Provocations Difficult to Ignore

Russian National Defense Command Center’s Chief Mikhail Mizintsev
© Vadim Savitsky/TASS

A contact of ours in Odesa confirmed that Ukrainian troops are donning the uniforms of Russian soldiers in an attempt to pull off yet another provocation.  Since this is happening as we speak, we thought we’d provide the evidence before the attack.

Given the fact that the Ukrainian Army’s main tactics as of late are atrocities that the Azov Nazis have perpetrated on their own people no less (in order to inflame international opinion), we should not be surprised that they continue to amp them up.  The fact that said atrocities have been debunked almost in real-time means nothing other than this:  they are desperate to get NATO to pull their fat out of the fire.  ***

Kiev Plotting Provocations with Mass Killings of Civilians to Accuse Russian Troops

The Ukrainian side is plotting to shoot a fake video about searches of places of mass burials of civilians allegedly killed by Russian troops

MOSCOW, April 10. /TASS/. Kiev is plotting, with the West’ support, provocations with massacre of civilians in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) to place the blame for it on the Russian army, Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, said on Sunday.

“Official Kiev, with the support from several Western countries, continues to plan barbarous and ruthless actions with mass killings of civilians in the Lugansk People’s Republic to later accuse the Russian armed forces and LPR troops,” he said.

According to Mizintsev, a provocation is planned in the Ragovka community in the Kiev region. The Ukrainian side, in his words, is plotting to shoot a fake video about searches of places of mass burials of civilians allegedly killed by Russian troops. “A team of Ukrainian forensic experts and police officers will be involved in the provocation to make it look more trustworthy,” he said.

“Reporters from foreign mass media outlets have arrived in the city of Kremennaya in the Severodonetsk district and have accommodated in the building of the local hospital. They are supposed to record the Ukrainian army’s provocation with the alleged selling of ambulance cars carrying patients by Russian troops,” he said.

Apart from that, he said that Ukrainian nationalists have mined reservoirs with chlorine at a water utility in the Popyasnaya district and plan to blow them up when forces of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) approach the city.
 

Comments

  1. Joseph A. says

    “on their own people no less”

    Is this true? Don’t the Lviv Banderists see the eastern folk as subhuman?

    They may all hold the same citizenship on paper, but they’re not the same people.

    • “They may all hold the same citizenship on paper,
      but they’re not the same people”

      …just like they thought the Jews were not the same.

    • Yeah, they’re the same people. Just because a cat deludes himself that another cat is actually a mouse does not make it so.

      These “provocations” are tragic, but pointless. Russia has a million-man active military with 2 million reserves, any number of which they can send directly into the Ukraine at will, arriving at their destination in days, not weeks, in addition to a tactical nuclear arsenal.

      They do not intend to lose, and they will not lose.

    • George Michalopulos says

      That’s a very good point, Joseph.

      As Brendan states below: if by “nationality” one means “people” as opposed to citizenship, then you’re correct. The Banderists do not view Poles, Russians, Jews, et al as “their people.”

      Of course this is absurd: the Russians and core Ukrainians are the same people in much the same way that Scots and Irish are the same people. (By “core Ukrainian” I mean Slavs.)

  2. BTW, Ukrainian provocations are not really the danger, nor is the UkroNZ ideology in and of itself, though it is loathsome. The danger is that the US will not allow Zelensky and Co. to surrender but “fight to the last Ukrainian”. The mood in Russia at this point is to give them just exactly that outcome and “to make a desert and call it peace”. Either they will surrender at some point, or the Russians will destroy everything there. That would be a tragic victory, but a victory no less.

  3. It is a war. And in a war there are enemies. It is tragic that America and many Americans are supporting the side of evil in this fight. That makes them my enemy. And circumstances leave those loyal to Mother Russia with little alternative but to adopt the RF’s new policy rejecting the West and turning East. It is a major turning point in Russian foreign policy which for over 300 years, come what may, has been Europhile. We will do without the West and from now on they are personae non gratae.

    There is propaganda emitted by each side in a war. I discount almost everything positive I see regarding the efficacy of the Ukrainian army as pure bs. There was no “Battle of Kiev”, for instance, any more than there was a Ghost of Kiev or the Holy Martyrs of Snake Island, etc. Last report was that 900 bodies were found in Kiev (which the Russians never entered!). They need to hire more Ukies to organize and keep track of the bs factory.

    And it is all lies.

    Now, if someone seriously believes that the Russians cannot defeat the Ukrainians in the Ukraine given the respective strengths of the Russian and Ukrainian armed forces, that is their “preverse” [sic] prerogative. But if the Russians have the will to win they will prevail and there is nothing the Ukies can do about it regardless of the fanciful lies the legacy media tells at their bequest and on their behalf to prop up morale here and in the Ukraine. The Russians will take their own sweet time, which is frustrating to everyone including the Russian public, but they will do it right and in the end the Ukraine will be firmly under Russian control without any meaningful insurgency.

