NATO issues RED ALERT! What Putin and China are doing will change EVERYTHING! pic.twitter.com/Pn1PQ0tUkn
— Redacted (@TheRedactedInc) February 6, 2023
War
Wow, Twitter says this about one of the best American filmmakers they have:
“The link you are trying to access has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially spammy or unsafe, in accordance with Twitter’s URL Policy. This link could fall into any of the below categories:
- malicious links that could steal personal information or harm electronic devices
- spammy links that mislead people or disrupt their experience
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Wow!
Made in 2014 this documentary has been removed from most platforms. It’s brilliant!
Rockets have hit peaceful neighborhoods once again. Why does Kiev continue its policy, if not purely out of hate?
https://www.rt.com/russia/570954-logic-behind-ukrainian-terrorism/
By Vladislav Ugolny, a Russian journalist based in Donetsk
Feb 5, 2023

FILE PHOTO: Partially destroyed and damaged buildings are viewed after shelling in Bakhmut, Donetsk. © Metin Aktas / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
At least ten rockets hit central areas of Donetsk on Saturday morning, damaging three residential buildings, a local Russian official has reported on his Telegram channel.
One of the projectiles fired by Ukrainian forces hit an apartment building in the Kievsky district. While rescuers continue to search for survivors under the rubble, preliminary information suggests that there were three people in one of the apartments.
There was no information on casualties at the time of writing, but the absence of victims would be unusual; indeed, the Ukrainian shelling of the capital of the Donetsk People’s Republic intensified weeks before the Russian attack in February 2022 and has taken a heavy toll ever since.
The suffering of Donbass residents
According to the human rights commissioner of the DPR, Daria Morozova, at least 1,091 civilians were killed and another 3,533 were recorded as injured last year as a result of combat operations. The figures do not include places such as Mariupol, where the full scale of the tragedy has yet to be assessed.
The 4,624 people mentioned above were victims of regular artillery strikes on urban areas of Donetsk and Gorlovka.
When Donetsk residents are asked why the Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to attack civilians, people usually have no explanation other than the desire of the Ukrainian government and military to destroy Donbass and its people. This is supported by a massive campaign to dehumanize local residents and a number of hateful statements by Ukrainian politicians. “We will kill them with nuclear weapons,” warned former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko, while ex-president Pyotr Poroshenko has vowed: “Our children will go to school, while their children will go sit in basements. That’s how we will win this war.”
Ukrainian forces continue to bomb Donbass despite the shortage of shells experienced by both sides of the conflict. However, while Russia can solve this issue by activating its military-industrial complex, Ukraine is entirely dependent on foreign supplies.
It should make a lot more sense for Ukraine to use scarce ammunition on military targets rather than on peaceful residential areas. Even if a lot of the time, Kiev’s forces misfire. A typical example is a Ukrainian shell landing in the frozen Kalmius River that divides Donetsk.
How Ukraine explains the attacks
Whenever Ukrainian artillery hits a civilian object – for example, a flower market – or kills civilians, officials in Kiev deny it. Unofficial voices resort to false claims that no such thing ever happened. Over the past eight years, the latter have come up with several memes allegedly proving that the Ukrainian Army wasn’t involved – with explanations such as “the air conditioner exploded.” Even if Ukrainian forces manage to hit a military facility, such as a warehouse, they usually deny involvement, claiming that “someone smoked in the wrong place” and that the explosion wasn’t related to the conflict. Thus, an information environment is created that denies the fact that Kiev attacks cities.
People inspect the damages at the central market after a recent shelling in the course of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, in Horlivka, Donetsk People’s Republic, Russia. © Sputnik / Taisija Voroncova
The Ukrainian side claims the attacks on civilians are “self-inflicted” – implying that the Russian Army attacks cities under its control, supposedly to blame Ukrainian forces and demonize them in the eyes of the population, as well as for propaganda purposes. This kind of post-truth has given rise to a whole area of fact-checking, where journalists collaborate with open-source intelligence to calculate the trajectory of the strikes.
For Donbass residents, all this is extremely painful. Discussions of terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure often end in profanities. According to Donbass locals, Ukrainians keep on attacking Donetsk simply because they can. Meanwhile, people are just trying to survive and are waiting for the front to move away from the area. Other details don’t concern them.
However, this is a distorted view of the situation; there is every reason to believe that the regular shelling of cities in Donbass is part of Ukrainian strategy and follows military logic. Perhaps Kiev’s “hybrid war” era military doctrine has adopted terrorist methods. So, how do these attacks on the civilian population help Ukraine?
Psychological pressure
Let’s take a clear example. In June 2022, the units of the first corps of the People’s Militia of the DPR were dislodged from their permanent locations because of the battle for Lisichansk – they had to storm a huge section of the front from Popasnaya to Verkhnekamenka, moving from south to north. The Russian Armed Forces then lacked personnel and had to use troops from Donetsk. Ukraine intensified strikes on the city to force the leadership to return the units back to their locations.
