Not to worry too much about that French foreign legion in Ukraine
The thing is, France is broke and can’t afford this. France also lacks raw material resources.
Translation with my notes in bold and in [brackets]
https://ria.ru/20240330/nokdaun-1936735037.html
Russia sent the EU to a military knockdown
Elena Karaeva
The coming months, if not weeks, promise shock and awe for the EU bosses, at least, and at most, a tectonic catastrophe. These are not the predictions of oracles, these are actual EU figures, facts and statements that are becoming more alarming every day. The times of pompous words, that Russia “has reserves of shells and bombs for no more than three days” have sunk into oblivion.
The promises of the same EU to supply the Ukrainian Armed Forces with “a million shells and bombs by March” ended up in a place that is even deeper. Reserves have been exhausted. Therefore, literally this week a new stage began. Personally, the head of the French defense department, Monsieur Lecornu, surrounded by generals of all levels of stardom, directly stated to local gunsmiths and their associates that the authorities - if necessary (the law was technically pushed through the National Assembly back in the fall) - would not only be able to fulfill military orders, but would also requisition production facilities and workers. Since Paris has not yet officially declared war on anyone, where and for whom the army orders are intended is no longer a secret. They are intended for a new stage of confrontation with us in the special operation zone at the front line.
Almost on the same day, again, the same omnipresent Lecornu announced that engineers intend to adapt the use of French AASM bombs for installation on the F-16. Both the bombs designed for close air combat and F-16 fighters will be sent to a known address. To be downed and smashed.
But the point is not the fate of the hardware, the delivery of which is not a subject of discussion, but the fact that this promise will also not be kept.
To dramatically increase the production of all these arsenals, an equally sharp increase in the supply of raw materials is required. The geology of France, which replaced the rooster plumage with the military poodle haircut (“poodles” served in almost all the regiments of Napoleon's army that invaded Russia), is such that there are no mineral deposits in the country. There is nothing to cast metal from, there is no oil for the production of plastics, there are no rare earths. All this, and much more, will have to be purchased from third-party suppliers, to whom you can hardly show up with a requisition order, dance the hopak [Cossack dance] and say: “Well, it’s really necessary, just “pitchforks” as required.”
There is another problem - money. Where will they get the finances to pay for all this urgent and overtime work? Yes, multibillion-dollar sums were mentioned: three billion for one, six for another, eight for another. If you “support Kiev”. But in front of the civilian minister sat businessmen who had already concluded contracts worth tens of billions, and in the documentation there were delivery dates for manufactured and already paid products, and there were also penalties for each day overdue for shipment. Will Macron, having wiped the sweat from his brow after a battle with a punching bag (the punching bag, by the way, knocked down the president), explain that violation of such obligations by the French military-industrial complex is useful for “victory over Russia”?
But this is not the end of the epic failure. France has no money. Its ability to pay interest on its debts raises concerns among credit rating agencies. And apparently, the credit rating of the Fifth Republic will be revised downward in April. Paris will have to pay even more for Kiev, without receiving either external or internal pleasure or even local satisfaction.
It turns out that everything—absolutely everything: all the efforts, all the words, all the antics, all the articles about “Macron’s five plans for defeating Russia”—turned out to be nothing but an embarrassing performance.
Because all the concepts, plans, ideologies, the scheme of the total information war being waged against us have already ended in failure. All photos of testosterone-filled muscles, especially close-ups and officially distributed, were blown away the moment the truth was told.
Russia is not going to fight NATO - “that’s just nonsense.” The alliance's military expenditures are many times higher than Russia's military expenditures. Statements about Russia’s alleged plans to attack Europe after Ukraine are nonsense and intimidation of the population of European countries. Russia has no aggressive intentions towards these states.
“During a special operation in Ukraine, Russia is protecting people on its historical territories. If after the collapse of the USSR a security system in Europe had been built and the interests of the Russian Federation had been taken into account, nothing would have happened.”
