UKRAINE SHORT: WHO ARE THE *TRUE* HEARTLESS DEMONS OF THE UKRAINE WAR?

Jens Stoltenberg of NATO and Boris Johnson, British PM, two very strange bedfellows indeed, are talking up in seemingly hopeful terms, the prospects of a long drawn out war in Ukraine. I havn't seen footage of them saying this so I don't know if they were drooling at the mouth when they said these words.

A memo has clearly been delivered at their level of the script/hymn sheet that they must all read out/sing from. In addition comes the fallback position if their callous desire to prolong the conflict indefinitely comes in for some criticism.

The response to any such criticism will be that they need to do this to 'weaken Russia' so it can't do to others what it is doing to Ukraine.

Further to all this a memo appears also to have gone out to states in the vicinity of Ukraine to say that they believe if Russia wins out in Ukraine they'll be next.

In other equally cynical moves Ukraine, clearly under U.S. direction with Washington and Langley pulling all its strings, violent provocations have been taking place in Moldova very close to Ukraine and the breakaway region of Transnistria. These provocations appear to have the object in mind to spread the war just as Russia moves in decisive style to bring phase two of its special military operation to a close.

The human rights guardian of the world, the great humanitarian benefactor of the world, the good old USA and its sanctimonious self-praisng allies, all of whom would apparently not ever hurt a fly if we believe their oft-repeated holier-than-thou words, are creating opportunities to instigate ever more death and destruction. If it isn't to be directly in Ukraine (and I am sure they will do their best to stir it up wherever and whenever possible using any means possible) then it will be instigated elsewhere.

And the justification for creating endless war in and around Ukraine?

To 'bleed Russia dry' in the words of Jens Stoltenberg and to 'weaken Russia' according to Blinken and Biden for the claimed reason of stopping Russia going on an endless spree of invasions (that Russia of course is ill-equipped in all manner of ways to accomplish even if it wished). The real purpose is, as ever, to effect yet another regime change and for this they need as near an endless war, with all its attendant death, destruction and abject misery.

So, you tell me... who are the *truly* heartless demons in this scenario?

UKRAINE: THE MOEBIUS STRIP OF SELF-WILLED “OBSERVER” BLINDNESS IN THE WEST

Listening to western commentators, some of them coming across as what might normally be called intelligent people, you get the impression that something extremely odd is happening in what is supposed to be the free thought region of the world.

This, I would suggest, comes largely down to the psychological condition named ‘Group Thought Syndrome’. Those caught within this condition adopt certain stances that suit particular cultural or political requirements and agendas but which hardly correspond to reality at all. They manifest such fixed prejudices in this respect that though there is an objective reality out there capable of being readily understood, they tend continually to speak to the fantastical construct that is fixed on a permanent basis within their minds.

The current debate about Russia in Ukraine is a very obvious case in point, the most obvious and fascinating I have ever seen. If you are still struggling to picture how this works hark back in your memory to any conversation you had with a cult member or creationist Christian where you will have seen this in operation. You come up against fixed concepts that nothing will shake, even though there is nothing whatsoever that can be said to present an objective reality concerning them. Their fixed conclusions require them to stay thoroughly blind to any possible modification that could tend to undermine their belief system. 

There’s another case, one which derives from repetitive conditioning whereby, either through the subject’s willingness to be exposed or unawareness of being exposed, concepts are inserted in the mind by being endlessly repeated until at length they become fixed opinions which are hardly or never inspected against reality.

But in this current case where an entire model is fixed in the mind concerning events in Ukraine we are talking of people who look as if they are normally astute observers and persons used to thinking quite deeply on serious matters. 

So what gives?

I suspect in this case it is a perfect mix of the various factors named above.

Vladimir Putin cannot help but have a bad rep in the West. Really, what good have you heard about him if you live there from mass media news sources or the verbiage of countless commentators? Anything? Anything at all? I wouldn’t think so. A veritable cascade of criticisms, accusations, insinuations and assertions have been a quite consistent feature of the last two decades. Whether there is any substance to the accusations about him hardly seems to be the point. The accumulated “evidence” has convinced most, even if it is on the ‘no smoke without fire’ principle.