A similar thing is happening now. Some areas are under pressure – in particular, the fighters of the Wagner Group are pressing in Soledar and Artyomovsk (known in Ukraine as Bakhmut). They are advancing backed by the artillery of the Russian Armed Forces. Ukrainians use civilian strikes to provoke politicians, hoping that they will influence the military and interfere with the army’s plans. In June, this plan failed and the Ukrainians, taking advantage of the lack of counter-battery fire in the Donetsk region, committed a number of atrocities.
Commenting on the situation in a private conversation, one fighter explained why the army didn’t take the bait: “Normally, no military man – from simple soldier to general – suffers if the enemy attacks the city. This sounds harsh, but it’s better for the enemy to attack the city than the army’s manpower. This would be the usual military logic, but there is one key detail: 95% of our corps are made up of local residents who are worried about their cities. So, after completing the mission in Lisichansk, our soldiers were very angry when they got back to Donetsk.”
Residents are seen outside a residential building damaged as a result of shelling by Ukrainian troops in the course of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, in Donetsk, Donetsk People’s Republic, Russia. © Sputnik / Sergey Baturin
This is all very close to home for fighters from Donbass. In the case of a fast-paced conflict without a stable front line, such attacks would have motivated the soldiers, by enraging them. Perhaps this explains the near-complete silence of the Ukrainian artillery in the first month of the Russian military campaign. In those days, when the front line was mobile, it was better not to further motivate the enemy.
However, in positional warfare, fighters are conscious of a permanent threat to their relatives and other civilians in their hometowns. Motivated warriors who identify themselves as “defenders” feel as if they don’t have enough strength to break through. This acts to discourage. Concern for those who are not on the front line returns the soldier to his other life, behind the front lines, and distracts him from battle. By itself, this does not break morale, but soldiers are also affected by constant adrenaline swings, a risk of death or injury to themselves or their brothers in arms, the cold and damp conditions, the monotony of their work (for example, a good soldier digs more often than shoots), and numerous other factors.
Today, Ukraine bombed a Donetsk hotel full of journalists – here’s what it felt like to be there
Russia doesn’t have a strong memory of World War I – it has been replaced by that of World War II. However, the current fighting resembles the trench warfare of the early 20th century. With the possibility to adjust and fine-tune firing using Chinese drones and the chance to search the internet for how to repair military equipment. The rest of it – mud, trenches, the frozen front line – is like World War I, including politicians demanding a large-scale and ambitious offensive.
Why can’t the strikes be stopped?
At the end of July 2022, such an event began in the Donetsk region. Its main goal was to free the city from artillery strikes. The Donetsk corps were successful for several days, but then became stuck in positional battles. By the end of January, six months into the operation, the army had barely advanced 10km (6 miles).
The fighters were unable to break through the pre-established line of defense, and the forces only managed to wedge and slowly push through the three lines of fortifications near the villages of Vodianoye and Opitnoe, north of Donetsk airport. However, the fighters cannot give up on storming these fortifications – the strikes on Donetsk and Makeyevka must end for good.
A woman sits in a kiosk at the central market damaged as a result of shelling in the course of Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, in Horlivka, Donetsk People’s Republic, Russia. © Sputnik / Taisija Voroncova
As a result, there have been signs of an emerging contradiction. On the one hand, military leaders who are interested in achieving military goals and saving manpower, and on the other, politicians who express the interests of the civilian population and want to put a swift end to the artillery terror. Politicians want the public to like them. They don’t want to deal with the consequences of hostilities, hoping for things to return to normal so they can receive funding to restore the affected regions. As a result, they view the situation quite differently from the military.
Ukrainian army used Tochka-U rocket in fatal Donetsk missile attack, local expert claims
Through manipulation, propaganda and informational and psychological influence, Ukrainians have made cunning use of the differences between civilian and military interests. This comes down to a grotesque choice between “killing the army in Avdeevka” and “allowing the Ukrainian Armed Forces to wipe Donetsk off the face of the Earth.” If politicians push the army to force the assault, the latter will make more mistakes, which will reduce their power. This, in turn, favors Kiev.
Perhaps seeking rational reasons behind the artillery strikes in Donbass is pointless – maybe it’s just the manifestation of rage on behalf of Ukrainian nationalists. However, if we ask ourselves “who benefits from this,” there is a creeping suspicion that terrorizing the population with NATO ammunition is a strategy initiated by Ukraine’s top military leadership. Firstly, these attacks tie up the forces of the Russian Army and distract it from concentrating on other areas. Secondly, they negatively affect the combat spirit of the fighters from Donbass. And finally, they allow political factors to intervene in military strategy, dealing a serious blow to its quality.
