Major Victory For Russian Army As Ukraine Forces Flee Eastern City

Following a year that saw little change in control of territory, the Russian army has secured a major victory in its war in Ukraine as Ukrainian forces have retreated from the eastern city of Avdiivka.

Shortly after midnight Saturday in Ukraine, the country's newly-installed top commander, General Oleksandr Syrsky, announced that he had ordered troops to evacuate the city. Surrounded in three directions by the Russian army, Ukrainian soldiers in the city found themselves in a rapidly-tightening noose.

“Based on the operational situation around Avdiivka, in order to avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of servicemen, I decided to withdraw our units from the city and move to defense on more favorable lines," said Syrsky in a Facebook post.

While its authenticity can't be confirmed, video circulating on social media purportedly shows Ukrainian armored vehicles executing a fiery but mostly orderly retreat:

The capture of the city is the most significant triumph for Russia since it took Bakhmut last May. Situated nine miles northwest of the Russian-held city of Donetsk, Avdiivka was was briefly controlled by pro-Russia separatists in 2014 before Ukraine retook the city, which had a pre-war population of 32,000.

Russia's victory is a new step toward a principal objective announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin when he ordered the "special military operation" -- taking control of the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts. Together, the two territories comprise the heavily industrialized, coal-rich Donbas region, which has a majority Russian-speaking population. Russia has since expanded its territorial goals, and has taken huge swaths of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts, thus forming a land bridge to Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
Red indicates Russian-controlled territory as of Feb. 16

Ukraine deployed one of its two specialized assault brigades -- the 3rd Assault Brigade -- to help cover the retreat. Oleksandr Tarnavskyi, who leads Ukrainian forces operating in southeastern Ukraine, described the dismal scenario faced by his troops in Avdiivka, which he characterized as the "hottest" zone along the entire 600-mile-long battlefront:

"In a difficult battlefield situation, when only ruins and a pile of broken bricks remain from the fortification, our priority is to save the soldiers' lives...The enemy launches massive bomb attacks day and night, and does not stop attacking simultaneously from several directions." He described Russia as "practically wiping the city from the face of the earth."

The fall of Avdiivka came a day after President Biden tried using the death of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny to pressure Congress into throwing billions more dollars into the war in Ukraine. "History is watching the House of Representatives," said Biden. "The failure to support Ukraine at this moment will never be forgotten...The clock is ticking, and this has to happen, we have to help now."

Then again, maybe it's time to stop promoting the fiction that Ukraine has any hope of ejecting Russia from the approximately 20% of the country it has captured -- and time to start earnestly pursuing a settlement that restores peace and ends a proxy war that has cost countless lives while only benefitting the military-industrial complex.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geop...es-flee-eastern-city

Soros did more to destabilize Eastern Europe than any man alive. George and Victoria Nuland baked cookies together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbjNJbjEy04



Plans put in place before the 2014 Maidan Revolution in Ukraine/////

Ukraine crisis: Transcript of leaked Nuland-Pyatt call

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26079957




The Open Society Foundations in Ukraine (Soros)

https://www.opensocietyfoundat...undations-in-ukraine


US Embassy pressed Ukraine to drop probe of George Soros group during 2016 election

https://thehill.com/opinion/ca...s-group-during-2016/

It turns out the group that Ukrainian law enforcement was probing was co-funded by the Obama administration and liberal mega-donor George Soros. And it was collaborating with the FBI agents investigating then-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s business activities with pro-Russian figures in Ukraine.

The implied message to Ukraine’s prosecutors was clear: Don’t target AntAC in the middle of an America presidential election in which Soros was backing Hillary Clinton to succeed another Soros favorite, Barack Obama, Ukrainian officials said.

After the Obama Justice Department launched its Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative a decade ago to prosecute corruption in other countries, the State Department, Justice Department and FBI outsourced some of its work in Ukraine to groups funded by Soros.

The Hungarian-American businessman is one of the largest donors to American liberal causes, a champion of the U.S. kleptocracy crackdown and a man with extensive business interests in Ukraine.

