Strategic Culture Foundation Editorial
Strategic Culture Foundation

The tragedy of Europe is not something mysterious or ill-fated. It is the direct result of elitist rulers who have assiduously conducted policies that harm European citizens.

One would think that having suffered two world wars only decades apart, European politicians might be more cautious about starting another one. Incredibly, however, the countries of Europe are being plunged into another conflagration.

Not much has changed over a century, it seems. War is still the result of imperialist intrigue and no accountability to the masses of citizens by arrogant politicians aided by relentless media propaganda lies.

European elitist rulers are a treasonous clique who are destroying Europe because of their abject servility to U.S.-led Western imperialism.

To put it crudely, Europe is being abused like a bondage plaything for the Washington and European elites. Shudder the thought of Ursula von der Leyen and Kaja Kallas in dominatrix garb or Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz as the gimps. But sometimes, the truth can be stranger than fiction.

Russian President Vladimir Putin nailed it this week when he slammed European political heads who are “dancing to the tune of the Americans.” In an address to the Collective Security Treaty Organization summit in Kazakhstan, Putin said the crisis over Ukraine showed that European so-called leaders have no independence or autonomy. They are non-entities as far as serving the democratic interests of their nations is concerned.

Instead of pushing for a diplomatic solution to the worst conflict on the European continent since World War Two, European political elites are slavishly going along with Washington’s criminal proxy war against Russia, which is in danger of spiraling into a nuclear Armageddon.

Vadim Egorov
dzen.ru

Russian civilian ships around the world are under attack - the enemy is sinking our ships, and those that are tacitly helping us by transporting oil under other flags are being boarded. At the same time blaming us. Provoking a full-fledged war at sea, which may well happen.

Everything that was going on was quite reminiscent of an excerpt from some pirate movie: helicopters hovered over a civilian ship, lowered down on ropes armed to the teeth men, who afterwards, already on deck, unceremoniously told the crew to go where they said. Except that they didn't hit or kill anyone.

In reality, it was Finnish special forces that stormed the Eagle S, a Cook Islands-flagged vessel. In search of, as is now fashionable, a “Russian trace”. They say that these “kukans” damaged the EstLink 2 cable with a capacity of 350 MW. Intentionally - Finnish border guards assume that the tanker dragged an anchor along the bottom to make a break. And after the Finns were ordered to raise the anchor chain, they saw that it was supposedly without that anchor. And all this was done, of course, by direct order of the treacherous Russians. Because the Eagle S was transporting the very Russian oil to Egypt, bypassing sanctions. Although there were no Russians on the ship: only Indians and Georgians.

But, according to the British edition of Lloyd's List, spy equipment was found on it, which was used to track NATO ships and planes. And the Finnish agency Yle quotes Alexander Lott, an expert on the law of the sea, who said that the tanker could also damage “the Estlink 1 cable, the Balticconnector gas pipeline and other communications”. In general, everything that the Finns have failed under water. It's good that they didn't include Eagle S among the things that failed on land.

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

The possible end of the Ukrainian Conflict sometime later this year and the political agreement that’ll accompany it will play the greatest roles in determining the New Cold War’s strategic dynamics in the coming future.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gave a year-end interview with TASS where he touched upon the most important developments from the past year that’ll likely shape events in 2025.

From the get-go, he rejected Trump’s reported plans to freeze the conflict, delay Ukraine’s membership in NATO, and deploy Western peacekeepers there and reminded everyone of the terms that Putin declared for ending the special operation. Russia also requires legally binding agreements that address the root of the conflict.

Lavrov expressed skepticism that there’ll be any improvement in bilateral relations under Trump since he’ll have to “swim against the current” as he phrased it in the sense of having to overcome the bipartisan consensus on containing Russia via Ukraine. On that topic, he’s equally skeptical of Zelensky’s recent admission that Ukraine is unable to reconquer its lost territories, pointing to that goal’s continued inclusion in Kiev’s “Victory Plan” as evidence that his words haven’t translated into actions.

