Russia Sustaining Troop Losses

Russian President Vladimir Putin sits in a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in Sochi, Russia. The image, via Russian state media, is dated May 23, 2022.

Sputnik/Ramil Sitdikov/Kremlin via Reuters

"In the first three months of its 'special military operation', Russia has likely suffered a similar death toll to that experienced by the Soviet Union during its nine-year war in Afghanistan."

"[From 1979 to 1989 the Soviet Union lost 15,000 servicemen, thousands more wounded; Ukraine's military estimates Russian personnel losses of 29,200 since February24]."

British Ministry of Defence

"There were attempts to kill Putin."

"There was an assassination attempt recently by, as they call it, representatives of the Caucasus. This was not in the public domain."

"A completely failed attempt, but it really did happen about two months ago."

Major Gen. Kyryulo Budanov, Kyiv military intelligence official

Smoke rises in the city of Sievierodonetsk during heavy fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region, May 30, 2022, on the 96th day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine

 

History most certainly would have recorded a vastly altered turn of events had a purported attempt at assassination of Russia's long-serving strongman succeeded, shortly after ordering the invasion of Ukraine. An attempt that Ukraine's top intelligence official noted was foiled by Russian authorities. No details were forthcoming and whether this was in reference to Russia's North Caucasus or the South Caucasus remained a mystery.

The claim, however, was cast into doubt by Western officials. COVID isolaton protocols have remained in place so the potential for immediate access to the Russian president would be beyond difficult, for any reason. "[Were] anyone to attempt to do something like that it would be a hugely complex operation", a Russian official speaking anonymously, stated.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that close to a hundred soldiers could die every day in the battle over Ukraine's industrial heartland in southern Ukraine where on the battlefields, Moscow's forces continue to sustain heavy losses, even as British intelligence claims that Russia lost as many men in the first three months of the Ukraine campaign as did the Soviet Union in its quagmire of a campaign, spending nine years in Afghanistan.

In the current campaign, the 'special military operation' that Vladimir Putin states is meant to cleanse Ukraine of the 'Nazi' element governing the country, Moscow is focused on encircling Ukrainian forces to succeed in its intention to fully occupy the Luhansk and Donetsk provinces making up the Donbas where separatist ethnic Russian forces aligned with Moscow claim the province as a separate enclave, completely autonomous.

Moscow, in a claim of delicious irony, accuses Ukrainian nationals of carrying out "terror attacks" on pro-Russian officials in occupied regions of southern Ukraine.Ukraine's worst military loss from a single attack of the war took place with 87 people killed as Russian forces struck a military barracks housing troops at a training base in the north in a May 27 strike in the town of Desna.

Russian troops now aspire to capture Sievierodonetsk which lies in the easternmost part of a pocket held by Ukraine in the Donbas, one of the last areas of Luhansk still eluding Russia's grasp. Russia, said Luhansk governor Serhiy Gaidal, was "wiping Sevierodonetsk from the face of the earth", attempting to advance from three directions to overrun the city, and cut off a highway south of Sievierodonetsk -- with a prewar population of some 100,000 -- may become another Mariupol.

A photograph shows an explosion in the city of Sievierodonetsk during heavy fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region, May 30, 2022.

To Salt Or Not To Salt: That is The Question

"We thought, 'That's peculiar'. Then we sat on that data for two years. We did everything we could to make it go away and we couldn't make it go away no matter how you analyze the data."

"The bottom line is, if low sodium is not helpful and may even increase the risk, it's better to focus on the overall quality of the diet."

"Reduce processed foods and focus on eating more fruits and vegetables and more potassium-containing foods -- an all-around wellness diet."

Professor Andrew Mente, epidemiology professor, McMaster University, Hamilton

Crystals of table, kosher, and pickling salt   (AP / Nati Harnik)

 

In reflection of conventional wisdom respecting the place of salt in a diet therapy meant for people with high blood pressure, the World Health Organization recommends consumption of less than two grams of sodium (five grams of salt) daily. The Mayo Clinic and Health Canada along with other health bodies suggest no more than 2.3 grams (about a teaspoon of salt) daily. In Canada, a report issued in 2017 by Health Canada assessed the average intake per person of salt in the country to be 2.8 grams.

Studies like the Harvard University-led TOHP trial in the United States in late 1980s and early 1990s underpin such recommendations from within the international health community. In that study some 4,500 people were divided into groups receiving either general healthy lifestyle advice or alternately weekly group and individual counselling in reducing sodium intake. Leading to the conclusion that those who received salt-reduction assistance were 25 percent less likely to suffer strokes, heart attacks and other cardiovascular events in years to follow.

Other controlled studies reached like conclusions; that as people absorb less sodium, a reduction in hypertension resulted, according to a recent paper. And then in 2009 Dr.Salim Yusuf of the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) of McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences published research and commentaries that suggested heart health did not improve with sharp salt reduction intake. To state that consternation, condemnation and confusion and controversy resulted is to understate the impact of this reversal of popular medical wisdom.

