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Belarus mobilizes 300,000 to counter growing Poland-NATO threat

TruthPeep Australian News, Belarus, General, Komonyiski, NATO, Ukraine , , , , 0 Comment

By Cossack Colonel YURI KOMONYISKI
Belarus is mobilizing 350,000+ men because of the Polish/NATO threat growing in the West. The RF military will complement the Belarus forces. The Belarus force is well equipped and provisioned with both munitions and armaments, Lukashenko has been able to keep his manufacturing plants in tack following the fall of the USSR and has since activated industrial complex. Belarus has large food reserves available and is able to distribute manufactured goods throughout the entire CIS the Belarus manufacturing base and quality of product is exceptional.

In the Ukraine the RF has taken out at least 13,000 Poles in the last few of months and multiple times more wounded, they have stopped pretending to be Ukrainian’s and are now wearing their true Polish/NATO colors. There is talk of ISIS and Al-Qaeda entering the fight care of the Americans but I personally have not yet encountered this. China has started to supply the RF with military equipment.

Peter Haughton Political Prisoner Adelaide South Australia Click HERE for TRUE story PLZ SHARE

When we were on the frontline, we had a commander that we were not overly impressed with. He would order the men to undertake tasks that equated to suicide missions. So, one day we grabbed him fitted him with a bulletproof vest, armed him and threw him into the back of the truck with the rest of the team. After spending 36 hours on the front line, we returned to base with the commander still intact. The next day he had vanished, we expect he crawled back to mommy. Once the word was out other teams started doing likewise apparently, it’s contagious. General Armageddon continues to inspire and earn the respect of the men. In my opinion it won’t be long before we enter the larger cities and fighting commences in in tight quarters. Then we’ll be face to face with the Ukro-NATO mercs many of them are hardened fighters straight from Syria, Afghanistan etc., however we’ll have our terminators for support.

Some of the lads come across a 4-person crew using a mortar against the RF. The coords were transmitted and their position was shelled upon approach we found 4 women, one dead the others wounded. The mortars are able to hit targets up to 7 kilometers away. Elon Musk’s Starlink system is faltering, the RF hackers are making Elon work for his money. Recently musk announced that he wanted the US government to take onboard the costs of his system approximately 20 million USD per month as Musk wanted to exit this scenario. A Ukrainian politician upon hearing this publicly voiced that Musk should F… OFF followed by which Musk’s name was added to the Ukrainian kill list, but mind you they removed his name shortly after. I would expect that this may cause Musk to regret helping the Ukro-NATO’s. The RF believe the US satellites have been taken out using high velocity steel ball bearing of all things, yet to be confirmed.

In the Nikolaevka region the Ukro-NATO’s are concentrating their residual reserves, intel informs us that they were planning on gathering 60,000 militants to storm the southern defensive line. However, the RF hit first, with a direct hit on their munition’s storage, intel says it was full of HIMAR rockets among other things. It would also appear that they have underground quarters near to the ammo dump we expect multiple casualties probably in the thousands. All counterattacks from the Ukro-NATO’s have been repelled, our numbers are growing. I believe there are 50,000 NATO currently on the battlefield, many pretending to be mercs or Ukrainian soldiers. Our ships continue to drop bomb on targets in Odessa. There is chatter that if he Ukros don’t achieve significant progress by winter than the US may stop providing arms, the stakes are high.

Our caliber missiles continue to deliver messages to the Ukro-NATOs, recently the Ukrofascists were bragging about how they took out all 18 rockets we consider that to be an exceptional effort considering only 12 were launched and they all hit their targets. In the Kherson region the Ukro-NATOs keep counterattacking without success, Kiev continues to receive RF airborne messages the city has gone dark, many people are now hiding underground. We estimate that 80% of Ukraine is powered by diesel generators in an attempt to keep the lights on.

Internally the FSB continues to clean house in Russia my sources inform me that approximately 300 arrests have been made, we fondly refer to them as traitors those that would attempt to subvert the course of the special military operation.

The Ukro-NATOs continue to attack Russia’s Belgorod we have shot down at least 100 rockets. This is a city of a million+ people, the Ukro-NATO’s are firing at it because it is in range and out of spite, it is of no military significance.

Recently the Chechens stopped a red cross ambulance, to their horror inside they discovered harvested organs of those fallen. This evil is blooming in the Ukraine, we believe that it has been organized by the Americans. We are regularly finding bodies that have been stripped of their organs. These monsters don’t limit themselves to adults either the organs of children have also been identified, this madness is getting worse. Needless to say, these particular ambulance operatives won’t be doing this again, ever. We have started to collate factual material to present to the ICC, for what it’s worth.

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Belarus mobilizes 350,000 soldiers as threat increases in west

TruthPeep Australian News, Belarus, General, Komonyiski, NATO, Ukraine , , , , 0 Comment
Belarus mobilizes 350,000 soldiers as threat increases in west

By Cossack Colonel YURI KOMONYISKI

Col. Komonyiski

BELARUS is mobilizing more than 350,000 men because of the Polish/NATO threat growing in the West. The RF (Russian) military will complement the Belarus forces.

Peter Haughton Political Prisoner Adelaide South Australia Click HERE for TRUE story PLZ SHARE

The Belarus force is well equipped and provisioned with both munitions and armaments as Lukashenko has been able to keep his manufacturing plants in tack following the fall of the USSR and has since activated the industrial complex. Belarus has large food reserves available and is able to distribute manufactured goods throughout the entire CIS the Belarus manufacturing base and quality of product is exceptional.

In the Ukraine the RF has taken out at least 13,000 Poles in the last few of months and multiple times more wounded. They have stopped pretending to be Ukrainians and are now wearing their true Polish/NATO colors. There is talk of ISIS and Al-Qaeda entering the fight, care of the Americans, but I personally have not yet encountered this. China has started to supply the RF with military equipment.

