Just A Reminder.

To those who still "don't get it". Down the memory lane. 

As the result, they finally bought their own BS and look at the US now. 

Yes, Yes, But ...

 ... it is all staged. And it is in Moscow only. Russian propaganda. I agree, the deli, meat and fish departments in, say, Globus 100 km away from Moscow are much larger than what is shown here;)) Vladivostok with Novosibirsk are nearing famine. While you can see kilometer long lines in Samara for bread and maybe, if they are lucky, cabbage. 

No, 60,000. No, A Million ...

 ... at least. You see, while we discuss here important things, issues, trends et all ...

Ukraine Unleashes 30,000 Drones on Moscow—Putin’s Defenses Crumble

This is the type of crap which West's media propagate. Each morning, after turning on my PC I get this shit popping up on MSN page. Every day NATO and 404 report about amazing victories over Russia and Putin's "regime" which is about to crumble. Together with air defense. But then, the author notes ... 

On numerous recent nights, Moscow's airports and other critical infrastructure have faced disruptions as Ukrainian drone operations target the city under coordinated command. Though Russian defenses intercept most drones, the sustained volume of attacks has caused temporary service disruptions and revealed challenges in defending against drone swarms. ... Moscow's missile defense systems continue to engage drone swarms, though analysts note the persistent pressure is creating operational challenges and cost-efficiency concerns. The consistent drone threat has prompted ongoing reassessment of air defense strategies.

Hm, if "Russian defenses intercept most drones" let me ask where did the author and these "analysts" learn that "The consistent drone threat has prompted ongoing reassessment of air defense strategies" from? I have the answer--they pulled this BS out of their asses, because should they have been real professionals they would have known that "reassessment" in any military field, including AD, goes on 24/7 on operational-tactical and operational-strategic levels. Russia's General Staff has a whole huge department in GOU (Main Operational Directorate) dedicated ONLY to issues of air-defense and is staffed with people with advanced (graduate and post-graduate) military-STEM degrees in Air Defense specifically and who commanded or have been COSs of high tactical level and higher Air Defense formations in Russia's military. It is a level of AD expertise NO NATO officer has, period. The West has NOTHING even remotely comparable to this.

In related news. 

Two Ukrainians have been identified as the suspected perpetrators behind two acts of sabotage targeting a railway line between Warsaw and Lublin on Monday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told the parliament on Tuesday. According to him, the suspects sought to provoke a train crash. The prime minisiter accused the suspects of working “with the Russian intelligence for a long time.” According to Tusk, both alleged perpetrators fled to Belarus after the incidents.

Ah, OK. So they are Russians, after all, right? They must be Russians, otherwise how else morons in Warsaw can explain what is happening in Poland and that it is just the start--things will continue to deteriorate economically at an alarming rate for Poland, so ... Russians. Of course, who else. 

This Is How They Teach ...

 ... the history of WW II Eastern Front in the West. Judging by the utter a-historic trash which still circulates among many US military professionals as a genuine history, you know some of those names, it is not surprising that they still cannot understand what hit them. When your world view is formed by fairy tales about WW II written by what amounts to Wehrmacht and SS "sources" and how NKVD "executed" 1 million Red Army soldiers--what do you expect? Here is a good tearing apart of a Hollywood BS whose scenario was "written" by the same people (or rather their ideas) who only read Solzhenitsyn and Soviet dissidents and believe that it was the US which defeated Hitler and that the Red Army was nothing but kettle prodded into the battle by evil commissars and NKVD. Luckily, there are still some diligent people out there who cannot tolerate BS and do something about it. 

Only two weeks old. Excellent job and a good overall discussion in the comments. 

Anyone Expected Anything Else?

Hello! US MSM are generally war criminals--I am talking about their editorial boards staffed with sociopaths and whores, both literally and figuratively speaking. In other words--those are not normal humans. 

These statements by the Salvation Government and the HTS leader, Abu Mohammad al-Julani, were met with enthusiasm by prominent experts of Islamic radicalism and fundamentalism. They praised al-Julani’s professionalism, transparency, and moderate views, and the fact that he distanced himself from his jihadist roots.Western media picked up this narrative and, in an attempt to whitewash the rebel leader, CNN released an exclusive interview with him. In this interview, al-Julani repeated the above-mentioned statements made by the Syrian Salvation Government and noted that the ambitions of HTS and its allies are confined to Syria, which should reassure potential adversaries and key regional players. The goals of HTS, he claimed, were to overthrow Bashar Assad and then to start “building Syria” – and the rebels had already achieved the first goal. However, as often happens, the statements issued by the rebels were far from the truth. HTS terrorists and allied opposition groups have already released dozens of videos demonstrating executions of members of Arab-Kurdish forces, Syrian soldiers (even those who surrendered voluntarily), Alawites, and Shiites. In several video clips, militants are seen slitting the throats of their captives.

It is not "as often happens"--it happens always. There is not an atrocity or war crime which US MSM wouldn't support. So, this flows naturally from the nature of the journalism schools in the West where they produce primarily brainwashed illiterate activists who have neither morals nor integrity. Doctor Goebbels would have been proud. Now, information now emerges that actually Tiger Brigade and its commander Suheil are intact, how and why--we have to wait and see, but many transport planes fly to Khmeimim as we speak. So, we will have to be patient.

Well, Well, Well...

Judging by the increased number of trolls... ah judge for yourself. This is from Ria (use Google to translate). 

Бойцы других подразделений уже достигли центра, контролируют больше половины города. Считаные километры — и украинские войска окажутся в окружении. Потеря Курахово лишит ВСУ важных путей снабжения. А российская армия получит ключ к Запорожской области.

Translation: Fighters from other units have already reached the center and control more than half of the city. A few kilometers and the Ukrainian troops will be surrounded. The loss of Kurakhovo will deprive the Ukrainian Armed Forces of important supply routes. And the Russian army will receive the key to the Zaporizhia region.

And what do you know: 

The Russian flag is hoisted in the center of Kurakhovo. Now, if you disregard Colonel Mackgregor's references (this is his shtick, sadly) to Solzhenitsyn, he talks directly about mountains of lies. 

Per US generals--there is not a single US general who is capable to fight modern continental war, period. The US system of military education is a joke--it does not educate officer corps for a real war, it brainwashes them into Hollywoodesque "military history" of the "finest fighting force in history". They really believed and swallowed 404 military propaganda hook, line and sinker--that's the first evidence of military incompetence.

And So It Came...

 ... pretty nonchalantly. 

