THE NEW RUSSIAN CENTURY

The entire western world is in steep decline. The USA, its primary head without democratic mandate, is in the process of decapitating itself through its Ukraine policy. Collateral damage is being felt across its allies in the UK and European Union.

Meanwhile, the nations of the global south are treating the West’s demand that they criticize and ostracise themselves from Russia with disdain.

The geopolitical world has clearly reached a watershed moment. The power to command, dominate, manipulate and threaten the entire world from Washington and Whitehall is dissipating steadily on a daily basis.

As one power falls another rises.

China is by far the greatest power facing the USA and its proxies. China is the economic peer competitor to the USA and a constant expansion in its influence is being felt in areas the West has considered its own fiefdoms until now. We can see the U.S. and its proxies doing all they can to undermine the expansion of China’s win-win economic connections with other nations across Asia and beyond. Its war against China is still at the nascent stage with the main battles still ahead.

It is none other than Russia however that has taken upon itself to resist the desire of the USA and its allies to shore up its much sought after hegemony, global control through full spectrum dominance of air, land, sea and space with surveillance powers encompassing every last living soul worldwide.

Russia it is that reflects the shining spearhead against the waning, but still powerful, forces of the collective west. Russia was the power to stand firm and state, “Thus far and no more!” against the tide of U.S. belligerence moving steadily toward it. In Syria and now in Ukraine Russia has and is defending the East against the predatory ambitions of the West.

In Syria Russia stepped in after four years in which the USA, UK, France, Turkey and others sought to use proxies to bring down Bashar al Assad unleashing an unstoppable terrorist horde who would have undoubtedly installed a caliphate there if not defeated. Russia was their nemesis. Russia it was, through its powerful intervention, removed their threat along with the Syrian Arab Army and relegated the terrorists to the corner of Syria that is Idlib.

In Ukraine Russia is inexorably defeating the collective west even as the western powers do everything in their power to hinder Russia’s inevitable success in achieving the goals it set itself. The Donbass region will transfer to Russia within the next three months and any attack upon this new Russian soil will be dealt with severely, sending a very definite message to those opposing Russia.

That message is that Russia has fully regained its status as a sovereign world power capable of facing down any threat aimed at it, that it has regained full confidence and competence across all important fields of endeavour, has assembled a coalition of many extremely powerful friends and now fear no one

Russia has gained the admiration and respect of the global south rather than its criticism through its robust military posture regarding the adventurism of the US, its proxies and their tool, NATO. Nations are lining up to join Russia in the BRICS network, some of them erstwhile allies of the USA and West in general.

It is Russia that has been gaining all the while as the West, seen as an agent of chaos and instability across the global south and in Asia, has steadily lost influence. The disastrous regime change wars of choice instigated by the West post 9/11 have brought it into disrepute as an untrustworthy friend of ally, more a threat than friend in fact. The way the U.S. found it easy to break its word over the Iranian nuclear agreement showed just how untrustworthy it can be.

NATO, rather than not moving an inch further east as promised by multiple political elites of the West to Gorbachev, has desired to move right to Russia’s doorstep. We now see the response that Russia has given that betrayal. Now, with Iran and Turkey (a NATO member of course) we see a widening of the response against a western world requiring immediate quarantining.

As the West spirals down into debt, social discord and interminable disunity, economic disaster and unlimited disharmony the nations of Eurasia reflect the polar opposite where profitable interconnection and unity are the order of the day. Local currencies are being used ever more frequently in place of the dollar thus closing another route for western belligerence.

Much of the above is being led by Russia. And much of all else by China. Truly these two in mutual respect and heightening cooperation are leading a process that will eventuate in the creation of a new, multipolar world. In the background, China lends support and provides moral encouragement to the nation and leader who are at the forefront during the facing down of the West.

That nation is of course Russia, and her president, Vladimir Putin.

We now find ourselves truly fortunate to live at the start of THE NEW RUSSIAN CENTURY.

UKRAINE: TO DO OR DIE TRYING. IT’S ALL OR NOTHING NOW FOR THE WESTERN JUGGERNAUT

It was September 12th 2001. Late in the evening in the safest room in the safest location in Washington DC.

The meeting had gone on for what had seemed like endless hours.

The conclusion to all deliberations came down to one simple task:

All resistance to American power was to be removed.

The push would be only forward. There would be no reversing that forward motion until the task was complete. No compromise. No deals. No retreat from the furtherance of the task would be contemplated. When resistance was met the only response was to be a doubling down of efforts and means to crush that resistance.

Everyone in that room was resolved that the task would be completed no matter what was required, no matter what consequences came with that decision, no matter how devastating to others in collateral damage terms. The drive forward would be unstoppable, unquestioned and uncompromising, using all means necessary.

The world would never be the same again.

We have seen the effect of this decision every passing hour since that day in that room. A juggernaut was set in motion for which there is no reverse gear, all controls on automatic, fixed to drive only ever-faster forward.

But now we also see how that juggernaut has met a level of resistance that could not possibly have been contemplated on September 12th 2001. Sand is gathering round the wheels as they spin faster in an attempt to continue forward, the engine whining in determined and preprogrammed response to any and all resistance. Ahead, not too far distant, the sand deepens. The faster the engine races the greater the risk of complete system failure and an explosion that could destroy it and bring it to a grinding halt.

Until the moment of self-destruction the forces set in play on September 12th 2001 cannot be amended or modified in any way. The task could not be and would not be abandoned. Not in the slightest. The fate of the USA could not be bargained away in some diplomatic “solution” that left it vulnerable to its “enemies”. They must ALL be destroyed and replaced. Every last one of them.

Ukraine is the quicksand that awaited the juggernaut described above. Ukraine is the place where resistance to the push forward reached its peak. Russia, backed by others determined to at least to restrain, if not totally destroy, the juggernaut, would deliver the means necessary.

In these days and weeks we will now see and hear the signs of mounting inefficiency within a machine designed to crush all resistance. The signs of a growing problem within its gears are rising and the deterioration of various vital component parts threaten to undermine its stability and power.

Europe will be first to feel the full effect as the cost of maintaining the Ukrainian regime and resisting Russia escalates. The USA and UK are clearly fully committed to driving ever forward despite the unavoidable and rising levels of damage ahead. The signs of potential engine failure are clear yet the accelerator is set only to deliver a doubling down of speed.

At what point the juggernaut will grind to a halt and after what level of destruction to itself and those who helped fuel it is unknown. All that is known is that the thing was constructed without either reverse gear or ability to slow or apply brakes. It will run ever faster until major systems within it collapse and no earlier.

The signs are that this point is not too distant now. What began as a project to drive over every obstacle and crush all who stood in its way is showing every sign of driving itself to total destruction. There is no possible turning just as there was no possible delay contemplated. It was to move inexorably forward until its task was done. No attention was to be given to any factors that could slow progress to completing the task in the shortest time possible. All were to be overridden.

To do or die trying was and remains all.

All... or nothing.

THIS IS NOT A ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL WORLD

Those who run the western world now and those who preceded them may well have set themselves goals to transform the entire world into their image of what is right, fit and proper. I would argue however that this was an outrageously dangerous project from the outset.

This for many reasons.