One key U.S. partner was AntAC, which received 59 percent (or $1 million) of its nearly $1.7 million budget since 2012 from U.S. budgets tied to State and Justice, and nearly $290,000 from Soros’s International Renaissance Foundation, according to the group’s donor disclosure records.

The U.S.-Soros collaboration was visible in Kiev. Several senior Department of Justice (DOJ) officials and FBI agents appeared in pictures as participants or attendees at Soros-sponsored events and conferences.

One attendee was Karen Greenaway, then the FBI supervisor in charge of international fraud cases and one of the lead agents in the Manafort investigation in Ukraine. She attended multiple such events and won glowing praise in a social media post from AntAC’s executive director.

In one event during 2016, Greenaway and Ambassador Yovanovitch participated alongside AntAC’s executive director, Daria Kaleniuk, and Lutsenko was present. The message was clear: The embassy supported AntAC.

The FBI confirmed Greenaway’s contacts with the Soros group, saying they were part of her investigative work: “In furtherance of the FBI’s mission and in the course of their duties, FBI employees routinely travel and participated in public forums in an official capacity. At a minimum, all such travel and speaking engagements are authorized by the employee’s direct supervisor and can receive further authorization all the way up to the relevant division head, along with an ethics official determination.”

Greenaway recently retired, and Soros’s AntAC soon after announced she was joining its supervisory board.

Internal memos from Soros’s umbrella charity organization, Open Society Foundations, describe a concerted strategy of creating friendships inside key government agencies such as State, DOJ and the FBI that can be leveraged inside the countries Soros was targeting for anti-corruption activism.

Vachon said Soros wrote a sizable check from his personal funds in fall 2017 to a new group, Democracy Integrity Project, started by a former FBI agent and Senate staffer Daniel Jones to continue “investigation and research into foreign interference in American elections and European elections.”

Vachon said the group asked Soros not to divulge the size of his contribution, and Soros later learned the group hired Fusion GPS, the same firm that was paid by Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic Party to create the infamous “Steele dossier” alleging Trump-Russia collusion.

More at link

9 Years ago before the war////



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p84KzkdKZb4

Biden Says Ukraine May Lose More Cities After Avdeyevka Due To US Aid Delay

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu over the weekend confirmed in a statement to President Vladimir Putin that the city of Avdeyevka in eastern Ukraine is now under the military's full control. We earlier detailed the significance of the 'major' victory for Russian forces, and the devastating blow for the Ukrainian side, which is in retreat.

"Today in the Kremlin, Russian Defense Minister Army General Shoigu reported to the supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces that the Center grouping of forces under command of Col. Gen. Andrey Mordvichev has taken under full control the town of Avdeyevka of the Donetsk People’s Republic, which was a massive fortified stronghold of Ukraine’s armed forces," Russia's defense ministry said.

President Biden's Saturday reaction was interesting yet predictable. He laid blame for the loss squarely on Congressional inaction in holding up the $60 billion in military aid for Ukraine. It suggests this will be the election narrative against Republicans going into November as well.

Biden said the Ukrainians might lose other cities too, so long as US aid is held up:

US President Joe Biden has admitted that Ukrainian troops may lose other cities after abandoning Avdeyevka unless the US Congress approves additional aid to Kiev.

Reporters asked the American leader if he was sure that Ukraine would not lose other cities as well. "I’m not. I’m not. No one can be," Biden replied. "There is so much at stake," he added.

According to the US president, it would be "absurd" and "unethical" to refuse to support Kiev when the Ukrainian military is running out of ammunition. "I'm going to fight to get them the ammunition they need," he pointed out. Biden also said that he had promised Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky to seek additional funding.

National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson has also acknowledged, "The Ukrainians continue to fight bravely, but they are running low on supplies."

But Putin has shown no signs that he plans to slow down the Russian military operation in Ukraine. He said Sunday in a state media interview referencing Kiev's backers in NATO that "For them, this is about improving their tactical positions. But for us, this is destiny. This is a matter of life and death."

