Thank you Scott ... I've trusted you since you told the truth before the Bush Crime Family invaded Iraq, after they lied about Sadam having weapons of mass destruction.
Although used in it's correct English context I think the term Pyrrhic doesn't really get across the scale of Ukrainian losses in these tactical victories as you and others are reporting. It's been decades since I studied the Pyrrhic War but I'm pretty sure his victories at worst had casualty ratios 1:1.5/2.5 in Pyrrhus' favour depending on the source materiel. Yep bad costly unsustainable victories for the classical period but nowhere near the 1:5-1:15+ ratios against the Banderist Regime during this current conflict. Maybe one day the phrase "Bandarist Victory" will enter the English lexicon.
Keep up the good work you do in shining a light on some very dark and interesting times.
Yep, so Russia preserves its forces and its advantage by pulling its troops onto the flood plain on the left bank of the river.
I don't believe a word of it.
And one minute Ukraine has overwhelming force that causes Russia to back down and the next minute they're going to be unable to muster more than 20,000 more.
One minute it is all because of the support the USA has given Ukraine and the next minute Ukraine is virtually seen as without effective support.
One minute war is politics by other means and Russia is after Odessa and needs Kherson.
The next minute war is only preserving your army and Odessa etc. doesn't signifiy.
One minute the enemy having a significant breakthrough or even potentially having it is a major threat enough to justify complete reorganisation of the whole army.
The next minute having a whole fortress city within the enemy's area counts for nothing and should be given away.
All our 'experts', Scott included, know nothing of what's going on, so complete has been the Russian obscuration of the truth or actual lack of any coherent truth.
They all have their favourite scenarios, 'truths', and they simply try to find evidence to support them.
If the situation were reversed and Russia owned the right bank of the river how would it be told?
The Ukrainians owning the largest city and abreast an important river and with port facilities etc. ! Tremendous danger!
Blow the dam? Easier said than done. Breach is all you can expect. And that hard enough in itself. And the enemy making it harder by the day and even lowering water levels. Virtually impractical.
But if accomplished with totally unrealistic sudden total release of 'full' volume, then what?
Passage of max disruption a mere day or two.
After 'wave' disruption only on left bank. Enemy forces on right bank still intact. What supplies do they have? How long can they hold out? In this environment and being prepared a month or two easily in a defensive posture.
After a week or two ground easily passable on left bank, Dniper water levels now low and at 'natural' flow rates.
So where are we now? The dam has gone. The enemy still occupies a fortress. Enemy logistics from left back now actually improved.
Time for hysteria.
I wish we had access to either inside information - if there is any coherent sense on the inside - or had an astute impartial observer on the outside.
My 'astute' impartial observation: looks like a political thing to me. It has already been decided how the war will end and Russia will keep what it has and will not get Odessa. Ukraine will settle for that: still some water access, still has Odessa.
To be hassled over: will USA and NATO have free access to this rump Ukraine.
The war itself? As is usual, pure window dressing and bullshit merely chewing up human beings.
The HIMARS have indeed proven to be a "game-changer" for Ukraine, despite Scott's past assurances that they would not. The surrender of the for-now-Russian territory of Kherson would not be happening currently were it not for the HIMARS destruction of the road and rail bridge infrastructure in the region with precision strikes. Similarly, the threat to the dam that has the Russians so worried about is based on potential further strikes by HIMARS.
Respectively disagree that this was about the force structures.
The American MLRS system with 80 km range were a game-changer, no matter how many times it is repeated that there is no such thing. The withdrawal from Kherson because of the damages to the bridges for supply prove that. Russia had not counted on losing adequate logistics, otherwise they would have stayed and defended it as they gradually reduced the UAF and flooded the zone with new troops.
The other thing that mystifies me in the whole story is why the Russians have not made more inroads blocking Ukrainian logistics and NATO re-supply.
As Brogard says in a previous comment it's true that many analysts have been announcing Ukraine's funeral since 24 February. Frankly exaggerated news as Mark Twain said about one of his funerals. And everyone already knew that it was the US that provoked this war to try a regime change in Moscow and decide who has access to Russia's natural resources and at what price and who doesn't. Like in the 90's. And it was easy to predict that the US would react to any unpleasantness in the theater of operations. As it's also true that Russia with an expeditionary force in the largest country in Europe right after Russia has already taken away the equivalent of one England - perhaps the most despicable country in Europe today that is nothing more than a US satellite, just as or more Russophobic and equally with great responsibilities in this conflict - with more than 50% of its GDP and MM of Russian population! And what is the main reason why we continue with a military stalemate in Europe?