When we were on the front line, we had a commander that we were not overly impressed with. He would order the men to undertake tasks that equated to suicide missions. So, one day we grabbed him fitted him with a bulletproof vest, armed him and threw him into the back of the truck with the rest of the team. After spending 36 hours on the front line, we returned to base with the commander still intact. The next day he had vanished, we expect he crawled back to mommy. Once the word was out other teams started doing likewise apparently, it’s contagious.

General Armageddon continues to inspire and earn the respect of the men. In my opinion it won’t be long before we enter the larger cities and fighting commences in in tight quarters. Then we’ll be face to face with the Ukro-NATO mercs many of them are hardened fighters straight from Syria, Afghanistan etc., however we’ll have our terminators for support.

Some of the lads come across a four-person crew using a mortar against the RF. The coords were transmitted and their position was shelled upon approach we found four women, one dead the others wounded. The mortars are able to hit targets up to 7 kilometers away.

Elon Musk’s Starlink system is faltering and the RF hackers are making Elon work for his money. Recently Musk announced that he wanted the US government to take onboard the costs of his system – approximately US20 million per month – as Musk wanted to exit this scenario. A Ukrainian politician, upon hearing this, publicly voiced that Musk should “f… off”, and Musk’s name was added to the Ukrainian kill list. Mind you, they removed his name shortly after. I would expect that this may cause Musk to regret helping the Ukro-NATOs. The RF believe the US satellites have been taken out using high velocity steel ball bearing of all things (yet to be confirmed).

In the Nikolaevka region the Ukro-NATOs are concentrating their residual reserves. Intel informs us they were planning on gathering 60,000 militants to storm the southern defensive line. However, the RF hit first, with a direct hit on their munition’s storage. Intel says it was full of HIMAR rockets among other things. It would also appear that they have underground quarters near to the ammo dump we expect multiple casualties probably in the thousands.

All counterattacks from the Ukro-NATOs have been repelled and our numbers are growing. I believe there are 50,000 NATO currently on the battlefield, many pretending to be mercs or Ukrainian soldiers.

Our ships continue to drop bomb on targets in Odessa. There is chatter that if he Ukros don’t achieve significant progress by winter than the US may stop providing arms – the stakes are high.

Our Caliber missiles continue to deliver messages to the Ukro-NATOs, recently the Ukrofascists were bragging about how they took out all 18 rockets we consider that to be an exceptional effort considering only 12 were launched and they all hit their targets.

In the Kherson region the Ukro-NATOs keep counterattacking without success. Kiev continues to receive RF airborne messages the city has gone dark, many people are now hiding underground. We estimate that 80% of Ukraine is powered by diesel generators in an attempt to keep the lights on.

Internally the FSB (Federal Security Service) continues to clean house in Russia and my sources inform me that approximately 300 arrests have been made. We fondly refer to them as traitors – those that would attempt to subvert the course of the special military operation.

The Ukro-NATOs continue to attack Russia’s Belgorod we have shot down at least 100 rockets. This is a city of a million-plus people. The Ukro-NATOs are firing at it because it is in range and out of spite, as it is of no military significance.

Recently the Chechens stopped a red cross ambulance, to their horror inside they discovered harvested organs of those fallen. This evil is blooming in the Ukraine, we believe that it has been organized by the Americans. We are regularly finding bodies that have been stripped of their organs. These monsters don’t limit themselves to adults either the organs of children have also been identified, this madness is getting worse. Needless to say, these particular ambulance operatives won’t be doing this again, ever. We have started to collate factual material to present to the ICC, for what it’s worth.

Source

Fears of Staged ‘Provocation’ as Belarus Accuses Ukraine of Planning to Attack Them

TruthPeep Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus, London / Europe, Politics, Russia, Russian Federation, Ukraine, Ukraine war, USA News , , , , , , , 0 Comment
Fears of Staged ‘Provocation’ as Belarus Accuses Ukraine of Planning to Attack Them

There are fears Belarus may be looking for an excuse to formally join the war on Ukraine after it accused Kyiv of planning to attack them.

According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, their ambassador in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, Ihor Kyzym, was summoned by Belarus’ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and presented with a diplomatic note accusing Ukraine of “planning an attack on the territory of Belarus.”

Peter Haughton Political Prisoner Adelaide South Australia Click HERE for TRUE story PLZ SHARE

“This information does not correspond to reality,” the Ukrainians insisted in an official statement published in English.

“We categorically reject yet another insinuation of the Belarusian regime,” they added, warning that they “do not rule out that the handing over of the diplomatic note may be part of the plan of the Russian Federation to carry out a provocation to further accuse Ukraine.”

The statement comes as Anatoly Lappo, chairman of the State Border Committee of Belarus, has accused the Ukrainians of having “blown up” and mined roads on their shared border, and of harassing Belarusian border guards with live fire.

“We are under pressure, they are aiming at our border guards, sometimes they are shooting in the air, constant aerial reconnaissance is being carried out,” Lappo alleged.

The Ukrainians have been offered support by the U.S. ambassador in Kyiv (Kiev), Bridget Brink, in a statement posted on social media.

“Let’s be clear about who’s attacking whom,” she wrote.

“Russia violated Ukraine’s sovereignty and launches strikes that kill men, women, and children while they sleep, and Belarus allows its territory to be used in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

Indeed, while Belarus, led by strongman Alexander Lukashenko since 1994, has not formally joined the “special military operation” against Ukraine, it was used as the staging ground for Russia’s failed northern offensive towards Kyiv during its first phase, and continues to host Russian air and artillery assets.

So far unconfirmed reports suggest Iranian-made drones operating out of Belarus are participating in strikes Russia has launched against targets throughout Ukraine, including in Kyiv itself, in likely retaliation for damage inflicted on the bridge from Crimea to mainland Russia over the weekend.

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The SCO Summit and the Need for a New Global Security Architecture

TruthPeep Analysis, anglo-intelligence operations, Belarus, Government, Matthew Ehret, Russia-China, Samarkand September 2022, Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), USA News, Vladimir Putin, World, Xi Jinping , , , , , , , , , , 0 Comment


Matthew Ehret

The clock is ticking fast and if we miss this opportunity now, the only peace the world may ever find will accompany a long nuclear winter.