Dr.Yusuf and his team of researchers made the decision to study the issue relating to two studies they ran focused on testing blood pressure drugs. A sidebar sodium study enrolled about 28,000 people from 40 countries. The participants, all at risk of cardiovascular disease, had their intake of sodium measured through interpreting secretions of the mineral in urine samples. What this study revealed shocked the scientists when they found that as sodium levels fell the rate of heart-and-stroke-related illness did initially fall, then rose again, with sodium intake amounts lower than three grams daily.

 

High blood pressure leads to heart attacks, strokes and death. Hypertension is considered the world's leading cause of mortality, and sodium considered the culprit in up to 30 percent of cases. The greater the sodium intake, the greater the retention of water in the body, to wash it away. This increases the pressure of blood being pushed through arteries and veins. Not only did cutting sodium below a certain point not lead to improved cardiovascular health, lower levels it turned out, might in fact increase risk of disease.

After the results were published in some of the world's foremost medical journals, and the McMaster University research team led by Dr.Yusuf, a highly respected researcher, were castigated for their unacceptable findings, they followed up with a parallel study of 102,000 subjects from 17 countries in another McMaster-led international research project called PURE. Published in the high profile New England Journal of Medicine, the results for the second study were similar to the earlier ones.

Their conclusion led them to argue the earlier evidence, like the TOHP trials, did not indicate that the standard sodium diet-reduction to the recommended level had any effect on improving health outcomes. Their critics focused on what they found to be a flaw in the methodology of the study where the gold-standard method is to collect all urine someone produces in a 24-hour period to test for secreted sodium and repeat it on non-consecutive days, whereas the McMaster-led trial performed a single fasting (spot sample) of urine early morning.

"It's tough and it's tedious so people try to cut a lot of corners (24-hour sampling). With a single-spot sample] stuies are much easier to do, much less complex -- and give you the wrong answers", pointed out Dr.Norman Campbell of University of Calgary. "They're making inaccurate and false statements and misleading statements and misinterpretations and they're not correcting things that are obviously flawed. this is a global aggravation for people who are trying to improve the health of their populations."

 

Dr.Mente, on the other hand, speaks of the advice to maintain sodium intake no higher than four or five grams daily, and not to be concerned about cutting it much below three grams. He also pointed out that their sodium studies were subjected to intense peer review pre-publication, where prominent journals assign vetting to half a dozen scientist-reviewers and two statisticians to vouch for accuracy. 

 

Dr.Yusuf comments that the science is in flux and the research he and his team conducted has aided in altering the sodium-hypertension paradigm; that their critics are unwilling to consider that health and research understandings have undergone an alteration. He and his colleagues' study results have come under scrutiny with charges of bias resulting from study funders such as health charities and drug companies.

"[Campbell's] enthusiasm for this as a crusader, you have to admire it."

"But at the same time, all scientific debate has to be based on respect, it has to be based on openness."

"It has to be based on entertaining different viewpoints."

Dr.Martin O'Donnell, professor of medicine, National University of Ireland, Galway, McMaster group collaborator

Relying on the conventional scientific wisdom, the World Health Organization recommends consuming less than two grams of sodium — five grams of salt — a day. Health Canada, the Mayo Clinic and other health bodies suggest no more each day than 2.3 grams, about a teaspoon of salt. Photo by Getty

 

"A new controversial study claims that in most cases, consuming salt will not increase health risks. The study published on August 9 in The Lancet, a scientific journal, followed 94 000 people between the ages of 35 and 70 across 18 countries to determine whether salt intake truly does increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke (1), an accepted belief. Monitoring subjects over an average span of eight years,  interestingly, it was found that the risk only increases if the average sodium intake is greater than 5 g per day ― the equivalents of 2.5 teaspoons of salt."

"The research was led by Prof Salim Yusuf of the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) of McMaster University and Hamilton Health Sciences in collaboration with colleagues from 21 different countries, including Canada, Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, China, Columbia, India, Iran, Malaysia, occupied Palestinian territory, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sweden, Tanzania, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Zimbabwe."

"Salt-reduction enthusiasts argue that campaigns in the UK, Japan, and elsewhere over the past several years have led to a reduction in salt intake and consequently, a reduction in overall average blood pressure of the population. However, our bodies require essential nutrients like sodium to function, therefore, completely removing salt from our diets may be just as damaging as too much. But the question remains, how much is too much?"

European Scientist

Canada's Supreme Court Bringing the Administration of Justice Into Disrepute

"The impugned provision, taken to its extreme, authorizes a court to order an offender to serve an ineligibility period that exceeds the life expectancy of any human being, a sentence so absurd that it would bring the administration of justice into disrepute."

"[Depriving offenders in advance of any possibility of reintegration into society, the provision] shakes the very foundations of Canadian criminal law."

Chief Justice Richard Wagner, Supreme Court of Canada

"I'll tell you what cruel and unusual punishment is."

