Image is of Putin and Scholz sitting on opposite ends of a frighteningly long table back in 2022. Folks, the table is gonna get ten feet longer.
The latest round of US-Russian diplomacy is taking place on August 15th in Alaska, where Putin and Trump are meeting in-person to maybe try and bring an end to this godforsaken conflict. While I don’t want to totally discount the possibility that they may come to an agreement - you truly never know! - there’s a lot stacked against this encounter yielding much of anything.
Russia appears to have demanded a land swap; that Ukraine fully withdraw from Kherson and Zaporozhye oblasts (in exchange for unspecified Russian gains, but probably parts of Sumy and Kharkov) as a precondition for a ceasefire that could perhaps lead to a permanent resolution of the conflict, and Ukraine seems completely unwilling to do anything of the sort, saying that even if they wanted to, the process of just giving up a couple oblasts would take significant time and require referendums. I say that Russia has appeared to demand it, because there’s been a lot of confusion - probably in bad faith - about what Russian diplomats and Putin himself have said and what the demands even are. There are some who speculate that Trump will sell out Ukraine and blame Zelensky for refusing to agree with Russian demands, and there are others who say that this just the latest of many examples of the US and Russia meeting up with such fundamental differences that a deal is impossible, and that Trump fully expects to put sanctions on Russia after Putin declines some harebrained American scheme.
Anyway. After the summit, in late August, Putin is due to arrive for a visit to India, at Modi’s invitation. Previously, I was unsure exactly what India would do in response to American sanctions pressure, and now we appear to be receiving an answer, as Modi has made public statements that suggest that he is only getting closer to Russia. Fascinatingly, Modi will soon make his first visit to China in seven years at the annual SCO summit at the end of August, and Putin will be heading to China too on September 3rd. There is an increasing amount of dismissal about the potential of BRICS (especially one that contains India), and that dismissal is certainly rather justified, but I am still deeply curious about what developments may occur as the global south braces to face the remaining ~85% of Trump’s presidency.
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Israel's Genocide of Palestine
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against the temporary Zionist entity. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA reports on Israel’s destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news.
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon. - Telegram is @IbnRiad.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis. - Telegram is @EyesOnSouth.
English-language Twitter account in the same group as the previous two. - Telegram here.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Sources:
Defense Politics Asia’s youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don’t want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it’s just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
Simplicius, who publishes on Substack. Like others, his political analysis should be soundly ignored, but his knowledge of weaponry and military strategy is generally quite good.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists’ side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Pro-Russian Telegram Channels:
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR’s former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR’s forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster’s telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a ‘propaganda tax’, if you don’t believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine Telegram Channels:
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Release Your Client List, Cuomo
Holy fucking shit, he actually did it
I wanted Zohran to talk about Cuomo’s connections to Jeffery Epstein for months now and just an hour ago he actually put this video out on his campaign youtube page
I’m still reserving my judgment until we see what he does in office but this isn’t the kind of campaign any normal democrat or even DSA candidate would ever run
Over 20,000 arrested in Iran on suspicion of espionage during war with Israel [sic] | The Cradle
it looks like Iran is making an effort at dealing with its infiltration problem. cue pearl-clutching from western media about rights while Palestinian children starve to death if they avoid the US bombs
Watching reddit Ukraine libs cry will never not be funny.
Them acting like Trump hosting Putin was some kind of humiliation and betrayal means that they still don’t get it. Project Ukraine was never about freedumb, it was to use Ukraine as a disposable pawn to weaken both Russia and the EU. Ukraine was never anything more than a useful asset that was to be discarded in the end. If Project Ukraine meets its objectives then good, if not, then the American empire will simply find another useful idiot that will sacrifice their own country for them. This goes to show that America is truly the worst “ally” on the planet and will happily sacrifice anyone for their own interests.
Now that project Ukraine has met its objectives (weaken Russia and the EU), America will dump the issue on its hapless EU bootlickers and continue to focus on squeezing China.
I gotta admit, seeing the liberals spamming pictures of Trump being gay with Putin on Twitter is really fuckin tiresome. Like, you’re aware that Trump has been sending military hardware to Ukraine for months now, right? Did you consider that for a fucking second or will you be stuck in 2016 for the rest of your life?