Did Putin do any of what he is accused of? Who knows for sure… but certainly, no one has presented hard evidence that could be taken to the International Criminal Court. Yet he has been found guilty and bad-mouthed during the last two decades on an almost continual basis. Therefore this “fact” of his “guilt” has arrived as a fixed perception in most western minds. Why would it not? There was no one, absolutely no one as far as I am aware within the western mainstream who was able to mount a comparable counter argument. In fact, truth be told it would have required on advocate for every detractor to truly balance the scales allowing an all round view on him to be formed.

I won’t go into the rights, wrongs, factuality or accuracy of each individual accusation, I only point out here what you will have observed yourself, that essentially only the accusations were heard, never any counterbalancing factors which might reduce the effect of accusations on their own.

This is one aspect of the ‘group thought syndrome’ which I see permeating western mass media discourse currently.

Another is the way thought in general, or its expression, has become far less rigorous in approaching questions and much more inclined than it ever was before to accept certain principles as hard and fast and not subject to re-appraisal. Within the deeply liberal world of the intelligentsia Putin is clearly considered some kind of brutish, authoritarian figure that generates no sympathy whatsoever from this wide band of what would normally pass as urbane thinkers, sometimes lofty figure in academia, some of whom appear on mainstream television programmes to expound of such subjects as Putin.

Now, with the situation in Ukraine, the take is even harsher than before. With no aspect of events leading up to February 24th taken into consideration the fixed and/or conditioned responses come immediately to the fore. Add to these the circular channel of communications where Zelensky and Ukraine is bigged-up while Russia is universally condemned, and you reach a group thought peak.

With this peak having been arrived at, all news from Ukraine MUST be filtered through the fixed and totally accepted requirements for good news about Ukraine and bad news about Russia. Actuality fails to have any merit except if it reflects this two-pole requirement. All views must state that Ukraine is brave, needs our help, is being evilly oppressed and if we all support her the evil plans of Putin and the Russian military will be defeated. It has gotten so bad in this respect that an absolute ban on anything even approaching a positive outcome for or by Putin/Russia is clearly in place, even if not explicitly stated. No one is stating the reality. The reality is forbidden as it does not conform with the required narrative and ongoing agenda to support Ukraine and condemn Russia.

Imagine the shock then when the reality becomes so obvious that the very fabric upon which the current fixed, group thought requirements is based… disintegrates. For that is due to happen within weeks.

Putin, along with his advisers, economic, political and military are about to see their plans come to fruition. Not perfectly, not with every ‘i’ dotted and ‘t’ crossed, but in the essentials of what was planned, to a very high degree of success.

In the midst of mass media pundits and assorted talking heads, many of them academics and experts, saying the exact opposite, that Ukraine is winning in fine form, in line with the group thought factors above, an enormous shock is about to make eyes widen and mouths gape across the liberal intelligentsia seen on mass media.

I do wonder what tactics of denial will continue to be employed to at least minimise the coming very obvious success of both Putin and the Russian army. I’m sure there will be some, no matter how obvious to some of us looking on. Will, as was the case when Russia intervened so successfully in Syria, virtually all its success be almost completely ignored? If this is the case then the moebius strip of self-willed western “observer” blindness will continue and seek its next subject that “shows” how “right” they have been all along.

UKRAINE: THE MOEBIUS STRIP OF SELF-WILLED “OBSERVER” BLINDNESS IN THE WEST

ARE WE DESTINED TO CONTINUALLY LIVE IN A DARK & WAR-DRIVEN WORLD SHAPED BY 9/11?