Michael Snyder
Feb 5, 2023
It took a balloon for millions of Americans to finally realize that we really are on the brink of war with China. When a four-star general recently warned that we would be fighting a war with China in 2025, that didn’t create too much of a stir. And when U.S. Representative Michael McCaul stated that odds of a war between the United States and China over Taiwan are “very high”, that barely made a blip in the news cycle. But the giant “spy balloon” that just floated across our country really got people fired up. Despite the fact that China has been relentlessly spying on us in countless other ways for years, many of our leaders are suddenly acting as if some huge change just happened. They are issuing all sorts of very angry statements and they are demanding action from the Biden administration. Meanwhile, the Chinese are pissed that we just shot down their “civilian airship” and they are warning that they have “the right to respond further”.
What this means is that we are now closer to war with China than we have been in decades.
And that is the real significance of this entire saga.
Long before it was fashionable to do so, I repeatedly warned my readers that war with China was coming. Back then, a number of my critics thought I had gone off the deep end. They argued that China was our friend and that we would never go to war with one of our most important trading partners.
But now suddenly vast hordes of Americans are waking up and realizing that the warmongers in Washington really do have us on the verge of an unthinkable conflict with the Chinese.
If you are one of those people, I have a message for you.
Welcome to the party.
What took you so long?
Needless to say, most Americans don’t want to have a war with China.
But we are going to have one anyway.
This whole episode with the mysterious Chinese balloon has brought tensions that have been simmering for months to a boiling point. On Saturday afternoon, the U.S. military finally shot it down “off the South Carolina coast”…
A U.S. warplane shot down the suspected Chinese spy balloon off the South Carolina coast Saturday afternoon, sending its surveillance gear into relatively shallow water where recovery efforts began immediately, Pentagon officials announced.
The balloon was downed after it passed into U.S. territorial waters, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement.The balloon, which carried a large payload of spy gear according to U.S. officials, had soared over several strategic sites, including nuclear missile silos, and became the latest flashpoint in tensions between Washington and Beijing.
If this really was a “spy balloon”, why didn’t we shoot it down before it had a chance to collect so much information?
According to Joe Biden, he was concerned “about debris killing people on the ground”.
Seriously?
There was plenty of wide open space where it could have been shot down safely.
Now that it has been shot down over the ocean, it is going to be more difficult to retrieve the remains.
In any event, the Chinese continue to insist that this was not a “spy balloon” at all…
China claims that its balloon was a “civilian airship” and not the spy device the US claimed it to be, and said that the US’s decision to destroy its property “seriously violates international convention,” according to a statement obtained by The New York Times.
“In these circumstances, for the United States to insist on using armed force is clearly an excessive reaction that seriously violates international convention,” the statement said. “China will resolutely defend the legitimate rights and interests of the enterprise involved, and retains the right to respond further.”
Maybe the Chinese are correct.
Maybe this really wasn’t a spy balloon.
But then why did it fly over so many of our key military installations?
Gateway Pundit has made a list of all the military bases that this spy balloon flew near…
** Malstrom Air Force Base – Montana – home of 341st Military Wing
** Ellsworth Air Force Base – South Dakota – home of 28th bomb wing
** Joe Foss Field ANG – South Dakota – home of 114th fighter wing
** Sioux City ANG – Iowa – national gard base
** Offutt Air Force Base -Nebraska – headquarters US strategic command
** Camp Ashland – Nebraska –
** Lincoln ANG – Nebraska
** Whiteman Air Force Base – Missouri – home of B52 bombers
** Fort Leonard Wood – Missouri – Army training installation
** St. Louis Army Human Resources – St. Louis, MO
** Scott Air Force Base – Illinois – home of the Air Mobility Command
** Fort Campbell – Tennessee – home fo Screaming eagles, the 101st Airborne
** Nashville ANG – Tennessee
** Smyrna ANG – Tennessee
** Houston Barracks – Tennessee
** McGhee Tyson ANG – Tennessee
** Pope Air Force Base – North Carolina – Air mobility command
** Fort Bragg – North Carolina – one of the largest military installations in the world
** MCAS New River – North Carolina
** Camp Lejeune – North Carolina – military training facility
** US Coast Guard Station Fort Macon
And apparently now there are two more Chinese “spy balloons” that have been identified…
A third Chinese spy balloon could be lingering near US interests, but officials won’t say where it is.
An anonymous source told the Washington Post a third balloon is likely operating near the US after the first balloon was discovered hovering over Montana on Thursday and another was found above Latin America on Friday.
Of course it is quite true that the Chinese do not exactly need giant balloons to spy on us.
The Chinese can see pretty much whatever they want using their spy satellites, and their stealth drones are highly sophisticated.
As U.S. Senator Marco Rubio has pointed out, the Chinese have already been spying on us in many different ways…
On Friday’s “Mike Gallagher Show,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) stated that the Chinese spy balloon over the United States is “not the first time” and “We’ve seen these before.” He also stated that China can get the information it gets from the balloon from satellites, Huawei equipment that is installed in the United States, and “a million” different ways and China does so and the balloon is “just one more method that they use to collect intelligence on us.”
