Recent Appearances...

Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Ukrainian Perspective: Invasion of Ukraine: April 19, 2025

2025-04-20

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.

Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 22.25 As a result of Russian airstrikes on Konstantinovka in Donetsk Oblast, two people were killed and another was injured. This was reported by the head of the GVA, Sergey Gorbunov.

"Today at 16:45 there were four enemy airstrikes by FAB-250 with a UMPK module on the city of Konstantinovka and outside the city in a field. As a result of the shelling, unfortunately, two civilians were killed and one person was wounded," he wrote on Facebook.

11 private houses and four power lines were damaged. Emergency workers are inspecting the scene and conducting rescue operations to free the victims, which are complicated by another arrival of an FPV drone on fiber optics to the scene.

22:00 Russians continue to shell Kherson region during the ceasefire, which caused fires in seven apartments of a multi-story building. This was reported by the head of the OVA Oleksandr Prokudin.

"This is what the Russian "Easter truce" looks like in the Kherson region. At about 18:00, as a result of a hit from 8 enemy FPVs, seven apartments in a multi-story building in the Dniprovsky district of Kherson caught fire," he said.

Also at 19:05, a Russian drone hit a civilian car in Urozhayne. An hour later, another drone attacked a populated area. At 19:12, an enemy FPV hit Stanislav.

21.30 President Volodymyr Zelensky agreed to a complete ceasefire if "complete silence really reigns."

"If now Russia is suddenly ready to really join the format of complete and unconditional silence, Ukraine will act in a mirror way - as it will be on the Russian side. Silence in response to silence, strikes in defense of strikes. If complete silence really reigns, Ukraine proposes to extend it after the end of Easter on April 20. This will show Russia's true intentions, because 30 hours are enough for headlines, but not for real confidence-building measures. Thirty days can give peace a chance," the head of state said.

For now, according to the report of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrsky, Russian assault operations continue in some areas of the front and Russian artillery fire does not subside.

20:50 Ukraine will not become part of NATO. The issue of Ukraine joining the Alliance is not being discussed. This was stated by US Special Representative for Ukraine Keith Kellogg in an interview with Fox News.

"Let me give you one example. An example of where we have been very clear. NATO is off the table. You will not be part of NATO. This is not something new. We have been talking about this since February 2008, when Ambassador Burns told Condoleezza Rice that this was too far. I wrote about this in 2013," he said.

19.40 Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha spoke about the "Easter truce" proposed by Vladimir Putin, noting that Ukraine will take into account not words, but actions.

"Now Putin has made statements about his alleged readiness for a ceasefire. 30 hours instead of 30 days. Unfortunately, we have significant experience when his statements did not match his actions. We know that his words cannot be trusted, and we will look at actions, not words," the minister said.

19.15 In accordance with the decision of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, the commander of the Joint Group of Forces, Army General Valery Gerasimov, on the eve of the Orthodox holiday of Easter, gave instructions to all commanders of groups to cease fire and conduct military operations.

"The ceasefire regime is being introduced for humanitarian purposes and will be observed by the Russian Joint Group of Forces, subject to mutual compliance by the Kyiv regime," the Russian Defense Ministry said.

18:46 Ukrainian troops have advanced deep into Russia's Belgorod region. President Volodymyr Zelensky reported this on Telegram.

"Commander-in-Chief Alexander Syrsky just reported. Our forces continued their activity in the Kursk region today and are maintaining their positions. In the Belgorod region, our military advanced and expanded our zone of control," the head of state wrote.

18.30 Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has announced an "Easter truce". However, Russian attack drones are still being spotted in the skies over Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

"About Putin's latest attempt to play with people's lives - an air raid alert is currently spreading across Ukraine. At 17:15, Russian attack drones were detected in our skies. Ukrainian air defense and aviation have already begun working for defense. "Shaheds" in our skies - this is Putin's real attitude to Easter and to people's lives," the head of state said.

18.14 Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners with the mediation of the UAE. 277 soldiers returned to Ukraine. This was reported by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Telegram.

"Our homes are one of the best news that can be. Another 277 soldiers returned home from Russian captivity. Soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard of Ukraine, the State Special Transport Service and border guards. They defended Mariupol and other areas in Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhia and Luhansk regions."

17.55 Sounds of explosions are heard in Kiev. Air defense forces shoot down drones with which the Russian army is trying to attack the Ukrainian capital.

17.34 The Ukrainian Defense Ministry has denied reports that Kiev is allegedly "90% in agreement" with the peace proposal by US President Donald Trump, presented this week in Paris.

"We have several fundamental positions: we supported the US proposal for a complete ceasefire on March 11, but Russia did not support the US proposal for a ceasefire and continues daily strikes on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure. Under these conditions, it is unclear how anyone could discuss or measure in "percentages" the progress of any dialogue," the department noted.

17.00 Russian leader Vladimir Putin has declared an "Easter truce," which calls for a halt to all military action in Ukraine from the evening of April 19 until midnight on April 21.

According to the Russian dictator, the Russian army will stop all military actions from 18:00 Moscow time on April 19 (the same as Kyiv time) until 00:00 on April 21. Putin also called on Kyiv to declare an "Easter truce."

16:35 As of 16:00 on April 19, the total number of combat clashes on the front is 59. In the Pokrovsk direction, Russian invaders made 13 attempts to push Ukrainian defenders from their positions.

14.31 In Kiev, law enforcement officers detained four teenagers who provoked a conflict with a serviceman in Hydropark the day before, after which they beat him up. This was reported by the capital's National Police Department.

