The surrender of the last of the militant Azov “soldiers” who were hiding in the bowels of the Azovstal Steel plant in Mariupol is the final curtain for NATO’s fantasy that Ukraine would beat the Russians.
Almost 2500 of the Azov battalion surrendered to the Russians and are now incarcerated in POW camps in Russia. Here’s the capitulation of the final group to give up:
There is a great video that provides you a timeline view of the progress of the Russian offensive in Mariupol:
Zelensky and his gang of thieves pushed the meme that Russia was attacking ruthlessly the civilian population of Mariupol. But that is another big lie. The Azov thugs placed their weapons and personnel in civilian neighborhoods and refused to let the civilians flee to safety. Russia could have flattened the city, turning it into a smoldering pile of rubble. They did not do that because they wanted to minimized civilian losses.
But the Azov folks discovered to their chagrin that the human shield tactic did not work. They were pushed back into the steel plant and bombed into submission. What will happen to them? They will be interrogated. Some will be given the opportunity to flip and become agents of Russian intelligence. The Azov leaders and their followers who committed atrocities in the Donbass over the last 8 years will get the Hans Frank treatment.
Hans Frank was the Gauleiter of Poland–i.e., the head of the General Government in Nazi-occupied Poland during the Second World War. The Nazi extermination camps–Auschwitz/Birkenau, Belzac, Chelmno, Majdanek, Sobibor and Treblinka–were under his control. He was captured by the Americans, tried and executed. He was one Nazi the United States could not forgive.
One more video you should view. It shows the strikes of the GRAD, a BM-21 multiple-launch rocket system that fires 122 mm (4.80 in) artillery rockets, on Ukrainian positions in the Donbass.
This may be an old-school Soviet weapon but it is still damned effective.
The boys on the receiving end of this barrage are taking a beating. Human beings, no matter how resilient, eventually break if they are subjected to sustained bombardments. The blast waves and explosions rattle the brains, shake the bones and destroy the ear drums. Troops either die or surrender if they cannot retreat. The reports from the front indicate the avenues of retreat are shrinking rapidly.
I am frustrated we are not hearing much about “high value” foreign personnel coming out of the catacombs. From all the info, including various attempted raids, it would seem almost certain some of these were there. May be some were extracted successfully ?
I didn’t put much stock in it. Kept it as a possibility but wanted to see evidence. Just another piece of disinformation and chaff it appears.
Well, this sheds light on your critical thinking skills. Logical Fallacy: argumentum ad ignorantiam; Argument from Ignorance; A claim is true just because we don’t know it’s not.
Over and over I’ve read on the Russian language side, that high level Ukrainian officers are kept classified, what would you think they’d do for NATO officers?
I know you won’t let this reply to publish, but that doesn’t take away how soft minded you are. Learn the Latin Trivium: Logic and Rhetoric… it will do the body good.
Well, for some reason you DID allow my comment to publish. “Past performance doesn’t always predict future performance as they say on the casino gulag…”
What I said was honest and true. Take from it what you can.
Just allowing you enough rope to validate your status as a moronic asshole.
Dude, WTF are you even talking about? “Argumentum ad ignorantiam blah blah blah”. No one here cares nor is impressed by half-baked debate club finger wagging.
It is possible there is more information forthcoming that will validate your beliefs. Then again, maybe not.
In the meantime, relax and take your disappointment in stride. It’s not worth acting like an ass.
there’s always this troll coming from SST to defend their hero pat lang here , or most likely this is TTG’s underling sent here to insult the blog master
I love logical fallacies and jeffglobalmotion, you just used strawman, rebutting an argument that was never made. LG never claimed that high ranking foreign operatives did not exist. He only said that he would need to see evidence before believing it.
According to certain information they will never be found, they are already remains.
While he was very impolite, “Over and over I’ve read on the Russian language side, that high level Ukrainian officers are kept classified, what would you think they’d do for NATO officers?”. Putin is in no hurry. The Ukrainian army in the east is collapsing, quickly now. Putin controls the skies so I don’t see large training camps surviving long. If they put them in Poland, Poland becomes a legitimate target, as Putin has threatened already. RF does not been a stellar PR arm. But I would think they would want no surprises, so a thorough inquisition before the trials, especially of the Nazi’s.
And on the extraction by helicopter/boat point, they buddies of the big Nazis in Azovstal, and I think there were 2 at least, they would want their buddies back real bad because they know what the Russians are going to do in retaliation for the Nazis war crimes and crimes against humanity
it is common hasbara 101 tactic to do driveby comment attacking a blog owner , and he is not just impolite , he is trolling using the same old same old hasbara manual.