Perhaps the primary reason of all is that the two main protagonists in this global act of many parts were most unsuited to this task. Those whose histories included genocide of a native population and slavery imposed on another. Those who had acted as legalised pirates and licensed drug dealers, exploiting, enslaving and endlessly enriching themselves.

Now they self-interestedly and conveniently ignore their past and have indulged in new excesses against others in the recent past. Virtually ignoring an institution that the entire world agreed would enable a more stable and peaceful world to exist, they forced through their demand to exist as exceptional and superior entities with some God-given right to administer punishments including mass death and destruction to others.

The above was assumed to be theirs by inalienable right, with full powers of judgment and delivery of whatever punishment was decided upon whether that be an imposition of financial penalties, draconian economic sanctions or the ultimate sanction of invasion, war and total destabilisation of societies.

What global right were given to these powers representing only a fraction of the world’s population. Where are the signatories to the death certificates for hundreds of thousands given as a blank cheque to the USA, UK and their proxies? Who designated them the ultimate arbiters of right and wrong? The answer is of course no one. They took these powers unto themselves and guard them jealously with all the levels of threat they now wield.

What are the effects we see from the ambitions of these relatively few nations (by comparison with all nations of our planet)? Do we see increased peace, prosperity and stability for all? Or do we instead see increasing levels of war and dispute, poverty and hunger, and an instability each and every one of us feels more and more strongly on a planet going wrong?

The effort to make everyone else conform to the self-set standards of this cabal of nations led by the United States is the primary cause of so many ills recognised ever more clearly in these recent years. Their desire to make others conform to their needs, desires and wishes is bringing nothing good to our world but only destabilising efforts that left alone would have a much greater chance of achieving equilibrium over time.

This is a world of great diversity where the everyday man and woman desires to live in harmony with others and believe in the right of sovereignty of their native home, their nation, their country. They do not want in my considered opinion to see interference exerted from outside their nation by powerful other nations who have some compulsion to change them, their ways of life or modes of governance.

The political (and often too the religious) elites of the USA and collective west see it as some kind of holy duty to do exactly that which the majority of populations in other nations do not want. The western powers insist however that it is their prerogative, one granted by no one however, to assert their self-given right to do as they please and those resisting should instead be grateful.

There is no enlightenment possible it seems which might change the minds of these interferers and potential invaders. The privacy and rights of others are ignored and constantly abused by them. They are spied upon, judged and categorised, labelled and libelled, talked of as lesser beings and made subject to the powers their “betters” impose upon them while they talk of “human rights”.

These nations, led by the USA and UK cannot succeed in this utterly wrong-headed task. All they will create is further disastrous conditions as their attempt to create the perfect “solution” in their terms creates only ever more problems.

It appears that they feel they would rather have no world at all than a world they cannot control and that they will NEVER come to understand the level of their hubris, arrogance and inevitably catastrophic fixed ideas on this issue. They appear fixed-mindedly decided upon following this path to the bitter end where we end with either a nuclear war or a world split in two. In the first case almost all is of course lost. In the second and more hopeful outcome, resistance to their efforts reaches a point where nations resolve to fully defend themselves and in so doing quarantine the West for the good of all.

It is clear that until then they are incapable of understanding any of this however.

Until the bitter end (for them or for all of us) they appear unable in particular to understand the following:

THIS IS NOT A ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL WORLD

CUT THE CRAP WESTERN ELITES; YOU'VE BEEN THE AGGRESSORS ALL ALONG

Despite the immense effort to condition western populations into believing that some great humanitarian/democratic/idealistic project was underway, the facade that this was the case was always so very thin.

Can anyone still be convinced, I mean even the most stalwart of breast-beating advocates of western foreign policy. It beggars belief that this might be so.

The western powers have shown their true intent so many times now in regard to their economic rivals and political opponents. They want them neutralised, compromised and eliminated and they are not too choosy regarding how.

The vast panoply of western power in action is hard to pretty up. Avoiding the obvious nature of aggressive western elite instincts over decades by successive western governments, blithely accepting that ‘those over there’ (their targets) are to blame, takes some doing and a dose of mental gymnastics.

The colour revolutions were many. The activities of the National Endowment for Democracy were there for all to see. George Soros and his people were quite open to view also. Naturally the CIA was ubiquitously in the background as was so-called U.S. diplomacy. All supported to the hilt by a compliant western mass media.

You need only name the nations targeted. Afghanistan. Iraq. Libya. Syria. Ukraine.

That last though… it’s different, right?

If you believe it’s different I have a 1955 Buick Roadmaster to sell you with just one female owner and a mere 100 miles on the clock.

Look anywhere in the world where trouble flares and you will undoubtedly find a U.S. embassy working overtime.

And so it was in 2014 when there was a violent insurrection to be stoked on Kiev’s Maidan Square. If you look hard enough you will find the speech given in Kiev’s Verkhovna rada as it was all kicking off, describing the courses being run in that embassy by a U.S. training squad on how to be a successful activist.

Ukraine was just another project and the second bite of the cherry there was the tastiest. The ‘Orange Revolution’ there in the winter of 2004-5 had been partially successful but the Euromaidan did the trick to the complete satisfaction of America’s local politicos. Search too for the leaked phone conversation between Victoria Nuland, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State and Geoff Pyatt, U.S. ambassador for Kiev at the time. Almost exactly ten years after the Orange Revolution in Ukraine the USA finally got its way.

And the rest is history as they say…

Except there’s more.

While the USA worked with the EU to wrest Ukraine from Russia’s sphere of influence it added yet another gambit to further soften Moscow up for what was intended to be the final blow. NATO was to be used as the final element to drive Russia into the kind of pressure cooker environment where colour revolutions become so much easier to stoke and provoke.

That the USA in particular but with the assistance of all those within its orbit applied every possible tool to ‘cooking’ Russia is obvious for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. Those who say they don’t see or hear the extremely obvious instigators in all this are either incredibly stupid or completely lost to reason through terminal levels of bias.

Naturally the cover stories to all this were the same old ones that had been interminably used for every other regime change foreign policy for… well, forever. Not many like to look back too far or read too much these days but let’s just say that those in Latin America know the script on this extremely well.

The U.S. political elites are fond of calling their nation exceptional. The UK too have their own variation on this same theme, more subtly conveyed in notions of total superiority. Thus advancing NATO to Russia’s doorstep can be conveyed as something as innocent as an unwanted kiss on the cheek, if even as ‘bad’ as that. A mere nothing that Russia is a little strange to be worried over.

And what if the West is working with the Russia-hating political elites of Ukraine to create a more powerful army with NATO heavily involved? ‘What Me Worry?’ is the advised Russian motto from western leaders who oversaw NATO decimate Serbia and Libya. Nothing to see here. Please move on.

Of course for some who like always to see through the western world’s spyglass nothing the West ever did was anything more than a valiant attempt to right wrongs, bring a glorious time of sweetness and light to the world and… well… end of story.

But really… how many truly believe this implicitly and conceive that the terminally competitive elites of all kinds across the so-called western world is an innocent abroad? I truly wonder. How can anyone believe this with any degree of total commitment? The brainwashed certainly. Those conditioned by interminable TV hypnosis no doubt. But reasoning humans? I doubt it.

