Rus Claims Capture Volchansk Citadel; Nervous US Calls Rus Crimea Beach Attack, Seeks Deescalation

as I discussed I'm now in Germany where I am working to a very very tight timetable I have uh many people to see and things to do and for that that's going to have an inevitable effect on the amount of time um I can devote to individual videos for this channel though I will try to maintain a constant flow of videos throughout the time I'm in Germany with my family which will be for about a week so if this video is shorter than some of my more recent ones well some of you may uh heave a s of relief others no doubt will be um sorry to anybody who is sorry well let me say my apologies but external events dictated so let's therefore since I'm going to try and keep time the time of this video relatively short let's talk about what is happening um in the various conflicts around the world and of course by far the most important and the one that is shaping as I've said everything that happens all around the world is the conflict in Ukraine and let's start where we always do or where we traditionally do with what is happening on the battlefronts now there's been some rather interesting information over the last few hours about another big Russian missile strike as I understand this one was carried out almost entirely by isander m ballistic missiles these do seem to be actual Russian iscandar M there's been some reports about North Korean missiles being used by the Russians in the war if so so it looks as if they were only used on a trial basis because from what I can tell all Russian ballistic missile strikes are conducted with isander M missiles and as I have also pointed out in previous programs that the Russians are able to shoot down Ukrainian launched attacks missiles which are also ballistic missiles and do so in large num the ukrainians themselves have admitted that they have no means to shoot down isander M ballistic missiles I would add that over the course of this week the Russian Black Sea fleet has also been relatively active they've launched several strikes with caliber um subsonic cruise missiles the caliber subsonic cruise missile long long range cruise missile um launched by by the Russian Navy um is similar in some respect some characteristics to the KH 101 missiles launched by the Russian Air Force but they are apparently quite different missiles and in some respects they're less advanced than the Russian Air Force missiles and less stealthy and therefore easier for the ukrainians to track an intercept just saying but the last strike was carried out largely with isander missiles and from what I've been able to understand the targets were all purely military targets with Ukrainian airfields being the major um focus of these attacks the Russians trying to make these airfields unusable before the f-16s arrive and we're constantly being told that the f-16s are going to arrive sometime in the next few weeks couple of months ago I remember that there were predictions that the f-16s would arrive and would start to fly over the start of ukra over the Skies of Ukraine in June June is now almost ended there is no sign yet of the f-16s well we will see when they come and from which Airfield Fields they will operate assuming of course that they come at all anyway that's uh what I wanted to say about this strike I don't yet have full information about what exactly it achieved but given that as I said there is no means to intercept isander M missiles it's likely that this attack did suff significant damage now going back to the topic of the atacam strikes the world uh there were recently a number of Ukrainian strikes on Crimea one of them ended appallingly with the strike on the beach in Crimea the the rather the horror on the beach when uh canisters from a attack's missile that exploded above the the beach fell on the beach we'll come to that in a moment but um um the ukrainians did launch other strikes on other facilities in Crimea as well and one of them was some kind of space um fa space oriented facility built by the Soviet Union to support the Soviet space program it's unclear whether this particular facility is still operational or whether it operates to any very significant extent but any anyway the ukrainians did try to attack it lots of claims that the attack's missiles got through and that the facility was destroyed we've now received satellite data precise satellite data certainly there are Scorch marks around the facility but it seems as if the missiles were shot down close to the facility by Uh Russian um air defense systems probably T missiles and um panus systems rather than the long range s400s and s3000s and the facility itself was largely undamaged and The Scorch marks which have appeared to create a certain amount of excitement in some places in Ukraine in particular seem to be the areas of burnt ground near the facility not the facility itself they don't show Destruction for the facility itself anyway missile strikes from both sides but the Russian ones get through and do tremendous damage damage the ukrainians occasionally get through but the damage they do is much more limited let's discuss however the situation on the front lines and let's begin with volchansk because group of forces North has now provided us with a very interesting uh report indeed um this is covering what happened on the 26th of June they say that in the volchansk direction Fierce fighting continues in volans assault groups are assault groups knocked out the enemy from the area of multistory buildings now this is a translation it's not an official translation it's a translation it's been published by slavian grad it might be a machine translation and of course I'm not sure what the original Russian says but on the face of it this translation suggests that the Citadel area the area of the highrise buildings to the north of the aggregate plant has fallen that the Russians have captured it presumably after the men of the 71st Jager Brigade either surrendered or fled now I'm not able to confirm that it's a very matter of fact way of publishing this rather astonishing news perhaps in reality what's happened is that the Russians have gained ground in the area of the high-rise buildings rather than captured the whole area in its entirety but it does suggest that something fairly significant is going on there and the group of forces North then goes on to say that the enemy did not take any attacking actions and continues to build up its forces on the right bank that's to say on the South Bank of the vulture River in other words not in the area north of the vulture River where the intense fighting has been taking place and then group of forces North goes on to say the total advance of Russian troops in the Volant Direction was up to 150 M now as I said these all very remarkable and very extraordinary if the area of the high-rise buildings has