It is not possible to imagine with any true depth or clarity the level of shock with which U.S. political elites experienced the events of 9/11. To do that you would have had to be one of those elites, to have spent all your days invested with an inherent sense of America's power and dominant influence on the world. The assured self-confidence of those elites had for generations been at a level that no other nation's political elites could ever approach. Believing in the exceptional nature of the USA and conceiving its effect on the world to be beneficial, benign and invulnerable as it carried out its manifest destiny across the planet that was in essence its domain which carried a God-given duty of vigilant guardianship.

Rising from already privileged ranks where almost unending financial resources provided access to the very best of everything including education and importantly to the social circles and connections that a certain strata of North American life retains from generation to generation, political elite power in the USA tends to be born rather than elected. The election process simply decides which of this strata gains the greatest power and which less, but still significant power. Entry to others than those who come from this strata is almost unknown in the USA. A brilliant mind with "odd ideas" without well-heeled backers with extremely deep pockets who see in him or her even the remotest danger to their own power, wealth or influence will not get off the starting blocks.

But we are talking of those select few who have those certain ingredients and opinions which match the needs of those who supply the funds to get them elected. Those few who had risen to the highest offices available imbued just as their predecessors were with supreme confidence that all was going to go supremely well for them within the milieu of the great prize they had won for themselves, to reach the pinnacle of political success in the most powerful nation in the world.

Then 9/11 happened to them. Suddenly all their notions of how it was 'meant to be' to be the most powerful people in the world were shattered. All their self-praise at having reached the top of the tree, all the patting on the back (with knives prepared to reach even higher) of colleagues came to naught, and with devastating force. Now they were faced with some REAL responsibility rather than with endlessly satisfying preening and posturing acting their part in the political theatre that poses as democracy in the United States.

Rocked on their heels and aware of the inevitability of their being seen as having failed to protect America they were collectively faced with how to react.

In my view the political elites of that time, led by a rather low-brow leader George W. Bush came to a certain consensus.

By the way, none of this discounts what some believe, that 9/11 was an inside job. I am talking here of how the political elites of the time reacted to those events unaware of any such internal machinations, if such they were.

These were men and women who knew they must find their inner hawk if they were not hawks already. Their determinations were not to be bounded by barriers of any kind in furtherance of their goals. Morality and ethical conduct, the norms of international law and codes of normal behaviour were to be abandoned in a no-holds-barred, all out campaign of perpetual attack until every last opponent of the USA was replaced and every last system of governance not corresponding to U.S. needs was replaced also.

These decisions, made in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 are I believe still very much alive and operating today. This despite the highly negative consequences of the acts of war already effected or those planned for. The prevalent attitude remains in my opinion that it is better to have no world at all rather than a world the USA does not control and control effectively for its own safety.

The decisions made and the policies conceived of were given no option to have a reverse gear, this is an all-or-nothing project with a goal that MUST be achieved to 100% with no opponent left standing, or leave the USA vulnerable to the degree it fails, left open to further attack(s). And this despite whatever catastrophic circumstances these policies may engender. 

So, if this is insane and the effects, policies and acts employed may well seem so, they do have a basis in reasoning of a sort I maintain, and that reasoning says that the world must be tamed and made to submit to the USA or be destroyed in the process.

There can be no denying that the resulting world future generations would inherit if something remains of it after the elites of the USA have their way would be described as many things by those winners, a free and safe world, a world without authoritarianism or totalitarianism, a world where democracy and western liberal values reign supreme. But a more fitting description which I favour myself is a description that envisages the monitoring that would take place in such a world, the constant surveillance and constant requirement to in one form or another to punish 'dangerous thoughts, words, deeds or associations'. That world I would call a virtual prison planet.

But one very safe for the USA do you see?

I believe this is why we see the reckless pursuit of Russia now and China also to some degree now but mostly lined up for a little later, the pursuit also of others such as Iran, Syria again, Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Yemen and all and any other individuals or entities that could in even some small way be the dark seed that could steadily grow if unchecked to enact similar black plumes of smoke as seen on 9/11.

ARE WE DESTINED TO CONTINUALLY LIVE IN A DARK & WAR-DRIVEN WORLD SHAPED BY 9/11?