The Russian president made this statement while communicating with military pilots. His words can also be regarded as an asymmetrical response to those who are frantically trying to put together a new pan-European military campaign against us. With a punching bag at the ready. And with muscles tense to the limit. No matter what, they both burst along the way... However, these will no longer be our problems at all.
**
https://tsargrad.tv/news/russkie-zatushili-pol-ukrainy-gotovitsja-bolshaja-shvatka_980605
THE RUSSIANS HAVE PUT OUT HALF OF UKRAINE’S LIGHTS. A BIG FIGHT IS BREWING
The Russian army struck energy facilities in Ukraine last night, another Abrams tank was destroyed, and the “most combat-ready” French Foreign Legion is heading to Odessa. But it's not all alarming news.
Half the country is in darkness
On March 22, Russia launched one of the most powerful missile attacks on Ukraine during the entire period of the special military operation, this was recognized by the Kyiv authorities. The underground recorded strikes on thermal power plants and defense plants in Kharkov, the locations of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Odessa oblast, the Kolomyia airfield in the Ivano-Frankivsk oblast, the Motor Sich plant and the Dnieper hydroelectric station in Zaporozhye. Underground activists [pro-Russian] also announced attacks on Dnepropetrovsk, Krivoy Rog, Zhitomir, Kremenchug and the Khmelnitsky oblast.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation launched a group strike with high-precision long-range air, sea and ground-based weapons, including Kinzhal aeroballistic hypersonic missiles, as well as unmanned aerial vehicles against energy facilities, the Russian Ministry of Defense clarified later.
What does this mean for Ukraine?
As the Ukrainian Telegram channel “Resident” writes, attacks by our Armed Forces on power infrastructure facilities caused real panic in Ukraine. Now, judging by the statements of officials and military commanders, it will be extremely difficult for Ukraine to restore the destroyed equipment.
Retired SBU Colonel Oleg Starikov, speaking on the YouTube channel Da, eto tak [Yes, that’s so] said that Western supplies are unlikely to help Kyiv recover from such Russian attacks, since imported equipment is practically incompatible with Soviet systems.
They say: “Here, we will quickly restore it.” How can you restore it if all the equipment <...> was produced only in the former Soviet Union, the Ukrainian officer wondered.
Political scientist Konstantin Bondarenko, speaking on the YouTube channel Da, eto tak [Yes, that’s so], also noted that the consequences for the Ukrainian energy sector are quite serious. According to him, among other things, important factories in Kharkov were damaged.
In conditions when Ukraine is looking for funds both for the war and for the economy as a whole, to disable a number of enterprises <...> means to force it to look for funds to patch up economic holes, said the expert.
Fundamental decision
According to some reports, the office of the President of Ukraine prohibited the media from publishing reliable data about damaged energy infrastructure facilities, so as not to sow panic in society. Nevertheless, the situation is critical, say insiders, since “the enemy is not destroying substations, as was the case in 2022, but namely thermal power plants and hydroelectric power plants.”
The difference is fundamental. Equipment for substations is more or less mass-produced. This is not the most popular product, but there is mass production of electrical equipment in the world. The electrical current parameters generated by Soviet equipment will differ from the European version, said the military observer of Constantinople Vlad Shlepchenko.
As for the turbine room of the power unit - the room where the turbines and electric generators with their auxiliary equipment are located - this is single piece production.
Accordingly, if you break up a machine room, destroy a turbine there, destroy a generator, a bunch of other equipment (and it’s almost all unique), then you need to create a separate order, and machine-building giants, of which there are not many at all, [will work] for this separate order in the world,” the expert explained. - No matter how the senators vote, some president will say that it is simply physically not in the world ready-made, lying in warehouses. It cannot be bought for any money. It can only be done. This takes two years. The removal of generating capacities is a fundamental solution to the Ukrainian energy issue.
