RUNNING UPDATES ON THE CONFLICT IN UKRAINE - 02.12.2024
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 NEOCONS OF THE COLLECTIVE WEST ARE DESPERATE TO MAXIMISE EVERY POSSIBLE AREA OF CONFLICT BEFORE DONALD TRUMP BECOMES PRESIDENT.
COLLECTIVE WEST | RUSSIA
ALEXANDER MERCOURIS of THE DURAN: Russian Allied Troops Pour Into Syria; Offensive Coming; Moscow: SMO Continues, No Counting on Trump.
ALEX CHRISTOFOROU of THE DURAN: NO ONE is above the law. Syria war. Georgia President refuses to step down. EU troops in Ukraine.
ALEX CHRISTOFOROU & ALEXANDER MERCOURIS of THE DURAN: Russian economy and Gazprombank.
VLADIMIR PUTIN: Russian President Warns Of Assassination Threats To Donald Trump.
MARIA ZAKHAROVA: These Western countries will regret their destructive activities.
THE GRAYZONE: Biden greenlights strikes deep in Russia, gets lost in the jungle.
EVA K. BARTLETT: Ukraine’s war crimes against civilians in Donbass.
SEBASTIAN SAS: Russia DOMINATES The Frontline.
SEBASTIAN SAS: US PEACE PLAN Will Fail And This Is WHY.
LEVAN GUDADZE: Nuclear Ukraine and European Troops on the Front Line? Syrian Crisis. Georgia at the Crossroads.
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STEPHEN GARDNER - COLONEL DOUGLAS MACGREGOR: 🔥 Col. Macgregor Reveals Putin's Hypersonic Strike Plan – Is Ukraine Ready for Revenge?
ALASTAIR CROOKE: Neocons Deluding Themselves.
PATRICK LANCASTER: LIVE from war-torn eastern Ukraine.
THE GRAYZONE: Craig Murray on new Skripal saga developments.
WAVE MEDIA: Alexander Dugin and John Mearsheimer | Overlap Trailer.
COLLECTIVE WEST | GLOBAL MAJORITY
Syria, Russia Hit 5 Headquarters, 7 Arms Depots of Terrorists in Aleppo, Idlib.
The armed forces of Syria and Russia have destroyed five headquarters and seven weapons depots of terrorists in the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib in past 24 hours, the General Command of the Syrian Army said on Monday.
"Over the past 24 hours, as a result of air strikes, cannon and rocket artillery of the Syrian army in coordination with friendly forces on terrorist positions and their supply routes in the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib, five headquarters and seven warehouses with ammunition and drones were destroyed," the military said in a statement.
Syrian and Russian troops have also eliminated more than 400 terrorists, including foreign mercenaries, in the past 24 hours.
Syrian Airstrikes Destroy Terrorist Convoy on Aleppo-Damascus M5 Highway, Halt Offensive
The Syrian Defense Ministry also stated last Thursday that the government army had engaged in battle with the terrorists who attacked the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib. In violation of the de-escalation agreement, groups that are part of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham* terrorist organization (formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) attacked villages, settlements, and military positions on a wide front in the provinces of Aleppo and Idlib. According to the Syrian Defense Ministry, the army responded to the attack, resulting in terrorists suffering losses in manpower and equipment.
*A terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.
What are terrorists in Syria trying to achieve?
The attacks on Aleppo and Idlib could be an attempt to break the ‘Axis of Resistance’ against Israel and even revive the 2011 ‘revolution’
For the past few days, foreign-backed terrorists in Syria’s northwest have been attacking Syrian army positions in the Aleppo and Idlib countryside, and shelling civilian districts of Aleppo.
While regional media have been giving updates on these attacks and counterattacks by Syria and Russia, what is less clear is what is happening in Aleppo itself. Terrorist-aligned media claim Tahrir al-Sham (al-Qaeda re-branded) and allied terrorists have taken numerous western districts and even the city center.
But their proof – short videos showing terrorists in various areas they claim to control – was countered by videos of Syrians walking in key districts, saying things are calm. More on this later.
The following is what is known in summary about the attacks.
On Wednesday, November 27, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and Turkish-backed National Army factions launched attacks in the Idlib and Aleppo countryside, in what they dubbed “Operation Deterrence of Aggression.”
According to Al-Mayadeen, as related by Syrian journalist Wassim Issa, convoys of militants, equipment and ammunition entered from the Bab al-Salam crossing with Türkiye and headed to the fighting fronts in the western Aleppo and southern Idlib countryside.
Al Mayadeen reported Tahrir al-Sham used new weapons and equipment, including Ukrainian drones, “reportedly acquired from Kiev’s intelligence services.”
Who is behind the new Syria war flare-up?