During a meeting held between Putin and Xi at the recent Shanghai Co-operation Organization Summit in Samarkand, the Chinese leader re-affirmed his understanding both of the historical moment now shaping the world and also the vital role he understands both Russia and China must play in navigating humanity through this storm saying:

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“Dear President Putin, my dear old friend. I am very pleased to meet again. In the face of tremendous changes of our time on a global scale unprecedented in history, we stand with our Russian colleagues to set an example of a responsible world power”.

The meeting was especially strategic as it was the first such meeting featuring Iran as full member and Belarus on the fast track to join in the short term alongside other states including the UAE, Bahrain, Myanmar, Kuwait and the Maldives. It is extremely apparent that the foundations for a new alternative security architecture are coming online, which also includes a vital financial component; which is perhaps why convenient fires were also lit with bloody confrontations launched by Azerbaijan against SCO member Armenia and also between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan (both SCO members hosting Russian bases and Chinese BRI-connected vital infrastructure). While not all the details are yet known as to the arsonists lighting these fires, the timing and character of conflicts smells of Anglo-Intelligence operations.

The common theme amongst the discussions of the SCO Summit and broader multipolar alliance is shaped around the common good, common security and coordination of action towards improving the conditions of life of peoples and sovereign nations as outlined by the UN Charter (which is a very different creature than the “rules based international order” which unipolarists love bandying about these days).

Unfortunately, even the saner voices with even a modicum of political influence among the western states seem to be completely unaware of the epoch-making decisions now being made by allies of the Multipolar Alliance, who have made it incredibly clear that they would prefer cooperation with the trans-Atlantic community as allies over going to war, although events have forced them to prepare for the later in ways few thought possible just a few years ago.

If there were ever a time for humility and self-reflection amongst the leaders of the west, that time is now.

The Nature of Peace Summits of the Past

In the pre-nuclear weapon epochs, peace-conferences were arranged too often only after years of devastating war and bloodshed had become unsufferable.

We saw examples of such conferences in the form of the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, which emerged in the wake of the 30 Years’ War and which established the framework of the modern sovereign nation state system at the heart of international law. We saw a weak attempt at another conference in the form of the Congress of Vienna in 1815 after two decades of Napoleonic wars decimated Europe. We saw an attempt arise again arise in the form of the League of Nations in the wake of the meat grinder of WW1 and again in the form of the United Nations and Bretton Woods System that were brought online after WW2.

Sometimes these international conferences were shaped by honest agendas and sometimes not, but in all instances it was agreed by all parties that that a new system was necessary to avoid a plunge into war.

Unfortunately, human memory is weak and the Byzantine web of power politics in which the Anglo-American deep state operates is not easily transformed by conferences or agreements to play nicely with neighbors.

Sitting as we are now on the precipice of yet another plunge into war and economic collapse, the very existence of atomic bombs has made the errors of the past intolerable in the 21st century. While some Rand Corp think tankers and representatives of the military industrial complex may believe a new world war is an exciting prospect and even a winnable endeavor (according to their computer modelled scenarios), the reality is far different.

The objective reality is that such a war could never be won, and the very existence of the next generation hypersonic missile technologies unveiled by both Russia and China, including underwater drones, has demonstrated that a first strike monopoly by NATO is a pipe dream. No attack on Russia or China could be done without a vicious retaliation that would take out every major city across the Rules Based International free world.

So what is to be done?

Of course, one option would be for Russia, China, India and other nations currently organized around the multipolar alliance to abandon 1) their sovereignty and 2) desires to establish a new system based upon win-win cooperation.

These nations would also need to agree to a Great Reset of the world on the terms of a nest of technocratic unipolar priests managing a new world government from above the structures of elected regimes. This would mean of course, erasing or re-writing the UN Charter, which currently premises international law on the sacredness of national sovereignty, non-military interference of one state into another and mutual cooperation. These states would also have to agree to new systems of draconian population reduction under the rubric of “decarbonization”. If this were done, we are told that a new world order of peace, degrowth, and sustainability were attainable and a long-awaited utopian “end of history” would finally be unveiled.

Based on the profiles, words and performance of the leaders of the Multipolar Alliance as witnessed over the past decade, they won’t do this.

The need for a different kind of Reset

The other option would be for a summit to occur BEFORE the next nuclear war turns humanity into a failed experiment, and rather than an anti-humanist Great Reset or transhumanist New World Order, instead shaped the terms and goals of this emergency Summit upon solving objective problems that all people of the world can agree on and which Franklin Roosevelt had outlined in his Four Freedoms.

Freedom from want, freedom from fear of war, freedom of speech and freedom of conscience are universal and set the backbone of both the spirit of the Atlantic Charter (pre-Biden/Bojo edits), UN Charter, and the original designs of the Bretton Woods system. These universal freedoms were again outlined in the UN Declaration of Human Rights of 1947 and in the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence that emerged out of the Bandung Conference in 1955 which set the tone for the Non-Aligned Movement.

At Bretton Woods, a new financial system was created in two weeks founded upon principles of banking that demanded fixed exchange rates to block unbounded speculation which had been used as economic warfare against poor nations for centuries. It was premised originally on the idea of emitting long term credit for large scale projects to internationalize the New Deal under an age envisioned to be an era of multipolar cooperation and win-win development. The UN as envisioned by FDR or Henry Wallace was also never meant to be a world government but rather a platform for dialogue and harmonization of security and economic interests among civilizations.

Despite the fact that the Bretton Woods Institutions such as the IMF and World Bank (and US government itself) were hijacked by deep state operatives representing the worst oligarchical inclinations of humanity in the post WW2 years, the truth of the noble origins of these institutions which John F Kennedy (and to a lesser but relevant extent Trump) attempted to revive should not be ignored.

