CRP offers a unique take on what's going on in Ukraine directly from Kiev, describing military tactics and potentially revealing a longer term strategy that's worth considering, especially in light of all the lies and propaganda spouted by the MSM...
Various additional materials that seem to further validate his point of view...
Putin is playing chess while the rest of the world was playing checkers. When America wages war, they seek to destroy all the infrastructure, take down the power grid, and destroy the water supply. US troops then move in as more of a mop-up operation. The West is judging Putin by the same way the US wages war and they are so wrong. Putin is not using that strategy of a video game for he wants to take Ukraine intact for it also has the richest land in the world for food production – hence Stalin stole all the food and killed 7 million by starvation.
Putin is NOT backing away from resistance, he is encircling it the classic way war is traditionally fought – you laid “siege” to the city by surrounding it, and starvation forces their surrender. That often takes time, but you then have the city and the people. You do not raze it to the ground and kill everyone. Anyone who has studied ancient war strategies should see what Putin is doing and the Western press is either deliberately putting out propaganda, or they are complete idiots.
Putin seeks to install a new government with minimal casualties to civilians. Every dead civilian creates a blood enemy of their survivors. But the US way means it then costs billions in aid to rebuild what they destroyed – i.e. Iraq. Putin is NOT using that strategy and the Western press is judging him by American standards of destroying everything and winning in a few days.
Putin is not seeking to destroy the Ukrainian Army. He wants to capture it and once a new government is installed, they will then become allies. This is the very strategy of Alexander the Great. He conquered the known world, but those who were once his enemy joined his army. In Babylon, he defeated Darius III but he left the infrastructure intact and he installed Persian satraps (governors) who poured what would have been Darius’s taxes into Alexander’s coffers. This is the strategy of Putin – not to obliterate his enemy and then pour billions in to restore it. Putin has wiped out the air force and owns the skies over Ukraine. He could annihilate the country in less than 3 days, but he is not doing that to the West’s befuddlement.
Moreover, the real concern is that Putin has NOT sent in his hard-core troops. Only about 30% of the troops on the border were sent into Ukraine. The majority of the troops are there to take Europe if they are foolish enough to walk into this mess. Putin is obviously playing chess and he is very good at it while Biden has to change his diapers. Putin’s reputation until this moment has always been as a shrewd ex-KGB man. He understood the Obama game of putting a pipeline through Syria to cut off Russian gas to Europe. He moved decisively into Syria and then escalated forces there shutting down Obama’s strategy. Assad refused it and this has been the entire pretend reason why the Obama Administration wanted to invade Syria. The reason for the refusal was to protect the interests of Assad’s long-time ally, Russia, which is Europe’s biggest natural gas supplier based upon all the data.
However, Ukraine has also been used as a pawn against Putin just as NATO has constantly moved eastward ever closer to Russia. Kyiv has been so corrupt that few are willing to blame anyone other than Putin. Ukraine has failed as a pawn and despite promises the US would support it, it did not send military troops. More broadly, the use of Ukraine has been at the expense of the European security architecture that America spent 75 years building and maintaining. Why do you think Putin has now put his defensive nukes on standby?
Zelensky has been handing our AK47s to civilians. Zelensky is telling residents to make Molotov cocktails and firebombs to help fight back in Kyiv as Russian forces close in on the capital city. This is insane and he clearly wants to use dead civilians for dramatic footage. This is outrageous for civilians who are not trained with such weapons and would then be easily killed by professional soldiers. Putin is fully aware of what Zelensky is doing and he somehow hopes that dramatic footage will force Europe and America to send in troops.
Additionally, Zelensky has done what Sadam Husein was doing. Putting heavy weapons surrounded by civilians. This is also intended to ensure that as many civilians are killed once more to paint the Russians as evil. Putin knows this and so far he has adopted the siege strategy. The internet is NOT down in Ukraine. We have people there and I personally have friends in Kyiv.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/war/world-war-iii-beginning-stages-now
After Moscow launched a special operation in Ukraine on Thursday, Russia's Defence Ministry stressed that Russian forces did not launch any strikes on Ukrainian cities, only targeting the country's military infrastructure with high-precision strikes.
The Russian Defence Ministry has said that Kiev applies the same methods as terrorists, using civilians as human shields: "Your nationalist leadership is using the same methods as terrorists. They want to use you as a human shield. The Russian armed forces will not launch any strikes on residential areas of the Ukrainian capital", the ministry said in an address to Ukrainian residents on Friday.
Amid the ongoing attacks perpetrated by Kiev's forces in Donbass, Russia launched a special military operation on Thursday to stop the bloodshed, targeting the Ukrainian military. Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that the operation aims at the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.