    Sane Ukrainians that did not want to live under Russian rule fled the country at the outset of the conflict.

  4. “I can’t stop laughing.”

    Too much gas? Perhaps Putin will fix that for you…

  5. Dude, even the Western powers admit that Ukraine has no organized military capability beyond local operations anymore. Hit and run is all they can do. That, and sit in their trenches. They’re done.

    • I will admit the possibility that Russian objectives are far less grand than some, myself included, give them credit for. Originally, before the beginning of the war, my opinion was that at most Russia was interested in securing the Donbass and Novorossiya (along the southern coast). It is entirely possible that that is its sole real objective. I doubt it, for practical reasons, but that scenario is also compatible with facts on the ground to date.

      Russian efforts in the north, toward Kiev, are completely explicable in terms of making a feint toward Kiev in order to tie up Ukrainian forces in defense there. It is simply implausible to suggest that Russia intended to conquer and occupy Kiev with ca. 40000 troops. That’s absurd. No one would set out with that intention given the limited number of troops. However, the whole operation did keep troops tied up that could have been used to defend in the east and south of the country.

      What is less explicable is the withdrawal of the northern initiative, giving up the ground gained, if the ultimate intention is to capture Kiev. It’s possible, but it is quite odd. Also, other than isolated missile strikes, there is almost no Russian activity in the west of the country.

      All of the above is compatible with these two scenarios: 1) limited objective of securing the Donbass and Novorossiya, OR 2) seizing either the central (Kiev) and eastern parts of the country or the entire country. Now, the Russians are obviously annexing the Donbass and Novorossiya. That is practically a fait accompli. None of that territory will be returned to the Ukraine, whatever else happens. They’re flying Russian flags over the government buildings and converting the currency over to the ruble.

      It may be that Russia has developed contingency plans for further activity dependent upon any negotiations which result in concrete agreements with the Kiev regime. That is naive in my estimation, but it is possible. However, if there is a Kiev regime remaining which is Western oriented and Western supplied, the notion that Russia can impose a peace by merely holding onto the Donbass and Novorossiya is fanciful. The West will have its perpetual insurgency against any such arrangement.

      Any substantial portion of the Ukraine which remains under Western control will be exploited in a continued effort to bleed the Russian occupied areas as much as possible – to create another Vietnam or Afghanistan. So the logical conclusion is that the Novorossiya operation was merely phase I, the Donbass will be phase II and that there will be a phase III involving Kiev/Central Ukraine and a phase IV involving Lvov/Western Ukraine.

      Russia, to date, has only used a small percentage of its total combat forces. Whatever the Russian intention, events will eventually dictate their occupation of the whole of Ukraine. It may be as a result of latter phases of a preplanned campaign, or it may be a practical reaction to an emerging insurgency in unoccupied territories. Either way, assuming that winning is an existential necessity, they have no choice.

      • George Michalopulos says

        Misha, this is a brilliant analysis. I will say however that there is another contingency (assuming that the Donbass/Kherson/Novorosssiya areas are formally annexed by Russia. And that is that the Ukrainian economy, already a basket case, will continue to attrit further. Estimates are that their GDP will be halved by next year, no matter how much $$$ are dumped in Kiev.

        Then there’s the fact that we’re not being told the full story: the idea that all of Ukraine is anti-Russian is fanciful. Leaving aside the 1/3 of the country (which is already under Russian control) is not Russophobic, what we do know is that the Western 1/3 (Lviv, Galicia, etc.) is filled with hatred towards the Russians.

        That leave the 1/3 in the central (Kiev-controlled) area. When we find out about the full extent of the Ukronazi atrocities, those done to the non-Ukronazi Ukrainian population, I would not be at all surprised if the subsequent Kieven regime undertakes some type of rapprochment with Moscow.

        It may be the case that the Ukronazis have overstayed their welcome when all is said and done.

        Then there’s the fact that the EU is fracturing. Karl Nehammer, the Austrian Chancellor, met with Putin the other day. The economies of these countries is going south. There is no guarantee that the present NATO countries will accept Sweden and Finland formally joining their alliance.

        Greece for example, just told NATO/EU that they are not going to send any more of the promised weapons to the Ukraine. For once, they acted prudently? Why so? Well, because it’d be hard to defend Greece against Turkey should the Turks decide that –gosh darn it!–those contested islands off the coast of Turkey do really belong to them after all. As well as those parts of Western Thrace.

        • Thank you, George. And as you point out, we do not know the extent of the black economic cloud that is going to envelop Europe or the effect it will have on their will to sustain an insurgency.

          • The other thing, which the boys at the Duran brought up, is that Donbass and Novorossiya may indeed be defensible (in contrast to the Donbass before the war) if they are all incorporated formally into the Russian Federation so that the Russian border is their border with the Ukraine. Then, the “rump” state of Ukraine would be Europe’s economic “black hole” thus contributing to the self-destruction of the EU. Once both the Ukraine and the EU are in a depression, there will be no other option for the Ukraine but to voluntarily come under Russian de facto control.