Moving along, Lavrov was also asked about the West’s policy of orchestrating Color Revolutions, particularly in Georgia. He responded by condemning the false dilemma that they’ve placed that country into whereby it’s either considered to be with the West or against it. He also reaffirmed that Russia is determined to normalize relations with Georgia to the extent that Tbilisi is ready. Observers should keep an eye on this diplomatic track since it could have far-reaching consequences if any progress is made.

Taut Bataut
New Eastern Outlook

In a shocking mocking, the Hague-based Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant – former Israeli Defense Minister, and Mohammed Diab Ibrahim al-Masri, aka Deif – the military Wing Commander of Hamas on November 21st, sparking ambivalent reaction globally.

The ICC’s Decision and Its Global Impact—The ICC Prosecutor took almost 8 months to file the petitions against the people nominated in these arrest warrants. Moreover, the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber took 6 months to issue a decision on these arrest warrants. This sluggishness of the Pre-Trial chamber is beyond comprehension. The ICC decision stipulated that it had “reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Gallant bear criminal responsibility for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare.”

Netanyahu and Gallant have been accused of intentionally using starvation as a tool of warfare to deprive the innocent civilians of Gaza of rudimentary supplies including medicine, water, and food. The ICC prosecutors have alleged in the decision that these actions were unnecessary, arguing that they violate international law. In addition, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber has charged Muhammad Deif with hostage-taking, and orchestrating torture and mass murder. However, Israel claims that it killed Deif in an airstrike, while Hamas is silent over this claim.

These warrants are an outcome of a broader ICC investigation that investigated the alleged war crimes by both sides in the Israel-Hamas war. The inquiry was initiated after Israel’s alleged retaliation to the October 7 attacks by Hamas, which resulted in 250 kidnappings by the latter. More than 44000 Palestinians have been killed and 1.9 million displaced since October 7, 2023. Nonetheless, the international community is deeply divided over this ICC decision.

Jonathan Cook
jonathancook.substack.com

Only in a world of political make-believe would the Wall Street Journal’s account of Biden’s years-long cognitive decline, and its concealment by his officials, count as a scoop.

Only in the world of political make-believe we inhabit in the West would the Wall Street Journal’s account of Biden’s years-long cognitive decline, and its concealment by his officials, count as a scoop.

And only in a world in which the billionaire-owned media alone constructs and polices what counts as reality would the WSJ be able to run this story without also being expected to consider what it signifies about America’s professed democracy.

The emperor, we are now told, was naked all along. How did it take more than four years for the fearless, tenacious billionaire-owned media to notice?

The WSJ reports that even back in 2021 Biden had what his officials described as “bad days” when his mind worked so poorly he had to be kept away from senior Congresspeople and his own cabinet colleagues.

So insulated was he that he rarely met even with key figures directing White House policy, such as the Secretaries of State, Defence and the Treasury. He was able to hold only two or three cabinet meetings a year during his four-year term – a total of nine, compared to 19 by Barack Obama and 25 by Donald Trump. His aides barely strayed from his side because they needed to whisper instructions for him to carry out the simplest of public tasks, such as where to enter and exit a room.

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

Russia and the EU will manage the latest phase of their US-instigated divorce without much difficulty, but the US might offer to bring them back together by authorizing its vassals’ import of Russian pipeline gas in exchange for some concessions from the Kremlin in the energy sector and Ukraine.

Pundits are discussing Ukraine’s decision to cut off Russian gas to Europe after Kiev refused to extend its five-year agreement with Moscow that expired on the first of the year, with the vast majority laying blame on the other side and hyping up the negative consequences for their opponent’s interests.

The reality is that this development is much more political than anything else since the EU and Russia already weathered much more serious disruptions throughout 2022.

The Yamal pipeline through Poland was shut down a few months after the special operation began for sanctions-related reasons while Nord Stream 1 was gradually phased out of operation due to maintenance needs worsened by Canada’s delay on returning repaired gas turbines to Russia. That pipeline and the inactive Nord Stream 2 were then blown up in a terrorist attack in September of that year, though one still remains undamaged but has yet to re-enter into operation for political reasons.

