Eurasia note #44 - Azov's Last Stand In Mariupol

Moneyed interests urge on their stalking horse, festooned with false hope and praise

Ukraine forces in last stand at Mariupol factory; Russia gives deadline,1300 local time.
Local soldiers say they were trained by Britain’s SAS; Russia shows off British soldier, and U.S. passport of fallen mercenary, claiming more NATO troops have surrendered.
Media’s assertion that Ukraine is wining creates a “plot hole” for narrative to fill.
Possible reason for apparent attack on the cruiser Moskva, now thought sunk.

Atlanticists are using not only nationalists, but also fascists, to achieve change.
‘Volkish’ ideology serves NATO's purpose, as Ukrainians wedded to extreme creed.
ADL stance on “moderate Nazis” echoes communist view of nationalists and Zionists.
Caricatures of Soviet-era journal Perets give an insight into today’s unlikely alliances.
(3,000 words or 14 minutes’ read)

Tbilisi, Apr 17, 2022, 1100 GMT

The last Azov soldiers in port city of Mariupol, trapped in a steel plant, denied permission to surrender; Russian forces capture NATO soldiers. A helicopter rescue mission fails and French websites list names of lost officers.

The narrative switches. Russian navy’s Black Sea flagship the Moskva explodes (Ukraine claims twin missile strikes) and president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in the protection or grip of the Azov Battalion, insists the country will fight on.

Could the events be connected — the scalp of the Russian vessel changing tack in the “war of headlines” and if, so, what might be the object from which to distract?

British SAS have been training inside Ukraine — although, as the Daily Mail observes, British advisers have been on the ground since 2014. The news slipped out when two AFU commanders, including captain Yuriy Myronenko, spoke to a local newspaper. [1]

Russia paraded a second British mercenary, Shaun Pinner, 48, and says it has captured troops from other NATO countries inside Ukraine. A Russian soldier giving the name Kerch displayed the U.S. passport of a 35-year old mercenary of hispanic descent — with the coordinates of his grave.

Andrey Klimov, deputy head of the United Russia commission, said “We already have prisoners among the military personnel of NATO countries, we will show all this when we conduct trials and the whole world will see what really happened.”

Le Figaro senior international correspondent Georges Malbrunot who returned from Ukraine after arriving with volunteer fighters said Americans are directly “in charge” of the war on the ground. Citing a French intelligence source, Malbrunot also tweeted that British SAS units “have been present in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, as have the American Deltas.”

Regarding the Moskva, fate of the crew is uncertain. Commentator Gonzalo Lira in Kharkiv ventures that the attack was the work of AFU in Odesa, “which has so far—and uniquely—suffered no significant Russian attack, and is therefore at close to 100 per cent military effectiveness.”

If the explosion was the work of Ukraine (Russia blames a fire onboard) it is a major escalation from what we have seen in the past week, including a helicopter attack on civilian oil storage and the bombing of a railway bridge, both in Russia’s Belgorod region.

Russian forces destroyed the missile factory that makes the type of missile Ukraine claimed to have fired at the vessel.

Media’s wistful mists

Western media assure us Ukraine is winning, so the prospect of mass surrender in Mariupol creates a plot hole, a narrative gap — events get ahead of the narrator, the audience senses doubt, looks more closely at the evidence and may begin to question.

A blackout on Russian sources of information has lent a surreal aspect as two wars are fought: a virtual one online, the other the bloody tide of war on the ground. Evidence presses like water on a dyke that even the Western press cannot contain.

Baltic states ask NATO to expand brigades to battalions. This would increase multinational troops in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland from 4,000 to 20,000.

The U.S. has committed $1.7 billion in military assistance to Ukraine, including 1,400 Stinger anti-aircraft, at 5,000 Javelin anti-vehicle missiles, along with 100 Switchblade weapon-carrying drones, 5,000 rifles, and 50 million rounds of ammunition.

Claim, counter claim

We can only infer the condition of Ukraine’s resistance. Russia continues its “cauldron” technique of surrounding and AFU battalions and starving them out.

Russia is thought to have deployed 150,000 troops initially, compared with the 780,000-strong Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) but despite the mismatch it claims to have destroyed AFU command and control, along with fuel and ammunition dumps.

Ukraine’s appeals reflect urgency, as does Poland offering to host nuclear weapons — Russia has said it will station nuclear weapons if NATO does so —and president Volodymyr Zelenskiy upped the ante, calling for the West to “be ready” to respond. [2]

Desperation is evident in the AFU execution of prisoners of war, and reportedly even ethnic Ukrainian civilians. “Video appears to show Ukrainian troops killing captured Russian soldiers” the NYT reported on Apr 6, filmed on a road just north of the village of Dmytrivka, about seven miles southwest of Bucha. [3]

The political cannot be separate from the military in Ukraine. The Azov Battalion and the Galician nationalist militia have infiltrated the security and military apparatus and their philosophy manifests in their behaviour: the use of human shields, attacking humanitarian corridors, threatening civilians who try to leave — all this goes beyond the rational suspicion of collaborators. [4]

Azov militants were killed on Apr 16 when Russian troops rescued hostages from a mosque in Mariupol, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said today. Western media has made repeated unsubstantiated claims of mosque attacks — but it seems nationalists were clearly trying to provoke one.

On Apr 7 Greek MPs walked out in protest when Zelenskiy, together with members of Azov Battalion, addressed the Athens parliament on video.

As this is written, Azov Battalion have (reported by Russian forces) issued orders to shoot any Ukrainian soldier who tries to surrender. Hundreds, if not thousands, are still thought to be hiding in the Azovstal steel plant. Nationalists act as enforcers within the ranks.

The tenets of supremacist ideology today differs little from the version of a century ago. Every person must align with the social order or against it. Each has a choice to adhere to the facts about race or reject truth. Morality is the ultimate good of the struggle for one's community and its evolution. The Greater Ego, the fate of the constituent unit, is more important than the fate of the individual. [5]

See Moneycircus, Apr 8, 2022 — Eurasia note #41 - Ukraine's Battle for Kramatorsk Looms

Historical blinkers

One of the seeds of the present crisis is narrowness of vision. When examining anything, one has to choose an arbitrary starting point.

With peoples or nations we can begin this very moment — and shout “bloody Russians” or “darn the Hun” or “boycott Israel” — and in an age that deprecates the teaching of history we hear a lot of that.

The rich encourage this. Rulers and politicians don't want you to know that the furniture can be arranged differently — and was, until very recently.

Playing the game of ethnic “tag” quickly becomes rather silly, if not dangerous, as we shall see.