Aren’t the true facts of the matter abundantly clear?

CUT THE CRAP WESTERN ELITES; YOU'VE BEEN THE AGGRESSORS ALL ALONG

RUSSIA, REMOVE & REPLACE THE ENTIRE UKRAINIAN REGIME… YOU KNOW THIS WILL BECOME A NECESSITY.

Russia’s special military operation was meant to be limited in scope with modest goals assigned to it.

Despite talk in western media of Russia wishing to occupy the entirety of Ukraine the plainly spoken outcome at the outset was to liberate the populations of the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine from the constant threat and fact of shelling from the Ukrainian forces surrounding the two oblasts of Donetsk and Lugansk. Fourteen thousand had died over the previous eight years and a major offensive by the Kiev regime was in the offing sometime in February.

The strategy in the early days of Russia’s operation appears to have been to shake the confidence of the regime’s leadership in Kiev and bring a quick end to it, sparing as many lives as possible. This strategy however tragically did not work and the regime bolstered by the false hopes given it by the grandiose and ultimately utterly fanciful scheme by the western powers to arm Kiev’s army with a view to weakening Russia.

Before long Moscow saw that the advance upon Kiev which (in my view) was to scare the regime into compromising and acceding to Moscow’s demands bringing the campaign to a speedy end, was a failure and withdrew all its troops, back to the Donbass region.

Since the withdrawal of all Russian forces to the Donbass there has been an incremental advance by them with villages, towns and cities being taken after well dug-in Ukrainian troops in heavily defended lines were made to surrender, flee or were otherwise eliminated from the battle front, either wounded or killed.

After four months of hard slog Russia stands at the threshold of the final battles to take the final major cities occupied in the Donbass by the Ukrainians. In three to four weeks at most the entire Donbass cannot help but be in Russian hands. But what happens then?

I have come to understand that the Kiev regime will not allow the war to end there. At least the U.S. and UK leaderships will not allow this and it is clear they will continue to arm whatever is left of the Ukrainian army with an almost unlimited supply of high-tech weaponry, logistics and targeting information. It is clear to me that even when Russia has attained her goal of securing the safety of the people of the Donbass by ejecting or eliminating Ukrainian troops this will not be the end of the matter.

I fully expect the existing regime in Kiev to do everything possible including constant devastatingly accurate attacks on an increasing number of targets within the Donbass.

I have come to the opinion that Russia cannot and must not put up with such a situation and that there is only one permanent solution that would enable a full and lasting peace in the Donbass to be guaranteed.

That solution is to do everything necessary to remove the present Kiev regime from power and replace it with an interim government preparatory to elections for both president and elected representatives leading to the formation of a truly representative government free of pernicious western influence.

This would not be as difficult as it may be thought. With the decimation of the most well trained Ukrainian troops and a much reduced Ukrainian army in general and with the total removal of the serried lines of immensely militarized defensive positions that will arrive in the next few weeks there will be little to stop a speedy Russian advance.

I see no other way to obviate the carnage and destruction that what’s left of Ukraine’s extremist power structure will engage in following Russia’s successful operation. To leave such a nest of hatred, continually bolstered by a desperate USA, UK and EU unwilling to accept defeat and determined to hit Russia and the civilian population of the Donbass with everything they’ve got, would create an intolerable situation.

With the worst of the fighting over, with only a rump Ukraine with its best trained, battle-hardened troops out of the picture, with every transport link rendered useless, with all oil and ammunition dumps destroyed and very little now standing in the way of a rapid Russian advance, I see the removal of the current Kiev regime as extremely doable and in fact an absolute necessity.  

THE DEADLY POSSIBILITY OF TOTAL CARNAGE IS EMERGING IN UKRAINE AS ESCALATION FOLLOWS ESCALATION

The world is at war and neither side can back down. Too much is at stake.

Russia, pushed into a corner where it was demanded that it negate all lessons learned concerning its past where in excess of 25 million Russians died, and accept NATO encroaching right to its doorstep, at last refused to comply.

The explosive train of events since that fateful decision continue to impact ever-greater parts of the global economy. Despite the massive fallout already felt this appears to be only the beginning with much more and greater impacts to come.

But the two powers squaring up to each other, instead of finding some accommodation with one another drift ever farther apart in ever-growing antagonism, mistrust and acts of escalation of the type that make mortal enemies who are irreconcilable in anything but the most minor details… if any at all.

Demonisation is the order of the day, the portrayal of ‘the enemy’ as a subhuman monster only deserving of complete elimination. No quarter is sought or given and the burial grounds of human casualties are hardly a factor for either in a war without limit that leaves only one side standing.

In the middle of the face-off where two foes stand eye to eye ready to tear each others’ heads off the battleground becomes a sea of blood and bone, a wasteland where the traumas of death, fear and destruction replace all earlier tendencies toward common humanity.

Such is war and such is the state of a world that thought itself beyond such barbarism.

Wars need two instigators however and the history of the Ukrainian war clearly shows only one, the collective western leadership who by degree after degree negated Russia’s right to security and sphere of influence. In a macabre anti-Cuban missile crisis Russia was pressured to accept that it had no right to peace of mind, that a belligerent NATO had every possible right to creep right up to its door and squat there like one of Steven Spielberg’s gremlins.

Like a schoolyard bully relentlessly pushing the shoulder of another, seen to be a younger and less muscled victim, there sometimes can be an unexpected outcome.

In recent days there is every indication that the high command of the USA has been providing Ukraine with precise location data on Russian targets the use of which has resulted in many civilian deaths. In response, it seems, Russia has today attacked a building deep within Ukraine where it says Ukrainian military officers were meeting with arms dealers, presumably western civilians.

This appears to have all the hallmarks of a tit-for-tat attack and significant escalation of violence encompassing the apparent acceptance that certain civilian casualties may be inevitable and perhaps even desirable due to their involvement in supporting one side or another militarily.

In war there is a strong tendency toward ‘mission creep’ and an increasing acceptance that things which would have been abhorrent before become regarded as ‘unfortunate necessities’ before becoming in due course an every day ‘accepted normality’.

Once the Rubicon is crossed there may be no turning back.

Thus we move to the necessitated compartmentalisation of conscience within a steely-eyed compulsion to utterly decimate an enemy that has become only a fiendish shadow of a human representation, a thing to be exterminated by all means possible.

We stand on that threshold now. And into that evil mire we may now plunge.

WHAT MIGHT MAKE THE U.S. POLITICAL ELITE BELIEVE RISKING THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR WORLD IS ‘WORTH IT’?

Biden has committed the USA to assisting Israel if it attacks Iran over the issue of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Just as the western world hits an increasingly sharp downward curve in its fortunes due to pushing Russia into an intolerable corner resulting in what is in effect a third world war, albeit on as yet restricted terms, Biden appears to wish to push the envelope further.

In addition to all this it appears inevitable that sooner or later China will be dragged into this destructive cycle of events. The issue to do this will of course be Taiwan.

It needs only a further descent in relations between the USA and North Korea to set the stage for a conflagration that shakes our world to its core.

All this reflects the remaining power of neoconservative thought in the USA, the UK and across much of Europe. This is exemplified by the notion that almost anything, including multiple conflicts amounting to a third world war, are better than the status quo. And what is that status quo that is anathema to these neocons?

