Kramatorsk (Краматорск) is in the north of Donetsk. The other Donbass oblast, Lugansk, has already been liberated, and most of Donetsk has also been liberated, but Kramatorsk remains a milestone, and several informed and educated military experts - not from CNN/MSNBC - see the coming Russian milestone there as being decisive, with the final surge for the total liberation of the Donbass coming shortly thereafter.
For there seems to be nothing west of Kramatorsk to stop the Russian forces from going all the way through the country.
Time's running out for Zelensky and his band of war criminals. Gonzalo Lira has gone so far as to infer, from a talk by Jake Sullivan, that the US is now gearing up for Zelensky's removal (assassination).
If we take a step back, and if we pause to realise that, of all the dozens upon dozens of military conflicts the US has instigated since WWII, there's only one it actually won, namely the Kuwait war in the early 1990s against former CIA asset Saddam Hussein. If we stop to recall how things turned out in all those other wars, then the current malaise some people in the West are currently feeling must seem familiar. For those rooting for the red white and blue, this can't be a good feeling. For those hoping to see the conflict coming to an end soon, it'd be a really good feeling. For those in Russia, or in the Donbass, or for those feeling supportive of any of those republics, it will also be a time to pause, as now begins the arduous task of reconstruction.
So many lives were lost. There's been so much pain and suffering. And it went on for so long.
To remember, of course: this didn't start out of the blue in 2022. The people of the Donbass began fortifying their public buildings before the 2014 Kiev elections which led to the Poroshenko presidency. Kiev began shelling the Donbass the very evening the results were in, on the orders of the newly elected president Poroshenko.
Declared subhuman and fit only for extermination by Kiev, Donbass residents fled for their lives over the border to Rostov in Russia. About two million made it. This was of course not covered by the media in the West. Goodness no. Not at all. The refugees in Rostov were well taken care of. The media in the West tried to pretend that any refugee movements, if they existed, were towards Kiev and the West instead.
This latest part of the conflict? It began on 24 February at 06:00 AM MSK (Moscow time). Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin had been up all night in a crisis meeting with his Security Council. He'd just given a very long speech to the world three days earlier, expounding on the mounting crisis and putting it all in context.
Putin hates Nazis. All Russians do. They lost nearly thirty million of their own through Hitler's Operation Barbarossa, the biggest attack front in military history. Every Russian family was affected. No one was spared. The memories - the nightmares - are passed on from generation to generation. The Russian people don't forget.
Nazis terrify Russians. And for good reason. Babi Yar. Stalingrad. The concentration camps. Ukrainian Nazis are the worst.
The Persecution of Alina Lipp and Graham Phillips
A morning talk by Gonzalo Lira over freshly brewing coffee. One good thing about Gonzalo's morning vids is that he's going to be up earlier than most people in western Europe, so they're available online by the time you're ready for your own first cuppa.
Both Lipp and Phillips are blocked by Google in the Ukraine, says Gonzalo. That must be a very cosy situation. How nice of you, Google. You should be able to view Graham's YouTube channel elsewhere in the West, and he has extended versions at Rumble too.
https://www.youtube.com/c/GrahamPhillipsUK/videos
The Brits just came down on Graham, says Gonzalo. He's now being sanctioned for filing reports from the Donbass. Graham's reports are often just conversations with people on the street. That's it. No more. Not a crime. But Graham's on the wrong side. Spreading the truth gets in the way of the West's geopolitical ambitions.
As for Alina Lipp: Germany confiscated the bank accounts of both her and her father.
The governments of the West are today so desperate that they're attacking people whose voices they don't like, who threaten their narratives for their own citizenries. Pretense? It's out the window. This is war, after all. It might only be a police action, a heavy military action, for the Russians, but to the West, it's out-and-out war, an existential war. The West poked the bear, a bear advantageously armed and ready, and with urgency on its side. The West made this war with Russia an existential war. But guess what? The war became an existential war for them too.
Zelensky could have been assassinated by 25 February, Gonzalo suggests. He's right. The Ukraine is infiltrated with Russian spies. The Russians know exactly where Zelensky is from minute to minute. His life's been threatened alright, but by the Right Sector and the other Nazis, and not by Russia. Zelensky's basically being protected by Russia.
Why? Because Russia needs Zelensky to sign the ceasefire. Any other signature on that ceasefire and the West would be back to their shenanigans again.
Russia might have this sordid affair wrapped up in a few weeks or days now.
Free Speech? Where?
The story of Alina Lipp and Graham Phillips (and Patrick Lancaster and Eva Bartlett) is a matter of free speech. Russian bloggers oppose the Russian operation. That's OK in Russia. But you can't say anything negative about NATO. Or what the US is doing. Right now Russia has more freedom of speech than the West.
Gonzalo goes on about the Jan 6 committee, and reminds his audience that he's been urging them to go east for months now. He says he and his family won't be going back west ever again. 'No fucking way.'