"It's an innocent person being murdered. It's an innocent person being maimed or an innocent person having their life ripped apart."

"That is cruel and unusual punishment."

Cathy Riddell, one of 25 victims of an INCEL attack

The Supreme Court of Canada, Justin Tang, Associated Press

 

A Criminal Code provision that ruled mass murderers might have to wait 50 years or longer before they might apply for parole, has been struck down by the Supreme Court of Canada which unanimously called the provision degrading and incompatible with human dignity. This is a court that has for decades been leaning more heavily toward the rights of the accused and by extension overlooking victims' calling out for justice from great harm done them by psychopaths whose regard for the dignity and human rights of their victims have been ruthlessly absent.

The previous Conservative government of the administration of Prime Minister Stephen Harper had enacted that legislation in an effort to honour the rights of victims and to ensure that the murderous predators within society faced justice for their deadly acts of mass murder. The current Liberal government of 'progressive' Prime Minister Justin Trudeau wasted no time in overturning much of the Criminal Justice legislation of his predecessor. Now the Supreme Court stacked with progressives has followed suit.

 

Six men died in the attack on the Quebec Mosque. They are, clockwise from top left, Mamadou Tanou Barry, Azzeddine Soufiane, Abdelkrim Hassane, Ibrahima Barry, Aboubaker Thabti and Khaled Belkacemi. (CBC)

 

The case in question that the Supreme Court focused their decision on was that of Alexandre Bissonnette, who had fatally shot six people to death at a Quebec City mosque in 2017. This mass murderer will now be allowed to seek parole after having served 25 years of incarceration. The 2011 provision that allowed a judge in cases of multiple murders to impose a life sentence and parole ineligibility periods of 25 years to be served concurrently for each murder was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

According to the justices the provision serves to violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantee against cruel and unusual treatment, for as they determined, denial of a realistic possibility of being granted parole before they die offends the Charter.  Bissonette was 27 years old at the time he pleaded guilty to six charges of first-degree murder in the mosque assault that occurred following evening prayers. A previous judge had found the parole ineligibility provision unconstitutional but failed to declare it invalid, ruling that Bissonnette must wait 40 years before applying for parole.

A subsequent ruling by Quebec's Court of Appeal held the provision invalid on constitutional grounds, stating the judge had erred in the ineligibility period of 40 years. The court, it said, must revert to the law in standing prior to 2011; parole ineligibility periods to be served concurrently, resulting in a total wait period of 25 years in the case of Bissonnette's crime of mass murder.

Henceforth this ruling requires that every prisoner must be given a realistic potential of applying for parole earlier than the expiration of an ineligibility period of 40 years. The Criminal Code provision has been declared invalid immediately, retroactive to 2011 when it was enacted. Any offender who was ordered through the unconstitutional provision to serve a parole ineligibility period of 50 years or greater for multiple murders must be able to apply to the courts for a remedy.

 

Mounties pay tribute to the memorial sculptures in Moncton in honour of the three RCMP officers killed in 2014. (Matthew Bingley/CBC)

 

Mass murderers such as Justin Bourque, sentenced to 75 years in prison with no chance of parole in the killing of three RCMP officers, and the wounding of two others in Moncton, New Brunswick in 2014 will be able now to take advantage of a new 'humanitarian' prospective, giving full due to their human rights and dignity of person guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Rather than relinquishing those rights on the basis of having deprived others of the dignity of life.

Then there is as well the case of Alek Minassian who was found guilty of ten counts of first-degree murder, three years after he crashed into people with a van in a busy area of Toronto on a sunny day that brought people out to a popular promenade in large numbers. Minassian was a member of the disaffected male group calling themselves involuntarily celibates, complaining that women overlook them for other males more characteristic of male traits attractive to women.

In all these cases and more, psychotic psychopaths have decided to take revenge on others whom they consider to be guilty of offences affecting their quality of life and aspirations. In the case of the mosque killings it was religious bigotry, in the case of the killing of the RCMP officers, it was hatred of policing agencies, and in the instance of the INCEL murders it was the sense of victimhood as a male unattractive to the opposite sex. All chose to murder as an expression of their hate, depriving others of life.

Yet the Supreme Court of Canada justices sitting in the high court commiserate with the plight of the murderers, held to account for their atrocities in committing mass murder, while the administration of justice, placing responsibility on the shoulders of those whose criminal acts are beyond the pale of civil society is undermined and the victims of lethal assaults and their families and greater society at large see justice fail in its fundamental purpose; to protect society from the vicious predators in their midst.

A man leaves a note at a makeshift memorial for the victims of the van attack in Toronto in April 2018. Photograph: Lars Hagberg/AFP/Getty Images

Erdogan's Nasty Little War With Kurds

"President Erdogan's style of meeting international challenges is upping the ante -- and it almost always works in causing NATO allies to blink."

"It worked in the eastern Mediterranean and in Syria in the past -- why not try again."

