Ukraine

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Ukraine charges Rudy Giuliani’s top local ally with Moscow-linked treason​

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

KYIV — A Ukrainian MP who in 2019 helped former U.S. President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani in his search for dirt on Joe and Hunter Biden has been charged with treason.

Oleksandr Dubinsky, together with ex-Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach and ex-prosecutor Kostyantyn Kulyk, had joined an organization formed by chiefs of Russia’s Military Intelligence (GRU), Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said in a statement on Monday.

More:

Ukraine charges Rudy Giuliani’s top local ally with Moscow-linked treason

Ukraine’s security service says MP was undermining Kyiv-Washington relations under Russian military intelligence orders.
www.politico.eu
 
Very misleading....

"dirt" as in "were they violating US laws by taking bribes and selling access??"

and "Ukraine charges"??? LOL one of THE most corrupt nations (if you can call Ukraine a "nation") on the planet!

It reminds me of the 'legal' system charging Trump and J6 peaceful protestors with insurrection.
 

Three Ukrainians who aided the Donald Trump campaign's efforts to discredit the Biden family have been charged with treason.

The 2019 drive was led by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was Mr Trump's personal lawyer at the time.

It centred on unproven allegations that Joe Biden had corrupt dealings with Ukraine as vice-president.

Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) said the three men charged were paid by Russian military intelligence (GRU).

Ukraine charges officials tied to Hunter Biden probe and Russia

Three men who helped Rudy Giuliani investigate the Bidens are accused of working with Russia.
www.bbc.com
 
An opinion piece (dyodd)

The mood of panelists and presenter on this past Sunday’s Evening with Vladimir Solovyov talk show was deeply pessimistic and the reason had nothing whatever to do with Russia’s situation in its war with Ukraine. On the contrary, feelings about the war were entirely upbeat. The recently published interview in The Economist by Ukrainian commander in chief General Zaluzhny confirmed to the world public the dire prospects facing the Ukrainian army that Russians had been saying among themselves for some time. Indeed, even in Western media it is now estimated that the Ukrainians have lost 10 to 12 soldiers killed or severely maimed on the field of battle to one Russian casualty. The Ukrainians are said to have lost more than 400,000 soldiers and officers. And concurrently, both financial and military aid from the United States and its European allies is becoming problematic.

Are we in a countdown to all-out nuclear war?

The mood of panelists and presenter on this past Sunday’s Evening with Vladimir Solovyov talk show was deeply pessimistic and the reason had nothing whatever to do with Russia’s situation in its wa…
gilbertdoctorow.com
 
Can't disagree with Putin on this...


The President attended the plenary session (http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/72757) of the United Cultures Forum in St Petersburg. Key takeaways from Vladimir Putin’s speech:

The thousand-year history of Russia shows the significance of cultural diversity as a paramount asset, and that the synergy of cultures is essential for stable and peaceful development.

The current global tensions are, in part, fuelled by certain forces’ claims of exclusivity, including cultural exclusivity, and their disregard for others’ customs and spiritual values.

The future belongs to a free and diverse development of cultures and the broadest dialogue among humanitarian communities in the emerging multipolar world.

Genuine art plays a crucial role in preventing those who falsify history from distorting the past to suit current ideological constructs, pitting people against one another.

Efforts to “cancel” Russian culture, which is rooted in true freedom and compassion, love for humanity and spirituality, are anti-cultural, neo-colonial, and racist in their essence.

Art knows no borders despite bans and sanctions.

The Russian language has been and remains a language of interethnic communication for hundreds of millions of people around the world. President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev proposed to establish an International Organisation for the Russian Language, which was supported by Russia and the leaders of the CIS.

Next year Russia will assume the presidency in two international organisations - BRICS and the CIS, with an extensive cultural programme planned. We are also looking forward to increasing cultural and humanitarian cooperation with the SCO, ASEAN, and leading regional organisations in Africa and Latin America.

Russia is committed to collaborating closely with all those who share the values of peace, friendship and mutual respect, and are ready to actively contribute to the formation of a modern multipolar world based on civilisational and cultural diversity.