WHO BEGAN THE CARNAGE IN UKRAINE?

You may say this is an easy question to answer, that clearly Russia began it with its invasion of Ukraine on the 24th of February this year. However, if so I would ask you to hold that thought while we examine two historical and undisputed events.

The first is the carnage which took place on Kiev's Maidan Square through the winter period of 2013-14. This period was marked by extreme savagery and although it is very likely that the more psychopathic members of Ukraine's 'Berkut' special security force began it with unnecessary violence against the protesters of that time it soon developed into an all-out war where the preponderance of the violence was carried out by an influx of particularly violent extremists. At that point onward until the fall of both president and government anything that could be used as a weapon was, including the burning down of buildings, toxic sprays, heavy chains, clubs of all descriptions modified for maximum effect, Molotov Cocktails, hunting rifles and handguns.

While all this was going on various officials of the United States were on hand to lend support.

Ultimately, in a final outbreak of unconscionable violence a group from another nation arrived to effect a false flag event shooting down scores of protesters. This was the first instance of the violence which led us to where we are now in Ukraine.

The second outbreak followed soon after when the people of eastern Ukraine in the region known as the Donbass took matters into their own hands on seeing what had transpired in Kiev and began surrounding and taking over as many administration offices and functions as they could. You must understand that Ukraine is a nation divided in so many ways and almost literally in half, with one side speaking Ukrainian and looking west and the other speaking Russian and looking east. You may say this was a completely illegal thing to do. Those who did it would point to the recent events in Kiev and ask you if what happened there was legal? (The president and government who had been overthrown by a West-approved and supported insurrection/coup/example of people power - however you wish to name it, were both democratically elected.) At any rate, no one died during the takeover of all administrative functions in the Donetsk and Lugansk (Luhansk) regions of the Donbass.

So where does the violence which descended into carnage emerge from in this case? Previously we saw that the arrival of violent militias who took over from the earlier, relatively peaceful protesters did, so what happened to stimulate a violent confrontation leading to a great many more deaths this time?

It was a week or two later that the response came from Kiev to the appeals from those who had taken over in Donetsk and Lugansk for autonomy to run their own affairs. (The main areas of concern for them was to preserve their language (Russian), maintain their long-held affiliations and good relations with Russia (inter-marriage being very common among them) and to preserve also their entire culture which also included honouring the memory of the Soviet Red Army liberating the country from the Nazis. The extremist minority in western Ukraine, many of whom were and still are within the Ukrainian military held an opposing view, that Hitler and the Nazis had been beneficial to the Ukrainian nationalist cause. This prompted an extremely violent urge among many of them who considered their fellow Ukrainians in the east to be Russians, traitors to Ukraine and they gave them the pejorative, generalized name, 'Moskals'.

So, where did the violence emerge from? It emerged, as I say, about a week or two after the takeover of the administration of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions. Kiev sent a large military force, perhaps with the initial purpose to merely intimidate the leaders of the autonomy movement in the Donbass. However, with an incident or two of violence at the checkpoints they set up these sparks led to the fire of general violence which led to the mass shelling of the urban areas of Donetsk and Lugansk. The worst of this shelling took place in 2014 and 2015 when random mortar shells landed indiscriminately among the civilian population. Gradually what was termed a self-defence force formed, some of whom travelled from Russia and elsewhere around the world to deter the extremes of random violence they saw occurring.

Once the self-defence forces of Donetsk and Lugansk regions were fully formed and mounting a fierce resistance against the Ukrainian military and militias the heavy bombardments seen during 2014 and 2015 diminished greatly, though they have continued on a sporadic basis and continue to this day and presently to a greater extent somewhat mirroring the events of 2014/15.

So, in order to fairly judge who began the carnage in Ukraine I would ask you to bring into consideration these two earlier and linked events when attempting to answer the question of who began all this that we see occurring in Ukraine today.

