On Monday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said Ukraine was “well prepared” to launch a counteroffensive against Russian forces thanks to the support the US and NATO have provided.
“So, I think it’s too early to tell what outcomes are going to happen. I think the Ukrainians are very well prepared, as you know very well. The United States and other allied countries in Europe and really around the world have provided training and ammunition and advice, intelligence, et cetera, to the Ukrainians,” Milley told CNN.
“We’re supporting them. They’re in a war that’s an existential threat for the very survival of Ukraine. And it has greater meaning to the rest of the world, for Europe, really, for the United States, but also for the globe,” he added.
Milley’s comments came a day after Russia said Ukraine launched a “large-scale offensive” in the Donetsk oblast. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed it thwarted the offensive and inflicted heavy losses on the Ukrainians.
For their part, Ukrainian officials denied the Russian claims. But later on Monday, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said that Kyiv was shifting toward offensive actions “in some areas,” and US officials told The New York Times that the counteroffensive has likely started, citing satellite data.
Several more Ukrainian attacks were reported in the Donbas region on Monday. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner Group, said Ukrainian forces made gains on the outskirts of Bakhmut in the village of Berkhivka. Denis Pushilin, the head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, said the situation outside of Bakhmut was “under control” but “very difficult.”
Despite Milley’s assurances that Ukrainian forces are well prepared for the assault, Pentagon documents leaked on Discord, and recent media reports have shown that US officials do not believe Ukraine can regain much territory from Russia. Regardless, the Biden administration has made clear it plans to keep supporting Kyiv and won’t push for diplomacy.
Well, apparently not… They’ve lost more than 1500 grunts, 28 tanks and 109 IFVs in one day. Including 8 Leopards and 3 French tanks on wheels.
https://www.ruptly.tv/en/videos/20230606-501-russia-1-500-troops-8-leopard-tanks-destroyed-during-afu-offensive-in-south-donetsk-konashenkov
No wonder Pentagon doesn’t want to ship their pitiful M1 Ara-bums to Ukraine. They don’t want it to become target practice for the Russians.
I would ignore the blather from Milley.
Honestly what else was he going to say?
The truth?
Who blew up the dam?
Who knows?
If the Ukrainians are really dumb enough to think that getting Crimea back is plausible, it’s worth noting that the reservoir created by the dam is a major fresh water supply source to the peninsula for e.g. irrigation. But that seems like much longer-term thinking than one would expect. I suppose it could be PART of the supposed “counter-offensive,” but not a very smart part if so.
In the short term, it’s probably a much bigger headache for the Ukrainians than for the Russians:
1) If the flooding covers and/or impedes movement in areas where the vaunted “counter-offensive” was aimed , a whole bunch of planning/positioning just went for naught. Back to the drawing board.
2) The flooding amounts to a free natural obstacle, freeing up Russian troops to leave territory they were never going to get to keep anyway, so they can be used in e.g. Donetsk.
Honestly if it stops a battle by making it too wet then by killing a bunch of people it was a smart move.
Some good ‘ol old- school fighting from WW2 ( and throughout history) is what we have here.
Water will subside into old river beds and that dam might even be rebuildable if US “experts” from various US agencies do not get involved and muck things up over endangered species and environmental dangers.
In fact quite a few environmentalists really hate dams and are applauding this dam’s demise in their demented ways.
“Honestly if it stops a battle by making it too wet then by killing a bunch of people it was a smart move.”
I agree.
We might need to wait for Hersh to chime in before we decide who did this (or not;-)
While I find the “who did it” question mildly interesting, I don’t have an expectation of certainty on the matter unless one side or the other admits it.
well ukraine sort of admitted it in advance =
“last year, Ukrainian Maj. Gen. Andriy Kovalchuk told the Washington Post he considered attacking the dam”
but who knows
All it does at the end make troops available for elsewhere.
Ukraine has a much smaller base to draw from so this will help them perhaps in the brutal numbers game when one gets into percentages of those available to die?
However, the battles are what matter, not the ones you avoid like the one in this area that will be dried up in 6 months.
It stopped a battle that was never going to happen anyway…
Thousands of lives ruined for the sake of a face saving excuse.
Cowardice in carnet.
During the Korean “police action”, we took out a few dams. We also killed quite a few North Koreans, leveled quite a few cities, even killed some of our allied (South Korean) fighters. That war is still on. It has been on pause at the 38th parallel. A nice money maker for the MIC that Ike warned about in his farewell speech. Still making money. So many countries to make war at and for the MIC to make bank, so little time.
