145 Comments
Sep 15, 2022Liked by Edward Slavsquat

It looks like Putin and his close advisors are trying to run a war on neoliberal lines. That relies on extreme parsimony, a just-enough just-in-time approach to logistics, reliance on managerial magic, a contempt for the enemy that works in the enemy's favour, and an indifference to the wellbeing of the people doing the heavy lifting (not to mention the people abandoned in the withdrawals). It's a corporate mentality, based on fantasies crafted by crackpot intellectuals.

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Sep 15, 2022Liked by Edward Slavsquat

"Don’t worry, everything will be much better once you subscribe to Edward Slavsquat"

Love the tagline!

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Questions that are ignored> However I will answer these questions.

1) ONLY an evil Ukraine has a "mirotvorets" website that publishes photos, names, addresses of over 300 children and over 300 journalists on a hit list. Who does that???? ONLY Evil Ukraine is the answer to that question. https://www.rt.com/russia/562521-mirotvorets-list-ukrainian-extremists/

2) ONLY an evil Ukraine fires weapons at it's own nuclear power plant that would create a hazardous ionizing radiation cloud that would carry across many countries. Who does that???? Only Evil Ukraine does that to bring a public outcry for NATO to get involved. https://www.rt.com/russia/562741-zaporozhye-nuclear-catastrophe-volodin/

3) ONLY an evil Ukraine has filtration for it's own citizens. Ukraine uses "security services" to go door to door to check phones and laptops for anything Russian. Who does that???? ONLY Evil Ukraine does that. https://www.rt.com/russia/562663-ukraine-russian-teachers-criminal-charges/

4) Who lets USA Frankenstein biolabs in their country? Evil Ukraine (and Georgia too). What is the purpose of these 30 USA biolabs in Ukraine? https://www.rt.com/russia/557041-biolabs-us-russia-ukraine/

5) ONLY an evil Ukraine ignored the Minsk agreements for peace in Donbass. Who ignored the Minsk agreements? Only an Evil Ukraine ignored the Minsk agreements in order to settle their own civil war by force. Former Ukrainian president Pyotr Poroshenko has admitted that Kiev’s main goal for 8 YEARS was to use the MInsk agreements to buy time and “create powerful ARMED forces.” Ukraine was planning to launch an all out "anti-terrorist operation" in March 2022. Russia tried last minute diplomacy by talking to USA Secretary of State, Germany's Schotz, and France's Macron in January 2022 that ended in a stalemate. Russia per-empted Ukraine's "anti-terrorist operation" in Feb 2022 with a DEFENSIVE chess move for THE SOLE PURPOSE OF PROTECTING language, culture, and heritage in the Donbass.

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I appreciate Riley letting me post my alternative points of views. Thank you Riley!

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This whole thing is sounding like a mobile game and less like "chess".

It seems that Ukraine went into the loot store and bought credits for extra stats...

The key of these games is to keep people playing, while the owners profit.

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Sep 15, 2022·edited Sep 15, 2022Liked by Edward Slavsquat

Edward, thanks for bringing this topic to the forefront. Judging by the number of comments this is something of great interest to the subscribers to your blog. Topwar.ru is certainly a respectable resource, I wasn't reading them much lately, as the place to go for the latest on the Russo-Ukrainian conflict seem to be the Tg channels but your recap of their materials show how they continue with critical and thoughtful coverage of the events as they did during the first stage of this conflict back in 2014.

As I have written a number of times in my comments to your blog posts we have to watch the hands and not listen to the words by analogy of playing a game of shells with the street crooks. So what does "hand watching" tell us this time around?

There are many signs that current nearly complete retreat from Kharkov region by Allied troops is an intentional action by the Russian top political leadership. There are reports that Russian military was ordered to quietly withdraw (leaving behind great quantities of ammo too, btw) before Ukrainians started their advance. As a matter of fact withdrawal of the regular Russian army ahead of Ukrainian offensive was so quiet, so fast and so secretive that they didn't communicate this to the troops of the Ministry of the Interior (SOBR, OMON, Rosguardia) that were stationed in Balaklea, Izium and other places, so that these units became surrounded or semi-surrounded by the advancing Ukrainian troops and had to engage in a direct combat with the enemy, something that they are not equipped or trained to do. Most of them managed to eventually get out with support of Russian artillery and aviation that slowed down Ukrainian advance, but they did suffer heavy casualties.