            That too, I suspect, is possible and that may be what you were implying, George. It denies US/NATO their prolonged insurgency by simply changing the borders. Any violation of the new Russian territory would be severely punished just as incursions into Russia would have been dealt with before the war (massive strikes on Ukrainian governmental infrastructure).

            I am still skeptical of that scenario; however, if they can impose a peace on those terms without a perpetual conflict against the new Russian territories, then Russia would have succeeded at its announced geographical objectives.

            Russia has already partially demilitarized the Ukraine. And once Mariupol and the battle of the Donbass are concluded, they will have largely demilitarized and denazified it, save for those NZ’s immediately around Zelensky.

            This would solve the problem of occupying a country which largely resents your presence. It will, however, allow Ukraine and the West to claim victory. But if Russia is truly committed to its eastward pivot then, having accomplished its stated objectives, it can also claim unequivocal victory and turn the page.

            • George Michalopulos says

              Brilliant analysis, Misha.

              While I don’t disagree with your assessment of the military action/future denouement of whatever constitutes the future Ukrainian state, I look at the economic implications for the EU. Mainly that incorporating the rump Ukrainian state will probably break the EU financially. If you think swallowing Greece was bad, then one shudders to think what will happen when this is attempted with the Ukraine. Greece is corrupt, legendarily so, but we ain’t got nothin’ on the Ukies in that department.

              Leaving aside the EU, when West Germany reabsorbed East Germany, it nearly broke them. But at least East Germany had a resilient and hard-working demography, one disillusioned by Marxism. If, as is expected, Russia swallows the eastern 1/3 of the Ukraine (and the entire southern coast), it will have taken in its most productive sectors. The EU/NATO will be left with an indigent, hate-filled Banderistan, one implacable in its racism.

              Food for thought: what will happen to the Jewish population of whatever is left of Ukraine when the Banderites believe that they “were stabbed in the back” by Zelensky (who is himself Jewish)? Is it any wonder that the Israelis are playing this one as neutrally as possible?

            • I expect Putin wants the Azovstal and Donbass
              over and done with by the 9th of May Victory Day.
              That cauldron will get very hot very soon…

              • Symbolic dates will make the opposition fight harder. The Germans intensified their resistance in Berlin so that the Soviets wouldn’t capture it on May Day, so as to prevent a massive propaganda victory. The last defenders of the Fuhrerbunker were the French SS Charlemagne, who laid down their arms on the morning of May 2, satisfied that they had accomplished their task. I fully expect the Ukrainian armed forces will dig deep so as to prevent the Russians from scoring such an auspicious victory.

        • ” There is no guarantee that the present NATO countries
          will accept Sweden and Finland formally joining their alliance.”

          If Le Pen wins the run-off, France probably won’t.

        • “Greece for example, just told NATO/EU that they are not going to send any more of the promised weapons to the Ukraine. For once, they acted prudently?”

          This is interesting (and welcome) news. Can you provide a link? I’d like to follow up on it.

          • George Michalopulos says

            I heard that from Alex Christophorou’s “Morning Update” two days ago.

            Seriously, if no one is watching the Duran or Alexander Mercouris’ daily updates, you’re missing something. (BTW, you can click on “The Duran” at the top of the blog and go right to their channels. As well as many other’s).

            • I’ve been watching Alex/Alexander individually and The Duran for a couple of months now, they’re awesome.

          • Guess they decided that they need their weapons just in case the Turks come a’knockin. But that this point I think Mitsotakis would just let them in.

        • Nate Trost says

          When it comes to the notion that the Russian Kyiv axis was a ‘feint’, some wag on Twitter nailed it:

          https://twitter.com/Peter__Leonard/status/1509550291976433665

          The reality is, the Kremlin started out with two big faulty assumptions:

          1. The Ukrainains weren’t really going to put up a fight, the operational model for Z was more like Czechoslovakia 1968 than Desert Storm
          2. They had bought and paid for a fifth column that would help them swiftly topple Kyiv and set up a puppet government

          As a result of those assumptions, in the opening 72 hours of the war, a whole bunch of VDV, Spetsnaz and mechanized troops got chewed up. Plan A was out the window, and they had to try and encircle Kyiv in a standup fight with not nearly enough combat power committed to the axis against a very determined defender. Plan B failed and rather than try and dig in to suffer constant attrition after heavy losses, they admitted defeat and pulled back across the border. The subset of the axis that was still combat effective has been redeployed to the Donbas offensive.

