By Batko Milacic for the Saker Blog
On the night of May 17, after brief negotiations, Ukrainian army units, blocked by Russian troops at Azovstal in Mariupol, began to surrender. Initially, it was announced that the Ukrainian military wanted to hand over to Russia their wounded whose condition in the cellars of a huge factory was hopeless. However, it soon became clear that the entire “Mariupol garrison” as the remnants of the nationalist volunteer regiment “Azov” and the units of the Ukrainian army that had joined it were called by the Kiev-controlled media, were laying down their arms. So, on the morning of May 17, 90 wounded soldiers were pulled out of the basements and were joined by more than 250 healthy, albeit exhausted and filthy fighters. In a few days, that number reached 2,500 Ukrainian soldiers. That’s why we wonder, what fate awaits them and other members of the Ukrainian army who surrender to Russian troops?
For President Zelensky and his team, Azovstal was a kind of a sacred symbol of Mariupol’s resistance. Many hopes were pinned on the Azov Regiment, considered a terrorist organization in Russia. First of all, those in Kiev believed that the nationalists would hold out to the end and die as heroes, especially since in Russia they face a trial. And they will be lucky if it is in Russia, because in the DPR, unlike in the Russian Federation, they have the death penalty. And still, the Azov fighters began to surrender. In the morning, Russian social networks exploded with indignation after it became known that the militants leaving Azovstal had negotiated a bunch of conditions. No prosecution, priority exchange, no video footage and respectful treatment. The fuming Russian patriots soon calmed down though.
First, because the video with the prisoners almost instantly appeared on TV channels, and second, the State Duma adopted an appeal demanding that new prisoners be carefully filtered out and all those involved in war crimes be brought to justice. In addition, the surrender negotiations went too quickly to discuss exchange conditions and other terms at the highest level.
The heroes of “Azov” are also human and just want to live. Even behind bars. This creates very big problems for Kiev, though. The commanders of the Azov Regiment, Svyatoslav Palamar and Denis Prokopenko, two leaders of Ukrainian ultranationalists, also surrendered to the Russian army. In this way, they publicly humiliated all Ukrainian ideology. Until yesterday, they were celebrated as immortal heroes, who swore that they would lay down their lives for Ukraine in the fight against the Russian occupiers. And despite all that – they surrendered to the Russian army.
For official Kiev, only two options were acceptable. The first to liberate Palmar and Prokopenko, along with other Ukrainian soldiers. While the other option was “glorious death”. That is, Palmar and Prokopenko would die in the fight with the Russian army. That would enable Kiev to make Ukrainian anti-Russian heroes out of them. Thus, the fact that the best Ukrainian troops surrendered to the Russian army represents a strong psychological blow to the entire Ukrainian army, especially to the Ukrainian forces in Donbas. When Zelenski saw where things were going, he tried to alleviate the humiliation from Mariupol.
In the face of an imminent surrender, all that the command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces could do was to officially allow the surrender under the pretext of “saving the lives of soldiers.” President Zelensky issued an appeal, stating that “we need Ukrainian heroes alive.” The latter is certainly a lie. After all, if the Russians really exchange the nationalists and they return to Ukraine, the Ukrainian leader will have to explain to his right-wing allies why he did not even try to pull them out of Mariupol.
What Kiev fears the most, however, is that this may have a domino effect. After the fall of the Mariupol Fortress, the garrisons of other cities may also begin to surrender. And this will be the end of the Zelensky regime, at least in the east of the country.
In January 1943, an encrypted message arrived in Stalingrad, besieged by the Red Army. Hitler had sent his personal congratulations to the German commander Friedrich Paulus on being promoted to the rank of field marshal. The same telegram noted that not one German field marshal had been taken prisoner. In fact, it was a direct order to commit suicide. Now, Zelensky would probably like to send the same encryption to Palamar and Prokopenko…
Significant Point ;?