And most Americans don’t realize that the Chinese literally have an army of spies on the ground here in the United States.
If you don’t want to believe me, perhaps you will believe what Donald Trump just said…
Former President Donald Trump warned on Friday that China has “many thousands of spies working in the United States” in various industries amid a revelation that a Chinese spy balloon is flying over the continental United States.
“It’s rarely even mentioned that China has many thousands of spies working in the United States in business, finance, academia, technology, media and likely, even government, very sadly,” Trump declared.
A current member of Congress even slept with a known Chinese spy, but he has not been removed from Congress.
So with everything else that has already been going on, it amazes me that everyone is suddenly so upset about a giant balloon.
Whether or not this was actually a “spy balloon” or not, the truth is that the Chinese are going to continue to spy on us in countless different ways.
And whether or not the Chinese sent this “spy balloon” toward us on purpose or not, the truth is that they are going to continue to prepare for the coming war.
According to author Gordon Chang, the Chinese are currently “engaged in the fastest military buildup since the Second World War”…
“We know what the Chinese are doing,” Chang explained. “They’re engaged in the fastest military buildup since the Second World War. They’re trying to sanctions proof their regime and most ominously they’re preparing China’s civilians for war.”
Chang pointed to a recent move from Chinese President Xi Jinping shortly after he was appointed to his precedent breaking third term as General Secretary at the National Congress in October, when he appointed what is being referred to as the “war cabinet.”
And we also know that the Chinese have been busy making economic moves that would make sense if they believe that a war with the U.S. is approaching…
While we focus on the obvious, it’s important to also understand that from a monetary and financial perspective, it looks like China is preparing for war.
Notably, China is continuing to stockpile gold while selling U.S. Treasuries, an obvious step that a country readying either for war or to challenge the U.S. dollar on a global stage (or both) would be taking.
As Zero Hedge noted last month, China has now bought 100 tons of gold in days.
Once again, I want to make it very clear that I don’t want to see a war between the United States and China.
Because such a war would be absolutely horrific.
Unfortunately, anti-China sentiment is reaching a fever pitch in Washington, and anti-American sentiment is reaching a fever pitch in Beijing.
We really are on the brink of the unthinkable, and once the missiles start flying there will be no going back.
The Biden regime is willing to escalate war with Russia to protect criminal operations in Ukraine
by: Lance D Johnson
Sunday, February 05, 2023

The US government continues to escalate world war with Russia, while contributing to the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. The Biden regime has sent over $100+ billion to Ukraine, including a variety of munitions and weapons, with plans to send tanks, jets, and other weapons, with no resolve. The US, going out of their way to “protect” Ukraine, is clearly not seeking a peace treaty or any other measure of resolve. Any negotiations have been arrogant and escalatory. At times, the Biden regime has even threatened nuclear war with Russia, while treacherously guiding NATO into world war with Russia and China.
US spending hundreds of $ billions in Ukraine, with no exit plan
It is now apparent that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy seeks unlimited funds for war and looks to protect the corrupt empire of oligarchs installed by the Bidens and Clintons over the past seventeen years. These corrupt, establishment politicians will do anything they can to protect their assets (biolabs) and conceal their military operations in Ukraine, with no regard to the lives they destroy in the process.
In 2005, former Senators Barack Obama and Richard Lugar traveled to Ukraine and visited former Soviet biological and chemical weapons facilities. According to the Washington Post, the labs were part of a “Cold War network of ‘antiplague’ stations that supplied highly lethal pathogens to Soviet bioweapons factories.” These facilities were decommissioned after the Soviet Union was dissolved. But in the 21st century, the United States was allowed to go into Ukraine and re-establish this network of biolabs. In fact, the US and Ukraine signed a pact, clearing the way for the Ukrainian government to receive US taxpayer funds to improve security at these facilities and retain dangerous work on pathogens of pandemic potential. This pact was advertised to the public as a way “to prevent the spread of biological weapons.” Ironically, when the labs were in the hands of Russian scientists, they were deemed dangerous “bioweapon facilities.”
Under the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Act of 2005, the US seized Soviet labs and took possession of dangerous bioweapons research, under the pretense of destroying stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in Ukraine. Meanwhile, the US justifies its gain-of-function and “directed evolution” research on viruses around the world, and lies about their government’s involvement in bioweapons research.
The Biden regime is willing to escalate war with Russia to protect criminal operations in Ukraine
In February of 2014, under the supervision of the Obama Administration, the lawless land of Ukraine broke out in Civil War. The CIA and US State Department (under Hillary Clinton) took full control over the Ukraine government and assisted in a regime change. Victoria Nuland, the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, testified at a US Senate hearing that the Ukrainian biolabs do exist, and she is worried the contents of the lab will fall into the hands of the Russians. Nuland was the mastermind who engineered the Color Revolution in Ukraine during the regime change that took place under Obama/Clinton. Then Vice President Joe Biden took advantage of the regime change and traveled to the country over thirteen times. The “Big Guy” sent US taxpayer funds over to Ukraine to embolden Ukrainian oligarchs. Anyone who spoke out about the Biden’s kick-back/money laundering scheme in Ukraine, was immediately fired.
