Ukraine War Watch Thread

[joe00uk]

I wish you guys would get your story straight. At one moment it is "well, everything in the Western media is biased against Russia and our viewpoint," and the next is "here is somehting in the Western media supporting our argument."

Right.

If the polls I mentioned had been incorporated into the mainstream media coverage of Russia and Ukraine, perhaps you'd have a point. As it stands, however, they were quietly shoved aside because of their inconvenience to the official narrative - to the extent they were even noticed at all.

[joe00uk]

Wait, I thought you were the guy that favored Brexit on the grounds that rugged individualism and separatism was better for Great Britain than being intertwined with the European Union. We have seen how that is working out.

Now, suddenly, its wrong to "cut ourselves off from Russian resources"?

Right.

Have I even discussed Brexit much on this forum? I'm not so sure. In any case, I don't really care about it. It's had very little impact either positive or negative. The problems we're facing now are also shared by many other countries, the US being one, and several EU member states being others. Maybe if Britain was the only country being affected, I would concede that to you. And yes, it is stupid to cut ourselves off from Russian resources. We've already seen that it's only adding to the problems we're failing to deal with.

[Certain Russian user]

I wish you guys would get your story straight. At one moment it is "well, everything in the Western media is biased against Russia and our viewpoint," and the next is "here is somehting in the Western media supporting our argument."

My story is straight. I could easily provide you a huge lot of reports and photos from the frontline, but since those are RUSSIAN reports, you could have automatically dismissed them all as "propaganda and disinformation". Here, however, even your own biased western media confirmed my narrative.

[caltrek]

I wish you guys would get your story straight. At one moment it is "well, everything in the Western media is biased against Russia and our viewpoint," and the next is "here is something in the Western media supporting our argument."

My story is straight. I could easily provide you a huge lot of reports and photos from the frontline, but since those are RUSSIAN reports, you could have automatically dismissed them all as "propaganda and disinformation". Here, however, even your own biased western media confirmed my narrative.

I think both you and Joe are missing the point. In Russia there seems to be very much an effort underway by the government to control all domestic media sources so that they all just spout the official line. Some in that media have resisted that force, but it seems to be definitely something that needs to be contended with.

This is a different situation than a loose consensus by the "mainstream" media in which alternative outlets are allowed. Now, if you feel more comfortable with the Russian situation, then so be it. Needless to say, I prefer the Western approach, where at least in some places dissident forces can be heard without fear of government reprisal.

So, again, perhaps a matter of agreeing to disagree. Except now the situation is escalated. Disagreement by Ukrainians means being subject to invasion. So, a viewpoint is being rammed down their throats at the point of a gun barrel. Too bad that you do not see a problem with that.

[Certain Russian user]

Anyway, too much of me in this thread these days (blame this on the could weather and heavy rains in my places). Perhaps we just need a break from each other.

So far, that's what I think should happen in the foreseeable future. The southern part of Ukrainian "Donbass Front" was broken after the fall of Popasna (7 May). The next targets, likely, will become Severodonetsk-Lisichansk (formally two but in fact one city divided by river). They will soon be liberated (or occupied, call it as you like). Slovyansk-Kramatorsk agglomeration will follow later.

And here, after the full liberation of Donbass, there will be an important turning point of the whole war and the fateful exam for Ukrainian elite. At that point, Russia will likely offer them another peace treaty or truce. If the Ukrainian elites have preserved at least some remnants of sanity, they will be happy to seize this opportunity. Other hand, if they're already the complete puppets, they'll "proudly" reject and continue to do what they're doing right now: throw new and new mobilized unfortunates into the flame. Then the war will last much longer and its price for Ukraine will be much higher: already not dozens, but hundreds of thousands of killed and completely different borders by the end. Perhaps they'll end as small landlocked country with all the main cities ruined and another few millions fled to the West. Perhaps they will be divided between Russia and Poland with a small buffer state(s) in the middle. That's still very difficult to predict.

The current map of Donbass:

[weatheriscool]

Fate of 2,500 Ukrainian POWs from steel plant stirs concern
Source: AP

By ELENA BECATOROS, OLEKSANDR STASHEVSKYI and CIARAN McQUILLAN

POKROVSK, Ukraine (AP) — With Russia claiming to have taken prisoner nearly 2,500 Ukrainian fighters from the besieged Mariupol steel plant, concerns grew about their fate as a Moscow-backed separatist leader vowed they would face tribunals.