Svyatoslav Palamar and Denis Prokopenko surrendered to the Military of the DPR. ( not to the RF ). Azovstal was liberated by DPR forces.
The demilitarization and denazification of the Ukraine is a Allied effort. The Military forces of the DPR and LPR engaged in fighting are roughly 110,000. The RF military forces engaged in the SMO are roughly 80,000.
Using the nomenclature of NATO – that all fighting is being done by ‘Russians’ only buttresses their lies.
Nit-picking, for after all they are one and the same “Russian” and have become part of Russia.
Nope. The figures i ve seen im many readings of non Msm sources, show opposite proportions and far different numbers.- The total Russian side men in the SMO are about 200 -220 thousand. How come any LDR,DPR would make over half of it, given the needs of coordination,command and political decision making as the combat keeps going on?
DPR has mobilized 60-70,000
LPR has mobilized 40-50,000
@Exile
Hi, do you have any sources to these numbers? I’ve been trying to figure out how many each of the two people’s republics has mobilized. It is clear that neither has yet fully mobilized, like Ukraine has.
Personally, I would put the numbers somewhat lower, at around 50.000 for the DNR and 35.000 for the LNR. But those are basically best guesstimates.
Thanks.
DPR and LPR both had over 2 million registered citizens each before the war broke out. Both could easily come up with 100,000 men each if necessary, assuming they could get sufficient equipment and training.
“The demilitarization and denazification of the Ukraine is a Allied effort.”
Yes, this is a very good point. I often make the mistake of conflating Russia, DPR, and LPR. This is wrong. These “details” that are so often overlooked are concrete realities for the people involved. Just reading your comment motivated me to learn more about these newborn republics and the people who constitute them. We should be grateful to you for bringing this to our attention.
And then there were the Chechens.
Looks like SMO will be over in weeks and not months.
Only if the Ukrainian military totally collapse. Otherwise it probably will be a confines grind. It feels like the Russian prefer to fight outside the cities. So alway retreating and letting the enemy come out of hiding. I guess they do not want Odessa look like Mariupol. But probably also not wanting that let Ukraine keep it.
Azovstal was prepared as a last redoubt for years (but apparently, they didn’t ever think they would acutally need it, and neglected to stockpile sufficient MREs, medical supplies, and importantly, hospital equipment to do surgery to make it truly so.
haha – we’ve heard that one before
Its about demilitarization and denazification…and, not to hurt the ordinary people, so it’d take some time. And, by that time the demented Joe would not be here, Kamala will be…:)
What a nightmare Kamala Harris has turned out to be. Who knew she could not string together one coherent sentence on her own? Worse than the imbecile on the throne. They hamstrung themselves. Can’t put that thing front and center. Our country is in a precarious position. I think the bad guys will lose bigly, mostly because the henchmen are undisciplined incompetents. What will rise from the post decades-long coup remains to be seen.
Anywho, the SMO seems to be progressing with as much care as possible being given to civilians and infrastructure. The sanctions seem to be working out well for Russia, so far.
Also, all the second guessing from alt news – easy to be monday morning armchair quarterbacks. Seems the ruskies are adjusting quickly to changing circumstances.
How was that woman supposedly a much – promoted top attorney or prosecutor, as we are told here outside the US?
She served the interests of the ruling class. She put small-time marijuana users in prison and let white-collar criminals go free. Who needs a competent, articulate prosecutor when you find someone who will do your bidding?
Exactly. She was not chosen for talent (in fact quite the opposite). She was chosen to execute orders. Think Nicky Haley, Sarah Palin etc.
She slept her way to the top, and the was the diversity hire. She wasn’t the first.
Kamala Harris is Willie Brown’s girlfriend, she is “the other woman” in his life. We in California, and in particular in the Bay Area, have known this all along. The dirt runs deep out here, the politicians are corrupt and thick as thieves.