14.05 A special blackout regime was introduced in the Kherson region at night on Easter – it was forbidden to turn on lights on the streets and in houses. This was reported by the head of the local OVA Oleksandr Prokudin.

13.15 The number of confirmed Russian losses in the aggressive war against Ukraine as of April 18, 2025 is 103,275. The corresponding list was updated by Mediazona and the BBC Russian Service. Over the past two months, while Russia has been negotiating with the United States on a possible peace settlement, losses at the front have not decreased, but on the contrary, have grown even faster than before.

11:34 Russia dropped an ODAB-1500 aerial bomb on Kupyansk . Five civilians were injured. More than 10 private residential buildings and outbuildings were damaged in the city.

11:11 The Ukrainian Defense Minister told American officials that Kiev supports "90%" of President Donald Trump's peace proposal, presented this week in Paris by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and two special envoys. This was reported by the New York Post, citing an official in the US presidential administration.

10:24 Late on Friday evening, the Russian army launched missile strikes on the Odessa region. Civilian infrastructure and farms were damaged, the regional prosecutor's office reported.

10:01 On the night of Saturday, the Russians launched 8 missiles of various types and 87 drones at Ukraine. Air defense units shot down 33 UAVs, another 36 were lost, the Ukrainian Air Force reported .

9.22 A Russian airstrike on the Central District of Kherson on April 17 claimed the lives of a 16-year-old boy. This was reported by the head of the Kherson OVA Oleksandr Prokudin.

9.00 Over the past 24 hours, 162 combat clashes were recorded at the front in 10 directions. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported on the progress of the fighting in an operational summary as of 8.00.

8.23 At night and in the early morning, Russian invaders attacked the Zaporizhia region with "shahed" type attack drones. Two "arrivals" were recorded in Zaporizhia. The head of the Zaporizhia OVA Ivan Fedorov reported on the consequences .

8.03 Since the beginning of the war, Russian losses have exceeded 940 thousand soldiers. In just one day on April 18, about 1,200 Russians were "minus" at the front, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported .

05.22 An explosion was heard in Kharkiv on the night of April 19 amid an enemy air attack using attack drones. The Kharkiv mayor said that the Kyivsky district of the city was hit. It is also noted that the private sector in Kharkiv came under enemy attack.

03.55 Specialists have completed emergency rescue operations in Kharkiv after Russian missile attacks. One person died as a result of the Russian strike. 114 people were injured, including nine children. Psychologists from the State Emergency Service provided assistance to 150 victims.

03.14 US President Donald Trump held a telephone conversation with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The main topics of discussion were bilateral trade, security in the Middle East and, most importantly, efforts to achieve a peaceful settlement of the war in Ukraine.

02.30The United States of America is allegedly open to recognizing the control of the aggressor country Russia over the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, occupied in 2014. This could be a step toward a broader "peace agreement" between Kiev and Moscow. The media write that the potential "concession" is the latest signal that US President Donald Trump is seeking to "solidify the ceasefire agreement."

02:00 On the night of April 19, Russian occupation forces attacked Zaporozhye using a Shahed UAV. The strike caused a fire.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Another Iranian agent embedded in the regime?

2024-11-05

[TopSecretUmbra] Another Suspected Iranian Mole Unmasked Inside the Biden Administration: Just how many Friends of Tehran are working in top government jobs for Biden-Harris?

On the eve of America’s election, Democrats and their media wing are putting in overtime suppressing stories that are unflattering to Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. As this newsletter just reported, Walz has longstanding ties to the People’s Republic of China which are highly concerning from a counterintelligence perspective. Just don’t expect the mainstream media to investigate any of this, especially so close to the election.

However, when it comes to espionage, Democrat problems with Iran are even worse than with China. Going where the legacy media fears to tread, Top Secret Umbra has exposed the shocking extent of Iranian penetration of the current White House, which extends back to President Barack Obama’s two terms in the Oval Office. Regarding the all-important matter of cadres, President Joe Biden represents Obama’s third term, while Harris would be his fourth.

Take the astonishing case of Rob Malley, Obama’s Iran fixer, the academic-turned-bureaucrat who made the Iran Deal, formally the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a reality in 2015. Pres. Biden brought Malley back into the White House in 2021 to revive JCPOA, which Pres. Trump killed in 2018. As the top mullah-whisperer for Team Obama-Biden-Harris, Malley hoped to deliver better relations with Tehran, but that fell apart in the spring of 2023 when Malley’s top-level security clearances were yanked, and he was escorted from his office at the State Department. Malley fell under suspicion for espionage and was placed under FBI scrutiny.

It's been 18 months since Malley’s high-flying government career fell apart, but we still don’t know what happened. Repeated inquiries by Congress about the status of the FBI investigation into Malley’s misdeeds have been stonewalled by the White House. The Beltway rumor mill has it that Malley illegally downloaded classified information to his personal email, which then got hacked by Iranian spies. Making the bad situation worse, Malley then lied to the FBI about his actions.

The Biden administration is running out the clock on the Malley scandal, hoping it fades away. As it might. Malley’s been soft-landed back into elite academia, a cushy gig at Princeton, while the Democrats and their media helpers have shown no interest in ascertaining what exactly was going on between Tehran and Team OBH’s top Iran expert. At best, Malley is uncomfortably close to the mullahs and their clerico-fascist regime; at worst, he’s his generation’s Alger Hiss. It’s not like the legacy media is going to ask questions anyway.