Countries of the BRICS economic bloc are currently working on the launch of a financial system that would be independent of the dominance of third parties, according to the Russian Ambassador to China Igor Morgulov. The volume of Russia’s transactions in national currencies with fellow BRICS nations is constantly growing, the envoy said on Saturday in Beijing, speaking at the 12th World Peace Forum (WPF). Morgulov highlighted that Russia-China trade turnover had reached $240 billion and that 92% of settlements were being conducted in rubles and yuans. “We are leaving the dollar-dominated space and developing the mechanism and tools for a truly independent financial system,” the ambassador said, as cited by RIA Novosti.

But I am sure this came as a surprise for Washington, not! And the "horror" doesn't stop here:

In addition, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told Russian daily Vedomosti that BRICS Bridge could provide member states an opportunity to make settlements using digital assets of central banks linked to national currencies. 

You see, that is what happens when one begins to think that the it (in case of a nation) is a measure of everything and everyone, while being rather oblivious to a lucky coincidence of circumstances which provided the US with a winning lottery ticket in 1945. Now, the winnings have been completely squandered on self-aggrandizing and cultural suicide. Which brings us to this. 

People, rightly, point out that Colonel Macgregor continues to perpetuate fairy tales about USSR/Russia and WW II. Keep in mind, Macgregor is a product of the American military education and cultural milieu whose foundation is a a set of confabulated (in reality--stolen valor) military history and primitive propaganda, which in Colonel's case is exacerbated by him being subjected in Germany to German "version" of history, that is to say a complete crap. Colonel doesn't speak Russian, he has zero understanding of Russian idiosyncrasies and, of course, he has never been to Podolsk (Main Archive of Russian Armed Forces) and doesn't know real history of Russia and Russian military. The result is predictable, his continuous repetition of the primitive propaganda (GULAG, one million "executed" RKKA soldiers et al) most likely is a defensive reaction to the exposure of the United States and its Army as an obsolete force with a dismal war record. 

Being a man of honor, he tries to be objective admitting West's decline, but he remains an American exceptionalist and will continue to be such sinking deeper into the cognitive dissonance and disregarding real historians and real Russia scholars. Hence his recent book is a complete military scholarship catastrophe, which included dear to him Battle of 73 Easting, which he included, together with inconsequential Battle of Mons into the list of "Five battles that changed the face of modern war". I can only reproduce the diagnosis by great Michael Brenner: 

Americanism provides a Unified Field Theory of self-identity, collective enterprise, and the Republic’s enduring meaning. When one element is felt to be in jeopardy, the integrity of the whole edifice becomes vulnerable. In the past, American mythology energized the country in ways that helped it to thrive. Today, it is a dangerous hallucinogen that traps Americans in a time warp more and more distant from reality. There is a muted reflection of this strained condition in the evident truth that Americans have become an insecure people. They grow increasingly anxious about who they are, what they are worth and what life will be like down the road. 

You can see manifestations of this insecurity all over the place, and Macgregor is not an exception. So, in his imagination, more Russians must be executed personally by Stalin for him to grasp at the last straw of America's "high moral ground" trying to defend indefensible. 

P.S. How Brusilov's Offensive which dwarfs Battle of Mons in every single respect and laid the foundation for Deep Operations didn't make Colonel's list is a sheer mystery... not. 

Ah, The Butt-Hurt.

CNN begins to suspect something. Or rather the imbecile Tim Lister who has to face now his own ignorance. And he butt-hurts in a major way. 

A year ago, a resolute President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled direct from the battlefield of Bakhmut to address the US Congress and meet with President Joe Biden. He was feted as a hero; Ukraine’s determination to resist Russian aggression met with strong bipartisan backing in Washington. One year on, the outlook looks much grimmer. A long-anticipated Ukrainian offensive in the south has made scant progress. Russia appears to have weathered international sanctions, for now, and has converted its economy into a war machine.The Russian way of war, absorbing hideous losses of men and materiel but throwing yet more into the fight, has blunted the Ukrainian military’s tactical and technological edge, as its top general admitted in a candid essay last month. 

There you go--Russian Way of War against "tactical and technological edge" of VSU. That just shows you that an average Anglo-American corporate "journo" is a cretin. But don't relax yet, here comes Bundeswehr, no less than general Christian Freuding (in Russian) explains that while... and here comes same shtick of "huge Russian losses", says that NATO underestimated Russian potential. 

Look at him. A real general, the problem with this moron is that he forgot to ask his relatives how they "underestimated" Soviet Union in 1941. But then again--what they teach in NATO military academies is how to beat third rate militaries, and even that they don't know how to do. Now they all crawl out of their holes to form a new narrative, because these generals wouldn't know how to fight their way out of wet paper bag  and the only thing they know how to do is PR. Now that they have been shown what real war is--they suffer from an acute case of professional jealousy and they cannot deal with it. So, they confabulate. It is sort of understandable, especially against the background of Russian Armed Forces, which as we all know ran out of missiles, are sending seasons greetings to Kiev regime. Many targets have been hit by those non-existing missiles.

The Spike In "Concerned Citizens".

As you already have noticed--a new wave of "concerned citizens" ran over discussion boards. These are primitive FUD bots who use beaten to death primitive instructions whose only purpose is to create an impression of some 404 "successes" which there are none. The fall of Mariinka and catastrophic losses of VSU are covered by one single trick invented by "warriors" in London and Washington. Yes, same "warriors" who wouldn't be able to fight their way out of a wet paper bag. Remember recent "three SU-34" shot down by VSU? Never happened. Not even a single one as the rumor had it initially. Now, Novocherkassk landing ship which soon will be 40 years old and was parked at Feodosia port for repairs. It was damaged. 

So, here we go again. For those who do not understand I repeat--NATO, namely US (less British) ISR assets know location of most Russian targets in SMO zone, including Crimea. The targeting in this case is an easy task. US provides geo-spatial data (in case of landing ship--exact geographic coordinates) and that's it. For those hysterical people who still call on shooting down US P-8 Poseidons, Global Hawks and satellites--get back on your meds and write to Pentagon asking them to stop being sissies and stop hiding behind mountains of corpses of VSU soldiers. Wait for what they will respond with, but I can tell you what they will REALLY think while writing BS response--US has neither resources nor capability to fight modern war, period. So, they hide behind 404 corpses. In conclusion, we don't know the extend of the damage to the ship, but it looks like it is afloat and MoD will report later on its status. In other words--a regular day with a lot of NATO PR, who lost the war. I'll be making video about that today.

Now It Becomes A Circus.

Sir Admiral Tony Radakin, who is the Chief of Defense Staff of what passes in UK for Armed Forces, obviously has serious coping issues, apart from having other purely military-academic issues, considering the fact that the guy is a... lawyer by education and has about zero STEM background imperative for modern staff officers. But I'll let it slide for now. Radakin went on record today:

Russia's military is greatly diminished in Ukraine, according to Britain's defense chief. "Russia has lost nearly half the combat effectiveness of its army," Admiral Tony Radakin said Tuesday during a parliamentary hearing. Radakin, who is the formal head of the U.K.'s armed forces and holds the title of chief of the Defense Staff, also described Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine as "a catastrophic failure" and Russia's forces as too "weak" to launch their own counteroffensive.