Any questions about the competence or otherwise of K Harris for the post of VP, or any post for that matter, can be answered by watching the first (?) 2020 Presidential debate and listening to Tulsi Gabbard hand Harris’s arse to her on a platter.
“Home in time for Christmas”
Not likely. This affair is going to drag on for a while. Could be months. Could be years.
I don’t see the Ukrainian army “collapsing” any time soon. Parts of it, sure. But they’ll likely regroup and reconstitute in western Ukraine so long as they are allowed to.
At the current pace of operations, we’ll still be discussing this around this time next year, I guarantee it.
Russia will decide when this is over, not urkaine. Ukraine’s military is collapsing, and foreign weapons will make no difference. There isn’t some magical hidden 200K strong ukie army formed in NATO countries, and trained for years and years, despite what anyone may say. What you see in ukraine is what there is, no more, but definitely less and less. NATO can’t help as the NATO of today is not the NATO of 40 years ago. That NATO is dead and gone.
After this defeat and humiliation of the scummiest of the ukropscum, neither zelstein or his entire rotted through regime wants these freaks anywhere near them. The freaks would most likely turn on zelstein with a vengeance, and anyone else who they see that slighted them.
It is astonishing how much was invested by the Jewish Lobby into cooperation with self-proclaimed Nazis (Banderites) in Ukraine. As a result, the whole edifice of the profitable schema of holobiz is going down crushing.
The US-controlled Poland and the Baltic states have been openly glorifying Nazi collaborators during state-sponsored parades; these governments also allowed the demolition of the monuments to the Soviet soldiers who died in a fight against fascism during WWII.
The ADL (important representative of the Jewish Lobby) proclaimed that Ukrainian Nazis are good Nazis because they “don’t attack Jews and Jewish institutions.” For Jews, attacking and murdering “others” (non-Jews) is obviously alright.
In Israel, “Israelis have staged a protest in support of the Azov Battalion: photos: https://t.me/golosmordora/19014. In the first photo, a woman can be seen holding a sign that reads “Let my Azov go!” in Russian (referencing “Let my people go!”). Meanwhile, Russians continue to photograph captured Azov Battalion members and their slightly right-wing tattoos.” photos: https://t.me/sashakots/32894
What was this loud and institutionalized Jewish squealing “nazi-hitler” for? To create a profitable schema of reparations from the good-hearted people belonging to the Western civilization? There are no limits to Talmudic depravity: The Jewish Community at large sided with Banderites (self-proclaimed neo-Nazis) in Ukraine because of Banderites hatred towards Russians. The rabid Russophobia has finally exposed the true nature of Zionists. Close your hideous museums already and start paying reparations to Palestinians and Syrians who have been suffering from Israeli-committed crimes.
Thank you Anna for pointing out the truth. This entire fake show of fake holocausters has run its course.
I have said to to people, and I will say it again: If Hitler didn’t touch the jews and didn’t threaten US and british investments, and focused his rage exclusively on E. Europe and Russians, the NSDAP would still be ruling Germany today. Hitler had sympathizers and allies in all western countries, and even some Eastern European ones.
With respect to internal German politics, he had to seek revenge against France and Britain every bit as much Russia, because they were the ones who laid out the onerous terms in the Treaty of Versailles based on the lie that WW1 was started by Germany, not Czar Nicholas.
Although the Kaiser had only wanted an eastern-front mobilization, he wasn’t precise when he called for a mobilization of the army, and in light of the French declaration that they would honor their treaty with Russia after Austria-Hungary declared war on Russia, the General Staff made the mistake of ordering the two-front mobilization plan
(the Germans had developed 3 mobilization railroad timetables, which were precise, and typical for German planning, completely inflexible, such that once one was started, it HAD to complete it’s course, otherwise thousands upon thousands of soldiers would starve. One for a western front mobilization, one for an eastern front mobilization, and a mobilization on both fronts.)
Sim, as vítimas eternas mostraram sua verdadeira face. Na verdade sempre mostraram mas muitos não queriam e ainda não querem ver. Mas agora quem sempre viu pode chamá-los de hipócritas sem usar meias palavras.