Regrettably, the Biden-Harris administration is packed with friends and protégés of Malley’s. The absurd case of Ariane Tabatabai is illustrative. Another academic-turned-bureaucrat, the Iranian-born Tabatabai was appointed to a very sensitive job in the Pentagon by the Biden White House. As the chief of staff to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict, Tabatabai enjoyed access to an astonishing array of highly classified information, particularly regarding covert action. She was unmasked in Sept. 2023 as an agent for Tehran going back a decade. Tabatabai worked for a front for Iranian intelligence called the Iran Experts Initiative, which sought to improve the regime’s image in the West. Despite this, the Biden administration kept Tabatabai in her ASD SOLIC job. After her exposure as Iran’s agent, Tabatabai visited the White House at least eight times, for (presumably classified) meetings. Just as with Malley, the administration stalled Congressional inquiries into the Tabatabai case, while the Democrats and their media wing showed no interest in the scandal. Last week, this newsletter revealed that, at last, Tabatabai has been removed from ASD SOLIC and “kicked upstairs.” She’s been named the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Education and Training, which is a promotion yet with reduced access to Pentagon secrets.

Then there’s Phil Gordon, another Democrat foreign policy maven who’s bounced between government and the Council on Foreign Relations for many years. He’s long been close to Kamala Harris and has served as the vice president’s National Security Adviser since 2022. Gordon’s been chummy with Malley for decades, while they worked together to deliver Pres. Obama his Iran Deal. Under Obama, Gordon held top jobs on the National Security Council and at the State Department. Gordon co-authored several op-eds with Ariane Tabatabai, all of them with a pro-Tehran bent. He is also close with the National Iranian American Council, an NGO which advocates for the mullah regime and is considered a front for Tehran by Western counterintelligence.

The Biden White House official who should be fretting over all these Friends of Tehran holding top jobs in the administration is Maher Bitar, who’s the NSC’s senior director for intelligence programs. As such, Bitar is the White House’s top coordinator with the Intelligence Community. Another Malley protégé, Bitar worked in plum jobs for the Obama administration. He’s anything but a hardliner on Iran. When he was a student a Georgetown University, Bitar held a leadership role with Students for Justice in Palestine, a radical activist group that’s pro-HAMAS. Since the Gaza War, SJP has organized anti-Israel protests on college campuses nationwide. It’s no mystery why Bitar isn’t purging the Biden-Harris administration of Friends of Tehran.

The real mystery here is why the Biden White House, like the Obama administrations before it, is crawling with Iranian agents and their apologists. Counterintelligence seems to exist only in theory for Team OBH, at least when Iran is involved. People who are known to be cuddly with America’s enemies shouldn’t be eligible for TOP SECRET security clearances, much less top national security jobs. But that’s exactly what’s happened since 2009 under three Democrat administrations. With so many of these troubling cases, this pro-Iranian pattern cannot be deemed a coincidence or accident, rather a design.

How many Iranian moles are operating in the upper echelons of the Biden-Harris administration? Officially, nobody knows, while nobody in the legacy media will ask. Counterintelligence experts in Washington, DC, do ask, that’s their job, albeit in hushed tones. Counterspies inside the Beltway tell me that another suspected Friend of Tehran recently was unmasked, and the implications of this case are deeply alarming for U.S. national security.

His name is Lawrence W.K. Casselle, and he’s one of the top officials in the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service. Although little known to the public, DSS are Foggy Bottom’s cops, the federal agents who guard American diplomats abroad as well as foreign government dignitaries when they visit the U.S. Importantly, DSS also provides counterintelligence oversight to the State Dept.

Casselle, a native of Las Vegas, joined the State Dept. as a Diplomatic Security special agent in 2003, following graduation from Hampton University on an ROTC scholarship, then four years on active duty with the U.S. Army as an infantry officer. Casselle’s DSS career has been very successful, with tours at home and abroad, including serving on the protective detail of then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from 2006 to 2008. He served as a Regional Security Officer in Kabul, then as senior RSO based in Belize. Casselle got important international experience in 2018-19 when he served in Baghdad as the DSS liaison to the Department of Defense’s Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve (that’s the Pentagon’s term for our war against the Islamic State in the Middle East). Following that, he got the White House plum job of NSC Director for Counterterrorism (2019-20), then was promoted to be chief of staff for all DSS (2021-23).

Casselle this summer came under suspicion for his ties to Tehran. When he was serving in the Middle East, apparently during his tour in Baghdad, Casselle became close with a foreign woman. They developed a romantic relationship, IC insiders tell me, and Casselle used his powerful job and State Dept. connections to help his new friend. Inconveniently, his paramour turned out to be an operative for Iranian intelligence.

How compromised Casselle is by this scandal isn’t yet known. IC counterspies tell me that they are trying to establish how close to Tehran Casselle got during his close relationship with that Iranian spy, but the State Dept. isn’t cooperating energetically with the counterintelligence investigation. If one of Foggy Bottom’s rising stars turns out to be an Iranian mole, the embarrassment to the department will be serious. Casselle’s superiors want this mess to simply go away.

Casselle isn’t just a top U.S. diplomat, he’s African American, which puts him perfectly in tune with the Biden-Harris emphasis on DEI in the federal government.

There are dire national security consequences if Casselle went rogue. In his DSS position he holds TOP SECRET-plus security clearances, while during his two-decade career he’s held several jobs offering access to a wide array of U.S. intelligence secrets.

If Casselle was coopted by Iranian intelligence through his unwise love life, Tehran could have gotten its eyes on a massive number of American secrets from numerous agencies far beyond Main State.

Link

Terror Networks

Nasrallah's death should be a lesson to the United States

2024-09-29

[IsraelNationalNews] An Israeli airstrike on a Hezbollah bunker has killed Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah.

His death caps an impressive ten-day campaign that began with the simultaneous detonation of Hezbollah pagers, continued to take out senior military leaders, and now has decapitated the organization itself.

