Ukrainian counteroffensive ‘biggest debacle in modern military history’ – David Sacks
RT | April 1, 2024
The failure of Ukraine’s 2023 summer counteroffensive against Russia was “easily predictable,” according to US tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist David Sacks, who has suggested that the Washington elite should be held accountable for talking up the doomed operation.
Sacks’ comments came in response to a post on Saturday by Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who condemned the unnecessary loss of life suffered by Kiev’s forces as they attempted to “attack a larger army” that had superior defenses.
The failed Ukrainian counteroffensive was “one of the biggest debacles in the history of modern warfare,” Sacks said in agreement, adding that Kiev’s soldiers and tanks had effectively run “headlong into minefields while Russian artillery rained down on them from heavily fortified positions.”
“This should have been easily predictable,” the former PayPal COO and founder of the Yammer corporate social network stressed.
According to estimates released in March by the Russian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian military saw over 166,000 casualties during last year’s failed counteroffensive. Kiev’s overall casualties since the outbreak of the conflict with Russia stand at 444,000, the ministry has claimed.
Sacks went on to suggest that US officials such as ex-CIA chief David Petraeus, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and current US Secretary of State Antony Blinken should all be held responsible for encouraging the doomed operation.
“These people are fools who should have no credibility left. But of course the MSM never holds them accountable so we will get more of the same until Ukraine finally collapses,” Sacks surmised.
Musk, meanwhile, has called the counteroffensive “a tragic waste of life for Ukraine,” suggesting that Kiev should not have attacked Russian forces – which had deployed vast minefields and had stronger artillery – while Ukrainian forces lacked armor or air superiority.
“Any fool could have predicted that,” the billionaire said, recalling that one year ago he had recommended that Kiev’s forces entrench and apply all resources to defense.
Musk stated that Kiev would continue to have difficulty holding on to territory, but suggested that Russia was unlikely try to take over the entire country, arguing that it would face “extreme” local resistance in western regions of Ukraine.
He also warned that if the conflict “lasts long enough, Odessa will fall,” and advised Kiev to reach a negotiated settlement with Moscow as soon as possible, before Russia gains more territory and Ukraine loses all access to the Black Sea.
Moscow has stressed that it remains open to meaningful talks with Kiev, and has blamed the lack of a diplomatic breakthrough on the Ukrainian authorities, who refuse to accept the “reality on the ground.”
Russia-NATO relations worse than during Cold War – Moscow
RT | April 1, 2024
The current state of relations between Russia and NATO can be described as “something more than a Cold War,” the head of Moscow’s delegation at the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, Konstantin Gavrilov, has said.
During his interview with RIA Novosti on Monday, Gavrilov was asked to comment on French President Emmanuel Macron’s February statement that he “cannot exclude” the possibility of troops from NATO countries being sent to Ukraine to aid Kiev amid the conflict with Moscow.
“The military strategists in Washington and Brussels should realize: if by lifting the taboo on the potential deployment of the bloc’s servicemen to Ukraine they are trying to test our country’s strength, then we are ready for any turn of events,” he replied.
According to the diplomat, the warnings from US President Joe Biden and some other Western politicians, that if Russia defeats Ukraine it is going to take on NATO states next, are actually aimed “to divert the attention of taxpayers from the senseless pumping of their money into the Ukrainian ‘corruption black hole’ as well as to warm up the public opinion in favor of reviving defense industries in their countries.”
His comment echoed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s statement last week that “the claims that we are going to attack Europe after Ukraine – it is utter nonsense and intimidation of their own population just to beat the money out of them.”
Gavrilov said that during the Cold War, almost all NATO statements began with the evaluation of the possibility of a sudden large-scale attack on the bloc by the USSR and its Eastern European allies. Similar rhetoric is prevalent within the US-led military alliance today, he added.
The diplomat recalled that Russia has been labeled “the most significant and direct threat” in NATO’s Strategic Concept, which was adopted in 2022. “Apparently, now their ideal vision of European security is the borders with our country being wrapped in barbed wire,” he said.
“As a result, Russia-NATO relations can now be characterized as something more than a Cold War,” Gavrilov stressed.
Since fighting between Russia and Ukraine began in February 2022, Moscow has said repeatedly that the US and its NATO allies have become de-facto parties to the conflict through the provision of arms, including advanced weaponry, intelligence-sharing, and the training of Ukrainian troops.