          Considering the negative accomplishments, trying to brush that off as a feint makes it even worse. To sum up the results of the Kyiv axis:

          * Took heavy losses in some of their most elite units
          * Gave Ukraine a much needed early morale boost in what will be a long, drawn out bloody war
          * Ensured a much heavier sanctions response than a more limited Eastern invasion
          * Demonstrated Ukraine could effectively use supplied arms, resulting in a massive external resupply effort
          * Demonstrated the poor morale and discipline of Russian troops, both in terms of atrocities conducted in Russian occupied territory, and the sheer galling spectacle of the Kyiv retreat that prioritized looting Ukrainian houses over bringing back the dead bodies of their own fallen comrades

          The lack of internal reflection or reflection on analytical performance by some of the popular pro-Russian sites is utterly hilarious. Way too many people actually believed the fantasy maps of control. The course correction after the Kyiv withdrawal was to simply stop including the maps. Just don’t talk about the failures, pretend they don’t exist, or pretend that they were part of a master plan all along, no matter how absurd it might sound!

          • George Michalopulos says

            Besides the fact that Russia’s had several immediate priorities:

            1. Preempt the pending Ukrainian attack on the Donbass (which was scheduled for the 28th, hence the Russian spoiling attack on the 24th)
            2. Destroy the Uke Airforce
            3. Destroy the Uke Navy
            4. Neutralize/capture the 30 Biowarfare labs (probably the most important)
            5. Protect the Donbass,
            6. Isolate the Uke Army by cutting it off from central command and resupply,

            And do all this in 72 hours, with only 200,000 (at most), while the Uke Armed forces numbered 600,000.

            In reality, it’s hard to say which was the ultimate first priority as if Kiev had allowed any one of these to escape Russian capture/annihilation, then they could have staged counter-offensives. (So far, above the company level, they have been completely unable to do so.)

            I’d say the Russkies performed brilliantly, especially given the fact that the normal ratio of offensive to defensive is 3:1. (In reality, it was the reverse.)

            How did they do that? By feigning an attack/encirclement of Kiev. If you thought that an armored column of 40,000 men could invest a city of 3.1 million people, then you know absolutely nothing about warfare (unless of course you thought that the Russians should have reduced Kiev to rubble, which is what we did in Fallujah).

            What the Russians did with the Kiev and Kharkov feints was execute brilliantly maneuver warfare, fooling Kiev into leaving the main body of its army in the Donbass where they are now encircled within a cauldron, ready to be destroyed.

            Mariupol is of course one of the glittering prizes. As to why the Russians haven’t bombed it to smithereens, it’s because there are some very “interesting” people holed up there. And then on to Odessa.

            So, when all is said and done, when the Kievan regime has no army because it’s immobilized in the East, it’s going to be hard to go to the negotiating table. Because as the old schoolyard taunt goes: “You and what army?”

            Will the West view Russia as a pariah state? Yeah. So? They’ll still have gotten what they wanted. That is the definition of victory, not whether Jen Psaki thinks you’re aces.

            • Nate Trost says

              There was no pending Ukrainian attack on the Donbas, or biowarfare labs to be destroyed or seized. The Russians just made all that up as pretexts/rationalizations for an invasion that was entirely imperial in nature.

              The Russians very much did the opposite of brilliant maneuver warfare in the early weeks of the war. There is some utterly transparent goalpost moving going on. But then I remember the early days of the war when supposedly only a small number of neo-nazis were fighting. And now we apparently have a 600,000 strong Ukrainian military.

              On March 2 George Michalopulos wrote:
              “Presently, both Kiev and Kharkiv remain unconquered but both have been encircled, finding themselves in the midst of two separate Cauldrons.”

              And now on April 19th George Michalopulos writes:
              “By feigning an attack/encirclement of Kiev.”

              They never were encircled, and the Russian’s didn’t feign anything. They tried and failed. You had a false understanding of the facts on the ground. And you give every indication you are committed to continuing in that pattern.

              The JFO in the East was never going to go anywhere. Will Russia be able to encircle and destroy the JFO forces? Eh, possible, but still unlikely. The more likely scenario is that the Russians make some gains in the Donbas and it settles down into another stalemate. At which point the Russian causalities will likely have reached an appreciable percentage of what the US suffered in the entire Vietnam War. It remains to be seen in the next month or two if Russia admits they actually have a war and do something resembling a general mobilization.

              • Gail Sheppard says

                RE: “You had a false understanding of the facts on the ground. And you give every indication you are committed to continuing in that pattern.”

                Well, yes, Nate. This is our blog and because you believe EVERYTHING we say is false, this will likely continue.

                Go your own way. This will be your last comment. We wish you well.

          • McGregor thought the Russians had little serious interest in the north of the Ukraine and confirms the commonsense notion that if you send in 40,000 troops in to surround a city of over three million that you have no serious intent to seize it. To military people, the notion is silly. It is only asserted because it stokes a feeble web of Western propaganda – no more reliable than the Ghost of Kiev narrative. You only do it to pin down troops around Kiev to deny them to other fronts. There was no battle of Kiev. The Russians withdrew without any serious fight once they had accomplished their initial purpose.