Russia has declared its full control of the Azovstal steel plant, which for weeks was the last holdout in Mariupol and a symbol of Ukrainian tenacity in the strategic port city, now in ruins with more than 20,000 residents feared dead. The seizure gives Russian President Vladimir Putin a badly wanted victory in the war he began nearly three months ago.

As the West rallies behind Ukraine, Polish President Andrzej Duda arrived in Ukraine on an unannounced visit and will address the country’s parliament on Sunday, his office said.

Poland, which has welcomed millions of Ukrainian refugees since the start of the war, is a strong supporter of Ukraine’s desire to join the European Union. With Russia blocking Ukraine’s sea ports, Poland has become a major gateway for Western humanitarian aid and weapons going into Ukraine and has been helping Ukraine get its grain and other agricultural products to world markets.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukrai ... 49350553ae

[wjfox]

Ukraine war: Russian soldier jailed for life over war crime

By Patrick Jackson
BBC News

Published
3 minutes ago

A court in Ukraine has jailed a Russian tank commander for life for killing a civilian at the first war crimes trial since the invasion.

Captured soldier Sgt Vadim Shishimarin was convicted of killing Oleksandr Shelipov, 62, in the north-eastern village of Chupakhivka on 28 February.

He admitted shooting Mr Shelipov but said he had been acting on orders and asked forgiveness of his widow.

Multiple other alleged war crimes are being investigated by Ukraine.

Moscow has denied its troops targeted civilians during the invasion while Ukraine says more than 11,000 crimes may have occurred.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-61549569

[Certain Russian user]

Oh, and I forgot to congratulate everyone with today's precise strike on Western Ukraine... According to official release from Russian MOD, the target was Western military stuff and Ukrainian personnel. And according to howling and curses in Ukronet, Russian missiles successfully met their targets.

According to Ukrainian sources, which tend to underestimate (to put it mildly) their own losses, 87 bodies have been recovered from the rubble, the search continues...

I didn't even expect this was THAT successful.

Ukraine war: Russian soldier jailed for life over war crime

I highly doubt it will be "for life", he looks young and Ukrainian regime will surely not withstand that long. In worst case, the poor guy will be exchanged for one of surrendered Azov Neonazis.

[Certain Russian user]

From Telegram:

Local sources reporting the beginning of the assault on Liman by the Russian Armed Forces. The clashes are already on the northern outskirts...

Russian/DPR forces also entered the residential areas of Severodonetsk and took control over several villages around Popasna.

[funkervogt]

I see where you're coming from, but Zelenskyy's government is still part of the same regime that seized power in 2014 - which is to say it continues the same policies, ambitions, and institutions, is controlled by the same dominant cliques and is beholden to the same oligarchs. Ukraine's democratic integrity was poor under Poroshenko, but it has not been particularly impressive under Zelenskyy either. Clearly, however, the Maidan regime has cemented itself in its power and the Ukrainian population outside of the Donbass has acquiesced to its rule. When I speak of regime continuity, for comparison, I would define Britain today as being governed by the same regime since 1688, despite numerous transfers of power between various factions of the ruling elite.

That's a perspective not shared by everyone.

But who is "us"? Ordinary people living in the West, or the ruling elite? Our ruling elites certainly seem convinced that it's in their interests to prop up their globalised empire along with its various military outposts at all costs, but it certainly doesn't benefit ordinary people here to deal with spiralling inflation and subsequent shortages and recession.

Basing your country's foreign policy on whether it makes sense to or immediately benefits the "ordinary man" of your country is a poor choice. What did the ordinary Englishman or Frenchman gain when their countries declared war on Hitler in 1939? What was the immediate benefit to ordinary citizens in NATO countries when their governments created the alliance 10 years later? Nothing.

The ruling elites took those actions anyway because they were smart enough and farsighted enough to see that the decisions were necessary to uphold important national goals and to benefit their citizens in the medium- and long run.

Today, supporting Ukraine is necessary to upholding the legal principle of state sovereignty and norms against naked aggression and annexation of territory. If the West were to turn its back on Ukraine now, it would send a signal to every bad actor in the world that they could do the same thing as Russia. China might invade Taiwan next, Russia might go on to invade Moldova, and there might be smaller wars involving countries I know nothing of. The result would be a more violent and less lawful world that, in the medium- and long-term would hurt the citizens of Western countries by damaging their economies and dragging them into even bigger wars where they held less of an advantage than they do in Ukraine today. A strengthened and enlarged Russia and China would have more leverage over the West in a variety of fields, from trade, science, technology, and diplomacy.