Just ahead of the events, on September 7th, Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs Kolomoiskiy and Abramovich were noticed to be present in Istanbul. As Ukrainian advance near Kharkov was coming to an end Putin received two phone calls, one from Emmanuel Macron on Saturday and one from Olaf Scholz on Sunday. Putin spoke to Scholz for over 90 minutes and this is very strange as they don't have with Scholz a "special connection" that despite all of their disagreements Putin had with Angela Merkel.

I can't say that this withdrawal came as part of the agreement were Russia decided to provide another concession expecting something else in return, but it looks like the plans to withdraw were communicated to the other side and this was probably presented to Scholz and Macron as another goodwill gesture and the willingness by Russia to re-engage in negotiations and to slowly de-escalate the conflict.

I think this is the last political concession of this kind that we have seen from Russia, unless the war situation will turn really grave for them. In a way this is a consolidation game by giving away non-strategic assets that Russia managed to capture during the initial phase of the conflict and now they decided to stick only to the core strategic acquisitions. Those are:

- LPR - now completely under LPR's people's militia and Russia Army control

- DPR - only about 60% of the DPR's territory (administrative Donetsk oblast border) was recaptured so ahead are fights to dislodge fortified and entrenched Ukrainian troops in this region that keep shelling and killing people in Donetsk and other cities every day

- Land bridge to Crimea that goes along the shores of the Azov Sea

- City of Kherson and Kherson region

- Ideally Russia would love to separate Ukraine from the Black Sea coast all together and solve the Transnistria problem by getting up to unrecognized republic's border, but this may be too big of a task for them at this moment.

The reason for this plan minimum is as follows:

- republics are going to get defended and taken under control, in this case I can say liberated as most people there want Russians to come, for political reasons. Not accomplishing this task takes away the entire foundation of starting the SMO in a first place

- creating a land bridge to Crimea and making Azov Sea a Russian internal sea again is of huge geopolitical importance for them

- Finally, the city of Kherson and water intake facilities on river Dniepr near Kherson to continue supplying Crimean peninsula with plentiful water is of great importance for the development of the peninsula that is Russia's favorite summer vacation spot where population bulges by couple of million every summer.

So, if I'm right in my reading of the situation, we won't be seeing anymore "goodwill gestures" from the Russian side. If we'll see massive retreats like what we saw under Kharkov where 3000 km2 were handed over to the enemy in a span of three days - those would be the signs of the real military defeat and not a political 5d play of the Russian commander-in-chief in his infinite Byzantine wisdom. ;)

Please note, this review of the recent events is done at the tactical and operational level. Strategically this war remains to be what it was intended to be from the very beginning: to play into the Great Reset game and to up the bets in the "seat at the table with the Western nations" game that Putin kept losing since 2012. See my other comments. I probably should start reposting my longer, article like posts under my own blog so it would be easier for readers to find them.

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Thank you, Riley. An outstanding article supported by equally outstanding comments. We're in uncharted waters when it comes to the misinformation war.

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The russians have spared civilians and russians life , if i could come up with a war plan that saves civilians better i would critizais. Lets consider all wars before was barbarian and romanian. It's minibrain to talk about russian is not doing what it should. Russia is defeting the west , tell me one country that hade the economics after the aplied chock doctrine (cia). Couldn't these keyboard warriors give russia at least 1 or to 2 years to accomplish denasification , if usa got 20 years in Afganistan?

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It all fits into Putin being a Satrap. The goal is to enslave us all. Fake plagues, fake wars, fake climate change, fake money, fake media. Let's face it. It's not difficult to work out what is going on.