Finland supports open war against Russia
By Lucas Leiroz | April 1, 2024
Apparently, Emmanuel Macron’s stance on the Ukrainian conflict is gaining supporters among European warmongers. In a recent statement, Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen supported the plan to send troops to Ukraine in the future, if Kiev proves unable to continue fighting. The case is further evidence of how anti-Russian paranoia is reaching worrying levels among European states, leading them to almost engage in open war with Moscow.
According to Valtonen, Macron is assuming a position of “strategic ambiguity” necessary for the current stage of the conflict. This “ambiguity” consists of not making it clear whether or not NATO troops will be sent to Ukraine. The precise time of the possible deployment also remains unknown. Valtonen sees this position as correct, since, according to her, Western countries must deliberate on such a strategic decision, choosing the moment to openly engage in the conflict.
Her view is that the West should avoid self-imposing red lines. She praises Macron for not ruling out direct intervention as this gives the West freedom to decide how and when to act. In an interview to the Financial Times, Valtonen stated that she does not see any need for Western intervention in the conflict for now, but supported the plan to send troops in the near future, if “necessary”. For her, the most important thing is that there are no strategic limits for the West, with NATO countries having maximum freedom to make any decision regarding the conflict.
“Now’s not the time to send boots on the ground, and we are not even willing to discuss it at this stage. But, for the long term, of course we shouldn’t be ruling anything out (…) Why would we, especially not knowing where this war will go and what happens in the future, disclose all our cards? I really wouldn’t know (…) What I liked about two recent announcements of President Macron is that he said that actually why should we impose ourselves red lines when Putin basically has no red lines?”, she told journalists.
As we can see, the Finnish official considers the direct deployment of troops as a Western “card”. She seems not to care – or simply not to understand – the catastrophic consequences of an open conflict between NATO and Russia. This shows, in addition to high bellicosity, a true diplomatic inability, which is particularly worrying since she is the head of Finnish diplomacy.
It is interesting to note how fallacious Valtonen’s speech is. She states that Europeans should not rule out direct intervention because “Putin basically has no red lines.” However, since the beginning of the special military operation, it is Russia, not the West, that has self-imposed strict limits on how to act in Ukraine. Moscow deliberately moderates its military intensity to avoid side effects and civilian casualties. Instead of launching a high-intensity operation for a prolonged period, the Russians prefer a tactic focused on attrition and slow territorial gain, thus reducing damage to the Ukrainian civilian population.
Bombings against Ukrainian critical infrastructure happen rarely, almost always in retaliation for previous terrorist attacks carried out by Kiev on the border. If Russia really didn’t self-impose red lines, there would no longer be any infrastructure in Ukraine and Kiev would have collapsed a long time ago. Moscow clearly sees the conflict as a tragedy and strives to prevent its consequences from being even more serious for innocent people.
On the other hand, the West clearly has no limits when it comes to acting in Ukraine. In the first weeks of the special military operation, NATO countries promised to limit their support to sending money and humanitarian aid. Before long, weapons began to be sent, and then long-range missiles were arriving in Kiev some months later. NATO simply engaged in a proxy all-out war through the neo-Nazi regime – but was quickly defeated.
With the Ukrainians becoming unable to continue fighting and the Western military-industrial complex collapsing in the face of its inability to produce more weapons for Kiev, the West can only choose between retreating or moving towards direct war. Macron, trying to improve his domestic and international image, launched a “PR stunt” talking about sending troops to Ukraine, but showing no real capacity or willingness to take this dangerous step.
The problem is that among Macron’s audience there are European leaders enraged by the anti-Russian paranoia spread by NATO. These leaders have been deceived by the propaganda of their own “allies” and now truly believe that if they do not make “hard decisions” they will be “invaded by Russia” in the future. Finally, it seems that the lack of rationality and strategic sense is leading European countries to make a serious mistake.