Since Thursday evening, terrorists have been shelling Aleppo University dormitories, as well as districts of western Aleppo. On Friday, terrorist shelling killed four students and injured dozens.
By Friday, the Syrian Arab Army had re-taken many points breached by terrorists, Al Mayadeen reported, noting that intense fighting continues on two fronts in rural Aleppo, and that on the Idlib front, “armed groups are attempting to open a new axis after their failure to advance further toward the M5 international highway for all traffic from the south to Aleppo, through Hama and SE Idlib.”
The General Command of the Army and Armed Forces issued the following statement:
“Our armed forces were able to inflict heavy losses on the attacking organizations, inflicting hundreds of dead and wounded among their ranks, destroying dozens of vehicles and armored vehicles, and were able to shoot down and destroy seventeen drones.
...In a related context, terrorist organizations, through their platforms, publish misleading information, news and video clips aimed at terrorizing citizens. The General Command of the Army and Armed Forces warns our fellow citizens not to accept this news and misinformation, and to receive what is issued by the national media and its official platforms.”
As of late Friday, citing the Russian Coordination Center in Syria, Al Mayadeen reported that more than 600 terrorists had been killed. This update went on to detail Syrian and Russian airstrikes on terrorists in the northern Aleppo and Idlib countryside.
These attacks, apparently supported by Türkiye, the US, and Israel, mark the latest effort to destabilize Syria and weaken the ‘Axis of Resistance’ against Israel. It is of course notable that these attacks commenced just after the so-called ceasefire between the Lebanese Resistance, Hezbollah, and Israel (which began violating the ceasefire almost immediately, as Israel has done with virtually every ceasefire in the past).
One possible reason for Türkiye’s involvement could be to pressure Syrian President Bashar Assad into reconsidering his stance on normalization talks with Ankara. Assad previously rejected any such talks while Turkish forces remain in Syria, and according to some analysts. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could have helped escalate military action to coerce Assad to change his mind.
Another motivation for the attack could be to cut Lebanese Hezbollah off from supply lines during the ceasefire with Israel. From Damascus, British journalist Vanessa Beeley wrote: “This attack has been spoken about and planned for since the beginning of the Israeli aggression against Lebanon... Now Syria will be the target to destroy weapons supply lines and manufacturing facilities that would rearm Hezbollah during the ceasefire. There will be attempts to destroy the land bridge infrastructure that brings materials from Iran, through Iraq and Syria to Lebanon. This includes essential humanitarian relief supply lines. Syria is the beating heart of the Resistance and must be protected at all costs.”
Attempts to resuscitate the Syrian ‘revolution’
Unsurprisingly, there are calls on social media for President Assad to be removed; the same calls heard during the Western-orchestrated media psyop which saw ignorant people around the world supporting a very bloody “revolution” in 2011.
It was never a revolution, and it was never (for Syrians) about Assad (who is overwhelmingly supported). What kind of revolution destroys its own culture, heritage and civilians, and partners with the US and Israel, among others?
On one of my four trips to Aleppo in 2016 alone, in November, before Aleppo was liberated from terrorist forces, the head of forensic medicine at a local hospital, Dr. Zaher Hajo, told me that since the occupation of Aleppo in 2012, 10,750 civilians had been killed by terrorists, 40% of whom were women and children.
On that same visit, I met three prominent Sunni leaders who, according to the priest who introduced us, were considered ‘infidels’ by al-Nusra and company because they didn’t follow their distorted terrorist ideology. One of them, Dr. Kukeh said: “Those who are killing the Sunnis are the same who claim that they are defending the Sunnis. The shells that hit us daily are sent by them.”
Dr. Kukeh, who said he named his oldest son after Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, “because I love that man,” explained that in 2012 he was living in eastern Aleppo when terrorists began to occupy districts there. He was targeted for assassination because he did not agree with the terrorists’ ideology.
The Aleppo university dorms which were targeted recently were likewise routinely targeted in 2016. At the time, they had for four years been housing well over 10,000 internally displaced Syrians from areas of Aleppo and its countryside, including from areas occupied by the terrorists.
In subsequent visits in 2017 and years after, I saw the remnants of the terrorists’ occupation of eastern regions of Aleppo (underground prisons with solitary confinement cells), took testimonies of Syrian civilians on life under terrorist rule, and later, saw the city begin to rebuild and flourish, with businesses reopening, ancient markets being restored, life bustling around the famous citadel (during the reign of the terrorists, walking near it meant almost certainly being sniped dead) and atop the citadel.
Syria will ‘defeat and destroy’ terrorists – Assad
The city that Western and Gulf corporate media claimed “fell” when it was liberated from al-Qaeda, ISIS and their co-terrorists came back to life under the rule of the Syrian government.
