RUNNING UPDATES ON THE CONFLICT IN UKRAINE - 20.08.2024
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 ROAD TO THE ULTIMATE CONCLUSION OF WORLD WAR III RUNS THROUGH HERE.
*** KURSK A SIDESHOW AS RUSSIA POWERS FORWARD IN DONBASS ***
“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.
COLLECTIVE WEST-UKRAINE <-> RUSSIA
SHAMELESS WESTERN MEDIA IGNORED THIS:
Airstrike in Lugansk - 10 Year Anniversary.
ALEXANDER MERCOURIS of THE DURAN: Angry Lavrov Trashes Kiev Talks Idea; Blames US Kursk; Rus Niu-York Capture, Ukr Evacuates Pokrovsk.
ALEX CHRISTOFOROU of THE DURAN: Biden farewell speech. Elensky to destroy Russia war potential. Tusk, shut up about Nord Stream.
ALEX CHRISTOFOROU & ALEXANDER MERCOURIS of THE DURAN: Collapsing Ukraine in hopes of removing Putin.
PROFESSOR MICHAEL ROSSI: Ukraine Just Doomed Itself.
Dr. GILBERT DOCTOROW: Ukraine's Defeat in Kursk Region?
DANIEL DAVIS: Ukraine Incursion Latest.
Russian Forces Storm Important Heights Outside Selydove.
Russia captures New York in Donbass.
The capture of the well-fortified town comes after months of heavy fighting.
Russian troops have fully liberated the town of New York in the Donetsk People’s Republic, RIA Novosti reported on Monday. The settlement bearing a peculiar name had been turned into a major fortress by Ukraine.
The Russian military launched a large-scale assault on New York and the neighboring Toretsk agglomeration, a cluster of mostly industrial towns with Toretsk at its center, back in June as part of its continued offensive in Donbass. In early July, Russian forces managed to take the town center while pushing Ukrainian troops towards its northern outskirts, according to Russian media reports. Now, the northern part of the town has also come under Russian control.
Capturing New York opens a path towards Toretsk, another major Ukrainian stronghold in Donbass. Both towns have been heavily fortified by the Ukrainian military ever since hostilities broke out in the region in the wake of the 2014 Western-backed Maidan coup.
READ MORE: Ukraine will ‘bitterly regret’ Kursk attack – Moscow
New York and Toretsk are both located less than two dozen kilometers away from Gorlovka, a Donbass town where the Donetsk People’s Republic militias took up positions back in 2014. As a result, Ukraine turned the towns into part of an important defensive line. Gorlovka was subjected to regular shelling in the years prior to the start of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in 2022. By mid-2017, the city had reported 235 civilian deaths linked to Ukrainian attacks.
New York was founded in the 19th century, and the origins of its name remain unclear. Some media reports link it to its original residents, who were German Mennonites. Others claim that a retired Russian officer decided to name his estate after the famous American city. In 1951, the Soviet authorities changed its name to Novgorodskoye, literally ‘New Town’ in Russian. In 2021, Ukraine’s parliament restored the historical name of New York.
Russia captures New York in Donbass.
LEVAN GUDADZE: Ukrainian Invasion of Russia. Ukrainian Orthodox Church Banned. Middle East. Overheated Economy...
German MP demands Ukraine pay compensation for Nord Steam attack.
US media reports have claimed that Vladimir Zelensky initially approved the sabotage.
Ukraine should pay for the damage done to the German economy following the destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines, Bundestag MP Alice Weidel has said.
The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, which ran under the Baltic Sea, were a major conduit for Russian gas supplies to Germany and other parts of Western Europe. Three of the four pipelines were blown up in September 2022 near the Danish island of Bornholm. The culprits have yet to be formally identified.
German media reported last week that Berlin had issued the first arrest warrant in its sabotage investigation, identifying the suspect as a Ukrainian diver, whose last known location was said to be Poland. According to reports, the suspect fled to Ukraine before Polish authorities could follow through with a European arrest warrant lodged by Berlin in June.
US newspaper the Wall Street Journal later cited sources as claiming that Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky had initially approved the plan to sabotage the gas pipelines.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Weidel, a member of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, insisted that Kiev should pay compensation for the damage done.
“The economic damage to our country caused by the demolition of Nord Stream allegedly ordered by Zelensky – and not [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, as we were led to believe – should be ‘billed‘’ to Ukraine,” the German MP wrote. “Any ‘aid payments’ that burden the German taxpayer should be stopped.”
Weidel's AfD party has been a vocal proponent of stopping military aid to Ukraine.
