patrick.net

RWSGFY says

"Russia launched Oreshnik at Ukraine and the missile promptly exploded over Kazakhstan."

Kazakhstan is an independent country. Why would Russia launch a military missile
against Ukraine through a foreign country? This doesn't make sense.
And how do you know this was a military missile of all things?

Among the strange doings, note former CIA Director Mike Pompeo showing up a week ago at a “Black Sea Security Forum” in Odessa, Ukraine, where — say, what? —he called for called for a "complete victory" over Russia, and advocated for Crimea to be recognized as part of Ukraine (which is not in the folder labeled “Reality”).

A call for “victory” implies that we’re at war with Russia, or seek to enter such a war. Granted, the US neocon-intel-blob sparked the Ukraine-Russia War, starting in 2014, when State Department Cookie Monster Victoria Nuland set off the Maidan color revolution. And “Joe Biden” kept stoking the conflict with cash and ammo — and inflammatory rhetoric. But Mr. Trump has been working this year to put out the fire, difficult as that is, with the EU and the rest of NATO beating war drums offstage.

What was Mike Pompeo up to in Odessa? You can make the case that he was violating the Logan Act: attempting to make freelance foreign policy outside government, and in a rather dangerous way, calling for war, however obliquely. And then you have Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal flying to Kiev to confab with the unelected coke-head running Ukraine’s war machine. . . and alakazam, the next day Ukraine pulls off its long-distance bombing prank deep into Russia, destroying some of its strategic nuclear force. Surely, the purpose of that was to provoke a response that could amount to a cassus belli for the EU to launch its (insane and suicidal) longed-for war against Russia.

Why were Pompeo, Lindsey Graham, and Blumenthal not arrested when they flew back to the USA? Everything they were up to in Ukraine had the odor of serious mischief. Mr. Patel of the FBI, a former US attorney who knows how to manage such things, should have personally hauled all three of them into a windowless room for depositions. Who, exactly, does Mike Pompeo purport to represent these days? Who paid for his trip to Odessa, and who went with him? And why isn’t anybody asking these questions?

https://www.rt.com/russia/618778-ukraine-pow-swap-dead/

"They refused them because only 1/4 of the bodies were identified."

RWSGFY says

"They refused them because only 1/4 of the bodies were identified."

Russia needs to bypass these losers and post the names
of the fallen and allow the families to claim their loved ones at the border.

Finally, Russia Today ran a controversial story this week headlined, “Ukraine’s shame: Why Kiev refuses to take back its dead and wounded.” I don’t usually cite RT, but the basic facts were confirmed in oleaginous articles from AP and Reuters. Ukraine is making a potentially fatal mistake— but it may have very few options.

Under Ukrainian law, each family of a soldier killed in action is entitled to 15 million Ukrainian hryvnias (about $360,000). In the second-round of Istanbul talks two weeks ago, Ukraine and Russia agreed to swap their war dead. Now, refrigerated Russian semis with 6,000 frozen Ukrainian soldiers sit idling on the border, with Kiev refusing their receipt.

The inglorious motive, which Zelensky adamantly denied, appears clear to everyone else. Accepting this single shipment would instantly obligate Ukraine to pay over $2 billion to grieving Ukrainian families. For context, $2 billion is about 10% of Ukraine’s entire 2025 defense budget.

Kiev’s excuse — that it hasn’t yet confirmed the identities of the soldiers, and doesn’t want to be “tricked” — is laughably absurd. Who exactly do they think Russia is trying to return? Russian soldiers? Are they worried Putin snuck a few Wagner guys in for the ride?

Even more ridiculous: what’s the harm in accepting the bodies of your own fallen comrades and then verifying their identities after? That’s how every other nation on Earth handles the fog of war. If, by some miracle of depravity, Russia did try to sneak in fake corpses, it would be a PR bonanza for Ukraine. Zelensky could’ve dragged the remains into the UN chamber and shamed the Kremlin before the world.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for corporate media to ask any of these questions.

Ukraine’s stinginess is bad enough, but the 6,000 dead are telling another story, too. Recently, Zelensky claimed that Ukraine has lost only 43,000 KIA since the start of the war. Russia identified this initial batch of 6,000 as the first shipment just from one operation— Kiev’s ill-fated foray into the Kursk salient.