[We must also remember that Russia has more missiles where those came from, and if Ukraine manages to rebuild the destroyed equipment, it will take only a few seconds to destroy it again. This is a Russian advantage that cannot be underestimated. Even if the French troops do arrive, how will they go about their daily routine, eg, cooking their meals, without power?]
Are the French on their way?
Meanwhile, in the West, the discussion about the possible dispatch of NATO troops to Ukraine continues, and more and more versions are emerging regarding the likelihood of a foreign force entering the conflict zone.
War correspondent Yuri Kotenok noted that we are talking not only about the French contingent. Even the Baltic states may come. He also recalled that the Fifth Republic has the largest army in Europe, which numbers 220 thousand people.
According to him, at this stage of the confrontation we should stop underestimating the threat associated with the possible transfer of French troops, since “they will enter the territory of Ukraine as the Foreign Legion, which is one of the most combat-ready European units.”
It’s time to stop underestimating the enemy... Because of this attitude, he has been “running” from us for three years now, and he still won’t come running to Kyiv, complained Kotenok.
He added that the enemy is still counting on sabotage warfare on Russian territory, launching missile strikes to strategic depths with attempts to hit large centers. [But unlike the Russians, the West attacks civilians, as they did in Crocus City Hall]
Suffice it to recall the constant shelling of Russian territory by drones, including in the deep rear, where, I am sure, there is a certain nationalist underground that sympathizes with Ukraine. Also, sabotage raids in the Belgorod and Kursk oblasts, attempts to cross the border, capture some populated areas, as well as the involvement of Islamic radicals, Islamic terrorists, in these sabotage activities, which was clearly demonstrated by the recent terrible terrorist attack in Crocus, and this practice will become more and more developed, summed up Matyushin.
[The Russians understand that ISIS was indeed involved, but the evidence unearthed by their investigative committee shows ISIS was recruited by the West and handled by Ukraine – where the perps were headed to when captured]
…
Our thanks to LJ:
Sounds to me this IS THE END OF THE WAR! END OF STORY.
**
Our thanks to AC for this:
Fri 3/29/2024 10:34 AM
My 'opinion' - Evangelical Church Leaders are sort of like the Jews - they act like the "Master Race of Christians" - NO matter what they do, NO matter their 'sins', they are all 'saved' and are going to be 'raptured' up to Heaven . and - Catholics, like me, belong to a cult.
They ignore what James, Brother of Jesus, stated - "faith without works is dead"
They are on TCT TV . . the worst is John Hagee in San Antonio - "leader of Christians for Israel"
When Trump moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem - Evangelicals Robert Jeffress and David Jeremiah were with him - LIARS - they LIED when supposedly quoting Genesis 12:3 from the Bible
their LIE - "God promised that those who bless Israel will be blessed, those who curse Israel will be cursed"
Genesis 12:3 - "God promised Abram that those who bless him will be blessed and those who curse him will be cursed"
Abram - before his name was changed to Abraham - before he had a son Issac - before Isaac's name was changed to Israel - before there is any mention of 'Hebrews' in the Bible.
I am NO "Bible scholar" - but - I have read the Bible and I know when preachers are telling LIES.
Remember the USS Liberty - deliberately attacked by Israel in 1967 - I was still serving in the US Navy when that happened.
And - how did the Israeli Mossad agents in the White Van in Jersey City know what day and time to be there to film and cheer the attack on the Twin Towers??
May God Bless you and yours - keep you all SAFE and WELL.
**
Our thanks to JS for this:
Fri 3/29/2024 3:49 PM
RE: The American voter now has every reason to support a candidate who at least made a feeble effort to save the Gazans, by abstaining from the UN vote, while Trump makes it clear he wholeheartedly supports criminal genocide.