 
I bet it's 3x that...
 
This one's an opinion piece. Take it fwiw and dyodd. It's a bit long but interesting (imo.)

Russo-Ukrainian War: The Reckoning​

The Russo-Ukrainian War has been a novel historical experience for a variety of reasons, and not only for the intricacies and technicalities of the military enterprise itself. This became the first conventional military conflict to occur in the age of social media and planetary cinematography (that is, the ubiquitous presence of cameras). This brought a veneer (though only a veneer) of immanence to war, which for millennia had unveiled itself only through the mediating forces of cable news, print newspapers, and victory steles.

For the eternal optimist, there were upsides to the idea that a high intensity war was slated to be documented in thousands of first-person view videos. Purely from the standpoint of intellectual curiosity (and martial prudence), the flood of footage from Ukraine offers insight into emerging weapons systems and methods and allows for a remarkable level of tactical-level data. Rather than waiting for years of agonizing dissection of after action reports to reconstruct engagements, we are aware in near real time of tactical movements.

More:

Russo-Ukrainian War: The Reckoning

Ukraine at the limits
bigserge.substack.com
 

A Brief Summary of the Battle of the Black Sea​

Last year, Ukraine put out an unusual crowdfunding request. It aimed to build 100 sea drones, which it would use to attack Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and ports.

Ukraine needed to protect its waters, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram in support of the United24 campaign, which had a goal of $25 million – enough to purchase 100 drones, at $250,000 a piece, USNI News previously reported.

Ukraine by no means invented lethal surface drones but the country has found new ways to use them in a conflict. Ukraine, a country without a naval fleet, has used drones and other missile strikes to largely stave off attacks from the Black Sea Fleet while slowly dismantling Russia’s dominance over the Black Sea.

The Russian Black Sea Fleet is a source of attacks on southern Ukraine, Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova told reporters on Oct. 27 at the Military Reporters and Editors conference. Russian ships have launched Kalibr cruise missiles at Ukrainian cities as part of the ongoing war between the two neighboring countries, USNI News reported.

More here:

 

Ukraine Situation Report: The Muddy Season Has Arrived​

PUBLISHED NOV 20, 2023 9:11 PM EST

The increasingly nasty fall weather in Ukraine hasn't halted fighting, but it is slowing things down for Ukrainian and Russian troops alike across an already stagnant battlefield. The notorious 'muddy season' has arrived in the war torn country.

Ukrainians refer to the muddy seasons as 'bezdorizhzhia,' translated as 'roadlessness.' This Ukrainian armored vehicle fighting its way through thick mud is a good example of why it's called this:

More:

Ukraine Situation Report: The Muddy Season Has Arrived

Mud, rain, frigid temperatures, snow and wind are slowing things down on the battlefield, but the fighting will continue.
www.thedrive.com
 
PAVLOHRAD, Ukraine, Nov 22 (Reuters) - After more than a thousand of its workers went to fight Russia's invasion, a coal mining enterprise in eastern Ukraine suffered a huge staff shortage. Its answer was to allow women to work underground for the first time in its history.

Over a hundred took up the offer.

Ukraine's coal mines turn to women to solve wartime staff shortages

After more than a thousand of its workers went to fight Russia's invasion, a coal mining enterprise in eastern Ukraine suffered a huge staff shortage. Its answer was to allow women to work underground for the first time in its history.
www.reuters.com
 
Possibly a good survival strategy, as Ukraine now looks to draft women into the army ..........
Theres recent videos of captured and killed women in front line Ukrainian trenches !
 
Nov 22 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his defence minister welcomed the formation by Ukraine's Western allies on Thursday of a 20-nation "coalition" to boost air defences, seen as a key element in the country's campaign against Russian forces.

Zelenskiy said the group, one of several devoted to specific areas of Ukraine's defence, was formed at a virtual meeting of the "Ramstein group" examining Ukraine's military needs.

