theories and recklessly overestimating the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons, which the West is now exploiting, and not by accident either. The little bureaucrats there keep saying: no, the Russians will never use nuclear weapons.
They do not want to hear anything different under any circumstances, as they don’t want to interrupt their desire for an endless war in Ukraine. Because their military-industrial complex is greater than ours, they just want to wear us down.
I hope we never use nuclear weapons, but the fact that we refuse to allow their use in all situations except in the case of mortal danger to the state itself seems to me to be reckless.
The US is tying Russia's hands in this way, hoping that in the long run this long war will cause an internal implosion. And, as a result, this would radically weaken its main rival, China, which will be left to fend for itself.
This is a strategic plan that is absolutely clear.
At the same time, having already thrown the Ukrainian people into the furnace, the Americans are pushing the Western Europeans into the same place, destroying the status they have held for five centuries. This policy also solves another problem – it destroys the Old World as a strategic player and potential competitor. In turn, the captured West European elites are driving their countries and peoples into the ground.
We would like to believe that our adversaries will come to their senses. Because if they don't, Russia's political-military leadership will be faced with a terrible moral choice and the need to make a hard decision. But I believe that our president must demonstrate his willingness to use nuclear weapons at some point.
But the question is who could and should be the target of such an attack. The Americans, as we all know, have been shamelessly lying when they say that we are preparing to drop an atomic bomb on Ukraine. This is monstrous nonsense, absolutely malicious, because of course the Ukrainians are a miserable, deluded people who are being driven to slaughter. But they are still our people, and we are not going to hit them.
If there are to be nuclear strikes, they should be aimed at countries in Western Europe that have been most supportive of the mercenary regime in Kiev.
Fortunately, we have begun to take steps up the ladder of nuclear deterrence. But we need to move faster and more decisively, even though their use would be, of course, a monstrous step and should be avoided if possible. But as the vector of development of the West, its elites and society – and its movement towards anti-human and post-human values show – all this clearly indicates an objective drift to an eventual thermonuclear war. We have to interrupt this process and save the world – avoiding, of course, super-violent actions if possible.
We have time, but we must realize that it is rather short. We have to use these few years to solve the problem of the West, to make it step back and mind its own business, because now, to distract from its own internal issues, it is trying to start wars all over the world.
Launching the current military operation was an important – and certainly correct – step, although in my view it should have been taken earlier. There are a number of other moves that can be made. In particular, it is worth making it clear to everyone in the West that any attack on Belarus will be equated to a blow to Russia and will have similar consequences.
Possible Russian measures could also include missile redeployments, tests of our strategic missiles at close range, as well as psychological actions and even the severing of diplomatic relations with those countries that play the most active Russophobic roles. Also possible is a measure such as warning all Russian speakers, all citizens of the former Soviet Union, and all people of goodwill to leave places that are potential targets of a nuclear strike. This too could be a potentially powerful tool of deterrence. And all these people do not have to go to Russia: let them go to other states that do not have military facilities and do not help the Kiev regime and do not supply it with weapons and money - there are many such countries. People should return to Russia not out of fear, but out of their own free will.
When discussing a hypothetical atomic attack on Western Europe, the question arises: how would the US answer? Virtually all experts agree that under no circumstances would the Americans respond to a nuclear attack on their allies with a nuclear attack on our territory. Incidentally, even Biden has said so openly.
Russian military experts, however, believe that a massive conventional retaliatory strike could follow. It could be pointed out that this would be followed by even more massive nuclear strikes. And they would finish off Western Europe as a geopolitical entity. Which, of course, would be undesirable because, after all, we are to some extent Europeans and, to use Dostoyevsky's words, the old European stones are not alien to us.
When discussing such scenarios, the subject of China and its position inevitably comes up. Our strategic goals are the same, but our operational goals differ, of course. And if I were Chinese, I wouldn't be in a hurry to end the conflict in Ukraine, because it diverts US and Western attention and military power away from them and gives Beijing an opportunity to accumulate strength.
It's a perfectly normal, I would say respectful, position. And of course I do not want nuclear weapons to be used. First of all, for moral and ethical reasons: I think the Chinese and I agree on that.
And secondly, because the Chinese still have a small nuclear capability, it is undesirable for them to start a military and political competition in this area right now. In ten years' time they will have a first-class nuclear capability (and even in five to seven years' time their situation will change), and then the best option to prevent a major thermonuclear war will be to have a more powerful China in the front line, with Russia supporting and covering it, as the Chinese are supporting us now.
I fully understand the moral anguish of people who say: under no circumstances is the use of nuclear weapons conceivable or acceptable. To which I reply: my friends, I respect pacifists, but they exist and live in this world only because soldiers fight and die for them, just as our soldiers and officers are fighting now in Ukraine.
MAPPING/ANALYSIS CHANNELS
* Updates will be added here as and when they become available.
MILITARY SUMMARY UPDATE
Summer Operations | Continuous Battles Go From Kherson To Sumy. Military Summary For 2023.06.28
Battle For The Initiative. Military Summary And Analysis For 2023.06.29
NWE WAR REPORTS UPDATE
No update posted so far today
DEFENSE POLITICS ASIA UPDATE
WHO IS WINNING RIGHT NOW? - 28 June 2023 Tide of War | Ukraine War LAZY SITREP.
ASTONISHING UKRAINE ADVANCES; W of Staromaiorske & W of Bakhmut [ Ukraine SITREP ] Day 490 (28/6).
