The Ukrainian offensive against the population of the eastern Ukraine is large, but does not seem to yield any tangible results so far. Here is a map of the affected cities: The worst situation appears to be in Kramatorsk were attacking force has fully surrounded the city and a number of elements have penetrated inside using secondary roads. It is hard to get a clear image of what is going
Dear friends, Two small points: a) I am sick with a nasty stomach flu and I am spending most of my time in bed. I hope to get better by tomorrow. Until then, this affects my ability to reply to emails, moderate comments or write. I apologize for that.b) I have done a poor job enforcing the rule that comments must be respectful. This has to change. So from now
Some of you have understood my reference to Chechnia in the latest SITREP has an indication of the kind of tactics the Russian military would use if/when the Kremlin decides to intervene in the Ukraine.That is not at all what I meant and I apologize for misleading you.What I meant was to say that in extreme circumstances Putin was willing to use extreme measures. But let me reassure you all
What happened in Odessa yesterday is much worse than what the initial reports had indicated: it was truly a deliberate and blood-curling massacre. To summarize:In Odessa the pro-Russian demonstrators had never seized a building, all they did was erecting a small tent city and hanging out there. Hardly any violence had taken place. Yesterday, the neo-Nazis finally made their move:1) They bussed in large numbers of Right Sector thugs.2) They
It appears that a massacre did take place today, but not in Slaviansk, but in Odessa were 38 people died when a building in which they had sought refuge was set ablaze. Here is what RT reports: At least 38 anti-government activists died in fire at Odessa’s Trade Unions House after suffocating with smoke or jumping out of windows of the burning building, Ukrainian Interior Ministry reported. The building was
Today’s events in the Ukraine have seen both a dramatic escalation and yet another complete flop. Let’s restate here the fact which are not in dispute by any part The Ukrainian junta has launched what it calls a major counter-terrorist operation against the city of Slaviansk. Combat helicopters were used. Armored personnel carriers were used. A number of checkpoints have been taken over by the attacking force. Two (possibly three)
Every passing day bring it share of utterly nonsensical news out of the rump-Ukraine aka “Banderastan”. Today is not exception, see for yourself this headlines from the BBC’s website: Ukraine reinstates conscription as crisis deepens Sure enough, for the zombified TV watchers this might sound like something meaningful. But is it? Let’s recall where the current Ukrainian military comes form by remembering what the Ukraine’s military was at the moment
China has officially strongly criticized any sanctions saying that they would be useless. Another six cities of the eastern Ukraine have rebelled. Dmitryi Olegovich Rogozin Russian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Russia and Deputy Prime Minister of Russia in charge of defense industry has declared that Russia will respond to words with words and to actions with actions. For example, he said, if the US would try to hurt the
The city hall and the city council buildings of the eastern city of Konstantinovka have been taken under control of Russian-speaking insurgents who say that they are here to protect the local authorities (who are opposed to the revolutionary regime in Kiev) from any attack by the junta. Probably lured by the oligarch-galore in the Ukraine, the Jewish oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky has showed up in the Dontesk region to show
Any and all comments written IN CAPS shall be automatically sent to the trashbin.The Saker
Wow! Now things look very serious indeed. RT reports that Russia is starting military maneuvers involving not one, but TWO military districts plus the Air Force: Russia has begun extensive military exercises in Ukrainian border area following the escalation of violence in eastern Ukraine. “The order to use force against civilians has already been given, and if this military machine is not stopped, the amount of casualties will only grow,”
Pretty much all my sources confirm that the junta in Kiev has launched an attack on the city of Slaviansk. Most sources say that only SBU and Right Sector forces are involved, though other source report that the “special forces” (no details) seen on the airport near Slaviansk are also participating. My personal take is that at most the military is providing some support, but that the real fighting is
Listening to Lavrov today I came to the conclusion that the regime in Kiev was indeed about to try to attack the eastern Ukraine. It’s not only Lavrov, the Russian Internet is on “red alert” and chock-full of rumors and speculation about an imminent attack. This begs a number of questions:1) Why would the junta in Kiev so overtly renege on the Geneva agreement?2) Why would it attack when the
There are many theories out there about what exactly caused the collapse of the Soviet Union. Some say that it is Ronald Reagan with his Star Wars program. Others say that this is the war in Afghanistan or the Polish union Solidarnosc. Other popular theories include the failure of the Soviet economy, the drop in oil prices, the inability to produce consumer goods, the yearning of many Soviets for western-style
Dear friends,Thank you all for your inputs. By general consensus, the new moderation and comments policy is now adopted. I will post a note about that in the left sidebar.Now, back to business (-: finally! :-)Cheers,The Saker
Dear friends,The following comments moderation policy has now been adopted:1. Comments must contribute to the interest of a thread, a post or of the blog. Just venting or totally inane comments will not be allowed.2. Comments must be respectful. Criticisms are welcome, but they must be fact based on logically outlined. Name calling does not qualify.3. Off-topic comments are allowed, but have to offer something of interest to the readers.
The situation in the Ukraine continues to be characterized by complete chaos and a gradual and steady strengthening of the resistance in the East.Following the attack by pro-regime forces on a resistance checkpoint in Slaviansk over the week-end Foreign Minister Lavrov has accused the revolutionary regime in Kiev of breaking the terms of the accord.One could argue that this attack was decided by the Right Sector (that is the conclusion
Dear friends,I realized that I was missing on a good opportunity here to involve some correspondents from the USA.While I myself currently live in the USA, I think that I might very much need the help from US correspondents, but not from this or that state or region, but from different specializations.While it makes little sense to compare Fox News in San Diego and Boston, the USA can be very
Dear friends,A few days ago I posted an idea to create a network of “Saker correspondents”. Here is what I wrote: I think that it might be extremely useful to create a group of “correspondents” of this blog. Here is what I mean by that:I need local folks to go through the local Internet resources (not the big national news, those I parse myself) to seek out interesting stuff and