The FBI and DHS commanded Big Tech to censor all investigative reporting on biolabs in Ukraine, US involvement in gain-of-function virology research, and the truth about vaccines, because the intelligence community is clearly controlled by the same people who are profiteering off of bioweapons development and human suffering, whether through predatory vaccine and diagnostic programs or through direct exploitation of populations with enhanced pathogens, the censorship of medical treatments, or a global medical police state.
The corrupt, criminal forces behind Ukrainian biolabs grow violently defensive when investigation is near
The darkest elements of the intelligence community and the DNC were quick to impeach President Donald Trump over a phone call to Ukrainian President Zelenskyy back in 2019 because Trump was getting too close to their criminal operations. In the call, Trump asked Zelenskyy to look into a matter of corruption between Joe Biden and his son in Ukraine, which included Joe Biden publicly bragging about a prosecution that he stopped.
Zelenskyy ultimately failed to take any meaningful action against the Bidens. In fact, Zelenskyy eventually ordered the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense to destroy all state documents affiliated with US biolab companies Metabiota and Battelle, right before the Russians marched in on their special military mission in Ukraine. Apparently, Vladimir Putin was also getting too close to their criminal operations.
Metabiota is part of the Pentagon’s DRTA Program and is funded by Rosemont Seneca (Hunter Biden). This secretive company produces biological agents under diplomatic cover at biolabs in Ukraine. The company also sells pandemic insurance and trackers to help countries get ahead of what they are releasing to the population.
The World Health Organization also advised Ukraine to destroy all pathogens in the biolabs (the same biolabs that the corporate media pretended did not exist). Again, it was the WHO that created a global medical police state. Obviously, this globalist organization only seeks to protect the biolabs that give them power to terrorize and control the world.
In 2022, Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations brought forth evidence at a UN Security Council, alleging that the US is operating at least thirty different biolabs in Ukraine, which contain enhancements on highly infectious bacteria strains, coronavirus, plague, and anthrax. The labs also use bats and fleas as vectors of disease spread. The US Embassy in Ukraine moved quickly to scrub evidence of thee biolabs from their site.
The corporate media in the US will not divulge any of these details because it is funded by the pharmaceutical companies that profit from predatory bioweapons and vaccine development. The corporate media has gone all in for Ukraine because the very existence of the pharmaceutical industry depends on the development of bioweapons, diagnostics, and so-called vaccines. The corrupt establishment politicians and their pharma overlords are only trying to protect their assets in Ukraine. They don’t care about the Ukrainian people.
Big Pharma, the corporate media, Big Tech, the darkest sects of the Intelligence Community, Zelensky and the corrupt Ukrainian puppet government, WHO, NIH, and other corrupt politicians connected to the Clintons/Bidens/Obama are all working together to protect their assets and criminal operations in Ukraine, while profiteering from the terror and control that ensues. Taxpayer funds, tanks, and munitions are being shipped to Ukraine by the billions to protect a corrupt empire of lies, a network of biolabs, and all the associated war crimes and crimes against humanity that have taken place over the past two decades.
Stay tuned at WWIII.News.
Sources include:
They could have stopped the war at the beginning but they did not in order to make obscene profits out of it. Dollars for human lives. Pure evil.
The US was never held to account over its 2003 invasion of Iraq, which was based on deception, Vyacheslav Volodin has said
“The UN should investigate Washington’s crimes against humanity. And the decision-makers should be punished for the millions of victims, refugees, broken destinies, destroyed states,” Volodin added.
https://www.rt.com/russia/570989-russia-american-empire-lies/
Feb 5, 2023

State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin © Sputnik / Ramil Sitdikov
The UN should open an investigation into Washington’s crimes against humanity, Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin suggested on Sunday.
Writing on Telegram on the 20th anniversary of the infamous 2003 speech by then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell at the UN Security Council, during which he justified the ill-fated invasion of Iraq, Volodin offered a scathing criticism of what he described as the American “empire of lies.”
According to the speaker of the lower house of Russia’s parliament, this date marks “one of the biggest deceptions of the global community by the United States.” He recalled that during the landmark Security Council meeting Powell “accused Iraq of producing weapons of mass destruction, providing a vial with ‘white powder’ as proof.” At the time, the US secretary of state said the vial could be used to store anthrax.
While the UN did not approve the Iraq invasion, the US attacked the country anyway, he added. “Half a million civilians fell victims, the president was executed, the country was gone,” Volodin wrote, pointing out that Powell later admitted that the vial stunt was “a hoax,” but Washington was never held to account.
