Russia: gloves off

The "Electric War " made simple

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia had been obliged to launch strikes that have inflicted heavy damage on Ukrainian energy sites in response to Kyiv's attacks on Russian targets.

The Kremlin leader, quoted by Russian news agencies, was speaking to his ally, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, after overnight attacks destroyed a large electricity plant near Kyiv and hit power facilities in several regions of Ukraine.

The president said the strikes were part of the process of "demilitarisation" of Ukraine -- one of the objectives he cited when he sent Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

"Unfortunately, we observed a series of strikes on our energy sites recently and were obliged to respond," Putin was quoted as saying.

"The strikes on energy are linked in part with solving one of the tasks we set for ourselves, and that is demilitarisation. We believe above all that in this way we will affect Ukraine's military industrial complex and in a very direct way."

Russia, he said, had refrained from carrying out such attacks in winter "out of humanitarian considerations.

"What I mean is that we didn't want to leave social institutions without power, hospitals and the like," he said. But he said the Ukrainian strikes -- mainly on oil refineries in many different Russian regions in recent weeks -- prompted Moscow to respond. Reuters. April 11.

Reuters for once did not editorialize—amazingly— since most of the Mainstream Media as well as much of the Alternative Media seemed to follow the Ukrainian line. The Mainstream Media characterized the Russian strikes as attempts to make Ukrainian cities unlivable – vicious attacks on the Ukrainian people themselves. Some in the Alternative Media saw the strikes as forced evacuation of cities to undermine the credibility of the current regime and simplify military movement once southern Ukraine had been liberated. Both sets of media seemed to see ordinary people as targets – which they definitely weren't.

One should keep in mind that both Kharkov and Odessa are Russian cities. The Russian attacks were intended to hurt Ukraine’s military capabilities, while reducing the country's air defense capabilities, along with logistics.

Stil the Ukrainians framed these strikes as attacks on the people of Ukraine — as I said, attempts to make Ukrainian cities unlivable.

As Putin says, if the Russians had really wanted to do such a thing, they would've attacked power plants during the winter.

They do not want to cause more suffering for fellow Russians already enduring the cruelties of Ukrainian occupation.

Of course, the Ukrainians are fortifying major cities especially Kharkov and Odessa whose Russian populations will become hostages unless they can leave now.

Not being able to charge your cellphone is a minor inconvenience. Having your legs blow off is a bigger one. It is better for the citizens of these big cities to get out of harm's way.

The Russians had no intention of destroying the entire Ukrainian power grid. The Ukraine still has energy available from nuclear power plants— just not enough for daily life and military industry at the same time.

The Russian strikes hit Kiev, Kharkov, and the Zaporizhia and Lviv regions.

Targets were more diverse than reported.

More than 100 mercenaries – perhaps 150 in all — died in Kharkov. Ukrainians of course denied any casualties.

Thanks to Slavyangrad

As of today, more than 500 American mercenaries have died in Ukraine, according to some estimates, counting recent admissions to graveyards.

Well, Reuters was pretty factual— but that wasn't really the trend in the Western media—especially in those cancerous organs that expel waste from the alimentary canal of the Deep State — CNN, Newsweek, the NYT, WaPo, and the like.

Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in an attempt to break the country’s power grid and, with it, the Ukrainian people’s spirit, by depriving them of electricity, heat, water and other essential services in the often-freezing winter temperatures. CNN.

As I mentioned this is the Ukrainian “line” – obviously hoping to piggyback on the suffering of Gaza.

There were also outright lies.

Ukraine has previously coped with significant power losses. The biggest loss came shortly after the invasion, when Russian forces seized control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant – the largest in Europe – which previously accounted for about 20% of the country’s power generation. Ukrainian staff have since put the plant’s reactors into a “cold shutdown” status to prevent a major radioactive incident.

The ZNPP was not put into cold shutdown by “Ukrainian staff”, but by its Russian staff – in so far as the people of southern and much of eastern Ukraine—and certainly the staff at the power station are Russian. The shutdown was the result of Ukie attacks—although Zelensky claimed the Russians did it themselves to garner sympathy of their lost cause. They are still running with this story, despite it having been debunked many times.

The US government joined the mob.

Russia is playing a very dangerous game with its military seizure of Ukraine’s nuclear power plant, which is the largest in Europe. It’s dangerous that they’ve done that and we continue to call on Russia to withdraw its military and civilian personnel from the plant, to return full control of the plant to the competent Ukrainian authorities, and refrain from taking any actions that could result in a nuclear incident at the plant. Matthew Miller, Spokesperson for US Department of State

Like Crocus, it’s all Russia’s fault!

The Ukrainian Nazis, NATO, and US are up to their noses and sinking fast into the proverbial swamp. As I have been writing now ad nauseum (pun intended), there is no escape. At the end of this, there will be no independent Ukraine as there once was. Who knows? Maybe there'll be no NATO. No US. One can always hope!

Very soon, the only topic for any international meetings on Ukraine will be the unconditional surrender of the Kiev regime. I advise all of you to prepare for this in advance…

And

Ukraine today is nothing more than a private military company fighting for the West and with Western weapons to the last Ukrainian. Russian Permanent Representative, UN Security Council.

The US has chosen a Win-Lose game against Russia and China, if not the world. For the sake of world peace, it must lose.

This is my voiceover for SouthFront done last night. Not one of my best efforts and I didn’t write it. But it has good graphics (as usual). Please support SF. I would support them if I had any money — but not having any — I do voiceovers for free.

Wagging the heart

Some years ago, I went back to Canada for my father's funeral.

My parents lived in 100-year-old English cottage surrounded by trees halfway up the mountain.

My mother had no room for me and I stayed with the neighbors next door who also lived in an old house, with the lovely garden, a 20-year-old cat and a golden retriever about 12 years old.

The funeral, which was attended by my entire diversely dysfunctional family, was very stressful. For one thing — my brother was sick with cancer, and I suspected he didn't have too much longer – which turned out to be the case.

Then I got very sick— with gastroenteritis and was in bed for five days, with my mind churning things I didn't want to think about

During that time Goldie, the Golden Retriever, stayed beside my bed to keep me company. And I stopped thinking about things which I couldn't change anyway.

There is something about the immediacy of an animal's love. It heals the heart. Which helps the body heal too.

“Home” is not a place—it is a memory. It is love.

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