Ukraine welcomes Western allies' air defence coalition

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and his defence minister welcomed the formation by Ukraine's Western allies on Thursday of a 20-nation "coalition" to boost air defences, seen as a key element in the country's campaign against Russian forces.
www.reuters.com
 
rblong2us said:
Possibly a good survival strategy, as Ukraine now looks to draft women into the army ..........
Theres recent videos of captured and killed women in front line Ukrainian trenches !
Click to expand...

I can't say how true this is, but it hits your nail on the head. Look at the date.

Ukraine Requires Women To Register for Military Conscription as Russia Threat Looms

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense has significantly expanded the pool of Ukrainian women who are required to register for possible military conscription in the event of a major war. According to an updated regulation that went into effect Friday, Dec.
coffeeordie.com

​

 
In hind sight... how better to take over a country (Blackrock/Vanguard)?

Buy up the best farm land in the world, kill all the people and deport the stragglers.
 
And if you can be cynical enough, it looks like Russia got the job of depopulating the west of the country ..........

Theres also speculation that there could be a middle east population looking for a spare country ..........
 
This one is a podcast, nothing to see, you can listen in one tab, surf the forum in a different tab. It's 41 mins long. I listened in 3 different segments.

ADAPTATION AT THE FRONT AND THE BIG PICTURE IN UKRAINE​

Ryan and Mike Kofman discuss the state of the Russo-Ukrainian war before turning to various other issues including important tactical adaptations since the start of summer, why Washington’s theory of its involvement in this war is fundamentally “unworkable” due to a lack of military observers in-country, the various meanings of “stalemate,” and the big picture for next year.

Adaptation at the Front and the Big Picture in Ukraine - War on the Rocks

Ryan and Mike Kofman discuss the state of the Russo-Ukrainian war before turning to various other issues including important tactical adaptations since
warontherocks.com
 
From Business Insider

I'm an American spending Thanksgiving as a combat nurse under fire on the frontline in Ukraine​


  • Rebekah Maciorowski, 28, traveled to Ukraine in March 2022 to volunteer as a combat nurse.
  • She will spend Thanksgiving on the frontline and plans on staying in Ukraine until the war is won.
  • She said the soldiers she works with are like "her family."
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rebekah Maciorowski, 28, about her decision to move from Denver, Colorado, to Ukraine after Russia's full-scale invasion last year. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I'm a registered travel nurse and I came over to Ukraine in March 2022.

When I saw what was happening during Russia's invasion of Ukraine, I felt like I didn't want to be a bystander who stood by and said, "Oh, my gosh, someone should help," but didn't do anything.

So I wrote to the Ukrainian Minister of Health, saying, "Hey, listen, do you need nurses?" They said, "Yes, please come." And so I popped on over, and I ended up spending the majority of my time in Donbas, which is the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblast.

I started with the Marines and now work with three different brigades. These guys are like my family. Unfortunately, in the last couple of weeks, a lot of our soldiers have been injured. Some have been killed. And that has been very difficult. But we stick together. On Thanksgiving, we will all be here together, on the front.

I started with just doing evacuations, and then I noticed that the soldiers didn't have first aid kits. They weren't receiving a lot of medical training. So then I started to do both.

More:

 
rblong2us said:
And if you can be cynical enough, it looks like Russia got the job of depopulating the west of the country ..........

Theres also speculation that there could be a middle east population looking for a spare country ..........
Click to expand...
Yes, I have heard of that...
 
Goldhedge said:
Russia sees this differently.

They went into Ukraine just like Hitler went into Poland. History repeats.
Click to expand...

Hitler went into Poland to eliminate the nazis and liberate Poland?..

Russia entering Ukraine is not an invasion , it was a liberation , especially for the 10-20 thousand civilians murdered in the Donbas region over the last what , 11 or so years?
 
spinalcracker said:
Hitler went into Poland to eliminate the nazis and liberate Poland?..

