Rusia

Moscow may be drawing most of its conscripts for the war in Ukraine from ethnic minority regions such as Buryatia and Dagestan (see EDM, May 4), but there appears to be a wartime division of labor amongst the voluntarist Cossack movement as well. In particular, one can observe a distinction between “fighters” and “cheerleaders”—that is, those Cossacks actually engaged in combat in a war zone versus those tasked with maintaining morale back on the home front. Evidence of this seeming division of labor requires a close reading of the local media sources linked to the Cossack movement, such as the website of the All-Russian Cossack Society (Vsko.ru). As of early May, this site published a total of 70 articles related to Cossack involvement in the war effort, of which 21 named a specific host in the title. Fully one-third of those articles (7) concerned the Kuban Cossacks, with most reporting on that group’s combat role.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the West was “preparing for the invasion of our land, including Crimea,” during the noticeably smaller May 9th Russian Victory Day Parade.

“The West was preparing for the invasion of Russia, NATO was creating tensions at the borders. They did not want to listen to Russia. They had other plans,” Putin claimed.

An interminable and unwinnable war in Europe? That’s what NATO leaders fear and are bracing for as Russia’s war in Ukraine grinds into its third month with little sign of a decisive military victory for either side and no resolution in sight.

The UAF does not have similar weapons, and it is almost impossible to hide from the impact of thermobaric missiles.

TOS “Blazing Sun”

On May 6, there were reports that the TOS-1A “Blazing Sun” destroyed several buildings used by the Ukrainian army as strongholds in the defence of Krasny Liman— a city in the Kramatorsk district of the DPR. There is no official confirmation of this information yet, but in this case something else is curious. Rocket artillery is increasingly being used as a high-precision weapon: a quarter of a full volley of “Blazing Sun” was enough to destroy the enemy’s fortifications and break the resistance.

The Ukrainian news outlet Ukrayinska Pravda reported May 5 that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson used his surprise visit to Kyiv last month to pressure President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to cut off peace negotiations with Russia, even after the two sides appeared to have made tenuous progress toward a settlement to end the war.

Posted on streetlamps all over Germany are stickers showing fleeing silhouettes with the caption, “Refugees welcome – bring your families”. Some have been blacked out with felt markers or ripped partially away. The Germans have mixed feelings about refugees, as demonstrated in the earlier waves from the Mideast and the current one from the Ukraine.

“He who does not wish to speak of capitalism should remain forever silent about Nazism” – I quoted West Germany’s Max Horkheimer some two years ago while discussing the disastrous, cynical and absolutely unnecessary attempts towards the equation of communism with Nazism, of fascism and anti-fascism. Many dismissed that finding, labelling it routinely as yet another intellectual alarmism. But, look at us now: Only one step from the nuclear obliteration. Totalitarian order of destruction

A few reflections about the current status of the US/Russia war. Yes, I wrote it: US/Russia war. Let’s call things what they really are. In fact, this is no conspiracy theory at all. The true goal of US policy in the region was revealed this past week by none other than US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, when he clarified that the aim wasn’t really to help plucky upstart Ukraine recover its “democracy,” but rather to weaken – and hopefully disintegrate – Russia itself.