“Who will be the sacred martyr now?”
The potential pool of possible candidates is becoming even more restricted, so an “answer” will likely be those stupid enough to accept the role – which suggest those immersed in the coercive social relations self-misrepresented as “The United States of America”, whose opponents will likely include but not be restricted to, former candidates for martyrdom, not restricted to members of the Azov battalion, who did not conform with the hopes/wishes of “The United States of America”.
Looks like some forgot the salt again.
Today we are weak, get hungry, a soft human being. Back in WW2 we were a hard, die hard human from a long hard ancestry.
It like comparing apples and oranges in black and white.
Too much TV and fast food will do that. Switch off the screens and back to eathing leather soup and sawdust, we’ll be die hard again in no time.
I don’t think this will have any effect whatsoever on the Ukranian resistence. Mariupol was known to be destined to fall months ago.
You know petr, for once you might actually be right. The neo-nazi “heroes” were in a pretty hopeless situation in their dungeon, I mean the bunkers of Azovstal. So their surrender isn’t a surprise.
The Ukie forces are showing their mettle by not throwing in the towels en masse. What drives them to continue their fight, I do not understand. Is it honor, patriotism, fear of the enemy and/or their superiors, anger, hatred, a domineering spouse back home they seek to avoid?
Time will tell if the mass surrenders will happen. Otherwise, the Russian forces can “simply” continue to grind them down. What do you foresee happening though, if it isn’t a Russian military victory in Donbas?
They were promised a paradise on earth by the EUrofags, and by dammit, they want it! Too bad that was only an illusion and a lie.
Stalemate along lines roughly consistent with the current situation. It will slowly devolve back into the Donbass conflict of old.
But what makes you think that?
Mariupul is lost. How are the Ukies going to recover that city? NATO weapons or troops? Mass demoralization among Russian forces? Russia running out of money or ammo?
For the record, I don’t see a stalemate in Donbass happening. I think Russia will stop where they want to i.e. the linguistic border.
Mariupol won’t be recovered by Ukraine, that’s why I said roughly consistent with the current situation.
Waging a war is a frightfully expensive exercise. Things weren’t exactly economically rosy for the general populace in Russia before the war, it’s hard to imagine how that could improve during a war. Claims of Russian autarky and immunity to sanctions are probably exaggerated, particularly in the short to medium term. That’s not to say the west and Ukraine are immune too, Ukraine in particular will suffer immensely.
Oil and gas prices are up and so is the ruble. The RF has therefore the means to sustain this SMO for as long as we need fossil fuels to warm our homes and power our economies.
There appears to be a burst of patriotism among a very large segment of the Russian population, caused by a rude awakening that they are deeply hated by almost all of their western neighbors, near and far. If I was in their position I would support my gov and troops until we win this thing, even if I suffer economic hardships.
Ukraine does not have the economic means to sustain their defence long term. Uncle Sam and its minions could theoretically keep on pumping military or financial aid to Ukraine, but where will that money really go? And how long before their electorates get fed up of sending money to another country hundreds/thousands of miles away when their own wallets are shrinking.
The RF exports grains and fossil fuels, which to me means they have them in abundance and are therefore autarkic in these areas. Where the RF lacks, it can import what they need from countries in the Global South who have refused to put sanction the RF.
Anyway, that’s my take on why the RF will win here, even if it takes a few years.
RF lacks for nothing.
Sanctions against Russia result in the unavailability of luxury goods such as women’s shoes from Italy, ridiculous dresses from France, and ridiculously overpriced VL handbags.
Russia is making top quality automobiles in Moscow, not sloppy-tolerance Lada’s produced under licence from Fiat. The Moscow auto factories (the largest automobile manufacturing complex on the planet, almost double the size of the Ford’s famed River Rouge factory complex) will continue turning out cars, regardless of whether they are nominally General Motors, BMW or whatever nameplate is stuck on them. And unlike the Chinese and their knock-offs, the Russians, once the ties to the “parent” manufacturers are broken, will immediately go about working on ways to improve the products.