RU forces appear to have temporarily established limited and localized air superiority and were able to provide ground troops with close air support during the final days of their offensive operation to capture Avdiivka, likely the first time that RU forces have done so in UA.1/5 pic.twitter.com/jkbL7VLOb7
— Institute for the Study of War (@TheStudyofWar) February 18, 2024

The West ultimately has no more cards to play. As we wrote earlier it is time to stop promoting the fiction that Ukraine has any hope of ejecting Russia from the approximately 20% of the country it has captured -- and time to start earnestly pursuing a settlement that restores peace and ends a proxy war that has cost countless lives while only benefitting the military-industrial complex.

Meanwhile, Sen J.D. Vance makes a good point, the lame attempt at pushback of the community note notwithstanding...

If Putin is such an existential threat to Europe why isn’t every European country emptying it armories and its treasury to help Ukraine? https://t.co/ahvrCa4fw8
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) February 17, 2024

https://www.zerohedge.com/geop...vka-due-us-aid-delay

Excerpt from above.

"If Putin is such an existential threat to Europe why isn’t every European country emptying it armories and its treasury to help Ukraine? https://t.co/ahvrCa4fw8"
— J.D. Vance (@JDVance1) February 17, 2024

This in spades. This is so simple even McConnell should be able to understand it...wait, never mind.

All Ukraine has to do to win is do everything perfectly every time, have luck break its way every time, and have the Russians (who outlasted the Mongols, Napoleon, and Hitler) give up.

All Russia has to do to win is stick it out where they are now.

I know how I'm betting.

Russia claimed the capture of the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka after Ukraine withdrew, but Moscow said that some Ukrainian troops were still holed up in a vast Soviet-era coke plant after one of the most intense battles of the war.

https://www.france24.com/en/eu...led-up-at-coke-plant

Hopefully any holdouts are rooted out and killed. Nice to see the death of the "aid" bill has helped Russia steamroll those losers. I bet Zelensky is deeply regretting not helping Trump investigate Hunter Biden's dealings in Ukraine.

Here's a very good read from Scott Ritter detailing Ukrainian terrorist attacks against Russian civilians and Ruasian infrastructure in Crimea. Absolutely disgusting what Biden is endorsing with OUR money

https://www.rt.com/russia/5925...a-ukrainian-misrule/

quote:

I bet Zelensky is deeply regretting not helping Trump investigate Hunter Biden's dealings in Ukraine.

True!

quote:

Meanwhile, Sen J.D. Vance makes a good point, the lame attempt at pushback of the community note notwithstanding...

If Putin is such an existential threat to Europe why isn’t every European country emptying it armories and its treasury to help Ukraine?

Why should they when they've got US?

quote:

Originally posted by Carpentermaass84:
Hopefully any holdouts are rooted out and killed. Nice to see the death of the "aid" bill has helped Russia steamroll those losers. I bet Zelensky is deeply regretting not helping Trump investigate Hunter Biden's dealings in Ukraine.

You rooting for the rooskies to take Poland and Finland back too?

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

quote:

Meanwhile, Sen J.D. Vance makes a good point, the lame attempt at pushback of the community note notwithstanding...

If Putin is such an existential threat to Europe why isn’t every European country emptying it armories and its treasury to help Ukraine?

Why should they when they've got US?

It goes back to Trump's comment about wanting Russia to go after the NATO freeloaders. The problem is the same freeloaders (ie: Western Europe/Canada) are the ones not emptying their armories for Ukraine.

REGIME CHANGE IS COMING ...TO KIEV

Zelensky May Soon Be Forced Out Thanks to Avdiivka

https://weapons.substack.com/p...ftr&utm_medium=email

Washington has fondly hoped that it could bring about regime change in Russia. Now it seems even more likely that there will be regime change, but not in Russia --in Kiev.

The catalyst for regime change in Kiev is the bloody and now ended battle over Avdiivka.