In my opinion because in fact the conflict in proxy Ukraine is nothing more than a battle in a much bigger war for an NWO with other interested countries. With 85% of the world's population that we in the West often forget. And above all because Russia entered Ukraine mainly to negotiate, a desire that it never abandoned. Which came from before the war and everyone should still remember the December 2021 proposals. Basically the independence of Donbass after the failure of the Minsk Accords and a new European security architecture plan. No missile ramps aimed at Moscow rightfully. For the good of Ukraine itself. And above all the Ukrainian population that has never fled Ukraine! Because I didn't want to or couldn't. From the poorest and most corrupt country in Europe under US auspices since the Color Revolution in 2004! In the 2014 coup the US only decided to empower the completely Russophobic neo-Nazi nationalists of the ethnic mosaic that has always been Ukraine. A coup that according to polls in Indepedante Kiev in 2014 the majority of the population of Ukraine has never suported. Which has been very well hidden!
(And Russia endured for many years surrounded by missiles already in Poland and Romania and on the verge of Ukraine. Compared to what the US endured in the Cuban Missile Crisis which once again was Russia's reaction to the missiles in Turkey and Italy and not a unilateral action! Like many years endured the bombing of the Donbass that the military wing wanted to solve during the referendum of autonomous Crimea in 2014).
And that's how we got here with a plan very well described in the 2019 RAND report to destabilize and weaken Russia. And with it destroy the European economy! That Scholz's recent visit to China with a large entourage of businessmen gives one of the first signs that Germany does not accept being destroyed. It was time after silently watching the destruction of Europe's largest energy infrastructure. According to the German Chancellor and the former Swedish PM, Magdalena Andersson, for reasons of national security?! Not worth laughing!
With Russia itself also betting on the implosion of NATO and the EU, which are nothing more than the armed wing and the political wing of the US in Brussels to control a Europe with very different nation states tied to rules that do not defend Europe's interests as never it was so noticeable. This is something that many Europeans like me are not opposed to and that it also ends up setting for the timing of the conflict. Above all, the economic resistance of Ukraine's main European sponsors. And the problem with the EU today in Europe is not the fact that there is an Economic Union, but way has evolved in recent decades. In the image of the United Nations Organization after the Iraq war transformed into a mere humanitarian aid agency without any role of global governance for which it was founded! In urgent need of refounding as far away from NY as possible.
And the same with the EU, politically also a vassal of the US that abdicated any role as a global actor in the great geostrategic chessboard where it had to defend the interests of Europe very different from those of the US. Only the Trade in the Eurasian space today worth more than twice the US GDP. Hence the need for the US to disconnect Europe, Russia and China in the name of US hegemony. With a currency (EURO) with an architecture designed to benefit large nations like Germany or France or even tax havens like the Netherlands and Ireland itself within an Economic Union that has never managed to achieve a Fiscal and Banking Union with great inequalities between member states. That's why I look forward to writing RIP NATO and EU in Europe!
"Anyone who values the life of a russian soldier should applaud this". What about the lives of civilians who believed russia. Got russian passports. Could not evacuate for various reasons. They have no hope now.
Maybe it was all a behind the scenes deal and at the end Russia got played again because it didnt learn from minsk agreements. Maybe someone in Kremlin is getting suitcases of you know what.
We dont know but tomorrow we may wake up to the most shocking news of thousands of dead russian soldiers and I dont know how it can be explained then
Something to keep in mind: most of the pro Russian people from Kherson are gone, once the Russian offensive starts the Georgia scenario is in play, full scale ethnic cleansing via other means.
Interesting article. My current position, as a Russian, on the issue is that one cannot rule out the political underpininngs of this decision to retreat. Nobody knows for sure what were the Russian capabilites in north Kherson by second week of November and for how long it could sustain the defence (or an offence for that matter). Neither did we have that information on Ukraine. Now I am not saying that there was necessarily a backdoor deal, but that Russian leadership could have taken this decision for its own political reasons.
On a different topic, I see that Ritter got a unique domain for his substack. Any idea how to do that? Do I just go to settings?
"Like Pyrrhus, Ukraine, in taking Kherson, has been “utterly ruined.”"
This was not a replay of the big battle for Stalingrad in WWII. Yes the AFU lost heavy. This they did before elsewhere too. But not in a way that their fighting capacity would have been crippled already. Even Germany unfortunately could fight on after the horrendous debacle of Stalingrad. They lost some half a million soldiers (plus another half a million of supporting nations). Broken down to the population of Ukraine this would have meant 250.000 CIA. Ukraine can take much much more losses. Germany in the end had lost some 5 millions of men!