Asli Aydintsbas, senior policy fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations, Istanbul

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has revived an old, outdated, near-defunct concept: a Western habit of overrating Turkey's "geo-political importance." Totally blind to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's anti-Western policy calculus, the Biden administration is pushing Turkey's Islamist strongman into further stealth hostility toward the civilized parts of the world."

Burak Bekdil, Gatestone Institute

"In case of any attack, of course we will resist and fight back."

"The international community now faces an important test: will it effectively rein in Turkey?"

Ciwan Mulia Ibrahim, spokesperson SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces)

The West's appeasement will, unfortunately, only embolden Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and push him further into the Russian orbit, both politically as a covert ally and militarily as a client of critical weapons systems. Pictured: Erdoğan holds a press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 22, 2019 in Sochi, Russia. (Image source: kremlin.ru)

Little surprise that Finland and Sweden have decided it is imperative that they no longer wait to see how things turn out for Ukraine with Russia's invasion. Both have committed to applying for NATO membership and partners in NATO are prepared to welcome them to the alliance with the understanding that in the special circumstances that exist, their applications should be fast-tracked. In view of Vladimir Putin's threats, his aggression and his past appropriation of other nations' sovereign territories the fear that Sweden and Finland have made clear is their own vulnerability to Moscow's decision-making.

Not so fast, however. Turkey has an agenda of its own under Recep Tayyip Erdogan, arguably the most enigmatic and volatile of NATO's 30 members, whose playbook has diverged widely of late from that of NATO. He has stated baldly that it is his intention not to approve the two applications. He has an ax to grind with Sweden over its support for Kurds and he has a plan that risks alienating the most powerful country in NATO and he wants it understand that he is prepared to engineer an exchange.

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan | Adem Altan/AFP via Getty Images

 

In that he will give the green light to the NATO applications to welcome Finland and Sweden as long as NATO agrees not to interfere in Erdogan's plan to build a buffer that would remove any Kurdish presence in Syria from alongside Turkey's border with Syria. The dilemma is that no application submitted by any nation to join NATO can be accepted without unanimous assent of all NATO members. Of course, should all 30 NATO members, less Turkey, agree to turf Turkey from NATO, the problems of Turkey's intransigence would be solved...

And Turkey's president's plan is the launching of military operations across its border into Syria yet again, but on a firmer, larger scale that would cleanse border villages and farms of their Kurdish inhabitants and rout the presence of Kurdish militias from border proximity. Sweden and Finland have been accused by Turkey of nurturing links to the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) whose ongoing war with Turkey in the interest of forcing the release of Kurdish ancestral land it occupies for a recognized sovereign Kurdistan, has led Erdogan's intent on destroying the PKK.

Since 2015 Turkey has seized hundreds of kilomtres of land, 30 km deep into Syria, its operations targeting the Syrian Kurdish YPG milita, backed by the United States, for its aid in combating the Islamic State Emirate. Turkish troops have increased military operations against PKK fighters in northern Iraq as well. According to Turkey, both groups are linked as terrorist entities; whereas only the PKK is considered a terrorist group by NATO, not the YPG. 

The People's Defence Units (YPG) represent the foundational element of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led coalition hugely depended upon by the United States. For its part the SDF accuses Turkey of efforts planned to "destabilize the region", by its military action threats in northern Syria. In a sinister statement that simply indicates that Turkey is an unsuitable partner within NATO ranks, Erdogan claims that his planned military operation would serve to reveal which countries 'respected'  Turkey's security concerns and which did not.

 

Kurdish protesters take part in a demonstration holding Kurdish flags in Stockholm, Sweden | Frederik Sandberg/AFP via Getty Image

  Boris Bondarev via AP

 "I couldn't take it any longer. I should have done it at the start but not everyone is a hero."

"What's the point in our work when the Russian president is the only 'diplomat' in this country and he 'knows better'? All diplomats should have asked themselves that and maybe quit."

"For 20 years of my diplomatic career I have seen different turns of our foreign policy, but never have I been so ashamed of my country as on February 24 of this year. The aggressive war unleashed by Putin against Ukraine, and in fact against the entire Western world, is not only a crime against the Ukrainian people, but also perhaps, the most serious crime against the people of Russia."

Boris Bondarev, counsellor, Russian permanent mission, United Nations, Geneva

 

A graduate of the elite Moscow university specializing in the training of Russian diplomats, Boris Bondarev was employed at the Russian foreign ministry for twenty years, until he handed over his letter of resignation on Monday. As he did so, sharing his move on social media, he urged his diplomatic colleagues to do the same. He resigned his post in a furious denunciation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, for assigning a criminal mission in the military invasion of Ukraine, to Russia.

This seasoned diplomat's very public resignation along with the heat of his condemnation of a president not known to take dissent or accusations of personal misconduct lightly, represents the first high-profile defection yet linked to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting high civilian death numbers alongside the wanton destruction of Ukraine's towns, villages and cities. He acted as he did, he said out of moral conviction, to take a stand against the Putin regime.