Why not arrange a similar conference today bringing together representatives of diverse national representatives?

As I mentioned in the beginning of this report, this discussion has already begun, and leading figures representing the majority of the world’s population are having it as we saw in Samarkand.

The development programs already unveiled by the productive financial architecture of China and its growing array of allies has already unleashed over $3 trillion in large scale infrastructure investments around the growing Belt and Road Initiative. Tied increasingly to the Eurasian Economic Union, which is quickly preparing the groundwork for a fully integrated new financial architecture founded upon real world values outlined by Sergey Glazyev on numerous occasions, this healthier compact of civilizational forces has made clear their desire to both survive and thrive in the 21st century and beyond.

The irony of FDR’s Four Freedoms now being advanced by Eurasian powers, considered by many to be the most “un-American” groups on earth, should not be lost on anyone.

There is no shortage of cooperative projects to build together across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas which could easily create real employment, rebuild our decayed factories and infrastructure and establish trust amongst nations who have been set at each others’ throats for too long. Sane forces unwilling to sacrifice their traditions and people among the western citizens and policy makers would do well to organize like never before to bring their nations into harmony with this healthier discussion now underway.

The clock is ticking fast and if we miss this opportunity now, the only peace the world may ever find will accompany a long nuclear winter.

************

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Russia Announces Partial Mobilization, Boosting Troop Force by 300,000

TruthPeep Belarus, Government, Izium withdrawal of Russian troops, Military, Moon of Alabama, partial mobilization of Russian troops, Russian public opinion, Sergei Shoigu, Spotlight, Tass, USA News, World, Zerohedge , , , , , , , , , , , 0 Comment


ER Editor: Putin’s speech had been expected last night but was delivered this morning. See this from Zerohedge, titled Putin Announces Partial Mobilization In Ukraine War Escalation, Says West Wants To “Destroy Russia”. See also this from TASS (browsers will translate): Partial mobilization in Russia and threats from the West. The main theses of Putin’s address

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Peter Haughton Political Prisoner Adelaide South Australia Click HERE for TRUE story PLZ SHARE

See also this we published earlier today:

Game-Changing: Donbass Republics And 2 Others Request Sudden Referendums

********

Russia Announces Partial Mobilization

MOON OF ALABAMA

The expected TV speech by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, announced for yesterday evening, did happen only this morning.

Putin announced a partial mobilization of military reserves:

Only citizens who are currently in the reserve and, above all, those who served in the ranks of the Armed Forces, have certain military specialties and relevant experience will be subject to conscription for military service. Those called up for military service before being sent to the units will necessarily undergo additional military training taking into account the experience of a special military operation.

Additionally, all military service contracts (usually 3 to 12 months) currently in force are extended indefinitely.

Putin said that the current conflict was instigated by the West, noting that the Western countries seek the destruction and disintegration of Russia. He said that the West had been supporting international terrorists, promoted the infrastructure of the NATO offensive close to Russia’s borders and fostered Russophobia.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said (video, Sputnik report) that 300,000 reservists will be mobilized. Conscripts and people currently studying will not be send to Ukraine.

He also said that, so far, 5,937 Russian soldiers have died during the war in Ukraine. (This number does not include the militia of the DPR and LPR, or the Wagner group, who have done most of the front line work and thus have had higher losses.) Shoigu puts Ukrainian losses at some 62,000 killed and some 50,000 wounded. (I regard this as a low estimate.)

Russia’s total military reserve, people who have previously gone through military training, is 25 million. It also has the equipment to arm those forces.

There are rumors that the Ukraine is preparing for an all-out offensive, mobilizing and preparing new units from Kiev and further west for one big push against the Russian and allied forces. It will take a few months to prepare for this. The Ukraine will need much more equipment and ammunition from the ‘west’, including ‘western’ tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, and has yet to train troops to be able to use it. It is likely intending to start the offensive only in spring.

The call up Russia announced now may have the intent to draw Kiev into a premature launch of its general offensive. The mobilized Russian troops will take about three months to be ready for war. Russia could thus launch its own offensive during the winter season. In the meantime, constant defensive work will continue to severely degrade the Ukrainian units which are currently on or near the front lines.

With a force of an additional 300,000 troops, far beyond the 100,000 to 150,000 engaged now in the war, the Russia forces could change their tactics from the slow grind that is happening now into a larger scale maneuver war with heavy strikes into the operational depth of the frontline.

Belarus, allied with the Russian Federation, is also in the process of getting ready for war. It could, as it had threatened before, cut of the supply lines from the ‘west’ into the Ukraine in the western part of that country.

Should current Ukrainian attacks on civilians and infrastructure in Russia and the Donbas regions continue, we can expect that the Russian forces will start to degrade Ukrainian infrastructure on a large scale. The electricity and railway networks would be the primary targets.

Some two weeks ago, a successful Ukrainian offensive led to the retreat of Russian troops in the Kharkov region. That at least is the ‘western’ version of that story. A different narrative is that the Russian troops intentionally withdrew from the region to raise Russian calls for an escalation of the war.  The Izium withdrawal was thus probably a mere catalyst for ‘starting in earnest’:

The Russian public, which at first did not fully understand why the war was necessary, has since grown in its awareness. It now understands the big game that is being played against its country. It may soon demand to adjust the level of resources put into the war to the one needed for a decisive victory. Polls will clarify if or when that point is reached. That is why Dima concludes that: “We can say that today was the best ever [..] day for the Russians in the territory of Ukraine.”

It is now probably assured that they will be liberated. One way or another.

I also believe that the withdrawal from the Izium region, which left behind a significant number of pro-Russian civilians under deadly threats from fascist ‘filtration’ groups, will be the catalyst for a significant escalation on the Russian side.

The gloves are coming off.