The economies of the West are nominally "large", but the reality is increasingly different. Financial gimmickry and the global reserve status of the US dollar (which is now steadily fading) used to be able to mask this fact for a while, but ultimately, with depleted natural resources and most of our manufacturing capacities off-shored decades ago, our true economic might amounts to less and less each passing year. The power of the West depends on its ability to bludgeon and bankrupt the rest of the world into submission, and that hasn't been working out too well these last few decades. The tables are turning, for better or worse, and cutting ourselves off from valuable Russian resources isn't going to make that transition any smoother for us.

The economies of Western countries like the U.S., Germany and Japan aren't large anymore? Why do you say that?

Aside from China, have some other, non-Western countries expanded their economies to the point of being larger? Which countries have done that?

The narrative that the West is being economically overtaken by something else is also in trouble now. Look at China's sharply reduced GDP growth rate and the current and projected shrinkage of its working age population. Look at how far Russia has fallen behind the U.S. and its allies in terms of relative population and GDP since the end of the Cold War. In the long run, a breakdown in trade will hurt them more than it will hurt the West.

People have been complaining about the U.S. dollar's status as the global reserve currency and predicting its loss of that status for decades now, but it never happens. There is no credible alternative to the dollar.

All the evidence I've seen indicates that the status quo remains strong, and the tables are not actually turning.

[weatheriscool]

'Ashamed' Top Russian Diplomat Leaves United Nations Over Putin's 'Warmongering'
Source: Daily Beast

The chief of the Russian mission to the United Nations in Geneva has resigned his post in shame with a damning hate letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine not only a crime against the people of Ukraine, but perhaps "the most serious crime against the people of Russia, with a bold letter Z crossing out all hopes and prospects for a prosperous free society in our country."

Boris Bondarev had worked at Russia's foreign ministry since 2002, first in Moscow and then in Geneva, during which he said "the level of lies and unprofessionalism in the work of the Foreign Ministry has been increasing all the time."

--snip--

Bondarev is the first high-level foreign diplomat to bail over the war, and said that despite his 20 years in Russia's service, he "simply cannot any longer share in this bloody, witless, and absolutely needless ignominy."

Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/boris-bon ... g?ref=home

[joe00uk]

That's a perspective not shared by everyone.

Perhaps not, but I think the logic holds up.

Basing your country's foreign policy on whether it makes sense to or immediately benefits the "ordinary man" of your country is a poor choice. What did the ordinary Englishman or Frenchman gain when their countries declared war on Hitler in 1939? What was the immediate benefit to ordinary citizens in NATO countries when their governments created the alliance 10 years later? Nothing.

The ruling elites took those actions anyway because they were smart enough and farsighted enough to see that the decisions were necessary to uphold important national goals and to benefit their citizens in the medium- and long run.

But how does throwing money at Ukraine even help us in the long term? The comparison to Nazi Germany and WWII is a worn out trope. Russia doesn't present the same threat that Germany did, and nor does it have the same goals. Ukraine is not so rich in resources that it's vital for our empire - we did just fine without it before 1991. Russia is clearly the more valuable country in that regard, which is why I think friendlier relations with them would keep our ailing economies chugging along a little while longer and buy us time to stretch out our decline with less hardship than there would otherwise be. The only "benefit" helping Ukraine brings us is the ability to keep pouring money we don't have at military outposts we don't need. If Ukraine somehow manages to win the war, then we'll also be paying for reconstruction there. I seriously don't understand how we gain from this on any timescale.

Today, supporting Ukraine is necessary to upholding the legal principle of state sovereignty and norms against naked aggression and annexation of territory. If the West were to turn its back on Ukraine now, it would send a signal to every bad actor in the world that they could do the same thing as Russia. China might invade Taiwan next, Russia might go on to invade Moldova, and there might be smaller wars involving countries I know nothing of. The result would be a more violent and less lawful world that, in the medium- and long-term would hurt the citizens of Western countries by damaging their economies and dragging them into even bigger wars where they held less of an advantage than they do in Ukraine today. A strengthened and enlarged Russia and China would have more leverage over the West in a variety of fields, from trade, science, technology, and diplomacy.