            McGregor’s latest analysis is spot on in almost every way.

            Bear in mind, Russia could have thrown 250K to half a million soldiers into northern Ukraine and taken the city in days. People who look at the situation and assert that Russia can’t or won’t win, they are not militarily serious people. It is pure, baseless propaganda swallowed only by fools. If the US went into Mexico, we would do just what we want and stay as long as we liked. No one disputes that. Same difference vis a vis Russia and the Ukraine.

            Now, talk to me about what the Russians intended when you look at their statements regarding the Donbass and the security of the Crimea prior to the war as opposed to what ends up being annexed permanently to the RF at the conclusion of the war. I assume they will line up nicely. The only question is what part of the rest of the Ukraine will Russia want to keep, if any.

  6. It appears as though Gonzolo Lira is dead? Has anyone else seen that as well?

    • That is possible. I have to echo something written over at Moon over Alabama that Lira’s activities, though brave, were not too wise. He was holed up in Kharkov doing YouTube videos when the SBU and/or Azov thugs were actively trying to locate him, probably with some reasonably sophisticated equipment. Or, they just cased any number of groceries and finally got lucky. Either way . . .

      Now, if he couldn’t have gotten out, that is another matter entirely. However, apart from being an eyewitness to periodic shelling in the distance, no real purpose was served in terms of remaining in Kharkov with respect to intelligence gathering. The guys on The Saker have equally good intelligence.

      But he was brave and on the side of the angels and so I will pray for him.

      • George Michalopulos says

        I was just listening to Ryan Dawson, on the latest podcast from Dissident Mama (which I highly recommend) and Dawson’s take was that Lira is doing the smart thing and lying very low.

        Regardless, we must pray for him.

  7. Putin’s [letter] to Israel: “Now hand over
    Alexander’s Court and the Church to Russia”

    https://www-pronews-gr.translate.goog/kosmos/v-poutin-se-israil-paradoste-tora-tin-ayli-tou-aleksandrou-sti-rosia/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

    ‘ Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked Israel to cede control of Russia’s Alexander Yard in Jerusalem and its Church, 100 meters from the Holy Sepulcher in the Old City.

    In a letter delivered to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Putin called on the Israeli government to fulfill the promises made by the previous government.

    According to the Jerusalem Post , Putin’s letter came just a day after the Foreign Ministry in Moscow criticized Foreign Minister Yair Lapid for accusing Russia of alleged war crimes in Ukraine, saying that Israel was using Ukraine to cover its own conflict with the Palestinians. The Russian Foreign Ministry also summoned Israeli Ambassador Alexander Ben Zvi for reprimand on Sunday, as the Israeli state adopted Kiev’s neo-Nazi rhetoric.

    The transfer of ownership of the church land could cause diplomatic problems in Israel at a time when Western allies have imposed sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine.

    Alexander’s Court, also known as Alexander Nevsky Church and Holy Trinity Cathedral, is located in the Christian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.

    Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has promised Putin that Russia could take control in 2020 as part of a series of gestures aimed at freeing Naama Ishahar, an Israeli woman being held in a Russian prison on drug charges. Shortly afterwards, the Israeli Land Registry commissioner listed the Russian government as the owner of the church.

    The courtyard was part of a controversy between Orthodox Church organizations. Jerusalem District Court judge Mordechai Kanduri annulled the transfer of ownership to the Russian government in March.

    The Israeli government has claimed that the Russian Federation is the successor to the Russian Imperial Government, which was registered as an owner during Ottoman rule.

    The Palestinian Orthodox Holy Land Society, which owned the site until it was ceded to the current Russian government, has filed a lawsuit, arguing that the transfer of ownership was of a political nature. Kanduri said Prime Minister Naftali Bennett should decide, because it is a diplomatic issue.

    Former Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin, president of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society, said during a recent visit to Israel that Russia was “fighting for the return of the group but is facing difficulties.” Stepashin accused Israel of “playing on a double board” on the issue. ‘

    “…the Israeli state adopted Kiev’s neo-Nazi rhetoric.”

    Who’da thunk it?

  8. Kiev Plans to Shell Churches on Orthodox Easter to Accuse Russian Forces of War Crimes – Russian MoD:

    Orthodox Christians will celebrate Easter on Sunday 24 April this year. Eastern Orthodoxy is the predominant Christian denomination in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and southeastern Europe, as well as some parts of the Middle East.

    Russia’s Defence Ministry has information that Ukrainian authorities are planning to carry out a “terrible” provocation on Orthodox Easter, and is appealing to Western governments, the United Nations and the Organisation for Security Co-operation in Europe to prevent it from taking place, Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, the head of the National Defence Control Centre, has announced.

    “We are warning countries of the ‘Civilised West’ led by the United States ahead of time that the Russian Federation has an operational base of evidence about terrible crimes planned by the Kiev regime,” Mizintsev said in a briefing in Moscow on Monday.