What can I say, if British military hasn't been humiliated enough before, now, when its big honcho literally pulls "numbers" out of his ass for the benefit of creeps from Financial Times, it surely makes it look down right stupid. They still cannot come to grips in London that they have nothing left but drab facade of the second tier economy and totalitarian state. Russian MoD reacted with some seriously funny mocking. I reproduce full response by Russian MoD here, from their official TG Channel (in Russian):

Опубликованные FT оценки британского адмирала Радакина потерь российской бронетехники, да вкупе еще и с якобы утратой российскими вооруженными силами «половины своей боеспособности» обескураживают вселенским масштабом вранья.

▫️ И всё это на фоне стенаний других британских военачальников, и даже министра Бена Уоллеса, о тотальном опустошении собственных запасов оружия и сотнях единиц техники, отправленных для украинского «контрнаступа», но «неожиданно» сгоревших, едва соприкоснувшись с якобы «потерявшей боеспособность» российской армией.

▫️ Да и перехваленные крылатые ракеты Storm Shadow всё чаще попадают по объектам гражданской инфраструктуры, к сожалению, вызывая жертвы среди мирного населения. Либо падают плашмя, не разрываясь, и пугают своими «ударами» лишь степных тушканов.

▫️ Весь этот поставленный киевскому режиму британский металлолом после переплавки ещё послужит новым российскими регионам неплохим сырьем в ходе восстановительных работ. А А выковырянные из ракет микросхемы, вероятно, можно будет вставить в российские «стиральные машинки», о чем не так давно рассказывала сказки Урсула фон дер Ляйен.

▫️ Логика и цели пропагандистских заявлений адмирала Радакина в британском парламенте очевидны, – выбить деньги из оскудевшего бюджета на закупку нового вооружения для армии заместо хлама, отправляемого на Украину.

▫️ Проблема лишь одна – как убедить своих налогоплательщиков, что военные поставки Киеву имеют хоть какой-то смысл и для чего-то пригодились.

▫️ В отсутствие каких-либо результатов украинской армии на поле боя, а теперь уже все более ясно – даже их перспектив, остаётся только фантазировать об «утрате боеспособности» российской армии…

▫️ Ну и самое главное – британский штаб обороны давно уже переквалифицировался из органа стратегического анализа и планирования в нештатный филиал «Би-Би-Си». С таким аналитическими способностями, как у адмирала Радакина, у обороны Соединенного Королевства и фута не будет под килем.  

Translation: The estimates published by the British Admiral Radakin of the losses of Russian armored vehicles, and coupled with the alleged loss of “half of their combat capability” by the Russian armed forces, discourage by the universal scale of lies. ▫️ And all this against the background of the lamentations of other British military leaders, and even Minister Ben Wallace, about the total devastation of their own stockpiles of weapons and hundreds of pieces of equipment sent for the Ukrainian “counterattack”, but “unexpectedly” burned down, barely coming into contact with the allegedly “lost combat capability” of the Russian army. ▫️ Yes, and the over-hyped Storm Shadow cruise missiles are increasingly hitting civilian infrastructure, unfortunately, causing casualties among the civilian population. Or they fall flat, without bursting, and scare only the steppe jerboas with their "blows". ▫️ All this British scrap metal supplied to the Kyiv regime, after being melted down, will still serve as good raw materials for the new Russian regions in the course of restoration work. And microchips plucked out of missiles can probably be inserted into Russian “washing machines”, as Ursula von der Leyen told fairy tales not so long ago. ▫️ The logic and goals of Admiral Radakin's propaganda statements in the British Parliament are obvious - to knock money out of the impoverished budget for the purchase of new weapons for the army instead of the trash sent to Ukraine. ▫️ There is only one problem - how to convince your taxpayers that military supplies to Kyiv make at least some sense and come in handy for something. ▫️ In the absence of any results of the Ukrainian army on the battlefield, and now it is more and more clear - even their prospects, one can only fantasize about the "loss of combat capability" of the Russian army... ▫️ Well, and most importantly, the British Defense Headquarters has long been retrained from a body of strategic analysis and planning into a freelance affiliate of the BBC. With such analytical skills as Admiral Radakin, the defense of the United Kingdom will not have a foot under the keel.

UK political system is cooked, because it now operates on the level of the worst of the third world corrupt regimes and the same could be stated about EU as a whole and the US, which in essence is ungovernable. A single word--pathetic. And yes, Western military "education" is toast and the signs of that are everywhere--they cannot even come up with semi-believable military lie.    

How Many Times To Repeat...

.... including for RT who got caught--DO NOT READ TG Channels and learn to distinguish, even between "official" reporters, who are those 2-3% of people who do their job professionally and report the reality and who are, as Alexander Rogers coined the term "voenkurva" (Polish friends will easily understand this)--kurwa (or kurva) being, of course, a bitch.  So, voenkurva is a military bitch, which is also a derivative of voenkor, which stands for voennyi (military) correspondent. 

The Russian Defense Ministry has denied rumors of a large-scale Ukrainian counterattack, noting in a statement late on Thursday that the situation along most of the frontline appeared to be relatively calm, with the only heavy fighting in and near Artyomovsk, also known as Bakhmut. “Reports by certain Telegram channels of ‘breaches of defenses’ in several places along the line of contact are not accurate,” the ministry said around 11 pm Moscow time. “The general situation in the area of the special military operation is under control.” According to the Russian military, the last remaining part of Artyomovsk was being stormed with air force and artillery support, while there was an “ongoing battle” to repel the attack of Ukrainian units in the direction of Malo-Ilyinkovka, northwest of the city, with “heavy enemy casualties in lives and equipment.”

But, RT, you should know by now that those "certain Telegram channels" are "manned" by people who monetize hype and raw emotions, who do it for their own egos, especially having zero serious military education, such as overwhelming majority of "reporters", or being straight up SBU, TZIPSO and NATO supported purveyors of BS. So, as with Kinzhal BS, we now call company-sized recon in force an "offensive". 

Ukrainian troops attempted two company-sized attacks towards Kremennaya but were repulsed. Three scouting parties were defeated further north, near Kupyansk. The ministry first said there had been no “active operations” on Kherson or Zaporozhye fronts in the south, but later published a list of Ukrainian losses on the Kherson front from Russian artillery, and reported shooting down 12 HIMARS rockets and a Su-25 ground attack jet.  

But let's fast rewind a few hours back. Before wholesale debunking of this "news" and "reports".

