this writer can be a bit more of an empire cheerleader than i'd like to post but he frequently has good information. in this there is more on the ukraine, and the empire;

Why can’t major news outlets at least try to be objective?  On the Russians side, we are getting a steady stream of pro-Russian propaganda, and that is to be expected.  But I am particularly disappointed in the mainstream media in the western world.  We have been told story after story of Ukrainian victory, but most of the videos and photos that they are using end up being fakes that were given to them by the Ukrainians.  The biggest fraud of all was the story of “the ghost of Kiev”.  Congressman Adam Kinzinger even tweeted about him.  But it turns out that it was all a giant hoax.  News organizations are supposed to try to verify stories before they run with them, but way too many times that simply isn’t happening.

And day after day, we continue to be deluged with more stories that are intended to shape public perception of the war.  We are being told that Russian soldiers are crying, we are being told that entire Russian units are abandoning their posts and walking back home, and we are being told that some Russian troops are surrendering without any sort of a fight.

If you only rely on such sources, you would be tempted to think that the Russians are on the verge of defeat and that the Ukrainians have almost won.

But that isn’t exactly true, is it?

Even military experts in the west are rebuking the press for such shameless propaganda.  The following comes from a piece by a military analyst that was published by a British news source…read and watch more..........

 this looks like the canadians have a much larger fight on their hands than might have been the case if their government had any ears with which to engage their citizens. i suspect it will only go downhill from here;

The Ontario Ministry of Transportation has closed 39 independent trucking companies for their participation in the Freedom Convoy protest against Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions.

In another round of anti-protest sanctions, the ministry affirmed that 12 trucking companies in Ontario and 27 outside the province have been slapped with seizure orders canceling their authority to carry out business in Ontario following their alleged involvement in the Freedom Convoy protest. (Related: Canada’s Freedom Convoy invokes waves of protests against Canada’s COVID mandates.)

“In an effort to preserve future police investigations into the illegal occupation in Ottawa, the ministry will not release the names of affected businesses at this time,” a ministry spokesperson stated, indicating a criminal investigation may be initiated against the 39 trucking companies that participated in the protest.

Plates of 24 passenger vehicles from Ontario and 34 from outside the province were also suspended. According to the Ottawa Police 115 vehicles were towed during the protest.......read more.........

 this looks like the empire has pushed the eu and nato into joining in the world war fun;

Lost in the thick of President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, which reportedly is not going as well for him as he had planned, is NATO’s response to his naked aggression.

As tens of thousands of Russian troops poured into Ukraine from several points along the border, NATO was initially caught off-guard but quickly responded with the activation of a 40,000-strong quick reaction force for the first time since its formation more than a decade ago.

“No matter who tries to stand in our way… they must know that Russia will respond immediately, and the consequences will be such as you have never seen in your entire history…. I hope that my words will be heard,” Putin said in a televised address to his country and the world as he ordered his forces into Ukraine.

That led to NATO’s response, as reported by UNZ.com:

In a move that can only be regarded as a major escalation, NATO officials announced on Friday that they would deploy troops from its Combat-Ready Response Force to support the Ukrainian regime in its war with Russia. The Alliance will also send additional weapons which will be used to blunt the Russian offensive that has already seized large parts of the country and obliterated most of Ukraine’s defensive capability. .........read more.........

 more from pcr on ukraine and its various participants;

The  European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced that, despite Putin’s warning, the EU is going to finance the purchase and delivery of weapons to Ukraine.  She also said the EU is going to include Belarus, which is not involved in the fighting, in the sanctions, because it is a Russian ally. She says the EU wants to ban Russian media because they don’t keep to the official war narrative. 

So, the European Commission president announces that the EU is joining the war on the side of the Ukrainian Nazis, and Washington’s  UN Ambassador accuses Putin of escalating the war. 

We see here the results of Putin’s far too many years of keeping his patience with the West.  The West has grown accustomed to imposing punishment upon punishment on Russia with no consequences to itself.  Now suddenly there are consequences, and it is all Putin’s fault.

I have warned for a number of years that the policy of patience would fail in the end because the West would keep pushing until it blundered across a red line. That has now occurred, and the consequences will be far more serious than if Russia had put her foot down long ago.

Russophobic morons accuse me of being pro-Russian because I provide objective analysis instead of joining in the mindless denunciations.  I am the one who saw nuclear war coming because of the mistaken policies of both sides.  It is the Western Russophobes and the naive Russian trust in negotiations that have misfired.  Unfortunately, it is my analysis that is proving to be correct. I can’t say I am happy about it.

UPDATE: It is stunning that no one in the Western leadership or media understood that Russia was serious about her security concern. Whether the West regarded the Kremlin’s concern as warranted or not, everything should have been done to reassure Russia. Instead, the opposite was done.  Stoltenberg said “if the Kremlin’s aim is to have less NATO on its borders, it will only get more NATO.” What an arrogantly stupid thing to say.  This reckless statement is made by the secretary general of NATO. He should have been instantly removed from office. 

I pointed out 8 days ago that this extremely aggressive response to a sincere security concern of a major military power would have very serious consequences. It convinced the Kremlin that Russia’s security concern could not be settled by negotiation. It was Stoltenberg who set the Russians on the course of invasion.

The West no longer has any Russian experts. The West has people directly or indirectly on the military/security complex’s payroll who do nothing but excoriate Russia. The West has zero ability to see the other side. Moreover, the West to show its inclusiveness appoints females as  defense ministers, national security advisers and heads of European Commission. The women have to show they are as tough as men and consequently make even worse decisions.  