    Kiev, according to the officer, plans to shell churches using mortars in a number of regions of Ukraine, including Zaporozhye, Nikolaev, Odessa, Sumy and Kharkov on Easter night, and to subsequently blame Russia for the massacre of civilians. A number of Western countries are said to be involved in the planning of the provocation, which is to be carried out by over 70 mobile groups formed among ultra-nationalist battalions in mortar-equipped vans and off-road vehicles.

    “Kiev plans to gather a large number of reporters from Western news agencies to document these alleged ‘Russian atrocities’ and to immediately and cynically spin these fakes,” he said.
    “We call on the United Nations, the OSCE, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organisations to immediately influence the Kiev regime to prevent this inhuman provocation, which disregards all norms of morality and international humanitarian law,” Mizintsev said.

    The National Defence Control Centre chief noted that the MoD’s warning has been communicated to all of the above-mentioned international bodies using available means.
    The Russian military and captured neo-Nazi militants have already provided evidence on suspected war crimes by Kiev-aligned forces against religious sites in recent weeks. Earlier this month, a captured Azov Regiment fighter revealed that Ukrainian forces deliberately fired on the Svyatogorsk Monastery in Donetsk -a major local architectural landmark and Orthodox holy site, in March.

    “It was all done on purpose, to make it look like it was shelled by Russian forces. In reality it was the Ukrainian army doing the shooting, to further inflame the conflict with Russia,” the militant said.

    The monastery was shelled on the night of 12 March, damaging the shrine, a bridge connecting the complex to the city of Svyatogorsk, knocking down trees and leaving shrapnel in the monastery’s walls. Two civilians were killed.
    The captured militant further revealed that Ukrainian forces have been using the tactic of disguising themselves as civilians and travelling in bank vans and ambulances with mortars hidden inside.

    Last month, the Russian MoD accused Ukrainian radicals from the Aidar battalion of keeping 300 civilians and monks hostage in the settlement of Nikolskoe, Donetsk. Russian and Donbass militia forces were said to have killed some of the fighters, forcing the rest to disperse.

  9. George Michalopulos says

    Looks like the Germans are starting to “wake up and smell the coffee”:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTsRztVp1Cs

  10. George Michalopulos says

    A must-see from the late Stephen F Cohen (from around the time when Obama was president): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEsFHNlA8ug

  11. Stephen Cohen was a national treasure on matters of foreign policy. Anyone who wants to learn more about him or listen/watch him speak about Russia and Ukraine will benefit from the archive at https://usrussiaaccord.org/category/stephen-f-cohen/

    Current articles linked from usrussiaaccord.org are also worth reading for a non-“main stream” perspective on current events.

  12. Gunfight in the Odessa Corridor?

    The United Kingdom dragging the United States
    into WWIII in Ukraine (Video)

    https://theduran.com/the-united-kingdom-dragging-the-united-states-into-wwiii-in-ukraine-video/

    [Video – 21:37]

    ‘ The U.K. has for many decades been the United States’ junior partner in pushing for an aggressive and imperialist foreign policy, but in the Ukraine war it may be the U.K. that’s pushing the U.S. to adopt a more aggressive stance in confronting Russia, potentially leading to a nuclear confrontation between the two great powers.

    Jimmy and journalist Michael Tracey discuss the latter’s recent Substack piece about how even members of the allegedly anti-war left in the U.K. have adopted a belligerent stance against Russia.

    Michael Tracey writes:
    There’s a chap called Tobias Ellwood who’s spent the past week doggedly promoting his latest idea to save Western civilization. “From a military perspective,” Ellwood explained during a recent speaking engagement, it’s never been more urgent to impose a “humanitarian sea corridor” off the coast of Ukraine. This would involve an outright naval intervention by NATO in the Black Sea — with the objective being to prevent Russia from seizing control of the strategically important city of Odessa. Perhaps upon commencement of this mission, Ellwood suggested, listless denizens of “The West” will finally come to appreciate the existential stakes of the conflict now before us, and “accept that we are actually in a 1938 period, but actually worse.” The double “actually” was presumably included for maximum emphasis. ‘

    Read more on mtracey.substack.com.

    ‘ “From a military perspective,” Ellwood explained during a recent speaking engagement, it’s never been more urgent to impose a “humanitarian sea corridor” off the coast of Ukraine. This would involve an outright naval intervention by NATO in the Black Sea — with the objective being to prevent Russia from seizing control of the strategically important city of Odes[s]a. Perhaps upon commencement of this mission, Ellwood suggested, listless denizens of “The West” will finally come to appreciate the existential stakes of the conflict now before us, and “accept that we are actually in a 1938 period, but actually worse.” The double “actually” was presumably included for maximum emphasis.

