RUNNING UPDATES ON THE CONFLICT IN UKRAINE - 26.05.2023
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.
*** WILL UKRAINIAN OFFENSIVE BE IN LATE SUMMER… OR NEVER? ***
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“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.
…………
Lead feature:
PATRICK LANCASTER
UNDERFIRE IN DONETSK "HIMARS"!! RUSSIAN UKRAINE WAR UNCUT!!
ALEXANDER MERCOURIS of THE DURAN
Rus Advances North Central Donbass, Ukr Attack Recon Ship TurkStream Fails; Armenia Azerbaijan Peace.
ALEX CHRISTOFOROU of THE DURAN
Armenia-Azerbaijan peace talks. Germany chooses recession. F-16 not a magic weapon. Diia app. U/1
THE DURAN
Erdogan enters election second round with advantage.
GEORGE GALLOWAY
INTERVIEW: Putin has said for decades that Nato at Russia’s border is unacceptable.
DANNY HAIPHONG
THE POWER OF THE ISRAEL LOBBY W/ ROGER WATERS, KATIE HALPER, AND ASA WINSTANLEY.
THE CHRIS HEDGES REPORT
Bidding farewell to the American century. (How Empires Die.)
REDACTED
Ukraine admits it's trying KILL Putin, US troops going back to Iraq | Redacted News.
SYRIANA ANALYSIS
Jeffrey Sachs: The War in Ukraine Was Provoked—and Why That Matters to Achieve Peace.
STEPHEN GARDNER - COLONEL DOUGLAS MACGREGOR
Warning! The United States Is BEING DESTROYED From Within.
ANTIWAR NEWS WITH DAVE DECAMP
Ukraine Sent Untrained Men Into Bakhmut, Nadler Won't Care If Ukraine Uses F-16s in Russia, and More.
TFIGlobal
Ukrainian oligarchs unmasked dictator Zelensky | World News.
RUSSIAN NEWS
Zelensky and Washington will not succeed, because Russia will rebuff them! Zakharova.
Russia has deployed tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
CGTN EUROPE
Ukraine latest, why is Bakhmut so important?
COLONEL DOUGLAS MACGREGOR
Putin the Hero: Reasons Why Putin Is Actually a Good Guy.
PEOPLE'S PODCAST
No2NATO No2War! Uniting for Peace.
Transatlantic discussion on Uniting for Peace.
JACKSON HINKLE
Putin RAGES Against West In FIERY SPEECH, Germany Is DONE.
"It's OBVIOUS Russia Will Win" - EU Leader.
Journalists CONFRONT Ukraine Ambassador To USA.
Prigozhin LASHES OUT At Russian Politicians.
THE JIMMY DORE SHOW
NATO’s Latest Stunt To Keep Ukraine War Going.
Jimmy Dore Added To Ukraine Government’s Kill List!
PARROT TV
FOREIGN POLICY REVIEW: BAKHMUT HAS FALLEN; WHAT'S NEXT?
GARLAND NIXON
GERMANY FALLS INTO RECESSION - THE COLLAPSE OF EUROPE BEGINS!
EMIL COSMAN
Why I don't trust the "Institute for the Study of War." Victoria Nuland is "related" to it.
US's been preparing Ukrainian counteroffensive "for months." US Victoria Nuland. (Her AGAIN).
Corruption? US Gen. Austin, ex-Raytheon Aerospace board exec, secures $65B for Ukraine AIR Force.
Germany falls into Recession. West's economic disaster officially started. More sanctions?
Happy now? Russian nuclear weapons on their way to Belarus. Lukashenko proclaimed.
HINDUSTAN TIMES
Scholz to dial Putin as NATO Nation Germany slips into recession; 'Prevent Conflict With Russia'.
Putin's war won't end? Russia rules out talks with Ukraine as long as 'Zelensky Is In Power'.
'War Justified...': Russia's fiery response after Ukraine claims Putin, Wagner Boss top 'Kill List'.