This quote from the NY Post basically an endorsement for continuing the genocide. The NY Post is a longtime and devoutly Zionist rag. They see Biden’s stealth Zionism
(As In: Who are you going to believe? Biden? Or your lying eyes?)
as more likely succeed in fully and brutally implementing the Zionist Final Solution, now underway across all of Palestine, than Trump’s overt and unequivocal support for those same crimes.
PLEASE SEE:
POLITICS / MARCH 27, 2024
Don’t Believe the Hype—Biden’s Israel Policy Hasn’t Changed
The decision to let a UN cease-fire resolution pass has been hailed as a dramatic turning point. It isn’t.
AÍDA CHÁVEZ
US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield votes “abstain” during a vote on a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza on March 25, 2024.
(Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images)
On Monday, the United Nations Security Council voted to demand an immediate cease-fire in Gaza for the rest of Ramadan.
The resolution, which was backed by 14 countries after US-led efforts to water it down, combined the call for a cease-fire with a demand for the immediate, unconditional release of all hostages. (Given that it is tied to Ramadan, any cease-fire that comes from this resolution would last only a little over two weeks.) For the first time since the war in Gaza broke out, the United States abstained rather than vetoing the resolution, allowing the measure to pass. In response, the Israeli government immediately threw a tantrum, condemning the resolution and canceling a planned meeting at the White House.
These events prompted many political observers to say that a new, dramatic rupture had opened up between the Biden administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Democratic Party politicians and commentators also interpreted the UN vote and its aftermath as a positive development, indicative of the power of grassroots pressure or of a potential shift in the Biden administration’s Israel-Palestine policy—one that could usher in further tangible changes.
But look beneath the seemingly roiling surface, and the reality is that Monday’s vote changed very little about the US approach to the war. All that has changed is that Biden has been given a chance to more effectively obscure his government’s material support and facilitation of mass atrocities in Gaza.
The clearest proof of this came from the administration itself in the hours following the UN vote. After the adoption of the resolution, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, insisted that the resolution is “non-binding,” while reiterating that the United States will continue to support Israel’s war until Hamas can “no longer threaten Israel” and can “no longer control Gaza.” (Legal experts have strongly rejected the idea that the resolution is not binding.)
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby was also clear, telling reporters on Monday that the US abstention from the cease-fire vote did not represent a change in the administration’s stance toward its ally. “Nothing, nothing has changed about our policy. Nothing,” Kirby said. He’s right.
The Biden administration is still helping Israel to implement a novel and uniquely bloody version of the old regime-change playbook. As its advisers and allies have repeatedly explained, the US-Israeli “plan” for Gaza requires removing Hamas from power and demilitarizing the region, which would enable them to impose a “victor’s peace” version of a two-state solution on a population with no way to meaningfully affect the outcome. To reach its goal of regime change in Gaza, the US fully backs Israel’s aim to kill as many Palestinian militants as possible—a plan that cannot be achieved without erring on the side of killing military-age males, whether armed or not.
This explains why—despite months of redundant reports that Biden is growing frustrated with Netanyahu—the president has refused to use any of his unparalleled leverage to change Israeli behavior. The US has remained committed to arming Israel, even as Biden and Congress withhold funding to UNRWA, the UN agency that distributes most of the food, medicine, and aid to Gaza. This is a clear signal that the US will defy global calls to “truly flood” Gaza with aid and will support Israeli efforts to starve militants out of the tunnels, even if that means mass starvation of civilians in Gaza.
Biden is also well aware that Israel is deliberately targeting civilians, as The Washington Post recently confirmed. Yet he continues to violate US law to greenlight arms sales. Shortly after the UNSC vote on Monday, the State Department said that it had found no evidence that Israel is violating Biden’s recent national security memorandum requiring recipients of US weapons to comply with international law, including by not blocking humanitarian aid. By all appearances, this pattern will continue until Netanyahu has brutally completed his mission of killing as many potential militants as possible, which is almost certain to come to a horrific conclusion in Rafah.