Not really. There's always "naked aggression" in the world. The question is who gets to do it - us or them. 20 years ago it was us doing it, and it was so costly for us that now we've lost the ability to repeat it. That signal you're talking about has already gone out. The West's dominance has been fading for quite a long time now, and the world is already becoming more belligerent as a result. That's what happens during times of imperial decline, just like the two world wars of the 20th Century were the result of the decline of Britain's global hegemony, which lasted from 1815 to 1914. We're stuck between a rock and a hard place. We're no longer in the position where we can tell the rest of the world what to do. We could try to restore our place in the world through bold and forceful military adventures and go bankrupt in the process, possibly also facing outright military defeat (more and more likely as time goes on), and thereby losing our dominant position much quicker and more harshly than would have been the case otherwise. I understand what you're saying, because periods of imperial hegemony are more peaceful, but we can't just wish ourselves into that state of affairs. We have to face up to the fact that we don't live in such a period and have to make do with what we have.

The economies of Western countries like the U.S., Germany and Japan aren't large anymore? Why do you say that?

Aside from China, have some other, non-Western countries expanded their economies to the point of being larger? Which countries have done that?

That's not exactly what I said. I said that nominally they are large, but decreasingly so after having most manufacturing offshored and with the West's modest resource base depleting, leaving us reliant on resources from the rest of the world. Most Western countries really aren't very rich in natural resources compared to many developing countries, which is most of what drove the creation of European empires in the first place. There's also the issue that our economies are so heavily financialised now that a great deal of the nominal wealth we have is fictitious and is no longer backed up by a real economy of goods and services.

The narrative that the West is being economically overtaken by something else is also in trouble now. Look at China's sharply reduced GDP growth rate and the current and projected shrinkage of its working age population. Look at how far Russia has fallen behind the U.S. and its allies in terms of relative population and GDP since the end of the Cold War. In the long run, a breakdown in trade will hurt them more than it will hurt the West.

China's real economy of goods and services is still outpacing the West's, the figures for the latter mostly being driven up by inflation - that is, until the inflation rises too high and then demand destruction kicks in leading to recession (possibly already starting to happen here now). That said, people have been predicting China to falter for decades and it never happens. What I would say is that the 2020s for China are likely to be similar to the 1920s for America, possibly ending with a severe depression. However, being so rich in resources and manufacturing capacity, the following decades are likely to see China cement its own hegemony, albeit temporary (just like America in the 1940s). As for the working age population, these are problems also faced by the West and the world as a whole will probably start to see population decline from the middle of the century onwards. As for Russia, its collapse already happened with the fall of the Soviet Union, like you said. Now, however, it's forging for itself a more favourable position as a junior partner under China, preparing for its period of dominance. So far, as a result of this war, Russia's economy hasn't experienced anything like the destruction Western commentators were anticipating. The rouble has recovered its pre-war value and Russia seems able to replace lost trade with the West with new trade from other countries.

People have been complaining about the U.S. dollar's status as the global reserve currency and predicting its loss of that status for decades now, but it never happens. There is no credible alternative to the dollar.

All the evidence I've seen indicates that the status quo remains strong, and the tables are not actually turning.

It's been losing value this entire time. As far as reserve currency status goes, what tends to happen is that its value steadily erodes for a very long time to begin with and then it's only very late in the game that a credible alternative does emerge and overtakes its predecessor in a hurry. So far this seems to be just what's happening with the US dollar - losing value slowly but steadily, with a credible alternative yet to emerge. But it's worth paying attention whenever a new country decides to accept payment for goods and services in yuan/renminbi or euros, as happens increasingly often these days. The "credible alternative" moment comes when the incumbent reserve currency loses too much value first (as a result of its host nation's economy growing too weak), rather than happening the other way round.

[caltrek]

...

It's been losing value this entire time. As far as reserve currency status goes, what tends to happen is that its value steadily erodes for a very long time to begin with and then it's only very late in the game that a credible alternative does emerge and overtakes its predecessor in a hurry. So far this seems to be just what's happening with the US dollar - losing value slowly but steadily, with a credible alternative yet to emerge. But it's worth paying attention whenever a new country decides to accept payment for goods and services in yuan/renminbi or euros, as happens increasingly often these days. The "credible alternative" moment comes when the incumbent reserve currency loses too much value first (as a result of its host nation's economy growing too weak), rather than happening the other way round.