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The terrorist attack in Moscow: customers, inspirers and perpetrators
By Viktor Mikhin – New Eastern Outlook – 31.03.2024
The terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall (Krasnogorsk) took place on 22 March 2024 at around 20:00 Moscow time. The attack was accompanied by mass shooting and explosions: the attackers opened fire on civilians in the building, set fire to the auditorium, and then left the building. The attack killed at least, 143 people (including three children) and injured 182 others. The concert hall was almost completely destroyed by arson and explosions. The attack was one of the largest terrorist attacks in the history of modern Russia, second only to the terrorist attack in Beslan (2004) in terms of the number of victims. The Afghan branch of the international terrorist organisation ISIL claimed responsibility for the attack, with Washington’s acquiescence.
The United States is trying to convince everyone through various channels that there is no trace of Kyiv in the bloody terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall and that it was committed by the group “ISIL” (“Islamic State”, IS, a terrorist group banned in Russia). The attack was carried out by radical Islamists, but Russia is interested in the customer of the crime, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on 25 March at a meeting on measures taken after the attack. “We know in whose hands this atrocity against Russia and its people was committed. We are interested in who the customer is,” the head of state said. Russia’s special services and law enforcement agencies will have to find answers to a number of questions, he said. “How do radical Islamists, who position themselves as faithful Muslims and profess the so-called pure Islam, commit serious atrocities and crimes in the holy month of Ramadan for all Muslims?” – the president noted.
Putin also said that the terrorist attack was an act of intimidation, which raises the question of who benefits from it. “This atrocity may be just one link in a whole series of attempts by those who have been at war with our country since 2014 at the hands of the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv,” the president said. It is also necessary to answer the question of why the terrorists tried to hide in Ukraine and who was waiting for them there. Putin stressed that the investigation should be objective. “Despite our universal pain and sorrow, compassion and legitimate desire to punish all the perpetrators of this atrocity, the investigation must be conducted with the highest degree of professionalism, objectivity, without any political bias,” the president concluded.
After a thorough and comprehensive in-depth analysis of the events that took place in Moscow, it is possible, in the author’s opinion, to consider the following scheme for the murder of numerous Russian civilians during the concert in the Crocus City Hall. It can be assumed that the direct inspirers and customers of such a terrorist attack are the intelligence services of the American CIA and the British MI6. And since they are state services, the US and the UK are behind them. This is the simple and direct logic of human thinking without any echo. It is these two states that, having sent the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv against Russia, are trying, in their own words, to inflict colossal damage that could lead in the future to the disintegration of our homeland into parts ruled by the USA and Great Britain.
If we look at the history of the use of the policy of terrorism, the assassination of leaders and ordinary politicians and the practice of killing civilians by the US government services, the Americans have been using them for a long time and on a large scale. It is enough to recall the US use of nuclear weapons against civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the use of chemicals on a large scale in Vietnam and Syria.
We can recall the fate of two of our excellent TASS journalists, Vitaly Petrusenko and Sergei Losev, who worked together for a long time in the USA, where they were poisoned and died of heart attacks. When they returned to the USSR, they knew about their poisoning, as V. Petrusenko told the author in detail, and they knew about their imminent death. Petrusenko died at the age of 52, Losev at 61. Both were authors of 5 books exposing the nefarious policies of the USA, and in particular wrote in detail about the state conspiracy to assassinate the then US President John F. Kennedy.
One can also recall the assassination by the CIA of numerous foreign politicians who did not agree with the White House’s policy of imposing its domination and right to plunder on all the peoples and countries of the world. For example, about 30 attempts were made on the life of the leader of the Cuban revolution, Fidel Castro, but all in vain. And finally, the permission to destroy the leader of a foreign country was given to the CIA by the President of the USA. A very famous Cuban revolutionary, Che Guevara, was murdered by the CIA.
On 17 January 1961, on Washington’s orders, Patrice Lumumba, the deposed prime minister of the Congo and a famous fighter against colonialism, was brutally murdered. This was followed by a series of assassinations and coups d’état on the African continent, which continue to this day, with the CIA’s sinister hand at work. We can also remember our own time, when the leader of the Libyan Jamahiriya, Muammar Gaddafi, was brutally murdered. The video of this assassination and the angry reaction of the then US Secretary of State, H. Clinton, went round the world. Shamelessly, with her eyes wide open and her saliva spurting, she shouted with joy at the top of her voice: ‘We did it’. The unjustified attack on Iraq and the assassination of its president, Saddam Hussein, were also carried out according to the model of the CIA in cooperation with the British MI6.