The combined effect resulted in the share of Russia’s pipeline gas in EU imports plunging “from over 40% in 2021 to about 8% in 2023” according to the European Council.

Sean Adl-Tabatabai
thepeoplesvoice.tv

Dr. Robert Malone has testified to Congress that the world is currently experiencing a turbo-cancer epidemic caused by the experimental mRNA vaccines that people were coerced into taking during the pandemic.

During his recent testimony, Dr. Malone suggested that the jabs carry numerous serious health hazards not previously disclosed to the public.

Naturalnews.com reports: Dr. Malone’s statements were made during a hearing titled “Injuries Caused by COVID-19 Vaccines,” where he detailed findings from Moderna’s patent and independent research into the vaccine’s composition.

According to Dr. Malone, Moderna’s patent acknowledges that RNA is preferable to DNA for vaccine use due to the risks of “insertional mutagenesis,” which can activate oncogenes or inhibit tumor suppressor genes. “Moderna has a patent on the use of RNA for vaccines, which explicitly states that RNA is superior to DNA due to the risks associated with DNA,” Dr. Malone said. “However, despite this, their mRNA vaccine has been found to contain billions of DNA fragments.” Dr. Malone criticized Moderna’s vaccine production process, arguing that the DNA contamination results from the method used to manufacture the RNA vaccine. “Moderna uses DNA to create RNA, and then they degrade the DNA. Unfortunately, their purification process does not fully remove the degraded DNA,” he explained.

Anna Von Reitz
PaulStramer.net

The most recent figures show 31 million "excess deaths" have taken place in this world. This calm, British-sounding euphemism, "excess deaths" seeks to gloss over and hide the gruesome reality of 31 million extra, unexpected, unnatural deaths, the deaths of friends and loved ones impacting, if we use standard statistical factors, over a hundred and fifteen million families.

The low-ball estimate of deaths at Hiroshima as a result of the atomic bomb is 150,000 compared to 31,000,000. Where is the outrage? Where is the struggle to comprehend what 31 million extra, unnecessary, unaccountable deaths looks like?

Much less, 31 Million deaths for profit? 31 million people of all ages, all races, all religious persuasions murdered for money --- and someone's ignorant, psychopathic belief that the world is overpopulated, when in fact the entire Western Hemisphere has been in population collapse since the First World War.

Stupid. Greedy. Soulless bastards did this to make a dime.

They lied about it, made bets on it (World Bank "Pandemic Bonds" indeed) spent billions of dollars-worth of our credit on it --- which went right back into their coffers, and then, they willy-nilly thoughtlessly polluted the whole human genome forever, without a backward glance, so that they and their cronies and their worse-than-worthless "government services" corporations could make a buck.

It's the day after Christmas. We are trying to envision the 31 million families who had a strangely empty holiday, who endured the empty seat at the table that nobody talked about.

Glenn Diesen
Glenn's Substack

The Peace of Westphalia in 1648 laid the foundation for the modern world order, which is based on a balance of power between sovereign equals to obstruct hegemonic ambitions. The Westphalian balance of power could reduce zero-sum rivalries by championing the principle of indivisible security, as enhancing adversaries' security would also improve one's security.

Since the end of the Cold War, the US has been promoting a revisionist world order based on US hegemony and sovereign inequality, which is legitimized under the banner of universal liberal values. The hegemonic world order aimed to transcend international anarchy, yet it was inevitably temporary and unstable as its durability depended on obstructing the rise of potential rivals and promoting a system of sovereign inequality. The era of hegemony is already over as the world transitioned to a multipolar balance of power, and there is a need to rediscover the principle of indivisible security.

China's Global Civilisational Initiative can contribute to restoring and improving a stable Westphalian world order based on a balance of power among sovereign equals. China's Global Civilizational Initiative, organized around the principle of "the diversity of civilizations", can be interpreted as a rejection of universalism and thus support for sovereign equality. By rejecting the right to represent the values of other people, the Global Civilizational Initiative reassures the world that an intrusive US hegemony will not be replaced by an intrusive Chinese hegemony. The Global Civilization Initiative complements China's economic and security initiatives around the world, which are also organized around the principle that stability requires a multipolar world order.