Putin's Army destroys 8 HIMARS, downs 28 drones and 'eliminates' 660 Ukrainian soldiers | Watch:
Putin plays smart; Confiscates Zelensky's home in Crimea to generate funds for Ukraine war.
Wagner chief reveals next move after Bakhmut 'win'; Russian troops takeover, 'fighting underway'.
Putin kicks out diplomats of NATO aspirant Sweden; Shuts down diplomatic mission in Russia | Details:
Russia's nuclear dare to West; Putin deploys tactical nukes in Belarus | U.S. cries foul.
USEFULIDIOTS
Syrians Find Hope Under Crushing US Sanctions.
BREAKTHROUGH NEWS
G7 Sends F-16 Jets to Ukraine: Flirting with Disaster, Direct War on Russia.
RICHARD MEDHURST
US Admits to Funding Terrorists in Syria to Overthrow Assad.
Zelensky Has Time for Weapons but Not to Meet Lula and Discuss Peace.
BORZZIKMAN
PENTAGON's Worst Nightmare┃Russia Started Use World's First SAM with A.I. S-350 'VITYAZ' in Ukraine.
BREAKING POINTS
CIA ADMITS Ukraine Behind Drone Attacks On Russia | Breaking Points.
Biden LOSING TO CHINA ON Electric Vehicle Race.
BRIAN BERLETIC & GUESTS - THE NEW ATLAS
Talking about the Specter of Conflict Hanging Over Taiwan with Xiangyu (in Taiwan).
AFRICAN DIASPORA NEWS CHANNEL
Irish politician Calls Out Western Countries For Funding War In Africa.
Sudan War, US & Russia Fighting Proxy War In Sudan To Set Naval Bases In Red Sea.
LINE FLUX
Dedollarization: BRICS Leaders push Common Currency to Challenge US Dollar in Upcoming Summit.
ASIAN QUICKTAKE
FAILING TO PREVENT OIL EXPORTS! Oil-Producing Nations COUNTER the DOLLAR LIMITATIONS.
TECH REVOLUTION
Russia And Iran Are TAKING OVER The Entire Oil And Gas Industry | HUGE THREAT To EU And U.S.
FIRSTPOST
How Europe is Treating the Global South as its Trash Can.
Germany Enters Recession as Inflation Hurts Consumers.
ShanghaiEye魔都眼
Lukashenko hints nuclear weapons already in Belarus.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
PROFESSOR JOHN J MEARSHEIMER: WHERE IS THE UKRAINE WAR GOING?
Article published by Russia Today (RT) - 26th May 2023:
Ukrainian officials send mixed signals on counteroffensive.
Presidential adviser Igor Zhovkva insisted the operation is still being planned after a fellow Zelensky aide claimed it had already started.
Ukrainian government officials have made contradictory claims on whether the much-anticipated counteroffensive against Russian forces has begun. The leadership in Kiev has insisted for the past several months that the country is preparing to drive enemy forces from territories under Moscow’s control.
Speaking to Bloomberg on Thursday, a senior adviser to President Vladimir Zelensky, Igor Zhovkva, stated that Ukraine “will further be preparing the counteroffensive.” He explained that the operation will commence once Kiev has received all the necessary weapons from its backers, including long-range artillery, ammunition, and battle tanks.
Speaking the same day, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR), Andrey Yusov, also used the future tense when talking about the planned counteroffensive.
“As for the specifics, we definitely shouldn’t be asking every day, ‘What’s new with the counteroffensive?’ But, no doubt, there will be liberation,” the official insisted, adding that “everything will be alright.”
The statements came shortly after another senior aide to President Zelensky, Mikhail Podoliak, told Italy’s Rai TV channel that the “counteroffensive has been going on for several days now, intense warfare is underway along the 1,500km-long border.”
He also stressed Ukraine’s commitment to not using Western-provided weapons to conduct strikes on Russian soil. At the same time, Podoliak noted that Kiev sees Crimea as well as the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics as legitimate targets. Ukraine and Russia both consider these territories to be their own.