The status quo they are determined to destroy by any means available to them is the long decline of western power that in recent years has reached a critical level, below which it will not be retrievable. The level of power and ability of western political elites to control events has been indomitable in recent history. Successive western governments have been able to largely control geopolitical trends through a mix of threats, bribes and violence. They have had supreme ability to manipulate other nations and so pressure them to do their will.

The status quo described in summary above has come under threat from several sources, primarily the rise of China but also the unwillingness of Russia to get into line and follow orders from Washington as all nations have been expected in the past, to do.

These two factors requiring the restoration of western power rose ever more to the fore post 9/11 when the requirement by U.S. political elites and those allied with them to retain utmost dominance, became most insistent.

The reason for why western political elites now seem recklessly set on the course now seen is contained in the paragraph above.

With western powers in economic decline to varying degrees; laden with debt and high costs, and all in conjunction and comparison with the rising powers of the east, it is clear that this particular status quo, as detrimental as it is for their future prospects, became intolerable for them. This was the case even before 9/11 spurred them to the efforts we see now.

This war against all rival power sources, both individual and national, is by its nature totally open-ended, this because the goals set for itself by the western powers are seen as utterly existential, incapable of question and absolutely essential for them regarding any acceptable vision of the future.

For them it is a case of all… or nothing.

All in short represents: A complete restoration of western global domination with the political elites of the USA as undoubted leaders on all questions and at all times, with full spectrum dominance assured via universal satellite and terrestrial surveillance, along with the U.S. and allied military (NATO) having an in-depth and permanent, controlling oversight.

The route to the goal stated above is not hard to visualise, nor are its consequences.

No diplomacy need apply as it involves compromises which leave the target entities standing. The route is one incorporating a political and military wrecking-ball policy, one where might is exerted rather than anything approaching right.

Organisations of all kinds established to ensure peace require to be overridden or utilised to the ends described above. No compromise is to be sought, only pressure ever increased, threats made ever more potent and brinkmanship taken to the very edge of global destruction.

UKRAINE PLUS: IT’S ALL GOING HORRIBLY WRONG FOR WESTERN POLITICAL ELITES IN THE GEOPOLITICAL CASINO

Is it kismet… fate or geopolitical karma?

Whatever it is, the western powers are, stated at best, not having much luck in the global casino that constitutes the way nations or groups of nations rise and fall.

Ukraine has turned into a very bad bet. Instead of folding the USA and UK in particular and some of the EU nations just kept doubling up hoping to have a winning hand.

This has not delivered the hoped for 'big win' but has only delayed the moment when all is lost.

If it was only their shirts that are now going to be lost, though in terms of national pride this would be costly, this is going down to their national underpants and bobby socks.

If the catastrophic bet that was Ukraine, with all those billions poured into a massive black hole was not enough there are all the high-tech weapons that are now dispersing to various noxious cells via the dark web. These are toxic future disasters for the so-called ‘war on terror’ that the USA sets so much store by.

Then there is the strong and growing tendency in the global south to turn up sensitive noses to the western gamblers who have destabilised so much for so little gain. Even Saudi Arabia is apparently turning away in disgust seeking to join Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa within BRICS, along with Iran, Egypt, Turkey and Argentina.

These trends bode very ill for all desires still held close to western elite breasts to extend their influence to the absolute maximum, gaining total hegemony over the entire planet via one means or another. They STILL conceive themselves as our universal guardians and ‘overmasters’ without peer, utterly and exclusively necessary to ensure everything moves in the ‘right direction’.

Except under their tutelage and still significant level of control its is very clearly going in anything BUT the right direction.

The USA is riven with discord, even more now than ever. Each section of its commingled groups of vested interests appear to be at war with the other. This is not exactly helped with inflation breaking new records (June’s stat over 9%). Could things possibly be going more wrong?

Well yes. And I suspect we will not have long to wait.

In Europe political parties and leaders are being shaken as never before. Already certain nations have found their leadership in flux and in a few cases there have been significant departures from the political scene.

Who's to blame?

It is difficult to find anyone to blame except the central figures in the current debacle over Ukraine. Those at the heart of the campaign to bring the Russian economy and its leader down have created a boomerang economic missile (or rather whole series of them) that is devastating themselves, their economies and their citizens.

And where is all this leading?

It is difficult to escape the conclusion that it is leading to the permanent demise of the unipolar world controlled by the current coalition of powers centred upon and controlled by the USA. Their fortunes in the global casino are depleting fast, as is that of course of their ‘glorious leader’.

It wasn’t meant to be like this.

The economic attacks upon Russia were meant to create the downswing in its powers required to then do something similar in regard to China. With both these rivals who had to one degree or another been on an upward trajectory diminished the western powers could then begin an upward push along with those who could potentially be made proxies elsewhere in the world and thus halt the inevitable western decline in universal power that analysts had been warning them of for decades.

But it has all gone so horribly wrong. Not only has the position of western power sources been weakened , it has been devastatingly undermined to the point where their obvious decline and the rise of others has been hugely exacerbated. Those rivals are now set for a starward economic course where every new level of cooperation and coordination delivers yet another blow to the ever more desperate West.

They say the house always wins in the end and indeed the USA and its allies once believed they had ownership of the global casino. But no more. In recent decades the ‘For Sale’ sign on its walls came more and more into focus and now, after Ukraine, it has been replaced.

It now reads, ‘Under New Management’’.

IS RUSSIA ABOUT TO DECLARE WAR ON UKRAINE?

The United States is upping the ante in its supply of more HIMAR systems to Ukraine with shells that will allow its military to hit targets within Russia.

The Ukrainian authorities have clearly abandoned all intentions to negotiate terms with Russia and are attempting to create an army of one million with which to attack Russian forces in the Donbass and sweep eventually into Crimea.

An extraordinary meeting of both houses of Russia’s Federal Assembly has been convened for July 15th.

In the face of mounting escalation by both the Ukrainians and their western allies it appears the time has come for a decision regarding the further conduct of operations in Ukraine and whether the full force of the Russian state against Ukraine is now warranted.

In a recent address Vladimir Putin warned Ukraine and its western allies that Russia had only used a small part of its military assets so far. He remarked also that the West appeared to want to defeat Russia on the battlefield and challenged them to try.

It appears to me that Russia is readying itself for all-out war in Ukraine having abandoned all hope that Ukraine will return its representatives to the negotiating table. The negotiations which took place in the early months of the operation appeared eventually to be bearing fruit. The statement made by the Ukrainian side in Istanbul had very hopeful elements within it that were worthy of pursuit. However, intervention by the USA and UK (in particular by Boris Johnson) caused the negotiations to be frozen and from that time to this no further discussion has taken place.

With the rhetoric on the Ukrainian side being constantly ramped up, with more significant weapons being used, weapons that can hit targets well within Russia and with the apparent complete abandonment of negotiations seeking a settlement the atmosphere is conducive to only one thing… all-out war.

The constant shelling of the civilian population of Donetsk City with the death of at least four children and numerous adults over the last week will have also stiffened the resolution to act in more robust fashion against a foe that appears to offer no hope of any possible avenue leading to a negotiated settlement as was hoped. Russia may well have lost all patience along with hope now and will I suspect now consider the ultimate option in regard to Ukraine.

