Anonymous US officials claimed to NBC News that US intelligence helped Ukraine sink the Russian warship Moskva, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
The officials said the Moskva sank on April 14 after Ukraine launched two Neptune anti-ship missiles at the vessel. For their part, the Russians insist the Moskva sank in rough seas after a fire that was caused by an ammunition explosion.
The officials said that Ukraine asked for information about a ship sailing in the Black Sea south of Odesa that the US identified as the Moskva. The US helped confirm the location of the Moskva, and then the Ukrainians fired on the ship.
According to the officials, the US didn’t know in advance that Ukraine was going to fire on the Moskva and said the US wasn’t involved in the decision-making. Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the US has expanded its intelligence sharing with Ukraine to help target Russian forces.
The NBC report is the second time in two days that US officials made specific claims on what US intelligence is enabling in the war between Ukraine and Russia. On Wednesday, The New York Times reported that US intelligence was helping Ukraine kill Russian generals.
The Pentagon downplayed the Times report and said the US wasn’t sharing intelligence with Ukraine on the location of Russian military leaders but wouldn’t deny details outlined in the report.
While the claims about the Russian generals and the Moskva aren’t confirmed, they signal an escalation in the US information war against Moscow. Previously, the US had been hesitant to share details of its intelligence sharing with Ukraine over fears of provoking Moscow.
When a Zircon sinks a US aircraft carrier, the US will finally learn that they’re involved in this war. That day is coming if the US doesn’t back off.
Pretty unlikely, usually a missile strike puts a big hole in the ship kills about 30 guys and the ship is withdrawn from service. Unless the owners of the ship are stupid enough to decorate the deck with tens of tons of high explosive rocket fuel.
Not so. There are armor piercing shells and torpedoes that have the power of bunker busters.
HMS Sheffield, HMS Glamorgan, USS Stark, Exocet strikes 360 lb warhead. Armor piercing would be stupid these days, that would put the missile going clean through the ship and exploding somewhere on the other side. Now as to Russian wunderwaffens well so far we haven’t seen much.
Not with a timer. Modern torpedoes have that capacity. Or, hit the stern where steerage and drive are located. No drive, no steerage, no go. Let the target practice begin.
not so, the Finnish and Poles have perfected nuclear hand grenades.
Totally tactical and matches Tactical flashlights and Tactical sun visors.
Aircraft carriers carry all the fuel of the jet fighters and bombers, and of all the rockets and bombs on the jets.
The Chinese carrier-killer detonates above the group in a kind of shard-like blades that destroy the superstructures of the ships, particularly the flight deck on the carrier.
Makes sense; better to disable and force back to port, rather than kill, a nuclear powered carrier close to your own waters.
US carriers are made of armour-grade steel and compartmentalized so as to be nigh-unsinkable.
I heard that Turkey isn’t allowing military vessels to pass between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Not sure if it’s true, though.
Russia can hit them from Syria. Besides the Russian Med Fleet, there are supposedly MiG-31K with Kinzhal hypersonic missiles at Hmeimem air base. They went to Syria in February – coincidence? I think not. In addition, Russian ships from the Black Sea probably can hit them. Zircon has a range of at least 1,500km or 900+ miles, so it depends on the US Fleet’s location in the Med. The Kinzhal has a range of over 1,200 miles. Not sure if any of the Russian subs at sea have been fitted with either or where they are located.
Closest US carrier is USS Harry S. Truman, in the Med, the rest, nowhere near. As of May 3, they all seem to be back at their main bases.
https://southfront.org/locations-of-us-carrier-strike-groups-may-3-2022/
Russia will not likely be the first to engage directly NATO forces.
Even the Biden regime is sticking to the no-direct-engagement rule for proxy wars.
Short of the US donating a US aircraft carrier to Ukraine, we are not likely to see Zircon vs US carrier short of a real screwup in the sabre-rattling.