    Notably, Ellwood is not some random crank. He is “actually” a Member of Parliament in the United Kingdom, and the chairman of the impressively-titled Defence Select Committee. In that latter capacity, he seeks to exert influence over the Defence policy of Her Majesty’s Government, which is currently led by his Conservative Party colleague Boris Johnson. … ‘

    This kind of imperialistic Britannity [Britannia + insanity]
    is why I would like Scotland to be independent.
    Still, Johnny Turk has closed the Straits – thank God!

    • George Michalopulos says

      Brendan, back in July of 2016, I got into an amicable (but pointed) exchange with a fellow named Keith (a little older and more liberal than myself). It was about the Brexit vote which had just taken place the week before. Mind you, this man is a professional and well-educated.

      Anyway, he couldn’t understand why I didn’t think that it was a disaster. Finally, after several minutes of back-and-forth, he said “but now “Scotland may want to secede from the UK.”

      I replied: “so what?”

      The look on his face was priceless. For the coup de grace I then added: “you do realize, that Scotland was once an independent kingdom of its own, with a monarchy that predated England’s?”

      He didn’t.

      • Scotland cannot secede from the UK, George.
        The UK was created by the Union of Scotland and England.
        Therefore, if Scotland becomes independent there will be no UK.
        There would be two successor states: Scotland and EWaNI
        (England, Wales and Northern Ireland);
        though I expect the reunification of Ireland would shortly follow.

  13. Antiochene Son says

    OT but I wish the Antiochian Archdiocese would correct its translation of the Lamentations Orthros verse that says:

    O eternal God, * Word co-unoriginate, and Spirit: * magnify the might of America, * Blessing us with peace and freedom evermore. (“Glory” of Stasis 2)

    This is terrible for several reasons:

    1. America does not need its might magnified. A true blessing would be to knock America down several pegs.

    2. What does “blessing us with freedom” even mean? The American style of freedom that brings gays and trannies into children’s bedrooms? The original Greek speaks of repelling foreign invasion. This is a weird Americanized spirit inserted.

    3. It’s just a bad translation. The original Greek refers to the (Roman) Emperor/Empire. Since that is gone, most hymns now spiritualize it, referring to the Church or the Hierarchs. After all, does the Troparion of the Cross “Lord, save thy people” call for “America’s” victory over enemies? No.

    A better translation would be to either more generally refer to the civil authorities in maintenance of a peaceful estate (as the Apostle says), or to spiritualize it. I’ve seen translations that do both. But “magnify the might of America” sounds like a curse, not a blessing.

    I sincerely wonder if the Arabic version used in Syria and Lebanon name their own countries by name?

    Also curious if other Antiochian parishes change the words or sing it as printed, and how people react when they sing it. My parish changes the words to the HTM translation, something like “strengthen the Orthodox”. Another parish I’ve attended sings it as printed, and there are always uncomfortable glances throughout the congregation as they’re sung. And these are patriotic people generally, but it’s just off.

  14. “You Wanna F*** With Me?
    Say Hello To My Little Friend!”

    https://thedreizinreport.com/2022/04/21/you-wanna-f-with-me-say-hello-to-my-little-friend/

    ‘ … In the below video, Oleksiy Arestovich, special advisor to the President, and the Ukraine’s de facto “propaganda minister”, who has been quoted and cited extensively as a source for the Anglo-American MSM, says (in Russian):

    “The idea of the Ukraine, one of the main national ideas of the Ukraine, is to lie as much as possible to oneself and to others. Because if one tells the truth, everything will collapse, and it would be necessary to invent something else. That’s our fundamental imbalanced contradiction.” … ‘

  15. ALERT: Military Site and Chemical Plant BURN DOWN
    in Russia! by Dewey Fernfield April 23, 2022

    https://theduran.com/alert-military-site-and-chemical-plant-burn-down-in-russia/

    As the old saw says: Once is accident,
    twice is coincident, thrice is deliberate…

  16. Ukraine: The Second World War Continues
    By Thierry Meyssan | Voltairenet.org | April 27, 2022
    https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/04/thierry-meyssan/ukraine-the-second-world-war-continues/

    A (very short) political history of post-Soviet Ukraine

    • Yes, that is quite good, giving a serious recitation of how the nz’s came to their present configurations in the Ukraine. They must be destroyed for any peace to ensue.

  17. Aux armes, citoyens: dissecting
    the stage-managed French elections

    https://thesaker.is/aux-armes-citoyens-dissecting-the-stage-managed-french-elections/

    Meanwhile, in Azovstal…

    … Which bring[s] us to the top invisible story before this election, totally buried by corporate media. Yet Turkish intelligence picked it up. The Russians, for their part, have kept themselves deliciously mute, in their trademark ‘strategic ambiguity’ mode.

    Denis Pushilin, the head of Donetsk People’s Republic, confirmed once again early this week there are roughly 400 foreign ‘instructors’ cum mercenaries – from NATO – huddling in the bowels of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, with no way out.