Alina
Here comes a brief excerpt from Gonzalo's recent 'Roundtable' with Alex and Pepe the other day. The clip's less than one minute.
Alina's videos are mostly in German.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Alina+Lipp
Here's Alina from 24 July, in English, explaining her situation. She's also on Ukraine's 'Peacemaker' assassination list. Alina, like so many others, will probably head east to Russia or beyond once this situation has been resolved.
Andrei Martyanov is back again, talking more about the global situation. It's easy to appreciate his disdain for western 'experts' but it takes more concentration to follow his discussion of 'tactics'.
Then there's all those bioweapons labs in the Ukraine, Bulgaria, and other countries that Victoria Nuland seems to have helped coordinate. Speaking of which: Russia will soon begin their war crimes tribunals. (They're mighty pissed.) They'll want to pull in the odd country from the West, but only a few. Only the uncorrupt ones.
Here's Graham reporting from Lugansk. Walking around and talking to people on the street. (Graham speaks the lingo.)
Graham: How's it going? What's it like here?
Lady: Like that, all good!
Graham: And can you say more about this, what does 'all good' mean?
[Gotta spell it out for the deniers.]
Lady: Free movement, not having to sit in the cellar, being able to sleep in our own apartments, going to the market... But, there's still shelling, maybe it's far away, but it's very audible here. A few are already used to that, a few are still scared. We had one woman who didn't leave the cellar for five months, was there around the clock... and look here she is now!
Graham: How are you feeling?
Lady: Fine, just it's noisy at the moment (shelling sounds). That's scary, we've been through so much... that's how I'm feeling.
Graham: And so, you were in the cellar for a few months?
Lady: I was in the cellar for four months, didn't leave.
Graham: And now, you're strolling around...
Lady: I live on the 9th floor, going up (to my apartment). Today I feel uneasy, shelling is too near, scary.
Graham: And what would you like going forward, expectations?
Lady: What to expect? Well, we understand that there will be a different world, and we're glad about it, we want peace, that's all. Everything to be reconstructed... my parents' home is completely wrecked, all destroyed. My father was wounded in his leg, husband wounded as he carried water... We've been through so much, now we only want peace, that's all. And I believe that everything will be fine for us in the future, I'm sure of this. People want to smile again, not go through what has been.
But that poor lady, obviously a Kremlin troll, a Putin puppet hired for this fake-impromptu interview by Britain's latest subversive, doesn't understand the bigger picture.
For far away from her home, on the Potomac, on the eastern seaboard of the North American continent, there are people who'd be more than willing to explain to her why the shelling must nevertheless continue, perhaps for another eight years, and how it's really all for her own good.
The Nazis who persecute them are not really the bad guys after all, in fact they hardly even exist, if at all. It must be that Putin character orchestrating all this against them.
For despite considerable evidence to the contrary, despite the absence of Russian military bases on foreign soil, despite the 800+ US military bases spread across the globe, the US is the peacemaker here, the US only wants the best for that misled lady, only wants peace for her and for everyone, and in no way would be involved in further exploiting her country, her people, or in any way wishing her or anyone any harm. Oh heavens no.
It's just Russian propaganda, now being carried out by German and British spies.
You betcha.
Graham: And who are your hopes on, who can help resolve your situation here?
Lady: Well, someone will be put in place here (ie mayor). Our hopes are on Putin! He is for us, the person who should rule the whole world, Putin!
The clip goes on for some time. Yes it's nice to see people smiling again. And eating watermelon. (Perhaps Putin's their Watermelon Man.) And oh yeah, they've had ice cream too. Sounds like a lovely day. A lovely peaceful day.
Graham runs into people, out and about, relaxing, enjoying the outdoors, the weather, the company of others, of their friends, enjoying life itself after a years-long hiatus.
And so now, having viewed this outrageous clip, you've surely come to understand why Graham must be silenced. Just as the Collateral Murder video had to be silenced. (How did Ed Snowden put it? Something about not contradicting the lies of powerful enemies?)
Graham finds Diana further on. Kids sure have to grow up fast in conditions like that. Diana, like most of the people in the Donbass, is Russian.
'Zelensky said that children must learn the Ukrainian language... I didn't learn it.'
That could have been a nice peaceful part of town, where Diana lives. It can be again.
Zelensky's sponsor was a billionaire who was simultaneously financing the Azov battalion. Zelensky defeated his opponent because he promised to make peace, to follow the Minsk Agreements, and to stop Kiev's genocidal operations against the people of the Donbass. That's what everyone in the Ukraine wanted. That's why they voted for him in such overwhelming numbers.
Zelensky delivered on precisely none of his campaign promises, and instead did a complete about-face on them. He arrested the leader of his political opposition, he shut down all free media, television, radio, websites, printed newspapers.
But things will get better. They're already getting better. In Donetsk and Lugansk. But before they get where they need to be, they're going to turn really nasty, really ugly again - that war-weary, blood-thirsty, battle-scarred tyrant in the West isn't going down without a fight.