DPA WAR UPDATE
No update posted so far today
THETI MAPPING UPDATE
No update posted so far today
BALKAN MAPPING UPDATE
Ukraine front update [29 June 2023].
KEEP IT SECRET NEWS UPDATE
No update posted so far today
PROJECT GREAT UPDATE
No update posted so far today
MILITARY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS UPDATE
Battlefield Ukraine Russia Strikes Ukrainian Military Leadership.
RYBAR UPDATE
No update posted so far today
M MAPPING UPDATE
No update posted so far today
HS MAPPING
No update posted so far today
WEEB UNION UPDATE
Complete Victory or Disaster? | What Happens Next? | Ukraine's Summer Offensive Update 29/06/23.
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:
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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.
BIDEN: ‘WHAT ME WORRY?’ AS THE WORLD RISKS GOING UP IN FLAMES
The world is going about its business as normal. At least within the confines of the ‘new normal’. There appears to be little concern about the imminent future normal that could be unleashed at any moment, heralded by a distant, or not so distant, mushroom cloud, flash in the sky and a sudden devastating wave of death that washes over those in range.
We’d rather not think in these terms of course, we carry on as normal, that normal we assume will be here again tomorrow and the next day and the next… But we are no longer where we were as a world. Things have changed radically as a result of events in Ukraine that were brought to boiling point without anyone turning down the heat.
The very heat that was turned up under Russia caused it to explode across eastern Ukraine with flash points all across it where missiles strike. That heat is beginning to be felt across Europe and even extends to the USA. And still those who fanned the flames continue to do so. They stand with hoses filled not with water but gasoline. And who is the lead fireman? That man over there with a confused look on his face, grey hair who tends to stumble around on each stage he frequents issuing garbled version of what he reads on the latest teleprompter.
Those who carry on with their lives believing things are still relatively normal may be in for a shock. And this for many reasons. Not least of which is that Ukrainian military radicals are firing shells at the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. But it’s not the Russians they are firing at, it’s the refrigeration unit of the plant that keeps the nuclear fuel being used cool. With that fact fully registered in the grey matter of those reading I would defy anyone to continue believing things are anywhere ‘normal’.
The above is serious enough. But you may say that even if the resulting disaster is a little worse than Chernobyl it will be manageable and relatively local. We’d get over it. If this is how you feel I’m afraid there is still more bad news.
Expert opinion has it that neither Russia nor the USA can afford to lose in Ukraine. That if one or the other comes close to being resoundingly defeated the one on the losing end would be very tempted to unleash the ultimate weapon to remedy matters. We seem to have suddenly hit a crisis that far overshadows that which historians have long claimed to be the closest humanity ever came to destruction, the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Back in late 1962 there were at least some statesmen in the USA truly worthy of the name. Wise and sober heads who saw the potential for disaster for humankind in what was happening and who sought through dialogue to reduce tension through dialogue. Thankfully for the rest of us lines of communication were established and an agreement fleshed out involving both sides backing off. The intensity of the diplomacy at the time matched the imminence of the danger.
Not so now. Now those who have been charged with the security of the USA stand with folded arms and mouths shut tight (except to issue aggressive statements further fuelling the fire). Instead of seeking to diminish tensions, by reducing the ever-rising pressure through recommending talks they instead play the blame game and stoke the fire to greater heights by providing ever-more weapons.
This cannot possibly end well.
Every few days thousands die and are horrendously injured. Ever more Ukrainian cannon-fodder is forcibly recruited and sent to the front to die. The tempo of Russian movements that will further decimate the population of Ukraine is gathering pace while the USA and its European allies urge the Ukrainian authorities onward… clearly enthusiastic to see the fighting go on to the very last Ukrainian.
The desperation now of those Ukrainian authorities is clear. In recent months they intensified the shelling of the city of Donetsk first begun in 2014, a city almost devoid of military personnel. This they did with the usual methods of mortar shells and missiles. In addition they distributed thousands of tiny petal mines across the city, landing upon sidewalks and parks where children play. These tiny explosive devices, anti-personnel mines generally only kill pets, cats and dogs. Humans they maim, blowing gaping wounds in feet and legs.
The desperation shown above however is nothing compared to the daily Ukrainian attacks on the largest nuclear plant in Europe near the city of Enerhodar on the Dnieper River. And in recent days we see a false flag attack being planned on the power plant by the Ukrainian regime that could send a radioactive plume circling the planet affecting millions. As ever the headlines will all repeat the same mantra seen so many times now: “Russia Did It!”
While all this goes on western mainstream media continues its one sided narrative on every aspect of the conflict in Ukraine, narrative that excludes any mention of what the Russian authorities say or the reports from those on the ground that contradict the required western take. This stance has prevailed since 2014 when the ongoing crisis seen now began to unfold in Ukraine’s capital where violence trumped democracy with a little help from the USA and European capitals. They say it is far more important to talk with your enemies than it is to your friends. But where can we find leaders willing to hear such sense today?
The general attitude among western leaders is that the fight must go on until Russia is defeated, that more and more weapons must be poured into Ukraine without any mention of peace talks until some final great battle ensues.
The problem is that the great battle they hope with their gamble now being played to the bitter end… may be the last the world ever sees, not because peace has suddenly broken out, but because the world we knew is in pieces and ‘normal’ will never be seen again.