Finally, there is the question of the threat of violence which was implicit in Kiev rejecting the Minsk Agreement peace and reconciliation process. Kiev essentially said Minsk was dead, that though it had promised to speak directly to the leaders of the two autonomy-seeking republics of Donetsk and Lugansk and though it had promised these regions would receive a special status where they would have a high degree of autonomy, it had decided it would not do either. The Ukrainian army had been added to consistently since the year before Russia's operation, military vehicles had been delivered in their hundreds and thousands to the borders of the two connected regions and official statements from Kiev gave ever indication that a military offensive against the two republics could not be far off. In addition Russian military intelligence caught wind of a definite plan to initiate such an offensive. Soon after Russia recognised the republics and soon after this mounted what it calls its 'special military offensive' on February 24th.

Scan back and forth from the winter of 2013, look into the kind of ultraviolence which took place on Kiev's Maidan, attempt to imagine how those in eastern Ukraine felt when those they had democratically elected to power were removed and think too of the manner of their removal. Consider what the people of eastern Ukraine were facing as they heard of a law to downgrade their language and replace it and all else they were hearing from those they knew very well meant them no good and only harm. Consider also if military force and violence was appropriate in dealing with a bloodless revolution to establish right of autonomy in these extraordinary circumstances.

After reading the above I hope you will be in a good position to finally decide who began the carnage in Ukraine.

HOW LONG BEFORE CHINA & RUSSIA ARE COMBINED INTO THE WEST'S PRIMARY REGIME CHANGE TARGET?

The West's war against Russia has been long-running and difficult to hide, that is if the western powers wish to contend that they mean no harm to Russia. But what of China? Rumblings have been heard in the past, with Russia and China long linked together as adversaries. Apart from official U.S. reports listing these two together as adversaries, the Trump administration has been the most active regarding anti-China policies. Regarding rhetoric Trump was outdone however by the present Biden administration.

It is surely only a matter of time before the vastly heightened war mode in the West against Russia extends to encompass China, along with almost any individual or entity which seeks to support them.

The official attitude to both China and Russia is well known and reflects the undisguised perception that both are seen as 'the other', rival powers seen as alien and given the label 'authoritarian'. This attitude has had major consequences in the past and engendered various forms of attacks on others, sometimes financial and economic but at other times extremely violent including invasions and occupations.

What is relatively new about all this is the unity of purpose seen in recent times between the western political elites and those of western mainstream media. The attitudes reflected in the hierarchies of Washington and Whitehall are now held in common in western mass media. Russia and China are treated as adversaries, authoritarian adversaries and rival powers to be contained. More so of course Russia than China to date but the signs are this is changing to give China the full status of primary target quite clearly and very obviously given Russia in recent years culminating in the present situation regarding Ukraine.

Those who see no wrong in the foreign policies of the western powers like to say that neither Russia nor China have anything to fear from West, that they are reacting foolishly. If this is so then why the rhetoric naming Russia and China as 'adversaries' requiring 'containment'? Do these words betoken a friendly and normal relationship to Russia and China. They do not. Are they merely philosophical points with no meaning or bearing on geopolitical realities that have no intent whatsoever behind them, mere theoretical ponderings with no outcome planned? Only a fool would believe so.

The clear intent of the western powers is to wreak change within the two primary adversaries they have named. It stands to reason they do and to believe otherwise is to adopt a mindset of complete unreason.

Russia and China know they are targets, just as Iraq was a target, Yugoslavia was a target, Libya was a target and a group of other nations besides themselves are targets.

Their response to these facts should present no mystery. However their responses will be used as weapons against them with insistence that the response to attacks upon them is unjustified and that the perfect West has some inalienable right to target them without them consequentially having any right whatsoever to respond.

All this stems of course from American exceptionalism and British "superiority" claimed for themselves and the basis for their claims to be supreme guardians, judge, jury and yes, executioner. These two believe themselves above the United Nations, above international law and above reproach... due to their acts being self-sanctified in a circular argument where they start and end pure of thought and deed simply doing their duty as the world's ultimate arbiters of all right and wrong.