Katherine Watt
Bailiwick News

Also updated PDF compilations

Four questions and four responses

■ What are the most important things people need to know right now?

For more than 100 years, the US government, through the military, and specifically through the Public Health Service branch of the US military, in collaboration with private pharmaceutical companies and the UN-World Health Organization, has been intentionally and effectively poisoning the population in the US and worldwide, using products known as vaccines and immunizations (toxic mixtures of active ingredients listed on labels, adjuvants listed on labels, and undisclosed ingredients), and thereby hidden from public understanding.

The intentional poisoning program has been escalating decade by decade. It started smaller and less deadly than it is now.

Due to changes in US law, acts that are crimes in other legal contexts, such as poisoning, battery, torture and homicide, if carried out by vaccines (and many other drugs, devices and biological products) are legal. Perpetrators cannot be held liable under civil tort law and cannot be prosecuted under criminal law. This intentional poisoning is much more visible to the public because of the Covid-19 events since 2020, so there are more possibilities for stopping the programs.

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

Western democracy is just a process for legitimizing elite interests, and these same elites sometimes repeat the process until they get their desired result.

It was assessed late last month that “The Outcome Of Romania’s Presidential Election Could Spoil The US’ Potential Escalation Plans” if then-frontrunner Calin Georgescu, a populist conservative-nationalist that’s critical of NATO’s proxy war on Russian in Ukraine, had won the second round on 8 December. His first-round victory was annulled by the Constitutional Coup in a move that he condemned as a coup, however, on the pretext that his pre-election support on TikTok might have been due to foreign backing.

Nothing like this has ever happened before. Nobody alleges that the electoral process itself was fraudulent. The only claim is that classified evidence supposedly exists allegedly suggesting that the popularization of Georgescu’s content on TikTok might have been inorganic. When all was said and done, however, more voters still chose him over anyone else. This means that speculative degrees of separation between them and a foreign actor via social media was enough to annual the election.

This is a disturbing precedent that can easily be exploited by the West the next time that a populist conservative-nationalist with “politically incorrect” foreign policy views wins an election. At the time of writing, a redo hasn’t yet been scheduled, but it’s expected after the new pro-Western parliament convenes on 20 December. About that, their elections were held after the first presidential round, but no accusations of foul play followed. This is obviously due to the West receiving its desired result.

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

Ilham Aliyev is one of Eurasia’s most visionary leaders and Azerbaijan is playing an increasingly important role in the emerging Multipolar World Order.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev reaffirmed his country’s alliance with Russia in the extended interview that he gave to Rossiya Segodnya chief Dmitry Kiselyov earlier this week that can be read in full here. It’s extremely detailed so the present piece will summarize the insight that he shared for convenience. Aliyev began by praising the Declaration on Allied Interaction between Azerbaijan and Russia that he agreed to with Putin on 22 February 2022 as an historic event in their relations.

He appreciated Putin’s state visit over the summer and noted how their trade is rising, Russian visits to Azerbaijan have been restored to their pre-COVID levels, and there are now twice as many flights as during the Soviet era. Aliyev hopes that there won’t be a hot war between NATO and Russia, which would be apocalyptic, and expressed optimism that Trump will make positive changes to US foreign policy. Azerbaijan can also help facilitate a détente between Russia and the US if both are interested.

Aliyev reminded Kiselyov about how Azerbaijan is independent of East and West, has the unique status of being allied with both Russia and NATO-member Turkiye, and previously hosted meetings between top Russian, US, and NATO military officials, which wasn’t by chance since it’s equally trusted by them. In response to being asked about reports that Azerbaijan will host a Turkish base, he said that such isn’t needed since their 2021 Declaration on Allied Relations already includes a mutual defense clause.

Strategic Culture Foundation Editorial
Strategic Culture Foundation

What the West can’t stand are leaders who prioritize national independence and sovereignty, the common interest, and social welfare.

If he were far right-wing, the West would happily work with him. That’s the best absorbent cotton test for determining whether or not a particular candidate is extreme right-wing. The West has always had a huge tolerance for right-wingers. From fanatic Islamists to neo-Nazis or Zionists, history is here to prove that.

