13 Apr, 2023 11:12

(Whiny Crybabies in) Kiev outraged over Pentagon leaks – Politico

US intelligence documents appeared to downplay Ukraine’s chances of a successful counteroffensive

Senior officials in Kiev are “pounding their fists” over leaked US intelligence that appears to cast doubt on Ukraine’s ability to successfully mount a spring counteroffensive, Politico claimed on Wednesday.

According to the outlet, the anger stems from an assessment supposedly made by the Pentagon in February that claimed Ukrainian forces would only be able to make “modest territorial gains” in the long-anticipated operation. (That’s even with special forces from US and EU, it must be really bad)

Kiev has reportedly argued that the leaked documents, which also include alleged US intelligence on other aspects of the conflict with Russia, offer more proof that Washington underestimates Ukraine’s military capabilities.

“The same people who said Kiev would fall in three days are now leaking harmful and equally ridiculous information ahead of an offensive critically important for the entire free world,” a source close to senior officials in Kiev told Politico.

An unnamed Ukrainian defense official also told the outlet that “there are some people who continue to be hesitant” about Kiev’s chances in its planned counteroffensive. The source insisted that pessimistic projections are “not the truth,” and argued that the leakscast doubton America’s determination to back Kiev in its effort to retake former territories. (America leaders as a whole never did support Kiev, its really just the money laundering they will protect.)

Politico claims a third Ukrainian official has confirmed that frustration is widespread in Kiev, although all three sources chose to remain anonymous.

At an official level, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said on Twitter that US Secretary of State AntonyBlinkenhad personally called him on Tuesday to affirm “ironclad US support.” The US diplomat “vehemently rejected any attempts to cast doubt on Ukraine’s capacity to win on the battlefield,” Kuleba added.

According to the leaked documents, as well as previous statements from officials in Kiev and Washington, Ukraine is planning to launch a major counteroffensive within the next few weeks. The ultimate goal of the operation is to capture territories that joined Russia last autumn, while cutting off Moscow’s land access to the Crimean Peninsula.

Even before the alleged classified documents appeared online, a number of Western officialspublicly doubtedKiev’s chances of success, citing a lack of manpower, supplies, and logistics. US Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley has repeatedly questioned Ukraine’s ability to resolve the conflict through a military victory in the near term.

Nevertheless,Kievhas urged its Western allies tocontinue sending moneyand weapons,even ifthe offensive does not achieve all of its objectives.

https://www.rt.com/news/574654-ukraine-outrage-pentagon-papers/

13 Apr, 2023 07:07

Alleged mastermind behind military blogger's murder identified

The FSB claims a Ukrainian man was behind the assassination of Vladlen Tatarsky in St. Petersburg

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has named Ukrainian citizen Yury Denisov as the organizer of the assassination of military blogger Vladlen Tatarsky at a St. Petersburg café earlier this month.

According to the agency,Denisov traveled to Russiafrom Kiev via Latvia in February. He used an intermediary to deliver the bomb to a woman who brought it to the St. Petersburg café where Tatarsky was hosting a talk on April 2.

The subsequent explosion killed the blogger and injured dozens of other people. Denisov left Russia the next day, traveling through Armenia and Turkey, the FSB claimed.

Before the assassination was carried out, the agency claims Denisov spent time in Moscow Region collecting intelligence on Tatarsky, the statement added. Russia is formulating aninternational arrest warrantfor the suspect.

The FSB has released several images of Denisov, including of him apparently passing customs control at the Russian border. Photos were also released of his Ukrainian driver’s license and a redacted contract for the purchase of a used car in Moscow.

Investigators have pinned the bombing on “Ukrainian special services and their agents, including fugitive members of the Russian opposition.” The statement specifically named several associates of jailed opposition figure Alexey Navalny as inspiring Denisov’s alleged accomplice, Darya Trepova, to carry out sabotage in Russia.

They “repeatedly made statements about the need for sabotage actions in Russia,” the FSB claimed. It added that Trepova was a supporter of Navalny.

Tatarsky, whose real name was Maksim Fomin, was a former Donbass fighter and popular military blogger who advocated a decisive stance regarding the Russian military operation against Ukraine. His talk in St. Petersburg was hosted by a café that is connected with Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner Group private military organization. Kiev has denied any responsibility for the bombing.

https://www.rt.com/russia/574642-fsb-names-mastermind-military-blogger-bombing/

13 Apr, 2023 11:36

Ukrainian opera house fires ‘unpatriotic’ chief conductor

Vyacheslav Chernukho-Volich was sacked after posing with tenor Yusif Eyvazov, Russian soprano Anna Netrebko’s husband

An opera house in Ukraine has fired its chief conductor for performing in a venue led by tenor Yusif Eyvazov, the husband of Russian opera diva Anna Netrebko, and posing with him in a photo. The Odessa National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre announced the decision to part ways with Vyacheslav Chernukho-Volich on Wednesday, saying his actions are unacceptable in light of the conflict with Russia.

The theater said in a statement that the conductor has not been authorized to perform in Baku, Azerbaijan this month. It also noted that Eyvazov was recently appointed as the director of Baku’s opera.