Ukrainian forces have breached Russian defenses northwest of the city of Artyomovsk in Donbass, Russian war correspondent Evgeny Poddubny reported on Thursday evening. He believes it’s the beginning of Kiev’s much-touted spring offensive. The attackers appear to have launched a series of simultaneous strikes north and south of Artyomovsk, also known as Bakhmut, several other Russian war reporters added. The city has been the scene of intense fighting between Russian and Ukrainian troops for months.

Evgeny Poddubny, who became "war correspondent" and has degree in psychology--and read my lips--CANNOT have any idea of "offensive" or "retreat" or anything else, because he simply has no idea what type and volume of combat information is pouring to the command posts in Moscow, Rostov-on-Don or staffs of frontline formations, because his only skill is to confabulate and to gather rumors from the frontline and do photo-ops with high ranking people. NO serious operational level officer will even talk to this guy, let alone divulge any kind of operational data which is highly classified. Very few of those military correspondents on Russian side deserve professional applause for their integrity and professional attitude to their main work--actual reporting. 

That is why, speaking of me personally, I do not have any TG channels, I do not read them, with the exception of channels of MoD, Maria Zakharova and a very few other people I trust professionally and personally. And I am talking about a number of those TG channels which could be counted on the fingers of one hand. And here is the difference--I know my limitations, I know what I DO NOT know and I established this posture long time ago. Maybe, just maybe, because unlike Poddubny and his ilk I was a bearer of Form 1A clearance and know what staff operations and communications with even Brigade or District operational officers are. Sadly, we seldom get Eva Bartletts, Marat Khairulins or Graham Phillipses in this world, for some reason we get "psychologists" by trade who, quoting a General from famous dialogue in Diplomatic Rail Car with Stirlietz describing Hitler stated: "A lower rank who stole general's uniform boots. He decided that one can fight without studying in military academies."(c) 

Here, the English CC are wrong, they translated low rank as "junior officer", which is wrong both linguistically and factually--Hitler never was a junior officer, he was a Gefreiter. Hence his suspicion and complex of inferiority to Wehrmacht officers with serious military academic background and C2 experience on the division and higher levels. Now, try today to explain to modern "voenkurva" what the algorithm of Commander's Decision is, forget division or brigade, try regiment for warmup, and what goes into it and then see how those "strategists" will melt away. Many already did, more to go. And that is why SMO provides highly effective treatment against many who lost their professional and human integrity. They forgot an old Russian (universal, really) proverb that "the position doesn't make the man, but the man makes the position."  

Here We Go Again!

Make no mistake, I get it--it hurts being a sore loser, but we may state with absolute certainty now that most what US "senior military officials" know about real war is derived from blowing the shit from unarmed civilians. They lack serious skills in strategic and operational planning and I expressed myself on this issue not for once, especially when commenting on the modern day academic standards or, rather, lack thereof in the USMA in West Point. But here we go again.

Russia is running low on ammunition as its Ukraine invasion careens toward the one-year mark, and it may soon be forced to use older, unreliable rockets and artillery shells -- some built decades ago, according to a senior U.S. military official. The new ammunition, what the Pentagon calls "fully serviceable," could be used up by early next year as the war continues despite the winter weather, said the official, who briefed the press Monday on the condition of anonymity. Russia also appears to be running low on precision-guided munitions. 

Of course, this official is "anonymous" because who would like to parade oneself as a military amateur and ignoramus. Wasn't Russian Army supposed to run out of ammo and cruise missiles like what... in March or April? One has to ask a question--these "anonymous officials", have they ever commanded anything larger than the squad or have they ever won anything in their life in real war? We can confidently say no, because Pentagon's "record" is abysmal, with the US losing its wars left and right against grossly inferior technologically but determined enemies. Now, to conceive that somebody, who "studied" military economy from the "text-books" penned by financiers and stock brokers from Wall Street, who still think that the US is the "largest economy in the world", will understand what Russian military industry is, is down right risible. They have no intellectual apparatus to grasp it--they haven't been taught it. I omit here my many years long contention that the understanding of Russia in the West is that of a kindergarten petulant child, but this is the issue of the Western humanities "education". 

Of course, the other possibility should not be discounted too--US "journos" simply made this shit up--their MO, basically--and "reported" it in accordance to ideological imperatives of the moment, those imperatives being an extremely acute necessity to cover up the collapsing front of VSU (NATO really) around Bakhmut and those severe strategic ramification which this collapse entails for not just Zelensky regime, but for its handlers. And we know his handlers are in London and Washington. Not to be outdone, of course, is London's The Economist--a collection of pompous imbeciles, "consulted" by MI-6 and "byproducts" of Sandhurst--who continue to spread utter pseudo-military BS and propaganda and quote today... Zaluzhny.

Ukraine has enough men under arms—more than 700,000 in uniform, in one form or another, of whom more than 200,000 are trained for combat. But materiel is in short supply. Ammunition is crucial, says General Syrsky. “Artillery plays a decisive role in this war,” he notes. “Therefore, everything really depends on the amount of supplies, and this determines the success of the battle in many cases.” General Zaluzhny, who is raising a new army corps, reels off a wishlist. “I know that I can beat this enemy,” he says. “But I need resources. I need 300 tanks, 600-700 IFVs [infantry fighting vehicles], 500 Howitzers.” The incremental arsenal he is seeking is bigger than the total armoured forces of most European armies. Ukraine’s partners are speeding up efforts to repair and refurbish old and damaged equipment to return it to the field faster, in part by teaching Ukraine to fix it as close to the front lines as possible. They are also accelerating the manufacture of weapons to meet growing demand from Ukraine and their own armed forces.

Yeah, sure. He forgot to mention, of course, that VSU had more, much more, than that in February, but then encountered Russian force three times smaller and all those numbers simply evaporated. Or, as Russians say, if the grandmother had the balls, she would have been the grandfather. But Western BS peddlers with zero knowledge of operations (I doubt they teach that in Britain anymore) and operational planning as related to real war have only that tool left for them--BS. But The Economist's drivel is symptomatic of the UK's state in general, that one is of a complete economic, moral, intellectual and military degradation. At least, Ron Jeremy for all his hilarious appearances had a large cock, UK has only the former left and is reduced to nothing more than Tabaqui.  

And so we go, the vicious circle of BS and PR actions, lies, expose' of stupefying incompetence across the board continues. Meanwhile Russian industry--you know, the real economy--continues to churn out military materiel and equipment in, ahem, industrial quantities and preparing for yet another "defeat", like retaking all of Donbass and then... Who knows what then.

