Russia Invades Ukraine

[james03]

Maybe he reads SD and was talking about you, James, as the "Western Analyst"? Lol.

When I woke up in Gorky Park, Medvedev was standing next to me and gave me a ride back to the hotel.  Evidently his wife wasn't too happy with him rolling back home around 9 a.m. after a night out with Moscow James.

[james03]

Kudos to you, James. You called that one correctly. Russia is apparently proposing to divide up Ukraine as you suggested.

I'm not completely convinced because it would be such a brilliant psyops play.  Imagine Poland now sending in "peace keeper" troops to Western Ukraine and how much crap that would now stir up.

On the other hand, I've underestimated how direct the Russians are in their comms in the past.

Keeping an open mind.

[james03]

Back to the war.  Here's a map showing that a cauldron is forming around Avdiivka.  Red line shows previous position.  We know how this ends from previous operations.  The allies have an intense hatred of the Ukraine forces around Avdiivka due to the terror shelling that originated from that area and hit Donetsk City.

[Xavier]

https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5026542/senator-cotton-challenges-senator-hawley-opposition-sweden-finland-joining-nato

"Senator Cotton Challenges Senator Hawley Over Opposition to Sweden and Finland Joining NATO
In prepared remarks on the Senate floor, Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton speaks in support of Sweden and Finland joining NATO, saying that "the alliance will be unquestionably stronger." Without mentioning him by name Senator Cotton challenges Missouri Republican Josh Hawley for opposing NATO expansion this time around after backing Montenegro and North Macedonia's accession in 2019. "It would be strange indeed for any senator who voted to allow Montenegro or North Macedonia into NATO to turn around and deny membership to Finland and Sweden. I would love to hear the defense of such a curious vote," he says. close"

17 min Video in the link. Senator Cotton's response to Senator Hawley on Finland & Sweden joining NATO being a Good Thing.

[Xavier]

Nice Story of some positive change going on among the Russian People. "From Communism to Christianity". Pray for Russia.

"From Communism to Christianity
Two former Soviet citizens are using their faith, education, and experiences to help their homelands, despite the obstacles
Oleg Voskresensky at Holy Trinity Orthodox Church in St. Paul, Minn.
Jim Mone/Genesis

On Nov. 2, 1937, Soviet secret police forcibly seized Oleg Voskresensky's grandfather, a Russian Orthodox village priest, from his home and family, saying he was under investigation. Instead, that night they led him into nearby woods and shot him.

The murder was part of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin's anti-religious campaign beginning in the 1920s and lasting until 1941, a time during which the state executed more than 100,000 Russian Orthodox clergymen. Raised in Moscow during the Cold War, Oleg Voskresensky, 65, grew up knowing his grandfather's story but never allowed to talk openly about it.

Paul Gavrilyuk is 15 years younger than Voskresensky and grew up more than 500 miles south of him, in Soviet Ukraine. He remembers the day his dad returned from work and told him about a woman—a Baptist—who in public had handed him a children's Bible to bring home to Gavrilyuk. This was after Stalin's brutal reign but at a time when the state still outlawed religious proselytizing and persecuted Christian leaders. His father—who was not a believer—had to decide whether he would report the woman to authorities or risk being reported himself for not turning her in. He decided to quietly acknowledge her gift and say no more.

Two men: both born and raised in the Soviet Union during the Cold War—one in Moscow, the other in Kyiv. Each took a different path leading to Christ, then across the world to Minnesota and teaching professions, to friendship, and finally, to outreaches back to their homelands. They both say Christ alone saved them, while they continue to worship and practice in Eastern Orthodox churches. These men, Oleg Voskresensky and Paul Gavrilyuk, have independently found ways to help their former countrymen. Since Feb. 24, when Russia invaded Ukraine, their zeal to help has only grown.

Their stories illuminate the forces they're up against: brutal, repressive, national histories; corrupt governments; spiritual darkness; ongoing propaganda; and now, war. But these problems have given each of them a heightened awareness of God's providence and work.

VOSKRESENSKY'S LIFE followed a circuitous path from Communism to Christianity. His mother, a women's magazine journalist covering women's rights globally, from the Soviet perspective, and his father, a road construction engineer who traveled widely, were Communist Party members and part of the intelligentsia. They attended Communist meetings and toed the party line. But they were living dual lives.