It is quite obvious that the client of the criminal attack on Crocus City Hall is also London and its notorious Secret Service MI6, which has not changed its plans to assassinate foreign leaders for several centuries. The famous expression, often attributed to A.V. Suvorov, is well known: “the Englishwoman is shitting again”. For several centuries, Britain has been “shitting” everywhere and all the time, on all those it wants to bend to its will. If, as they say, the British have no permanent friends, no permanent enemies and only permanent interests, then the best, most effective and most permanent tool is a policy of shitting all over the world. One of the most important features of British foreign policy towards its adversaries is that it involves other countries, other forces, in the defence of its interests and seeks to minimise its involvement in the conduct of military operations, especially against a strong adversary. The Moscow attack, allegedly carried out by other interested forces, clearly fits into this strategy, although the CIA undoubtedly knew about it and warned Moscow in a ‘friendly’ manner.
No sooner had the bastards shot Russian civilians attending the concert than US officials started pointing the finger at ISIL, as if they had ordered such a scenario. And indeed, they did. True, the “professionals” of the CIA did not have enough knowledge about what ISIS is (although they themselves created this terrorist organisation) and how it operates. The terrorist act was committed on Friday, which is known to be a holy day for Muslims, created by Allah for prayer and rest, and certainly a faithful Muslim will not commit unjust acts on this day. A Muslim who dies for the sake of his ideals and faith will never take money. But here were the dirty mercenaries whom all Muslim countries, parties and organisations have shunned. Moreover, the ideological Muslim terrorists of ISIL are not running anywhere, they are sacrificing their lives.
Once again, Washington has been “sitting in a puddle” with its clumsy and crude statements, which nobody in the world believed. Moreover, if the Americans knew about the planned terrorist attack, they should have passed on the details of this crime to the Russian FSB, with which the CIA has an agreement on the exchange of information on terrorist actions. This was not done, and Moscow was merely informed of the desire of some hostile forces to carry out a terrorist attack. Very “valuable information”. Moreover, even such information leads to the suspicion that Washington planned the terrorist attack in Moscow in advance and knew about it.
It also raises the suspicion of a clearly planned terrorist action, which is clearly beyond the power of those scoundrels who were merely its executors. All this was done at a high professional military level and the roles in it were planned and defined in advance. And even an escape plan was worked out, whereby the scum drove to the Russian-Ukrainian border, where a window was organised for them to cross into Ukrainian territory.
If we analyse the testimony of the detained scum about how they were found and how they communicated with each other on the Telegram social network, we can clearly see the handwriting of Ukrainian neo-Nazis and their special services. And here we see Ukrainian neo-Nazis technically preparing this terrorist act, which clearly fits into their strategy of destroying the peaceful Russian population. Suffice it to recall the constant shelling of our peaceful towns and villages by Ukrainian neo-Nazis using Western weapons. The neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv, which has been defeated on the battlefield, is increasingly resorting to terrorist methods. Everything, as they say, fits together.
The organisers of the terrorist attack on the Crocus Town Hall hoped to sow panic and discord in society, but they were met with the unity of all Russians and the rejection of their terrorist methods of intimidation. Moreover, against the backdrop of the terrorist attack, Russian society showed real cohesion, solidarity and determination to resist the evil of terrorism.
Ukrainian police investigate ‘pro-Russian’ shelling victim
RT | March 31, 2024
Police in Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkov, have said that criminal proceedings have been launched against a local woman who insisted that Ukrainians should not be celebrating their troops’ shelling of Russia’s border regions.
She expressed the opinion despite her own home being hit by a Russian airstrike on her city, which had reportedly targeted electrical infrastructure and defense industry facilities.
Police said in a statement on Saturday that officers “have found a video on social media,” in which a 59-year-old female resident of Kharkov’s Shevchenkovsky District “denied the armed aggression by Russia, supported the invasion of Ukraine and the occupation of part of the state’s territory and condemned the actions of the Ukrainian authorities.”
The clip in question featured a short interview following Russian airstrikes on Kharkov on March 24. The woman spoke with a journalist through an empty window-frame in her home; the glass had apparently been blown out by a nearby explosion.
In the footage, the local resident refused to condemn Moscow and called for an end to violence, saying that the Ukrainians should not “throw” missiles at Belgorod and other Russian border regions and “should not celebrate” those attacks.