Several hours later, Podoliak took to Twitter to clarify his remarks, arguing that the counteroffensive is “not a ‘single event’ that will begin at a specific hour of a specific day with a solemn cutting of the red ribbon.”
Instead, he said the Ukrainian military has been taking action in various locations for some time to weaken Russian forces, with special emphasis on the “destruction of enemy logistics.”
Top Ukrainian officials, including President Zelensky, have on several occasions floated the idea that the counteroffensive might be delayed due to the slow delivery of Western weapons. Many observers expected it to have already started.
Publicly, the US and other Western backers profess to be ready to support Kiev for “as long as it takes” to ensure it recaptures all the territory it has lost to Russia.
However, earlier this month, Ukrainian Ambassador to the UK Vadim Pristaiko complained that the West has piled “too much pressure” on Kiev and has built up “too much expectation” about the counteroffensive.
The New York Times reported in April that Ukraine’s Western supporters would likely begin to exert pressure on Kiev to negotiate with Moscow, should the much-anticipated offensive fail to yield major success.
MAPPING/ANALYSIS CHANNELS
* Updates will be added here as and when they become available.
MILITARY SUMMARY UPDATE
Donbass Zugzwang | The Calm Before The Storm. Military Summary And Analysis For 2023.05.26
Massive Exchange Of Missile Strikes. Military Summary And Analysis 2023.05.2023
NWE WAR REPORTS UPDATE
No update posted so far today
DEFENSE POLITICS ASIA UPDATE
RUSSIA DEPLOY TACTICAL NUKES IN BELARUS; Wagner hand over Bakhmut [ Ukraine SITREP ] Day 456 (25/5)
[ Bakhmut Front ] UKRAINE WITHDRAW SOUTH OF IVANIVSKE; Wagner hand over position to Russian military.
[ Avdiivka Front ] RUSSIA BLOWS DAM, DESTROYING ROAD TO PERVOMAISKE; causing big detour for Ukraine.
DPA WAR UPDATE
No update posted so far today
THETI MAPPING UPDATE
No update posted so far today
BALKAN MAPPING UPDATE
Ukraine Front Update [26 May 2023].
THE RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE UPDATE
Ukraine Russian War, Map and Footage for May 25, 2023 Wagner Exchanges POWs before Withdraw.
Ukraine Russian War, Rybar Map and Combat Footage for May 24th What's Next for Ukraine Offensive.
PROJECT GREAT UPDATE
Ukraine Partially Withdrew From Bakhmut Flank. Russia Captures Positions.
MILITARY AND FOREIGN AFFAIRS UPDATE
Battlefield Ukraine Nuclear Weapons Moving.
RYBAR UPDATE
Ukraine War Map, May 25th.
M MAPPING UPDATE
Wagner Forces Continue To Leave Bakhmut As The Russian Forces Take Their Positions.
HS MAPPING
Significant Russian Advance Near Bakhmut.
WEEB UNION UPDATE
New Map Style | Full Front Update 26/05/23.
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:
***
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
UKRAINE: ATROCITY PORN, SERIAL LIES & WESTERN PROPAGANDA
Whether the majority of the western world knows it or not the Ukraine war has been characterised by arguably the greatest number of lies ever conveyed as fact in any previous war. These lies have come in serial fashion from the Ukrainian regime and have without fail conveyed as fact via all western mass media news outlets.
The first and most innocuous of these lies was the least harmful in its effects, serving only to bolster Ukrainian morale in the early days of the war. This was the fantasy portrayed as fact of a modern day version of Germany’s first world war hero Baron Manfred von Richthofen who was a German pilot eventually credited with 80 air combat victories. The fictitious Ukrainian version was given the moniker, ‘The Ghost of Kiev’ and was credited before his exposure as pure fantasy with shooting down 40 Russian aircraft.