Officially, they embraced Communist ideology, but years later Voskresensky learned his father secretly attended church and took Communion in small villages far away from Moscow when he traveled. Although his parents spoke somewhat more openly around the dinner table than in public, they hushed their son whenever he raised questions about God, faith, or his grandfather, saying, "When you grow up, you will discover it by yourself."

Stalin had considered all forms of religion, except atheism, anathema and a danger to the state. Under his crackdown, the number of Orthodox churches—the predominant churches in the Soviet Union and later Russia—fell from nearly 30,000 to under 500. Only a twelfth of the priests survived. As the state killed or sent to labor camps millions of Orthodox Christians, Soviet propaganda proclaimed no religious persecution occurred and that the state was removing only people who broke laws or resisted. Some historians estimate that of the 20 million to 40 million victims of the Soviet regime, between 12 million and 20 million were labeled Christian.

Voskresensky says many men, including his father, served in World War II to prove they were not enemies of the state, as the state had deemed his grandfather. They called this "washing their guilt with their own blood." After World War II, during the Cold War's almost 45 years, fear of persecution dictated why many, including Voskresensky's parents, hid their faith, and why many others abandoned it.

So, in the 1970s, when Voskresensky encountered a high school teacher who dared speak openly about God, as if God was personal and existed, Voskresensky was shocked.

He remembers thinking: "'You mean God is not a fairy tale, not an ancient myth?' I started thinking of God as reality for the first time and started to look for Him." Voskresensky calls this teacher the genius responsible for pointing him in the right direction. The state called the teacher a dissident and kicked him out of the country when he was 74. He still lives today in Germany.

Voskresensky remembers engaging in dissident activity himself: climbing a cabin roof with childhood friends and their shortwave radios, trying to hear snatches of Voice of America broadcasts that the Soviet state tried to jam. "We didn't automatically believe what we heard," he explains. "But we at least could consider whether it was true or not. We could start to think critically."

Differing worldviews competed for Voskresensky's soul. Classic Russian authors, like Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, and beautiful art drew him toward the Biblical God, yet for years he followed Zen Buddhism. Looking for advice, one day he motorcycled out of Moscow to an Orthodox village priest. After both determined the other wasn't secretly KGB, the priest prayed for him and gave him a Bible.

Perestroika—radical political and economic restructuring—and glasnost—increasing openness in Russian society—arrived in the 1980s, during the time Voskresensky met his future wife, Oksana. When he saw how she applied Christianity to everything she did, Voskresensky knew God could change him, too: "Christianity became more than just a philosophy." The smile in Voskresensky's voice broadens whenever he mentions Oksana.

Soon, he worshipped regularly at her Orthodox church where services were in the Russian language, instead of the usual Church Slavonic no one could understand. Within two years, he says, he professed faith in Christ. His life's work slowly began to emerge, centered on his newfound faith.

PAUL GAVRILYUK also recalls the state's religious suppression, but not to the same extent. With a strong Eastern European accent like Voskresensky's, he, too, speaks articulately—and I can almost see cogs turning as he remembers the past and connects it to how God works.

He tells me his mother and grandmother were devout Christians. His great-grandfather had been an Orthodox priest who survived the purges. But his father, a civil engineer who helped build Chernobyl's steel and concrete sarcophagus to contain radiation after the nuclear power plant's disaster in 1986, was a sympathizing humanist—he respected his wife's faith but did not embrace it.

Gavrilyuk's childhood was marked by years of what Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev later dubbed "The Era of Stagnation"—a time of failed Soviet political, economic, and social policies under Leonid Brezhnev in the early 1970s and continuing under Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko. In 1985, Gorbachev became the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991 into 15 separate nations.

That meant Gavrilyuk enjoyed the emerging perestroika and glasnost during his formative high school and college years. With society's new openness, he started to explore Christianity. He got hold of a Bible and read it from cover to cover. When he was 14, a Jewish math teacher at summer camp piqued his interest more with Old Testament stories.

At 15, he and friends started jamming on guitars and singing songs from the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar. He spent class time pretending to listen to teachers while translating and scribbling the lyrics into Russian. "It wasn't a profound turning to Christ or conversion yet," he recalls, with a quick laugh. "But it was a step."