The Odessa opera house argued thatartists who represent Ukraineinternationally must condemn “Russia’s barbaric actions against our state” and understand “the unacceptability of contacts with representatives of the ‘Russian world’ and those who support Russian aggressors.”

“It is impossible for us to continue employment of those who … do not hold a clear civic and patriotic position,” the opera house added.

Chernukho-Volich said he has been collaborating with the Baku theater for more than ten years and was invited to conduct ‘La boheme’ long before Eyvazov’s appointment. Eyvazov was named director on April 7 and Chernukho-Volich’s performance took place the next day.

“I am not personally familiarwith Mr. Eyvazov, I saw him when he went on stage,” the conductor said, as quoted by Opera Wire. “If we are talking about the wife of Yusif Eyvazov, in our country, the son is not responsible for the father and the husband for the wife.”

Chernukho-Volich said he has refused to work with Russian artists. “From the first day of the war, I remained in Ukraine and worked … for our victory,” he insisted.

Some Russian artists lost work in the West after Moscow launched its military operation in the neighboring state over a year ago. Netrebko condemned Russia’s actions early in the conflict. However, the Metropolitan Opera in New York said at the time that it was not enough for the singer to be reinstated.

Netrebko said that she was not involved in Russian politics and had no ties to the government.

In December, Ukrainian Culture Minister Aleksandr Tkachenko penned an op-ed in The Guardian calling for aboycott of Russian culture, including classical music composed by Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described the push to ‘cancel’ Russian culture last year as “simply nonsense,” adding that attempts to do so will ultimately fail.

("There are two ways by which the spirit of a culture may be shriveled. In the first — the Orwellian — culture becomes a prison. In the second — the Huxleyan — culture becomes a burlesque.)

https://www.rt.com/russia/574657-ukrainian-opera-fires-conductor/

Kind of weird as this was the KGB techniques in Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany

21 October, 1949

Dear Mr. Orwell,

It was very kind of you to tell your publishers to send me a copy of your book. It arrived as I was in the midst of a piece of work that required much reading and consulting of references; and since poor sight makes it necessary for me to ration my reading, I had to wait a long time before being able to embark on Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Agreeing with all that the critics have written of it, I need not tell you, yet once more, how fine and how profoundly important the book is. May I speak instead of the thing with which the book deals — the ultimate revolution? The first hints of a philosophy of the ultimate revolution — the revolution which lies beyond politics and economics, and which aims attotal subversion of the individual’s psychology and physiology— are to be found in the Marquis de Sade, who regarded himself as the continuator, the consummator, of Robespierre and Babeuf. The philosophy of the ruling minority in Nineteen Eighty-Four is a sadism which has been carried to its logical conclusion by going beyond sex and denying it. Whether in actual fact the policy of the boot-on-the-face can go on indefinitely seems doubtful. My own belief is that theruling oligarchywill find less arduous and wasteful ways of governing and of satisfying its lust for power, and these ways will resemble those which I described in Brave New World. I have had occasion recently to look into the history ofanimal magnetism and hypnotism, and have been greatly struck by the way in which, for a hundred and fifty years, the world has refused to take serious cognizance of the discoveries of Mesmer, Braid, Esdaile, and the rest.

Partly because of the prevailing materialism and partly because of prevailing respectability, nineteenth-century philosophers and men of science were not willing to investigate theodder facts of psychologyfor practical men, such aspoliticians, soldiers and policemen, to apply in the field of government. Thanks to the voluntary ignorance of our fathers, the advent of the ultimate revolution was delayed for five or six generations. Another lucky accident was Freud’s inability to hypnotize successfully and his consequent disparagement of hypnotism. This delayed the general application of hypnotism to psychiatry for at least forty years. But nowpsycho-analysisis beingcombined with hypnosis; and hypnosis has been made easy and indefinitely extensible through theuse of barbiturates, which induce a hypnoid and suggestible state in even the most recalcitrant subjects.

Within the next generation I believe that the world’s rulers will discover thatinfant conditioning and narco-hypnosisare more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggestingpeople into loving their servitudeas by flogging and kicking them into obedience. In other words, I feel that the nightmare of Nineteen Eighty-Four is destined to modulate into the nightmare of a world having more resemblance to that which I imagined in Brave New World. The change will be brought about as a result of a felt need for increased efficiency. Meanwhile, of course, there may be alarge scale biological and atomic war— in which case we shall have nightmares of other and scarcely imaginable kinds.

Thank you once again for the book.

Yours sincerely,

Aldous Huxley

https://www.openculture.com/2015/03/huxley-to-orwell-my-hellish-vision-of-the-future-is-better-than-yours.html

Were Huxley and Orwell time travelers, as it seems we see both of the prophecies appearing today?

>>18688279

Its pretty sad that civilization is marching to their death willingly as obvious propaganda is labeled truth and vice versa.

Agreed constant prayer is the only force that can and will conquer it. Fortunately many are waking up and reverting back to spiritual work, as much as they try to destroy the soul, its not in their domain to destroy God’s creation. Free Will is the choice to have their soul live or die. This is the time that is the ultimate test.

>>18688196

This type of mouth is a recurring pattern of the left, it reminds me of the gates if hell opening.