US must get over its ‘sense of entitlement’ – Moscow
“All policies of the United States and the collective West are based on lies,” the Duma speaker stressed.
He noted that the same applied to NATO’s promises not to expand eastwards after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc, as well as to the 2014 and 2015 Minsk Agreements. The latter were signed by Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany in a bid to pave the way for peace in Ukraine by granting the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics special status within the Ukrainian state.
These accords “also turned out to be a deception – but [former German Chancellor Angela] Merkel and [former French President Francois] Hollande acted as Powell did”, Volodin said. He was referring to the bombshell confessions by the two ex-leaders, who admitted in December that the Minsk Agreements were simply meant “to give Ukraine time” to strengthen its army.
“The UN should investigate Washington’s crimes against humanity. And the decision-makers should be punished for the millions of victims, refugees, broken destinies, destroyed states,” Volodin added.
The US empire has been surrounding China with military bases and war machinery for many years, in ways Washington would never tolerate China doing in the nations and waters surrounding the United States. There is no question that the US is the aggressor in this increasingly hostile standoff between major powers. Yet we’re all meant to be freaking out about a balloon.
https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/us-surrounds-china-with-war-machinery
Feb 3, 2023

In what Austin journalist Christopher Hooks has called “one of the stupidest news cycles in living memory,” the entire American political/media class is having an existential meltdown over what the Pentagon claims is a Chinese spy balloon detected in US airspace on Thursday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken cancelled his scheduled diplomatic visit to China after the detection of the balloon. The mass media have been covering the story with breathless excitement. China hawk pundits have been pounding the war drums all day on any platform they can get to and accusing the Biden administration of not responding aggressively enough to the incident.
“The important thing that the American people need to understand, and what we are going to try to expose in a bipartisan fashion on this committee, is that the threat posed by the Chinese Communist Party is not just a distant threat in East Asia, or a threat to Taiwan,” House China Select Committee Chairman Mike Gallagher told Fox News on Friday. “It is a threat right here at home. It is a threat to American sovereignty, and it is a threat to the Midwest — in places like those that I live in.”
“A big Chinese balloon in the sky and millions of Chinese TikTok balloons on our phones,” tweeted Senator Mitt Romney. “Let’s shut them all down.”
Amid Concerns Over a Balloon, US Cancels High-Level Meeting with China Beijing said it regrets that one of its weather balloons drifted into American skies. by Kyle Anzalone @KyleAnzalone_ #China #chineseballoon #Blinken news.antiwar.com/2023/02/03/ami…

China’s foreign ministry says the balloon is indeed from China but is “civilian in nature, used for meteorological and other scientific research,” and was simply blown far off course. This could of course be untrue — all major governments spy on each other constantly and China is no exception — but the Pentagon’s own assessment is that the balloon “does not create significant value added over and above what the PRC is likely able to collect through things like satellites in Low Earth Orbit.”
So everyone’s losing their minds over a balloon that in all probability would be mostly worthless for spying, even while everyone knows the US spies on China at every possible opportunity. US officials have complained to the press that American spies are having a much harder time conducting operations and recruiting assets in China than they used to because of measures the Chinese government has taken to thwart them, and in 2001 a US spy plane caused a major international incident when it collided with a Chinese military jet on China’s coastline, killing the pilot.
The US considers it its sovereign right to spy on any nation it chooses, and the average American tends more or less to see it the same way. This is highlighted in controversies around domestic versus foreign surveillance, for example; Americans were outraged over the Edward Snowden revelations not because spy agencies were conducting surveillance, but because they were conducting surveillance on American citizens. It’s just taken as a given that spying on foreigners is fine, so it’s a bit silly to react melodramatically when foreigners return the favor.
As Jake Werner explains for Responsible Statecraft:
Foreign surveillance of sensitive U.S. sites is not a new phenomenon. “It’s been a fact of life since the dawn of the nuclear age, and with the advent of satellite surveillance systems, it long ago became an everyday occurrence,” as my colleague and former CIA analyst George Beebe puts it.
U.S. surveillance of foreign countries is likewise quite common. Indeed, great powers gathering intelligence on each other is one of the more banal and universal facts of international relations. Major countries even spy on their own allies, as when U.S. intelligence bugged the cellphone of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Typically, even when such surveillance is directed against the United States by a rival power, it does not threaten the safety of Americans and it poses manageable risks to sites where secrecy is of the utmost importance. However — in the context of rapidly increasing U.S.–China tensions — foreseeable incidents like these can quickly balloon into dangerous confrontations.
US secures deal on Philippines bases to complete arc around China bbc.inUS secures deal on Philippines bases to complete arc around ChinaWashington now has more access to Philippines military bases facing the South China Sea and Taiwan.4:23 AM ∙ Feb 2, 2023338Likes69Retweets
Now let’s contrast all this with another news story that’s getting a lot less attention.