Diplomats and human rights activists might hand wring, but what Israel did was not only right and wise, but should also be a lesson for a new generation of U.S. and European policymakers.

No organization should have ever granted Nasrallah an iota of legitimacy, especially after his 2002 statement, "If they [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide."

There is a tendency among diplomats either to exaggerate the benefits of dialogue or to declare its inevitability. In 2010, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, for example, spoke about the need to talk with the Taliban. "The starting premise is you don’t make peace with your friends," she remarked at a conference in London. "You have to be willing to engage with your enemies...."

She was wrong. Some enemies are so odious, absolute defeat must be the goal. That was the driving belief during World War II, for example, in both the European and Pacific theaters. It was the right decision: Today, both Germany and Japan are reliable defenders of the post-World War II, rules-based liberal order.

Imposing terms on Japan did not spark reactionary violence; rather, it gave Japanese a new start. The Japanese themselves showed that they were ready to move on from absolute fealty to the emperor, despite the beliefs of Japanese studies academics at the time.

Europe thrived because no diplomat acting with a naïve belief in his own sophistication snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by believing that they should enter into talks with Karl Dönitz, who briefly succeeded Hitler after his suicide.

Other regimes ended with the killing or military ouster of their leader. Uganda rebounded after a Tanzanian invasion drove out brutal dictator Idi Amin, who then spent his retirement years in Saudi Arabia. The Khmer Rouge regime came crashing down after Vietnam invaded and drove Pol Pot into hiding.

The 18-year terror of the Baader—Meinhof Gang ended in that group’s ideological defeat, not in its co-option.

The Islamic State ended not with a diplomatic deal, but rather with the death of its self-declared caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Perhaps had the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations not legitimized the Taliban and sought instead their absolute defeat, Afghanistan’s women would neither be prisoners in their own homes nor the country itself a safe-haven from which to plot new global terror.

Perhaps the lesson of Nasrallah’s apparent demise should be an indictment of what Western and UN diplomacy has become.

No organization should have ever granted Nasrallah an iota of legitimacy, especially after his 2002 statement, "If they [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide."

Officials from George W. Bush-era Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to UN Secretary António Guterres who pushed ceasefire calls over the decades did the world wrong.

As Hezbollah collapses due to Israel’s ten days of hell, the terror group likely has greater support in Morningside Heights than in Lebanon. Not only could the decapitation of Hezbollah avert a wider war between Israel and Lebanon, but it could also bring freedom to the Lebanese people whom Hezbollah has for too long held hostage and whose aspirations for a Western-oriented state Hezbollah has blocked.

The lesson for Washington, however, is broader. Diplomacy and compromise empowered Hezbollah and Hamas. They also empowered the Taliban and North Korea to the tune of billions of dollars and the Islamic Republic of Iran to an exponentially larger amount. Rather than continue such engagement, the United States should map out its opponents’ command-and-control and enemy regimes’ vulnerabilities and exploit them with a goal of bringing each regime to its knees.

If Nasrallah’s death collapses Hezbollah, what might Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s sudden death mean for Iran? Or, Qods Force Chief Esmail Qaani’s demise? Or every Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ general or admiral?

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has demonstrated, terrorist groups and radical ideologies need not be permanent fixtures on the world stage; instead, Western leaders should view them as enemies to eliminate.

Link

Home Front: WoT

Condoleezza Rice: It Would Be Nice if We Had Afghanistan Bases to Deter Iran Right Now

2023-10-14

[Breitbart] On Thursday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stated that while President Joe Biden’s move to send a carrier strike group to the Eastern Mediterranean is a good move, it was a mistake to give up military facilities in Afghanistan, and that having bases in a country that borders Iran would be useful to help isolate them.

Rice stated, “For starts, let’s not go back to the pretense that we can have an agreement with the Iranians about their nuclear facilities.

...yeah. It’s much too late for that expensive fig leaf...

Let’s not go back to the place where we’re releasing funding to the Iranian mullahs who then just use that funding for Hezbollah and Hamas. That would be a good start. And let’s try again to isolate the Iranians in the way that we had earlier in the Bush administration and in the Trump administration. The idea that you can deal with the Iranians, you might find reasonable ways to deal with the Iranians, it seems to me this is just one more example of what we’ve seen over this last few days, that the Iranians are a revisionist power, that they are the most dangerous power in the region. And oh, by the way, Sean, we gave up military facilities in Afghanistan, a country that has a hundreds-[kilometer-long] border with Iran. That was a mistake in its own right. And so, how to deal with Iran, I think it starts with isolating them. I think it starts with what, actually, the Biden administration has done. I think sending the carrier battle groups into the region is a good idea, but this should really erase any notion that the Iranian regime can be dealt with.”

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Dozens Of WikiLeaks Cables Show US Knew NATO Expansion Was Russia's Bright Red Line

2023-01-20

[ZERO] Nearly a year in, the war in Ukraine has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and brought the world to the brink of, in President Joe Biden’s own words, “Armageddon.” Alongside the literal battlefield has been a similarly bitter intellectual battle over the war’s causes.

Commentators have rushed to declare the long-criticized policy of NATO expansion as irrelevant to the war’s outbreak, or as a mere fig leaf used by Russian President Vladimir Putin to mask what Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates recently called “his messianic mission” to “reestablish the Russian Empire.” Fiona Hill, a presidential advisor to two Republican administrations, has deemed these views merely the product of a “Russian information war and psychological operation,” resulting in “masses of the US public … blaming NATO, or blaming the US for this outcome.”