When the journalist disagreed with her stance, she replied by saying that they simply had different views. “I believe that one must have friendly relations with neighbors,” the woman stressed, referring to Ukraine and Russia.
Kharkov is located just 30 kilometers (19 miles) south of the Russia–Ukraine border and remains a predominately Russian-speaking city.
She is now being probed for “collaborationist activities,” the police said. As part of a pre-trial investigation, the officers have spoken to witnesses, who “confirmed the pro-Russian stance of the person in question and reported conflicts with her on this issue,” the statement read.
The Ukrainian criminal code was adjusted in March 2022, a few weeks after the launch of Russia’s military operation. It criminalizes a vast array of activities, including the public backing of Moscow’s actions, offering direct material and financial aid to the Russian forces, and the execution of official roles in areas captured by Russia.
Earlier this month, a court in the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia ordered the confiscation of the apartment of an 80-year-old woman for posting pro-Russian comments on social media. She was also slapped with a four-year prison term. The sentence was delivered in absentia because the defendant has been living in Russia for the past several years.
Ukraine is ‘tip of the iceberg’ – Lavrov
RT March 29, 2024
The Ukraine conflict is only one part of a wider stand-off between Russia and the West, which seeks to contain Moscow at all costs, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.
In an interview with Izvestia published on Friday, Lavrov stated that after the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014, the new Ukrainian authorities unleashed “a war… against their own people” in Donbass.
The hostilities, the minister said, were only stopped by the now-defunct Minsk agreements, which were designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state.
The ensuing governments of both ex-Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko and Vladimir Zelensky cracked down on the Russian language and culture, introducing stringent restrictions targeting its use in all aspects of life, according to Lavrov.
Moscow repeatedly urged Kiev’s backers in the West to condemn and halt the discriminatory policies, which also violate Ukraine’s constitution, but “not one of the Western countries that are now shielding Ukraine from all accusations has ever publicly condemned these absolutely illegal actions,” he insisted.
“The only explanation is that Ukraine is the tip of the iceberg. And that the declared goal of the West is to inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.”
Lavrov added that in practice this implies that those who do the West’s bidding when it comes to this mission, “are allowed to do anything, including direct support for… Nazism. It is sad”.
On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Ukraine conflict could have been easily avoided if the West had taken Moscow’s security interests into account. However, those interests “were completely ignored” as NATO moved closer to Russia’s borders by incorporating Eastern European states and former Soviet republics, Putin added.
The Russian president has also repeatedly said that the main goals of Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine are to “denazify” and “demilitarize” the neighboring state, as well as protecting the population of Donbass from Kiev’s attacks. The two Donbass republics, along with two other former Ukrainian regions, overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in the autumn of 2022.
Investigators establish link between Moscow terrorist attack suspects and Ukraine
RT | March 28, 2024
The suspects in last week’s Moscow terrorist attack were linked to Ukrainian nationalists, the Russian Investigative Committee stated on Thursday, citing preliminary findings. The perpetrators had received “significant sums of money” from Ukraine, the law enforcement agency said.
The investigators have obtained “substantiated evidence” that the suspected assailants received funding from Ukraine in the form of cryptocurrency, which was then used to prepare the terrorist attack, the statement read.
Law enforcement officers also identified and detained another suspect who was allegedly involved in financing the attack, the Investigative Committee said, without identifying the individual.
Earlier, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), Aleksandr Bortnikov, told reporters that the US, UK and Ukraine may have been behind the attack. The Ukrainians may have been preparing a “window” for them to cross back over the border, the official said. “On the other side, they were to be welcomed as heroes,” he added.
The four suspected perpetrators had previously been identified as radical Islamists, recruited through an online chat apparently operated by the Afghanistan-based offshoot of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). However, the investigators said at that time that, despite the group’s claim of responsibility for the terrorist act, another party, such as a Ukrainian intelligence agency, may have been involved in the plot.
Last Friday, a group of men armed with assault rifles stormed the Crocus City Hall music venue in the Moscow suburb of Krasnogorsk, just before a concert by the rock band Picnic. The attack and a subsequent blaze started by the perpetrators claimed the lives of 140 people and injured some 200 others.
The assailants were apprehended hours after the attack in Russia’s Bryansk Region, which borders Ukraine.