In which case, we wouldn’t know or care, being dead or distracted by a nuclear war.
Does anyone really think the Ukrainians did that all by themselves?
“anonymous US officials claim ….. ”
hilarious that republicans are up in arms about the so-called leak of a SCOTUS memo about abortion law but not a peep out of them regarding these “anonymous officials”
We need some denials. Look I am sure it is true, but it really isn’t helpful. Unless they have a really good read on VP’s psychology and this is what he needs to hear to realize he is beaten.
Perhaps the leak was meant to wake up the idiots making decisions that could get us killed.
We are learning that the United States is already involved in this war as a behind-the-scenes participant. How long can we keep this up without being dragged openly into the war?
Yes, but why are we learning it? That is, any time something like this is leaked purposefully, the question is what’s the angle?
Mostly to instill fear in the sheeple and make the WEF-fen GS Reset attempt seem more natural when its imposed.
Although Russia is getting roasted bad, the navel-gazing Globalist Socialist oligarchs are still more focused on taming the Western middle classes at any cost and resetting the power gap.
Whether or not Russia wins or loses in Ukraine, no matter what the Western warmonger oligarchs want to come out on top of their own heap of rubble.
Its just that the level of recklessness is beyond stunningly unprecedented.
If this were ‘back in the day, the answer would be indefinitely. Today, doubts are understandable.
The original Afghan trap set by Carter/Brzezinski was done by very competent operators in an era of unity behind the fascade of US leadership. There were no loose cannon factions to worry about.
The Afghanization of Ukraine, does not seem as tightly planned and run.
There seem to be factions who want a greater war, and pushing against the Biden regime’s reluctance to break the traditional rules of engagement.
Poland and Romania entering any country with Russian troops (Moldova/Transnistria, or Western Ukraine) is either war with Russia or an Article 5 snub a-la-Turkey when Russia fires upon them going after strategic targets. Never mind US troops.
This could be just bluffing to intimidate Russia and make them say undiplomatic things for the benefit of the MSM.
On the other hand, someone might take this too seriously and follow through, like when Turkey shot down that Russian SU-24 in Syria.
Monday Congressman Seth Moulton (D-MA) opined on Fox, with visible glee, “We are at war with Russia.” These morons in DC believe they are in a made-for-TV replay movie of WWII but this time they get to go after Russia. And they believe they know how it will end — because we know how WWII ended, right? These idiots haven’t even bothered to update their playbooks.
Operation drop shot tells you how the Americans hate Russia / Russians , the plan was to wipe out the Russian people and occupie Russia with NATO Bases to make sure any surviving Russians could not take back their country.
The Europhile American political elite hates Russians, perpetuating a European feud that has little meaning to everyday Americans.
There are far more Americans pushing back against this warmongering insanity, but find themselves a few steps shut out of the levers of power.
At what point does this stop being a proxy war and just start being a war with Russia? ….
When Russia shoots back.
Bet all those AWACS aircraft operating over the Black Sea are starting to look mighty tempting.
Maybe even their base in the Rhineland
Presumably NATO and US DOD are praying that the Russian MOD will take that bait.
“Presumably the Neocons are praying that the Russian MOD will take that bait.”
FTFY, no charge.
A distinction without a difference
State and NSC, yes. DoD just might know better, being the ones who would be killed.
Only at the operational and tactical levels.
There’s been a longstanding a glass ceiling for America First types, but it seems to have been lowered. The motivation and competence of patriots was useful, but only so far.
Even an American Empire believer like Lt. Gen William Odom would likely find himself very out of place in today’s Deep State.
Doesn’t anyone in the Kremlin realize that Putin is following Biden’s game plan?
Or, Putin is gaming the Reset and the Kremlin agrees with the strategy.
The hot war in Ukraine may be going poorly, but the real war is the geopolitical economic-diplomatic war.