Remember, these guys are NOT working under Stalin 5-year plan production quotas, measured in “tons of product per year” (which resulted in designs using far more metal than necessary, to meet tonnage quotas), nor in “units per year” (which resulted in using less metal than necessary for durable goods, to meet the numeric quotas in the face of increasingly tightened supply channels), but instead, to create durable wealth (as opposed to the western bankers’ dominated design practice of planned obsolescence by designing many expensive parts to fail or need replacement all at a certain accumulation of miles)
Odessa!
From my mothers basement I immediately saw that Odessa was the key to what will happen in the world the next 1000 years, and so I wondered why Russia selected Mariupol and spent precious time with the speed of a snail going after dirty scumbags, instead of going after the gold as I would have done, gold meaning the great historical city of Odessa.
Everyone has his taste, but as I said to my mother I expect Odessa, a heart city of the heartland, to be the new sacred International quagmire where everybody including ex-Merkel will be involved in endless chatting, raised fingers and public declarations again.
My guess? Russia did not wish to stretch it’s supply lines to the point of breaking. After the Donbas is wrapped up, Russia will probably move the front east toward Odessa and Transnistria. Leaving Kharkiv for last.
Tommy, you can’t rush, do you know that length of the FRONT LINE from Харков то Одеса is probably 1000 miles.
Odessa will come back to where it belongs, Russia. Few weeks or ….months, it’s irrelevant.
I agree. Odessa is the end prize. With Odessa comes the full control of Ukraine’s (Novorossiya’s) access to the Black Sea, and Ukraine as we have known her becomes a landlocked remainder of what once was.
She, Ukraine, had her chances. Weep not for her passing.
Well Tommy, whenever you enter your mother’s basement you’ll have to go down the stairs. Mariupul is like one of the steps of those stairs, whilst Odessa is like your armchair in the center of the basement. Skip one the steps and you risk hurting yourself :(
I know all that. I just answered the question “who will be the sacred martyr now” in a sarcastic way :-D.
Your “mother’s basement” remark was just too yummy to ignore :)
My answer i.e. uneducated guess is one of the larger towns near the eastern frontline like Severodonetsk or Kramatorsk.
Odessa is still far away and Ukie PR team and MSM need to replace their martyrs soon. There are thousands of Ukie troops in Donbass just waiting to be picked as the next heroes – well, not really but I hope you know what I mean.
Uh… Mariupol’ because that’s where the bulk of the Azov Regiment was, and they were slaughtering civilians on sight, causing the remaining population to be vulnerable to slow starvation. If Mariupol’ hadn’t been liberated, the entire population would have died by now due to running out of food 2 months ago.
This is a snake Island debacle on steroids.
It looks like someone will soon have to “martyr” Zelensky and blame it on Putin. I am sure MI-6 is capable of doing that – just about.
I mean, they need badly a new set of martyrs for future generations to adulate. It is built into their genes.
Maybe they will just throw him out of a window, as NATO did to the UK spook who built up the White Helmets Fake- Ambulancemen head-chopper organisation? NATO hates a live witness after a balls-up , remember .
I don’t think so. I think the whole show was done to pocket 40 bill. Now that mr z has the $ he will speedily retreat to some millionaire mansions and sit it out. Or do a movie for Hollywood. Notice neocons never get punished.
“Notice neocons never get punished.”
Until they die of course and burn in hell/get reincarnated into grotesque fast-growing chickens destined to end up in a KFC bucket.
The Azov criminals surrendered because they ran out of water. The Russians discovered their water supply came from an outlet that went to a River so they plugged it up with concrete blocks. They surrendered on the third day after that opening was blocked because anything over two days without water is soon followed by dying of dehydration.