Ukraine Tortures Russian Prisoners of War in 2023-2024 – UNHRC
Sputnik – 28.03.2024
Russian prisoners of war have been tortured in Ukraine between December 2023 and February 2024, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said.
The employees of the OHCHR visited 44 Russian prisoners of war in Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Lvov, Nikolayev, Sumy, Vinnitsa and Zaporozhye regions of Ukraine from December 2023 to February 2024.
“While these Russian POWs did not make any allegations of torture occurring at these facilities, they provided credible accounts of torture or ill-treatment in transit places after their immediate evacuation from the battlefield,” the OHCHR said in a report on Tuesday.
Ukrainian authorities do not sufficiently prosecute those responsible for torture, violence against civilians and prisoners of war, the OHCHR said.
“OHCHR has documented arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, and the use of torture and ill treatment, including sexual violence, by Ukrainian authorities during the detention of conflict-related civilian detainees and Russian POWs, as well as the summary execution of at least 25 Russian servicemen hors de combat (all in 2022 and early 2023),” the report said, adding that “Ukrainian authorities have launched at least five criminal investigations into allegations of violations committed by their own security forces, involving 22 victims.”
These results show a lack of progress in the investigation and prosecution of such violations, the OHCHR said.
The Russian-speaking minority in Ukraine is subjected to discriminatory treatment in comparison to other linguistic minorities that speak EU languages, the OHCHR stressed.
OHCHR examined the law adopted by the Parliament of Ukraine on December 8, which amends a number of legislative acts related to the rights of national minorities.
“While the law is a significant step forward in improving the rights of national minorities, it maintains a discriminatory differential treatment between, on the one hand, national minorities speaking an official language of the EU, and on the other hand, national minorities whose languages are not official languages of the EU, such as Russian, Armenian or Romani. Although the first category of national minorities saw their rights broadened, as described above, national minorities whose language is not an EU language will not be able to enjoy the same rights,” the OHCHR highlighted.
Ukrainian authorities continued intimidating the priests and worshipers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church from December 2023 to February 2024, the OHCHR pointrd out.
“Clergymen and parishioners of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) continued to experience intimidation during the reporting period. OHCHR recorded six cases across five regions where groups of people forcefully broke into UOC churches, justifying their actions with decisions from local authorities to register new religious communities of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) at the same address as existing UOC communities,” the OHCHR said.
Ukraine’s survival hangs in the balance
BY M. K. BHADRAKUMAR | INDIAN PUNCHLINE | MARCH 28, 2024
A controversy arose needlessly over the advisory issued by the American embassy in Moscow on March 7 to the effect that “extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts” and warning US citizens to “avoid large gatherings.” It took the form of a diplomatic spat and momentarily at least, the American claim that they shared the ‘information’ with the Russians hinted at the ineptness of the security agencies in Moscow while the latter hit back saying there was nothing specific or actionable that the Americans conveyed.
Clearly, Washington was in possession of some information which was at the very least credible enough in terms of its source but was not specific enough for Moscow. Interestingly, the UK embassy in Moscow also issued a similar advisory cautioning British citizens against visiting shopping centres. The US and British intelligence agencies work in tandem.
However, in a strange pre-emptive move, as it were, the State Department also scrambled within two hours of the horrific attack on the mall in Moscow’s Crocus City Hall on March 22 with a statement declaring that Ukraine was not responsible for the attack. The US’s European allies also began parroting the same line. As can be expected, the Americans got a head start in the propaganda war and that in turn enabled them to craft a narrative — also in real time — naming the Islamic State as the culprit in the horrific crime.
Yet, the very next day, President Vladimir Putin went on to reveal in his address to the nation that what happened was “a premeditated and organised mass murder of peaceful, defenceless people,” harking back to the Nazis “to stage a demonstrative execution, a bloody act of intimidation.”
Importantly, Putin disclosed that the perpetrators “attempted to escape and were heading towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary information, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border.” But he stopped short of finger-pointing as the investigation was a work in progress.
That is to say, from Putin’s disclosure, it appears that the perpetrators’ mentors / handlers gave them instructions to exit Russian territory after their mission by using a particular route for border crossing into Ukraine where they were expected by people on the Ukrainian side of the border. What now remains in the realm of the ‘known unknown’ is really about the chain of command. This is the first thing.