Here, Russia is doing far better. The Russian domestic economy has decoupled itself from the West by the West’s own hand. This disempowers and thoroughly discredits Russian Atlanticists.
Add to that, the Russian economy is proving resilient, surviving decoupling, finding work-arounds, and even seeing some benefits for internal development.
Meanwhile the West has cut themselves off from one of the most competitive sources of energy and raw materials, for which there is no substitute if for no other reason than there was no preparation.
Meanwhile, if we beat back the WEF-fen SS Reset, the lost ground abetted by Russia’s contribution to breaking supply chains will take more than one generation to make up for. Advantage Russia on a Western own-goal.
If the Reset goes through, we lose the Eurasian century trying to be more autocratic and totalitarian than our worst projection of the Eurasians. Our negative projections of Eurasia are used to justify being as bad then worse.
While it would seem to us our elites would be more dangerous as total losers with nothing to lose, from Putin’s perspective, there’s marginal difference. The West is Russophobically nuke-happy and warmongering whether Reset or not.
Internationally, the West is either astonishingly tone deaf or the elites are dropping the mask of the sociopath in a final attempt to assert dominance.
Demanding non-White powers back white supremacist neo Nazi Ukraine against Russia, is such a total non-starter. At the very least, Russia enables their independence; they get why the West has decided Russia must be destroyed.
Yet across the global south aggressive arm-twisting continues to force Russophobia upon them.
Reset is Hitler’s Revanche redux. It is as doomed as Hitler’s plan was.
Russia’s GDP is shrinking (about 30% down since Maidan, and its population falling for along time. The Russian military appears to be dysfunctional. Putin is leading his country to disaster and isolation.
By all measures Russia was in a better strategic position 90 days ago when it was regarded as a conventional superpower and Ukraine’s aspirations to NATO and EU membership were sidetracked and opposed by many NATO members.
Now Finland and Sweden are joining NATO with Ukraine and Georgia soon to follow. Putin’s fiasco in Ukraine has exposed the Russian Army to ridicule. The Russian military apears unmotivated, poorly led, uncertain of its mission and lacking confidence in its capacity to win. Russia is losing the war.
By the end of the week will will know if the passivity of the Rusisan army in Donbas was a prelude to a renewed offensive coinciding with V-E day or if the Russian mission in Ukraine failed.
I am truly surprised at the inepitude of the Russian military. I expected the Ukrainians would be fighting a guerrilla war by now. The Russians are not performing like an army that could win a war against NATO when they can’t even pacify Donbas in the Ukraine.
The US is also a declining power. But since the breakup of the USSR, Russia has been declining quicker. Putin’s war is accelerating Russia’s decline.
Putin is not to blame for the Russian economy. Most world economies are inevitably failing to thrive or outright declining.
The world economy is declining because world populations are aging and becoming less productive. Young people, are no longer the dominant demographic in most countries, which means its harder to support the growing elderly demographic. Productive labour is still the most important resource.
The easy economic model of endless econommic growth and expansion on the backs of young workers and consumers is over.
Meanwile the greatest turnover of wealth from one massive Boomer generation to the next far smaller Millenial and Z demgraphic is ongoing.
Governments under the super-rich oligarchs of the political elite, aren’t letting this turnover of wealth pass with making a correspondingly great wealth grab of their own via the Reset.
The population decline problem is least apparent in Africa, which has the most countries with the youngest populations in the world.
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-youngest-populations-in-the-world.html
However, the West is aging out fast.
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-with-the-largest-aging-population-in-the-world.html
Russia, also never recovered from the massive casualties exprienced during the Communist Revolution then WWII.
https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-demographic-data-dip-as-small-1990s-generation-comes-of-age/30373049.html
Urban modernization did not help Russia recover from that; the Western ideal of mass urbanization contributes to population decline. (Africa is still has a large rural culture)
https://www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/long-reads/population-growth-contraction-china-india-b1929094.html
The most rural countries in the world are African, naturally.