He was 18 when the presence of Christ became real to him, thanks to a teacher—similar to Voskresensky's experience. Father George was Gavrilyuk's university humanities teacher who opened the Bible and explained it. "It was like when the Apostle Philip opened Scripture to the Ethiopian eunuch," he recalls. The teacher talked nonstop about a personal encounter with Christ.

When Gavrilyuk woke one morning and found his desires had completely changed, he wondered if something supernatural was happening to him. Throughout college, he and friends had played a game similar to bridge where winning competitions became quite lucrative. Gavrilyuk had even written a popular book about probability on it. But on that memorable morning, he no longer had any interest in making money from the game or even playing it again.

He realized he believed the Jesus of the Bible and wanted to pursue Him. He repented of his sins and was quietly baptized, desiring to live Biblically. He met Eugenia, his future wife, who simultaneously was growing in faith. Gavrilyuk started devouring Christian books and began to see how Marxism stifled the human spirit and suffocated history and politics.

As Soviet society became less restrictive, especially after the country's 1991 disintegration, Voskresensky, too, began voraciously reading Christian works—many by C.S. Lewis, as well as sermons and books by Orthodox authors.

While on a work visa pursuing journalism in America, he first encountered evangelicalism: A young family on a Minneapolis playground invited him, Oksana, and their daughter to their home, and then to their Bible church.

Voskresensky loved the church's systematic theology and strong Bible teaching. Soon his new community of believers helped send him to Bethel Seminary in St. Paul. He tells me some describe him as an evangelical Orthodox—he both believes in a personal relationship with Jesus and loves the traditions of his church. He continues to worship as an Eastern Orthodox.

After seminary, he eagerly began translating Christian materials into Russian, developing presentations to take into Russian-speaking countries. He traveled to Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Poland, and Finland, but mostly Russia. His goal: to teach the historicity and veracity of the Biblical Christ.

Initially, some Russians listened to his presentations with suspicion because his evidence was only from Western sources. A priest kindly chastised him: "All this is made in America. Make it look like it's made in Russia—in Moscow—and people may listen."

The lightbulb went on. Voskresensky changed all his source material, using only works from Russian historians, theologians, scientists, artists, and writers to support Christian truths.

Listeners could now check references and primary sources they understood and were comfortable with. The rational, historical information and evidence appealed to the educated Russian-speaking audiences. Floodgates opened. Soon, Voskresensky got invitations to teach all over the country. The most unlikely came from Russia's Ministry of Education.

His materials became part of a nationwide fourth grade curriculum throughout Russia called "Introduction to Christian Culture," part of a religious culture education project the state was developing. "I never even prayed for this opportunity," says Voskresensky. "God just gave it to me."

He began training teachers nationwide on how to present his Christian material to children, then enhanced his local credibility more by getting a doctorate in education from a Moscow university.

The Russian Federation has reprinted his curriculum for 10 years now. Children and their teachers from Siberia to St. Petersburg and Moscow use it. Voskresensky's training talks have led to speaking engagements at Orthodox and Protestant churches, colleges, army bases, and prisons.

AFTER GAVRILYUK earned his undergraduate degree in physics, he pursued a theology doctorate, arriving in the United States with Eugenia to study at Southern Methodist University. He discovered later he was one of the first scholars from the former Soviet Union to formally study religion in America.

Again, a teacher inspired Gavrilyuk, this time a Northern Irish Methodist, professor William J. Abraham, with a bushy white beard and welcoming smile. His intellectual rigor, tireless evangelism, love for children, and investment in students offered a model for Gavrilyuk to emulate. "He was like Paul, and I, Barnabas," he says. Together, they traveled to Kazakhstan and Costa Rica on missions trips. But Gavrilyuk remained Eastern Orthodox.

For 20 years, Gavrilyuk has taught theology and philosophy at the University of St. Thomas, a Roman Catholic university in St. Paul, Minn., where Eugenia also teaches. He and Voskresensky became friends shortly after he moved to Minnesota.

Like Abraham, his former mentor, Gavrilyuk's labors don't end at the classroom. He most recently has been working with Rebuild Ukraine, a nonprofit he began, to bring supplies into Ukraine. It has provided thousands of military-grade tourniquets for the country's Territorial Defense.