Damascus requests Russian patrols in south Syria to ‘limit’ Israeli incursions: Report
The Syrian government has requested that the Russian military resume patrols in Syria’s southern governorates, according to a source cited by Kommersant.
The Russian outlet said Damascus believes these patrols could help reduce Israeli incursions.
According to the source, who attended a meeting between Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani and members of the Syrian diaspora in Moscow, during the minister’s official visit to Russia, told the Russian newspaper that Damascus has asked Moscow to resume military police patrols in the border areas with Israel, as it did before the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government.
“Russia’s return to its previous positions could prevent Israel’s interference in Syrian affairs,” the source said.
It would be really funny if somehow Russia gains back Syria as an ally after the fall of Assad
Germany’s leading newspaper calls murdered Al Jazeera reporter ‘terrorist posing as journalist’ | The Cradle
The documents claim Sharif was recruited into Hamas at the age of 17, despite membership in the group officially requiring a minimum age of 18 years.
Another inconsistency is that joining the Qassam Brigades takes years of training.
the zionists always lie and yet they are still taken seriously by genocidal western media
Its Bild, which is like hate crimes incarnate and basically the german version of The Sun. The Axel-Springer Verlag belongs on trial in The Hague.
If the zionists were telling the truth about their atrocities, then western media wouldn’t report them.
all western media has to do to see them telling the truth is hit autotranslate from hebrew
EDIT: I realize that there are still things the zionists lie about in their domestic media, I’m just being flippant about how brazenly they do say stuff
Germs never miss an opportunity to defend a genocide
Bild more like Der Stürmer
German “journalists” are legitimate targets
Hamas has a higher age minimum to join combat forces than Germany, UK, Canada, and the United States
UK government report on Palestine Action leaked. They have zero hard evidence of PA using violence in any capacity. The closest is police testimony for one of the 500+ incidents PA was involved in.
If it wasn’t already clear, every politician calling PA a violent group was lying, and the UK had no basis for declaring them a terrorist organization.
There’s this dumb idea that people aren’t eating out as much or shopping as much because they’re not forced to go to the office as often. And it’s like bro we’re just broke. Give us more money and I promise you we’ll eat out more. Like I love getting slop shoved down my gullet, I’m not doing it less because I don’t see my manager as often, I swear.
Trump’s new labor statistics chief Antoni is supposedly suggesting to do away with the monthly jobs report.
Comrade @musicenjoyer@hexbear.net already posted seperatedly but they seem to ave gotten lost in the Putin news.
Three factions of the resistance in Gaza released videos of operations yesterday. Kataib al Quds , Kataib al Nasser Salah al Din , and a supercut from Kataib al Qassam.
spoiler
Denazification by sniper
Tank treads blown off after a seperate operation.Gaza lives and resists!!!
Glory to the martyrs, healing to the wounded, freedom to the prisoners and victory to the resistance. Allahu Akbar.
Groks woke
Lmao not only is grok woke, it’s ironic
Because of sanctionsRussian journalists in Alaska for the summit cannot get hotels nor can they get phone service. They are being housed in a indoor sport stadium on red cross cots. Bizarre for such an supposedly important summit.
https://xcancel.com/RT_com/status/1956348781848416748
Reading the replies, yankee twitter users are very similar to israelis. All cut from the same cloth.
Israel’s [sic] army formed special intel unit to ‘justify killing’ of hundreds of Gaza journalists | The Cradle
The unit, called the ‘Legitimization Cell,’ was established by the military intelligence directorate, which includes Unit 8200
[…]
Abraham confirmed that the goal was to “whitewash the killing of all other journalists” by creating doubt, adding that “entire days were invested in this matter, and they found nothing.”
“I think Israel [sic] killed Anas al-Sharif simply because he was a journalist. And for the same reason, international media is prevented from entering Gaza: So that the crimes are seen less,” he went on to say.
article uses sources from within the zionist entity
EDIT: fixed link, thanks to @culpritus@hexbear.net
Fellow hexagonal bears, something important is happening in the main theatre of WW3. Russia seems to have achieved the biggest breakthrough in this war since Ukraine’s Kharkov offensive in Sep 2022.