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/working-on-the-land-the-world-s-major-rural-populations.html
“Putin is not to blame for the Russian economy. Most world economies are inevitably failing to thrive or outright declining.”
True. In fact, Putin seems to be doing a remarkably good job of limiting the damage and reorienting foreign trade to keep things rolling where he finds it helpful and to put on the brakes where he sees that it will damage his opponents.
A lot of people seem to think he wants to reconstitute the Russian empire. I’ve always seen him as wanting to stem its decline at some point that preserves his notions of “core Russian territory” and “core Russian interests.” He’s unlikely to succeed at that, but not as unlikely as the US. The two empires are in decline. Russia just went earlier and faster than the US for a little while. A hundred years from now, it’s unlikely that either will be the preeminent “world power,” if there even is one.
Actually from 2013 until the end of 2020 China’s GDP grew by 35%, and the US grew by 20% while Russia’s GDP declined by 35%. The USA GDP began declining in 2020 and continues to decline while China’s growth has slowed. Russia was in deep economic trouble. It is ironic that the Democrats accuse Putin of manipulating Trump. From a Russian standpoint it seems that Biden is controlling Putin. Putin is doing exactly what the neo-liberal want him to do – degrading the Russian military, its economy and its diplomatic standing in a war that Russia can’t win.
Tragically Putin’s attempt to Reset the strategic imbalance in Europe. like Hitler’s Revanche, comes too late and is doomed to fail. Putin misunderstood and underestimated Ukrainian nationalism is leading his country to a disaster that, in the short run, will strengthen US/NATO imperialism.
I wish Putin talked to Xi before invading Ukraine. Xi would have explained to Putin the alternatives to military force that Putin could have pursued. Like supporting an indigenous Ukrainian resistance to Maidan and cooperating with China in a carrot and stick approach to convince Ukraine of the advantages of maintaining good economic relations with Russia and China.
Economic growth measures the conversion of non-monetized wealth into money. There are two measures, nominal GDP and Purhasing Power Parity (PPP) GDP.
https://statisticstimes.com/economy/gdp-nominal-vs-gdp-ppp.php
So despite being ranked 11th in the world by GDP,
https://www.worldometers.info/gdp/gdp-by-country/
Russia is 6th in the world by PPP,
https://www.globalfirepower.com/purchasing-power-parity.php
The West offered China the chance to become the next Hong Kong on a national scale in the late 1970s. China took it. The world’s largest population was harnessed as sweatshop factory labour. A swathe of the Western working class found many factory jobs, already endangered by tech and skill change, offshored.
China took the money earned from foreign investment and poured it back into infrastructure. China’s meteoric growth was due to rapid modernization, going from an underdeveloped 19th century economy to a technologically modern one only a few decades. China was also investing in the rest of the world with their newfound fortune, determined to expand their markets beyond the West.
Russia had to deal with the cost of WWII, then the cost of communism and the Soviet empire, and then fall of communism and splintering of their empire, which included losses of land to the Ukraine.
While throughout the late 20th century and early millennium China was being given a leg up by Western investment, Russia was being plundered by quisling Russian oligarchs and their Western counterparts. The Russian miracle is that they’re still standing and their purchasing power parity is more or less equal to the West. Russia can efficiently convert their wealth into money, such that while lacking in population, they can compensate with ingenuity.
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/05/06/megalopolis-x-russia-total-war/
The Western world benefited immensely from both phases of Chinese development, the greatest benefactors being the US, then nations of the Pacific Anglosphere, Australia and New Zealand.
https://www.uschina.org/sites/default/files/Oxford%20Economics%20US%20Jobs%20and%20China%20Trade%20Report.pdf
Europe also benefited, but to a far smaller degree. They were profiting but falling well behind the meteoric rise of natural giants and geographically well-placed. Within decades the EU might cease to be geopolitically relevant. Probably peaceful and prosperous, but no longer in charge.