In due course we will see this attitude play itself out in the war against all those the western powers consider need 'dealt with', undermined, using whatever means come to hand, slowly or quickly if possible rendered ungovernable and ultimately having their leaders and systems of governance replaced.

These are the clear consequence of the policies which follow on from the stated conclusions of the two most interventionist nations on the planet.

This is why in due course the war that has been waged against Russia for two entire decades now and has at last reached its peak, will inevitably also include China and in my estimation very soon.

UKRAINE: ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, AFTER THE INITIAL VICTORY, RUSSIA MUST SEAL THE DEAL

Sometime during the next two weeks Russia will complete phase two of its special military operation and be in possession of the Donbass. This will be a hard won victory with many positive consequences for the civilian population there.

A final end will be realised to the siege they have undergone for the last eight years and the constant threat of death and destruction that permeated their lives and which the western world sought to keep from view.

The relief felt by the people of the Donbass will be beyond description and inform every aspect of their lives and a reborn hope for the future, a future which will undoubtedly come with all the benefits of being within the Russian Federation.

These past eight years have shown the people of the Donbass who their enemies are and who they can place trust in as friends. They have revealed a western world to them that they could not have conceived of previously. That world sought to keep them bounded in silence while genocidal monsters surrounded them seeking their total extinction. The knowledge of this betrayal of the core aspects of decent humanity will never be forgotten.

During these eight years fear was never truly absent, being kept permanently in place by the knowledge that your own countrymen and women sought your total annihilation and worked day and night to effect their plans only a few kilometres away. This, and the isolation to effect their demise by the West, meant that this terrible fear held a constant grip on all hearts. That fear is about to disappear forever.

With all this said and done, with the Donbass emptied of those who have laid siege on the Donbass for year after year with the West's total approval and no move by the central Ukrainian authorities in Kiev to lift it, the war remains only half won. Now comes the task to ensure that the borders of the Donbass are fully secured and, what is most important, secured for good and all, in perpetuity within the unified borders of Russia herself.

This latter task will be every bit as difficult as the winning of the Donbass from Ukrainian domination has been. By some means the long border with what is left of Ukraine must be sealed with a guarantee of as near a level of total security as can be humanly achieved. Those who have been subjecting the people of the Donbass to the eight years of misery just passed are sure not to relent and simply leave them in peace. Acts of subversion and terrorism will surely be perpetrated, cross-border incursions and missile attacks may even be frequent for a time.

What can Russia do in the face of these continuing acts of state terrorism on behalf of the Kiev authorities and their out-of-control neo-Nazi militia members? This will be the big question facing Russia as phase three of the special military operation begins. How, now that the Donbass has been cleared of the pernicious influence that has scarred and defaced it over the past eight years can it now be fully secured, the enemy excluded, their plans rendered impotent and the people maintained in abiding security that will allow normal life and renewed hope to resume in the Donbass?

This will soon be the question facing Vladimir Putin and the combined will of the Russian people.

UKRAINE: ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, AFTER THE INITIAL VICTORY, RUSSIA MUST SEAL THE DEAL

UKRAINE SHORT: WILL MAY 7TH, 8TH & 9TH BE THE MOST CRUCIAL DATES OF ALL?

Despite the ubiquity of the almost hallucinatory coverage of the situation in Ukraine by western mainstream news outlets, the reality is just about ready to burst through the veil of wishful-thinking and heavily-doctored, PR-based, Ukrainian morale-boosting verbiage.

Russian forces are grinding through the increasingly unfit and over-aged Ukrainians that Kiev is throwing as cannon-fodder at them. In acts of desperation reminiscent of the Hitler youth fighters that were sent to confront the rapidly approaching Red Army in the suburbs of Berlin at the end of the war they are dying in numbers approaching one hundred per day it is reported.