The capitalist, imperialist, neo-liberal West has never had any problem working with fanatics of any kind, as can be seen in Syria today. What the West can’t stand, whoever they are, are leaders who don’t allow national independence and sovereignty, the common interest, and social welfare to be limited by private appropriation by the international economic and financial interests it protects.

The truth is that West has no problems working with Meloni in Italy, Milei in Argentina, the current South Korean president, or even the Saudi royal family. Even to name the ones who everyone assumes to be hard right-wingers. We must not forget that, nowadays, at the very heart of the Western political system, we have the most fanatic and extremist situationists, such as Von Der Leyen, Baerbock, Sholz, or Macron. They only differ from traditional far-right-wingers in two or three subjects like wokeísm, religiosity (not all of them), acceptance of Brussels’ central power, and their position towards war with Russia.

In Syria, for example, they have joined hands with groups formed from Al-Qaeda, linked to the Islamic Brotherhood, one theological school that also feeds Hamas, overthrowing a secular government that defends gender equality, but also national sovereignty, particularly in terms of ownership of strategic sectors, like energy. It won’t be long before the mainstream press is crying hard over the oppression of Syrian women. For starters, I saw no feminine presence in the press conferences that new Syrian leaders provided. The U.S. and Israel don’t seem to have had any problems dealing with conservative authoritarian Erdogan, as an operative in the upheaval, or with “moderate radicals” that came from known terrorist organizations. If someone can explain to me what is a “moderate radical”, be my guest. A semiotic upgrade made from the ancient paradox concept of “moderate rebels”.

RIA Novosti-Zen/РИА Новости-Дзен
RIA Novosti

The Pentagon has tested two new long-range missiles: The Pentagon has presented a serious argument

The US is increasing its long-range strike capabilities with precision-guided weapons. In December, the defense department reported on successful tests of two systems simultaneously—LRHW (Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon) and PrSM (Precision Strike Missile). Washington does not hide: the new products are designed to confront Russia in Europe and China in the Asia-Pacific region. About American missiles—in the material of RIA Novosti.

Dark Eagle—For many years, the U.S. Army has not had a "long arm" - a weapon capable of long-range strikes from the ground. The range of ATACMS operational-tactical missile systems is limited to 300 kilometers, while Russia's Iskander-M can hit 500 kilometers. China has similar systems. The Americans lag behind their likely adversaries in hypersonic weaponry as well. While Moscow and Beijing already have such systems in their arsenals, the U.S. has not gone beyond the testing stage.

Nevertheless, Washington is making progress. In December, the LRHW complex with a hypersonic warhead was tested at Cape Canaveral in Florida. The missile flew on the set course and hit the training target exactly at the estimated time. This was the first fully successful launch. Before that, LRHWs had been falling - either on takeoff, on the route, or on the final section of the trajectory past the target. Now it is likely that the LRHWs will be in service with combat troops.

The LRHW Dark Eagle long-range missile system consists of a mobile command post, a mobile launcher, and support vehicles. But the main thing is the AUR missile in a transport and launch container carrying the C-HGB warhead. It belongs to the class of hypersonic gliders. The launch vehicle accelerates it to operating speed, after which it begins an independent planned flight. According to Pentagon statements, the C-GHB is capable of reaching a speed of at least Mach 5. The estimated range is more than 2,775 kilometers.

Glenn Diesen
Glenn's Substack

Propaganda is a science of persuasion that commonly circumvents the rational considerations of the individual by instead appealing to the unconscious group psychology. The conscious mind tends to be rational, but human behaviour and actions are largely shaped by the unconscious, primordial instincts, and emotions. The rational individual has strong impulses to adapt to the group, thus propaganda aims to influence the irrational group psychology.