Since when is the man with his hair on fire and trying to put it out with a hammer concerned about a headach… WISE UP!
I bet the Europeans are getting tired of the US using Europe for their money -making wars.
Not really the EU elite will see us all poverty stricken to please their masters in Washington hence the silence over NS2.
Wasn’t it Einstein who said: World War Three would be our last?….
Albert Einstein is often quoted as having said: “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones”.
“On Monday, Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said Ukraine was “well prepared” to launch a counteroffensive against Russian forces thanks to the support the US and NATO have provided.”
Oh, he’s a smart/nasty one. You see what the general did there? If the offensive goes well, it’s mainly because of our support. And if it fails utterly, it is entirely Ukraine’s fault, since we gave them everything they needed. Either way, we are blameless and ready to move on.
Sort of like if a quarterback has a great game, it is all on the quarterback. However, if the quarterback throws 5 interceptions, 2 being pick 6’s, it is on the coach for the play calling.
double-ought SNAP!
oh SNAP!
“Milley Says Ukraine ‘Well Prepared’ for Counteroffensive Due to US, NATO Support”
Yes Ukraine is quite prepared to die as a nation.
On day one they lost 8 Leopard tanks.
Operation Failarossa.
This is what happens in war, in case the effete boutique General had forgotten.
It’s mighty fine of General Miley to tell us that Ukraine is “well prepared”. But it makes me wonder if someone from Ukraine, someone who actually knows what’s going on, would agree that Ukraine is “well prepared”.
Wait. Are you suggesting that some third world country knows what is better for them then our glorious, freedom-loving, democratically-elected, Western leaders?! You sound like fascist Russian propaganda Putin sympathizer.
They’re sending their secret weapon, Don Julio over there to negotiate a surrender from Russia.
that is Agent Julio to you pal.
he is a double-knot spy after all.
As we no longer get news from RT ect ect they fully expect us to believe Western propaganda , the fact is Ukraine dosen`t have the INFANTRY to come any where near beating Russia , Infantry win wars .
What, are you in Europe or something? Over here in the US, we get RT just fine. I don’t even have to use a VPN to access it.
I used to get it on cable TV.. Not anymore. You have to go online. Next they’ll scrub it from there like they did Press TV.
No worries, the truth will out.
Ah — I haven’t had cable TV in years, so I didn’t notice RT disappearing from there.
And Press TV is still alive and well online.
Yeah if you want it you can beat the blockade but why should you have to go to the trouble? .. What is it that they’re saying that the West can’t dispute or refute without resorting to blatant censorship?
What “blockade?”
I can read/watch RT, Sputnik, PressTV, etc. exactly as easily as I can read/watch CNN, Fox, NPR, etc.
Are CNN, Fox, NPR, etc. under “blockade?”
Press TV had their platform or site or whatever you want to call it actually seized by the Gov’t. That’s what it says when I hit the button that used to get me there.
I quote: “THIS WEBSITE HAS BEEN SEIZED” all caps and then written in Arabic or Farsi directly underneath along with the seals of FBI and Dept. of Commerce…
I know there are work arounds but Iran has been singled out for this form of censorship. Put presstv.com in the address bar and see what you get.
PressTV’s URL is presstv.ir.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e8eb7a498ec404685d838ec248c92d706c754cdf85f315d2393893bec92b74ee.jpg
That’s great if you happen to know the .ir in the suffex but most people are only familiar with the .com, .org, .gov handles.
Clearly it’s an attempt to suppress free speech and keep Americans ignorant.
You ok with that?
I’m not OK with any government seizing any domain for any reason. Nor am I OK with the US government’s attempts to suppress free speech and keep Americans ignorant.
But your specific ignorance here is self-imposed. The location of PressTV was one click away on any search engine the whole time.
Fortunately, ICANN has ruled that country-specific domains (such as .ir) cannot be seized in court proceedings. So that particular method of censorship is unavailable to the US government.
And I found it but only because I was looking for it. The Gov’t is counting on most people just shrugging and assuming it’s scrubbed. That is the cowardly chickenshit method of infowar that you’re so casually dismissing.. Libertarian?
Yeah right.
You might want to acquaint yourself with the idea that it’s possible to be against X without thinking that every instance of someone being inconvenienced by having to click a couple of times is an End Times Indicator variety of X.