Volunteers and staff transport tourniquets and other items—prescription and first aid drugs, camouflage gear, boots, protective goggles, neck warmers, and raincoats—across Poland's eastern border to a distribution center in Ternopil. A network of 70 volunteers within Ukraine moves these goods to 60 locations throughout the war-torn country. The network is similar to one Gavrilyuk used to evacuate his elderly parents and about 100 families from Kyiv, shortly after Russia invaded.

"We deliver what people need, not what donors are willing to contribute," says Gavrilyuk, referring to problems some organizations have when piles of donations arrive that refugees can't use. Gavrilyuk's brother owns a social media intelligence company to track and verify supplies get to the right people, all of whom are vetted, so items don't end up on the black market.

Rebuild Ukraine also funds teacher salaries, facility rentals, and supplies for a refugee school in Montenegro. "We had to do something for these children and their mothers who had to flee Ukraine while their fathers and husbands stayed to fight," explains Gavrilyuk, getting emotional. "We need more schools for these psychologically shocked kids."

When we spoke, he was in Washington, D.C., en route to Europe, in part to check on Rebuild Ukraine's supply distributions and school efforts.

Both Voskresensky and Gavrilyuk vehemently condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian war. They also decry Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill's support of Putin. But they aren't surprised; the love of power, both say, rules each man.

What does surprise Voskresensky is how many of his friends in Russia believe the state's version of the war. These are the same childhood friends who would clamber up a roof with him to listen on their shortwave radios for foreign news transmissions, then critically compare them with Soviet propaganda. Now, he says, they seem to have abandoned all critical thinking.

And it troubles him that the same Russians who were concerned about the sources he used for his presentations no longer seem to evaluate their own sources. Instead, they blindly accept the state's claims. Voskresensky was in Russia when the war began, and when he pointed out tanks were rolling south toward Ukraine, friends told him he'd been brainwashed by the West and no invasion would happen. When the invasion did occur, even his former newspaper boss denied it was war and simply said Russia wasn't afraid of Western sanctions.

Since then, Russia has closed or blocked at least 10 independent media outlets over their war coverage. Television controlled by the Kremlin is the main source of news. Yet, many Russians, including government officials themselves, circumvent the government's internet censorship with VPNs (virtual private networks) to get information from abroad. Despite this, recent reports say most Russians continue to believe the war is just.

"Many Russians believe, like Putin, the collapse of the Soviet Union was the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century," Gavrilyuk adds. He recalls Putin's popularity skyrocketed in 2014 after Russia annexed Crimea despite Ukraine's protests.

"Putin is now destroying two countries," says Gavrilyuk. "Ukraine, of course, but also Russia." He says Russia is already losing politically, and believes it ultimately will lose militarily and economically.

Voskresensky wanted to return to Russia in May, but the war precluded travel. He hoped to talk with friends there, trying to find some common ground. When he resumes training Russian teachers, he will try to help them guide children on how to think about the war from a Christian perspective that doesn't publicly denounce the state. "I know at least we'll be able to agree that war and killing is terrible and causes pain. And pain should alert us that something is wrong and must be changed," he says.

"And then," he adds, "I want them to understand that means God's Spirit is showing us the reality of sin and evil that only Christ can conquer."

[Xavier]

https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2022/08/himars-hidden-superpower-and-other-acquisition-lessons-ukraine/375420/

"HIMARS' Hidden Superpower and Other Acquisition Lessons from Ukraine

Aug 5

With no U.S. troops on the ground, acquisition professionals are the operators making the difference.

As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues to unfold, the military acquisition community—no less than professionals in any other military specialty—are studying it to gain new insight. There are at least four observations they might make.

First, this happened fast, so acquisitions must get faster. The Russian army massed troops on its western borders several times in recent years, but the current buildup began in late October. Russian troops crossed the border a mere four months later, in February. This suggests the proverbial "speed of relevance" is much faster than the typical pace of acquisitions. Indeed, Politico recently pointed out that "the Pentagon's acquisition system is still not pivoting quickly enough to get the latest commercial gear to the front lines" of Ukraine.

A Washington Post article quotes a Ukrainian soldier who bemoaned the slow delivery of the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS: "Had they been here much earlier, I think we would've already been done with the war." That may be overstating it, but the point stands. With events unfolding quickly, the acquisition community needs to rise to the occasion and find ways to move faster.