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Many years ago (more than I care to remember) I was part of a military exercise pitting the cadet corp of our regiment (Canadian AF) against the regular militia. With about 40 to 50 combatants on either side, the militia held high ground with trenches which we were expected to take. We were poised to attack on a line which involved a frontal assault over open ground, which we all though was insane. There was forest on either side and to the rear of the enemy position, so why didn't we flank them, using the trees as cover?

As the moment to attack approached, a Cessna 172 appeared at low altitude and crossed our line, heading directly towards the enemy's position. They were all standing around pointing at it when a series of sandwich bags containing flour were ejected from the plane and landed right on top of them, covering everyone with white powder. At that moment we advanced, and since everyone defending was technically dead, we took the hill with no casualties. Having captured and secured the position, we then took stock of their defences and noticed that half their fire positions were directed towards the forest on either side, which would have made flanking very costly. They had also set mines along their flanks which would have made assault from that direction even more of a slaughter.

Valuable lessons were learned on that day about three basic elements of warfare: surprise, deception, and security. Our enemy was surprised by the appearance of a civilian aircraft and assumed it had either strayed into military airspace, which is prohibited, or was in difficulty and looking for a place to land. It never occurred to them that it was part of the exercise, for which they paid a heavy price. Surprise and deception. As for security, none of us had any idea that our commander, who owned the Cessna, had obtained permission to use his plane as part of the exercise. The base commander thought it was a brilliant idea that would teach his people a valuable lesson, and it worked.

The point I'm trying to make is that no one on the ground has any knowledge of anything involving tactics or strategy up until the moment they need to know. This avoids revealing one's plans if captured. It also means that anything anyone tells you at that level knows no more than you do, so you can safely ignore all those Telegram posts and Tweets and other nonsense. They are just uninformed noise. Likewise, no Ministry of Defence is going to give you any operational information before or after the fact if it compromises strategic objectives. Anything they do say can therefore be taken as either propaganda, or misdirection. So seriously, stop complaining about mixed messages or lack of information coming from the Ru MoD. The people who need to know will know, but it's not their job to keep us informed, much less entertained.

I never joined the regular forces, which was a disappointment to my father, as our family has a long history of military service, but those two years I was in the cadet corp. taught me valuable lessons. We were treated just like the regular forces, and trained by the same personnel, including special ops. guys who taught us unarmed combat. I could strip and assemble the NATO field weapon of the day, operate an APC, fight on snowshoes in winter terrain, and we even took parachute training using a vintage WWII training tower. You don't forget something like that! All this before my 18th birthday.

I watched a YT video a while ago of the same type of combat training I received. It involved capturing a village where the enemy was using houses and outbuildings as cover. The exercise was very well executed including mobile operations using BMPs. The entire exercise, including command, was done by young Russian women in their late teens and early 20's. I can honestly say, I would not like to go up against those women, and if they're an example of the kind of training the RAF receives, same goes for any of their units, be they militia, contract or reserves.

Imagine you're taking a bus to somewhere. Do you sit in the front looking over the driver's shoulder to see how fast he's going, what gear he's in, and whether he has both hands on the wheel? Or do you read a book, watch the scenery, or chat up that cute chick sitting next to you? The answer's obvious, right? Relax and let the driver do his job.

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"if the Armed Forces of Ukraine are left without equipment, if the soldiers do not want to fight and scatter, then who, excuse me, captures the cities? Are necromancers raising the dead?"

One thing I noticed about the few Ukrainians who didn't have face coverings is they suspiciously did not look Ukrainian. We already know there are American, British, French, Swedish, German and Israeli 'mercenaries' there, and it makes me wonder if the sudden appearance of the masked Ukrainian army isn't just a very large NATO merc force 'incognito' making up for the shortfall.

As for the heavy weapons, it isn't surprising - the US keeps announcing billions more dollars in weapons shipments to the point they're reporting shortages in their own stockpile:

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/ukraine-pentagon-ammunition-shortage/

It is a *lot* of weapons to send from the US - the world's largest military budget (still bigger if you add up second, third and fourth place together). Think how many weapons they must be throwing at Ukraine. It probably explains why every other Intel Slava Z post in the earlier period was just more reports of abandoned equipment.

