26 May, 2023 00:39

Top US general delivers sober take on Ukrainian ambitions

Kiev won’t achieve its military objectives in the near term, Joint Chiefs chair Milley has said

No military solution to the fighting in Ukraine will arise in the near future, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, told reporters at the Pentagon on Thursday.

Milley spoke alongside Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin after a virtual meeting of the‘Ukrainian Defense Contact Group’, a collection of Western countries pledging to supply Kiev with weapons, equipment and ammunition to use against Russia –while insisting they are not a party to the conflict.

Ukraine’s strategic objectives are to take all the territory “occupied” by Russia, where “a couple hundred thousand” Russian troops are currently positioned, Milley told reporters. “That might be achievablemilitarily, but probably not in the near term.”

“That means fighting is going to continue. It's gonna be bloody. It's gonna be hard. And at some point both sides will either negotiate a settlement or they will come to a military conclusion,” he said. Meanwhile, the US will continue supporting Ukraine.

Austin and Milley insisted throughout that Kiev was not losing.They painted the months-long battle for Bakhmut, which Ukraine lost, as a triumph of defense. They also claimed that the Ukrainians were using the US-supplied Patriot air defense systems “very effectively.” The Russian Defense Ministry said it had used Kinzhal hypersonic missiles to destroy a Patriot battery in the Ukrainian capital earlier this month. (We have fools as military leaders. Ukraine sent conscripts to Bakhmut to die, they knew it was a lost cause and a vanity operation for Zelensky.)

Milley also defended the decision not to send F-16 fighters to Ukraine sooner, arguing that the US was not ramping up weapons deliveries as a result of public pressure, but always sending Kiev precisely what it needed at any given moment, using “hardcore military analysis” of cost, benefit and risk.

Deploying just ten F-16 fighters would cost $2 billion, including operations and maintenance, Milley explained, while Russia has over 1,000 modern jets. So the decision was made to supply Kiev with air defenses first, and send the F-16s as a more long-term solution.

“It's going to take a considerable length of time to build up an air force that's the size and scope and scale that'll be necessary,” Milley said. He also cautioned reporters to curb their enthusiasm, as “there are no magic weapons. An F-16 is not, and neither is anything else.”

It has been known since February that Milley would retire at some point this year. On Thursday, US President Joe Biden nominated as his replacement the current Air Force chief of staff, General Charles Q. Brown Jr.

https://www.rt.com/news/576929-milley-ukraine-military-objectives/

26 May, 2023 10:11

One person killed in Ukrainian shelling of Donetsk

The capital of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic was attacked several times on Friday, local authorities say

One person was killed as Ukrainian forces usedmultiple rocket launchers to shell Donetsk, the capital of Russia’s Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), the city’s mayor Aleksey Kulemzin has said.

A research institute in the city’s Kalininsky Districtwas struck on Friday morning, the mayor wrote on Telegram. A 37-year-old woman was killed in the attack, he said. Kulemzin also posted images of theaffected four-story building, with its windows blown out and damage done to the upper floors. According to news outlet Readovka, the victim was on the fourth floor when the shell hit.

The military authorities in Donetsk reported thatsix missiles from multiple rocket launchershad been fired at the city from the Ukrainian side. They didn’t specify if US-supplied HIMARS or some of Kiev’s remaining Soviet-era systems were used in the attack.

Shortly after that, the military authorities reported thatfive more missileswere directed at the same area.

A security source told news agency RIA Novosti thatemployees of Russia’s Investigative Committee, who have been working in the Kalininsky District, came under shelling but were able to escape unharmed. There were no deaths or injuries among civilians, he added.

Kulemzin then issued another message on Telegram, stating that the center of Donetsk had been shelled, with one of the missiles landing outside the Green Plaza mall. At least two vehicles were destroyed by missiles elsewhere in the city.

Donetsk has been a frequent target of Ukrainian strikes since the outbreak of the conflict between Kiev and the Donbass republics back in 2014, as Ukraine’s military established heavily fortified positions around the city. The attacks on DPR’s capital intensified after the launch of Moscow’s military operation against Kiev in February 2022, leaving multiple civilians killed and delivering major material damage.

Last August, Russian forces were able to capture the strategic settlement of Peski near Donetsk. However,fighting continues for other Ukrainian-held villagesin the area, Avdeevka and Maryinka.

https://www.rt.com/russia/576944-donetsk-shelling-ukraine-kulemzin/

25 May, 2023 22:19

Germany (1984) jails man for supporting Russia

A German national has beensentenced to three years in prisonfor expressing online support for the Russian side in the Ukraine conflict

A Hamburg court has sentenced a local man to three years behind bars, finding him guilty of justifying “Russian aggression” against Ukraine and possessing an illegal weapon.