This call for agility and speed is hardly new. In 1986, the Packard Commission observed: "An unreasonably long acquisition cycle...is a central problem from which most other acquisition problems stem." They weren't the first to make that observation, nor were they the last. Here in 2022, the need for speed is indisputable and the acquisition community must reject the ponderous processes of the past and build a faster future. (For specific recommendations on how to speed things up, start with "Accelerating Defense Acquisition," a paper I co-authored for Mitre.)

Second observation: without troops on the ground, the U.S. forces most directly involved in this conflict are intelligence and acquisition professionals. That suggests potential changes in how they are viewed and used.


The intelligence being provided by the United States to the Ukrainian government is extensive and, according to a Ukrainian official cited by the Washington Post, "very good."

The Pentagon's other primary contribution is more than $6.1B in hardware since February: mainly artillery, ammunition, vehicles, and machine guns. The acquisition community needs to recognize this role, honestly assess its performance to date, and investigate ways to improve in the future. In strategic terms, the DOD may need to rethink how it views acquisition's contribution to international security—and ultimately shift the balance between long-term technology development activities and near-term support to operational units. The Pentagon should pay particular attention to the activities and outcomes it prioritizes for acquisition professionals, as well as its policies and training.

Related articles

Ukraine Says It Needs at Least 100 HIMARS and Longer-Range Rockets

US Sending More HIMARS to Ukraine

If acquisition success in 2022 means quickly delivering operational systems to a country like Ukraine, the DOD may need to recast its view of the acquisition profession as a whole, exploring new ways for it to organize and function. One potential model is the SOCOM Ghost program. Ghost is a "broadening opportunity for junior Army acquisition professionals to directly support SOF warfighters," wrote one Army major who described how he and his colleagues "lead a rapid acquisition project that delivers tangible results to meet the needs of SOF operators." This tighter collaboration between acquirers and operators leads to faster delivery, more agility, and is a better fit for the national-security needs posed by situations like the war in Ukraine.

Another example to follow is Kessel Run's groundbreaking user agreement with Air Combat Command, which sets up a close relationship between developers and users that the rest of the acquisition community might want to mimic.

Third observation: the most helpful gear in this fight isn't always American, because U.S.-made gear is often too hard to use. Initial reports indicate Ukrainian forces often find Western systems unfamiliar and harder to use, particularly when compared with more familiar Russian platforms. This does not mean the Pentagon should buy up a bunch of old Russian gear (and Chinese gear and Iranian gear, etc...) so we can give it to the next country that gets invaded by a hostile neighbor. Instead, perhaps the lesson is that American stuff is too hard to learn to use in the first place.

The acquisition community must place a greater emphasis on ease of use and work to reduce the amount of initial training needed for users to adopt new systems. Every program should include requirements for simple, intuitive user interfaces. The Pentagon should also to boost the acquisition workforce's expertise in areas such as Human Centered Design and User Experience design.

Making American kit easier to use out of the box means it's easier to provide to countries like Ukraine on short notice, when the need is immediate and time for training is limited. This also makes it easier for anyone—including American and allied operators—to adopt new capabilities. User would spend less time learning to navigate difficult procedures, and more time training actually employing the systems. This shift towards usability and reduced training requirements would thus have the added benefit of improving life for American warfighters and our allies as well. The good news here is that HCD and UX are well-established disciplines that could be more deeply incorporated into the acquisition process.

In fact, when military gear is designed with usability in mind, the results are promising. For example, "The Ukrainian military has gotten its troops trained on using the HIMARS remarkably quickly; they were deployed on the battlefield within weeks of their arrival," Grid reported. Why is this advanced precision artillery system so easy to use? Because Army acquisition professionals worked hard to make it so. "We updated the user interface from a human factor standpoint as the software intuitively guides the Soldier through the conducted mission," Amber Marsh, HIMARS software sustainment division chief, told an Army magazine. "We strive to make the interaction with the software as easy and intuitive as possible for the end user."

HIMARS shows it can be done. The rest of the acquisition community would do well to follow suit.

And fourth, NATO has gotten stronger, bigger, and more prominent, and so too should be acquisition professionals' engagement with allies. Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg describes the alliance's response to the Russian invasion as "the biggest overhaul of our collective deterrence and defense since the Cold War," an overhaul that includes plans to increase the number of troops at "high readiness" from 40,000 to 300,000. Breaking with their longstanding posture of neutrality, Sweden and Finland are on a fast track to join the alliance.