There was also an interesting media shot of Zelensky being in Lyman recently I noticed, with a guy in the background who... looked very much like Zelensky also? Body doubles aren't uncommon, but for there to be one right next to the original(?) seemed off to me. Attack of the clones?

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Thank you Edward. Brilliant. And a new source: military review 'topwar.ru'. I just checked, I can get it no trouble.

This post smacks of the real. I'm a bit bemused and perhaps lost after months of wading through the fog of war analysis and reportage. This clears the mind a bit.

I have recently settled on a small group of outlets which I thought were pretty objective. And knowledgeable. But they haven't told me these things.

I'll bring your post to their attention if I can. At least post it in their comment sections.

I use Youtube channels: military summary, the new atlas, defence politics asia, alexander mercouris, scott ritter and the moonofalabama.org site. Those are my main ones.

Seems like I'm missing out on a broad view. And perhaps I"m swallowing propaganda, would you say, looking at that list?

thanks for this. Great.

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Strelkov has been lambasting the SMO almost from the start, even recommending (tongue-in-cheek) the Politburo be shot. He states the frontal attacks on the heavily fortified AFU positions before the Donbass are madness. Sufficient forces were not deployed to conduct encircling maneuvers (Murz https://kenigtiger.livejournal.com/ posted that before it was erased by the Russian authorities.)

On the strategic level it appears a Vietnam like scenario was planned. Lots of meatgrinding and profits for the arms manufacturers on both sides.

Apparently many Russians are starting to suspect that the Kremlin is not making an honest attempt. The Kremlin has a serious PR job on its hands. Most likely it will have to resort to repression or face the pitchforks.

The Rand plan to dismember the Russian Federation together with bioweapons specifically designed to target the Russian people would have to be the mother of all casus belli . That is more than enough to go positively medieval (as Marsellus Wallace said in Pulp Fiction) on the Ukies and indeed the West And yet we have a half-hearted SMO instead of all-out war.

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Strange situation. Maybe the leadership of Russia (who they are?!) have to decide if in Ukraine is a transhumanist suicidal ballet, an act of faith to protect Mother Russia in a multipolar world or both (what is impossible). When somebody want to be in two boats in the same time is in a dangerous situation.

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Is it September already? That’s finals month and the Demons are already out of the (AFL) race – that’s a good omen!

Hell’s Bells!. Germany’s SMO into German Danzig on 1 September 1939 (to restore democratic self-determination, to suppress the terrorism and genocide of displaced German citizens and thereby negate the Diktat of Versailles abomination) lasted only 18 (that’s EIGHTEEN) days. The parallels are ACUTE!! And despite giving Poland unlimited and unhindered corridor access to the seaport (no not Mariupol, the other, Baltic one), the handlers of the drunkard Churchill (international warmongers, usurers and profiteers) decided it would be better to have a world war.

https://nseuropa.blogspot.com/2019/09/adolf-hitler-speech-in-danzig-19091939.html

https://nseuropa.blogspot.com/2019/10/adolf-hitler-speech-before-reichstag.html

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I assumed everyone knew this was leading to at very best a nuclear standoff.

Euromerican military is brain-dead and increasingly bullet-less but determined to start something. Russia has clearly defined what it will do every step of the way in terms of Shit Up With Which We Shall Not Put.

But it's always Russia's fault for not fighting a Perfect War. Heaven forbid they just focus on diminishing regional threats while trying to avert nuclear Armageddon. We want Peace in Donbass and we want it NOW!!!! sounds like a Pussy Riot B-side.

Fer chrissake, people: it's a WAR. Things go boom. Bloody guts. Die screaming. Screaming while wishing you were dead.

https://youtu.be/reUstMn4bM8

It gets weird reading all this military analysis via public pronouncement and questionable statistics.

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