I don’t know what planet you are living on, but the value of the dollar is doing just fine, thank you:
From a report of April 22, 2022:

The dollar continues to trade higher against the major currencies in what is now a 12-month rally. The dollar has appreciated by 11% against the euro since April 2021 and 12% versus the Japanese yen in just the past six weeks.

This most recent burst of dollar strength is most likely because of expectations of a more aggressive U.S. monetary policy relative to the eurozone and Japan.

The forward markets anticipate the Federal Reserve will accelerate its interest-rate normalization program with 10 additional rate hikes that will push the federal funds rate to 2.8% by year end.

In contrast, expectations are for the European Central Bank to be slower off the mark with rate hikes, pushing the policy only 25 basis points above zero by the end of the year.

Source: https://realeconomy.rsmus.com/why-the-u ... ngthening/

From a report on April 24, 2022:

The US Dollar’s (via the DXY Index) strong run continued through the third week of April, adding another +0.62%. The DXY Index has been positive in 12 of the 16 weeks thus far in 2022, good for a +5.69% advance year-to-date. EUR/USD rates, which spent most of the first four days of the week in positive territory, ended up down by -0.11%. GBP/USD rates dropped by -1.71%, their worst weekly performance since June 2021. USD/JPY rates added +1.69%, their seventh consecutive weekly gain.

Source: https://www.dailyfx.com/forex/fundament ... -away.html

From a report of May 20, 2022:

The US dollar to Canadian Dollar exchange rate reached an 18-month high when it surged passed 1.30 on Thursday. The USD/CAD rate is currently sitting at 1.2948 (CAD/USD 0.7722). Seesawing commodity prices and decoupling of the correlation between the Canadian dollar and oil prices has prevented the Loonie from gaining strength. But more fundamentally, with equity markets, cryptocurrencies and other riskier assets taking a thumping, the USD dollar is benefiting from large inflows as investors seek out safety.

Source: https://www.interchangefinancial.com/ca ... forecast/

This is the third time I have had to correct somebody in this thread who claimed that the dollar was weakening. None of those claims has ever cited a source.

Perhaps you are mixing up the performance of the dollar with that of the British pound. While there has been recent good news on that front (despite effects of the war in the Ukraine), the overall trend has not been good:

The British pound has rapidly reversed some of the losses against the US dollar, surging 3% between 13 and 23 May amid robust jobs market numbers and better-than-expected retail sales data in the UK. Looking ahead, however, the soaring inflation may provide volatility for the pair.

Previously, the British currency sunk to its lowest level since June 2020 as the dollar index strengthened in response to rising US interest rates and the pound came under pressure from economic concerns in Europe. The pound has been in a downward trend against the dollar for much of the past year and has broken support to trade below the 1.25 level in the beginning of May.

Source: https://capital.com/gbp-to-usd-forecast ... forex-pair

From a report of May 20, 2022:

Sterling has fallen almost 8% against the dollar year-to-date and hovered just below $1.25 as of Friday morning, slightly above a recent two-year low.

The Bank of England faces the unenviable task of raising interest rates in a bid to anchor inflation expectations while avoiding tipping the economy into recession, a balance that appears to be growing ever more difficult to strike. The Bank expects GDP to slump in the final three months of this year and sees a “very sharp slowdown” ahead but not a technical recession — two straight quarters of contraction.
Sam Zief, head of global FX strategy at JPMorgan Private Bank, told CNBC on Wednesday that although sterling is “awfully cheap” at the moment, investors looking to lock in recent gains on the dollar would be better off looking at euros than pounds.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/20/traders ... izon.html

There are several causes for the decline of the pound, including Covid-19. One of those causes may very well have been something you minimized. Here is a headline from June 2016, when Brexit was being passed:

The value of sterling slumped to a 31-year low on currency markets and was on course for its biggest one-day loss in history as panicking investors contemplated the prospect of a vote to leave the European Union.

Results from across the country suggesting the Brexit camp was on the brink of declaring a referendum victory led to sterling reversing initial gains to leave the pound down more than 10% at $1.33, compared with $1.50 just after polling stations closed. That was the lowest since 1985. The pound was down more than 7% against the euro.

With markets braced for turmoil over the coming days, safer assets such as gold were in high demand. The precious metal, a long-time favourite investment in uncertain times, soared as much as 7% at one point.