Eastbound supplies of Russian natural gas will continue to grow and could hit almost 90 billion cubic meters by the end of this decade, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday at a meeting of the Strategic Development and National Projects Council. He said the development of port and pipeline infrastructure to the south and east would be an important step to mitigate the impact of Western sanctions and other “hostile actions” against Russia.“Implementation of such projects as the Kovyktinskoe Field, the Power of Siberia 2 and the Far Eastern route will make it possible to increase gas supplies to the east to 48 billion cubic meters by as early as 2025 and to 88 billion by 2030,” Putin said. This would actually amount to more than 60% of gas supplies to the West in 2021, he noted.

And dedollarization continues to accelerate. As someone noted today in Russian segment about Putin's meeting with Council on Strategic Development--the West is completely absent from a discussion. But then again, do you care about doormats? Only when the time comes to throw the old one out and get a new one to the threshold of one's home.

How To Be Written Off...

Anybody who is anybody speaks openly about the fact that Russia's war is with the combined West non-stop for many years. This blog speaks about it for 8 years. So, when some begin to exclaim recently that Russia must understand that her war is with the West, the immediate question is--what stone did you sleep under for the last 8 years. So, in terms of the larger picture we have today Putin and Xi doing their thing in Samarkand, with Xi stating:

“China is willing to make efforts with Russia to assume the role of great powers, and play a guiding role to inject stability and positive energy into a world rocked by social turmoil,” Xi told Russian President Vladimir Putin during a leaders’ summit at the SCO. Putin likewise praised the “multifaceted ties” the two countries have forged, in particular their trade relationship. Highlighting the exchange of $140 billion in trade with Beijing last year, he noted that the volume had increased 25% in the first half of 2022 and said he hoped the figure could reach $200 billion by the end of the year.

And this type of statements is expected but as I am on record, there is a guy in Russian government who is so powerful that many in the West prefer not to talk about him directly very often. His name is Alexandr Novak and he is Russia's energy minister. While putin and Xi were busy making grand strategy statements, Novak, commenting on the Power of Siberia-2 gas pipeline to China stated this:

САМАРКАНД, 15 сентября. /ТАСС/. Газопровод "Сила Сибири - 2" может стать фактической заменой для России газопровода "Северный поток - 2". Об этом в четверг сообщил вице-премьер РФ Александр Новак в интервью для программы "Москва. Кремль. Путин", фрагмент которого был показан на телеканале "Россия-1". "Ну, фактически - да", - сказал вице-премьер, отвечая на вопрос журналиста Павла Зарубина, может ли газопровод "Сила Сибири - 2" стать заменой "Северного потока - 2". Новак напомнил, что проект "Сила Сибири - 2" обсуждается "на мощность 50 миллиардов" кубометров газа.

Translation: SAMARKAND, September 15. /TASS/. The Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline may become a de facto replacement for Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. This was announced on Thursday by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak in an interview for the "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" program, a fragment of which was shown on the Rossiya-1 TV channel. “Well, in fact, yes,” said the Deputy Prime Minister, answering a question from journalist Pavel Zarubin whether the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline could become a replacement for Nord Stream 2. Novak recalled that the Power of Siberia-2 project is being discussed "for a capacity of 50 billion" cubic meters of gas.

This is a very bad news for EU, which for many decades thought about Russia as a perpetual backward entity entirely dependent on West's industrial and technological expertise. So, seeing now how Russia doesn't give a damn must hurt. Like that:

Russia's natural gas exports to the European Union this year are expected to decline by 50 billion cubic meters (bcm)—or by one-third of last year's volumes—Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Thursday. "According to estimates currently in the Ministry of Energy, exports will decrease by about 50 billion cubic meters," Novak said on the sidelines of an event in Moscow, as carried by Russian news agency Interfax.To compare, last year, Russian gas exports to the EU totaled around 150 bcm, per Reuters estimates.  

All the meanwhile Mr. Sechin is laughing all the way to the bank, as is Russia's budget and social and industrial programs. 

Russia’s largest oil producer, state-owned Rosneft, reported on Thursday a 13% increase in its first-half net income compared to the same period last year, boasting increased efficiency despite the Western sanctions on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine. Rosneft’s net profit increased to $7.2 billion (432 billion Russian rubles) in the first half of 2022. The company’s oil and gas production rose by 1.5% to 4.85 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) as compared to the same assets it held last year, excluding assets disposed of in 2021. “In 1H 2022, Rosneft was under an unprecedented pressure of adverse external factors and unlawful sanctions. However, thanks to high operational efficiency and appropriate management decisions, we were able to ensure business continuity and demonstrate stable results,” Rosneft’s Chairman of the Management Board and Chief Executive Officer Igor Sechin – a long-time ally of Putin – said in a statement.

Boy, that's gotta hurt. Not Russia, of course, who is awash in cash. Nope, EU and a neocon cabal in D.C. who have issue of grasping pretty much any issue related to the reality. It is especially important against the background of this RAND and others' "plan" to sacrifice Europe at the altar of Pax Americana, hoping that this sacrificial lamb will extend America's life for any substantial time period. I doubt it to be the case, because the US is the cradle of globalism which goes not just through some cyclical crisis but through the terminal collapse, and in this case whatever value in Europe's sacrifice is, it is not going to change much in terms of systemic collapse of modern combined West and its leader, the United States. Another matter, the United States HAD an opportunity to make landing somewhat softer, but with three corporate figureheads in a sequence, such as Obama, Trump and zombiesque Biden, all opportunities to avert a complete crash have been wasted. America is in dire need of a serious statesman with balls of steel, which modern US "elite" preparation system cannot produce. 

Now, as you probably can sense yourself that this crisis around Kharkov which Western (and Ukie) media were trying to fan, as usual, simply fizzled out and a local tactical success, primarily for PR, of VSU was all for the optics and didn't result in any serious consequences, except beaten to death cliches and... fakes (in Russian). Or, in English:

Vitaly Sovin: The US propaganda machine is playing dirtier than ever in its information war against Russia. From Taliban ‘bounties’ to claims about North Korea, the US media’s ‘anonymous sources’ are weaponizing ‘fake news'. 

Truth is, never in my life have I experienced such a volume of the sheer BS poured over the heads of population of any modern country, with the exception of Ukraine, of course, as Western PR and propaganda machine produces. It is unprecedented and, remarkably, tells you everything you need to know about... weakness of this machine, because, as is the case across the board, it doesn't get any competent cadres and the only skill they have is a production of BS. Meaning literally inventing shit and "selling" it as news. I doubt many normal people work in US MSM--mostly psychopaths, the "proper" selection was set-up this way since 1990s. So, this is your primer for Thursday.

Clarity In Small Dozes. Or Why I Do Not "Do" Sitreps.

1. I already quoted Apti Alaudinov when two days ago he stated: 

What is happening today was planned. This is a tactical ploy that helped us to pull all their forces and means to the territory where it is convenient for us to fight with them.