Such stories have featured in many wars and, at their more innocuous level as above serve to bolster morale, both in the ranks and among the civilian population. However, there is a wider use for such tall tales where the goals are stretched far wider into the weaponizing of words to a degree where real impact is achieved on the other side.
In the USA the CIA has significant resources dedicated to creating believable lies to achieve such results. This can extend beyond simply having lies seeded in national newspapers and mainstream media news shows. Counterfeiting various items is also seen as an important element in the armoury of what are known as Psychological Operation teams (PsyOps for short.) These are also complemented by the Black Operations teams (BlackOps). Any kind of deceit that can lower enemy morale, heighten allied morale, degrade enemy influence or enhance allied influence that can be made believable will be used.
The techniques alluded to above have been used many times, stretching back many years, even to medieval times when for instance the lie that the Saracens were killing Christian babies and drinking their blood was used to recruit troops for the Crusades to “liberate” Jerusalem. More recently, during the Iraq war there were several instances, the most well known of them being the ‘Kuwaiti babies torn from incubators by Iraqi troops’ fabrication and the Jessica Lynch story which conjured up a fictitious daring rescue of said Jessica from the clutches of the Iraqis.
Coming up to present time we have had the most number of these “useful lies’ related in the shortest time frame ever over the last 14 months in the war that has raged in Ukraine. Each and every one of them were reported as if they were cut and dried, totally obvious with no possible need for any scepticism or trace of investigation. If the Ukrainian regime says this is how it was then the ‘war mode’ politicians, press and media will convey its lies as if they were holy writ, unquestionable Biblical truths.
Note: In reading of the atrocities below please keep in mind that in all but one of the events below they took place in eastern Ukraine within the Donbass region and in all cases the casualties were Russian-speakers that the Russian campaign is seeking to free from what has been a nine year murderous Ukrainian assault during which over 14,000 have died.
In addition it should be kept in mind that the most radical members among the Ukrainian forces taking part in the conflict consider all Russian-speaking Ukrainians to be man, woman and child sub-humans, traitors to Ukraine, candidates for violent elimination or for ethnic cleansing from Ukraine.
1. The Mariupol Theatre
On 16 March 2022, the Donetsk Regional Drama Theatre in Mariupol, Ukraine was bombed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It was used as an air raid shelter during the siege of Mariupol, sheltering about 1,000 civilians, of whom about 600 were killed. (Wikipedia)
Though it is claimed that this atrocity was investigated no independent investigation was carried out to my knowledge.
‘A closer look reveals that local residents in Mariupol had warned three days before the March 16 incident that the theater would be the site of a false flag attack launched by the openly neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, which controlled the building and the territory around it.
Civilians that escaped the city through humanitarian corridors have testified that they were held by Azov as human shields in area, and that Azov fighters detonated parts of the theater as they retreated. Despite claims of a massive Russian airstrike that reduced the building to ashes, all civilians appear to have escaped with their lives.’
‘While the Russian military operation in Ukraine has triggered a humanitarian crisis in Mariupol, it is clear that Russia gained nothing by targeting the theater, and virtually guaranteed itself another public relations blow by targeting a building filled with civilians–including ethnic Russians.
Azov, on the other hand, stood to benefit from a dramatic and grisly attack blamed on Russia. In full retreat all around Mariupol and facing the possibility of brutal treatment at the hands of a Russian military hellbent on “de-Nazification,” its fighters’ only hope seemed to lie in triggering direct NATO intervention.’
More details here: https://mronline.org/2022/03/22/was-bombing-of-mariupol-theater-staged-by-ukrainian-azov-extremists-to-trigger-nato-intervention/
2. The Bucha Atrocity
The details of exactly what happened in the Kiev suburb of Bucha in late March-early April remain unclear. However, Russia was given the blame without question after the atrocity in which it is estimated around 1,000 civilians were summarily executed. It is known however that many wore white armbands and Russian military ration boxes were found in the vicinity of many victims.