Source

************

••••

The Liberty Beacon Project is now expanding at a near exponential rate, and for this we are grateful and excited! But we must also be practical. For 7 years we have not asked for any donations, and have built this project with our own funds as we grew. We are now experiencing ever increasing growing pains due to the large number of websites and projects we represent. So we have just installed donation buttons on our websites and ask that you consider this when you visit them. Nothing is too small. We thank you for all your support and your considerations … (TLB)

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Comment Policy: As a privately owned web site, we reserve the right to remove comments that contain spam, advertising, vulgarity, threats of violence, racism, or personal/abusive attacks on other users. This also applies to trolling, the use of more than one alias, or just intentional mischief. Enforcement of this policy is at the discretion of this websites administrators. Repeat offenders may be blocked or permanently banned without prior warning.

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The Eurasian Economic Union Steps Up

TruthPeep Armenia, ASEAN, Asia-Pacific region, Belarus, Bretton Woods 3, BRICS, COMMENTARY, EAEU, Eurasian Economic Forum, Eurasian Economic Union, Financial, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pepe Escobar, Russia, Sergey Glazyev, USA News, Vladimir Putin, World , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 0 Comment
The Eurasian Economic Union Steps Up


The Eurasian Economic Union Steps Up

The Eurasian Economic Forum has shown once again that this high-speed – economic integration – train has already left the station.

PEPE ESCOBAR

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The first Eurasian Economic Forum, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, took place this week at a very sensitive geopolitical juncture, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov keeps stressing that,

“the West has declared total war against us, against the entire Russian world. Nobody even hides this now.”

It’s always important to remember that before Maidan in 2014, Ukraine had the option to become a full member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and even balance it with a loose association with the EU.

The EAEU comprises five full members – Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and Armenia – yet 14 nations sent delegations to the forum, including China, Vietnam and Latin American nations.

There was much rumbling that the proceedings would be jeopardized by the serial sanctions packages imposed on Russia by the collective West. There’s no question that some EAEU members – such as Kazakhstan – seem to be more worried about the effects of the sanctions than about fine-tuning business with Russia. Yet that’s not the point.

The crucial point is that by 2025, they have to harmonize their legislation concerning financial markets. And that’s directly connected to what the executive body of the EAEU, led by Sergey Glazyev, is working on, extensively: designing the lineaments of an alternative financial/economic system  to what the West would rather coin as Bretton Woods 3.

The Eurasian Economic Forum was established by the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council explicitly to further deepen economic cooperation between EAEU members. No wonder the official theme of the forum was Eurasian Economic Integration in the Era of Global Shifts: New Investment Opportunities, focusing on strategic development in the industrial, energy, transport, financial, and digital areas.

So Many Converging Strategies

President Putin’s speech to the plenary session was quite revealing. To really appreciate the scope of what’s implied, it’s important to remember that the Greater Eurasian Partnership concept was presented by Putin in 2016 at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum, focused on a “more extensive Eurasian partnership involving the Eurasian Economic Union” and including China, Pakistan, Iran and India.

Putin stressed how the drive for developing ties “within the framework of the Greater Eurasian Partnership” (…) “was not the political situation but global economic trends, because the centre of economic development is gradually – we are aware of this, and our businesspeople are aware of this – is gradually moving, continues to move into the Asia-Pacific Region.”

He added, “in the current international conditions when, unfortunately, traditional trade and economic links and supply chains are being disrupted”, the Greater Eurasian Partnership “is gaining a special meaning.”

Putin established a direct connection not only between the Greater Eurasian Partnership and EAEU members but also “BRICS members such as China and India”, “the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, ASEAN and other organizations.”

And that’s the core of the whole, ongoing, multi-layered process of Eurasia integration, with the China-led New Silk Roads intersecting with the Eurasia Economic Union, the SCO, BRICS+, and other converging strategies.

Lavrov this week said that Argentina and Saudi Arabia want to join BRICS, whose next summer in China is being meticulously prepared. Not only that: Lavrov mentioned how quite a few Arab nations want to join the SCO. He was careful to describe this process of converging alliances as “not antagonistic”.

Putin for his part was careful to define the Greater Eurasian Partnership as “a big civilizational project. The main idea is to create a common space for equitable cooperation for regional organizations”, changing “the political and economic architecture on the entire continent.”

Thus, the necessity to “draft a comprehensive strategy for developing large-scale Eurasian partnership”, including “a roadmap for industrialization”. That translates in practice as developing “engineering centers and research centers. This is inevitable for any country that wants to increase its economic, financial, and ultimately political sovereignty. It is inevitable.”

Yaroslav Lissovolik at the Valdai Club is one of the top analysts tracking how this convergence may profit the whole Global South. He stresses that among the “variability and diversity in the platforms that may be launched by Global South economies, the most sizeable and comprehensive of which could include the aggregation of CELAC (Latin America), African Union (Africa)”, and the SCO in Eurasia.

And an even more diverse set of “regional blocs that targets deeper integration could feature a BRICS+ platform that comprises the South African Development Community (SADC), MERCOSUR, BIMSTEC”, the China-ASEAN free trade agreement, and the EAEU.

The Eurasian Economic Forum has shown once again that this high-speed – economic integration – train has already left the station. It’s quite enlightening to notice the sharp contrast with the endless doom and gloom afflicting a collective West prone to inflation, energy shortages, food shortages, fictional “narratives” and the defense of neo-Nazis under the banner of liberal “democracy”.

************

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Pepe Escobar, born in Brazil, is a correspondent and editor-at-large at Asia Times and columnist for Consortium News and Strategic Culture in Moscow. Since the mid-1980s he’s lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Singapore, Bangkok. He has extensively covered Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia to China, Iran, Iraq and the wider Middle East. Pepe is the author of Globalistan – How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War; Red Zone Blues: A Snapshot of Baghdad during the Surge. He was contributing editor to The Empire and The Crescent and Tutto in Vendita in Italy. His last two books are Empire of Chaos and 2030. Pepe is also associated with the Paris-based European Academy of Geopolitics. When not on the road he lives between Paris and Bangkok.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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Ukraine-Russia War: The Scuttled Istanbul “Peace Initiative”. The Dangers of Escalation

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Ukraine-Russia War: The Scuttled Istanbul “Peace Initiative”. The Dangers of Escalation

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Today, the dangers of military escalation are beyond description.