I read that Russian military intelligence blocked all media when they received them! Is that possible?
I agree with you. At first I thought this was the big secret about Azovstahl, that foreign personnel were hiding out there from whom lots of discrediting (to the West) information would be gained if they were ever captured. However, now that it appears all the people down there have surrendered and there has been no mention of foreigners, I am beginning to think it was disinformation for whatever reason. I only wonder about the 200 refridgerated bodies that were supposedly brought out. They are to be identified. Maybe these phantom foreigners are among them? I wouldn’t put it past “someone in authority” to order their deaths just so that no sensitive information leaked.
the numerous (failed) helo extraction indicate there’s VVIP that want to get out
macron proposed ‘humanitarian’ corridor to get ppl out of azovtal complex and after russia refused he fired his inteligence chief
many breakout are attempted by azov units , some in very large formation of armored cars , all failed
Chechen leader already said there’s big fishes caught in azovtal and they already sent to putin. He said more bigfish inside azovtal
Russian MOD said there’s multiple foreign language traffic captured by their signal people , including NON NATO countries.
when there’s smoke there’s fire
bravo.
And to think, the media in the West was calling these ruthless nazis hold up in Mariupol heros.
Grads are a terrifying weapon and seeing a grouping of Grad launchers firing together has to be one of the scariest sights in warfare. The battle of Kursk had the entire sky glowing from rockets, though I believe those were the earlier Katyushas. These things can wipe out thousands of troops in minutes. If I recall correctly, the Donbass rebels caught the Ukrainian army in a cauldron during the 2014/2015 war and annihilated some two or three thousand troops with Grad rockets.
Thanks for all the SMO updates. I really appreciate them.
One thing I’ve noticed that doesn’t seem to have been mentioned by you and other commentators is how Russia’s public comments regarding the Asov battalion and other far right paramilitary units evolved and why I think this really helps their war effort.
When the SMO started the comments attributed to Russia seemed to basically “The regular army troops can surrender but we are going to kill the Nazis.” But this has changed to “keep fighting and you will die. Surrender and if you are guilty you will be charged and you may go to prison – with maybe the possibility of a death penalty.” IMHO, I think that would be even better if there were no death penalty.
Why? Not because there aren’t those who well deserve to die. The world is full of people who deserve to die. A lot of them wear suits and live in good neighborhoods.
It’s because it will shorten the war and also save Russian lives. If a man knows he will die if he surrenders, he has no reason to surrender. There is no fork in the road ahead. “If I’m going to die I might as well take as many with me as I can.”
Nowadays everybody has a smartphone. And, the videos of the Asov paramilitary surrendering and being loaded unshackled on tour buses, with, the wounded being taken to hospitals for care are wonderful counter propaganda. There was a photo last night in the Awful Avalanche blog of a wounded Asov fighter that really made great ad copy for surrender.
I read your column and it makes much sense. I listened to Victor Davis Hansen who 100% supports the war against Russia and said on a recent podcast, “Ukraine is winning.” I love Mr. Hansen and find him to be the greatest conservative thinker we have today and an equal to Willian F. Buckley, Jr. Of course his seminal books on WW II are outstanding and cited relentlessly. How he can be so wrong is rather astonishing to me.
It’s about hatred they all have for Russia and the Russian people. It twists their mind 🙄
Just like WFB, Hanson is a committed Russophobe. You have to be one to get any sort of “mainstream” cred in the media, the Think Tank circuit, the Gov’t, et cetera. That is to say, to be a player in the deep state swamp, even if he is controlled opposition. The Uniparty is as one when it comes to foreign policy. They pretend to differ on social issues to give us plebs an illusion of “choice”.
this war really bring out the rats from wood works , we now know who are the closet russophobe neocon warmongers.. people who pretend to be ‘good and nice’ suddenly turned out to be neocon bootlickers or russophobe .. like chris hedges , tom englehart , bacevich and VHD..
I am struck by the contrast between Russian/DPR and American detainment procedure. The detainees are shown being treated humanely, with great restraint by the RF captors. By contrast, Americans, unless I’m very mistaken, would be much rougher.
We’ve all heard the rumors of VIPs ensconced with the Azov folks and we’d like to know who they are and where they are from. The Russian military knows whether or not but we may never know, that’s just the way it is. From the videos we’ve seen of the surrendering troops, we do know there are hard core Nazis that will have to be dealt with by trial. I’ve heard that before they went down into their own created hell, they were acting like a mafia shaking down local business folks, terrorizing women, children, and the elderly. I’ll assume they are not soldiers by definition but are terrorists.