I believe the truth of the matter is that after the Russian military left Bucha the Ukrainian forces who entered after them went door to door to locate those who had ‘collaborated’ with the Russian forces (took military rations for them and so forth) and quite possibly as in medieval witch hunts took the word of Ukrainian locals concerning who to apprehend and shoot.
I am aware of no motivation for the Russian forces to perpetrate these acts of inhuman violence against a population it was clearly supplying military rations to as an act of goodwill.
3. Missile attack on Kramatorsk Railway Station.
On the 8th of April 2022 at least one missile attack killed some 60 people who were gathered in the vicinity of Kramatorsk railway station with a view to leaving the city due to their fear of being embroiled in the fighting.
As with the Mariupol Theatre atrocity the word of Ukrainian activists and regime officialdom was accepted at face value. Once again it was almost endlessly repeated that ‘Russia did it’ though no one could offer a motive on the Russian side and the motive of Ukrainian radicals to do so was not seen as worthy of mention.
4. Maternity hospital, school and civilian home attacks.
It is known from video and still image evidence and also from the accounts of civilians that Ukrainian troops have been using civilian infrastructure as bases and fighting positions. In the case of the maternity hospital it is known that it had lain empty and unused for a lengthy period. In regard to schools, video is online showing both Ukrainian troops and weaponry within them. And on the question of using civilians as human shields video and still image evidence has revealed Ukrainian troops amidst civilian housing estates and there are images of notices placed on home and apartment doors that Ukrainian troops have the right to occupy them at a moment’s notice.
5. Kremenchuk Shopping Mall Atrocity
Ukrainian president Zelensky has said that 1,000 people were in the Kremenchuk shopping mall when it was set aflame by some unknown means on the 27th of June. Western mainstream media talk of between 10 and 18 victims however. Russia of course has received the blame once again across all western mainstream news outlets. As in all the cases above this is said merely due to the fact that Ukrainian sources say so. No evidence is supplied and no investigation called for. It is said however that the Google Maps website reveals that the mall has been closed for the past four months.
Update after UN Security Council debate:
‘Russia does not target civilians in Ukraine and did not strike the shopping center in Kremenchug, Moscow’s envoy to the UN told the Security Council on Tuesday. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said that the mall caught fire due to an explosion of Western-supplied weapons and ammunition, stored at the nearby factory and intended for the shelling of civilians in Donbass, making it a legitimate military target.’
‘“In reality, there was no strike on the mall,” Polyanskiy told the council, as Russia targeted a storage facility at the Kredmash factory next door. The weapons and ammunition stored there were bound for the front, where Ukrainian artillery was bombarding the civilians of Donbass as it had for years, to no objection from the UN, he added. “The Russian strike stopped that.”’
Again, in my firm view the hyperbole and exaggeration by Zelensky and the western mass media is yet another cynical disinformation device to increase the resolve of western nations to further bolster Ukraine’s war effort when there is evidence of it flagging. Of course there is also another explanation if the mall has been closed for four months now, that it has been used to store some of the weaponry and ammunition from the West or as a safe barracks for Ukrainian troops where their normal barracks are too readily spotted by drone for attack.
Are western audiences being swayed by the uniform blame game against Russia for all of the instances above where civilian populations have been either put at severe risk or have been massacred in large numbers. For me the events spoken of above exemplify the depth of cynical manipulation that has infested western wars for many years now but which have reached a fever-pitch level of total cynicism in the ongoing Ukraine war where the manipulation of human misery has reached its absolute nadir.
As was the case in both Iraq and Syria all western institutions, not merely its mass media, have been turned into war mode-pervaded organs of western state propaganda with the useful lies of activists instantly transformed to unquestioned and unquestionable fact in an instant. No scepticism applied, no investigation called for, simply a bald stating of the “facts” as provided by one side painting the other as evil incarnate.
Thus Russia, its president and the Russian forces (acknowledged even by western experts as having been careful NOT to cause civilian casualties or damage vital infrastructure) can be demonised by the entire elite western world acting as one.