If Russia declares war on Ukraine on July 15th it will have planned its war strategy very carefully. New ranges of targets not on the target roster before this time will undoubtedly be hit. Nowhere will be safe for the present Ukrainian political or military elites. Infrastructure vital to the performance of the Ukrainian economy and energy production will undoubtedly be hit. It is not impossible to conceive that Nord Stream 1 running through Ukraine will be shut off. This will of course also directly affect Europe, a Europe Russia will also be tacitly declaring war upon through war on Ukraine.

The wider target for Russia will of course include the USA though not of course directly. Targeting U.S. assets within the NATO infrastructure throughout Europe and especially the publicised new deliveries of weaponry would come at a later stage if Ukraine takes its current plans to fruition and the West ramps up to even greater levels its delivery of systems with which to target Russia.

We are on a slippery slope of escalation and response and everyone knows the potential end point.

Russia’s special military operation was initially meant to be fundamentally light touch with the hope that the Kiev authorities would see sense and finally deliver those things it agreed to in the Minsk Accords of 2015. Even before the operation began Putin reportedly gave Zelensky the chance to do this. These initial desires to give peace one last chance came to naught. In addition Zelensky, backed by his western sponsors, appears to have used the negotiations for the same purpose as those previous to him had used the Minsk Accords, simply to buy time.

Russia has been lied to many times in regard to western promises and has accepted too many seemingly friendly gestures at face value which over time become clear and very cynical betrayals.

Gorbachev was given assurances by almost a round dozen of top flight political figures of the West that NATO would not move further to the east if he made no trouble over German reunification.

The Minsk Accords appeared to provide hope for a route to peace and reconciliation regarding the aspiration of the Russian-speaking populations of eastern Ukraine but were used by Kiev instead as a stalling tactic to buy time and build a fighting force to take back the Russian-speaking regions of Donetsk and Lugansk by force.

Now it has become abundantly clear that Ukraine has no intention whatsoever to engage in meaningful talks toward a peaceful settlement. The earlier talks engaged in by Ukraine appear now to be simply one more insincere stalling tactic designed to lull Russia into not taking full advantage of its position at the time while Ukraine readied its forces.

Russia could not be blamed for saying “Enough is enough. Enough lies. Enough betrayals. Enough Deception.”

And subsequently… declare war.

UKRAINE: THE CIVILIANS OF DONETSK CITY ARE REMORSELESSLY SHELLED & KILLED WHILE THE WEST LOOKS AWAY

The depth of the completely one-sided approach toward Russia in western elite circles such as that within the political and media spheres can best be measured by the level of support, come what may, for those opposing it.

Currently this is evidenced by an absolute zero level of response regarding the batant shelling of the civilian population of Donetsk City which has been ongoing for over a week now. There are no military targets to speak of there as the troops of the Donetsk People’s Republic are fighting on the front lines elsewhere.

Having watched intently during the worst years of the bombardment of the civilian population there during 2014 and 2015 when there was an identical lack of response from western mass media this has come as no surprise to me.

It should surprise those however who still have a modicum of respect for and belief in the humanity of those within western political and mainstream media circles. The complete lack of coverage either by tweet, speech, article or TV programme when civilians of all ages are actively targeted and killed should shock any decent person out of their comfortable concepts regarding these sources.

What does it say about the integrity of commentators when one side and one side only in a conflict is portrayed as in the wrong and the other as shining examples of correct behaviour and character? When the ‘other side’, that side that does not act in conformity with western interests, is blamed for every occurrence where non-combatants die? No war is completely black and white and when it is portrayed this way it is only a matter of how deep and pervasive the lying goes.

Russia has been accused of utterly illogical and indeed nonsensical acts of violence on the say so of those who have much more reason to commit them. In recent days the depiction of Russia as the universal devil in this scenario has begun to be modified. A United Nations report has recently criticised the Kiev authorities and the Ukrainian army for locating heavy weaponry in close proximity to a kindergarten. This hopefully will only be the first glimpse of a much-needed objective approach to examining claims and counter-claims made during this conflict.

The atrocity in the Kiev suburb of Bucha, the shelling of the train station at Kramatorsk, the killing of civilians in the destruction of the Mariuopol theatre and the many incidents where schools and hospitals were the subject of attack and destruction. These must all be thoroughly and independently investigated. Attention too should be given to witness statements in every town the Russians have taken from the Ukrainian forces. They have much to say on the subject of Ukrainian forces' behaviour.

Images of notices placed on doors warning residents they must evacuate at a moment's notice if Ukrainian troops arrive seeking entry to use their family rooms for military purposes. Videos showing Ukrainian troops, weaponry and ammunition in school classrooms should be viewed and assessed.

There are so many missing procedures and vast pieces of blanked-out history regarding the conflict that has gone on since 2014 when the presiding, democratically-elected authorities in Ukraine were overturned in a violent insurrection.

One of the missing pieces, or rather a volume of pieces which were simply ignored by western political and media elites, were the weekly reports by the OSCE ( Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) which was tasked with monitoring, investigating and reporting on acts of violence including shelling in the Donbass from 2014 until this year. Their reports showed who the perpetrators were. They were predominantly the Ukrainian forces who had held the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk hostage since early 2014. In particular, the vast rise in the number of attacks mounted by the Ukrainian forces in early February this year are particularly significant.

I come back to Donetsk City however. What possible excuses can the so-called ‘International Community’ (in effect this comprises only the USA and its allies) have in totally ignoring the blatant war crime and crimes against humanity being committed on a daily basis by Ukrainian forces there? What possible excuse can the leaders of these nations and their state and mass media colleagues have for turning a blind eye to this normally unconscionable behaviour. They HAVE no excuse. 

What has become normal throughout the West as was seen by me throughout the worst years as perpetrated by the Ukrainians, is the creation of a silent ‘killing field’ where civilian lives can be snuffed out with impunity. Sight unseen. Western media knew this evil was going on, and know so now also. But a hear no evil, see no evil and speak no evil policy was in place from 2014 and remains in place now.

Donetsk civilians, men, women, children, the elderly, infirm and all completely innocent of wrongdoing have not only be held hostage, kept surrounded by vengeful forces in a siege, they have been attacked on a daily basis causing grievous injury, death and destruction allowing them no respite… for eight long years now.

And this has resumed with additional venom and heartless cynicism and psychopathic determination to kill, maim and destroy in recent days… while the western political and media elites blindfold their eyes and stick their bloody fingers deep into their ears.

MISSION CREEP, ESCALATION, A DECLARATION OF ALL OUT WAR & THE FATE OF UKRAINE

I would think the time is coming soon when Russia may find itself put in a position where it feels it necessary to declare war on Ukraine and thus open up a much expanded field of operation and target roster.

I have heard that Russia expects to start targeting the electricity network in August/September if there is no sign of the regime arriving at the negotiating table.

I appreciate that the Russian high command and Putin himself wish to minimise the extent of damage to vital infrastructure whenever possible, however, if Ukraine is going to start hitting targets within Russia using long-range missiles for their HIMAR systems, guided to target by extremely accurate GPS data from U.S. satellites, then I feel the Russians will be left with little choice but to respond with all out war against the Kiev regime.