But, of course, what does he know, right? He is just a commander of Akhmat regiment which is more of a brigade size formation which fights in 404. Some say they have 1,200 people in SMO (which IS a regiment size force), others say--more than that. So, experienced and courageous commander of this formation calls it as it is. But no, we get all kinds of arm-chair "strategists" who know it better. Well...

2. Today, though, much maligned by me, and not me only, Mr. Sivkov, who is now a spokesperson for Academy of Artillery and Rocket Science, recalls that he, after all, was an officer of the General Staff and states:

«Наши военные знали, что готовится наступление, поэтому сейчас войска перегруппировываются для уничтожения группировки Вооруженных сил Украины (ВСУ), которая пришла в районы Балаклеи и Изюма. Надо иметь в виду, что там нет укрепрайонов, поэтому задача уничтожения наиболее боеспособных украинских частей будет решаться достаточно успешно. На это потребуется еще несколько дней», – считает доктор военных наук Константин Сивков. Эксперт особо отметил, что за последние трое суток, как стало известно из сводки Минобороны, было уничтожено более 2 тыс. украинских и иностранных боевиков, а также свыше ста единиц бронетехники и артиллерии. «ВСУ несут большие суточные потери. Сейчас главная задача – разгромить наступающую группировку ВСУ, лишить ее потенциала, выбить технику, которая находится не в городах и укрепрайонах, а на открытых пространствах. У ВСУ не должно остаться сил и средств для ведения эффективной обороны», – пояснил собеседник. 

Translation: “Our military knew that an offensive was being prepared, so now the troops are regrouping to destroy the grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), which has come to the Balakleya and Izyum regions. It must be borne in mind that there are no fortified areas there, so the task of destroying the most combat-ready Ukrainian units will be solved quite successfully. This will take a few more days,” said Doctor of Military Sciences Konstantin Sivkov. The expert emphasized that over the past three days, as it became known from the report of the Ministry of Defense, more than 2 thousand Ukrainian and foreign fighters, as well as over a hundred units of armored vehicles and artillery, were destroyed. “The Armed Forces of Ukraine are suffering large daily losses. Now the main task is to defeat the advancing grouping of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, deprive it of its potential, knock out equipment that is not located in cities and fortified areas, but in open spaces. The Armed Forces of Ukraine should not have the strength and means to conduct effective defense,” the interlocutor explained.

But, but... how could this be, when Russian General Staff didn't call Yuri Podolyaka or Rybar, or Readovka, or South Front and didn't ask for their "expert" opinion? Because as we know, the real war is fought in media sphere and people who wouldn't be able to distinguish shit from shinola operationally rely on their own and IPSO echo-chamber. 

Here is one such demonstration--operational maps. I did a review of this issue a few days and touched upon this seemingly simple thing: that you cannot trust maps by all kinds of fanboys, like Rybar, because those are NOT real military maps and the first tell-tell sign of it the lack of proper legend and scale. Here is one such example of such a map:

As you can see yourself, in a good tradition of fanboys the attack on Balakleya is presented with a nice yellow arrow. But let me show you how, let's say, the staff of a brigade or a division size formation looks at the battle. Here is 1942 and its operational map by Wehrmacht. It is Voronezh. 

By now you begin to notice the difference, right? Right, this one is for professionals and it is also the one which once first symbols of units and formations, both friendly and enemy's, begin to be drawn upon, and you guessed it, it becomes classified. 

Here is 6th Cavalry Corps map in 1941 around... Kharkov. 

As you can see yourself, you get here all necessary geographic and tactical details on it. This was 80+ years ago. Fast forward to 2022 and SMO, not only Russian Army uses paper maps but most of it in the minute tactical detail is reflected on the displays of Combat Management Systems of battalion and higher level, up to to VNTSUO in Moscow. Needless to say, ALL of it, without exception, including REAL positions of Russian units and formations is highly classified and is not known to ALL "experts", me included, who pretend that they know. They don't. Same as they don't know real operational plans, they do not know the real troops movements and all poor and overwhelmed consumers of such "expertise" get is a feculant stream of "interpretations" of media information by amateurs who present their operational "skills" (99% of them have no idea what operational planning is) by producing the SO CALLED "operational maps" which are nothing more than a complete and misleading BS concocted based on the media "reports" most of which are nothing more than crude propaganda and PR. 

I am not going to disassemble here all those idiotic assumptions by all these "experts", many of who are nothing more than unsuspecting conduits for Ukie propaganda, but I have to give them the credit for their compete belief in their own operational and strategic talent and foresight after most of them never served a day in uniform and never commanded at least a platoon, let alone company or battalion size formations, not to speak of serving in the staffs of battalion, regiment, brigade not to speak of corps or the army. But here we are. 

Reality, however, from the data which is pouring in for the last couple of days from Kharkov is such that already more than 2,000 of VSU personnel are KIAs, so you can now multiply it by at least three and it will give you around 6,000 sanitary losses--in general, the rate of losses is even steeper than that in Kherson a week ago, when VSU has written off between 15 to 20,000 of personnel. Kharkov is shaping to be a wowser. A bloody one. But then again, what do those losers in General Staff know when we have internet "analysts" with zero military experience telling us that rate of losses doesn't matter and it absolutely doesn't indicate like... nothing. Certainly not what Russian professional military people say for the last 72 hours--that a massacre of VSU at Kherson finally pressed them to roll out their main forces at Kharkov onto the plains and small forests of the countryside where already today a number of them have been "enclosed" in what is called "fire sacks" and are being annihilated. 

I can sit here and write about this shit for hours, but, frankly, I already confirmed to myself a number of assertions I made in the last few months and I am happy with that, since it makes my job easier. I just want to reiterate--I am not in the PR business and sometimes get a bit tired debunking obvious BS, because it takes time to provide proper framework and context for people to stop panicking, when looking at "operational maps" from Toys"R"Us and listening to incessant propaganda in media. But what do I know, really? This is your primer for the weekend. 

Because They Are Incompetent.

Lt.Colonel Daniel Davies asks the reasonable question, while still repeating all those Ukie propaganda tropes about Russia being "bloodied" in SMO and about Holy HIMARS, the title of his piece does raise this issue: Why Do We Keep Listening to the ‘TV’ Generals on Ukraine? He writes:

Listening to television commentary and interviews of retired U.S. generals, one would be forgiven for believing Russia is on the ropes, and Ukraine was winning the war. Looking at on-the-ground battlefield reality in Ukraine, however, it quickly becomes apparent that the generals’ boasts continue a decade-long trend of rosy combat proclamations that all too often turn out to be disastrously wrong. American media, Congress, and the public need to start applying a little more scrutiny to what these officers say.