Second, a storyline has been propagated by Washington that this was an ISIS attack. Indeed, it has been effectively propagated by the western media and was intended as a red herring to confuse dim-witted folks abroad.
However, in reality, the perpetrators did not behave like ISIS killers on suicide missions who would have sought martyrdom but in this case behaved like fugitives on the run. Nor were they answering the call of ‘jihad’. They were reportedly ethnic Tajiks who admitted that they were hirelings lured by the money in it.
The expert opinion from released videos is also that their movements inside the mall did not show battle skills attributed to well-trained fighters, and they had ‘poor muzzle discipline’, which means they had only minimal rifle training. In sum, theirs was quintessentially an act of motiveless malignity — that is, except the money part.
That said, the US military has been ‘retooling’ erstwhile ISIS fighters lately. Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) alleged in a statement on February 13 that the US was recruiting the jihadist fighters to carry out terrorist attacks on the territory of Russia and the CIS countries.
The statement said, “Sixty such terrorists with combat experience in the Middle East were selected this year in January… they are undergoing a fast-track training course at the US base in Syria’s Al-Tanf, where they are being taught how to make and use improvised explosive devices, as well as subversive methods. Particular emphasis is paid to planning attacks on heavily guarded facilities, including foreign diplomatic missions… In the near future, there are plans to deploy militants in small groups to the territory of Russia and the CIS countries.”
The SVR also noted that “special attention was paid to the involvement of natives of the Russian North Caucasus and Central Asia.”
Significantly, on March 26, Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the Federal Security Service (FSB) said in an interview with Rossiya TV channel that from the interrogation of the detainees so far, there is a political background to the incident. He said radical Islamists alone could not prepare such an action on their own, they were assisted from the outside.
Bortnikov stated: “The primary data that we received from the detainees confirm this. Therefore, we will continue to refine the information that should show us whether the participation of the Ukrainian side is real or not. But in any case, so far there is every reason to say that this is exactly the case. Since the bandits themselves intended to go abroad, it was to the territory of Ukraine, according to our preliminary operational information, they were waiting there.”
Bortnikov added that the terrorist attack had the support of not only the special services of Ukraine, but countries such as Britain and the United States are also behind the massacre. According to him, the prime mover of the incident has not yet been identified, and the threat of a terrorist act in Russia still persists.
Bortnikov’s remarks hint at a classic predicament: Russia possesses evidence of Ukrainian involvement but ‘proof’ remains inadequate as yet. This is a predicament that countries often face in countering the cross-border terrorism, especially when it happens to be state-sponsored terrorism. Of course, no amount of evidence will be accepted as proof by the adversary ultimately — while in Ukraine’s case, often there is an eagerness to claim credit for bleeding Russia by staging operations on its soil, such as assassinations.
As for the US or the UK, Russians assess that without intelligence inputs, satellite imagery, and even logistical backing by the western powers, Ukraine does not have the capability to undertake operations deep inside Russia or the sort of complex attacks targeting Russian war ships of the Black Sea Fleet. But the western powers are invariably in a denial mode when confronted with such accusations by Russia.
There is no question that the Crocus City Hall attack will have profound geopolitical consequences and will impact the trajectory of the Ukraine war. The incident has rallied world sympathy massively for Russia. It is a huge challenge of statecraft now for Putin to act decisively, as the Russian public will expect, to completely uproot the dark forces entrenched next-door.
Conceivably, that may involve Moscow shaking up the very foundations of the house that Washington built in Kiev after the 2024 coup. The New York Times recently disclosed that the CIA keeps a string of intelligence outposts all along the Ukraine-Russia border regions.
Make no mistake, the US is determined to hold on to the extensive infrastructure it created in Ukraine to mount covert operations and destabilise Russia, no matter what it takes. The bottom line in the western strategy is to weaken Russia and prevent it from playing an adversarial role on the global stage.
TS Eliot’s lines from the play Murder in the Cathedral come to mind: ‘What peace can be found / To grow between the hammer and the anvil?’ The war is slated to escalate dramatically and it is a matter of time before western combat deployment takes place in Ukraine to salvage that country’s residual potential as a frontline state for NATO in the proxy war against Russia. On their part, Russia may have no alternative but to seek a total military victory. The multi-layered Russian reaction will unfold depending on the outcome of the ongoing investigation.