Moscow has accused Washington of being behind the Nord Stream sabotage, arguing that the US is the biggest beneficiary from the disruption of Russian gas supplies to the EU. Kiev, meanwhile, has maintained that Russia blew up its own pipelines.
With the infrastructure destroyed, Europe is deprived of a flow of cheap fuel and a “sustainable basis for economic development,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview on Monday.
Germany has refused to “present the facts” of its probe into the incident, he added. When the investigation refuses to share information formally requested by Russia, and this instead appears in news articles, it raises “suspicions that all of this is staged” and that “the entire operation is designed to somehow divert public opinion” from the “true perpetrators, culprits, and clients [of the attack],” Lavrov claimed.
Berlin has insisted that it is sharing information on its investigation with the Russian authorities.
German MP demands Ukraine pay compensation for Nord Steam attack.
DANNY HAIPHONG - PEPE ESCOBAR: PEPE ESCOBAR: RUSSIA READIES WAR WITH NATO, PUTIN'S DEVASTATING REVENGE FOR KURSK INVASION IS NEXT.
ALEXANDER MERCOURIS of THE DURAN: Zelensky Buffer Zone: Ukr Kursk Fire Bag, Niu-York Falls, Toretsk Stormed, Pokrovsk Fall.
ALEX CHRISTOFOROU of THE DURAN: Germany looks for Ukraine off-ramp. Elensky, buffer zone narrative. Russia denies ceasefire story.
PATRICK LANCASTER: Top Russian General Warns Of Nuclear World War & It Needs To Be Stopped.
SEBASTIAN SAS: The Russian Army Is Breaking The Eastern Front.
EMIL COSMAN: Trump to appoint Musk as adviser. Rus destroys Ukr chlorine plant. Ukr destroys 3rd bridge in Russia.
PATRICK LANCASTER: Russian Special Forces Attack New York.
Massive Russian Advance At Pokrovsk And Toretsk Front.
Urgent Evacuation Ordered as Russian Forces Close In on Pokrovsk.
Russia Ambushes Ukrainian Tank Convoy.
EMIL COSMAN: The fall of Ukr front.
WAR CRIME of the New York Times. Exposing Russian PoWs.
COLONEL DANIEL DAVIS: Russia’s DEVASTATING Response to Ukraine’s Kursk Offensive.
BORZZIKMAN: Russian Marines Captured 15 Polish and French Soldiers In KURSK┃Zelensky Begs The WEST For HELP.
Close Combat, Russia Ambushes Vehicles - Ukrainian Troops Surrender.
Black Sea Fleet Marines Capture 19 Ukrainian Saboteurs in Kursk Region.
The Russian Black Sea Fleet's marines have captured a sabotage and reconnaissance group of 19 Ukrainian servicepeople near the village of Olgovka in the Kursk Region, the Russian security agencies told Sputnik on Monday.
Those captured belong to the 22nd separate mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces.
On August 6, Ukrainian Armed Forces units launched an offensive to seize territory in the Kursk region, and their advance was stopped, Russian Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov said. He emphasized that the operation in the Kursk region would be completed by defeating the enemy and reaching the state border.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported that during the fighting in the Kursk direction, the Ukrainian Armed Forces had lost up to 3,460 soldiers and 50 tanks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the Kiev regime had carried out a provocation and was firing indiscriminately, including at civilian targets. Putin said that the enemy would receive a worthy response, and all of Russia's goals would be achieved.
A counter-terrorism operation regime is in effect in the Kursk, Belgorod, and Bryansk regions to ensure the safety of citizens.
Black Sea Fleet Marines Capture 19 Ukrainian Saboteurs in Kursk Region.
ISRAEL-WEST <-> PALESTINE-IRAN-SYRIA-IRAQ-LEBANON-YEMEN-VENEZUELA-DPRK
RICHARD MEDHURST: I Was Arrested at Heathrow Airport as a “Terrorist” for My Journalism.
KATIE HALPER:Biden Staffers Are DROPPING LIKE FLIES Over Israel.
GEORGE GALLOWAY: INTERVIEW: Is Blinken up to any good in Tel Aviv?
COLONEL DANIEL DAVIS: Is Israel Losing?
Blinken Travels To Israel For Ceasefire Talks But Hamas Accuses Israel Of Changing Conditions.
USA
MARTIN ARMSTRONG: Why the US Can’t Stop Obsessing Over Russia - The Shocking BRICS vs G7 Showdown.
THE GRAYZONE: Won't you please come to Chicago?
LENA PETROVA: 🔴 FOOD SHORTAGES & HIGH INFLATION: Price Control Proposal by Kamala Harris Explained.
REDACTED: A Harris DISASTER is coming for the US Economy, DNC Day One, Anti-War Phil Donohue Dead.