In an article titled “US secures deal on Philippines bases to complete arc around China,” the BBC reports that the empire will be adding even more installations to the already impressive military noose it has been constructing around the PRC.
“The US has secured access to four additional military bases in the Philippines – a key bit of real estate which would offer a front seat to monitor the Chinese in the South China Sea and around Taiwan,” writes the BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes. “With the deal, Washington has stitched the gap in the arc of US alliances stretching from South Korea and Japan in the north to Australia in the south. The missing link had been the Philippines, which borders two of the biggest potential flashpoints – Taiwan and the South China Sea.”
“The US hasn’t said where the new bases are but three of them could be on Luzon, an island on the northern edge of the Philippines, the only large piece of land close to Taiwan – if you don’t count China,” writes Wingfield-Hayes.
The BBC provides a helpful illustration to show how the US is completing its military encirclement, courtesy of the Armed Forces of the Philippines:

The US empire has been surrounding China with military bases and war machinery for many years, in ways Washington would never tolerate China doing in the nations and waters surrounding the United States. There is no question that the US is the aggressor in this increasingly hostile standoff between major powers. Yet we’re all meant to be freaking out about a balloon.
Ask me to show you how the US has been aggressing against China I can show you all the well-documented ways in which the US is encircling China with weapons of war. Ask an empire apologist to show you how China is aggressing against the US and they’ll start babbling about TikTok and balloons.
These things are not equal. Maybe Americans should stop watching out for hostile foreign threats and start looking a little closer to home.
3 Feb 2023
Scott Ritter on War in Ukraine “no one believes anymore that Ukraine can win”, “neither NATO, nor European Union, nor the United States care about Ukraine”.
Scott Ritter is US Marine former intelligence officer and UN Chief weapons inspector, military and geopolitical analyst and author.
Moscow could retaliate “in any way possible” should Kiev decide to attack Crimea, Dmitry Medvedev has said
https://www.rt.com/russia/570962-ukraine-strike-crimea-burn-medvedev/
Feb 4, 2023

FILE PHOTO: Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev © Sputnik / Yekaterina Shtukina
Washington’s decision to supply Ukraine with longer-range missiles and allow Kiev to use them at will can only lead to further escalation, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Saturday. He added that the US appears to not want the Ukraine conflict to end.
In an interview with Russian journalist Nadana Fridrikhson, Medvedev denied that Ukrainian strikes against the Crimean peninsula would force Moscow to sit down at the negotiating table. “The result would be exactly the contrary. There would be no talks in such a case. There would only be retaliatory strikes,” he warned .
Medvedev insisted that if Washington wanted peace in Ukraine, it could simply urge Kiev to engage in talks with Moscow, but that US President Joe Biden’s administration and “hawks” in Congress are “simply not interested in it.”
Russia could “retaliate in any way possible” should Ukrainian forces strike targets in Crimea or deep inside Russian territory, the former president warned. “We do not set any limits depending on the nature of threats, and are ready to use all types of weapons,” he insisted, adding that Russia would only be guided by its own doctrines, including the nuclear protocol.
Pentagon will allow Ukraine to fire long-range missiles at will
“I can assure you a response would be swift, hard and convincing.”
Medvedev also accused European leaders, who have been supporting Kiev through various means, including weapon shipments, of acting at the behest of Washington and to the detriment of their own people. The cost of sanctions, military aid to Ukraine, trade wars, and embargoes are borne by ordinary EU citizens, he added.
Medvedev’s remarks came a day after the Pentagon announced it was supplying Kiev with ground-launched small diameter bombs (GLSDB) – munitions consisting of a rocket motor and an airplane bomb, with a range of up to 150 kilometers.
According to US Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, Washington will not prevent Ukraine from using these munitions to strike targets deep within Russia.
Moscow has repeatedly warned that providing heavy weapons to Ukraine could see the US and its allies directly involved in the conflict, and spiral into a military standoff between Russia and NATO.
“We are getting dangerously close to a point of no return. For months, both sides have been continuously escalating the war in Ukraine, and now it appears that we are on the verge of the biggest escalation of them all. As I have been repeatedly warning my readers for weeks, the Russians have been gathering hundreds of thousands of fresh troops for a massive winter offensive. The exhausted Ukrainian forces are already stretched incredibly thin, and the losses that they have been suffering over the past couple of months have been nothing short of catastrophic. If the Russians decide to bring the hammer down, the Ukrainians will be in very serious trouble.”
Kiev and the US are also keeping a close watch on the recent Russian military drills in neighboring Belarus. “Russia is preparing for maximum escalation,” defense minister Danilov had also told UK media this week. “It is gathering everything possible, doing drills and training.”
BY TYLER DURDEN
FRIDAY, FEB 03, 2023
The Ukrainian government is sounding the alarm ahead of the upcoming one-year Feb.24 anniversary of the Russian invasion, saying that Kremlin forces are amassing more troops on the border in preparation for a major new offensive. The warnings come amid widespread reports that Russian forces are gearing up for an inevitable Spring offensive.