After publicly promoting the event, and changing the venue due to "high demand," peace activists withdraw their invitation to Scott Ritter -- 11/11/2022
(Note – the article includes more – it is about Scott’s incredible persecution by “American Justice”)
Scott Ritter has been my hero for a long time -- because of his demonstrated high integrity, courage and patriotism. Until now I was unaware of the suffering and horror inflicted on him by the “American Justice”.
Thanks to Scott and by now famous video we know that the corrupt criminal monster, Joe Biden, knew with 100% certainty that Iraq had no WMD but Biden brazenly denigrated Scott’s testimony calling him “Scotty boy” and led us into Iraq war.
Let’s hope that he stays well and safe although Scott is on Nazi-Ukraine’s Kill list (with full knowledge of Biden and the US War party). Total censorship and oppression are now mandatory in the US so that bipartisan War party can conduct its proxy war against capitalist and democratic Russia and support the Nazi-dominated puppet government of Ukraine.
Let’s stand with Russia -- it fights for all of us. In regard of US proxy war against Russia, as Scott stated: “Russia is on the right side of history.”
Needs citations linked in. I’m pretty far from a Nato cheerleader, but if these reports are all from Russian intelligence, we should know that. I’m guessing Ritter still has connections within the dept defense, which might be the reason for the lack of sourcing throughout. (Better to let people assume source is entirely russia propaganda.) I suppose one could cross check ritters article against russian public statements and cross check for any differences, anything extra ritter added which neither the russians or US/UKR disclosed.
Just tried to edit a comment of mine about the elevations at Kherson. But it didn't seem to take. So here is a comment solely devoted to it.
The southern side of the Dniper, the 'left bank' of the Dniper,, is the lower. As I first suggested and contrary to what Scott mockingly states in his agitated polemic:
Thank you Scott ... I've trusted you since you told the truth before the Bush Crime Family invaded Iraq, after they lied about Sadam having weapons of mass destruction.
Thanks Scott.
Although used in it's correct English context I think the term Pyrrhic doesn't really get across the scale of Ukrainian losses in these tactical victories as you and others are reporting. It's been decades since I studied the Pyrrhic War but I'm pretty sure his victories at worst had casualty ratios 1:1.5/2.5 in Pyrrhus' favour depending on the source materiel. Yep bad costly unsustainable victories for the classical period but nowhere near the 1:5-1:15+ ratios against the Banderist Regime during this current conflict. Maybe one day the phrase "Bandarist Victory" will enter the English lexicon.
Keep up the good work you do in shining a light on some very dark and interesting times.
Yep, so Russia preserves its forces and its advantage by pulling its troops onto the flood plain on the left bank of the river.
I don't believe a word of it.
And one minute Ukraine has overwhelming force that causes Russia to back down and the next minute they're going to be unable to muster more than 20,000 more.
One minute it is all because of the support the USA has given Ukraine and the next minute Ukraine is virtually seen as without effective support.
One minute war is politics by other means and Russia is after Odessa and needs Kherson.
The next minute war is only preserving your army and Odessa etc. doesn't signifiy.
One minute the enemy having a significant breakthrough or even potentially having it is a major threat enough to justify complete reorganisation of the whole army.
The next minute having a whole fortress city within the enemy's area counts for nothing and should be given away.
All our 'experts', Scott included, know nothing of what's going on, so complete has been the Russian obscuration of the truth or actual lack of any coherent truth.
They all have their favourite scenarios, 'truths', and they simply try to find evidence to support them.
If the situation were reversed and Russia owned the right bank of the river how would it be told?
The Ukrainians owning the largest city and abreast an important river and with port facilities etc. ! Tremendous danger!
Blow the dam? Easier said than done. Breach is all you can expect. And that hard enough in itself. And the enemy making it harder by the day and even lowering water levels. Virtually impractical.
But if accomplished with totally unrealistic sudden total release of 'full' volume, then what?
Passage of max disruption a mere day or two.
After 'wave' disruption only on left bank. Enemy forces on right bank still intact. What supplies do they have? How long can they hold out? In this environment and being prepared a month or two easily in a defensive posture.
After a week or two ground easily passable on left bank, Dniper water levels now low and at 'natural' flow rates.
So where are we now? The dam has gone. The enemy still occupies a fortress. Enemy logistics from left back now actually improved.
Time for hysteria.
I wish we had access to either inside information - if there is any coherent sense on the inside - or had an astute impartial observer on the outside.
My 'astute' impartial observation: looks like a political thing to me. It has already been decided how the war will end and Russia will keep what it has and will not get Odessa. Ukraine will settle for that: still some water access, still has Odessa.