MULTIPOLARITY - RUSSIA-CHINA / BRICS
Dr. STEVE TURLEY: You Won’t BELIEVE What PUTIN Just Did!!!
MARTIN ARMSTRONG: Why the US Can’t Stop Obsessing Over Russia - The Shocking BRICS vs G7 Showdown.
China, Russia to Promote High-quality Development in Humanities Cooperation.
EUROPE / UK
SEAN FOO: Germany To Ban New Ukraine Aid, $1.7 Trillion Shock Triggers Gold, China Giant Sues U.S. Pentagon.
AFRICA
You Won’t Believe Burkina Faso's Ibrahim Traore Introduced a Gold Backed New Currency.
NON-ENGLISH NEWS
LIU SIVAYA: KIEV EN LLAMAS POR TRES DÍAS CONSECUTIVOS: ALCANZADOS TRES BÚNKERES SUBTERRÁNEOS CON PERSONAL OTAN.
Комсомольская Правда: Бой морпехов в Курской области: уничтожили 9 машин ВСУ, пленили солдат противника.
Макс Ветер: Апти Алаудинов об одном эпизоде на Курском фронте. 797 ДГВП.
Албор Пермь: Апти Алаудинов дает интервью китайскому телеканалу. 797 ДГВП. Макс Ветер.
EXPATS IN RUSSIA
AMERICAN IN CRIMEA: Flee the Liberal West: Russia opens it's Doors to Families with Traditional Values.
EXPAT AMERICAN: 👀 LOOK!🥂Historic Vineyard in RUSSIA! 🇷🇺 🇺🇸 AMERICAN tours & TASTES Абрау-Дюрсо!🍾Explore the Cellar!🍇
MAPPING CHANNEL UPDATES
Russian Forces Storm Important Heights Outside Selydove.
KURSK front is problematic; Pokrovsk sector is too | Ukraine War Summary / SITREP (Situation Report).
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.
WESTERN UKRAINE DELUSIONS WILL FRAGMENT AS REALITY ASSERTS ITSELF
You can keep a certain storyline going for only so long and under certain conditions. We saw that in regard to Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. Ukraine is next.
Currently the number of so-called experts and other commentators who are trotted out to sell their wares regarding the subjects of Russia and Ukraine on YouTube is still high. Google, the search engine a high percentage of western populations use, has long since modified their algorithms to place the pro-Ukrainian, anti-Russian YouTube videos and articles at the top of search results on these subjects. It is almost impossible to find any independent and objective analysis via Google or other readily available search engines. This produces a completely skewed array of opinion that in turn provides an overall picture that excludes a good half (and in fact much more) of the reality on the ground.
The situation above is self-perpetuating to a significant degree. Half the story (or in fact much less) constantly told, produces a certain effect in those watching or reading who are already inclined (through lack of knowledge) to wish to hear this kind of material. In other words, an existing prejudice based upon initial encounters through western mainstream news media creates a certain need for reinforcement. An opinion that one side is bad and the other good thrives on hearing that one is correct in the earliest assumption fed by entities such as the BBC or CNN. And what is the end result of all this constant reinforcement of a highly partial reality? In a nutshell, delusion, or at the very least an almost complete lack of skepticism.
It is quite surprising after the era of regime change wars and the justifications used for them (mostly useful fabrications if not outright lies) that we find ourselves in that skepticism appears to be in such short supply. After all, we are in the Information Age, are we not? Almost everyone has access to a near universal array of facts concerning just about anything under the sun… if you know where to look. There’s the nub. Do we look? Are we interested enough to look, to look at things in the round? Or are we generally more interested these days in finding the “facts” that fit our way of looking at things (as guided by the news media that permeates our lives)? How many of us eschew the headlines and take the time to dig deeper below and beyond them? Does it even reach 0.1% of us? Yet, if you ask most people they will have an opinion about the conflict in Ukraine, and often a very strong one, a dismissive one even.
Does the average person really want to know the facts even? Is there not a risk they will engender emotions which the average Joe and jill would rather not have. Don’t blind me with facts they say. Just give me a headline that seems to make sense and a few paragraphs telling me how bad they are ‘over there’. Then I’ll be happy, satisfied that I know what’s going on and who to blame if the subject comes up in the pub or at the hairdressers. But overall let’s not talk about it.
The deluge of anti-Putin, anti-Russian sentiment on YouTube, in newspapers, magazines and books has been incessant longer than some of us have been alive. What else are people to believe, lacking the curiosity to examine any accusations in detail, but accept all of it as fact on the basis there’s no smoke without fire and surely all these supposedly intelligent people can’t be wrong? That truly independent experts would tell them that they certainly can be is not something most people are going to realize unless they happen to be motivated to dig deeper than the latest headline. Headline surfers will certainly sleep well at night on the premise that ignorance is bliss. Or else, when the powers-that-be consider it necessary they can be fired up emotionally to call for the actions those powers-that-be need from time to time.