The answer to this is very simple: incompetence and professional jealousy. SMO and Ukraine, same as Georgia in 2008, and same as Syria, and same as Ukraine now demonstrated a demolition of not only America's best proxies at given periods of time, but uncovered a fantastical thinking by US military about modern war. Most, with some notable exceptions, Western military professionals exhibited a gaping lack of understanding of not only Russia--that is expected from many--but of even basic grasp of economic mobilization scales, operational and strategic realities. 99% of US military officers of any note forecasts and explanations, be that on TV or in writing, not only were and are wrong, they raise the question of professional adequacy. 

Davies lists all, oh so familiar, names of Petraeus, Keane, Hodges, Hertling who continue to embarrass themselves as military amateurs in their view of SMO. But they are just the tip of the iceberg, enough to take a look an Andrew Bacevich's personal views and military "analysis" the so called Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft (in reality Cohen and Soros' funded org) he heads--one cannot shake the impression that far from being a former cadre officer of the US Army, Bacevich is simply stuck in the realities of America's endless and humiliating military debacles and lacks a solid military education which IS NOT a collection of tactical minutiae but must rest on a solid foundation of the military science. Davies still doesn't provide the definition of "bloodied", but have anyone told US military professionals that any serious operational level document contains what in Russian is called normatives (normativity) which describe ranges in losses in personnel and equipment depending on types of operations ranging from capturing the village, town or city to a head on division size battle with different types of opponent. Evidently American officers never heard of those, despite those being a common knowledge.  So what "bloodied" is, then? And what is a definition of "significant"? Davies doesn't answer this question. 

The Russians are no doubt bloodied and have suffered significant equipment loss, but there is no evidence on the battlefield that they are anywhere near “exhausted.” Most of the artillery promised by the West has already been delivered and it has not, to date, resulted in even slowing Russia’s advance through the Donbas, much less stopped it. The HIMARS launchers have enabled Ukraine to strike deep behind Russian lines, and they have caused severe harm in their enemy’s rear areas. Nonetheless, even that has not resulted in any observable reduction in the still-heavy daily barrage of artillery on Ukrainian positions.

It seems that most of those US military professionals when talking about REAL combined arms operations lack even basic understanding of the role of modern air defense, especially of such quality as Russian troop (voiskovaya) AD, which deploys a variety of high end AD systems ranging from manpads to Tor M2, Buk M3, and S-300V4 which already performed extremely well in defending Russian forces preposition and rear areas, including from this very same much touted, and grossly overrated, HIMARS (in Russian). All of those are standard targets for Russian Air Defense, but it seems many US officers still cannot grasp this fact, which is unsurprising, considering the fact that the US Army never fought in modern era under the steady fire impact to the operational depth and simply has no systems which are designed for such classes of targets. Davies continues and admits:

The most important fundamentals of war, the basics of combat operations, almost all reside on the Russian side. Since the G7, G20, and NATO Summits, there have been no additional large-scale contributions of modern weaponry promised to Ukraine.  The amount of equipment to date has been a couple of hundred artillery tubes, about 250 Soviet-era tanks, and a few hundred Vietnam-era personnel carriers. Cumulatively, all of this gear – including the HIMARS – are not a fraction of the type of kit Ukraine would need to launch a counteroffensive. The idea, then, that Ukraine could stop Russia’s current offensive and then transition to a counter-offensive to drive Putin’s troops back – as Hodges said he believed would happen before the end of this year – have no valid basis on the ground in Ukraine. But such optimistic, rosy proclamations that are disconnected from battlefield realities are not new for America’s active and retired generals for the past two decades. Take these examples from Operation Iraqi Freedom. 

What can I say. The issue here is not What Ukraine needs, but what US and its NATO lapdogs can provide and we already know what happened with the US stocks of much touted, and, naturally, grossly overrated, Stingers, Javelins and M-777. It is a good business for defense contractors in the US who will need to replenish grossly diminished reserves of such weapons, but, for the love of God, can we stop this BS with "take these examples from Operation Iraqi Freedom". I can only repeat what most US officers never heard about, Russian/Soviet strategist Alexander Svechin, who present Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov quotes once in a while:"Each war represents an isolated case, requiring an understanding of its own particular logic, its own unique character". The tiresome comparison of what amounted to turkey shoot of backward, under-equipped, under-trained, under-supplied, illiterate in many instances and incompetently led Saddam's Army, which didn't have even operational air force and air defense, to Russia fighting the best ever US proxy, which for 8 years was supplied, trained and now C2-ed by US and UK officers, is simply risible. But Davies agrees somewhat:

The danger in these types of statements is that they give false hope to the people of Ukraine, give an inaccurate picture to the American people of what’s possible, and encourages Congress to continue funding a strategy that almost certainly will fail. At the very least, it is time to start viewing routinely optimistic claims by some of our active and retired generals with more skepticism. 

Oh, I think the danger of these statements is grossly understated, because, judging by the stream of incompetent and militarily illiterate baloney US military professionals deliver from each and every media channel nowadays, one is irresistibly moved to the conclusion that maybe those generals and senior officers are not that good to start with? If they do understand, which I begin to doubt now, what is going on and spew their claptrap for propaganda purposes, that totally disqualifies them as honorable professionals, but if they believe their own absurdity and pseudo-operational and pseudo-strategic psychobabble, then we have a problem--they may, at some point of time, try to come into direct contact with Russian Armed Forces and will sustain catastrophic defeat, which, inevitably, will push the United States, which doesn't have modern historic experience with real war, to escalate towards nuclear threshold. 

I remain on record: US Armed Forces never fought in defense of own country. The only type of warfare the US military knows is a naval one, where the US Navy maintained both quantitative and qualitative superiority over nearest rivals for a while, in terms of ground war it was always expeditionary warfare, and achievements of the US ground forces have been more than underwhelming. Desert Storm played a cruel joke on the US military and its fighting doctrine and procurement policies, which resulted in a failure in Iraq and then humiliation of Afghanistan. Modern US Army cannot fight and win conventional war with modern "peer" without sustaining losses on the order of 1,000-1,500 KIAs a day and massive loss of equipment, including a very high PR "value" such as combat aircraft or ships. Neither American public nor US political class will be able to deal with it, which will result in a political upheaval and calls for nuclear strikes, which will mean a death sentence to the US as a country . 