This situation cannot go on very much longer. The vast majority of Ukrainian troops are locked in areas where Russian troops have them surrounded. Their means of resupply have been reduced and Russia is now concentrating with increasing force on Ukraine's remaining supply routes and transportation infrastructure. The military junk the West talks of with phoney seriousness being sent to Ukraine either fails to function, is too old/difficult to operate, too bulky and slow, or finds ever fewer well-trained candidates to take up these offers with any degree of effectiveness. These are being destroyed almost as soon as they arrive or, if they do get loaded onto carriages along with civilian carriages Russia, instead of attacking them, destroys the bridges/track and electronics systems needed to bring them to their required destination.

With May 9th, Victory Day for Russia against the Nazis fast approaching and with the reality (as opposed to the Western political and media fantasy) in Ukraine looking ever more positive for Russia I suspect we will see the much anticipated Russian offensive occur in the days leading up to that extremely important date in the Russian calendar. The pincer movement of Russian troops from both north and south after the continuing softening up operations occurring now, will surely deliver the final coup de gras to all remaining Ukrainian troops in the Donbass, and to the fast receding hopes of the Kiev president, his regime and the western powers that control them, that their utterly fanciful (but extremely deadly) delusions of grandeur and victory can survive this very final reality.

UKRAINE AND THE FATAL MYTHOLOGY OF VICARIOUS VALOUR

 

The entire western world has been aswirl with notions of bravery and derring do in the face of a Russian onslaught where, against all odds, Ukrainian troops have repulsed the foreign invader time after time.

Unwilling to countenance any other reality than victory for “tiny” Ukraine against the Goliath of Russia both western political and media elites have thrown all their weight behind providing the Ukrainian troops with every encouragement to fight on.

Weapons of all kinds have flooded into Ukraine to encourage this fight and every PR means available has been bent to the task of maintaining Ukrainian morale again to support the notion that Ukraine can win out.

The harsh reality is however that this has been, since the start, an impossible task, and that encouraging the Ukrainian president and his delegates at the peace conference to tough it out and not agree to Russia’s terms has surely cost thousands of Ukrainian lives and threatens to cost thousands more.

This reality includes large pockets of Ukrainian troops held in what the Russians call ‘Cauldrons’, completely surrounded with no way out and zero chance of being reinforced. The western weapons destined for these troops will never reach them. Russia is bombarding the railway tracks and associated infrastructure to transport them as well as destroying them on the ground and in their storage warehouses.

Russia has also been methodically destroying the fuel storage facilities needed to fuel any surviving military vehicles.

Ukraine’s position is hopeless... yet neither western political elites nor those of mainstream news media are willing to face that fact and continue to mythologise the bravery of the troops leading to the completely false notion that all will be well if everyone just keeps being positive.

Zelensky, being the centrepiece of the vast PR effort underway (Ukraine has scores of PR companies working constantly on Ukraine’s cause) is lauded and lionised in an effort to buoy him up with encouragement to fight to the last Ukrainian. This of course comes universally from people who will never for a moment put themselves in harm’s way, but are enthusiastic in their desire for others to fight (and die) for them.

The Russian army is grinding forward in a slow but methodical campaign, not seeking to take massive areas of land but drawing Ukrainian forces to them, engaging them in combat and destroying them. This process is inexorable and deadly for the now heavily degraded Ukrainian forces that has lost the majority of their best troops and are increasingly made up of recent conscripts and reservists.

These tragic circumstances have been fuelled by a false narrative of Ukrainian victories and valour, of a notional overcoming of a well trained Russian army with a now meticulously worked out campaign whereby the vast bulk of the Ukrainian army will be threatened with virtually certain death if surrender remains an option automatically rejected by Zelensky.

There must come a time when reality requires to be faced for the sake of tens of thousands of lives that will surely be lost if the present fantasy world of Zelensky and his western sponsors prevails.

This requires an end to the pretence currently so overwhelmingly popular across the western world presently, that being the fatal mythology inherent in the supposed Ukrainian, but almost wholly vicarious, and though no doubt often very real, when rendered in PR terms, fictitious valour.