We didn’t use to be such malleable sheep, made to sleep or bleat to order. There were times now long past when journalists attempted to deliver something closer to reality to their readers and viewers. There have been such people, believe it or not. If you are of a certain age you will know the names of the following: John Pilger, Seymour Hersh, and Robert Fisk. Of the three only Seymour Hersh survives. These were men of integrity and independence who tended to work freelance, seeking to find the core of the subject they were on the trail of, unaccepting of easy answers and one-sided narratives. Their much younger, modern day equivalents do exist but as with those they surely accredit as their heroes, they work quite independently of the main news media and the requirements they demand of them. Max Blumenthal, Aaron Maté and Chris Hedges.
There has been a sea change in how journalism is done in its usual, mainstream incarnation. It is no longer particularly investigative. It has become more a channel to communicate views. The rot appears to have started after support for the Vietnam War was essentially brought to a close in the USA due to the reporting of facts. When the West’s regime change wars of choice began after the events of 9/11 journalists no longer covered them from the battlefield itself but were instead “embedded” among the various militaries taking part. They were given nightly briefings, i.e. they were essentially told what to report. This was a lot easier, safer and more comfortable for a new breed of journalists who found this quite convenient. It was also extremely convenient and helpful for the western states who wished certain narratives to be broadcast and certain inconvenient realities ignored.
So, here we are, now, in these modern times of war, war and more war within a news flowchart where certain facts are “okay” for distribution as they fit the chosen narratives of western political elites and where certain facts are not. Those who wish to manipulate certain expectations and emotions and dampen others can do so easily, and by this convenient chain of narrative creation build a fabricated, highly partial reality among populations conditioned to readily believe them, and to have their already existing prejudices reinforced. George Orwell would have no problem identifying the system that has been so deftly created with the complicity of all western mainstream news outlets. The wall-to-wall nature of totalitarian information control would be very familiar to him. It is just as he foresaw it in his novel ‘1984’ only in all its modern form, without the hero of ‘1984’, Winton Smith to undermine it.
Wikipedia:
‘The story takes place in an imagined future. The current year is uncertain, but believed to be 1984. Much of the world is in perpetual war. Great Britain, now known as Airstrip One, has become a province of the totalitarian superstate Oceania, which is led by Big Brother, a dictatorial leader supported by an intense cult of personality manufactured by the Party's Thought Police. The Party engages in omnipresent government surveillance and, through the Ministry of Truth, historical negationism and constant propaganda to persecute individuality and independent thinking.
The protagonist, Winston Smith, is a diligent mid-level worker at the Ministry of Truth who secretly hates the Party and dreams of rebellion. Smith keeps a forbidden diary. He begins a sexual relationship with a colleague, Julia, and they learn about a shadowy resistance group called the Brotherhood. However, their contact within the Brotherhood turns out to be a Party agent, and Smith and Julia are arrested. He is subjected to months of psychological manipulation and torture by the Ministry of Love. He ultimately betrays Julia and is released; he finally realises he loves Big Brother.’
There is a somewhat happy ending in the case of the Russian-Ukraine conflict however. The actuality of which western publics are only granted (through the mainstream) to less than half, is breaking through the western media facade. Russian victories on the battlefields are becoming too obvious and too numerous now, they are becoming harder and harder for legacy media owners, editors, “journalists” and commentators to ignore. Much to their chagrin, actuality is starting to break through their carefully constructed “news” mirages of Ukrainian “success”. Tall tales concerning Zelensky, Syrsky and their talents and achievements are sounding thin and rather desperate. The recent incursion into the Russian region of Kursk is only the latest of a number of desperate schemes to generate enough headlines to make western populations believe they are being successful still.
The truth is that Russia is winning, has been winning and now is winning big. The illusion with which western news media elites have been deluding western viewers on YouTube and readers of print media is now unsustainable. The Orwellian milieu of creating lies absorbed by many in the West wish alacrity is failing fast. Russian territorial gains are happening at an ever faster pace. As these occur, more and more of those like Winston Smith who don’t like being lied to or being part of the fabrication factory that is western mainstream news, are speaking out. The percentage of those happy to hear comforting lies is reducing. No doubt they will seek out more lies to comfort them as time goes by… but those lies are going to be harder and harder to make convincing. And ultimately we will all be able to recognise the true situation and outcome of the Russian-Ukraine conflict, a total and absolutely conclusive, Russian victory.