Those people in the US military who do understand that, they do not have their voices heard, and, instead, we all are treated to nothing more than jingoistic propaganda, outright Russophobia and simple lies by people who by all measurements are not ready to face the realities of the warfare which, quoting Colonel Douglas MacGregor, looks like this:

In 110 days of fighting the German army in France during 1918, the U.S. Army Expeditionary Force sustained 318,000 casualties, including 110,000 killed in action. That’s the kind of lethality waiting for U.S. forces in a future war with real armies, air forces, air defenses and naval power. Ignoring this reality is the road to future defeats and American decline. It’s time to look beyond the stirring images of infantrymen storming machine-gun nests created by Hollywood and to see war for what it is and will be in the future: the ruthless extermination of the enemy with accurate, devastating firepower from the sea, from the air, from space and from mobile, armored firepower on land.

It is a well-known fact, that today Pentagon has many US officers manning US weapon systems in Ukraine and they do more than that--they collect all possible data on the operations by Russian forces. It is not going to help, because America's problem is much deeper than even fighting doctrine or national strategy, however always flawed and unworkable. It is metaphysical--it is difficult to replicate or respond to Russia's technological and cultural responses to war. You cannot buy this historic experience and warfare culture. It will always be beyond reach. That is why I smile when same people who produced Afghanistan debacle, assure American public that they already learn and apply "lessons" from SMO. They mislead the public because the US doesn't fight like Russia and never did. It never will and it cannot be helped, because in the end it is history itself which is the greatest teacher for those who want to learn. The US military-political class not only doesn't want to learn, it is incapable of learning and the wall of BS surrounding SMO in the US, about which Davies writes, is the best proof of that. Not to mention the fact of best and brightest being removed from the US military for decades. 

In related news. Give Americans a credit where the credit is due:

No, I am not a Fox "fan", despite the fact that I watch Tucker once in a while. I just use a snippet, the admission. Yes, US MSM is shit as are people who run them. They do harm people and the country, and the wolrd. They are very "effective" in that. 

With "Professors" in "Military History" Like...

... Frederick Kagan, another offspring of the politically fecund Kagan clan, which is a major contributor to the American neocon ideology, which is a euphemism for academic fraud and ignorance, penned a piece in Time magazine, which is an Exhibit A of the Kagans uncontrollable urges to spew BS any time they speak about Russia. Naturally, they know very little about Russia and American necocons are simply not good at warfare. In fact, they suck so badly that putting a lipstick on the pig of the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan--brain children of the Robert Kagan and his neocon ilk from PNAC--cannot hide anymore an ugly record of strategic failure, lack of vision and, as a result, humiliating military and political defeats which culminated in the "escape from Afghanistan". Well, Frederick Kagan managed to teach military history in the USMA at West-Point. Boy, I wonder what this military "thinker" taught there. So, he concludes:

The fight for Severodonetsk is a Russian information operation in the form of a battle. One of its main purposes for Moscow is to create the impression that Russia has regained its strength and will now overwhelm Ukraine. That impression is false. The Russian military in Ukraine is increasingly a spent force that cannot achieve a decisive victory if Ukrainians hold on. Russian President Vladimir Putin is therefore trying to turn his invasion of Ukraine into a brutal contest of wills. He’s betting his army on breaking Ukrainians’ collective will to fight on in their country. His own won’t likely break. Fortunately, Ukraine doesn’t need it to. If Ukrainians can weather the current Russian storm and then counterattack the exhausted Russian forces they still have every chance to free their people and all their land.

I know, Kagans hate Russian guts, it is natural for their extensive family which straddles a variety of corridors of power, academy and what passes in the US for diplomacy, having a lot of influence in D.C. But diplomats (like Vicky) or geopolitical thinkers (like Robert), or warfare professionals (like Kimberly), or military historians (like Frederick) they are not. Not even close. 

The fact that Frederick is a fraud as "military historian" is this his risible conclusion:

The Russians have adapted to this grim reality by changing their tactics to something reminiscent of the First World War or the “Methodical Battle” doctrine of the French Army in 1940—artillery barrages destroy everything in a given sector of the battlefield and then Russian troops crawl forward through the ruins. But even this approach has its limits. Russia’s supply of artillery pieces is not infinite. They have had to concentrate artillery densely in the prioritized sectors, pulling it away from other areas. They have drawn artillery (and tanks and other equipment) out of ancient Soviet-era stores. And they’ve begun taking equipment out of Belarusian stocks as well—likely the last stockpiles of gear Putin can reliably get his hands on.

So, no wonder the US Army cannot win shit in the last 30 years. When you have such "professors" like Frederick, who, obviously doesn't know the subject--that is Russia's approach to modern war (and he doesn't, none of the Kagans does, including Kimberly who runs this sinecure for the retired US Army "Napoleons"--ISW), does the US really need enemies? Explaining to Frederick what modern combined arms warfare is, is an exercise in futility because he will not understand it because the person who writes such a hysterical drivel really needs to undergo his professional evaluation, because, obviously the only thing he is good at, same as most US neocons, including those from the US military, is lying and fantastical thinking. But applying "Methodical Battle" doctrine of the French Army which in 1940 successfully collapsed in 6 weeks and France was humiliated by Hitler in Compiegne, to modern Russian operation in 404. Somebody explain to this "military" historian what are modern stand-off precision weapons are and how operations are planned.

If Frederick, who is allegedly a "military historian" wants to find better examples in trying to portray Russia's war effort in 404 in the light which allows his fanatically Russophobic relatives not to have an aneurysm outright, he should have come up with better BS, or, maybe, just maybe, tried to study actual Russian military history and see for himself how Russian military thought developed from the times of Peter the Great to Brusilov (yes, yes--rolling artillery wall, his invention) in 1916, to Triandafilov, Svechin, in the end--to military leaders of the Great Patriotic War. That will spare him a lot of butt-hurt and emotional stress. Or will it? In the end, you may recall (both in my videos and here in blog) that I state constantly--if you decided to lie on matters of warfare, at least learn to lie professionally and that implies serious military knowledge, which none of the Kagans has.

In somewhat sad news, especially knowing that US Ambassador to Russia John J. Sullivan is an old school American diplomat and a reasonable man, he pleaded with Russia:

In a clear attempt to send a message to the Kremlin, John J. Sullivan, the U.S. ambassador appointed by President Donald Trump, told Russia's state TASS news agency that Washington and Moscow should not simply break off diplomatic relations. "We must preserve the ability to speak to each other," Sullivan told TASS in an interview. He cautioned against the removal of the works of Leo Tolstoy from Western bookshelves or refusing to play the music of Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

Sadly, Esteemed Ambassador Sullivan has to face the reality--Russian culture and history will be removed from the combined West and it is not Russia who will be doing it. Considering the fact, as described above, that such frauds and war criminals like Kagans and people like them--Blinken, NSA Sullivan et al--still play an important role in shaping what passes in the US for foreign policy, and understanding an existential character of the clash between Russia and the combined West which it is losing, we must recall Sergei Lavrov's characterization of modern Western elites--you cannot trust them.Difficult to disagree--there is nobody in the US to talk to.