As he now becomes a pariah in Russian government circles, he insists he has no fear for his own safety. He was simply motivated by 'disgust' that his position as a diplomat was that of representing Russia abroad in view of the criminal nature of Russia's invasion of a neighbouring state. And nor did it sit well with him, that an article about "crimes against humanity" purportedly committed by the government of Ukraine within Ukraine's east, is the leading official propaganda posted on Russia's mission to the UN's website.

Former diplomat Bondarev's specialty was nuclear non-proliferation for most of the last ten years. He feels  horrified at this juncture by how superficially and carelessly Russian officialdom now raise the prospect of deploying nuclear weapons: "It really is chilling", he avows. A number of his professional acquaintances quietly left their positions at the ministry since the invasion began, Bondarev explained, in reflection of some Russian diplomats being privately appalled by the war brought to Ukraine.

 

A covered body is seen in a residential area near Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in the southern port city of Mariupol   REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

That the Russian Foreign Ministry issues supportive declarations for war crimes obvious in their nature to the outside world, Russian diplomats exonerate their military and their government as being embroiled in a war of necessity, to rid the geography of the presence of sinister and stability-threatening fascists in Ukraine. That President Putin is himself exercising the fascist in his role as Russian tyrant represents a misunderstanding by a West seeking to destabilize Russia and by extension, eastern Europe.

 

Sergey Lavrov, Russia's current minister of foreign affairs, at one time represented a role model for generations of Russian diplomats whose admiration of his skilled craft of diplomacy and outstanding good manners attracted emulation. Until a mysterious transformation took place, a "deplorable evolution to become a person who spurts out utter nonsense", said the former counsellor.

 

The invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops has resulted in a wave of antiwar protests, sending thousands of Russian dissidents into exile. Among them some of Russia's best-known artists, singers and filmmakers who have spoken out publicly against their president's aggression and were then blacklisted or threatened with criminal charges which would lead to prison sentences. 

There is an undercurrent of speculation within Russian media, of senior figures in the government inclusive of liberal-leaning officials, such as the chief of the Central Bank, privately criticizing the invasion, none yet having taken a public stand. The former counsellor, who lives in Geneva. appears not to be concerned over the backlash he can expect should he return to Russia.

UN building in Geneva    AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File

Russia's Hollow Victory

"The Russian army has started very intensive destruction of the town of Sievierodonetsk, the intensity of shelling doubled."

"They are shelling residential quarters, destroying house by house."

"We do not know how many people died, because it is simply impossible to go through and look at every apartment."

Serhiy Gaidai, Luhansk governor 

"This will be the critical next few weeks of the conflict."

"And it depends on how effective they are at conquering Sievierodonetsk and the lands across it."

Mathieu Boulegue, Chatham House think tank, London

Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting via teleconference on May 17    EPA

The riverside town of Sievierodonetsk is being bombarded by Russian troops in a major assault for the last Ukrainian-held territory in Luhansk where Moscow claims ethnic Russian separatists have moved the area solidly into Russian possession. A massive artillery bombardment as a last bastion in Luhansk is hammering Sievierodonetsk to solidify Russian possession of one of two northeastern provinces into Russian territory.

Both the city and its twin, Lyshchanak located on the Siverskiy Donets river's opposite bank represent a Ukrainian-held pocket in the east that Russia has focused on overrunning since mid-April, once its campaign to capture Kyiv had failed. According to Ukraine's general staff, in an offensive on Sievierodonetsk, Ukraine forces had pushed the offensive back along a stretch of the front line. 

Some military analysts view the advance of Russian forces on the Luhansk front as a major drive to achieve Russia's less ambitious war aims, to capture increased territory that pro-Russian rebels claim. Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu claimed the "Liberation of the Luhansk People's Republic" would soon be completed.

The conditions in the Donbas, including Luhansk and its neighbour Donetsk province are "hell", according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy; the region has been completely destroyed: by Russian troops. Which speaks volumes about the Russian campaign, claiming Ukraine territory as its own by tradition and right of arms in a bid to force Ukraine to 'voluntarily' cede land to Russia. What Russia stands to gain if it manages to complete its takeover of the Donbas is a smoking, crushed ruin.

Moscow anticipates the face-saving issue of the capture of Luhansk and Donetsk, in finally being able to claim a 'victory' since it had announced this to be its objective. That goal came closer to reality when Ukraine ordered its garrison in the port city of Mariupol to stand down following a siege of close to three months. A situation that Russia celebrates as a 'surrender' and Ukraine defends as a 'withdrawal' for the purpose of preserving the lives of Ukrainian servicemen. 

More than 1,700 soldiers in the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, have surrendered since Monday, Russian authorities said. Here, Ukrainian servicemen sit in a bus after arriving under escort of the pro-Russian military in Olenivka in the Donetsk region on Friday. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

 

Roughly two thousand Ukraine militia members have so far surrendered at the Azovstl metalworks. The question of how many Ukrainian fighters surrendered has not been confirmed by Kyiv, but Britain's estimate is that a large force had laid down arms, the estimate placed at around 1,700. An unknown number of fighters remained within the underground labyrinth of the steelworks, unprepared to surrender their defense of the ruined city. 