Avdiivka is very close to Donetsk city, the capital area of the Donbas region. Donetsk is about halfway between Mariupol on the Sea of Azov and Luhansk in the north. Both Donetsk and Luhansk are regions (oblasts) in eastern Ukraine with mostly Russian-speaking populations. Both Donetsk and Luhansk, along with Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, were annexed by the Russians in September 2022.

The recent battle over Avdiivka has gone on for four months, but since January the Russians began wearing down the Ukrainian defenders of the city. The Russian operation included attacks from the north, some of it focused on a huge Coke-making plant; and from the South in multiple thrusts on the city’s flanks. By the end of the first week of February the Russian armed forces had cut the city into two, and were steadily advancing while pounding the city with artillery and FAB bombs. These are high explosive bombs of different sizes (FAB-500, FAB-1500) where the number is the bomb size in kilograms.

Avdiivka was highly fortified and a difficult target for the Russian army. The Russians focused on flank attacks that eventually squeezed off resupply of weapons and food and made rotation of forces difficult. By the last week of the battle the roads in and out of the city were under Russian fire control.

Zelensky staked his reputation on Avdiivka and wanted it held at all costs. He fired his overall commander Valerii Zaluzhny, who saw Avdiivka as a lost cause. Zaluzhny wanted to pull Ukrainian forces back from the existing line of contact and move them into defensible fortifications that could protect Kiev and other important cities.

Enter Syrsky, who had been ground commander under Zaluzhny and was now put in charge of all Ukrainian military forces. Syrsky is the same guy whose tactics led to the collapse of Bakhmut and very heavy casualties, earning that city the name of "meat grinder."

Syrsky immediately called up three or four brigades to save Avdiivka from collapse. But his planned rescue operation almost immediately got into serious trouble.

Some of Syrsky's brigades were being assembled and organized in a small town around 15 kilometers from Avdiivka, called Selydove. The Russians discovered the Ukrainian army operations in Selydove and attacked with Iskander missiles and cluster weapons. According to Russian sources on various blogs (Telegram, X, for example), the Russian attack all but wiped out an entire brigade with heavy Ukrainian casualties.

Ukraine's propaganda mill went into high gear, alleging the Russian attack was aimed at a hospital's maternity ward in Selydov. But the reality was that Ukraine lost around 1,000 to 1,500 soldiers. Most western news sources parroted the Ukrainian line.

Zelensky was on his way to the Munich Security Conference where he got a standing ovation. Before he left Kiev he ordered Syrsky to stop the Russians from taking Avdiivka.

Syrsky committed the 3rd Brigade to the fight for the city. The 3rd Separate Assault Brigade which, in reality is the reformed Azov Brigade. The Azov brigade is the backbone of Zelensky's ultra nationalist support in Ukraine. If any organization in Ukraine fits Putin's description of Ukrainian Nazis, the 3rd Brigade is the premier example. Zelensky's political power depends on the Ukrainian military, and in particular the ultra-nationalists.

The 3rd Brigade did not perform as advertised. When its units got into Avdiivka, coming in from the north, they found the situation dire. By that time there were around 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers in the northern parts of the city, mostly holed up in the Coke Plant. Another 3,500 were in the center of the city verging on the southern town’s districts and an old abandoned airfield.

The 3rd Brigade disobeyed orders and ran out of the town, countermanding Syrsky and Zelensky's explicit orders. Above all, Zelensky did not want to get embarrassed while he was at the Munich conference exactly while he was running around trying to get more ammunition for "the cause." Some from the 3rd Brigade surrendered to the Russians.

The loss of Avdiivka leaves Zelensky in a bad situation. He has all but lost his most ardent supporters in the Army, has humiliated his former commander Zaluzhny and replaced him with Syrsky who has a reputation as a loser. He has lost face with the Europeans, and probably with the United States, although it is hard to tell for sure.

Zelensky counters by saying Ukraine will get Avdiivka back “absolutely.”

Washington does not want a deal with the Russians. All its focus has been on handing Russia multiple defeats, squeezing the Russians dry, and replacing its leader, Putin. Biden's "team" also can't stomach the idea that the Ukrainians might make a deal with Russia and undermine "the policy."