The 32-year-old defendant, identified only as Marcel J., ran a pro-Russian Telegram channel, with its logo and name based on the unregistered ultranationalist Russian Drugaya Rossiya (Other Russia) party, Die Welt reported, citing the indictment.

Apart from sharing “pro-Russian national-Bolshevik ideas,” thedefendant openly branded Ukraine a “terrorist state” and used the ‘Z’ symbol– commonly associated with Moscow’s special military operation in the country – which had been partially banned in Germany. Moreover, Marcel J. was found in possession of an illegally large knife, deemed to be a bladed weapon.

His co-defendant, identified only as a 35-year-old man, was accused of being an accomplice but received only six months in jail. A court spokesman explained that the lengthy term for Marcel J. was largely due to his previous criminal record and, in particular, a recent conviction for assaulting a reporter at a public event in late 2021.

The man was convicted for the assault in April by a Berlin court and sentenced to two years and four months in prison. Now, the two convictions will be combined, as required by German law.

https://www.rt.com/news/576925-germany-jails-russia-supporter/

https://twitter.com/RealJamesWoods/status/1661923719235903488?s=20

Catturd ™@catturd2

Around a year ago, I was in the hospital for 5 days … when I finally got home and checked my mail,President Trump had sent me a signed get better soon letter.

Seriously, a President of the USA did this for an everyday, average, old country boy like me?

Has any politician in your life ever done anything like this?

Trump 2024

https://twitter.com/catturd2/status/1661886804419551237?cxt=HHwWioCxpcvPmpAuAAAA

Meanwhile Congress and McCarthy won’t touch it with a 10 pole and won’t investigate the courts, DOJ or FBI prosecuting J6 prisoners. And McCarthy will not release the 44,000 hours of video he promised to America.

Sure investigating Bidan is important but these people are rotting in jail and going to prison for revenge against MAGA!

https://twitter.com/catturd2/status/1662059640752881667?s=20

I guess they are pushing for an insurrection, these people are sick!

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1661718368527761409?s=20

Boycott the Dodgers on! Pass it on

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1662076530577620993?s=20

Meanwhile funding every radical activist org to tunes of billions, Obama’s dream. Is that why Faux crashed and burned their network?

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1661946925225070593?s=20

MEARSHEIMER: Russia is poised to take 4 additional provinces of Ukraine, including Odessa, controlling half the country

Jarryd Jaeger

Speaking before an audience at an eventorganized by the Committee for the Republic on May 22, celebrated American political scientist and University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer delivered his thoughts on the war in Ukraine.

He predicted that Russian forces would continue their assault on Ukraine, going so far as to suggest that they could take as many as four additional oblasts, or provinces, and eventually assume control over half of the war-torn nation.

"A lot of people think that the Russians are bent, and have been bent since February 24, 2022, in conquering all of Ukraine, and then absorbing it into a greater Russia," Mearsheimer said. "The Russians have never been interested in that, and they're not gonna try to do that."

He went on to explain that Russia was interested in "capturing a substantial portion of Ukraine and also making Ukraine a dysfunctional rump state."

"They have already annexed four oblasts plus the Crimea, and they have made it clear they have no intention of giving that territory up," Mearsheimer continued, pointing out that Russia does not yet have total control over that area, which makes up 23 percent of the nation's total land.

"I also believe thatthey will take the four oblaststhat are immediately to the west of those four oblasts," he added. "This includes Odessa and Kharkiv … andonce they do that they will control 46 percent of Ukrainian territory."

Mearsheimer explained that Russia was interested in taking over areas thathave large numbers of ethnic Russians and Russian speakers, lest they suffer from another "Donbas problem," where a civil war erupted between the aforementioned groups and ethnic Ukrainians.

He noted that Russia was motivated to avoid conquering areas populated by ethnic Ukrainians because "they will fight like wild dogs to resist the Russians, even if the Russian military wins on the battle field."

(Mearsheimer is the political historian that opposed any wars with Russia because they had no intent to conquer the world and the Coup in Ukraine was a big mistake by US!)

https://humanevents.com/2023/05/25/mearsheimer-russia-is-poised-to-take-4-additional-provinces-of-ukraine-including-odessa-controlling-half-the-country?utm_campaign=64483

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1661947227940569088?s=20

And Trump said to Barron, don’t ever eat like that, little bites, little bites!

KEK

https://twitter.com/FischerKing64/status/1661795609085632514?s=20