Russia entering Ukraine is not an invasion , it was a liberation , especially for the 10-20 thousand civilians murdered in the Donbas region over the last what , 11 or so years?
Click to expand...
No, Hitler went into Poland because (it used to be Germany before WWI) they were killing ethnic German people in the most barbaric way. Shooting them indiscriminately (like Zion does to Palestine?) and/or running them down in the street with trucks. He even made entreaties to Poland to get them to stop. He went in to liberate the ethnic Germans. It's my thought that the bankster's (who start all the wars) WANTED war with Germany because Hitler kicked out the usual suspects and became an economic powerhouse. They set him up!

Same thing with the book burning everyone freaks out about. They never say "the kind" of books they burned. It so happens that they perfected the sex change and porno industry in Berlin (beastiality too) and THOSE are the books and manuscripts they were destroying, but as everyone knows that doesn't make for a good propaganda narrative. Kind of like what they're pushing these days in the US...

THAT is the real reason. Not what some propagandist movie showed the world.

An aside, if one listens to Putin's speeches he discusses the depravity and lack of family values in the west. That's not what is going on in Russia.

The difference is Putin knows the real history, not the made up patriotic nonsense they've fed to Americans.
 
  • Putin: colleagues raised "Russian aggression"
  • Putin: we should think of how to end the tragedy
  • Putin: Russia didn't decline peace talks with Ukraine
  • Putin raises war in Gaza and pre-2022 conflict in Ukraine
MOSCOW, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin told the leaders of the Group of Twenty (G20) on Wednesday that it was necessary to think about how to stop "the tragedy" of the war in Ukraine, some of his most placatory remarks to date about the conflict.

Putin's decision to send troops into Ukraine in February 2022 triggered Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two and the gravest confrontation between Russia and the West since the depths of the Cold War.

Putin says we must think how to stop 'the tragedy' of war in Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin told the leaders of the Group of Twenty (G20) on Wednesday that it was necessary to think about how to stop "the tragedy" of the war in Ukraine, some of his most placatory remarks to date about the conflict.
www.reuters.com
 
The 2014 Minsk agreement was about to be signed by Zelenski until Boris (aka BJ) showed up and told him not to.

The rest is hysterical...
 


Here's a bit more:

Vladimir Putin to Extraordinary G20 Summit: “Dramatic transformation processes are underway in the world. New powerful global economic growth centres are emerging and gaining strength” - International Affairs

The President of Russia Vladimir Putin took part in the extraordinary G20 summit, held via videoconference. The summit participants reviewed India’s presidency in 2023 and …
en.interaffairs.ru
 
Oh hey...

Economist Admits Russian Superiority in Electronic Warfare (EW) and Drone Production

Economist admits that Russia has worked on building an advantage over NATO in EW for decades, that its systems are far better than anything available to Ukraine;

Despite previous claims of Ukrainian ingenuity and the production of 1000s of drones, many of them along with precision guided weapons provided by the West (GPS-guided shells for example) fall prey to Russian EW;

Economist now also finally admits Russia is outproducing Ukraine in terms of drones (not to mention precision-guided weapons) with an estimated advantage of at least 2:1;

Source:
https://www.economist.com/europe/20...e-its-superiority-in-electronic-warfare-count

H/T Slavyangrad (https://t.me/Slavyangrad)
 
Can not vouch for the veracity of the contents in the vid. From the BBC, it's 23 mins, 11 secs long.


A #BBCEyeInvestigation found that nearly 20,000 men have fled the country illegally since the beginning of the war to avoid being drafted. A further 21,000 have tried to leave but were caught by the Ukrainian authorities. Many got out by crossing the border illegally, others paid substantial bribes to buy a medical exemption.

BBC Eye hears from the men who made it out hoping to be reunited with their families now living abroad.

 

GENERAL TO GENERAL​

SEYMOUR HERSH​

A potential peace is being negotiated in Ukraine by military leaders​

It’s been a rough couple of months for President Joe Biden and his feckless foreign policy team. Israel is going its own way in its war against Hamas, with renewed bombing in Gaza, and the American public is bitterly divided, all of which is reflected in polls that continue to be unfavorable to the White House.

Meanwhile, the president and his foreign policy aides have also been left on the outside as serious peace talks between Russia and Ukraine have rapidly gained momentum.