An unknown number of troops remain in the sprawling complex, seen here on Friday, which is the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in the strategic port city — a target from the start of the Russian invasion nearly three months ago. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

Ukraine's military command had assured the city's defenders they could emerge and save their lives. The commander of the Azov Battalion, the unit that has defended the steelworks, confirmed the order to halt fighting was being carried out, stating that all civilians and wounded fighters were removed from the plant. "The situation is really hard and horrible and my husband is on the way from one hell to another hell, from Azovstal steel plant to a prison, to captivity", the wife of one soldier lamented.

The Red Cross undertook registration of hundreds of Ukrainians surrendering as prisoners of war. Moscow claims the prisoners will be given humane treatment under internationally-recognized war conventions. Russian politicians on the other hand, claim some of the Ukrainian soldiers must be tried for crimes, and even executed, presumably as neo-Nazi fascists, as Vladimir Putin has so often claimed them to be. 

A convoy of pro-Russian troops is seen before the evacuation of wounded Ukrainian soldiers from the besieged steel mill on Monday. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

Russia is desperate to emerge from this vicious fiasco it has created, with some semblance of pride in its enterprise. One that has crushed its reputation as thoroughly as the bombardment of Ukraine's towns, villages and cities have been crushed by Russia's war machines. The Kremlin's orders to its troops to succeed in its noble enterprise of striking civilian targets, killing civilians by the thousands, destroying their homes and creating millions of displaced and refugees have created a living hell for innocent people.

 Not so happily for Russia, military analysts maintain that Russia's resources to achieve its goal of capturing the entire Donbas may yet fail, owing to scarcity of resources. In hopes of bolstering its war effort, Moscow's parliament is considering a bill to invite Russians over age 40 and foreigners age 30 and over to join the military.

Ignore It, It'll Go Away : There the Civil Liberties Groups Always Have the Right Solution

"We are opposed to this, but that's not because we don't think Holocaust denial is egregious and terrible and it's not because we don't think it's harmful. It's because we don't think that the criminal law is the way to approach it."

"We are talking about putting people in prison for things that they said."

"We're singling out a particular historical genocide and tragedy and protecting it with the criminal law in a way that we're not doing for others."

"If you look at other countries that have Holocaust denial laws, including Germany, big shocker, they still have antisemites. They still have problems with racism and antisemitism, so this is not an effective way to tackle the problem."

Cara Zwibel, director, fundamental freedoms program, Canadian Civil Liberties Association

Yad Vashem    Israel

"As Canada and the world continue to witness a rise in antisemitism and Holocaust ignorance and trivialization, now more than ever we expect our government leaders to support efforts to combat Jew-hatred, particularly through Holocaust education."

"Once passed, this funding and amended Criminal Code will have a lasting positive impact in the Jewish community and the fight against antisemitism."

Michael Levitt, President and CEO, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center

 

"Our government takes the fight against antisemitism and all hate crimes very seriously. No Jewish Canadian should be subjected to racism and hateful rhetoric that has no place in our country."

"Freedom of expression is a fundamental freedom protected under the Charter. Like all rights and freedoms, it is not absolute and may be subject to reasonable limits under the Charter."

David Taylor, spokesperson, Canadian Ministry of Justice

Thousands of people demonstrated in downtown Montreal as participants chanted pro-Palestinian slogans. (Louis de Belleval/Radio-Canada)

Civil liberties groups much prefer unfettered-by-law freedoms for the general public to voice their opinion on topics that run the gamut from benign to violently incendiary. History has proven time and again that these freedoms to ignore hateful rhetoric have a way to begin creeping into the general consciousness. Repeat a slander often enough with firm conviction and recruits to such an ideology emerge from the shadows. If the legal system takes no notice, then injurious falsehoods have a habit of becoming popularly accepted and eventually a social more of the day.

The ravening beast that was the propaganda arm of the Third Reich didn't have to work too hard to convince the German public that the Jewish population living among them as proud German-Jews were in actual fact, scum of the earth, shielding their true character under the guise of reputable, trusted citizens of the country. When any discerning German of intelligence knew that Jews did their best to live up to the tenets of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

There is a well established undercurrent of Jew-hatred alive and well everywhere in the world, a renaissance of antisemitism whose viral infectability keeps spreading and gaining enthusiastic adherents. In the multicultural melting pot of Canadian citizenry which has undergone an alteration of immense proportions in the last few decades where immigrants bring with them the social culture of the countries they have left; among them a strong current of hatred of Jews.

Although now citizens of Canada, enjoined to adapt to Canadian values where people of all backgrounds, ethnicities and religious convictions are presumably equally accepted and esteemed, this aspect of Canadian culture is swept aside by the virulence of resentment against a self-imposed victimhood ascribed to Palestinians who resolutely refuse to recognize the State of Israel, infected with hatred for Jews 'occupying' their ancestral homeland, legally and under the auspices of general UN agreement.