Yet a review of the public record and many dozens of diplomatic cables made publicly available via WikiLeaks shows that US officials were aware, or were directly told over the span of years, that expanding NATO was viewed by Russian officials well beyond Putin as a major threat and provocation, that expanding it to Ukraine was a particularly bright red line for Moscow, that it would inflame and empower hawkish, nationalist parts of the Russian political spectrum, and that it could ultimately lead to war.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Perspective from the Breakaway Republics: Invasion of Ukraine: January 12th, 2023

2023-01-13

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFrontInfo] 00:15 Russian forces took Artemovsk (Bakhmut) in the Donetsk People's Republic into an operational encirclement, said Igor Kimakovsky, adviser to the acting head of the republic.

21:34 As subdivisions of PMC "Wagner" freed Soledar

The liberation of Soledar can be called one of the most successful offensive operations in recent times. The city was taken by storm in just a few weeks by the fighters of the Wagner PMC.

The Ukrainian formations defending in Soledar tried to hold it until the last moment, providing tough resistance to the advancing PMC units.

“The enemy fought back. Like it or not, it is always easier to defend than to attack. This is the law of war, it has always been, is and will be," said one of the fighters.

To date, the city has been completely cleared. Details on how the operation took place - in the report of the FAN military commissarAlexandra Simonova.

20:16 First large reportage from the liberated Soledar. The enemy is not found in the city.

19:11 Soledar under control assault units of PMC "Wagner".

18:20 The Armed Forces of Ukraine failed to organize a counterattack on Soledar and lost 200 people: details RT.

On the morning of January 10, the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who retreated from Soledar, tried to break through the encirclement, but the operation failed. According to RT, the Vostok operational command planned to use the forces of the 46th and 77th brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for this.

After the retreat of several companies of these formations from Soledar to neighboring Paraskovievka, it turned out that, in addition to a large number of dead and wounded, the brigades had almost completely lost their fire cover, including artillery of 155mm and 152mm calibers. The guns were destroyed during the attack on Soledar by Russian 300mm BM-30 Smerch systems and attack aircraft.

According to RT, the command promised fire support to the units of the 46th and 77th brigades from the forces of the 17th Separate Tank Brigade and artillery. However, in the end, the fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not receive this support. At the same time, according to radio intercepts, there were no company and battalion commanders in the units abandoned to break through the encirclement.

The units advanced to Soledar on French VAB armored personnel carriers and British Wolfhound anti-mine armored personnel carriers. They were discovered and destroyed by the duty unit of the Su-25 attack aircraft while being corrected from the ground by the reconnaissance group of the Russian army.

An unsuccessful raid to the surrounded Soledar on light vehicles cost the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine about 200 people killed. In order to underestimate the losses in Soledar, the dead were declared "missing" by Kyiv.

The total losses of all armed formations of Ukraine in Soledar since the beginning of autumn 2022, according to RT, can be about 20-25 thousand people.

17:24 VoenkorPoddubny: “During the morning shelling of Donetsk, the enemy, from positions in the area of the settlement. Kurakhovo, used M982 Excalibur high-precision guided missiles. The direction from which the shelling was carried out, which led to the death of one and the injury of four civilians, is included in the area of responsibility of the 68th Separate Jaeger Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

16:39 Ukrainian militants hide under Soledar and say that the salary is 100,000 UAH. they don’t need it, they don’t want to die for it, therefore they are ready to change places with those who are sitting at home on the couch -video.

16:22 Fighters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in fired at the Kirovsky and Kuibyshevsky districts of Donetsk. From positions in n. n. Zhelannoye Pervoi sent three shells with a caliber of 155mm.

15:37 During the counterbattery fight, the RF Armed Forces destroyed several enemy artillery systems in firing positions, including those of foreign production - RF Ministry of Defense

We are talking about artillery systems M777 and M109 "Paladin" made by the United States, liquidated in the areas of Lozovoye and Sandy DPR. Also, in the districts of Kupyansk, Petropavlovka, Kharkiv region and Ivanovka, the DPR, three 122mm BM-21 MLRS Grad were destroyed;

Also in the daily briefing of the military department, it was announced that:

- In the Kupyansky direction in the areas of Kislovka, Berestovoye of the Kharkov region and Novoselovsky LPR, artillery and army aviation hit enemy units;

- In the Krasnolimansky direction in the areas of Stelmahovka, Novolyubovka, Nevsky LPR, Serebryanka and Grigorovka of the DPR, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, combining active hostilities with complex fire damage, inflicted heavy losses on the Armed Forces of Ukraine;

- Successful offensive operations of the RF Armed Forces continue in the Donetsk direction;

- In the Yuzhnodonetsk direction in the area of ????Novomikhailovka, Prechistovka and Novoselka, the DPR inflicted a complex fire defeat on the enemy;

- In the area of Zaporozhye and Novoivanovka, Zaporozhye region, two ammunition depots of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were hit by strikes from operational-tactical and army aviation, missile troops and artillery;

- In the area of Lozovoye DPR, a US-made AN/TPQ-50 radar station was also destroyed as part of the counterbattery fight;

- In the area of Nikanorovka of the DPR, fighter aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces shot down a Su-25 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force.

14:12 Law enforcement officers discovered and destroyed a cache of saboteurs in the LPR, the contents were intended for terrorist attacks in the Russian Federation

Machine guns, grenade launchers, foreign-made cartridges, a shot for a 73mm 2A28 cannon were found in this cache. The suspected terrorists are now being sought.

14:08 Enemy artillery hit the territory of the Kuibyshevsky district of Donetsk. From n. n. Lastochkino, three shells with a caliber of 155mm flew out. As a result of the shelling in 1 private house, the facade, roof, and glazing were damaged.