Current chaos: Aleppo occupied?
Throughout the fighting, there have been conflicting reports of terrorists taking parts of Aleppo. As I wrote at the beginning, photos and videos which appeared to show a terrorist presence in western Aleppo neighborhoods and even the city center aren’t proof of terrorists having taken districts.
It isn’t difficult for sleeper cell terrorists to pop up, take these photos and videos, and leave. Time will show which of their claims are true and which are part of psychological warfare to demoralize Syrians and turn them against their army and even against Russia.
Recall the General Command of the Army’s warning regarding misinformation. Making definitive declarations about the condition of Aleppo and surrounding region, without proof, is irresponsible and unhelpful. In a clickbait age where everyone wants to be the first to post “BREAKING” followed by some unverified soundbite, discerning the truth is complicated.
If the unthinkable happens and parts of Aleppo are re-occupied by terrorists no different from and even including ISIS, they will ultimately be defeated by Syria, Russia, and their allies, just as they were before.
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COLLECTIVE WEST | BRICS
Preparations underway for Putin’s India visit – Kremlin.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited the Russian leader to visit New Delhi in 2025 for their next bilateral summit.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to India next year is already being prepared, although exact dates have yet to be confirmed, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. During the recent BRICS summit in Kazan, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi invited Putin to India in 2025 for their next bilateral summit.
“I can confirm that the visit is indeed being planned,” Peskov stated, adding that the visit is highly anticipated in Moscow. The Russian president last visited India in December 2021, when he attended the India-Russia Annual Summit in New Delhi alongside Modi.
The two leaders met twice in the past six months, both times in Russia. In July, Modi traveled to Moscow for a bilateral summit with Putin, during which they discussed expanding cooperation in various sectors and set a new trade target. They met again in October during the BRICS summit in Kazan, where Modi extended the invitation to the Russian leader.
Last week, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov noted that the exact date of Putin’s visit would be finalized in early 2025.
“Our leaders have agreements to meet once a year. Now it is our turn to visit New Delhi or another location in India in 2025,” Ushakov told the media. He emphasized that the invitation from Modi had been received and will be accepted. “We will likely determine specific timing at the start of the year,” he added.
READ MORE: Russia and China are drawing closer. How does that impact India?
During their October meeting, Modi touted Russia’s role in promoting multilateralism, sustainable development, and global governance reforms. The prime minister’s office noted that the two leaders reviewed bilateral cooperation across various fields, including political, economic, defense, energy, and people-to-people ties.
They also discussed the situation in Ukraine, with Modi reiterating that “dialogue and diplomacy” were the way forward to resolve the conflict.
In November, Modi met with Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov in New Delhi ahead of extended bilateral talks on trade, economic ties, energy, connectivity, and other issues. Modi welcomed the “sustained and joint efforts” being made by both sides to ensure implementation of the decisions he and Putin had made during their summit in Moscow.
READ MORE: Strategic choice: How India navigates oil diplomacy with Russia
India and Russia share a longstanding relationship, particularly in defense cooperation. Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, India has refrained from condemning or sanctioning Russia despite Western pressure. Additionally, India has become a key consumer of Russian oil since 2022, with trade between the two nations reaching $65 billion in 2023. Moscow and New Delhi aim to cross the $100 billion mark by 2030.
Kremlin responds to Trump’s BRICS threat.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov has warned that the US president-elect’s warning will only accelerate desire to abandon the dollar.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, has weighed in on US President-elect Donald Trump’s weekend threat to impose 100% tariffs on BRICS countries if they pursue the creation of a currency to replace the US dollar. Peskov stressed on Monday that American pressure will only accelerate a growing global trend toward national currencies in trade, diminishing the greenback’s role as a reserve currency.
Peskov’s remarks come after Trump’s statement over the weekend on Truth Social, in which he warned that countries attempting to abandon the dollar in favor of an alternative would face severe economic consequences. “The dollar is starting to lose its attractiveness as a reserve currency for many nations,” Peskov said, adding that the erosion of its dominance is a “process gaining strength.”
READ MORE: Putin explains reason behind BRICS
This shift, Peskov noted, is not limited to BRICS nations but is a broader movement worldwide. The use of national currencies in trade is becoming increasingly common, as more states seek alternatives to the dollar, particularly in light of Western sanctions and the weaponization of financial systems. BRICS previously comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, and was expanded in January to include Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates.
READ MORE: Trump threatens BRICS
Russia has supported the development of the BRICS Bridge platform, designed to facilitate settlements in national currencies, including via digital channels. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has emphasized that such initiatives aim to shield countries from the economic influence of the US and EU.