Continued and continual marches, protests, public denunciations, mount the streets of the cities of Canada, spreading a lethal hatred against Jews; Holocaust denial is one of the weapons in this war of demonization of Jews and of Israel. A country like the Islamic Republic of Iran which the former Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper severed diplomatic ties with, expends an enormous amount of energy promoting Holocaust denial and violent repudiation of Israel.

Iran has its tentacles firmly in place through the activities of its proxy militias, Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, hard at work infiltrating civil society worldwide through its supporters. Protests against the 'occupation' of Palestine (an ancient Roman-inspired designation of Judaean lands, co-opted by Arabs originally from Jordan, Syria and Egypt presenting themselves as the original inhabitants and current representatives of 'Palestine') take place in Canadian cities with the flags of the PLO and Hamas, considered terrorist groups in Canada, in plain sight.

So, the truth of the matter is, the Civil Liberty groups balk at the very idea of limiting the opportunity for Jew-haters to continue expressing their virulent hatred, disliking the penalty to be instituted under Canadian law for denying the fact that a fascist, war-mongering country institutionalized a genocidal program of annihilation of Europe's Jews with meticulous attention to detail and complete impunity. 

Their spokeswoman speaks from a pulpit of sanctimonious righteousness, preferring to look past the reality that Jews view a resurgence of the methods that made the Holocaust possible, occurring before their very eyes.

Bodies lie piled against the walls of a crematory room in a German concentration camp in Dachau, Germany. The bodies were found by U.S. Seventh Army troops who took the camp on May 14, 1945

Russia: No nuclear-free status for the Baltic

"Russia has earlier indicated that it is placing for example these S-400 anti-aircraft missiles in the Kola Peninsula, and it has earlier said it’s placing these missiles in Crimea."

"This is normal practice. Russia is using these systems to replace the older S-300 rockets."

"The reporting was a bit surprising. There was a tinge of foreign policy in the Moscow Times piece that cited President Putin’s comments on (potential Finnish membership of) NATO."

"The positioning of S-400 Triumf missiles near Saint Petersburg is evidence that Saint Petersburg is an important metropolis for Russia."

Finnish Defence Minister Jussi Niinistö

Russian Iskander-M missile launcher on display during Victory Day parade Photograph:( AFP

 A convoy is shown on a video  obtained by Reuters, comprised of over a dozen military vehicles, some thought to be carrying Iskander missiles en route to Vyborg, a Russian city adjacent the border with Finland.The deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev -- a close colleague of Vladimir Putin who once played musical chairs with Putin, occupying the presidency while the prime ministership was temporarily taken by Putin in a bid to return to the presidency legally under the Russian constitution which he later manipulated to make it legal for him to continue as President -- warned should Finland and Sweden join NATO, Russia would undertake to move nuclear weapons closer to the two countries whose move to join NATO the Kremlin viewed as threatening.

 

"There can be no more talk of our nuclear-free status for the Baltic", he remarked on April 14.

Traditionally neutral, Finland and Sweden decided to break with that Cold War convention, in favour of defending themselves against a neighbour whose moves of aggression could be anticipated on the basis of the example before the eyes of the world, where Ukraine is now in active conflict forced upon it by Moscow's 'special military operation'. Neither Finland nor Sweden have any aspirations to test their own military's mettle facing off against a potential Russian invasion without an additional bit of defence; the combined strength of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

This represents somewhat of a miscalculation on the part of Vladimir Putin, consumed with rage over NATO expansion within the Russian Federation's 'near abroad', taunting Moscow as it were, with its too-close-for-comfort presence. An already-suspicious Putin arrived to a state of paranoia, a state which possibly inured him to the kind of introspection that might have warned him that he would be risking a great deal by launching into a conflict with Ukraine whose reaction to being occupied on a larger scale than the Donbas was obviously underestimated.

Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting via teleconference on May 17.   EPA

 

The scenario that Mr. Putin envisioned and was intent on forestalling, was in fact accelerated by his very actions in bringing war to Ukraine with its burden of civilian and military deaths, destroyed cities, millions of displaced homeless and refugees and Russia's own massive losses in dead commanders as well as servicemen, and the destruction of war machines resulting from Ukrainian defence and bold counter-attacks. The missiles were reportedly parked inside Russia's borders next to Ukraine before the February24 invasion before the decision was made to move them at this juncture.

Now that NATO acceptance of Finland and Sweden is assured, Mr. Putin finds it useful to move the nuclear-capable-warhead missiles to locations close to its borders with Finland. Finland appears to be calmly assessing the situation, finding nothing too much out of the ordinary by the move taken by its mercurial neighbour. And taking it all in stride as far as its reaction can be seen and analyzed by the outside world looking in. What is being discussed and analyzed within Finland in the security of government and military chambers may be another story.