We must understand the history of the Ukraine crisis and the role of  Neo-Nazi mobs which have been supported by US-NATO.

What is now happening in Ukraine has serious geopolitical implications. It could lead us into a World War III Scenario.

It is important that a peace process be initiated with a view to preventing escalation.

Global Research does not support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A  bilateral Peace Agreement is required.

***

On his first foreign visit to Belarus on Tuesday since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin explained during a joint press conference with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko that the time frame of the military offensive in Ukraine was determined by the intensity of hostilities and Russia would act according to its plan.

“I often get these questions, can’t we hurry it up?’ We can. But it depends on the intensity of hostilities and, any way you put it, the intensity of hostilities is directly related to casualties,” said the Russian president. “Our task is to achieve the set goals while minimizing these losses. We will act rhythmically, calmly, and according to the plan that was initially proposed by the General Staff.”

On the fateful day of Feb. 24, in a three-pronged blitz from the north, east and south, Russian ground forces, backed by close air support and volleys of cruise missiles launched by Russian naval forces deployed in the Black Sea, overran Ukraine and laid siege to the capital, Kyiv, whose impending fall in days was predicted even by the mainstream media.

It has become clear now the “40-mile-long Trojan Horse” of battle tanks, armored vehicles and heavy artillery that descended from Belarus in the north and reached the outskirts of Kyiv in the early days of the war without encountering much resistance en route the capital was a decoy designed as a diversionary tactic by Russia’s military strategists in order to deter Ukraine from sending reinforcements to Donbas in east Ukraine where real battles for territory were actually fought and scramble to defend the country’s capital instead.

Except in the early days of the military campaign when Russian airstrikes and long-range artillery shelling targeted military infrastructure in the outskirts of Kyiv to degrade the combat potential of Ukraine’s armed forces, the capital did not witness much action during the month-long offensive.

Despite having immense firepower at its disposal, the Russian advance in Ukraine was slower than expected according to most estimates. This is  what Putin explained at a press conference in Belarus Tuesday that “the time frame of the military offensive in Ukraine is determined by the intensity of hostilities,” but “the intensity of hostilities is directly related to the number of casualties,” and, according to Putin “Russia’s task is to achieve the set goals while minimizing the losses.”

Russia chose not capture Kyiev

The bombardment of the densely populated Ukrainian capital and the ensuing urban warfare against heavily armed Ukrainian militias supported by US-NATO would inevitably have caused thousands of needless civilian casualties. Therefore, the Russians decided to spare the rest of the embattled country and restricted the Russian military offensive on liberating the Russian-majority Donbas region in east Ukraine.

Putin reiterated that Russia’s actions in several regions of Ukraine, implying diversionary tactics deployed by Russian forces in Kyiv and Chernihiv in the north, were intended only “to tie down enemy forces” and carry out missile strikes with the purpose of “destroying the Ukrainian military’s infrastructure,” so as to “create conditions for more active operations on the territory of Donbas.”

In a momentous announcement on March 29, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin, leading the Russian peace delegation in Istanbul talks, told reporters:

“In order to increase mutual trust and create the necessary conditions for further negotiations and achieving the ultimate goal of agreeing and signing an agreement, a decision was made to radically, by a large margin, reduce military activity in the Kyiv and Chernihiv directions.”

Russia’s strategy consisted in scaling back its blitz north of the capital, while focusing instead on liberating the Russian-majority Donbas region in east Ukraine.

Russia has already accomplished its strategic objectives in Ukraine, as the Crimean Peninsula and the Donbas region are now de facto independent territories where Russian forces have been deployed.

Since the withdrawal of Russian forces from north Ukraine, although NATO’s policymakers are predicting “a major new Russian offensive in east Ukraine” in order to hype the threat, Russia now intends only to consolidate its territorial gains achieved in the Donbas region in the month-long blitz.

A map of Mariupol and surroundings

On April 13, 2022, Russian forces announced the “liberation” of the strategically significant port city Mariupol, the second-largest city in the Donetsk Oblast in east Ukraine and the hub of CIA-trained neo-Nazi militias.

The Azov Batallion

Ukraine’s infamous Azov Battalion, widely acknowledged as a neo-Nazi paramilitary force connected with foreign white supremacist organizations, was initially formed as a volunteer group in May 2014 out of the ultra-nationalist Patriots of Ukraine gang, and the neo-Nazi Social National Assembly (SNA) group.

As a battalion, the group fought on the frontlines against pro-Russia separatists in Donbas, the eastern region of Ukraine, and rose to prominence after recapturing the strategic port city of Mariupol from the Russia-backed separatists.

The militant outfit was officially integrated into the National Guard of Ukraine on November 12, 2014, and exacted high praise from then-President Petro Poroshenko. “These are our best warriors,” he said at an awards ceremony in 2014. “Our best volunteers.”

In June 2015, both Canada and the United States announced they would not support or train the Azov regiment, citing its neo-Nazi connections. The following year, however, the US lifted the ban under pressure from the Pentagon, and the CIA initiated the clandestine program to nurture ultra-nationalist militias in east Ukraine in order to mount a war of attrition against Russia.

Mariupol: Surrender of Ukraine’s Marine Brigade

In one of the most critical battles of the Russo-Ukraine War, Russia’s defense ministry claimed Wednesday 1,026 soldiers from Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, including 162 officers, holed up in the Azovstal industrial district, the lynchpin dividing Russian-held areas to the west and east of the city, had “voluntarily laid down their arms” and surrendered the last bastion of militancy in Mariupol to Russian forces.