Indeed, we are on the point of ceasing to exist simply because the Western World is not capable of making a sensible decision. ........https://www.globalresearch.ca/european-commission-president-announces-eu-joining-war-against-russia/5772288

 this entry from the moon of alabama makes much sense for my mind;

The U.S. and its proxies in the EU and elsewhere have put up very harsh sanctions on Russia to damage its economy.

The final intent of this economic war is regime change in Russia.

The likely consequence will be regime change in many other countries.

This war is waged at a financial size that is unprecedented. The consequences in all markets will be very significant to extreme. But experience from Iran shows that such financial wars have their limits as the targeted country learns to survive. Moreover Russia is in a much stronger position than Iran ever was and is better prepared for the consequences.

The rubel fell some 30% today but Russia's central bank immediately more than doubled its interest rate to 20%. It is willing to fight inflation before it is really sets in. How much of Russia's investment and consumption depends on imports from the 'west'? Can't most of it not be replaced by imports from China?

All energy consumption in the U.S. and EU will now come at a premium price. This will push the EU and the U.S. into a recession. As Russia will increase the prices for exports of goods in which it has market power - gas, oil, wheat, potassium, titanium, aluminum, palladium, neon etc - the rise in inflation all around the world will become significant.

'Western' central banks are still at practical 0% interest rates and will be reluctant to increase those as that will cause a deeper recession. This makes it likely that inflation in the 'western' world will increase at a higher rate than Russia's.

Germany's crazy move to add $120 billion to defense spending (up from some $40 billion p.a.) will within a few years create a strong military imbalance in Europe as Germany will then dominate all its neighbors. This is unnecessary and historically very dangerous. The shunning of economic relations with Russia and China means that Germany and its newbie chancellor Olaf Scholz have fallen for the U.S. scheme of creating a new Cold War. Germany's economy will now become one of its victims.

On February 4 Russia and China declared a multipolar world in which they are two partnering poles that will counter the American one. Russia's move into the Ukraine is a demonstration of that.

It also shows that the U.S. is unwilling to give up its supremacist urges without a large fight. But while the U.S. over the last 20 years has spent its money to mess up the Middle East, Russia and China have used the time to prepare for the larger conflict. They have spent more brain time on the issue than the U.S. has.

The Europeans should have acknowledged that instead of helping the U.S. to keep up its self-image of a unipolar power..........https://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.com/2022/03/moon-of-alabama-on-day-5-of-war-in.html

 attempting to catch up after three days with no access to this computer due to being in hospital, i haven't even made it to pcr's site but find this on my favorite vietnamese blogger's site and provide it here as it makes much sense;

Russia is in position to issue crippling sanctions against the US and Europe, but so far has not done so.  The Russians seem determined to prevail with as little force as possible. The Kremlin has not paralyzed Germany by turning off the gas. The Russians have not nationalized US and European assets.  The Russians have not disrupted global supply chains by refusing to sell minerals. The Russians have not stopped the export of wheat. The Russians have not issued international arrest orders for American and European war criminals for their crimes against humanity in Serbia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and for their various assassinations.

On the military front, the Ukrainian forces are essentially surrounded and incapable of counterattack or effective resistance except for some Nazi militias that have ensconced their heavy weapons among concentrations of civilians.  Under the Kremlin’s current rules, the Russian forces are prohibited from firing heavy weapons into civilian areas.  The Russians, of course, get no credit for this.  The Western presstitutes continue to repeat fake news of indiscriminate Russian attacks on civilians.

It demonstrates the stupidity of Western people that they believe Russia would waste military resources on non-military targets.  As Putin said, the West “is an empire of lies.” Soon we will be reading in the New York Times and hearing on NPR and CNN that Russian troops are throwing premature babies out of incubators and bayonetting children.

The West yells and screams threats and accusations because it can’t do anything else.  Western morons threaten to send ISIS jihadists into Ukraine to fight Russians, to send in US veterans as volunteers, of raising a mercenary force in Poland.  At the same time we hear Ukraine has stopped the Russian advance and is winning.  So why are all of the fanciful outside forces needed?

The Ukrainian foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, calls for the UN to “disarm Russia,” an unimaginable feat. One wonders how Kuleba is a foreign minister when the Ukraine government does not control Ukraine. The French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, declares “total economic and financial war on Russia,” and is told by Russian Security Council deputy chairman Dmitry Medvedev to “watch his words” or he will end up with a real war.  The idiotic European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced that the EU is going to send the Ukrainians jet fighters via Poland, and was promptly contradicted by Poland’s president, Andrej Duda:  “We are not sending any jets to Ukraine because that would open a military interference in the Ukrainian conflict. We are not joining that conflict. NATO is not a party to that conflict.” https://www.rt.com/news/550955-poland-bulgaria-deny-warplanes-ukraine/ 

Putin has warned NATO countries about supplying arms.  Any such arms shipments would be destroyed in transit.  Russia controls Ukrainian air space. The Ukrainian forces are surrounded.  How are arms to reach them?  Why is the idiot West trying to prolong a lost war?  Why hasn’t the White House told Zelensky to surrender and negotiate the best deal he can get with Russia?

Nowhere in the West’s impotent bluster is there any talk of putting Ukraine in NATO.  Instead, there is talk of putting Ukraine in the EU.  The EU is an economic alliance, not a military one, and it is unclear what it means for a government in exile to be a member.  Ukraine’s future depends on Russia pulling out after she achieves her aims.  ....read more........

 this image displays some of the reasons the empire wants to control ukraine. putin doesn't want to mess with the place beyond making sure they aren't a threat to russia, as they were increasingly becoming;