Most of the central elements of Washington's policy have failed. Excessive sanctions did not break the Russian economy but succeeded in driving the Russians in a wholly new direction, embracing China and India and BRICS. US technology did not turn the tide of war in Ukraine’s favor. Not talking to the Russians helped solidify the Russian view that Washington and NATO were the enemy, intensifying their already stressed view that they had been lied to over the years about NATO expansion. While the US and Europe either could not, or would not, revitalize their defense industrial base, the Russians did so, with a vengeance. Meanwhile the US and Europe are standing by for the war to end and hundreds of billions are sunk into rebuilding Ukraine, which is less and less likely to happen under US and European auspices.

The bottom line is Zelensky's regime is tottering. Because of Zelensky's martial law based regime, there will be no elections and no open political process. But anger in the army is growing, and sooner or later they will choose a leader, most likely Zaluzhny.

There will be regime change in Kiev, coming soon.

Stephen Bryen is a former Deputy Under Secretary of Defense and is a leading expert in security strategy and technology. Bryen writes for Asia Times, American Thinker, Epoch Times, Newsweek, Washington Times, the Jewish Policy Center and others.

quote:

The bottom line is Zelensky's regime is tottering. Because of Zelensky's martial law based regime, there will be no elections and no open political process. But anger in the army is growing, and sooner or later they will choose a leader, most likely Zaluzhny.

There will be regime change in Kiev, coming soon.

His term expires on March 31, 2024.
If he thought he could win, he wouldn't have "suspended" elections.
One way or another, he will likely be out soon.

quote:

Originally posted by ScreamingCockatoo:

quote:

Originally posted by Carpentermaass84:
Hopefully any holdouts are rooted out and killed. Nice to see the death of the "aid" bill has helped Russia steamroll those losers. I bet Zelensky is deeply regretting not helping Trump investigate Hunter Biden's dealings in Ukraine.

You rooting for the rooskies to take Poland and Finland back too?

Poland no.... conservative government that has a track record of openly supporting President Trump.

Finland is extremely anti-Trump and not deserving of US military and financial support in the event of a Russian invasion. A poll in 2018 found that only 4% of Fins believed Donald Trump had made the world safer (the same Donald Trump who defeated ISIS). While I don't WANT Russia to invade Finland, I don't want Ameican blood and dollars lost over it either.

Trump made me realize that the era of one-sided alliances with people who openly hate us and fail to contribute anything meaningful in exchange for guaranteed US protection is over.

The poll - https://yle.fi/a/3-10296803

How about Israel? They're 99% communist now.
And more corrupt than Ukraine ever was.

^^^^^^^^

quote:

Originally posted by Carpentermaass84:
Here's a very good read from Scott Ritter detailing Ukrainian terrorist attacks against Russian civilians and Ruasian infrastructure in Crimea. Absolutely disgusting what Biden is endorsing with OUR money

https://www.rt.com/russia/5925...a-ukrainian-misrule/

A great read if you're into the official propaganda arm of Putin:RT=RUSSIA TODAY (The most current version of Pravda).

Convicted Pedophile/Former FBI Agent Scott Ritter is hardly a respect source/journalist. Do a bit of research on this guy and his publisher (RT), before you present him as having an ounce of credibility.

Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter has been found guilty of unlawful contact with a minor following an online sex sting operation.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-13089135

quote:

Originally posted by ScreamingCockatoo:

quote:

Originally posted by Carpentermaass84:
Hopefully any holdouts are rooted out and killed. Nice to see the death of the "aid" bill has helped Russia steamroll those losers. I bet Zelensky is deeply regretting not helping Trump investigate Hunter Biden's dealings in Ukraine.

You rooting for the rooskies to take Poland and Finland back too?

He's clearly a supporter of Putin and Putin's propaganda campaign (See above quotes from RT and Scott Ritter). Putin (still as much of a dyed in the wool communist as when he was a member of the KGB) has NEVER been a supporter of Israel, which hardly qualifies as "communist."