    Turkish intel maintains that 50 of them are French, some of them high-ranking. That explains what has been established by several Russian sources – but not acknowledged at all by Paris: Macron has placed a flurry of frantic phone calls to Putin to set up a “humanitarian corridor” to extricate his valuable assets.

    The measured Russian response has been – once again – trademark geopolitical judo. No “humanitarian corridor” for anyone in Azovstal, be it Azov neo-Nazis or their foreign NATO handlers, and no bombing them to oblivion. Let them starve – and in the end they will be forced to surrender.

    Enter the still unconfirmed yet plausible Macron directive: no surrender by any means. Because surrendering means giving Moscow on a silver plate a series of confessions and all the facts of an illegal, secret operation conducted by the ‘leader of Europe’ on behalf of neo-Nazis.

    All bets are off when – and if – the full story breaks out in France. It might as well happen during the upcoming war crimes tribunal to be set up most probably in Donetsk. … ‘

    Pepe Escobar in fine form, yet again…

  18. George Michalopulos says

    Military Industrial Complex Profits – So far, the US has provided around $3 billion in military aid to Ukraine, with a lot more coming. All that money flying around leads to massive profit opportunities for some of the worst people in the world, especially the US Military Industrial Complex. Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes recently told a meeting of shareholders that, “Everything that ‘s being shipped into Ukraine today, of course, is coming out of stockpiles, either at DOD or from our NATO allies, and that’s all great news. Eventually we’ll have to replenish it and we will see a benefit to the business.”

    Curiously, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is a former member of Raytheon’s Board of Directors. The Pentagon has awarded Raytheon Technologies billions in government contracts since his confirmation in 2021. Secretary Austin is now spending considerable effort traveling to Europe, trying to drum up support for continuing a hopeless war that will bring windfall profits for Raytheon. A company to whose board he is almost guaranteed to return, after his “public service” has ended. Nothing to see here, of course. Coincidences just happen.

  19. George Michalopulos says

    We’re gonna have to start a section just on the “denazification” aspect to the Russian invasion. Basically, how it’s real.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/04/neo-nazis-fighting-ukraine-real-updates/

  20. Brendan says

    One step before the use of regular nuclear weapons – Moscow:
    “NATO red line of non-intervention has been violated”

    https://www-pronews-gr.translate.goog/amyna-asfaleia/enoples-sygkroyseis/ena-vima-prin-tin-xrisi-pyrinikon-oplon-mosxa-exei-paraviastei-i-kokkini-grammi-tis-mi-epemvasis-tou-nato/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en

    The Russians claim that “We had warned about what would happen”

    ‘ The armed forces of Russia and Belarus have launched a surprise military exercise against NATO forces “in order to control their combat readiness” , the Belarusian Defense Ministry, which borders Ukraine, said in a statement.

    The basic exercise is Belarusian, but the coordination of the operation with Russian forces stationed in the country will be tested, according to sources of defencenet.ru.

    Russia and Belarus respond to NATO exercises “Defender Europe 2022” (DE22) and “Swift Response 2022” (SR22) and are involved in halting NATO intervention in Ukraine, as well as conducting defense operations based on the CSTO alliance at the Pole border. -Belarus.

    Belarus announced late night surprise drills. Anti-aircraft systems S-300PS of the Belarusian Armed Forces were detected moving from Brest to Ukraine along the R-17 highway.

    Another military convoy of 30 armored vehicles was located on the border with Lithuania along the M7 motorway.

    Large military mobilization is recorded on the Finland-Russia border, with the Finnish Army transporting LEO2A6 tanks to the border with Russia,

    Russia has clarified that any involvement of foreign forces in the battle of Ukraine, “will receive an overwhelming response from the Russian Federation” meaning of course the use of nuclear weapons! And sources from Moscow speaking to defencenet.ru claimed that “This red line has been violated. “Not only weapons, but also NATO personnel have been involved on Ukrainian soil against Russian forces preventing the extermination of Russian-speakers from their extermination.”

    Two days ago, the American newspaper “The Wall Street Journal” in an analysis estimated that Russia is now “very close to the use of nuclear weapons for a number of reasons”:

    “There are indications that the Russians are deliberately creating a historical path from documents, as if they said they had warned us.

    On Monday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the risk of a nuclear conflict was “serious” and “should not be underestimated”.

    Earlier, Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, sent an official diplomatic note to the United States saying they were sparking the conflict .

    The Washington Post received a copy. He said the missions of the “most sensitive” weapons systems in Ukraine were “pouring oil” on the conflict and could have “unpredictable consequences”. ‘

    NATO is playing with fire!

    • Joseph Lipper says

      Yes, it’s highly likely that Russia will resort to their nuclear arsenal in this battle over Ukraine. It’s how the U.S. ended the war with Japan after all.

      • Brendan says

        The US aims to destroy Russia
        and then to plunder the carcase.
        Russia aims to not be destroyed;
        and if that fails, not to go down alone.