The Russian Defense Ministry, in turn, stated that precision weapons are neutralizing Ukrainian military infrastructure objects, including air bases, and air defenses. The ministry noted that Ukrainian cities are not being targeted, and only military facilities are being neutralized.
“It’s not a beginning of war, it is prevention of a situation that could lead to global military confrontation. It is also the end of the war that was being carried out [in Donbass]”, Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said in an interview, as she addressed the special operation in Ukraine authorized by President Vladimir Putin on Thursday.
If we look to history for guidance here, we find that in 2008 when Georgia launched an unprovoked attack on Russia's protected territories, Russia also countered with a "special operation" and not an invasion, in order to protect those territories. However, as soon as their "special operation" was complete and now imprisoned former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili was ousted from power, all Russian forces withdrew and went back home. * How long did it take the U.S. to leave their occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and to what end?
And for those wondering why Putin has not sought to disable Internet access in Ukraine, 82nd Airborne combat veteran Brendon O'Connell III (aka “Johnny The Paratrooper) explains why leaving communications intact is vital for “human terrain mapping” to ascertain civilian population and military personal moods and movements. This is in fact a modern tactic of war pioneered by the US Military, as explained in their Defense Technical Information Center documents such as “Mapping The Human Terrain In Afghanistan”.
Comment from Donbass
I’m definitely not for war. But for 8 years, since 2014, the Ukrainian government has murdered and bombed Russian people there. Especially the cities (Donetsk and Lugansk) that refused to accept the fascist government that the United States and the European Union imposed on you in 2014 with blood and violence.
Russians in Ukraine have since become a banned ethnic group. The Russian language is banned, Russian books were burned and all Russian channels, movies, etc. were shut down and banned. Even people who demonstrated then were shot and burned alive. Year after year it only got worse and worse.
A few months ago, Zelensky, who is now the pro-Western president of Ukraine, honored and recognized a famous terrorist / fascist as a Ukrainian hero. Dmytro Kotsyubaylo is a member of the right-wing sector and the goal of his life, which he says himself is to kill as many Russians as possible. In several interviews, he has said openly that his caged pet wolf he feeds with bones from Russian-speaking children. About 20 million people are in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Link: https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/war/the-other-side-in-ukraine
Moscow claims this is culmination of 8 year Ukrainian war
The West spent eight years ignoring the “sea of blood” in Donbass while arming Ukraine, and now claims Moscow is the aggressor when it stepped in to end the conflict, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told RT on Thursday.
In announcing the operation, Putin said the “main objective is to stop the escalation of the war that’s been going on for eight years, and to stop the war,” Zakharova told RT in an exclusive interview.
Donetsk and Lugansk broke away from Ukraine in 2014, after the West-backed coup ousted the democratically elected government in Kiev. Zakharova noted that the two self-proclaimed republics held a referendum eight years ago, saying they did not want to remain in Ukraine, but both Moscow and the West rejected this and tried to put the “broken” country back together. When asked about President Volodymyr Zelensky’s statement that Ukraine wanted peace, Zakharova wondered why Ukraine was arming itself and refusing to negotiate with the Donbass.
Zakharova also noted that the top Ukrainian officials have openly and publicly brought up the idea of obtaining nuclear weapons in recent weeks, pointing out this was a fact and not something claimed by Russian intelligence.
Divisions in Ukraine go beyond Donetsk and Lugansk, Zakharova added, accusing armed groups with Nazi-era symbols – such as the notorious Azov Battalion – of having influence over much of the country.
For years, she said, Western media so concerned over human rights in places like South Sudan and Myanmar kept silent on all this, ignoring that more than 13,000 people have died in the Donbass – many of them civilians. While Russia provided them with humanitarian aid, Kiev besieged them by cutting off trade, finance, and even utilities. Zakharova noted that the water canal towards Crimea is now once again operational after Ukraine “criminally” shut it off years ago.
Link: https://www.rt.com/russia/550529-ukraine-war-eight-years-zakharova
Is RUSSIA really the aggressor here, or has Putin been backed into a corner by his Western counterparts?
When Russia’s Vladimir Putin demanded that the U.S. rule out Ukraine as a future member of the NATO alliance, the U.S. archly replied: NATO has an open-door policy. Any nation, including Ukraine, may apply for membership and be admitted. We’re not changing that.
In the Bucharest declaration of 2008, NATO had put Ukraine and Georgia, ever farther east in the Caucasus, on a path to membership in NATO and coverage under Article 5 of the treaty, which declares that an attack on any one member is an attack on all.