This should remind us all, including acquisition professionals, that the U.S. does not go to war alone. The DoD works alongside allies to bring several instruments of power to bear:  diplomacy, intelligence, economics, and military force. It operates technical systems alongside partner nations, and thus must integrate military technology into a shared environment alongside our allies and coalition partners. That needs to happen in the design phase, not after delivery.

The defense acquisition community of today is too isolated from other nations. It needs to build closer connections with foreign partners—companies, technologists, strategists, operators, logisticians, and acquirers. The defense acquisition community would do well to partner with allies on everything from requirements, technical designs, and user interfaces to contracts, logistics, and test plans. Every aspect of acquisitions has potential implications in coalition operations, and the time to strengthen those bridges is now. One place to start is by establishing "an equivalent to the "Five Eyes" intelligence-alliance format for the industrial base," as Bill Greenwalt suggested in a 2019 paper for the Atlantic Council, which also provides a thorough and thoughtful answer to the question "Why does the United States even need its allies in the national technology and industrial base?"

One place DoD should increase its participation is NATO's new Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic project—DIANA for short.The vision, as Stoltenberg puts it: "Working with the private sector and academia, Allies will ensure that we can harness the best of new technology for transatlantic security." DIANA's North American regional office is likely to be hosted in Canada. To date, the Pentagon's involvement appears to be limited, even as NATO's importance is rising. The acquisition community should make it a priority to join this effort.

Similarly, NATO members are launching a multinational "NATO Innovation Fund," which aims to invest 1 billion euros in early-stage startups. The defense acquisition community should explore creative ways to be part of this effort, collaborating closely with the armed forces and industry partners of our NATO allies.

One final observation: this invasion happened. Conflict with a near-peer adversary (i.e. China) gets a lot of attention from strategists and planners, and many acquisition strategies and schedules are developed with such scenarios in mind. There is a certain logic to that approach, and the topic of China rightly deserves to be the center of attention.

However, the DOD's preparations for such hypothetical conflicts should not crowd out real world conflicts like the one currently unfolding in Ukraine. Creative imagination is an important attribute for military leaders and planners, as we seek to prepare for—and deter—conflicts with highly capable adversaries. But such preparations should not overshadow present-day challenges to global stability and national security. The Defense Department needs to simultaneously prepare for an uncertain future and to address the present realities. The acquisition community should make a point to be a strategic contributor to both conversations.

[mikemac]

https://off-guardian.org/2022/08/03/moscow-to-expand-safe-convenient-biometric-payment-system/

Digital ID already in place in Russia.....anyone still believe that Putin is going to save the west? he is going to conquer the west and make you submit to the NWO

Right in line with Klaus Schwab and the World Economic Forum.

[Julio]

Back to the war.  Here's a map showing that a cauldron is forming around Avdiivka.  Red line shows previous position.  We know how this ends from previous operations.  The allies have an intense hatred of the Ukraine forces around Avdiivka due to the terror shelling that originated from that area and hit Donetsk City.

The so called Ukrainian counter-offensive with the use of their HIMARS which the Western media keeps on publishing is the opposite of the battlefield results. The allies with their local recruits who are actively participating in this special military operation can give them certain advantages on the nature of terrain and locations of the battleground.

[Xavier]

Back to the war.  Here's a map showing that a cauldron is forming around Avdiivka.  Red line shows previous position.  We know how this ends from previous operations.  The allies have an intense hatred of the Ukraine forces around Avdiivka due to the terror shelling that originated from that area and hit Donetsk City.

The so called Ukrainian counter-offensive with the use of their HIMARS which the Western media keeps on publishing is the opposite of the battlefield results. The allies with their local recruits who are actively participating in this special military operation can give them certain advantages on the nature of terrain and locations of the battleground.

From: https://news.yahoo.com/first-time-ukraine-gains-chance-114400864.html

For first time, Ukraine gains chance to shape course of war – ISW
Fri, August 5, 2022 at 5:14 PM·3 min read
Ukrainian soldiers fight on the front lines in Kharkiv Oblast, August 2022
Ukrainian soldiers fight on the front lines in Kharkiv Oblast, August 2022



"Ukraine's preparations for the counteroffensive in Kherson and the initial operations in that counter-offensive, combined with the dramatic weakening of Russian forces generally, appear to be allowing Ukraine to begin actively shaping the course of the war for the first time," the ISW report says.