As Biden officials and allies have laid out, US support for a demilitarized Palestinian state is just the next step in Biden’s broader strategy to ensure Israel’s long-term security while maintaining US dominance in the Middle East.
Top Biden administration officials are clear that a demilitarized Palestinian state is necessary to impose a two-state deal that can provide political cover for Gulf regimes to normalize relations with Israel, with an expanded security alliance between the United States and the Saudi and UAE regimes. As Daniel Mouton, formerly a senior adviser to Biden’s top Middle East hand Brett McGurk, recently explained, “Long-term security in the Middle East” requires “US security agreements” with Gulf regimes, all of which are dependent on whether the US can “shape Israeli actions” toward a “two-state solution.”
McGurk himself articulated in vivid detail his disturbing vision for what should happen when the ethnic cleansing campaign is over. As HuffPost first reported, McGurk’s idea is to have Saudi Arabia and the other wealthy Gulf countries build on the rubble of Gaza, and then have Biden travel to the region for “a victory tour,” where he claims credit for the Israel-Saudi deal as the solution to decades of implacable crisis in the Middle East.
One goal of the “Biden doctrine,” as New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman called it, is to achieve the “global legitimacy” necessary to “take on Iran in a more aggressive manner.” With Hamas out of the picture and a demilitarized Palestinian state under the influence of the Gulf regimes, the thinking goes, the US will have Arab cover in the region to be able to counter Iran—and the cheap drones they’re worried about—and then put all of its energy toward a confrontation with China.
In the meantime, the Biden administration needs to manage domestic frustrations. The White House is beginning to successfully muddle the politics, by appearing to break with the Israeli extreme-right government that it’s armed and protected diplomatically, directing the military to build a pier in Gaza to distribute humanitarian aid (instead of letting UNRWA do it), and now by standing back to let a weakened resolution pass through the UN Security Council.
As the general election season kicks into gear, Biden’s team knows that it must quell anger over his handling of Gaza, and manipulate the public into believing that any slight shifts in his rhetoric are driven by a genuine shift spurred by Netanyahu’s conduct in the war. We shouldn’t fall for it.
Aída Chávez
Aída Chávez
Aída Chávez is communications director and policy adviser at Just Foreign Policy. She was previously The Nation’...
Aída Chávez is communications director and policy adviser at Just Foreign Policy. She was previously The Nation’s D.C. correspondent and a reporter at The Intercept, More Perfect Union, and other outlets.
**
Translation with my notes in bold and in [brackets]
In the Kharkov region, an Iskander destroyed the restoration area of the 32nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces
Mar 30, 2024
In the Kharkov region, two Iskander missiles destroyed the area where units of the 32nd mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were restored to combat capability. This was reported by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
“The location of the personnel and military equipment of the Ukrainian nationalists in a forest area in the Kharkov oblast was identified by the UAV crew of the West group of forces. The coordinates of the detected group target were transmitted to the combat control point. This was immediately followed by the decision to launch a missile strike,”
— says the department’s telegram channel.
**
Translation with my notes in bold and in [brackets]
https://eadaily.com/ru/news/2024/03/30/vs-rossii-nanesli-udar-po-martynovskomu-aerodromu
The Russian Armed Forces attacked Martynovsky airfield
Mar 30, 2024
The Russian Armed Forces attacked the Martynovsky airfield and a military unit in the Nikolaev region. This was stated by the coordinator of the Nikolaev underground, Sergei Lebedev.
“At 13.50 strikes were carried out on the Martynovsky airfield in the Nikolaev oblast, Today aviation activity was recorded at the airfield; a plane took off, landed, and took off again. It fired a salvo with one rocket, landed, and then the missile struck. There is no exact information about the damage to the aircraft, but after the impact it was not heard, smoke is still coming from the airfield,” Lebedev said.
You do a great job of putting this together thank you .
Wow I really like that Elena , she has great way with words even in translation!
Really good commentary.