Ukrainian oligarch possibly involved in terrorist attack as GUR becomes CIA asset
By Lucas Leiroz | March 28, 2024
Investigations into those responsible for the attack on Crocus City Hall remain ongoing. Although it is known that the killers are Islamic radicals from Central Asia, there is still no confirmation as to who the real mastermind of the crime was. However, suspicions of involvement by Ukrainian and Western intelligence agencies are growing more and more. Additionally, there is the possibility that a prominent Ukrainian oligarch is financing such terrorist acts against Moscow.
As well known, there are complex corruption schemes and illicit activities in Ukraine involving local and international agents. Nevertheless, little is known on how deeply connected these criminal networks are with Kiev-sponsored terrorism. Ukrainian oligarchs not only commit tax crimes and money laundering, but use their personal profits to promote terror against the “enemies” of the neo-Nazi regime.
Recently, Russian authorities have been investigating the case of Nikolai Zlochevsky, the owner of the Ukrainian gas company “Burisma”. Zlochevsky has already become widely known around the world for his illicit activities, mainly due to his close relationships with the Biden family – even more especially, with Hunter Biden, son of the American president. Hunter worked at Burisma while living in Ukraine, where he participated in Zlochevsky’s illicit schemes.
Later, Zlochevsky passed a lot of sensitive data about Hunter Biden’s crimes to an FBI informant, generating a public scandal that went viral in the English-language media. The information also confirms that the Bidens’ involvement is not restricted to Hunter, with the American president and other public figures from the Democratic Party participating in illegal Ukrainian business.
However, little has been said in the media so far about the real reason why Zlochevsky and his American partners were protected by Ukrainian authorities despite violating local laws: in exchange for a carte blanche in corruption, Zlochevsky became a sponsor of the Ukrainian war machine. The oligarch has been sending large sums of money to institutions in the Ukrainian military and intelligence sectors for years. His work has been vital, especially in the purchase of drones for the Ukrainian armed forces, for example. The most controversial, however, is the financial support given by Zlochevsky to the secret activities of the GUR (Kiev’s military intelligence).
Zlochevsky has been identified by Russian investigators as one of GUR’s main backers. It is believed that he has already sent a total of 22.5 million US dollars to the agency. State agencies, in theory, should not receive this type of irregular funding, which leads us to believe that this cash is used for parallel, unofficial activities – which, in the Ukrainian case, means real terrorism.
Russian investigators believe, for example, that Zlochevsky’s money was used to finance the terrorist drone operation against Moscow in May 2023. Considering his involvement in the purchase of drones and intelligence networks, it is virtually a certainty for Zlochevsky be involved in the case. Other activities in which GUR is directly involved have also drawn the attention of Russian authorities regarding the possibility of direct financing by Zlochevsky. This is the case with the recent murders and attempted murders of civilians within the territory of the Russian Federation, for example.
The GUR is behind the attacks against journalists Daria Dugina, Vladlen Tatarsky, writer Zakhar Prilepin and other well-known Russian public figures. Certainly, the funding to pay for the complex operations behind these crimes did not come from official sources, but from irregular money, like that which Zlochevsky provides to the GUR. However, it is necessary to remember that the activities of Ukrainian intelligence have never been “autonomous”. Since 2014, the entire Ukrainian state apparatus, including its secret service, has been controlled by American agents. In practice, American intelligence uses its Ukrainian assets as proxies to commit crimes that are previously planned in Washington.
As mentioned, it is not yet known who ordered the terror attack on Crocus City Hall, but there are some points in the case that seem to indicate direct participation by the GUR. This possibility is so plausible that Moscow already reacted immediately to the attack by destroying the Ukrainian intelligence headquarters in Kiev. The attack on Crocus had a high operational cost. The assassins were hired as mercenaries and received their weapons from the hirers. Furthermore, someone paid for their trip to the border in Bryansk. If GUR was involved in this operation, it is very likely that Zlochevsky’s illicit money was used.
Considering that GUR is, in practice, a CIA asset and that it receives illegal funding from Biden-linked Ukrainian oligarchs to promote terror on Russian territory, then there appears to be a very deep international network to be investigated by Moscow in order to discover the real culprits for the Crocus massacre.
Lucas Leiroz, member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert. You can follow Lucas on X (former Twitter) and Telegram.
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