Mariupol’s capture would help Russia secure a land corridor between the Donetsk and Luhansk republics in Donbas and Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, following the Maidan coup toppling pro-Russia Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

The Guardian reported on April 13:

“Military experts say local support, logistics, the terrain in the region and the appointment by Moscow of a new senior general, Aleksandr Dvornikov [a decorated war hero and the former commander of Russian forces in Syria] as overall commander of Russian forces in Ukraine, could improve the performance of a force that Britain’s defense ministry said on Wednesday had so far been hampered by an inability to cohere and coordinate.”

Local support of the native population to the Russian forces in the Russian-majority region is the key element here, that even the mainstream media unwittingly acknowledged, as ethnic Russians in east Ukraine, relentlessly persecuted for eight long years by Ukraine’s security forces and allied neo-Nazi militias, have by and large welcomed Russian troops in Donbas.

The Dangers of Escalation

Whereas Russia’s military campaign north of the capital has been curtailed, NATO powers have announced transferring heavy weapons, including tanks, armored personnel carriers, artillery and even helicopters, to Ukraine to escalate the conflict.

Testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 7, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley revealed that US and NATO countries have collectively provided roughly 60,000 anti-tank weapons and 25,000 anti-aircraft weapons during NATO’s “weapons for peace” program to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24.

The Biden administration announced an additional $800 million in military assistance to Ukraine on Wednesday. The package, which brings the total military aid since Russian forces invaded in February to more than $2.5 billion, includes artillery systems, artillery rounds, armored personnel carriers and unmanned coastal defense boats.

The new package includes 11 Mi-17 helicopters that had been earmarked for Afghanistan before the US-backed government collapsed last year. It also includes 18 155mm howitzers, along with 40,000 artillery rounds, 10 counter-artillery radars, 200 armored personnel carriers, 500 Javelin anti-tank missiles, and 300 additional Switchblade drones.

The new military assistance package to Ukraine will be funded using Presidential Drawdown Authority, or PDA, in which the president can authorize the transfer of articles and services from US stocks without congressional approval in response to an emergency.

As news of the latest security assistance came out, executives from the top US weapons-makers met with Pentagon officials to expedite NATO’s “weapons for peace” program in Ukraine. These included executives from BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Lockheed Martin, Huntington Ingalls Industries, Harris Technologies, Boeing, Raytheon Technologies and Northrop Grumman.

But in a significantly escalatory move, virtually scuttling the Istanbul Russia-Ukraine peace initiative on March 29 and the subsequent withdrawal of Russian forces from the outskirts of Kiev, Ukraine’s Operational Command South announced Thursday that it had hit a Russian warship with a “Ukrainian-made Neptune anti-ship missile” off the coast of Odessa in southeast Ukraine and that it had started to sink.

“In the Black Sea operational zone, Neptune anti-ship cruise missiles hit the cruiser Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet—it received significant damage,” the Ukrainian statement said. “A fire broke out. Other units of the ship’s group tried to help, but a storm and a powerful explosion of ammunition overturned the cruiser and it began to sink.”

Russia’s defense ministry claimed the “accidental fire” on the Soviet-era guided-missile cruiser Moskva had been contained, but left the ship badly damaged, though it “remains afloat” and measures were being taken to tow it to port. The ministry said the crew had been safely evacuated to other Black Sea Fleet ships in the area.

Russian news agencies said the 611-foot-long (186 meters) Moskva, with a crew of almost 500, was commissioned in 1983 and refurbished in 1998. The Moskva was armed with a range of anti-ship and anti-aircraft missiles as well as torpedoes and naval guns and close-in missile defense systems, including 16 anti-ship Vulkan cruise missiles with a range of at least 700 km (440 miles).

Although Ukraine claimed the Russian warship was struck by a “Ukrainian-made Neptune anti-ship missile,” developed domestically based on the Soviet KH-35 cruise missile that became operational in the Ukrainian naval forces just last year, Politico reported on March 16 that Kyiv had specifically demanded “long-range anti-ship missiles” from Washington, and the Russian guided-missile cruiser was most likely destroyed by long-range anti-ship missiles provided to Ukraine by the United States.

“A Western diplomat familiar with Ukraine’s requests said Kyiv specifically has asked the US and allies for more Stingers and Starstreak man-portable air-defense systems, Javelins and other anti-tank weapons, ground-based mobile air-defense systems, armed drones, long-range anti-ship missiles, off-the-shelf electronic warfare capabilities, and satellite navigation and communications jamming equipment.”

In response to escalation of hostilities by Ukraine and its international backers, despite the Ukraine-Russia peace negotiations initiative announced at the Istanbul talks on March 29, Russian Ministry of Defense spokesperson Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov warned in a statement:

“We see attempts of sabotage and strikes by Ukrainian troops on objects on the territory of the Russian Federation. If such cases continue, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation will strike at decision-making centers, including in Kyiv, from which the Russian army has thus far refrained.”

During the course of the war, Russia has struck military targets in regions as far away as cities in west Ukraine bordering Poland. On March 13, Russian forces launched a missile attack at Yavoriv Combat Training Center in the western most part of the country.

The military facility, less than 25 km from the Polish border, is one of Ukraine’s biggest and the largest in the western part of the country. Since 2015, US Green Berets and National Guard troops had been training Ukrainian forces at the Yavoriv center before they were evacuated alongside diplomatic staff in mid-February.

The training center was hit by a barrage of 30 cruise missiles, killing at least 35 people, though Russia’s defense ministry claimed up to 180 foreign mercenaries and large caches of weapons were destroyed at the training center.

*

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Nauman Sadiq is an Islamabad-based geopolitical and national security analyst focused on geo-strategic affairs and hybrid warfare in the Middle East and Eurasia regions. His domains of expertise include neocolonialism, military-industrial complex and petro-imperialism. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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Focusing On Russia Instead Of China Would Be The United States’s Biggest Foreign Policy Mistake Ever

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Focusing On Russia Instead Of China Would Be The United States’s Biggest Foreign Policy Mistake Ever
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As we reach a month of the Ukrainian war amid talks of possible peace, a strategic appraisal is in order. It appears the Russians thought the war would be easy and fast, the Ukrainians would simply roll over and surrender, and the common people would rise up to greet Russians as liberators. Russian strategic decision-making, worsened by ideological bubbles, turned out to be as haunting as British and American misadventures in Iraq and Libya.

