Alexander introduces the episode by saying, "Today, 11th June, we have further evidence that the Western powers are still looking to excalate the situation in the conflict in Ukraine, even as, simultaneously, they appear to be losing confidence in President Zelensky and his leadership of Ukraine's government." He notes the European public is not happy with 'Project Ukraine' and that election results indicate their displeasure and their opposition to further Western support for Ukraine.
The first part of the video reviews the military situation - fighting and control of various villages (in particular - villages which the Ukrainians successfully defended earlier in the war at great cost and received massive media attention). Mercouris notes that the Russians have retaken those villages. As the Russians retake those villages, the media is silent.
There's no connection to reality, of what is actually occuring on the battle field and instead, "....we see instead, fantastic articles, still being published about how the Russians, Putin of course, are about to lose Crimea. I have to say even amongst the many strange articles I read, this one had me speechless."
Mercouris notes that the Anglo Americans have an obsession with the Crimea and the fighting in the Black Sea, and it's obvious the Anglo Americans were the ones who insisted on a counter offensive last year, the one that was supposed to reach the sea of Azov, and cut off the Crimea. The Ukrainians were at that time trying to explain to the West, the Anglo Americans, that the Donbas is actually where the war is being lost, but the Anglo Americans refuse to listen.
ransomnote: I believe our American government has known they are losing their NATO proxy war with Russia and intentionally misdirects attention to less relevant areas for reasons of optics, and for the purpose of staying in the region long enough, until the last Ukrainians die, in order for America to provoke a direct war with Russia.
Mercouris notes that Crimea was the (US backed) target of the Ukrainian's counter offensive (last year) and that it ended in complete defeat and disaster. Crimea is once again the principle target of the ATACAMS missiles from America.
Mercouris says if the Ukraine loses Donbas and also loses state military may face collapse, but instead of focusing on defending there, the Ukrainians have been repeatedly pushed by their allies into these, this rabbit hole of trying to win some sort of victory over the Russians in the Crimea, and the black see, which will never happen.
According to Ukrainians, when the F-16's eventually arrive, they will not be based in the Ukraine after all. There's a report about this from Ukrainian Sergey Galusiv (sp), Chief of Aviation of the Ukrainian Air Force Command, and he is reported as saying in an interview with Radio Liberty that the F-16's will be in safe bases, not in the Ukraine so that they will not become targets there. "This will be our reserve in case we need to replace defective aircraft and during maintenance work". He went on to say that the Ukraine would need at least 2 Patriot missile systems (Mercouris interjects that this is about 16 launchers) and two NASAMS air defense systems, and several self-propelled Gephardt (sp?) air defense systems) to protect the F-16 airbases.
(ransomnote: In a recent video, Mercouris asserts that the west is not willing to talk about the air defense systems recently destroyed by the Russians, some of which were Patriot launchers and 1 or 2 were believed to be entire Patriot Air Defense systems).
Mercouris says the German government (Shultz) is willing to send 4 Patriot missile defense systems. Germany has been stripped of its air defenses and has been trying to strong arm other European allies to give up their air defense systems as well. Apparently other European governments have been resisting. About a week ago there was a report that Europe only has about 5% of the air defense systerms it would need to counter a Russian missile and air offensive.
Anything left of air defense systems must be sent to the Ukraine which Mercouris speculates means that Europe will not have any air defense systems at all. All of this is to send air defense systems to the Urkaine which the Russians will most certainly be able to destroy.
Around the 47 minute mark:
Mercouris says it's not been widely reported in the media but the Russians, in the first few weeks of this year, carried out a massive program of destroying Ukrainian air defenses, S300's and Patriot's; there are pictures of them doing so.
They (Russians) seem to have done massive damage to the air defense complexes that were established in Kyiv. There's no reason to think that they will not be able to do so with these air bases. The Patriots are impossible to hide, especially if they are located in and around the air bases, and the Russians now have larger quantities of hypersonic missiles, not just Kinzhal missiles, but also Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missiles which they can also deploy to destroy these Patriot missile systems.
So Ukrainians are demanding NASAM systems and Patriot systems be sent to the Ukraine. What is strange about this is when the topic of deploying the F-16's was first floated, first seriously floated last year, the justification for deploying them was that the Ukraine would have less need for air defense missiles which were in short supply; there would be fewer air defense systems like the Patriots and the NASAMS of which the West had relatively few because the F-16's would be able to shoot down Russian cruise missiles.
And we see that, the opposite is the case. If you are going to deploy F-16's in the Ukraine, apparently you are going to need even more air defense systems to defend them.
Mercouris says, "We can see how the snake is eating its own tail with this."