This above would undoubtedly include hitting every known command and control centre, plus every vital asset; military or otherwise, that Kiev uses to keep the war going. This would essentially be the western mode of war, especially that of the USA where a global effort is made to destroy the entire edifice and social foundation of a nation almost taking a it back, as was said during the Iraq war and elsewhere, ‘to the Stone Age’.

Why you might ask, as Russia has air supremacy, not simply destroy all these systems as they arrive? I can only presume that until now there has been some difficulty in Russia being able to target each and every point of entry where such western weaponry can arrive.

Perhaps there has also been an unwillingness to attack certain airports where American military flights arrive. Perhaps also due to these also being civilian passenger arrival and departure points. Alternatively Or perhaps there are simply too many road networks on Ukraine's borders to comprehensively halt these transports and that they can never be fully halted.

Whatever the answer to the questions above I would suggest that if the West (and in particular the USA and UK) escalate the conflict further with the provision of long range missiles with 300 mile targeting capability for the HIMAR systems already delivered with more to come and if these are used to hit targets within Russia then all bets are off.

Russia will inevitably respond to such attacks with devastating force and we are likely to see command and control centres hit with the potential death of many western/NATO advisers located within them along with whatever Ukrainian staff are based there. In addition there will be nowhere safe in any Ukrainian city for its politicians to reside and have a normal life. Internet services and much else including electricity is likely to be speedily cut off.

Russia cannot afford to lose this conflict whatever the cost may be. As Vladimir Putin has said in the last few days, Russia is only using a small percentage of its forces and weaponry currently and if pushed to can bring to bear significantly more devastating firepower if it is called upon to do so. The goals set for itself are utterly crucial to Russia’s future security.

The approach of NATO at her border had become totally intolerable, especially as added to this already significant multi-nation presence the desire was to see the Nazi-mentality infested western Ukraine achieve full dominance over the Russian-speaking population of eastern Ukraine by dint of a full scale military offensive apparently scheduled for late February-early March.

It is known in western elite circles that Russia’s focus is on the Russian-speaking population of eastern Ukraine that Russia was never going to turn her back upon. All the talk of Russia having ambitions to take other nations or even the entirety of Europe are fictions.

The task of just taking and securing the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine is onerous enough as can be seen by the way Russia is required to burn steadily and methodically through the barriers placed in its past and even taking the whole of Ukraine is out of the question.

It is not only a case of difficulty in taking ground, Russia does not have the capability or wish (the Russian would have to be mad to try) to govern an occupied land with all the constant immense difficulties that would entail, never mind six, eight or ten.

The fight for the Donbass is far and away enough for Russia to take on, secure and hold in perpetuity. Only those with insanely poor understanding of Russian capabilities or a wish to use a maximum fear scenario, even one as harebrained as a Russian occupation of Europe, to enhance their own military power and status could posit such an idea as a feasible prospect.

The struggle in the Donbass is a gruelling one where artillery batteries wreak havoc and a thousand and more troops are taken out of the fighting by injury or death every single day. It very much looks like becoming deadlier still over the next few days and weeks, especially if the USA and UK (primarily) continue to up the ante with further hi-tech heavy weapon systems for have no doubt Russia will respond and up the ante herself.

In the end Ukraine WILL be defeated and a tragically high number of those who fought for her will be dead or injured and who knows, after all the mission creep, escalation and quite possibly a declaration of war by Russia… will there be any functioning state left by the name of Ukraine at all.

WE ARE APPROACHING THE END GAME IN THE DONBASS AND A LIKELY BLOODBATH

The final push by Russian forces to take and then permanently hold all that remains of the entire Donbass region is likely to begin within the next few days. After the taking of Severodonetsk and Lisichansk/Lysychansk there has been something of a lull while the Russian troops rest and prepare. This does not mean that all sectors of the Russian military have been idle, the softening up of the Ukrainian lines has gone on apace through artillery fire and fire from the air. Over the last 24 hours it is reported that there have been heavy losses on the Ukrainian side where entire convoys have been destroyed with much loss of life.

Ukraine in turn has not been idle either and has been performing an enforced mobilisation to build its forces to the maximum extent. I believe the Ukrainian authorities now claim to have a million troops under arms. Many of these will hardly be trained at all, some for a week or two and quite possibly some may have only been handed a gun and told the rudimentary procedure for loading and firing it. During this mass mobilization effort videos have been seen of men running in flight from the recruiting officers and mass demonstrations from families against the recruiters.

The coming battle will without doubt be fierce and the losses on both sides are likely to be considerable. The Ukrainians are currently shelling the areas where Russian troops are located in proximity to what is expected to be the first target of Russian forces in the coming offensive, Siversk/Seversk. As said above, the Russians are in turn shelling all perceived locations of large quantities of Ukrainian troops. This war is about to enter what is likely to be its bloodiest and even perhaps almost face to face stage at times where no quarter is given on either side.

It appears some of the Ukrainians forcibly mobilised and sent to the front, no doubt those who are among the less well trained and less committed have begun to surrender themselves to the Russian forces, handing over their guns and equipment as they do so. Videos are surfacing showing the process of these troops being processed, adding their weapons to an ever growing pile.

Without doubt the Ukraine authorities will have transferred as many heavy weapons including their new HIMAR rocket launchers into position along the front line where Russia is expected within days to launch its attack. The number of troops will certainly number many tens of thousands.

This will be the final battle for the Donbass. It is inconceivable that the remaining cities of Slovyansk/Slavjansk and Kramatorsk will stand for long if the coming assault claims the remaining major conurbations in northern Donbass. On the other hand, if the Ukrainians somehow manage to withstand the assault by some manner of means, either by sheer force of numbers, local knowledge or through the weaponry supplied by the West Russia will have been delivered a major setback.

If scenario one occurs then the rest of the Donetsk Oblast must surely fall to Russia within a week or two after taking Siversk/Seversk, Bakhmut and just possibly Kharkiv/Kharkov, plus all the surrounding area. A pause is more than likely immediately thereafter however while mopping up operations are conducted and, as before the troops involved are rested to prepare for the final push to take Slovyansk/Slavyansk and Kramatorsk.

If scenario two transpires and Ukrainian forces beat back the Russian offensive I imagine some tough decisions will then be made concerning Russia finally deciding on at least a partial mobilisation. In addition the possibility of targeting Ukraine’s electricity (and possible gas) supply networks will be considered/brought forward. The word is that this was not to be considered until it became clear by August or September that the Ukrainian authorities were not going to come to terms and negotiate a peace settlement.

The following phase of conflict in Ukraine appears certain to be extremely bloody. Only one side appears sanguine concerning this prospect and that is the Ukrainian side. The authorities there and those standing behind them in the West appear dead set on continuing to fight on no matter how many casualties occur. The Russians who have a military history where negotiations take place while conflict rages have expressed an interest in resolving the issues involved since 2014 and continue to seek conflict resolution to this day. However, there is no reciprocal response from the other side even though such an arrangement did exist in the early days of the conflict.