S-400 Triump is an anti-aircraft weapon system. Photo: mil.ru

 

From NATO's perspective, the organization stands to gain by taking Finland and Sweden under its protective wing in the sense that they would become instant "net contributors" to European security. The two countries' absorption into the group would simplify defence of NATO's Baltic members, increasing the alliance's borders with Russia with the addition of 1,900 kilometers representing the border between Russia and Finland.

Turkey, which has long since become a liability politically within NATO, balanced against the immense size of its military, is the fly in the ointment with Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatening to weigh in against their accession. The Nordic countries, demands Ankara, must stop its support for Kurdish militant groups on their soil. Their bans on arms sales to Turkey must also be lifted. This, from a NATO member-country which contracted the purchase of Russian weapons for its military, disrupting the interoperability of NATO member groups' military hardware.

 

 

A Militarily Impeccable Perspective

"You should not swallow informational tranquilizers. The situation, frankly speaking, will get worse for us."

"We need to view one million well-armed Ukrainian soldiers as a reality for the coming months."

"The main thing in our business is have a sense of military-political realism; if you go beyond that then the reality of history will hit you so hard that you will not know what hit you."

"The main deficiency of our military-political position is that we are in full geopolitical solitude and -- however we don't want to admit it -- practically the whole world is against us -- and we need to get out of this situation."

"The desire to defend one's motherland in the sense that it exists in Ukraine -- it really does exist there and they intend to fight to the last."

Mikhail Khodaryonok, retired colonel, military analyst 

"Time is definitely working against the Russians. They're running out of equipment. They're running out of particularly advanced missiles."

"And, of course, the Ukrainians are getting stronger almost every day."

Neil Melvin, RUSI think-tank, London

Viewers on Russian state television were given a surprising message directly from a highly respected Russian military analyst: Russia hasn't seen anything yet; the war it launched in Ukraine is heading in a direction the Kremlin never envisioned and while things appear bleak at the present time, they will become much worse yet, for Russia. When the retired colonel delivered his message to a captive audience accustomed to Russian propaganda on Monday evening on the 60 Minutes talk show on Rossiya-1, its host Olga Skabeyeva, a pro-Kremlin television journalist, interrupted the military columnist for the gazeta.ru newspaper.

Khodaryonok was also a graduate of one of Russia's elite military academies, someone who stuck his neck out even before Vladimir Putin's 'special military operation' went into motion, cautioning against the advisability of propelling Russia into a hugely ill-advised conflict, warning that this would not work out to Russia's national interests. In  his obvious defence is the fact that thousands of people have been killed in this war which has displaced millions more. The fact is an indelible fear of a serious confrontation between Russia and the United States.

 

Military pundit Mikhail Kodaryonok told Russian television that Moscow's forces faced an uphill battle against Ukrainian troops in a rare moment of candor on Kremlin-backed TV. Above, Ukrainian soldiers ride in tanks near Bakhmut, Ukraine, on May 12, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. YASUYOSHI CHIBA/Getty Images

The swiftness with which consequences occurred to the present was the unity of the U.S.'s European allies and other states in condemning Russia's invasion and agreeing jointly on punitive sanctions, straining Russia's economy and making it an international outcast. Followed by Sweden and Finland deciding in their best interests to apply for membership in the U.S.led NATO military alliance. Fear that what has occurred to Ukraine may also threaten them in future led to Vladimir Putin's most feared scenario.

 

"Don't wave rockets in the direction of Finland for goodness sake -- it just looks rather funny", said Khodaryonok. While insisting that everything is "under control", Russian officials admit to the obvious; that their military operation is being prolonged, against all expectations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov Tuesday stated that the invasion is "quite effective. The success of our military men is plain to see". Plainly emptily risible rhetoric. 

The most recent 'victory' celebrating Russian military strategic acumen -- the full control of Mariupol city -- or rather its ruins. If this is a victory it seems a fairly abject one, even if it leads to Russia now controlling the Black and Azov seas. For how long, after all...? Even having finally done so by battering the city beyond recognition and losing in the process a substantial number of their own servicemen, not to mention war munitions, its plan to conquer the entire eastern Donbas does not now look too secure.

Putin now faces a choice, whether to send in additional troops and military hardware replenishing his weakened forces in the face of modern Western weaponry giving greater heft to Ukraine's combat power. Other military analysts feel that the Russian invasion force faces unsustainable troop and equipmnt losses while hopes for success in their mission are narrowing. Western heavy guns, including M777 howitzers with longer range than Russia's equivalents look to give Ukraine an edge.

 

A destroyed Russian tank in Malaya Rohan, a village outside Kharkiv that was occupied by the Russians, on Tuesday.    Credit...Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times

"I think it's either going to be defeat with the current force position, or mobilize. I don't think there is any middle ground."

"The Ukrainians are starting to outrange the Russians. That means they are able to operate without the threat of counter-battery fire from the Russians."

"Right now, from what I can tell, Putin is just kicking the can down the road and letting the situation within the Russian military actually get worse."

"For now, this is looking like the Russians' last offensive."

Konrad Muzyka, director, Rochon consultancy, Poland-based