959: That's the official number of surrenders from the dreaded Azovstal complex on 17 and 18 May.
There's more to come. Today another 771 surrendered. Bringing the grand subtotal so far up to 1730.
A surprising number of them were women. The Saker has more details, collated from further sources.
http://thesaker.is/sitrep-operation-z-nato-surrenders-in-azovstal/
A number of high-ranking US and NATO brass have been amongst those surrendering.
Yet it's all going through a spin cycle in the West.
Zelensky is trying to suggest that he actually ordered the surrender and that this is all part of a grand strategic plan on his part. One is also required to forget the fact that Russia's been offering the Azovites a corridor for weeks. Yet almost no one tried to get out, and those that did gave testimony to how they were threatened. Zelensky had previously made it clear that he expected them to stay there, to the last Ukrainian.
What likely happened is the Azovites were in contact with Zelensky and told him to shove it, that they were surrendering, and Zelensky, fearing egg on his face, made a show of ordering a surrender after the fact.
At any rate, at least 1730 have made it to safety.
The Russians are very careful with those 1730, as they really don't know who or what they are. Those who are injured are sent off to hospital. All of them are inspected, through interrogation and body examination, for signs of Nazism. (The Banderites like Nazi tatoos - bad move.)
Spin Cycle
But what are they saying in the western MSM? Does anyone know? Those who are prudent know better than to turn it on. But some of the golden quotes are available through secondary sources.
Let's start with the New York Times.
https://nyti.ms/3sIon9B (https://archive.is/nsrjl)
Zelensky:
"We hope to save the lives of our boys."
Zelensky:
"The evacuation mission from Azovstal continues. It is led by our military and intelligence officers."
(What's he coked up on?)
Saker comments:
"OK, Mr PianoDick, they're being led straight into war criminal prison! Thank your military and intelligence officers for doing the job for the world!"
Says Dmitry Polyansky, who works at the UN and who seriously embarrassed Sky News anchor Dermot Murnaghan the other day:
"I didn't know English has so many ways to express a single message: the Azov Nazis have unconditionally surrendered."
(In such case, it's an ongoing surrender.)
Saker adds:
"These invincible heroes are emaciated, ragged, hungry, and a pitiful sight."
You would be too if it had happened to you.
Home Sweet Mariupol
The Azov Battalion made Mariupol their home shortly after forming in 2014. They've used the Azovstal complex as well evidently. At any rate, they treated the residents of Mariupol horrendously.
One must not forget that the people of Mariupol are direct descendants of those who fought against the Nazis in World War Two, and the members of the Azov Battalion are often direct descendants of those very Nazis. The people of Mariupol and the Bandera Nazis aren't exactly going to get along.
What's amazing of course is that the western MSM used to condemn those Nazis. Some of them in the MSM have vague memories of hearing their own ancestors talk about the atrocities of World War Two. And yet, today...
"A Dane" posts the following comments at the Saker.
https://thesaker.is/gonzalo-lira-the-pentagon-says-russia-no-but-china-yes/#comment-1092870
“Here we have the revelations on US admiral Eric Olson, British Lieutenant Colonel John Bailey, and four NATO ‘instructors’ who all surrendered.”
(Some sources say Olson was taken a month ago.)
A further reference is found at the site of the Hal Turner Radio Show.
That's Olson in the red circle, led by a fighter for Operation Z.
"A Dane" goes on.
“We already have the name of the Canadian General who was running the bioweapon labs.“
And that's another matter to return to. Putin's already been encouraged to bring the documentation before the United Nations Security Council.
"So NATO is directly involved in the conflict", says "A Dane". It would indeed appear so.
"Soon we will know the names of the NATO commanders who were in charge of the Ukraine Nazi divisions."
Further details on the biolabs - it's a long read:
"Thus, the information obtained confirms that the United States is implementing an offensive military-biological programme in Ukraine to study the possibility of forming controlled epidemics in specific territories."
Back to "A. Dane".
"This information totally changes the tactical situation on the ground. If these captured mercenaries are identified to the world, it could damage the US and the NATO alliance."
And adds sarcastically:
“But we were told that Ukraine was winning the war?
“Why didn’t Zelensky rescue his fighters in Azovstal? Ukraine is winning the war, isn’t it?
“Surrendering is trans-winning, dude. They self-identify as winning!
“But they’re winning. Their leader Zelensky just got billion to play with.
“NO, 80% for MIC - 10% for the big guy - 9% for Zelenski - 1% for the Ukrainian people. The MIC got the lions share to build new weapons to replace the old shit they dropped off to Ukraine.
“It's a very sad state of affairs when we have to start flippin' Yandex translate to figure out what the heck is actually going on in the world. What the heck is going on with our media?“
Good question. The answer's already given.
This is the biggest influence operation in history, "like ever", employing, say insiders, forty thousand at one time or another or even now. There are lines in the sand, with many insiders afraid to speak out.
Putin's Price Hike
Putin - and the Russians - wanted to go into the Donbass to protect those people who've been marked for extermination since 2014. They understood it could inevitably lead to more, and they understood the larger threat, but their “special military operation” was that and no more. Had they pursued a typical US-styled "scorched earth" policy, it would have been over in a matter of days.
Russia didn't sanction the West. Russia didn't drive up gasoline prices. Russia didn't force half the oil purchasers to switch to the ruble. That may have happened anyway with time, but they had other fish to try to begin with.
All the hysterical pirouetting and screaming and shouting and one set of sanctions trying to outdo the other... They don't hurt Russia! You know that, we all know that, yet The Powers That Be carry on anyway. Almost as if it's really true what Goebbels said so long ago now, that bit about the lie that's repeated long enough...
Or how it's done in more modern, more electronic, times. How you just juxtapose two things together in your message. You don't need a coherent story, your story doesn't have to make sense. You could, for example, just bring up the WTC and Saddam together all the time and, soon enough...
Oh, BTW...
"This is the single best thing that has ever happened. There has never been a better thing than this."
Perhaps, CJ, but how many million lost their lives?
The actual post:
Seventeen million views and climbing. So you're not alone.
Russians themselves were initially divided on the 24 February "SMO". Those who were younger didn't like it - "why do we need another frickin' war" - but the older generations who remember or whose parents remembered: they understood the context. Gradually, it would seem, the younger Russians have begun to understand a bit more. The turnout for the Crimea celebrations seems to corroborate that.
But, whatever one decides, it's essential that one have facts without spin. "Truth over facts", as one obscure politician once put it not long ago, isn’t good enough.