To be hassled over: will USA and NATO have free access to this rump Ukraine.
The war itself? As is usual, pure window dressing and bullshit merely chewing up human beings.
The HIMARS have indeed proven to be a "game-changer" for Ukraine, despite Scott's past assurances that they would not. The surrender of the for-now-Russian territory of Kherson would not be happening currently were it not for the HIMARS destruction of the road and rail bridge infrastructure in the region with precision strikes. Similarly, the threat to the dam that has the Russians so worried about is based on potential further strikes by HIMARS.
Respectively disagree that this was about the force structures.
The American MLRS system with 80 km range were a game-changer, no matter how many times it is repeated that there is no such thing. The withdrawal from Kherson because of the damages to the bridges for supply prove that. Russia had not counted on losing adequate logistics, otherwise they would have stayed and defended it as they gradually reduced the UAF and flooded the zone with new troops.
The other thing that mystifies me in the whole story is why the Russians have not made more inroads blocking Ukrainian logistics and NATO re-supply.
As Brogard says in a previous comment it's true that many analysts have been announcing Ukraine's funeral since 24 February. Frankly exaggerated news as Mark Twain said about one of his funerals. And everyone already knew that it was the US that provoked this war to try a regime change in Moscow and decide who has access to Russia's natural resources and at what price and who doesn't. Like in the 90's. And it was easy to predict that the US would react to any unpleasantness in the theater of operations. As it's also true that Russia with an expeditionary force in the largest country in Europe right after Russia has already taken away the equivalent of one England - perhaps the most despicable country in Europe today that is nothing more than a US satellite, just as or more Russophobic and equally with great responsibilities in this conflict - with more than 50% of its GDP and MM of Russian population! And what is the main reason why we continue with a military stalemate in Europe?
In my opinion because in fact the conflict in proxy Ukraine is nothing more than a battle in a much bigger war for an NWO with other interested countries. With 85% of the world's population that we in the West often forget. And above all because Russia entered Ukraine mainly to negotiate, a desire that it never abandoned. Which came from before the war and everyone should still remember the December 2021 proposals. Basically the independence of Donbass after the failure of the Minsk Accords and a new European security architecture plan. No missile ramps aimed at Moscow rightfully. For the good of Ukraine itself. And above all the Ukrainian population that has never fled Ukraine! Because I didn't want to or couldn't. From the poorest and most corrupt country in Europe under US auspices since the Color Revolution in 2004! In the 2014 coup the US only decided to empower the completely Russophobic neo-Nazi nationalists of the ethnic mosaic that has always been Ukraine. A coup that according to polls in Indepedante Kiev in 2014 the majority of the population of Ukraine has never suported. Which has been very well hidden!
(And Russia endured for many years surrounded by missiles already in Poland and Romania and on the verge of Ukraine. Compared to what the US endured in the Cuban Missile Crisis which once again was Russia's reaction to the missiles in Turkey and Italy and not a unilateral action! Like many years endured the bombing of the Donbass that the military wing wanted to solve during the referendum of autonomous Crimea in 2014).
And that's how we got here with a plan very well described in the 2019 RAND report to destabilize and weaken Russia. And with it destroy the European economy! That Scholz's recent visit to China with a large entourage of businessmen gives one of the first signs that Germany does not accept being destroyed. It was time after silently watching the destruction of Europe's largest energy infrastructure. According to the German Chancellor and the former Swedish PM, Magdalena Andersson, for reasons of national security?! Not worth laughing!
With Russia itself also betting on the implosion of NATO and the EU, which are nothing more than the armed wing and the political wing of the US in Brussels to control a Europe with very different nation states tied to rules that do not defend Europe's interests as never it was so noticeable. This is something that many Europeans like me are not opposed to and that it also ends up setting for the timing of the conflict. Above all, the economic resistance of Ukraine's main European sponsors. And the problem with the EU today in Europe is not the fact that there is an Economic Union, but way has evolved in recent decades. In the image of the United Nations Organization after the Iraq war transformed into a mere humanitarian aid agency without any role of global governance for which it was founded! In urgent need of refounding as far away from NY as possible.
And the same with the EU, politically also a vassal of the US that abdicated any role as a global actor in the great geostrategic chessboard where it had to defend the interests of Europe very different from those of the US. Only the Trade in the Eurasian space today worth more than twice the US GDP. Hence the need for the US to disconnect Europe, Russia and China in the name of US hegemony. With a currency (EURO) with an architecture designed to benefit large nations like Germany or France or even tax havens like the Netherlands and Ireland itself within an Economic Union that has never managed to achieve a Fiscal and Banking Union with great inequalities between member states. That's why I look forward to writing RIP NATO and EU in Europe!
https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB10014.html
Concisely well written opine.