If true, this makes the most sense of all.
This makes sense if true.
It seems odd, though, that a complex as large as the Azovstal would have one water source, and that would be a river, as opposed to the municipal treatment plant and water system.
No, they didn’t run out of water. They had an ample supply of water. However, in their 8 years of fortifying the Azovstal plant as a last redoubt, someone forgot that such a location should have ample amounts of rations. The guys surrendering claim they hadn’t eaten in over a week.
So what is known about all those nato/French/US/English “advisors” and mercs that were supposedly down there??
Until the Russian MOD confirms something like that, I consider it to be mere rumor and speculation. I don’t concern myself about it for even a moment.
The important thing is the surrender. Clearly this was a serious blow or the American Empire wouldn’t have tried to spin it as an ‘evacuation’.
There may be some juicy confessions to come from these prisoners. How they were abandoned by Nazi-lensky to die for the western propaganda machine. I hope the actor pretending to run Ukraine realizes he made a deal with the devil, be it the Ukra-nazis or the morally bankrupt west. And running away to his new homeland “great” Britain won’t save his sorry ass.
Nazi-lenzky will be made a martyr to continue the western fairytale of Ukraine fighting to the last man. The history books will feature the unwashed, cocaine addled, high heeled penis piano playing fool as one of the greatest hero’s of peoplekind. The lying, incestuous western media will make it so.
People cant admit they have been fools, they fought a war to the death for a cocaine snorting fool dancing around for a corrupt pizzagate-club in Washington.
Its called cognitive dissonance. People will immediately forget all about it and jump on the next campaign, clima change, gay marriage, Osama Bin Laden did it, the jews stole all we had, whatever.
When I think about ‘what next?’, I like to look at the whole chessboard before I start to speculate. At the risk of being “off topic” I would like to consider the circumstances in which this event, the surrender of Azov at Azovstal, happened:
– The ‘new’ has worn off this war, and the ‘Russia is losing’ narrative is starting to have cracks appear (Azovstal)
– Turkey seems to be rocking the NATO boat a bit – what is going on there?
– There is a serious concentration of US naval force in the Asia pacific region; CSG in the med is back under nato command
– Russia and China recently sailed warships close to Japan
– Japan-Russian relations strained significantly recently, what is going on there.?
Frankly, I see the Russia/Japan/China/USA thing as the real strategic powder keg. Japan is a major military consideration for both Russia and China in a far more direct way than non-anglophone NATO… Unlike on Russia’s western front, on Russia’s eastern front it’s just Japan, South Korea (poor geographical disposition), and USA (across the vast pacific). Russia knows USA and UK are their real adversaries here, so it makes sense to fight them where the USA is both relatively isolated and at a relative logistical and balance of power disadvantage. If AUKUS had to face both China and Russia to defend Japan and maintain their command of the sea in that region, it wouldn’t end well for AUKUS. I think this is a flashpoint getting less attention than it deserves.
– Global food crisis is immanent
– US Biolab program investigation to be pursued at the UN level
– Monkeypox outbreak spreading globally as the tide turns against the empire on the ground in Ukraine…
I could go on and on of course but the idea is to to try to glean from this what insight we can regarding the strategic direction of what is unfortunately looking more and more like ww3 getting into motion. It is starting to get closer and closer to the point that escalation takes a course of its own…
After the donbass is liberated, which seems likely very soon, then the prospect of trying to seize more land becomes more politically dubious and the risk of a quagmire increases. Everyone is expecting Russia to go for Transnistria and Odessa…
I wouldn’t be surprised if Russia attacked from Belarus again, this time much more forcefully and along two axes:
– from southwestern Belarus toward transcarpathia, parallel but at a distance from the Polish border, seizing the nuclear plants and encircling the cities of Lutsk and Lviv in the process; then dig in in the carpathians
– from southwestern Belarus, slightly east of the first entry point, toward Transnistria from the north, through the heart of Galicia; enter Transnistria from the north and enter Odessa from Transnistria
This would cut off supplies coming into Ukraine from the Polish border, as well as keep any Pesky Polish Peacekeepers from entering Ukraine. It would also be a superb spot to install air defenses. It would also fix Polish positions to the south in case of a blitz of the suwalki gap ever became necessary. Also, it is one of the key defensive positions of the former Soviet defense architecture. Perhaps most importantly, it would enable a direct invasion of the epicenter of banderism in Ukraine.
