Western Media Confirming Russia Solidifying Gains in Eastern Ukraine Donbas Region

The Conservative Treehouse ^ | May 29, 2022 | Sundance

[SoConPubbie]

The Associated Press [HERE] and more importantly the U.S. Intel Community outlet, the Washington Post [HERE], are beginning to change direction in their narration of the war in Ukraine.

Both sources of information are starting to position Eastern Ukraine as a lost cause, with the Washington Post giving specific examples of conscripted Ukraine fighters who are abandoning the effort in the donbas region. As noted, “after three months of war, this company of 120 men is down to 54 because of deaths, injuries and desertions. The volunteers were civilians before Russia invaded on Feb. 24, and they never expected to be dispatched to one of the most dangerous front lines in eastern Ukraine.”

The Ukraine commander, Serhi Lapko and one of his lieutenants, Vitaliy Khrus, “retreated with members of their company this week to a hotel away from the front. There, both men spoke to The Washington Post on the record, knowing they could face a court-martial and time in military prison.” Together, Lapko and Khrus describe the essential elements of a fragmented Ukraine fighting force up against a committed Russian military advance.

Even the Washington Post admits the Ukraine central government is desperate to push morale boosting propaganda which seems constructed from the efforts of the U.S. State Dept, specifically the intelligence community within it. “Videos of assaults on Russian tanks or positions are posted daily on social media. Artists are creating patriotic posters, billboards and T-shirts. The postal service even released stamps commemorating the sinking of a Russian warship in the Black Sea.”

These examples are targeted toward a western audience and likely not being carried out by independent Ukraine government operation in Kyiv. Promoting the image of Ukraine is a construct of the U.S. state dept and U.S. intelligence.

The global impression of Ukraine must remain elevated to continue the U.S. proxy war against Russia. However, as noted, the WaPo is starting to shift the goal posts and expectations away from a Russian defeat in the donbas region.

Most notably within paragraphs like this you can see the purposeful shift. “Lapko and Khrus’s concerns were echoed recently by a platoon of the 115th Brigade 3rd Battalion, based nearby in the besieged city of Severodonetsk. In a video uploaded to Telegram on May 24, and confirmed as authentic by an aide to Haidai, volunteers said they will no longer fight because they lacked proper weapons, rear support and military leadership.”

[…] Ukraine’s military rebutted the volunteers’ claims in their own video posted online, saying the “deserters” had everything they needed to fight: “They thought they came for a vacation,” one service member said. “That’s why they left their positions.”

Hours after The Post interviewed Lapko and Khrus, members of Ukraine’s military security service arrived at their hotel and detained some of their men, accusing them of desertion. The men contend that they were the ones who were deserted. (read more)

The Associated Press story flows in a similar line to the WaPo narrative; however, the AP must maintain the Western Government slant:

[…] Russia has intensified efforts to capture the cities of Sievierodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk, which are the last major areas under Ukrainian control in Luhansk.

Luhansk Gov. Serhii Haidai reported that Ukrainian fighters repelled an assault on Sievierodonetsk but Russian troops still pushed to encircle them. He later said Russian forces had seized a hotel on the city’s outskirts, damaged 14 high-rise buildings and were fighting in the streets with Ukrainian forces.

[…] Mariupol’s port has reportedly resumed operations after Russian forces finished clearing mines in the Azov Sea. Russian state news agency Tass reported that a vessel bound for Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia entered the port early Saturday.

In the call with Macron and Scholz, the Kremlin said, Putin emphasized that Russia was working to “establish a peaceful life in Mariupol and other liberated cities in the Donbas.”

[…] Ukrainian authorities have reported that Kremlin-installed officials in seized cities have started airing Russian news broadcasts, introduced Russian area codes, imported Russian school curriculum and taken other steps to annex the areas.

Russian-held areas of the southern Kherson region have shifted to Moscow time and “will no longer switch to daylight saving time, as is customary in Ukraine,” Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti quoted Krill Stremousov, a Russian-installed local official, as saying Saturday. (read more)

[odawg]

The United States has the largest oil reserve in the world. Do a little research.

[odawg]

Early on, Zelenski should have, as most hoped, gone to the negotiating table and ceded the provinces to Russia and avoid having his country pulverized. Now, the country is pulverized, it will take the country a generation to recover, and Russia has taken control of the provinces anyway.