Chinese money and Russian ingenuity had become a problem.
So Europe’s long-term oligarchal planners decided it was time for the great decoupling.
https://blog.oxfordeconomics.com/trumps-trade-war-with-china-has-cost-us-job
This coincided with couple of other developments in China – A rise in the price of labour, Chinese workers wanted better paying jobs, and China’s workforce was rapidly aging, the one child per family policy meant far fewer replacement workers. This seemed like the perfect time to cut China loose, having outlived their usefullness.
Russia had been modern China’s mentor in geopolitics. Its doubtful the Chinese could dissuade Putin from his course. Russia had warned China of Western caprice; China did not quite believe till Trump’s trade war became Biden’s China trade war.
Russia believes they are nipping a problem in the bud, not setting off a potentially greater explosion.
He who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client, he who is his own doctor has a fool for a patient, and it seems Putin may have been too close to Ukraine to be his own military geostrategist.
Russia is winning geo-politcally and geo-economically, but the Ukraine war can still determine if those victories endure.
Bait?
We are baiting them?
If we are then I hope they put the threat down hard with no half measures.
There are people here that are willing to see the east coast go away to sell more snakeoil.
We are needling them and taunting them as if they will back down -especially now that Billions of financial aid is flowing to Ukraine, much of it would be considered our Gain and boon of War spoils that Russians abandoned in WAR but we just pirated it.
We looted Russians to harm them all and they hate NAZIS.
It requires no bait to continue this war or to escalate it.
We looted Russia and are targeting russian military leadership.
We assassinated the Tsar too.
We should be begging for peace.
can anyone tell me what we have in place here for defending ourselves from missiles? How safe are we from incoming missiles?
Anyone?
Why are we so smug?
If one ventures over Russian territory………………
Blah, blah.
Itching to take credit — and not wanting to be responsible. Ukraine did it! Surre. Provided that anybody did anything.
They are lying as usual, US&NATO Generals are in Command of all Ukrainian Military Operations.
If this was real Intel, why would it be shared with the press? Do they think the Russians believe the US press? Do they think this will make the US public feel good about their recession? This is just the press drumming up click bait.
I get a bit sick of the use of the word “intelligence” all the time for the behavior of the USA and its minions to destroy anyone they cannot control. Why not use a bit of human intelligence ie brains instead of lies, violence, domination, assumption of your rights to remove anyone and anything you disapprove of, just to be “top dog” and rule the world. Evidence so far shows how harmful is your “intelligence”.
I had just been thinking that Putin might choose to use a flight of carrier-killer missiles to splash a whole carrier group. It looks like that will be necessary to get the respect of these fools in Washington.
It was a very big mistake for Romania to allow US/NATO maritime surveillance aircraft flying out of NATO’s new Romanian air hub to provide targeting info for the Ukrainians to attack the MOSKOVA. For the Russians, this is sufficient evidence to qualify both US/NATO maritime surveillance aircraft in the Black Sea and their Romanian air base as active military combatants and legitimate targets for Russian SAM and surface attack missiles. Romania and NATO to not have Russia’s regional escalation dominance which means they will have to cease their NATO /US surveillance activity in the Black Sea
Putin has shown a measure of restraint.
It’s true.
Old Yellar has gone sick with ferrel animal bite, but eventually he has to go squirrel hunting one last time out back of the woodpile.
Putin has shown G R E A T restraint.
Russia can’t attack any NATO country within their own borders without provoking a legit NATO Article 5.
So, Russia can’t and won’t retaliate upon Romanian soil.
Russia may not be happy with the Romanians, but neither can they do anything about NATO’s use of them.
Are you sure? Russia has previously decided in Syria and warned the US that their policy will be to counter attack any US aircraft and their air bases involved in attacking Russia forces. It now appears that US maritime surveillance aircraft based in Romania were involved in targeting the MOSKOVA which makes the US and the Romanians active military combatant. NATO’s Article 5 not worth a bucket of warm spit to stop the Russians who don’t bluff.