“Everyone in Europe is talking about this”—the peace talks—an American businessman who spent years dealing with high-level Ukrainian diplomatic and military issues in the government told me earlier this week. “But there are lots of questions between a ceasefire and a settlement.” The veteran journalist Anataol Lieven wrote this week that the battlefield situation in Ukraine and thus “a ceasefire and negotiations for a peace settlement are becoming more and more necessary for Ukraine.” He said that it was “exceptionally difficult” for the Ukrainian government headed by Volodymyr Zelensky to agree to talks, given its repeated refusal to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The driving force of those talks has not been Washington or Moscow, or Biden or Putin, but instead the two high-ranking generals who run the war, Valery Gerasimov of Russia and Valery Zaluzhny of Ukraine.

GENERAL TO GENERAL

A potential peace is being negotiated in Ukraine by military leaders
seymourhersh.substack.com
 

Here's how NATO trainers knowingly sent Ukrainian troops to their deaths in this month's counteroffensive against Russia

Western computer-assisted battle simulations should have predicted Kiev’s massive losses
www.rt.com


Human Rights Watch deliberately only scratched the surface in exploring Ukraine’s use of banned ‘petal’ mines

March 28, 2023, RT.com -by Eva Karene Bartlett [On October 14, 2023, Youtube deleted my entire channel. The related videos are at: -Ukraine turns Donetsk into a minefield using banned ‘Petal’ mines…
ingaza.wordpress.com

 
Grain of salt

The US Secret Service is preparing a refuge for Zelensky​

I’m working at the United States Secret Service, Office of Protective Operations. I’m publishing this video and sending it along with other evidence I have to news media in hopes that this story gets public attention.
 

Under what authority to spend money on this?

Anyway, now they're crying trying to place blame so this is as good as over.

Janet Yellen Joins Zelensky In Saying US Would Be "Responsible For Ukraine's Defeat" | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero
www.zerohedge.com

Freaking outstanding though.
 

The West has sanctioned Russia's rich. But is that really punishing Putin and helping Ukraine?​

Western officials say sanctions against Russia’s billionaires are meant to isolate President Vladimir Putin, choke off support for his war and turn powerful business allies against him.

December 6, 2023, 1:10 AM

VERONA, Italy -- Sitting on a terrace in Verona as the bells toll at a nearby medieval church, Igor Makarov sips coffee as he describes his life as a billionaire under Western sanctions.

Most of his fortune earned doing business in Russia and the former Soviet Union is frozen, and his plans to develop his energy businesses are currently shelved. His yacht is seized and his two private jets are grounded, so he flew commercial from Cyprus to Italy on budget carrier EasyJet.

“I ask the question, what is the meaning of these sanctions against me? What do they achieve? They don’t help Ukraine,” Makarov said in a rare interview, blinking in the Italian sunshine.

More:

The West has sanctioned Russia's rich. But is that really punishing Putin and helping Ukraine?

Western officials say sanctions against Russia’s billionaires are meant to isolate President Vladimir Putin, choke off support for his war and turn powerful business allies against him
abcnews.go.com
 
Newsweek

Exclusive: Russia Has Recruited Over 100,000 Convicts Since Ukraine War Began​

Russia has recruited over 100,000 convicts from penal colonies to fight in Ukraine since the war began in February 2022, Newsweek has found.

The figures, which reveal the scale of what critics say are Russian President Vladimir Putin's predatory recruitment methods, were provided by Russian dissident-in-exile Vladimir Osechkin, who is the head of the Gulagu.net anti-corruption project, a prisoners' rights group. He is believed to have a vast network of informants inside Russia's prison system.

Osechkin shared with Newsweek a list of some of the recruited prisoners, which he said was supplied by a source in Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN), as well as images from security footage within a prison. The overall figures were corroborated by the head of another group that advocates for prisoners' rights in Russia.

More:

Exclusive: Russia's recruited over 100,000 convicts since Ukraine war began

A prisoner list shared with Newsweek reveals that elderly men past retirement age have been recruited to fight in Ukraine.
www.newsweek.com
 
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