[ransomnote: It's so infuriating how we are being played by Biden's NATO. They never had a real plan to protect the F-16's in the Ukraine, they justified their demands for F-16's by saying their 'new' pilots were supposedly going to replace air defense systems and shoot down Russian missiles. The Ukraine will be lucky to slowly bring up to speed 20 pilots, and the first F-16s (rebuilt older models) will begin trickling in at the end of the year, and will complete delivery in 2028.
Everything the media, NATO, and Biden's regime say about the war is always a lie. Zelensky was asked if he would need to ask for more money from the US/NATO at the end of the year; Zelensky said he wouldn't discuss timelines until he got the F-16's he's been asking for, and that he's been asking for them for over a year now. For those who don't speak Ukrainian, that means, "Yes. Give us all the money you have left!"]
Mercouris asks, "What about the project to park F-16's outside the Ukraine? Because they (approx 60 of them)would be vulnerable to destruction in the Urkaine, they will be moved to the rear. Most of them are to be parked in Romainia. Supposedly they they go into battle, they will take off from 'secure' air bases in Romainia and fly to Ukrainian air bases being attacked by Russia, and defended with NASAMS and PATRIOTS. Once they reach the Ukrainian air bases, the F-16's will be re-equipped (air to air missiles, other kinds of weapons) and refueled there and then they will be sent into battle against the Russians. Mercouris notes that even he, with such little knowledge of air to air combat, knows how problematic, indeed how ridiculous, this plan is. Mercouris believes that despite denials, the F-16's are to be operated from the Romanian airbases, without the transit to Ukrainian air bases supposedly under fire, that there will be the need for air defense systems in the Ukraine, but the main air base from which the F-16's will operate will be the one in Romainia.
[ransomnote: I suspect the pilots taking off from Romainia will be NATO pilots. Just a guess. Also, Mercouris and others have made the point that the F-16's would require the construction of air strips which must be kept pristine to avoid debris being sucked into the aircrafts' intake, parts and trained personel for repairs not feasible for the Ukraine; it was always a ruse.]
[ransomnote: In a prior post on FR I reviewed descriptions of the planes that Russia flies (incl SU-27) vs the aircraft the Ukraine flies or has been given (most modern are F-16's) and there is a significant mismatch. The Ukrainian craft are older and meant for aerial combat (machine gun fire at 300 meters) whereas the Russian aircraft are meant for longer range missile strikes. Also, although the Ukraine claims all its pilots are former experienced fighter pilots, others say some are new to flying, and the group is struggling with English in regards to flying F-16's, and there's not enough spaces in American training programs for many of the pilots this year.]
According to Mercouris, the Russians have said that if they find F-16 fighter jets taking off from Romanian bases and engaging them over the skies of the Ukraine, they will strike back and hit those aircraft in those Romainian bases.
Mercouris: "So this is another formula to escalate the war. It's the only way that this can end. Again the West is dancing with an incredibly dangerous situation. It was why, I think, some people in the Pentagon thought it was a bad idea to supply Ukraine with F-16's at all; because they could work it out; they could see what the problems were, and they realized that the only way that the F-16's at all was if they were deployed in precisely this way. "
He said we've just seen the European parliament elections and the results indicate the public is not in favor of a promulgation or further escalation of the war.
The Italian government is cooling on the whole enterprise . Macron's government which has taken the lead (most aggressive, scheming rather than planning) has taking a beating in the elections and Macron is manuevering to avoid his nemisis, Marie Le Pen from being elected President in 2027. There is talk that Macron may actually step down if Le Pen's party wins the parliamentary elections to take place in June, as Macron would not be willng to serve with a parliament essentially picked by Marie Le Pen.
The most belligerent party in German and elsewhere, has collapsed. Young people across Europe flocked to alternative parties. The public in the United States is against further involvement. Despite all this, the process and the drift toward escalation continues.
If France's Marie Le Pen's party wins the parliamentary elections in late June, "it's just possible a brake will finally be applied to this disastrous scheme, but we seem to go, in the meantime, we seem to go from one attempted escalation to another."
This is occurring at a time when the United States and Britain are losing confidence in Zelensky. He mentions an article in the Financial Times and says he's believed, even before the current war in the Ukraine, that Biden uses the Financial Times to communicate his concerns to the elites in the European governments who read the Financial Times.
Mercouris believes the article he's about to discuss has American, European, and hi level Ukrainian sources clearly reflect deep disquiet in Washington, and London, and he suspects Brussels as well, about President Zelensky and the way in which he is conduction himself and managing affairs in Kyiv.
