Wednesday, 30 November 2022 — Indian Punchline

M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

Defining moment in the Battle of Donbass, as the 4-month long defiant Ukrainian resistance to the Russian offensive is ending

The meet-up location of NATO foreign ministers on November 29-30— Bucharest — was where ten years ago, former US President George W. Bush persuaded America’s transatlantic partners that Ukraine and Georgia should one day join their military alliance. The foreign ministers duly “reaffirmed” that decision yesterday and left it at that.

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Tuesday, 29 November 2022 — Indian Punchline

by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with mothers of military personnel participating in the special military operation in Ukraine,
Novo-Ogaryovo, Moscow Region, November 25, 2022

Wading through the 18,000-word transcript of an hours-long meeting that President Vladimir Putin took with the “soldiers’ mothers” last Friday in Moscow, one gets the impression that the fighting in Ukraine may continue well into 2023 — and even beyond.

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Friday, 25 November 2022 — Internationalist 360°

Gordon M. Hahn

The only way Ukrainians will see anything approximating a holiday season is if a ceasefire can be arranged by New Year’s Day, and it just might happen, regardless of President Volodomyr Zelenskiy’s repeated assertions that there will be no negotiations with Russia until it withdraws all its troops from all occupied territories, including Crimea. There are several reasons for the possible ceasefire.

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Wednesday, 23 November 2022 — Moon of Alabama

Earlier today the Russian military shut down the Ukrainian electricity network.

Previous attacks had limited the distribution capacity to some 50% of demand. Controlled blackouts over several hours per day allowed to give some electricity for a few hours to most parts of the country. The attack today created a much larger problem. Not only were distribution networks attacked but also so the elements that connect Ukraine’s electricity production facilities to the distribution network. All four nuclear power stations of Ukraine with their 15 reactors are now in shutdown mode.

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Monday, 21 November 2022 — The van says…

If you’re going off the beaten track, it might be better if you are on tracks.

Preamble

If there’s one thing that everyone agrees about, it’s that the weather in Eastern Europe can be terrible from any time in October through to April. From snow to hail to frosts that last a month, the inclemency of the climate becomes more legendary the further you travel eastwards.

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Monday, 21 November, 2022 — Moon of Alabama

A week ago I welcomed the talks between CIA director Bill Burns and the director of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service Sergei Naryshkin but was skeptical of any outcome:
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Sunday, 20 November 2022 — The van says…

Each of those (very accurate) ATACMS missiles costs over $1m apiece. That’s great if you’re an arms manufacturer or a shareholder. Not so good if you happen to be the government paying for them.

Preamble

War is without doubt the greatest drain on any government’s budget, yet in stark contrast to the great conflicts of the past, both the war in the Ukraine and any potential European hostilities in the future would be approached in a very different manner. This article will look at the mechanisms behind this and examine the effects that may result.

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Saturday, 19 November 2022 — The van says…

Gifts such as this have appeared in their hundreds over recent months. In spite of Warsaw sending the numbers they have, Russian forces managed to polish off wholesale. Photo©️Vorposte

Preamble

A previous article highlighted the fact that rather than certain East European nations being as benevolent as they would have us believe, much of the equipment they have sold to Kiev is little more than scrap metal. This article will look at both the buyer and the sellers, examining what is really happening here.
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Saturday, 19 November 2022 — CovertAction Magazine

By Eva Bartlett

The author with Pyatnashka commanders at outpost near Avdeevka, Donetsk People’s Republic. [Source: Photo courtesy of Eva Bartlett]

America is widely understood to be a key instigator behind conflict in Ukraine that has pitted brother against brother

Smeared, stigmatized, and lied about in Western media propaganda, the mostly Russian-speaking people of the Donbass region were being slaughtered by the thousands in a brutal war of “ethnic cleansing” launched against them by the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv, which the U.S. installed after the CIA overthrew Ukraine’s legally elected president in a 2014 coup.

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Saturday, 19 November 2022 — Indian Punchline

by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

Kherson resident kisses a Ukrainian soldier, Kherson, Nov. 13, 2022.

At the White House press conference on November 9, when asked about the evacuation of the Russian forces from the Kherson Region and Kherson city, the US President Joe Biden said, “First of all, I found it interesting they (Moscow) waited until after the (midterm) election to make that judgement, which we knew for some time that they were going to be doing.”

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Friday, 18 November 2022 — The van says…

This may be how many see the Ukraine today, yet a very different picture will emerge when the war is finally over.

Preamble

Affairs in Eastern Europe are as dynamic as ever, yet as time moves forward, people are looking to what the future may hold for the Ukraine. As much as Western powers wish this operation to be the downfall of Russia, the conflict is slowly turning into a liability for those who have invested so much in Kiev. This article will examine the here and now in order to predict the there and then that may await what remains of the Ukraine once hostilities are finally over.

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