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The Russian officer attrition in this war is on a level rarely observed in any recent conflict, partially because this level of high-intensity, state versus state, multi-domain total war hasn’t occurred in the last few decades. Russia did not foresee that its old-fashioned special operations tactics are obsolete satellites and drones track their movements.

The fact that Moscow did not calculate this in their battle plans is a sign of decline, a far cry from its prestigious officer corps training during the Soviet era. The bulk of the Russian navy and air force are still bafflingly underused and functionally unavailable given the intensity of the conflict, giving rise to the suspicion that the Russians are preserving their top-tier weaponry and platforms in case the war spirals to a continental conflict.

But, somehow, they are still grinding on. If their objective was to stop Ukraine, Georgia, and Belarus from joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), they have achieved it already. They have also managed to cut off the entire east and south of Ukraine. Russia might still win the war and achieve Ukrainian zonal neutrality, given Russia’s sheer weight.

The Russian rhetorical “denazification” was also recently dropped quietly from the rhetoric. But the demand for Ukrainian neutrality remains and will remain. It was the single major Russian demand. All the other demands were maximalist and malleable, aimed towards negotiation.

Ukraine should have taken the opportunity to do a Cold War-era, Austrian-style “neutralitätserklärung,” which would have resulted in the country constitutionally turning neutral, in order to get funding from the European Union and NATO and flourish. Ukrainians have also swallowed their non-achievable EU and NATO membership dream and are currently just as ideologically inflexible and rigid about compromise as Russia. 

Long-Term Ramifications

Unfortunately, the long-term ramifications of this war, for the west, are also bleak. Every single conservative restraint and realist gain from the last few years risks being reversed if realists continue to play defense on the rhetorical field of “values” instead of focusing on a narrow, populist interest. 

The absolutely mindless idea of a no-fly zone in an active warzone with a nuclear great power was narrowly avoided by 78 experts writing an open letter against it. Incidentally, support for a no-fly zone declines among Americans the moment it is explained.

But the war hysteria in the first few weeks of the campaign, aided by the usual suspects, demonstrated just how close to power and catastrophe these ideologues were. When a former deputy assistant secretary of defense and a former supreme allied commander of NATO argue for a no-fly zone, one needs to remember they are one step away from real advisory power and might be so again in the future. 

A conservative realist grand strategy that focuses on America’s southern borders and argues for Europeans to pay for European defense first needs a realist rhetoric and public relations strategy. It must discuss the public interest, in a language common people will understand and appreciate. 

Pursuing such a strategy would require a total clean-up of the administrative state and Obama-era holdovers next time Republicans are in power. The hold-outs of liberal internationalism are deeply embedded within the ever-expansive national security bureaucracy.

War Is Burying Liberal Internationalism

Rampant war hysteria has resulted in limited diplomatic maneuverability, a realization that is slowly emerging. As the Financial Times noted, “since Feb 24, the west has been galvanised into more unity than it has shown in years. Yet most of the world is on the side lines waiting to see which way it goes. Not for the first time, the west risks mistaking itself for global consensus.”

No matter how many times fanatical liberal internationalists cry about this war suddenly rejuvenating liberalism, the reality cannot be further from truth. The war proves great powers can deter other great powers and are the only actors that matter, that nationalism is the strongest social force, that interests trump values, norms, and laws. Thus, the war is quite clearly not saving “liberal internationalism” but burying it.

Two of the largest non-western powers are either neutral or tacitly supporting Russia, simply because of the idea that great powers should have their own spheres of influence. The balancing powers in Europe also argued against NATO being a co-belligerent.

Realism Isn’t Isolationism At All

Anglo-American foreign policy realists are not pacifists or isolationists. They simply prioritize a greater strategic threat in China. Wars have their own momentum. The chance of a great power being dragged into war due to foolish or overzealous mistakes of smaller peripheral allies is a far bigger threat, as the current world is functionally similar to a multipolar system prior to the First World War than a relatively binary and Manichean conflict of the Second.

Russia, bogged down in Ukraine already, is not a hegemonic threat comparable to Nazi Germany. The EU’s total population is around 450 million, more than the United States (339 million) and much more than Russia (144 million). The EU’s gross domestic product also dwarfs Russia’s, and just the top four European defense budgets combined are larger than Russia’s. Yet, instead of an actual material pivot to Asia, the United States currently has more than 100,000 troops deployed in Europe.

Globally, the biggest future rival is China. China is almost incomparable in size and power next to previous rivals such as Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and even the USSR. There is nothing they would prefer more than the United States being dragged back to Europe.

Ultimately, the U.S. objective should be not to prolong the war, but to focus on China as a rising threat. Ukrainian neutrality would have sorted the issue for good. But Russia has already been pushed into the arms of the Chinese due to the war.

By not allowing an amoral balance of power, wherein we let Russia have a small sphere of influence as a grand bargain instead of being over-committed to Europe, Washington risks undercutting its long-term strategic interests by unknowingly accelerating China’s. In a twist of fate, President Joe Biden is now mirroring former President Donald Trump.

Biden’s old Cold War equilibrium instinct is under siege by his own activist administration, determined to defeat Russian “reactionary imperial patriarchy” and defend foreign borders, statues, and churches — instincts they would never allow at home. The almost theological focus on being a part of a conflict in the far corners of Eastern Europe to ensure the continuation of a liberal democratic revolution is fundamentally undercutting American grand strategy, which historically tried to split Russia and China.

Ultimately, pushing Russia to be a Chinese satellite might turn out to be our greatest historic blunder.

Dr. Sumantra Maitra is a national-security fellow at The Center for the National Interest; a non-resident fellow at the James G Martin Center; and an elected early career historian member at the Royal Historical Society. He is a senior contributor to The Federalist, and can be reached on Twitter @MrMaitra.

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