The pound’s fall, which stunned investors, was its biggest ever one-day fall, and ranked with the reaction to the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 and Britain’s exit in 1992 from the European exchange rate mechanism on Black Wednesday.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... referendum

Some have indicated that the pound may take a further hit due to a Brexit related trade war that may be under way:

The pound risks falling further in the second half of 2022 as a trade dispute with the European Union becomes more protracted.

That’s according to Bloomberg Intelligence’s Audrey Childe-Freeman, who said it’s possible for sterling to fall to $1.15 in the second half of 2022, although it’s likely to avoid a collapse to parity with the dollar.

Headwinds have already driven the pound to the lowest since the pandemic struck after a 12% drop in the past year. The currency steadied Friday around $1.2470, after sliding to $1.2156 a week ago.

“A trade war between the EU and UK is a scenario that could fuel further significant sterling downside,” wrote Childe-Freeman, BI’s chief G-10 currency strategist, adding that could lead to a test of the $1.20 level.

Source: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ar-bi-says

[caltrek]

The Greatest Casualty of the Ukraine War Could Be Planet Earth Itself
by Michael T. Klare
May 23, 2022

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) The world's ruling elites have chosen to place their geopolitical rivalries above all other critical concerns, including planetary salvation.

The war in Ukraine has already caused massive death and destruction, with more undoubtedly to come as the fighting intensifies in the country’s east and south. Many thousands of soldiers and civilians have already been killed or wounded, some 13 million Ukrainians have been forced from their homes, and an estimated one-third of the country’s infrastructure has been destroyed. Worse yet, that war’s brutal consequences have in no way been limited to Ukraine and Russia: hunger and food insecurity are increasing across Africa, Asia, and the Middle East as grain deliveries from two of the world’s leading wheat producers have been severed. People are also suffering globally from another harsh consequence of that war: soaring fuel prices. And yet even those manifestations of the war’s “collateral damage” don’t come close to encompassing what could be the greatest casualty of all: planet Earth itself.

Any major war will, of course, inflict immense harm on the environment and Ukraine’s no exception. Although far from over, the fighting there has already resulted in widespread habitat and farmland destruction, while attacks on fuel-storage facilities (crucial targets for both sides) and the wartime consumption of fossil fuels have already released colossal amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. But however detrimental they may be, those should be thought of as relatively minor injuries when compared to the long-term catastrophic damage sure to be caused by the collapse of global efforts to slow the pace of global warming.

Conclusion:

Yes, countering Russia’s aggression in Ukraine is important, as is deterring similar moves by China in the Indo-Pacific region or our own country globally. However, if planetary meltdown is to be avoided, such considerations can’t be allowed to overshadow the ultimate danger faced by powers both big and small, as well as the rest of us. To have any chance of success in limiting global warming to tolerable levels, the climate-action movement will somehow have to overturn an elite consensus on the importance of geopolitical competition — or else.
Or else, that is, we can kiss Planet Earth goodbye.

For a more detailed discussion leading to the conclusion presented: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022 ... th-itself

[caltrek]

Russian Diplomat Resigns, Claiming that Vladimir Putin Seeks 'Unlimited Power and Complete Impunity'
by David Badash
May 23, 2022

Introduction:

(Alternet) A top Russian diplomat, the head of mission to the United Nations in Geneva, has resigned in a damning letter that accuses President Vladimir Putin and his associates of attacking Ukraine “to remain in power forever, live in pompous tasteless palaces, sail on yachts comparable in tonnage and cost to the entire Russian Navy, enjoying unlimited power and complete impunity.”

For two decades Boris Bondarev says he has worked in Russia’s foreign ministry, as The Daily Beast reports. In his letter, posted by the Executive Director of United Nations Watch (below) Bondarev adds:

“To achieve that [power] they are willing to sacrifice as many lives as it takes. Thousands of Russians and Ukrainians have already died just for this.”

UN Watch, an accredited non-governmental organization in Geneva, claims Bondarev has “defected.”

He singles out Sergey Lavrov, criticizing the Russian Foreign Minister for an increasing “level of lies and unprofessionalism in the work of the Foreign Ministry,” which he says have “become simply catastrophic.”

Read more here: https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/russia ... mir-putin/

[joe00uk]

I don’t know what planet you are living on, but the value of the dollar is doing just fine, thank you:
From a report of April 22, 2022:

This is the third time I have had to correct somebody in this thread who claimed that the dollar was weakening. None of those claims has ever cited a source.