ISW said Russian forces are actively moving their personnel and equipment into Kherson and the western part of Zaporizhzhya Oblast – at the cost of attempts to capture Slovyansk and Siversk in Donetsk Oblast, which they seem to have given up on so far.

Read also: Ukraine is advancing in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, Zelenskyy says

In addition, the Russian invading forces are also redeploying military vehicles, like artillery and aircraft, to Ukraine's Russian-occupied Crimea from other regions of Ukraine.

Earlier, the invaders had already suspended offensive operations (in particular, on Kharkiv and the southern parts of the front) in order to make the capture of Luhansk Oblast a priority. At that time they took these steps at their own initiative, based on the changing priorities of their leadership, ISW analysts said.

Now, however, the Russian army appears to be forced to react to the threat of a Ukrainian counter-offensive in Kherson Oblast, ISW said.

The seriousness of the dilemma now facing the Russian high command likely depends on Ukraine's ability to sustain significant counter-offensive operations on multiple fronts simultaneously. If Ukraine can put serious pressure on the positions of the invaders around Izyum while continuing the transition to a counter-offensive near Kherson, then Russian troops will face a very difficult choice, ISW believes.

Read also: Russians attempt offensive in Kharkiv Oblast — General Staff

Comment in the Link: "As a child of the Cold War, I find all of this amazing. Russia, in the guise of the Soviet Union, once threatened all of Europe, and NATO questioned whether or not it could hold them back, and now Russia cannot even handle Ukraine.

Don't get me wrong, I am also impressed with Ukraine's fighting spirit. They changed a lot since the 2014 invasion into Crimea, where Ukraine basically handed over their navy and the keys to the region to Russia." Appeasement never works. Just ask one Neville Chamberlain. Peace through Strength, it is, as President Raegan and Pope St. John Paul II showed can and did work.

If Ukraine is at least holding its own and defending its homeland against Russia, it means the Prayers of Pro-Ukraine Supporters are working. Ukraine was never given a chance. Read some of the first pages of this thread, and you see posters, pro-Russia, saying it would be overwhelmed in a week or a matter of weeks. E.G: "I'll be disappointed if Russia doesn't annex the whole of the Ukraine in 6 days or less, à la Israel in 1967." It is God's Grace again that has rallied Europe and the World to come to Ukraine's Defense and stop Putin's Aggressive Imperialism. Whatever comes, Orthodox Christian (and partly Catholic Christian) Ukraine has been nothing short of heroic in defending its Nation this time around.

God Bless.

[mikemac]

So who injected into Mike's brain that Russia is "the enemy"?  In the news recently we see that Russia provides millions of dollars of maintenance contracts to Canadian blue collar workers who repair the gas drives on their compressor turbines.  Sounds like Russia is also a trading PARTNER with Canada.

Siemens Energy sent the turbine from Canada to Germany, not Russia.


Gazprom claims Canada-to-Germany gas turbine transfer not in step with contract
Jul 29, 2022

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/gazprom-turbine-contract-canada-germany-1.6536425

------------------------------------

German chancellor reveals Canadian-repaired turbine in bid to end standoff with Russia
August 3, 2022

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-german-chancellor-urges-russia-to-take-back-turbine-released-from/

[james03]

So who injected into Mike's brain that Russia is "the enemy"?  In the news recently we see that Russia provides millions of dollars of maintenance contracts to Canadian blue collar workers who repair the gas drives on their compressor turbines.  Sounds like Russia is also a trading PARTNER with Canada.

Siemens Energy sent the turbine from Canada to Germany, not Russia.


Gazprom claims Canada-to-Germany gas turbine transfer not in step with contract
Jul 29, 2022

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/gazprom-turbine-contract-canada-germany-1.6536425

------------------------------------

German chancellor reveals Canadian-repaired turbine in bid to end standoff with Russia
August 3, 2022

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-german-chancellor-urges-russia-to-take-back-turbine-released-from/

It's a Russian turbine owned by Gazprom.  The Russians are paying millions in maintenance contracts, which pays the salaries of blue collar Canadians.  Where they ship the turbine doesn't change that fact.