Unable to get a satisfactory answer to his demand, Putin invaded and settled the issue. Neither Ukraine nor Georgia will become members of NATO. To prevent that, Russia will go to war, as Russia did last night. Putin did exactly what he had warned us he would do. Whatever the character of the Russian president, now being hotly debated here in the USA, he has established his credibility. When Putin warns that he will do something, he does it.
Link: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/buchanan-did-we-provoke-putins-war-ukraine
Why can't China "do more to help"?! Well, here's China's "retort"...
How about our Strong American Learer and Commander in Sleep?!
Remember that time Creepy Joe called out Germany for their Russian pipeline, oil, and natgas deals while the U.S. paid through the nose to protect them from "Russian aggression"? Oh no wait, that was TRUMP!
In fact, when President Trump refused to send more arms to Ukraine in 2019, Biden howled “Imagine what can happen in Ukraine" if Trump were to be reelected...
And what about Zelensky?
"Zelensky hastily left Kiev. He was not in the capital of Ukraine yesterday. Together with his entourage, he fled to the city of Lvov, where he and his assistants were equipped with a place to live," Volodin wrote in his Telegram channel.
Volodin also noted that all the videos that Zelensky publishes on social networks were recorded in advance. According to him, information about Zelensky's departure to Lvov came from deputies of the Rada, Ukraine's legislature.
I suppose that also includes all those images of him staying behind to fight off the Russians alongside all the untrained Ukrainian citizens he drafted and armed with AK-47s to be slaughtered as they potentially went up against highly-trained Russian soldiers?
Seems Zelensky's also done pretty well for himself siding with the globalist puppets currently occupying The White House...
More than a billion dollars are held in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s accounts abroad. This was announced by the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of the Opposition Platform – Party For Life Ilya Kiva. According to him, Zelensky has accumulated $1.2 billion in the Dresdner Bank Lateinamerika in Costa Rica during the two and a half years of his presidency. This money was transferred to the president by Ukrainian oligarchs, such as Rinat Akhmetov, Viktor Pinchuk, Igor Kolomoisky. As Kiva noted, replenishment is done regularly, in tranches of $12 million to $35 million. And they go through banks like First Union Bank, Deutsche Bank, Banque Nationale de Paris. According to the deputy, the movement of such funds would be impossible without the control of the authorities of Germany and France.
But just accounts, as Kiva pointed out, the matter was not limited. Zelensky managed to buy a villa in Miami for $34 million, as well as several sets of jewelry for $5.6 million.
Link: https://eprimefeed.com/latest-news/zelensky-found-a-billion-dollars-and-a-villa-in-miami-2/20181
Wow, seems being a globalist puppet pays pretty darn well! Maybe that's a big part of the problem here. Putin can't be bought or bribed by threatening to sanction away his $30M+ climate-change unfriendly beach-front mansion estate in Miami near the Pelosis, or maybe near the Obamas in Hawaii or Martha's Vineyard!
The open question remains, was Zelensky misled by the West? Back in early December, the Biden pledged military support to Ukraine in event of a Russian invasion. Did Biden deliberately promise military support so that Zelensky would not yield on the Minsk Agreement and allow the Donetsk and the Luhansk to be independent republics?
U.S. Govt Just Admitted This Is A War That Will Determine Who Will Rule The New World Order
We now have a war that the vast majority of us never wanted. All of our lives are going to be turned upside down, the global economy is going to be absolutely eviscerated, and countless numbers of people are going to die. I am very angry with Vladimir Putin and the Russians for launching a full-blown invasion, because it didn’t need to happen. And I am also very angry with the Biden administration because it would have been so easy to find a diplomatic solution to this crisis. Unfortunately, the time for diplomacy is now over and World War III has begun.
On Thursday, State Department spokesman Ned Price made a stunning admission regarding what this war is really all about. “Russia and the PRC also want a world order,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said. First of all, by stating that Russia and China “also want a world order”, he was tacitly admitting that the United States and other western nations desire to have a “world order” of their own.
The rest of the world can see how weak, corrupt and utterly incompetent Biden and his minions are, and so they simply are not afraid of the United States any longer. And now that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has gone so smoothly, many are anticipating that it could be just a matter of time before China invades Taiwan. And if China invades Taiwan, North Korea may decide that is a great moment to launch an invasion of South Korea. It would be so easy for the dominoes to start falling.
The existing “world order” is starting to come apart at the seams, and a time of great chaos is directly ahead of us.