Perhaps you are mixing up the performance of the dollar with that of the British pound. While there has been recent good news on that front (despite effects of the war in the Ukraine), the overall trend has not been good:

There are several causes for the decline of the pound, including Covid-19. One of those causes may very well have been something you minimized. Here is a headline from June 2016, when Brexit was being passed:

I'm not sure how relevant focusing on a "12-month rally" is, but the overall dominance of the US dollar is fading, and has been for roughly the last twenty years. Thus, the prospects for its long term value are not exactly as bright as in decades gone by, to put it mildly. As for the pound sterling, where was I championing that? The UK is a core component of the Anglo-American empire. As US dominance fades, Britain's fortunes are also withering away - believe me, I can see this with my own eyes every day.

[Certain Russian user]

Svetlodarsk

Not such a great city, surely, but an important link in the chain of Ukrainian defence in Donbass region. The so-called "Svetlodarsk arc" was an important issue since 2014.

Opinions from telegram (first is serious, and second is semi-ironic):

The retreat of Ukrainian Armed Forces from Svetlodarsk indicates that the entire defensive line in the Donbass is starting to collapse. Once again I would like to reproach those who demanded "the quick saber strikes" and were indignant that the offensive was going slowly. As I wrote, the general situation turned out to be not Verdun-1916 (at least not for the Russian Armed Forces). The tactics of grinding the enemy's manpower proved to be correct. Heavy losses and endless blows had a very significant impact on the Ukrainian morale, and the triumphant statements of Kyiv authorities only further broke down the enemy soldiers, who with their own eyes saw the losses in their units.

The liberation of Svetlodarsk is a vivid example of how troops should act under the threat of encirclement. In fact, the Armed Forces of Ukraine left the city, whose fortifications were built for seven years without a fight. They completed the combat mission to the end and evacuated to save their lives. Not as brilliantly as Azov militants did in Mariupol, but also very courageously and in a timely manner. The garrisons of Severodonetsk and Lisichansk should take a closer look at the experience of their southern neighbors.

[Certain Russian user]

And this guy (young Ukrainian POW) became a star of Runet, his accidental "rap" will surely be remembered for long:

blocked /sashakots/32979
(to make link work remove space after t.me)

Ya sdalsya.
Ya zhiv ostalsya.
Esli by ne sdalsya,
Ya ne znayu kuda by podevalsya.

In English his "rap" means something like this:

I surrendered.
I stayed alive.
If I didn't surrendered,
I don't know where would I end up.

[weatheriscool]

Russia launches assault to encircle Ukraine troops in east
Source: Reuters

Russian forces were launching an all-out assault to encircle Ukrainian troops in twin cities straddling a river in eastern Ukraine on Tuesday, a battle which could determine the success or failure of Moscow's main campaign in the east.

Exactly three months after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, authorities in its second-largest city Kharkiv re-opened the underground metro, where thousands of civilians had sheltered for months under relentless bombardment.

The reopening was evidence of Ukraine's biggest military success over the past few weeks: pushing Russian forces largely out of artillery range of Kharkiv, as they did from the capital Kyiv in March.

But the decisive battles of the war's latest phase are still raging further south, where Moscow is attempting to seize the Donbas region of two eastern provinces, Donetsk and Luhansk, and trap Ukrainian forces in a pocket on the main eastern front.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu ... 022-05-23/

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I'm not sure how relevant focusing on a "12-month rally" is, but the overall dominance of the US dollar is fading, and has been for roughly the last twenty years. Thus, the prospects for its long term value are not exactly as bright as in decades gone by, to put it mildly. As for the pound sterling, where was I championing that? The UK is a core component of the Anglo-American empire. As US dominance fades, Britain's fortunes are also withering away - believe me, I can see this with my own eyes every day.

Well, my focus on a "12-month rally" was to look at what has happened in conjunction with the war in the Ukraine, which is what this thread is supposed to be about. Still, thank you for your clarification, which is consistent with what you wrote earlier. Also, thank you for the link so that I could better understand your argument.

While their may be a “stealth decline” in the use of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency, it has not seemed to have recently affected the value of the dollar. In comparison with China, that is more than just over the last 12-months:

Since 2014, when the yuan reached an 18-year high, China has been lowering the value of its currency.
There are many reasons for that. In 2014, the dollar rose 15% against most major currencies, dragging the yuan up with it. As a result, the yuan was overvalued compared with other trading partners not pegged to the dollar.

Source: https://www.thebalance.com/china-curren ... i-3305906