As of now, it is the parts of Ukraine where Russians live, that Russia will want in tact after the war is over, that are being damaged in the war. Other than a few missile strikes here and there, Galicia is over there cheering on the war against Novarussia, harboring the nazis, and their infrastructure isn’t being destroyed.
If such an invasion were to happen, and move fast, it would completely shatter the narrative that Russia is bogged down and can’t even defeat little old Ukraine. It would undermine the $40 billion recently approved by USA by blocking the main routes of physical delivery. It would bring the fight to the part of Ukraine that supports it, and have all of Galicia’s nuclear power in Russian hands. Now that Ukraine is demoralized by the azov surrender in Mariupol, bring the hammer down hard and reduce Ukrainian morale to zero.
Draining the Galician swamp would end the war fast and on the terms most favorable to Russia, while sparing Odessa and Kiev the destruction as seen in Mariupol. With the active fighting in Ukraine over, the troops can be repositioned to deal with the emerging pressure of NATO expansion and the warcrime trials can begin – including the warcrimes by supposedly uninvolved nato countries.
Of course I’m speculating, but it makes sense for Russia to want to end the war in Ukraine fast now that the tranche of $40billion has been approved, the Ukrainian Army has conscripted many hundreds of thousands of men, and that Sweden and Finland are about to join NATO. I don’t think Putin wanted to go to war in Ukraine anyway, and this gets that war over with and enables the military to face other emerging threats.
Bets are open on monkeypox being the next Ukraine/current thing.
Not sure if going doing south from Belarus and through Galicia makes sense, unless it’s too pin down Ukie troops. I don’t have a military background, just computer games experience, but it seems more sensible to push west to Odessa and beyond from the south.
As for the Asia-Pacific region, AFAIK ships sailing back and forth isn’t a new thing, but a continuation of both sides posturing their capabilities. Unless Taiwan declares independence which is unlikely, there won’t be any “action” this year, as the Chinese communists have a party congress later this year to decide to give Xi & co another 5 year term.
Good to hear that the military figurehead of the UKN hijackers have surrender in Mauripol.
As they surrendered rather than fight to the death they have saved lives of Russian soldiers who would otherwise been killed, so perhaps put them in the stockade for a while is the appropriate thing and then see if they can be re-educated. Any bad ones will have to face justice,
We must remember that Paulus in 1943 was regarded with contempt by Hitler. He didnt care what happened to him or his troops either really, otherwise he would have ordered withdrawal from Stalingrad 6 months before. That whats a sensible military commander would have done.
Hence Paulus realized what type of indifferent person was in charge in Germany and he elected to remain in East Germany after 1945. And why Rommel and other Generals turned on him in July 1944.
Chechens fighting for Russia in Ukraine – Kadyrov trolling – lots of positive folklore about chechen soldiers – etc. – can someone point a poor westerner to some background information? So there’s some good PR for Chechenya in RF going on currently? thx
This is a point that I’m not sure many people outside Russia understand (I’m hoping the Kremlin understands it), “Russian social networks exploded with indignation after it became known that the militants leaving Azovstal had negotiated a bunch of conditions”. The SMO has unleashed Russian patriotism throughout the country. And the old backroom deals,and oligarch making deals with the West,won’t be tolerated today. A government that doesn’t understand the powder keg they live with won’t hold power long. I think some in government are understanding (Medvedev for one,and a lot of Duma members) it.But my advise would be they better all understand that quick or start resigning.