Propaganda as a Science—Sigmund Freud explored the irrationality of “group psychology” that overrides the rational and critical capacities of the individual. Freud recognised that “a group is extraordinarily credulous and open to influence, it has no critical faculty”.[1] Conformity to the ideas of the group is powerful exactly because it is unconscious. Freud defined group psychology as being: “concerned with the individual man as a member of a race, of a nation, of a caste, of a profession, of an institution, or as a component part of a crowd of people”, which form a collective group consciousness, social instinct, herd instinct or tribal mentality.[2]

The nephew of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays, built on the work of his uncle to develop the foundational literature on political propaganda. Bernays aimed to manipulate the collective consciousness and identity of the group to control the hearts and minds of the masses without their awareness of being manipulated:

💬 “The group has mental characteristics distinct from those of the individual, and is motivated by impulses and emotions which cannot be explained on the basis of what we know of individual psychology. So the question naturally arose: If we understand the mechanisms and motives of the group mind, is it not possible to control and regiment the masses according to our will without their knowing it?”.[3]

Fatima Haydar
Alahed News

Beirut – In a provocative act that underscores "Israel's" ongoing expansionist ambitions, Prof. Amos Azaria, an "Israeli" settler and lecturer at Ariel University, who once gained notoriety for reading a story to his son about a boy and his father claiming that “Lebanon belongs to ‘Israel,’” has now infiltrated Lebanese territory, breaching the ongoing ceasefire agreement.

The man, previously featured in a viral video narrating his ideology, has deep ties to the far-right movement “Uri Tzafon” ["Wake Up North"], which he leads. The group has also promoted a crowd-funded book, "Alon and Lebanon", which glorifies the "Israeli” entity's claim to Lebanese territories.

Azaria was recently photographed with his son near the southern Lebanese village of Maroun Al-Ras, a location known for its symbolic importance in resisting "Israeli" aggression. The photos, widely circulated among settler communities, serve as propaganda, celebrating this act as a symbolic step toward the so-called "Greater ‘Israel’" vision.

An Escalation of Expansionist Ambitions

Months ago, a video of Azaria gained traction online, showing him recounting to his son a tale of how “Lebanon is part of ‘Israel’”. Produced and promoted by the extremist “Uri Tzafon” movement, the video reflected an ideological push to prepare settler communities for the idea of expanding "Israel's" borders into Lebanon. Now, Azaria’s recent infiltration into Lebanese territory seems to be the next phase of this calculated campaign, tying propaganda to action.

The "Alon and Lebanon" book, authored by Azaria, glorifies this expansionist vision, framing Lebanon as an integral part of a future “Greater ‘Israel’”. This ideology is deeply rooted in "Israel's" far-right factions and has fueled acts of aggression in Syria and Lebanon alike.

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

A view of a scene of an explosion in Moscow, Russia, 17 Dec.
ember 2024. According to a statement by the Investigative
Committee of Russia, Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov and
his assistant were killed in a blast outside of an apartment
building in Moscow. [EPA-EFE/YURI KOCHETKOV]

The SBU’s cowardly assassination of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov won’t stop his agency’s work.

Reuters cited a source in Ukraine’s SBU on Tuesday to report that they were responsible for assassinating Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical, and Biological Defense Forces (RChBZ). RT reminded their audience that he was instrumental in informing the world about the WMD threat posed by Ukraine. This includes its American-backed bioweapons experiments, dirty bomb plans, and the use of chemical weapons against Russian servicemen in the special operation zone.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova posted on Telegram that Kirillov “has been systematically exposing the crimes of the Anglo-Saxons for many years, with facts in hand: NATO provocations with chemical weapons in Syria, Britain's manipulations with prohibited chemical substances and provocations in Salisbury and Amesbury, the deadly activities of American biolabs in Ukraine and much more. He worked fearlessly. He did not hide behind people's backs.”

Her country is correspondingly expected to continue raising maximum global awareness of these issues. They’d somewhat faded out of the media limelight over the past year as attention shifted to the scenario of conventional Western escalations in Ukraine such as the decision to authorize Kiev to use the ATACMS for carrying out strikes deep inside of Russia and the possibility of deploying troops there under the cover of peacekeepers. All the while, however, Ukraine’s WMD threats never fully went away.