Neither side can afford to lose. And of course these sides are not simply one on one. Alongside the Ukrainians you have the entire collective west. The leaders of the West cannot afford to lose out to Russia. But equally the Russians cannot afford to lose out either, driving NATO from its doorstep and ending the ultra-nationalist Nazi-mentality so affecting a very sizeable minority in western Ukraine and leaving the citizens of the Donbass to their collective mercy is absolutely not an option. This is a fight to the death therefore, to the absolute defeat of one side or the other with (unless attendance at negotiations are agreed to by the Ukrainians) no way out but an orgy of death and destruction right to the bitter end.

WESTERN POLITICAL & MEDIA ELITES ARE BLINDLY LOCKED INTO GRINDING DOWN THE ECONOMIES OF THE ENTIRE WESTERN WORLD

There is much wishful thinking talk among the chattering liberal classes who compose the first choice of equally liberal media editors for interviews on western TV networks. The borders of acceptable opinion are known and they remain very firmly within those boundaries. One of the bordered areas that all adhere to is that Russia is suffering in this way and that. 

Out of the air they commonly pull a “factoid” that Russia is suffering comparable losses to the Ukrainians. No background is given on this as it doesn’t exist, except that official Ukrainian sources said so. In fact the BBC investigated this with a detailed search across the length and breadth of the Russian Federation regarding burials. They came up with a figure of 4,000. According to the Ukrainians they are losing between 200 and 500 troops per day. The comparison becomes quite clear and is simply not within the border spoken of above.

Where even the smallest apparent gain by the Ukrainians can be ascertained it immediately receives the attention normally given for some extraordinarily great event, and not just for a few hours or days, it may be milked for weeks. The so-called Kherson counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces is a case in point. That no significant gains occur never seems to matter, the positive aspect that something is being done rather than nothing, is enough.

Meanwhile the border of thought that all adhere to encompasses every manner of possible Russian woe. Once stated these “woes” can be extrapolated endlessly into a whole convoluted theory whereby Russia is described as losing or is supposedly about to lose in some important way. This belief bubble talking point having been sealed there can be talk regarding how Putin must be given a way out of his awful position and so on and forth. Academics well versed in what’s expected deliver exactly that, sticking to the largely unspoken rule of what will get them called back in again next time… and what will not.

Meanwhile the entire western world has entered an economic meat grinder while the Russian economy is doing rather well again by comparison. The economic weapons fired at the Russian economy have pretty much all rebounded to hit those of the West. This was not how it was supposed to be. Russia’s economy was supposed to collapse. Instead it proved extremely resilient, in part due to the innovative techniques designed within the Russian coterie of economic analysts to ensure this.

By comparison the nations of the collective west appear to have little to no clue how to survive this unexpected consequence of the Russian economy’s continued survival. Right across the entire western world the woes expected in the Russian Federation months ago are being felt keenly. Inflation is soaring. Consumption is falling. Recession is inevitable. The West is in very big trouble and it is clear has entered an economic meat grinder of sorts.

While this goes on we see the weapons sent to Ukraine being destroyed on a regular basis. Tanks, planes, HIMAR systems and almost all else are being destroyed, in many cases before they are used even once. Up to one thousand Ukrainian troops are taken out of action either being killed or injured every day according to the Ukrainian authorities. Foreign irregulars and poorly-trained conscripts are taking their place.

Kiev intends to mobilise ever more civilians and send them to the front lines with the minimum of training. How they will be able to use the sophisticated weaponry they receive from the West (if they ever receive them) is unclear. Already Google searches for instructions are quite common it seems. The black hole the western powers have been delivering weapons to in Ukraine has been virtually all-consuming, this fact being evident by the almost complete lack of significant success by Ukraine in holding back the inexorable and incremental advance of the Russians. Now there is talk that these weapons, that don’t even replace what is being lost, are being supplied in diminishing numbers.

The supply chain is an additional factor pointing to an inevitable Ukrainian defeat. It is quite clearly impossible to keep the front line Ukrainians supplied with a continued supply of shells/missiles required. So many arteries of transport are blocked, barred or destroyed. Russia can hot any point across the entirety of Ukraine at any point while effectively barring Ukraine from doing anywhere near the same thing. Russia is shooting down the remaining Ukrainian planes and helicopters (supplied by the surrounding NATO nations) on a daily basis in twos and threes.

But… the show must go on across western mainstream media. Russia MUST be being beaten somehow or other and plucky Ukraine MUST be winning. The boundaries of media-sanctioned thought demand it along with the absolutely unconscionable and unthinkable nature of even hinting that this is not the case.

Western politicians, at the edge of their own black hole of recession in almost every case, must also remain orbiting the boundaries of what is acceptable to think and say. And, heaven forfend, they know they must not, cannot for a second even, talk of Ukraine being realistic, coming to the negotiation table and ironing out a settlement with Russia. No, the downward spiral for both Ukraine and the collective west must be continued until… until what? Does anyone know? A Ukrainian victory? It is clear this is impossible. Ukraine doing so well on the battlefield that it can then eventually drive a better bargain with Russia? There is no sign of this either.

What if things simply carry on as they are with Russia steadily taking town after town, decimating both Ukrainian troop levels and weaponry, destroying targets vital to the Ukrainians right across the entirety of Ukraine. What if Russia continues to make inexorable gains without the slightest sign of Ukraine turning things around? What then? Will some element of reality burst through the set boundaries of western elite thought? I suspect this is unthinkable. In that case the West will continue to be a party to blindly grinding itself down… ad infinitum.

UKRAINE, THE DONBASS AND THE GRAY ZONE - WHO IS TO BLAME FOR THE MASSIVE TRAGEDY WE SEE UNFOLDING?

It ought to be said that the suffering has been immense on all sides in the current war still raging in eastern Ukraine and the territory of the now sovereign Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.

The immensity of the tragedy involved is quite beyond the descriptive powers of those reporting from thousands of miles away, no matter how many videos are watched or reports and articles read.

The dead and injured are numbered in many thousands. Even before the present violence an estimated 14,000 had died in the eight years beginning in 2014 when Ukrainian forces first arrived in great numbers to subdue the insurrection there (largely non-violent unlike the insurrection it was in response to in Kiev months before).

Each side cleaves to its own take on what has occurred. Little connects them in any form. Those Russian-speakers who are in the majority in what was eastern Ukraine and who suffered through eight years of shelling by Ukrainian forces will tell you how grateful they will be when Russia takes full control of their region of Donbass. Further civilian populations beyond where the Ukrainian shelling took place for those years will relate how in their own towns the Ukrainian troops treated them with disdain, insulting them and destroying their homes and municipal buildings.

On the other side, the Ukrainian-speaking minority within the Donbass and further west toward western Ukraine will without doubt blame the Russian for everything, talk of atrocities and of how all Ukrainian territory will be taken back in due course by their army that has been made so much stronger over the eight years since 2014.

But whatever is said one undeniable fact remains no matter who was ultimately responsible for it and that is the amount of suffering and destruction that this tragic episode in Slavic history has caused.

The level of fear, trauma, loss, disfigurement, death and destruction is incalculable as is the amount of mistrust, lies, hatred and potential for further violence, chaos leading to a perpetual spiral into endless conflict.