In a Wednesday interview with a French media outlet Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov claimed that Putin has ordered a whopping 500,000 troops to ready the new assault in the coming weeks.

“Officially, they announced 300,000, but when we see the troops at the borders, according to our assessments it is much more,” he said.
And separately, Yuriy Sak, a senior defense ministry official, told NBC News on Thursday that “We should understand that the threat of a new and another offensive will remain until we defeat Russia.”
Ukraine expects the attacks to happen from the east and south: “As their main forces are concentrated in the east, we do expect them to begin an offensive there, perhaps around Bakhmut,” Sak said.
And President Zelensky in his latest evening video address to the nation said, “The situation has become tougher” in the area, and further that “The enemy is trying to achieve at least something now to show that Russia has some chances on the anniversary of the invasion.”
Kiev and the US are also keeping a close watch on the recent Russian military drills in neighboring Belarus. “Russia is preparing for maximum escalation,” defense minister Danilov had also told UK media this week. “It is gathering everything possible, doing drills and training.”
If the assessments are accurate, the Kremlin likely wishes to keep its positive momentum strong amid an intense fight for Bakhmut, especially before the arrival of Western-supplied main battle tanks. Russia has warned it is prepared to escalate in response. Russian troops, including Wagner mercenaries, are on the brink of having the city encircled.
“Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of Wagner Group, a Russian paramilitary organization that is leading the assault in Ukraine’s east, said Wednesday that his forces had seized the village of Sacco and Vanzetti, north of Bakhmut,” writes The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. “Rybar, a Telegram channel linked to the Kremlin, said Thursday that Wagner was claiming territory on the contested east side of the city, expanding control around a sparkling-wine factory and a meat-processing plant.”
Total control of Bakhmut could make pacification of the whole of Donetsk much easier – though at the moment both the Russian and Ukrainian sides are suffering heavy losses.
Putin does not bluff.
The U.S. and NATO are pouring into Ukraine huge amounts of heavy artillery munitions supplied to the Kiev armed forces. The U.S.-according to official figures-has so far sent more than one million rounds of ammunition for 155 mm howitzers to Ukraine, plus tens of thousands of missiles. About 300,000 rounds of ammunition come from U.S. military depots in Israel. The arms shipment is managed by an international network, in which Camp Darby- the largest U.S. arsenal outside the motherland, connected to the port of Livorno and Pisa military airport – plays a central role. Britain, France, Poland and Finland are supplying Kiev with tanks, and Poland is purchasing Abrams tanks from the U.S. Some of which may be destined for Ukraine.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/whole-europe-turned-battlefield/5805460
Global Research, January 22, 2023
Region: Europe, Russia and FSU
Theme: Militarization and WMD, US NATO War Agenda
In-depth Report: UKRAINE REPORT

***
The Federation of American Scientists confirms in January the news given by Grandangolo in December 2022 based on a U.S. Air Force document: the C-17A Globemaster aircraft has been authorized to carry the U.S. B61-12 nuclear bomb to Italy and other European countries. Since Biden Administration officials had announced that the B61-12 shipment would be brought forward to December, we believe that the new US nuclear bombs are already arriving in Europe to be deployed against Russia.
Enormous U.S. Military Spending, EU Dragged into Abyss of War against Russia. Italy Out of the War!
The U.S. and NATO are pouring into Ukraine huge amounts of heavy artillery munitions supplied to the Kiev armed forces. The U.S.-according to official figures-has so far sent more than one million rounds of ammunition for 155 mm howitzers to Ukraine, plus tens of thousands of missiles. About 300,000 rounds of ammunition come from U.S. military depots in Israel. The arms shipment is managed by an international network, in which Camp Darby- the largest U.S. arsenal outside the motherland, connected to the port of Livorno and Pisa military airport – plays a central role. Britain, France, Poland and Finland are supplying Kiev with tanks, and Poland is purchasing Abrams tanks from the U.S. Some of which may be destined for Ukraine.
At the same time, the U.S. and NATO are enhancing the deployment of their forces in Europe, increasingly close to Russia. In Romania, NATO deployed AWACS aircraft, equipped with the most sophisticated electronic equipment, kept constantly in flight near Russian airspace. Also in Romania, the Pentagon deployed the 101st Airborne Division, which is being deployed to Europe for the first time since World War II.
NATO and the EU establish “a task force on resilience and critical infrastructure.” “NATO,” declares the Council of the European Union, “remains the foundation of our collective defense. We recognize the value of a stronger European Defense that contributes to transatlantic security and is complementary and interoperable with NATO.”
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This article was originally published on byoblu.
Manlio Dinucci, award winning author, geopolitical analyst and geographer, Pisa, Italy. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Manlio Dinucci, Global Research, 2023