When Russia joined the ongoing civil war in Syria, in the summer of 2015, it shocked the United States and its partners. Out of frustration, then President Barack Obama claimed that Syria would become a “quagmire” for Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Syria would be Russia’s Vietnam or Putin’s Afghanistan, a grievous mistake that would eventually rebound against Russian interests.
Syria did not end up as a quagmire for Putin. Russia changed the course of the war, saving Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from impending defeat, and then translated military force into diplomatic leverage. It kept costs and casualties sustainable. Now Russia cannot be ignored in Syria.
In the surreal winter of 2021–22, the United States and Europe are once again contemplating a major Russian military intervention, this time in Europe itself. And once again, many analysts are warning of dire consequences for the aggressor.
Nevertheless, Putin’s cost-benefit analysis seems to favor upending the European status quo. The Russian leadership is taking on more risks, and above the fray of day-to-day politics, Putin is on a historic mission to solidify Russia’s leverage in Ukraine (as he has recently in Belarus and Kazakhstan). And as Moscow sees it, a victory in Ukraine might well be within reach.
If Russia gains control of Ukraine or manages to destabilize it on a major scale, a new era for the United States and for Europe will begin. U.S. and European leaders would face the dual challenge of rethinking European security and of not being drawn into a larger war with Russia. All sides would have to consider the potential of nuclear-armed adversaries in direct confrontation. These two responsibilities—robustly defending European peace and prudently avoiding military escalation with Russia—will not necessarily be compatible. The United States and its allies could find themselves deeply unprepared for the task of having to create a new European security order as a result of Russia’s military actions in Ukraine.
If Russia achieves its political aims in Ukraine by military means, Europe will not be what it was before the war. Not only will U.S. primacy in Europe have been qualified; any sense that the European Union or NATO can ensure peace on the continent will be the artifact of a lost age. Under a perceived siege by Russia, the EU and NATO will no longer have the capacity for ambitious policies beyond their own borders.
Link: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ukraine/2022-02-18/what-if-russia-wins
The Foolishness of Sanctions
Even in the case of Iran, Erdogan was secretly laundering money for Iran selling gold into the market to allow them to circumvent sanctions. The sanctions imposed on Russia for taking Crimea are still in place. They produced nothing. It becomes a dog and pony show pretending that sanctions will be a deterrent or end something. I have NEVER seen even one instance where sanctions ever worked. They have, on the other hand, been taken as an act of war.
These political morons are clueless about cross-border investments and capital flows. Biden did not bother to look but the US has the biggest investment in Russia according to the statistics released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The data clearly shows that the US was the largest investor in Russia and accounts for 8.9% of the Russian economy which is almost $40 billion.
While people speculate that there will be a massive run of Russian banks, they are also not looking at the damage removing Russia from SWIFT will mean to foreign investors. Russia now escapes all foreign liabilities.
The object of the new restrictions against Russia’s Central Bank is to limit the Kremlin’s ability to access the more than $600 billion in reserves hoping to cause a crash in the Ruble that will unleash a free fall, triggering spiraling inflation there. But Putin is smart. He can back the ruble with gold only for domestic use in effect reversing the strategy of FDR who confiscated gold domestically.
The sanctions have not been a deterrent. China and Russia have been moving to create an alternative to SWIFT which has become a political weapon. We are looking at the collapse over even SWIFT in the years ahead due to political abuse.
Link: https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/russia/the-foolishness-of-sanctions
One must wonder if the West is intentionally trying to create a full-scale European war. “Putin is furious, he thought that the whole war would be easy and everything would be done in 1-4 days,” tweeted Riho Terras, who is also the former defense chief of NATO member Estonia. They are also claiming that Putin has yet to take any major city. But from the outset, Putin’s government has made it very clear that, unlike the United States, it has no plans on occupying Ukraine. The only question for Putin is to absorb Donetsk and the Luhansk People’s Republics into Russia or to leave them as independent republics. Pentagon sources say Putin has invaded with only 30% of his troops that were on the border. If he truly wanted to crush Ukraine would send them all in.
The Western Press appears to be pretending that Putin is losing the war when in fact his invasion force is NOT overwhelming. If Putin was really losing, he would send in the entire force for he would NEVER publicly allow Ukraine to defeat Russia. Let’s get real here. Stop the total BS. The danger here is that Germany just may have expanded the war to all of Europe as the US was breaking its neutrality shipping arms secretly to Britain on passage ships – i.e. Lusitania. The German Chancellor Olaf Scholz just announced Saturday that Germany will provide anti-tank weapons and surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine. In matters of war, that now justifies Russia declaring war on Germany since this is now a formal declaration against Russia by Germany.