13:50 RT: footage of the assault on the village of Opytnoye, in the southern suburbs of Artyomovsk (Bakhmut).

Russian units took this settlement under their control, thus bringing the liberation of Artemovsk even closer. The enemy used artillery and tanks against our soldiers, but this did not save him. Experienced is ours!

13:41 The military in Soledar are acting heroically, as in other areas, but the main work is still ahead, it's not the time to rub your hands - Peskov.

13:39 Su-25 ground interdiction fighters "Rooks" launch rockets at the militants of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from low altitudes -video.

The crews of the attack aircraft Su-25 "Grach" launched rocket air strikes on military facilities and equipment of the enemy. As a result of the sortie, camouflaged fortified field positions and armored vehicles of Ukrainian terrorists were destroyed.

13:39 The Viking reconnaissance group discovered the mercenaries' deployment point in Krasnogorovka. Then our artillery began to methodically dismantle it -video.

The total number of militants was about a company. After the work of our artillerymen, it was reduced by 40 killed and wounded.

13:18 About five brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed in Soledar, the adviser to the acting head of the DPR said. But among the losses, mercenaries were not taken into account, of which there were enough, so it could be higher, Yan Gagin said on the air of Rossiya 1.

According to RT, Ukraine's losses in the battles for Soledar may compose 25,000 people. The Ukrainian military who surrendered reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the National Guard during the assault on the city lost about 16-17 battalions killed.

12:08 Over the past day, Ukrainian troops have lost more than 70 people, a tank, a 122mm howitzer, two 155mm towed howitzers and equipment, reported People's Militia of the DPR.

"Joint actions of the military personnel of the Donetsk People's Republic and the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation destroyed the following enemy weapons and military equipment: one tank (T-64BV), one 122mm howitzer ("D-30"), two 155mm towed howitzers (M777) and eight units of armored and automotive vehicles. Losses in enemy manpower amounted to more than 70 people, ”the agency said in a message on its Telegram channel.

On Wednesday, the agency reported that Ukrainian troops lost more than 120 people, two tanks (T-72M1), two 122mm self-propelled artillery mounts (2S1 Gvozdika) and 12 units of armored and automotive vehicles in a day.

12:06 As a result of the shelling of the VFU of the Leninsky district of Donetsk, one person was killed and four more civilians were injured.

11:35 "Uralvagonzavod" delivered a new batch of T-90M "Proryv" tanks to the troops.

11:14 AlexeyPushkov: “After the capture of Soledar, we can expect an increase in the supply of new weapons to Ukraine from NATO countries. This is exactly what Condoleezza Rice and Bill Gates called for in a recent Washington Post article.

Ukraine, they warned, was in an extremely difficult position, relying only on Western aid, but even with it, it could lose the war. Therefore, according to them, the United States should increase this assistance and provide Kyiv with the types of weapons that it previously refused to provide. Now Western circles, the most hostile to Russia, will, apparently, seek to form a consensus in the NATO countries on this issue.

10:47 Russian troops have seriously advanced in the Artemovsk region, adviser to the acting head of the DPR Igor Kimakovsky said on air"Soloviev Live".

“Artillery today really suppresses enemy forces, in some areas they cannot even get out of the trenches. This is now manifesting itself in the Donetsk direction, the number of attacks on the city has decreased. This suggests that our troops are beginning to work more efficiently. Therefore, we have certain advances in the Avdiivka direction, we have serious advances in the Artemovsk region,” he said.

10:19 "Isn't it time to retreat from Artemovsk before it's too late?" - the Western press shakes the evil

The Wall Street Journal writes that Ukraine suffered heavy losses in Artyomovsk and Soledar, quickly exhausting the strength of several brigades. The publication notes that the capture of Artemovsk opens the way to the liberation of the part of the DPR occupied by the Kyiv regime.

Along with this, the authors write: Western and some Ukrainian officials, soldiers and analysts are increasingly worried that Kyiv has allowed itself to be drawn into the battle for Artemovsk on Russian terms, losing strength in a stubborn struggle for a city of limited strategic importance. Some of them say it would make sense to retreat to a new line of defense on the heights west of Bakhmut, while such a withdrawal can still be organized in a coordinated manner, while maintaining the combat strength of the Ukrainian military.

10:07 Summary of the Representative Office of the Luhansk People's Republic in the JCCC for the past 24 hours

From the side of the armed formations of Ukraine, one shelling was recorded in the area of the settlement. Chernukhino with the use of MLRS HIMARS (six missiles).

09:46 The 152mm 2S3 "Acacia" of the "Brave" group is working -video.

Crews of 152mm self-propelled guns fire at the enemy day and night, in any weather. UAVs and groups of advanced artillery spotters correct the defeat. The calculations are staffed including volunteers.

09:40 A resident of the liberated Soledar tells about life under the conditions of Ukrainian occupation, as well as how long they waited for the Russian soldiers who liberated the city.

08:35 The Russian army destroys NATO equipment every day -video.

The destroyed French BRDM VAB and with it the vehicle of the 46th Airborne Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who tried to escape along the road taken under the fire control of our troops. It is reported that the VAB was smashed from the Kord machine gun, and the car was blown up by a mine.

09:14 Found their place: Ukrainian militants tried to escape from the encircled Soledar -video.

As a result, they lie on the icy ground of the Russian Donbass. They did not appreciate the wonderful strategic term "semi-coverage" from Arestovich

08:49 Personnel the consequences of the detonation of ammunition at the ammunition depot of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the city of Ochakov, Mykolaiv region after a missile strike sRussian Armed Forces January 9th.