This article is about the apparently forced resignation of a Minister in the Ukraine's government (phonetic spelling) Mustaffa Nyem who, based on his name, appears to be a Crimean Tartar. This act appears to have dismayed the West and some in Ukraine's government. Nyem (sp?) is described as having resigned his position as the top official in charge of war time reconstruction and that this was a new blow to Zelensky. The article says, "Mustaffa Nyem accuses government of undermining the agency building fortifications against Russia."
The Financial Times says, according to 6 officials, recent firings, resignations, and governmenet reshuffles directed by Zelensky (link to relevent portion of video) have caused tensions between the Ukraine and its Western partners. The article says the partners want a 'normal 'relationship with Ukrainian officials and are losing trust in Zelensky based on these personel changes, believed to be caused by political rivalries, and which they do not understand. These actions by the Ukrainian government sends the message to its Western partners that recovery is not a priority anymore.
Mercouris notes that something is wrong with this situation as Mustaffa Nyem, whom has never heard of, was in charge of building fortifications, but as the recent events in Karhkiv region confirmed, there are no fortifications. There are pictures of frantic building of fortifications in various places, but overall, the whole project has been massively undermined by managerial incompetence and corruption with a lot of the funding for the building for these fortifications embezzeled. Mercouris notes this is not a controversial assertion - it's well known and widely discussed (Media,government, Telegram posts) so it's not a surprise that the person in charge of the troubled program would be in political trouble. He said this is the one time Zelensky had reason to lose faith in one of his government officials.
Western and some Ukrainian officials believe the forcing out of Nyam is a mistake and further evidence of the erratic and eccentric way in which Zelensky runs the government.
This article follows another recent article in the Financial Times about the incredibly bad relationship between Zelensky and senior US officials, including Biden. That article was about how bad things were between them and how Zelensky is constantly making demands that make Americans uncomfortable and unhappy, and how he is becoming increasingly dillusional. The article had even used the word 'paranoid' to describe him, with Zelensky mistrusting the United States in the belief they were preparing to short change him by starting some kind of direct, bilateral negotiations with the Russians.
A short time after that, here we have another article about what an excentric, volatile, and unstable individual Zelensky is, how he apparently picks officials at random, how he's freezing out competent officials like Mustaffa Nyem (Mercouris says Z might have had good cause this time).
[ransomnote: sounds to me like the US may be throwing their puppet Zelensky under the bus to take the blame for Biden and NATO's mistakes, and that Zelensky is suprised, resisting and cracking under the pressure]
Mercouris believes there's some truth to the reports the Americans and British are losing faith in Zelensky, who is increasiningly unstable and erratic, and is in fact no longer President due to his decsion to cancel elections in March. There's a question mark over the constitutionality of his remaining President at all. The Russians are calling him a usurper, but the Americans have gone along with Z as President except these articles are often attributed to 'American officials'.
[ransomnote: Based on Mercouris' prior videos, Zelensky arranged for a peace conference in Switzerland which is not actually a peace conference; it's designed to assert his legitimacy as President of Ukraine.]
Mercouris says Biden is not going to the peace conference in Switzerland; Kamala will go. He notes that Kamala is not popular with American citizens and is in apparently disfavor with the political establishment in Washington as well. He says it looks like the US is starting to distance itself from Zelensky and might be looking for someone else.
Mercouris recalls the runnup to the coup in South Vietnam, and sees increasingly strong parallels between the claims then South Vietnam's President and his brother were erratic and unstable, mentally unfit and the deriding of Zelensky as erratic and unstable.
Mercouris believes that the US wants to wait to make changes in leadership until after the presidential elections. They don't want to force him out prior in case that creates instability in Kyiv that they can't control.
In Mercouris' opinion, if he were an advisor to Zelensky and his formidable chief of staff, he would be pointing to articles like this, and previous ones in the Financial Times, and warning both of them that their days at the helm of Ukraine are definitely numbered and that they should start packing their bags.
Mercouris says events in the middle east confirm his impression that this American administration has a tendency to improvise and make things up as they go along.
[ransomnote: I'm out of time. I'm ending my review at the 1 hour 12 minute mark in the video. It appears he is going to discuss the issues re Gaza and his surprise in Israel's inability to be victorious there]
[ransomnote's sidenote: I came across a wikipedia article explaining that there's a push to make the western media spell Kyiv and not Kyiev because the first is Ukrainian spelling and the latter is Russian spelling:
KyivNotKiev is an online campaign to persuade English-language media and organizations to exclusively use Kyiv (derived from the Ukrainian-language 'Київ') instead of Kiev (derived from the Russian-language 'Киев') as the name of the Ukrainian capital.
KyivNotKiev - Wikipedia
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › KyivNotKiev]