US troops never entered Syria till Russia won the war, and even then went out of the way to avoid hard contact with Russian troops.
The IS US proxies went after the Russian base in Syria with failed drone swarms.
Russian PMU proxies were cratered trying to go after US marines in al Tanf with infantry and tanks with no air support, which only Russia could provide.
As for Romania giving Ukraine targeting information, you seem to be forgetting the Soviet Afghan war and how the US via the CIA supplied the Mujahedeen with intel and game-changing, war-winning Stinger MANPADS.
The rules are well-defined and haven’t changed. The neocons are gaming with misperceptions of the rules to try and escalate the war to a nuclear level.
This may be to intimidate Russia, except, some neocons really do want nuclear war.
There have always been Armageddonist cultists around trying to push the less fanatically religious and secularist warmongers too far.
During Cold War One, a vein of Judeo-Christian thinking came to embrace nuclear war as a way to bring about the return of their savior.
In the Donbass they are bleeding out NATO weapons, troops and money. It will go on for several more months until the Western governments are exhausted. Keep in mind that Moscow has only allocated 10% of its contract army, the 90% is waiting for NATO to do something stupid.
Example: Poland has just sent 200 tanks to Ukraine. In 60 days Moscow has destroyed nearly 3000 tanks. So going forward NATO needs to supply 50 tanks/day. Each tank cost is approx. 5 million, ie 300 million US$ per day just in tanks alone. The math says it all.
Its a good thing Russia ran out of missiles a month ago. If i was the EU i would PANIC.
https://www.rt.com/russia/554134-borisov-interview-defense-industry/
EU members are NOT allowed to read rt.
Did Russia really run out of missiles? Doubtful.
The “anonymous” bs again, but it’s kind of interesting that the American fascist regime has refrained from the usual gloating and bragging with regard to the incident isn’t it? Not a word since.
That said, if any US involvement can be confirmed during the investigations Russia (like the Iranians) wouldn’t hesitate to retaliate in kind. What would a sinking carrier from an attack of mister Kinzhal or mr. Zircon do to the butthurt American ego? But no. I lean more towards the English in that case, they’re the ones doing US’s dirty work for them but even they wouldn’t be that stupid. Videos and photos suggest no external impact, so most probably a mishap of some kind. Sh*t happens and she was an old beauty.
You are correct about the ship. An old crawler. Suppose the Russians used the old timer to bait Ukaaine (U.S. proxy) to see where an attack would come from, etc. A probe.
The Russians can’t strike back directly and have no proxy capable of fighting the US. While the US/NATO are really behaving recklessly, there’s so far little being done that hasn’t been done before.
Its within the rules of proxy war for Ukraine, however aided at arms length by NATO, to strike directly at Russia.
However, Russia, cannot directly strike a NATO country, or its WWIII. They need a proxy force that can withstand US ire to do this, and they don’t have such a force.
During the Iran-Iraq war, the US gave Iraqi forces all the satellite recon they needed to fight Iran.
During the Soviet Afghan war, the US gave the Jihadis Stinger missiles, then the most advanced man-portable anti aircraft missiles in the world and the one weapon most credited with defeating the Soviets.
During the Korean war, Soviet pilots fought as official Chinese Air Force pilots. Ex-mil NATO troops officially part of the Ukraine army are little different.
Nothing greatly different than before is being done now, except the scale and scope of NATO weapons aid matches Ukraine capability.
Ukraine not only gets missiles but infantry arms, artillery, tanks, drones, and aircraft plus nominal training to use them.
It will be interesting to see how NATO responds when the next country they invade the opposing side is armed to the teeth by Russia with missiles to shoot down NATO planes ect ect ect , NATO has set the precedent and will pay the price for it.
Syria is already waiting for that moment.