If they are Ukrainian war dead, which seems almost certain, it finally puts the lie to an outrageous claim about bottom-barrel numbers of Ukrainian KIAs long suspected to be a Pinocchio-level fib. More Ukrainian lies.

Kiev’s ugly foot-dragging on taking back its own war dead could conceivably cost it the war. Ukrainian soldiers — especially new conscripts — are watching. Many already suspect their government is minimizing casualty reports and sending them into meat grinders with little transparency. If they now believe their own state won’t even bring their bodies home, or worse, is intentionally stalling to dodge benefits owed to their families?

Not too good for military morale. “Why die for a country that won’t even admit I’m dead?”

Ukrainians on the home front —mothers, widows, and siblings — already feel the absence of official clarity. What happens if they begin to believe that trucks of their own sons are sitting at the border while the government offers bureaucratic excuses and financial foot-dragging? Public grief could quickly curdle into public rage.

For Russia, this is a propaganda jackpot. They get to crow, “We’re returning the dead with dignity. Ukraine doesn’t even want them back.”

Meanwhile, in the West, taxpayers funding Ukraine wonder why billions are being sent to a regime that refuses to bury its own dead. Even a brief delay constitutes a moral failure that crosses civilizational boundaries and vexes all historical precedent.

Zelensky has survived this long on a purely moral narrative: that Ukraine is the underdog, the noble defender, the modern Sparta holding the line for civilization. But this ugly episode —thousands of fallen soldiers rotting in refrigerated limbo while Kiev dithers— punctures that PR spin like an overfilled balloon. But what can Kiev do? If it takes the 6,000, then its budget will be blasted into smithereens. No money for graft. And if it takes this 6,000, what will it do when the next 6,000 show up?

Russia is watching Kiev’s every move like a starving grizzly eying a fattened deer. Zelensky’s dithering in the headlights shows cowardice and weakness, and reveals right where the pressure point lies.

It’s not a logistical crisis. It’s not even a brief PR crisis. It’s a narrative death spiral with no way out. Critical decisions must be made soon— but what to do?

RWSGFY why are you posting 100% Ukey propaganda bullshit?

MolotovCocktail says

RWSGFY why are you posting 100% Ukey propaganda bullshit?

You hurt, bro?

This you?

https://x.com/AndrewPerpetua/status/1933488403925942284

RWSGFY: If Ukraine is winning then why are they losing territory
and why is the Ukrainian front collapsing?

"I have been hearing this for nearly 3 years now."

Since the war broke out and martial law was introduced, young men have been banned from leaving Ukraine as soon as they turn 18. But boys under 18 and young women are free to leave. So guess what Ukraine’s concerned parents are doing?

Mandatory conscription starts at age 24. One pro-Ukraine think tank study concluded that young, poorly-trained conscripts have an average life expectancy after reaching the front lines of just four hours. Every parent with even marginal resources is strongly considering getting their children out of Dodge City.

“There are real concerns over who will rebuild the country once the war is over,” the Telegraph reported, “if the nation’s youth does not return.” Why would they? Not only is the mass exodus a brain drain – Ukraine’s “brightest and best” are leaving the country – but the wave of emigration is also a demographic time bomb.

The article quoted Taras Hryvniak, 17, a brilliant former student at Lviv’s Physics and Maths Lyceum, who left his family to study at the University of Vienna, Austria. Taras said half of the boys in his school class have left for Europe, and almost as many girls. “It’s a really big amount,” he confided. ...

Tragically, Martial Law Administrator Zelensky shows no sign of climbing down. His peace demands still include Russia returning Crimea (Russian since 2014, and after a Crimea-wide referendum), Moscow paying for 100% of Ukraine’s reconstruction, and for Russian officials —including President Putin— to sit for war crimes prosecution. It is more likely that Zelensky will grow another twelve inches or turn heterosexual than Russia will ever agree to those terms.

Nor does the media seem to be any help. After helping cover for Zelensky’s disastrous recent “Kursk offensive,” wherein some 45,000 Ukrainian men were estimated slaughtered for nothing, this week corporate media has been celebrating a pinprick drone attack on some spare Russian bombers as a sign of Ukraine’s plucky resolve to “win the war,” whatever that means at this late stage.

As they used to say, if there weren’t bad news in Ukraine, there would be no news. Bless the Ukrainian parents who are making the best of a very difficult slate of decisions for their kids.