A lasting peace is therefore only possible if the solution includes mechanisms for dismantling this clandestine infrastructure and monitoring compliance afterwards. Trump would have to be on board for that to happen, but since some of his surrogates have talked about this issue before, it can’t be ruled out that he’d agree to this proposal if they convince him that the problem veritably exists. He also has an axe to grind with Hunter Biden, some of whose companies have been implicated in these schemes.

Dmitri Kovalevich
Al Mayadeen English

The battle for Ugledar, as well as the earlier battles for the cities of Bakhmut, Avdeevka, and Mariupol, show just the opposite of the claims by Zelensky and his political/military government, namely that for the AFU, buildings and even ruins are more important than human beings in uniform.

At the beginning of October, the development most discussed by the Ukraine government and its tightly controlled media was the defeat and withdrawal of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) from the small city of Ugledar (called 'Vuhledar' in Ukraine) in the Donbas region. The chaotic and costly withdrawal (for Ukraine) is the result of Kiev's refusal to withdraw as the city was being encircled by Russian forces. This is not the first time this has happened.

Russian troops waited for evacuations of the remaining 116 civilians in Ugledar before entering and retaking the city on October 2. These were civilians who had been living in basements under shelling for the past two and a half years, refusing to be evacuated. The small city had a pre-war population of 14,000.

Ugledar is a former coal mining city some 50 km southwest of Donetsk city. Since being seized and occupied by far-right Ukrainian paramilitaries in 2014, it has been used by the AFU to regularly shell Donetsk city and neighboring cities and towns, causing countless civilian deaths, injuries, and property damage. Numerous towns and cities of the former Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk (which constitute the historic coal mining and steelmaking region of Donbas) were seized by the paramilitaries in 2014 and after, and have been used in this manner to terrorize the populations there. They resisted the illegal coup of 2014 in Kyiv. Today, Donetsk and Lugansk are constituent republics of the Russian Federation, following several referendum votes that have taken place there.

Jonathan Cook
jonathancook.substack.com

When westerners see 'enemy' governments fall, or civil wars erupt, they are led to think they are the geopolitical equivalent of a natural event. Nothing could be further from the truth

The long-harboured aspirations of the US, Turkey and Israel to topple the Syrian government, mainly through their rebranded al-Qaeda allies, succeeded at lightning speed.

Damascus fell days after Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) forces under Abu Mohammad al-Jolani surprised observers by breaking out of their small north-western enclave in Syria and seizing the country’s second city, Aleppo.

Bashar al-Assad’s government and his army, it turned out, were paper tigers. Or they were, once their chief allies – Russia, Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon – had been forced onto the back foot. Preoccupied with troubles closer to home, they could no longer offer the military support Assad depended on.

Israel’s rampage across Lebanon and its military intimidation of Iran – as well as Nato’s increasing efforts to pin Russia down in Ukraine – unfroze the main battle lines in Syria, arrived at several years ago between Assad’s army, al-Qaeda’s franchise in Syria and Kurdish forces in the north-east.

Maryam Qarehgozlou
PressTV

With the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government, the Israeli regime has intensified its aggression on Syria, initiating an unlawful land appropriation beyond the occupied Golan Heights in what is seen as a component of the so-called “Greater Israel” project.

In a dramatic turn of events, militant groups overrun Damascus on Sunday, less than two weeks into their offensive that began in Aleppo, ending the two-decade reign of Bashar al-Assad.

Immediately after militants affiliated with Hayat Tahrir-al Sham swarmed Damascus, Israel launched a barrage of airstrikes across Syria, including in Damascus, Homs, Tartous, Latakia and Palmyra.

Israeli media called it “one of the biggest air attacks” in the regime's air force’s history, destroying up to 80 percent of Syria’s military capabilities.

On Wednesday, Israel’s military said it carried out about 480 strikes on military targets in Syria over the past 48 hours, including on 15 naval vessels, anti-aircraft batteries and weapons production sites in several cities, to prevent “strategic weapons stockpiles."

A day before, the Israeli military targeted three major Syrian airports in Qamishili, north of the country, Homs, the country’s third-largest city, and Mezzeh airport in the capital Damascus.