But too many people and politicians jumped on bandwagons and clapped like trained seals for their team, and the people of Ukraine are left twisting in the wind.

[MinorityRepublican]

[odawg]

“The U.S. holds more oil reserves than anyone else in the world, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Venezuela.

That conclusion comes from a new independent estimate from Rystad Energy, a Norwegian consultancy. Rystad estimates that the U.S. holds 264 billion barrels of oil, more than half of which is located in shale. That total exceeds the 256 billion barrels found in Russia, and the 212 billion barrels located in Saudi Arabia.”

The findings are surprising, and go against conventional wisdom that Saudi Arabia and Venezuela hold the world’s largest oil reserves. The U.S. Energy Information Administration, for example, pegs Venezuela’s oil reserves at 298 billion barrels, the largest in the world. Rystad Energy says that these are inflated estimates because much of those reserves are not discovered. Instead, Rystad estimates that Venezuela only has about 95 billion barrels, which includes its estimate for undiscovered oil fields.

[Owen]

It’s possible you don’t understand what a reserve is, or what reserves are.

Probably you read about the largest reserve in the world. No s on the end. That’s true. The US has the largest Strategic Petroleum Reserve in the world. Such things are built with a capacity determined by consumption. Not geology.

In the case of the US, which burns 21 million 42-gallon-barrels/day, the SPR is 714 million barrels. Withdraw rate max is 4 million barrel/day (obviously 1/5th of current consumption). At that rate the Reserve would last about 6 months, which is what all countries of the world built capacity for. Note this is a mixture of oil types. It doesn’t all refine into the same amount of gasoline vs diesel.

Venezuela and Canada are usually quoted with the largest Reserves (with the s) in the world. But both places have very thick oil that cannot flow more than a few million bpd.

God distributed this stuff. There would be no reason for the US, which pumped it out en masse through the 1900s, to have more than superior geologies around the world.

[RAldrich]

It never ceases to amaze me how they PIVOT from their own reporting. They do that all the time. Do they really think that their readers are that stupid and can’t remember what they reported previously?

How cynical and contemptuous of their readers can they be?

[odawg]

“It’s possible you don’t understand what a reserve is, or what reserves are.”

Looks like you can’t understand: “The U.S. holds more oil reserves than anyone else in the world, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Venezuela.”

Don’t start trying to cloud up what we both originally said with commentary on consumption and oil viscosity.

[Drew68]

What a crock of shit. There would be no proxy war against Russia if Russia simply hadn’t invaded.

Cope.

[Drew68]

Ukrainian units refuse to fight. First video from Severodonetsk.

[sauropod]

.

[FLT-bird]

The US has an estimated 2 trillion barrels of shale oil. Yes that’s trillion with a “t”.

Lord knows how much shale gas the US has but its a lot.

[wardaddy]

We have commentary from our own bigly here says same thing

[wardaddy]

Cogent

Which is why the globalist hate non woke Putin so much

[wardaddy]

Singing folk song.....

“Oh where have all the cold warriors gone......long time passing”

Hattip Pete Seeger ...a real commie

[imabadboy99]

Mark Levin hardest hit.

[Owen]

You put quotes there. Who said that? He got it wrong.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_reserves

[Kazan]

Even the Washington Post admits the Ukraine central government is desperate to push morale boosting propaganda which seems constructed from the efforts of the U.S. State Dept, specifically the intelligence community within it. “Videos of assaults on Russian tanks or positions are posted daily on social media. Artists are creating patriotic posters, billboards and T-shirts. The postal service even released stamps commemorating the sinking of a Russian warship in the Black Sea.”

I wonder how many State Dept. or Deep State types are here posting the same kind of propaganda. We know the potential suspects.

[odawg]

The organization I quoted is named in the quotes, and anyone can say anything on Wikipedia.

[BobL]

“How cynical and contemptuous of their readers can they be?”

Sadly, the masses are perfectly happy between twisted around on, literally, EVERY issue presented to them - if the media is the ones doing it.

[Vlad0]

We invaded Panama and Grenada, we invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. We used overwhelming airpower in Serbia. We also bombed the longstanding Government of Libya into failures.

Sometimes superpowers feel forced to act to protect themselves by invading their neighbors, or even far-away nations.