An act of war by a rogue regime called the Joe Biden crime family.
He sunk my battleship !
What goes around comes around
Tit for tat is inevitable.
I’m confused; The Russians claimed that it was an internal fire. Were they lying as usual?
It was the ghost of Kiev. “The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect.” — George Orwell.
No, its possible for an anti-ship missile strike to cause damage that is nonetheless quickly contained. However, secondary fires could break out.
Anyone researching the Moskva quickly realizes this was one old ship from the 1970s. No level of crew training could guarantee flawless damage control. Russia never had enough money to really upgrade and refit their Soviet legacy fleet. Older Russian naval vessels are kind of unsafe.
The Russians lost the Moskva towing it back to port in bad weather. Somewhere in the naval bureaucracy grief was possibly mixed with sighs of relief.
Rhetorical provocation of the highest order. Will Putin fall for it?
The Neocons, an Israeli fifth column that runs US foreign policy, now possessing an unprecedented freedom of action made possible by a mentally incompetent US president, pursue their obsession with the destruction of Russia, no matter who — Ukrainians, Europeans, ***or Americans*** — ends up destroyed in the process. I would bet that the “Anonymous US officials” are Neocons pushing, pushing, pushing for an all out Russia vs NATO war.
Why would any rational, reasonable, common sense person read beyond: “Anonymous US officials claimed …”?
dennis hanna
Yeah, they are provoking a wider war with Russiabragging about it. If they launch nukes or cause a plant melt down, I’m voting you out, not Putin.
Time to level the playing field.
Kiev is not in control of this war.
Burn it to the ground
Um, no. There are countless military targets still not cratered yet.
Attribution
“There is no way to trace whether there is Russian crude oil or how much crude from Russia will go into the refined products market globally,” Shell’s chief executive Ben van Beurden said on Thursday.
“We do not have systems in the world that trace back whether that particular molecule originated from a geological formation in Russia…. that doesn’t exist,” van Beurden told journalists, as carried by Reuters.
“So therefore, diesel coming out of an Indian refinery that was fed with Russian crude is considered to be Indian diesel,” Shell’s top executive added, highlighting the challenge the West faces in truly banning Russian oil from the market.
Mr. Ben van Beurden may be speaking accurately or inaccurately.
What does one understand of the difference between a “claim” or “assertion” with attribution such as Mr. Ben van Beurden and a “claim” or “assertion” without attribution such as “Anonymous US officials claimed …”?
dennis hanna
“According to the officials, the US didn’t know in advance that Ukraine
was going to fire on the Moskva and said the US wasn’t involved in the
decision-making…”
Riiight. US officials had no idea the Russophobic psychos they installed in the Ukraine military wouldn’t take the prize shot the moment one was handed to them on a silver plate.
Moscow’s plans do not include the occupation of Ukrainian territories. Since that time, an operation has been underway on the territory of Ukraine to denazify the country and liberate the civilian population from the US/NATO/EU imposed Kiev regime.
February 21 president of Russia Vladimir Putin signed a decree to recognize the independence of the DPR and LPR and promised to support the republics. On February 24, President Putin announced a special military operation in Ukraine in response to the appeal of the leaders of the republics of Donbass with a request for help.
The US/NATO/EU spent 8 years building up the military in Ukraine. This combined military failed to prevent Russian forces from shaping the battlefield. In Donbas Russia created the conditions for Ukrainian forces to be cut off, encircled, and systematically destroyed. After 8 years this was the best the US/NATO/EU could do to prepare in Ukraine.
Russia is removing US/NATO/EU combat capabilities off the battlefield in Ukraine faster than they can replace or regenerate it.
The Ukrainians do not have the ability to de-Nazify themselves; extremist groups have become too large and embedded into Ukrainian society.
To really de-Nazify all Ukraine would take a WWII-level total victory by Russia, including a period of occupation overseeing aggressive de-Nazifiation.