[mikemac]

"In November 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev gave a speech to the Soviet Politburo saying, "Gentlemen, comrades, do not be concerned about all you hear about Glasnost and Perestroika and democracy in the coming years. They are primarily for outward consumption. There will be no significant internal changes in the Soviet Union, other than for cosmetic purposes. Our purpose is to disarm the Americans and let them fall asleep. We want to accomplish three things: One, we want the Americans to withdraw conventional forces from Europe. Two, we want them to withdraw nuclear forces from Europe. Three, we want the Americans to stop proceeding with Strategic Defence Initiative." (Loory 2008)" https://www.researchomatic.com/Soviet-Union-Collapse-34344.html

Father Gruner believed that the so called fall of Communism was just a ruse to lull the West into complacency.  I think he was right.

[james03]

The so called Ukrainian counter-offensive with the use of their HIMARS which the Western media keeps on publishing is the opposite of the battlefield results. The allies with their local recruits who are actively participating in this special military operation can give them certain advantages on the nature of terrain and locations of the battleground.

Ukraine amassed a bunch of forces around Kherson instead of reinforcing the Donbas.  The past two weeks the Russians have flattened the "counter offensive" forces.  Ukraine's generals are pissed at Zelensky for ordering the move.  It's basically a PR move motivated by the Former West to try and keep a good Ukraine story going until the Nov. elections.  I think they'll fail and some really bad news from Ukraine will be coming out in a month or 2, if not sooner (i.e. if the Ukraine front collapses).

Articles I'm reading are speculating that Russia could actually launch an offensive as the Ukraine Army around Kherson has been seriously degraded.  I think they'll take out Donbas first, but it is a possibility.

Also it's been a few days now so expect an article soon in the Brit press how Ukraine launched 12 rockets from a HIMARS.

[Julio]

There is huge problem there on the news that Ukraine and its Western allies are publishing. I have friends here in the Philippines who thinks that Russia is not winning because of those they watched from CNN, and you know that is the most accessible international network that is available here, James. They cannot comprehend that the Russian occupied territory is expanding and continue to increase. That is the simple fact which is the opposite of that narrative.

Yes, this coming weeks there will be factchecking news that Ukraine's army is retreating again and I am pretty sure there will be sugarcoating on that, the way the publicity is going on. The false narrative also that Russia is economically collapsing is another aspect that the West is trying to support with its figment of imaginations.

I like that former-West that you describe. Really, the godless/Marxists, Islam, the abortionists, the devil worshippers, feminists, the lgbtq+ liars and all those who deny the objective truth of Jesus are in the same side. That is not the West that has Christian values.

I am a Filipino Catholic and I am against all of them and certainly they cannot accuse me that I am a Nazi. I am Asian by substance but I say Western/Catholic by values. I also think these godless/Nazi people who are into race narratives is another enemy of Catholicism. Both the Nazi and Marxist deny the objective and universal truth of God.

[Julio]

"In November 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev gave a speech to the Soviet Politburo saying, "Gentlemen, comrades, do not be concerned about all you hear about Glasnost and Perestroika and democracy in the coming years. They are primarily for outward consumption. There will be no significant internal changes in the Soviet Union, other than for cosmetic purposes. Our purpose is to disarm the Americans and let them fall asleep. We want to accomplish three things: One, we want the Americans to withdraw conventional forces from Europe. Two, we want them to withdraw nuclear forces from Europe. Three, we want the Americans to stop proceeding with Strategic Defence Initiative." (Loory 2008)" https://www.researchomatic.com/Soviet-Union-Collapse-34344.html

Father Gruner believed that the so called fall of Communism was just a ruse to lull the West into complacency.  I think he was right.

If by the word "communism," and such is the description of Russia and Putin right now, that is very wrong. Russia is not communist right now. It is an authoritarian regime but not communist.

The West on the other hand is using the law making power of the democratic process of its government in order to create laws that are socialists/communist. Just look at how the government feed the lazy and drug users of the West at the expense of the working class tax. Look at how some nations like Germany uses the tax payers money to finance the demonic worshippers in the name of godless definition of equality that is derived from Marxism.

Worst, the equal protection clause of the American Constitution has been used by the godless to justify gender equality that is demonic by itself.

I will repeat it again, the West and Ukraine are in duel against Russia in this war.