And you think they went to all the trouble of seizing their domain and pitching down their flag of repression is in order to inflict inconvenience on the occasional wanderer in search of an alternative narrative… Wise up.
Incidentally you wrote an entire article about Boycotts and their merits without mentioning the one Boycott that has been actively criminalized in the Land of the Free.. The BDS movement. You’re indignation to “x” is mighty selective.
“Incidentally you wrote an entire article about Boycotts and their merits without mentioning the one Boycott that has been actively criminalized in the Land of the Free.. The BDS movement. You’re indignation to ‘x’ is mighty selective.”
The articles I write are op-eds for publication in mainstream newspapers. I write about BDS when it’s in the news cycle — such as here and here. At the moment, BDS isn’t much of a headline item, but I’ve been keeping an eye on it (e.g. the Allied Universal/G4S pullout from Israel, new legislation from that idiot Marco Rubio to further criminalize BDS), and may do another column on it soon.
They “went to all the trouble of seizing their domain” for the purpose of throwing a big celebratory press conference about how “tough on Iran” they are. They knew they wouldn’t stop anyone who wanted to see PressTV from seeing PressTV. Was it disgusting? Yeah. Just not very effective at anything other than throwing red meat to their “get Iran” base.
BDS isn’t much of a headline item, but I’ve been keeping an eye on it.
Oh, let the MSM decide on what you react to. Never mind the insult to basic civil liberties, if you’re not in vogue you get no support… What a poser you are!
A “poser” is someone who pretends to be someone he’s not.
I make no pretense that my op-eds are written for any other purpose than trying to get picked up by mainstream newspapers.
One can often get an op-ed published that argues against the consensus/establishment narrative (one editor who runs my op-eds got threatened with assault over it at his local grocery store; he loved that, because it told him people were reading the paper).
What one cannot often do is get an op-ed published about an issue that isn’t currently on readers’ radar. Their radar screen is the news cycle, and the opinion cycle must slavishly follow that news cycle.
I write op-eds about issues that are in the news and that I expect to still be in the news for the next 5-7 days, so that they’re still interesting to readers by the time they get published. Occasionally — VERY occasionally — I’ll take the risk of writing about something that isn’t in the news cycle yet but that I expect to pop up there in the next few days. Then I hope editors will take a chance on it and make me look prescient.
my op-eds are written for any other purpose than trying to get picked up
My apologies… You’re a whore.
Yes, I work for a living. I’m unsurprised to learn that you consider doing so beneath you.
rense.com carries a lot of RT articles
“The United States and other allied countries in Europe and really around the world have provided training and ammunition and advice, intelligence, et cetera, to the Ukrainians,” Milley told CNN.
Yes, those thousands upon thousands who have died since late March of 2022 really appreciate it. They’d like to express their gratitude, but they can’t because they’re fucking dead.
But they died for a good cause, for the entire world, apparently. I know I sleep better at night knowing there’s an extended and unending war in Ukraine. So I really appreciate the sacrifice …
The U.S. and Israel have been the biggest threats to world peace for some time. I see where Netanyahu is trying to get things going over there in the Middle East. Why not, let’s get another major conflict going, and we can tie them all together and just say “Ok, we have now achieved our goal, WW3”.
If it is true that Trump took home with him a classified document that had plans to attack Iran, then I would guess that will be the next main event for the MIC. Yesterday, I read about Iran’s navy chief speaking about joint naval operations with other ME countries. (Trump admitted, in a taped conversation, that because it was classified, he could not show it)
When talking about US allies the term to use is LACKEYS because even when they know the US is wrong they still side with the US , Europe could have prevented this war but they don`t have the guts to stand up to the US .
During the 3 days of fighting in the US/NATO offensive the losses reached 3,715 troops, 52 battle tanks, 207 armoured fighting vehicles, 134 motor vehicles, 5 aircraft, 2 helicopters, 48 pieces of field artillery and 53 unmanned aerial vehicles.
At the same time, a total of 71 servicemen died and 210 were wounded in repelling the Kyiv offensive. The Russian losses in military equipment were 15 battle tanks, 9 infantry fighting vehicles, 2 motor vehicles and 9 guns.
Estimated value of the equipment losses is 1 billion. The BEST MONEY US/NATO EVER SPENT. Arrest them all for the supreme international criminals they are.