A tad OT but survey by a Reuters affiliate, astonishing as to the media affiliation, indicates that the us media ranks last in trust; just 29% people surveyed trust the media. Who in the hell are those 29%:
https://www.poynter.org/ethics-trust/2021/us-ranks-last-among-46-countries-in-trust-in-media-reuters-institute-report-finds/
Great question. Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) says there are always ~25% of people who simply do not and never will “get it” about anything. Th3 29% you mention above who still trust the US “media” would seem to support Scott’s claim. The US govt and “media” have lied to us about EVERYTHING for many decades (Kennedy assassination, Vietnam War, Gulf Wars 1 and 2, 9/11 (Bldg 7 anyone?), Covid-19 (flu), Covid “vaccines” (they don’t keep you from getting or transmitting Covid, but they are “vaccines”?), effectiveness of masks (stupid people still wearing masks in when they are alone walking or driving!), 2020 election fraud (on a massive scale) for US President (Biden/Obama are illegitimate) and now Ukraine (bio-weapons labs, NAZI’s, etc.) but there are still complete morons out there that believe all of this! We need those ~25% to be removed from our gene pool for the sake of humanity.
Scott Adam is a fool and sick person , read his twitter feed and you will see a sad old man living in delusional world. Just like Stephen King and many many celeb who blindly support both right or left causes.
anything coming out from Scott Adam should be disregarded as trash
The Azov and other Ukrainian troops who finally surrendered, coming out of hiding at the Azovstal Steel plant, have been compared to the heroic Spartan 300 at Battle of Themopylae. Not only Ukraine made such a comparison, but so did the Washington Post. How could they so defile the true heroism and courage of the Spartans, but have the audacity to make such a comparison. Whereas the Spartans fought against enormous, impossible odds to the last man, the Ukrainian troops hid underground, without fighting, until surrendered. Sad to say, probably many of our people don’t know the difference.
Ukraine official compares soldiers in Mariupol to Spartan warriors in ‘300’ for holding back Russia for 83 days while massively outnumbered
Sinéad Baker May 17, 2022, 4:23 AM
https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-official-compares-mariupol-troops-300-spartans-after-city-lost-2022-5
Mariupol Could Be the Thermopylae of the 21st Century
Analysis by Andreas Kluth | Bloomberg
April 21, 2022 at 8:32 a.m. EDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/mariupol-could-be-the-thermopylae-of-the-21st-century/2022/04/21/16896148-c139-11ec-b5df-1fba61a66c75_story.html
i beg to differ , most of the western people image of the spartans 300 are from the hypervizualized movie ‘300’ itself from a comic book by frank miller. ask people and they will said they think the 300 movie is close to reality (story wise not visuals) and they think spartans are supermen , when history showed clearly what they really are.
to the ‘worshipper of anything military’ on the west , the movie 300 feed into their delusion of ‘special military forces above regular’ myth , just like how the west worship so called ‘special forces’ without even understanding //
no one remembers Patilla airfield assault where SEAL got slaughtered on open airfield by panamanian forces , or the 2001 delfa force failed assault on mullah omar compound where 90+ delta operator failed to breach taliban defense due to being outgunned , or the hilarious failure of ‘superior US gunships’ 30 AH64 failed assault on iraqi town where every helicopter were damaged by iraqi AAA and few shotdown..
I’ll take answers from anyone: What were the Ukrainians expecting from this war? Is Washington pleased with the results thus far?
I think the Ukrainians were naively expecting the collective West to fix all their problems and follow through on all the promises it made during the Maidan. They were expecting a European lifestyle without having to make any effort. Unfortunately that all backfired and now they are being shamelessly used as pawns in a much bigger and ferocious game to stick it to Putin and Russia.
I don’t think Washington can in any way be pleased with results. Hence the hysteria and lunacy, which is building as the conflict drags on.
man you are asking this kind of question now ? why dont you read LJ past posts and educate yourself ? you are like a kindergarten kid entering a high school class and expect the class to tell you what you miss
You might want to consider getting a new name. Low Voltage can be easily interpreted as a euphemism for “Not Too Bright”, i.e., not smart. I’m curious. why do you use the phrase, “What are Ukrainians expecting?” Ukraine was in the process of implementing a US encouraged plan to take total military control of the Donbass. Russia interdicted that. So, what is the answer to the questions you pose?