None of this should have happened. Some form of agreement and pathway to the resolution of differences ought to have been found. Indeed it was thought that such a pathway was found. It occurred in 2015 at Minsk after the Kiev authorities realised that its military was incapable of doing the job it was sent to perform in the Donbass, to remove the leaders of the insurrection there who were demanding autonomy for the Russian-speaking majority there in the face of a complete collapsing of their democratic rights on Kiev’s Maidan.

The very under-prepared, poorly trained and armed troops of the Ukrainian army of that time were no match for the men and women of the Donbass who had formed themselves into militias guided by Russian volunteers. Subsequently the Kiev authorities agreed that the Russian-speaking people of the Donbass would get the autonomy they wanted. This promise was never fulfilled however and the Kiev authorities of that time and their successors instead built up their military forces with massive help from the West.

Who is responsible for the carnage and destruction now is a complex matter to resolve. Certain things are known which can assist anyone wishing to attempt to come to some solution.

1. The Maidan saw violence from one side and the other at different levels at different times.

2. The political parties and U.S. elites who encouraged the violence of the Maidan demonstrators formed the new power in Ukraine after 2014.

3. The rise of Russian-speaking Ukrainians in very great numbers in response to the Maidan event was not characterised by violence. Civic buildings were largely peacefully taken over and their officials replaced.

4. Some weeks after the largely peaceful takeover Ukrainian troops arrived with military vehicles including tanks and the violence began.

5. Who began the violence is disputed as is the responsibility for all that followed.

6. What did follow was a siege by Ukrainian forces of the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk/Luhansk.

7. Following the siege of these regions, from the Spring of 2014 through 2015 the homes, hospitals, schools and town centres received random mortar shelling.

8. Militias were formed in both regions to counter the actions of Ukrainian forces.

9. 2014 and 2015 were the years when the majority of the 14,000 died spoken of above.

10. A proportion of those who died were combatants, however that a great many civilians died is undeniable and likely accounts for the vast majority of the total dead.

11. The militias of the two republics, the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Lugansk People’s Republic roundly defeated the Ukrainian forces by mid-2015.

12. The Minsk Agreements/Minsk Accords were agreed by Russia and Ukraine and ratified at the United Nations.

13. After 2015 a stalemate situation existed with only sporadic deaths among the civilian population and troops on both sides.

14. From 2015, at least from the Russian side constant attempts were made to take the Minsk pathway to the federalisation of the Donbass and its unique culture which is so very different from that of western Ukraine.

15. By late 2021 it was clear that the Kiev authorities were no longer interested in the Minsk Agreements and considered them invalid, relating to conditions that no longer prevailed. (2014-15 when its forces were too weak to fight on.)

16. As spoken of before, from 2014 to the present day Ukraine, with massive assistance from the West strengthened its forces out of all comparison from those that had existed previously.

17. In late 2021 Kiev communicated that it would no longer seek to implement the Minsk steps to reconciliation and peace as they were no longer valid.

18. In recent years the Ukrainian army has trained with NATO troops, has been massively re-armed and has built its forces equally massively around the two republics.

19. In February of this year the western-based OSCE organization, sent to monitor attacks in the region listed a massively growing number of attacks, mostly from the Ukrainian side.

20. Russian intelligence apparently became aware of a planned military assault on the two republics by Ukraine, a ‘final solution’ and inevitable consequence of abandoning the Minsk pathway to peace.

21. Russia acknowledged formally that the two republics of Donetsk and Lugansk/Luhansk were sovereign entities.

22. The authorities of the republics formally requested protection from the Russian Federation.

23. On February 24th as we all now know, Russia moved across the border into the areas of the republics and began its military campaign which continues to this day.

The debate over the rights and wrongs will rage beyond the present day and will likely never be fully and clearly resolved with the widening geopolitical gap between east and west establishing fixed positions of absolute guilt making this totally impossible in fact.

Meanwhile the absolute horror of violent conflict with its attendant miseries, destruction, chaos, loss, death and collapse of many institutional bonds on myriad levels in a heavily fractured and tortured land will continue far into the future.

UKRAINE: PR WINDOW DRESSING & ENDLESS LIES HAVE NEVER WON A SINGLE WAR

The regime in Kiev, its official spokespersons, media talking heads in western Ukraine and its apologists across the western world have mastered many of the dark arts of public relations, assisted by a reported 50+ actual PR companies. More than that they seem to operate constantly on the basis that the bigger the lie the better the result in terms of some kind of “winning” according to their own lights.

Meanwhile, the pawns in this dark game, the cannon-fodder of poorly trained and equipped Ukrainian troops die in their droves, told to stand, fight and die… all to provide a ‘useful’ message to send to the western nations insisting they fight to the last Ukrainian. Each major town is talked of as the crucial place that will determine the fate of the war and due to the PR blitz conveyed compliantly by western press and media places that cannot be defended are lost with massive loss of lives. Then the next media blitz relates that the place was not really all that important and anyway Ukraine made a successful retreat and its supply lines will be shorter now.

The lies have been gushing in waterfall proportions with both Kiev and its western sponsors being equally economical with the truth. And their reliable envoys within the elite western media lie factory that used to be known as an industry related to journalism spreads a consistently false picture. False confidence and further calls for more war proceeds from all this magical thinking, purposeful lying and PR gushing, this transfers to ever more Ukrainian troops being sent to die horrible deaths for nothing… for nothing at all… except to contribute to the hollow facade both sets of elites, Kiev and western require.

Zelensky has become a puppet many times over. A man who sought election on a platform of bringing peace was twisted out of shape into favouring the direct opposite and now resembles a complete parody of a military man. He dances to many tunes now, mostly of a western origin, his “strings” dangling quite clearly as his various coaches urge this or that pretence next. However, none of this is anything approaching newly acquired expertise. The USA and UK are past masters at cynical and rather professional deception.

Psychological and Black operations are seen as vital facets of modern warfare. The teams who arrange various counterfeit events and can counterfeit almost anything from documents to false flag campaigns to thinly disguised propaganda seeded to complain media worldwide are very proficient in these dark arts. In recent decades they have been working overtime and without doubt have vastly expanded their numbers and range of their activities. The result is a massive corruption of what was left of integrity after the decisions to allow torture and much else besides after 9/11.

But even acknowledging the massive power that lies, PR, propaganda and media conditioning can have… can they in tandem, influential as they are, win a war? An honest observation of the progress of events in Ukraine tend strongly to the conclusion that they cannot. Russia continues to take territory and grind down Ukrainian military resistance taking out up to 1,000 Ukrainian troops daily, either killed or injured. It is a lie that ever more weapons sent to Ukraine will win the war. Ukraine was NEVER going to win the war. Russia was ALWAYS going to win. But a sham exercise giving the theatre of deceit some minimum credence was needed to preserve elite reputations even in the face of complete military and economic disaster.

The show must go on, right? NATO must have its showpieces, the EU too… and Biden and co. of course. The right words must be written by the speech writers and delivered faithfully from the auto cue to give the right impression and fix the right narrative. We are winning. Ukraine is winning. All will be well… as Ukrainians lie groaning in pools of their own blood, and that of their brothers in arms. But as long as the message conveyed is positive and as long as western politicians along with Zelensky believe their own reputations are being served… the Ukrainians will continue to groan, scream and die… for nothing more than that. A PR facade for an elite that in reality cares for precious little more than itself.