08:26 Summary on the morning of January 12, 2023

Prigozhin announced the complete liberation of Soledar by the forces of PMC Wagner, during the assault, up to 500 enemy fighters were destroyed, and underground utilities are being cleaned up.

South-west of Soledar, units of the Airborne Forces are conducting an offensive in the area of the settlement. Krasnaya Gora and Paraskovievka.

On the Artemovsky (Bakhmutsky) direction south of the city, PMC Wagner occupied the settlement. EOpytnoye.

Fighting continues in Maryinka.

Enemy forces are being drawn into the Orekhovo-Gulyaipole sector in the Zaporozhye region.

In the Belgorod region, the Armed Forces of Ukraine shelled the village of Stary Khutor, Valuysky urban district

The enemy fired 90 shells of ammunition into the DPR. Under fire Donetsk, Gorlovka, Staromikhaylovka, Aleksandrovka. One civilian was killed, two were wounded.

In the LPR - shelling in the area of the settlement. Chernukhino with the use of MLRS HIMARS (six missiles).

Link

-Obits-

Reagan's longtime secretary of state George P. Shultz dies

2021-02-08

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, a titan of American academia, business and diplomacy who spent most of the 1980s trying to improve Cold War relations with the Soviet Union and forging a course for peace in the Middle East, has died. He was 100.

Shultz died Saturday at his home on the campus of Stanford University, where he was a distinguished fellow at the Hoover Institution, a think tank, and professor emeritus at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

The Hoover Institution announced Shultz’s death on Sunday. A cause of death was not provided.

A lifelong Republican, Shultz held three major Cabinet positions in GOP administrations during a lengthy career of public service.

He was labor secretary, treasury secretary and director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Richard M. Nixon before spending more than six years as President Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state.

Shultz was the longest serving secretary of state since World War II and had been the oldest surviving former Cabinet member of any administration.

Condoleezza Rice, also a former secretary of state and current director of the Hoover Institution, said in a statement that Shultz "will be remembered in history as a man who made the world a better place."

Link

Home Front: Politix

The Progressive Revolution: From Democratic to Liberal to Progressive to Socialist

2019-04-16

[NR] Obama kick-started a cycle that moves ever farther left ‐ even he now seems passé.

Americans voted for Barack Obama in 2008 despite, not because of, his most partisan voting record in the Senate. They were once willing to look past his earlier dubious associations with abject anti-Semites such as the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, former terrorists like Bill Ayers, and unhinged characters such as Father Pfleger. They also averted their eyes from Obama’s often quite offensive commentary, in his autobiography and during the 2008 campaign (e.g., "typical white person" and "they cling to..." speech).

Instead, voters were tired of the Iraq War (which was over for all practical purposes by the time of the November 2008 election).

They were, of course, terrified by the September 2008 financial meltdown (which had been mostly stabilized four months later by the time of the inauguration) and irate at the kid-gloves treatment accorded often conniving banks and investors.

They were convinced that Obama might be healing and transformative as the first African-American president, supposedly only slightly to the left of a far steadier and more qualified Condoleezza Rice or Colin Powell. And half the Democrats were already becoming sick of Hillary Clinton once they became reacquainted with her on the 2008 primary-campaign trail.

As is typical of American politics, voters in 2008 also wanted to change the party in power after it had been in the lead for eight years, and the lame-duck president fell out of favor. Voters certainly were underwhelmed by an uninspiring, herky-jerky, mostly incompetent John McCain campaign, notable for his "that’s not who we are" comments and his willingness to "lose nobly."

Such was the naïve dream.

Link

-Land of the Free

Social Justice Prosecutors

2019-04-08

[American Thinker] For years, many have bemoaned the slide of America’s higher education system down the slippery slope of moral relativism and the embracing of virtually all facets of progressive dogma while rejecting most elements of conservatism. The mere invitation of a conservative commentator to speak on college campuses is now reason enough for rioting and mass student protests. Bozo the Clown has a better chance of giving a commencement address at an Ivy League school than does Clarence Thomas, Condoleezza Rice, or their conservative contemporaries. Nowhere is this truth more prevalent than at our most prestigious law schools, and the products of those schools are now reflecting that decades-long liberal drift.
Who could have possibly seen any of this coming ?
Individuals from this new class of legal eagles have advanced in all branches of government and at all levels -- local, state, and federal. They have attended notable law schools, they are African-American, and they are hellbent on ushering in an era of seeking what today’s liberal law schools are pouring into their students by the bucket full -- not "justice" but "social justice."

Now finding themselves in positions of power, these social justice warriors have a deep-rooted belief in the fundamental unfairness of America in general, and our judicial system in particular. They believe that crimes for which underprivileged groups, namely blacks and Latinos, have higher rates of sentencing and incarceration, are the product of an at best a biased, and at worst a racist system; a system which they are a part of and can find ways to affect. One example is when the Obama/Holder DOJ released 6,000 people from federal prisons and reduced the sentences of as many as 46,000 others as a part of their sentencing-reform efforts in 2015.
Emphasis added.

Link

Home Front: Culture Wars

The immoral foreign policy of the "Resistance"

2018-09-10

h/t Gates of Vienna
One of the constant themes of the "Resistance" ‐ most recently restated in the New York Times’ anonymous op-ed Wednesday ‐ is that President Donald Trump is "amoral" because he is interested in cultivating good relations with dictators.

In the words of the anonymous op-ed author: "In public and in private, President Trump shows a preference for autocrats and dictators, such as President Vladimir Putin of Russia and North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, and displays little genuine appreciation for the ties that bind us to allied, like-minded nations."