Thanks for your usual honesty, Sir.
We appreciate your respect for war and love of peace.
"Anyone who values the life of a russian soldier should applaud this". What about the lives of civilians who believed russia. Got russian passports. Could not evacuate for various reasons. They have no hope now.
Maybe it was all a behind the scenes deal and at the end Russia got played again because it didnt learn from minsk agreements. Maybe someone in Kremlin is getting suitcases of you know what.
We dont know but tomorrow we may wake up to the most shocking news of thousands of dead russian soldiers and I dont know how it can be explained then
Something to keep in mind: most of the pro Russian people from Kherson are gone, once the Russian offensive starts the Georgia scenario is in play, full scale ethnic cleansing via other means.
Interesting article. My current position, as a Russian, on the issue is that one cannot rule out the political underpininngs of this decision to retreat. Nobody knows for sure what were the Russian capabilites in north Kherson by second week of November and for how long it could sustain the defence (or an offence for that matter). Neither did we have that information on Ukraine. Now I am not saying that there was necessarily a backdoor deal, but that Russian leadership could have taken this decision for its own political reasons.
On a different topic, I see that Ritter got a unique domain for his substack. Any idea how to do that? Do I just go to settings?
"Like Pyrrhus, Ukraine, in taking Kherson, has been “utterly ruined.”"
This was not a replay of the big battle for Stalingrad in WWII. Yes the AFU lost heavy. This they did before elsewhere too. But not in a way that their fighting capacity would have been crippled already. Even Germany unfortunately could fight on after the horrendous debacle of Stalingrad. They lost some half a million soldiers (plus another half a million of supporting nations). Broken down to the population of Ukraine this would have meant 250.000 CIA. Ukraine can take much much more losses. Germany in the end had lost some 5 millions of men!
Cancel Culture --- https://substack.com/inbox/post/83954106
After publicly promoting the event, and changing the venue due to "high demand," peace activists withdraw their invitation to Scott Ritter -- 11/11/2022
(Note – the article includes more – it is about Scott’s incredible persecution by “American Justice”)
Scott Ritter has been my hero for a long time -- because of his demonstrated high integrity, courage and patriotism. Until now I was unaware of the suffering and horror inflicted on him by the “American Justice”.
Thanks to Scott and by now famous video we know that the corrupt criminal monster, Joe Biden, knew with 100% certainty that Iraq had no WMD but Biden brazenly denigrated Scott’s testimony calling him “Scotty boy” and led us into Iraq war.
Let’s hope that he stays well and safe although Scott is on Nazi-Ukraine’s Kill list (with full knowledge of Biden and the US War party). Total censorship and oppression are now mandatory in the US so that bipartisan War party can conduct its proxy war against capitalist and democratic Russia and support the Nazi-dominated puppet government of Ukraine.
Let’s stand with Russia -- it fights for all of us. In regard of US proxy war against Russia, as Scott stated: “Russia is on the right side of history.”
Thanks,
Needs citations linked in. I’m pretty far from a Nato cheerleader, but if these reports are all from Russian intelligence, we should know that. I’m guessing Ritter still has connections within the dept defense, which might be the reason for the lack of sourcing throughout. (Better to let people assume source is entirely russia propaganda.) I suppose one could cross check ritters article against russian public statements and cross check for any differences, anything extra ritter added which neither the russians or US/UKR disclosed.
Just tried to edit a comment of mine about the elevations at Kherson. But it didn't seem to take. So here is a comment solely devoted to it.
The southern side of the Dniper, the 'left bank' of the Dniper,, is the lower. As I first suggested and contrary to what Scott mockingly states in his agitated polemic:
Or this is all wrong:
https://en-gb.topographic-map.com/map-p4c5mt/Kherson/?center=46.39431%2C31.96884&zoom=9
Thank you Scott !! And --a new arrival -- Garland Nixon is truly outstanding:
• https://rumble.com/v1tk95q-freeze-this-conflict-or-escalate-wgarland-nixon-live.html
Freeze this conflict or escalate w/Garland Nixon (Live) – 1:13 hours (Ukraine focus)
• https://rokfin.com/stream/25253 -- Nov 9 – good – 1:15 hours
MIDTERM REVIEW - BOTH HOUSES STILL OPEN
• https://rokfin.com/stream/25205 -- Nov 8 -- Outstanding 1:09hours
MID TERMS 2020 - A REFERENDUM ON DARK BRANDON