Peskov also referred to statements by Russian President Vladimir Putin during the BRICS summit in Kazan in October, where he pointed out that while Russia hasn’t “rejected” the dollar, it has had to find alternative financial systems to circumvent Western control over global financial infrastructure.
Trump’s Threat of 100% Tariffs Targeting BRICS Would Blow Up in America’s Face: Here’s Why.
Donald Trump has threatened to slap BRICS members with 100% import duties if the bloc tries to create its own monetary unit or backs "any other currency to replace the mighty dollar." How could this look in practice? And who would stand to lose more if the president-elect made good on the threat? Sputnik asked a renowned British economist.
"The idea that the BRICS Countries are trying to move away from the Dollar while we stand by and watch is OVER," Donald Trump wrote in a social media post Saturday outlining his plans to reestablish US global economic primacy after stepping into office next month.
"We require a commitment from these Countries that they will neither create a new BRICS Currency, nor back any other Currency to replace the mighty US Dollar, or they will face 100% Tariffs, and should expect to say goodbye to selling into the wonderful US Economy. They can go find another 'sucker!' There is no chance that the BRICS will replace the US Dollar in International Trade, and any Country that tries should wave goodbye to America," Trump warned.
Expressing a penchant for steep tariffs targeting allies and adversaries alike during his first term in office, and hinting at plans to repeat his old policy by tapping his former trade czar Robert Lighthizer to return to the job come January, Trump's threat of "100% Tariffs" against the BRICS is his most sweeping trade-related intimidating remark yet, targeting an economic bloc that accounts for some 35% of global economic activity in PPP terms, and over 40% of the planet's population.
The US is heavily dependent on the BRICS economically, and President-Elect Trump has got another thing coming if he thinks he can threaten and cajole the bloc into submission, veteran British economist and Global Justice Movement co-founder Rodney Shakespeare told Sputnik.
"Trump thinks he can target BRICS countries individually but doing this will cause BRICS to act collectively in response and then the situation is about who has the bigger overall trade, population and resources. Trump's thinking is fundamentally based upon a situation of past hegemony whose time is rapidly passing," Shakespeare, who now teaches as a visiting scholar at Indonesia's Trisakti University, explained.
How Would US-BRICS Trade War Look?
The United States has a trade deficit of nearly $433.5 bln with BRICS member countries. None of the BRICS partner countries and candidates for membership (over 50 countries total) have major trade deficits with the US, while several boast major surpluses. Potential partner Vietnam alone had a surplus topping $109 bln in 2023.
The US relies on BRICS for a broad array of physical products, from household goods, machinery and electrical gear to pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, energy, chemicals and rare earth minerals, with bloc accounting for between 40%-70% of the production of these goods and materials. By comparison, the US’s main physical exports (arms, petroleum, food and automobiles) are plentiful in the world economy, especially among BRICS members.
Services and intellectual property – which accounted for $1.1 trln in US exports in 2023 and included things like franchising, design, management, consulting, financial and advisory services, patents, trademarks, software and art, are ethereal goods which the BRICS bloc could gradually replace with domestic alternatives if the US were to suddenly disappear from the global market for any reason - in the event of a major trade war involving someone leveling 100% tariffs, for example.
As the de facto world reserve currency, the dollar itself has long been a major American export, with foreign countries owning some $7.6 trln in US Treasuries, and dollars accounting for some 54% of global trade (although in BRICS-to-BRICS trade 65% of trade is now settled in local currencies).
All this means that if Trump greenlights the 100% tariffs on the BRICS bloc, "there would be huge increases on [the price of] American-imported consumer products," Dr. Shakespeare said. "Trump hopes that American industry would then revive sufficiently to produce the same products at cheaper cost. That could happen except that the new factories will NOT produce large numbers of jobs (they will be near-automated)."
Ultimately, "since economic power is shifting away from the US," if the US goes ahead with major trade war, against either BRICS countries collectively or even major bloc members individually, "it could be a war which the US will lose," the veteran economist warned.
If Trump made good on his threats, this would accelerate dedollarization, speed up global efforts to reduce dependence on key US exports, and quickly bring a nation that has spent decades exchanging green pieces of paper for real, physical goods to the brink of economic ruin.
DANNY HAIPHONG: The END of US Empire, Russia Defeats NATO Sanctions, Rise of BRICS.
SEBASTIAN SAS: Trump Threatens BRICS As Russia DOMINATES The Frontline.
DANIEL DUMBRILL: Disillusioned in the USA: A Young American's Escape to China on a Journey to Discover Perspective.
Will Trump be able to defeat the world with Tariffs?
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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.
THE NEOCONS OF THE COLLECTIVE WEST ARE DESPERATE TO MAXIMISE EVERY POSSIBLE AREA OF CONFLICT BEFORE DONALD TRUMP BECOMES PRESIDENT.