Notably, this is the same line used by the Israeli left and by Israel’s many critics in the West against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s foreign policy.

There are two aspects of this criticism that are worth pointing out.

First, the criticisms are utterly hypocritical.

The same "Resistance" howling about Trump’s desire to forge a détente with Russia based on a shared interest in fighting Islamic terrorists and preventing Iran from becoming the nuclear hegemon of the Middle East once bent over backwards to empower Iran. They gave the ayatollahs a clear path to a nuclear weapon, as well as $150 billion to finance their wars in Syria and Yemen, and their global terror attacks.

The same Never Trump Republicans attacking Trump for his efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula without war happily supported then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Riceas she cut a deal that only empowered Pyonyang.

The Obama administration alumni who now insist that Putin is America’s number-one enemy did everything they could to appease him ‐ in exchange for nothing ‐ for years.

As for Israel, the Israeli Left, and its American and European supporters, they have been attacking Netanyahu relentlessly for fostering close ties with the leaders of Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Rwanda, Kenya, and the Philippines. At the same time, they insist that Israel must cough up its capital city and its heartland to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and its terrorist regime.

Just last week, a delegation of leftist lawmakers and political activists made a pilgrimage to Ramallah, where they met with PLO chief and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. They cooed and purred about his great visionary leadership, and insisted forcefully that Israel and the Trump administration must recognize his greatness.

This would be the same Abbas who spends hundreds of millions of donor-transferred dollars every year to pay the salaries of terrorists. This is the same Abbas that continues to reject Israel’s right to exist, who wrote a dissertation arguing that the Holocaust is a Zionist fabrication; who has spent the past fifty years waging a political war to delegitimize Israel’s very existence.

Beyond the rank hypocrisy of these critics and their criticism, their "morality" card ignores the key fact that Trump’s policies, like Netanyahu’s policies, are succeeding in making the U.S. and Israel stronger, and making the world safer. In contrast, the "moral" policies of their opponents made the world more threatening and dangerous to the U.S. and to Israel.

Link

Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Condoleezza Rice: Relax, If We Pull Out of the Iran Deal It Will Not Be a Disaster

2018-05-02

[Townhall] By May 12 President Trump will make a decision about whether to re-certify or nix the Iran nuclear agreement.

European allies are urging the president to work with them on a number of fixes by addressing the sunset clause and targeting Iran's destabilizing behavior in the region. The Israelis, who presented a trove of evidence Monday showing Iran lied about a previous nuclear program they never acknowledged existed, are urging President Trump to "do the right thing" by getting out of the deal.

But former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to cool the temperature Tuesday morning during an interview on Fox News and said everything will be fine if the United States decides to leave the agreement.

"I actually think if we pull out now, it’s not going to be the disaster that everyone’s talking about," Rice said. "I would not have signed this deal. I don't think it was a good deal and that we were in a hurry to get a deal."

"If we get out of this deal, it will be just fine," she continued.

Link

Home Front: Politix

President Trump vs. the Foreign Policy Swamp

2018-04-19

President Trump's decision to postpone new economic sanctions against Russia on Monday brought some clarity to the foreign policy fight in Washington. The issue isn't whether UN Ambassador Nikki Haley gets confused, as she waspishly denied, but the fact that the president is fighting the swamp single-handed.

...When the dust settles, I believe, the president will conclude that he was duped into launching last Friday's missile strike on Syria. As Angelo Codevilla, the dean of conservative foreign policy analysts, wrote yesterday at American Greatness, we do not know whether poison gas was used at the Syrian village of Douma or who used it. "The U.S. government’s claim that the Assad regime used chlorine gas and sarin together (that would be a first) against civilians separately from movement of ground troops (military nonsense) may or may not be correct. The government presented no evidence except videos. When it does have evidence, it usually crows."

The whole preposterous allegation that Trump somehow colluded with Russia is designed to sabotage diplomacy between Washington and Moscow.

...To reiterate my own longstanding view: Russia is a nasty place and Vladimir Putin is a nasty man, of the ilk that always has ruled Russia, a country where nobody talks about Ivan the Reasonable. On my Ogre-ometer, Putin barely registers a 1.9 against Stalin's 9.8. Russia is NOT our friend and NOT a prospective ally. But we have two choices. One is to attempt to bring Putin down and bring in a government we like, and the other is to strike a deal with Putin that we can live with. The first is delusional, but pervasive in a foreign policy establishment that still believes that we can reshape the world in America's image. If you don't believe that the foreign policy establishment is that crazy, please read my review of Condoleezza Rice's new book, Democracy, in the current issue of the Claremont Review of Books. Rice foisted Rex Tillerson on an unsuspecting Trump as a "Texas oilman" rather than as a cut-out for the George W. Bush wing of the Republican Party.

...The utopian wing of the Republican Party (George W. Bush, Condi Rice, McCain&Graham, Mitt Romney) have an objective: Isolate, weaken and destabilize Russia with the ultimate goal of regime change. That will simply push Russia closer to China, Russia's biggest customer for oil and gas, and cement a Eurasian alliance hostile to the United States. It will also encourage Russia to act as a spoiler in the Middle East.

The alternative is to reach some sort of agreement with Russia (and China) which serves our basic interests and gives our competitors something in return. I sketched the parameters of a prospective agreement in a Dec. 17, 2016 essay for Asia Times, "How the US Should Engage Russia and China." That is what President Trump wants to do, according to numerous media reports, but the foreign policy establishment is doing everything in its power to prevent him from doing so.

IMO, and seems Trump agrees with me, is that USA and Russia need each other in alliance against China - who's getting just a bit too pushy (it's the 20 million unpaired young men)

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More