We have a sudden 15km breakthrough in between Konstantinivka and Pokrovsk-Myrnograd, which is by far the most impressive advance of this war in almost three years. Russian units are now operating far behind Ukrainian defence lines in that region and most importantly, they seem to have bypassed Ukrainian drone teams into a completely hollow part of the front. This has some devastating consequences for the Ukrainian defence in what remains of Donetsk under UKR control. Pokrovsk-Myrnograd is now almost completely choked, that area has been in a deep bulge for weeks now with Russian DRG units already operating near the city center, this further accelerates the collapse. Konstantinivka and soon by extension Druzkhivka are falling into a deep bulge with diminished supply. We also have reports that Russian DRG units have reached Dobropillia, which is the last large-ish settlement in Eastern Donetsk with good supply lines until now, so now with Dobropillia under threat, Ukrainians can’t supply from Dnipro Oblast into Donetsk.
If you want a shorter summary: this part of the front wasn’t supposed to be opened now because Ukrainians weren’t prepared, now they’re kinda cooked with dying manpower and barely any drone coverage and Russians pushing through in all directions.
It is crazy how the Russians were doing their usual thing of trying to cut off supply lines for months now, but Ukraine just leaves their soldiers completely exposed at the Pokrovsk frontlines, even knowing they will get encircled and killed. Obviously the ruling class in Ukraine doesn’t care about some dead Ukranians, but aren’t these encirclements bad for their long-term war effort?
I also imagine that morale is at rock bottom for Ukrainian troops right now. Their elite units are encircled and getting destroyed in Pokrovsk-Myrnograd, while at the same time the US have never been so close to selling out the Ukrainians with an unpredictable Trump who might do some crazy shit at the summit with Putin. All that is happening while fine young men are kidnapped off the streets of peaceful cities and the country seems paralysed at the political level. It’s just bleak for them right now, there hasn’t even been a minor military success on the fronts to celebrate in over a year now. It’s just sad, we all also know that the country’s future is pure plundering by everyone that is stronger than them. I still somehow admire the Ukrainians for fighting off a way more powerful foe for years now even with if it’s with America’s guns and satellites, but they’re still brave men. Their grandfathers were Soviets after all…
Their grandfathers were Soviets after all…
That part is genuinely a huge reason ukraine has even survived this long.
Yeah due to infrastructure and not because azovite banderite nazi gangs kidnapping millenial and gen x men from dnipro oblast is somehow the soviet spirit.
Soviet industrial buildings are basically indestructible. They make great temporary fortresses.
At this point they’re going to start drafting people who became adults under socialism
They will be looking for new recruits with experience in the Russian Civil War
They’ve been doing that for years now
I think the Ukrainian military has no real functional command structure, so most decisions are made near the front by the fascist cadres of experienced troops who funnel untrained non-ideologically fascist regular conscripts to the front to absorb the Russian advance.
no real functional command structure
Are you calling the Pentagon dysfunctional?
Main thing is Ukraine simply does not have enough infantry, and can’t shoot down Russian aircraft. The breakthrough here is at the most vulnerable point of the new Donetsk defence/trench line. The trenches and reinforcements exist, but Ukraine doesn’t have enough people to man the trenches, and Russia has used over 1300 FAB glide bombs over the past month in this sector alone, to soften up the Ukrainian lines at their most vulnerable points. The Russian breakthrough at this point in time is mainly infantry, no mechanised element.
Pokrovsk was almost taken with minimal fighting because Ukraine send most of their army into Kursk or the Serebryansky forest. They did realize their mistake.
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Here’s a map of the situation (per https://t.me/s/kalibrated/) for anyone interested. Green is confirmed captured, and white is “grey zone”.
Steiner’s counterattack will solve this.
It’s a breakthrough at the weakest point of the new Donetsk defence trench line, which has been heavily supported by Russian airstrikes over the past few weeks. Thousands of FABs dropped on this part of the front alone over the past few months.
A French researcher predicted such a push in July based on Russian airstrikes