indeed been captured then it looks as if the aggregate plant has been captured as well in fact the purpose of capturing the aggregate plant was to cut off supplies to the Ukrainian defenders in the highrise buildings and that might be why if it the aggregate plant has indeed been captured why resistance in the area of the high-rise buildings might have collapsed now it must be said that there is a contradictory report from the general staff of Ukraine they have issued another statement that there are still Russian troops as they put it in the aggregate plant but that these troops remain cut off and are in a cauldron now some again some people are again taking this report at face value in which case it seems to completely contradict this report from group of forces North the Ukraine military has been saying less about the aggregate plant recently I wonder whether they published this report in order to prepare for the admission that the aggregate plant has now fallen under Russian control just saying anyway that's all I can say about volchan as I said uh a bombshell from um group of forces North about the area of the high-rise buildings it may be as I said that um this report has not been translated properly but anyway we will see interestingly notice though that the group of forces North says that the ukrainians have stopped all attempts to Counterattack either across the vulture River or from the Eastern towards the eastern part of volchansk from the village of Tikka all of those attempts apparently have been unsuccessful and the ukrainians have stopped their attempts to conduct offenses in this area and then group of forces North goes on to say no active actions were noted in the lipy area Russian Air Force destroyed a large temporary deployment of the 13th um Brigade of the Ukrainian National Guard in Lipsy and I believe the group forces North doesn't tell us this that this building which housed this deployment Point rather this deployment area was attacked with a Fab 3000 bomb but again maybe I'm reading more into this than it says and group of forces North says that over the past 24 hours enemy L losses amounted to more than 200 men also un and then there's a list of the uh equipment the Ukrainian equipment the group of forces North say that they destroyed and then they go on to say this in the past 20 past 24 hours have been very productive for our missile forces two Precision strikes destroyed two Ukraine you drone depos along with their Crews and transport that's to say presumably fpv drones so two units Ukrainian units uh that have been involved in conducting fpv drone attacks on Russian forces in the khov area have been unsuccessful and then the report goes on to say the density of our defenses and the low Manning of uh Ukrainian assault units continue to prevent the Ukraine Ian command from launching an offensive the enemy continues to make up for the lack of personnel with rifle battalions of the 23rd and 43rd Brigade whose only goal is to be the Vanguard of met assaults until the so-called elite units are brought into battle so the Russians are saying group of forces North are saying that despite all the claims of the country about a huge buildup of Ukrainian forces in the khaku area the reality is that the ukrainians are short of trained men they're having to make up for the lack of trained troops with assaults by untrained troops and these assaults are achieving nothing and group of forces North on that basis seem confident that the um prospects of an offensive by the ukrainians are receding and by the way the Russian foreign Ministry has issued a statement saying that if the ukrainians do indeed decide to launch some kind of an offensive in the khov area before the NATO Summit meeting on the 9th of July then they will p a very very heavy price for an offensive which the Russians are certain will fail so that's the situation in volchansk elsewhere all across the front lines the Russians continue their advances and they continue to grind the ukrainians down Ukrainian losses remain at the same high levels as I have discussed I understand that in the micro District the ukrainians control just seven buildings now it's important to say that these are seven high-rise buildings in the micro District west of the aqueduct in the CH OFA area fighting apparently still continues for the micro District it appears to be the most heavily fortified position in chaar it looks as if it's likely to fall fairly soon at which point as I said as I said it looks as if the whole future of Ukrainian defenses in the chaia area um is bleak and the Chas ofar itself will shortly after fall there are also reports going to the other town where fighting is continuing which is aeva sorry not avva korovka that reports of a major Ukrainian withdrawal from kovka might be true the Russians seem to be clearing now fairly rapidly the remaining Ukrainian defense positions there are now reports that within about a week the Russians will be able to announce the full capture of krasnogorovka there have been reports like this before but this time these latest reports are backed by photographic and film which appears to show significant Russian advances in this town now to repeat the main battle in my opinion continues to be in the adeva otino area the Russians continued their advances through the villages to the west of otino places like sool which the ukrainians appear to be defending to an undue extent given that the fortifications around s already appear to have have been captured by the Russians but probably the ukrainians understand that if they're driven out of so and other villages to the west of otino the way will the flanks the Russian flanks will have been secured enabling the Russians to advance northwards towards um the main road from pakros to um chfar um C the road and that of course would create a major crisis for the Ukrainian defenders in toret who are under heavy pressure and also of course for Ukrainian defenders in chuar and places like that now zilinski himself has been on the Move having just Saed General sodol at the orders on the orders of the azof Brigade I'm being only partly factious he's turned up at one of the towns which are under attack I believe it was volchansk though I've seen one report refer instead to pakros um Ukrainian Soldiers by now must have become used to zalinski turning up to a town which eventually Falls for them he must be a harbinger of Doom um recently some months ago I remember he went to rottino and robotino has now been captured by the Russians he then went to chuar and we hear that the Russians are now in control of the micro District apart from Seven buildings with the rest of chuya likely to fall soon after if he's gone to volchansk well that will confirm to many in Ukraine that volchansk also is going to fall pakros for the moment not under attack but at some point no doubt it soon will be so overall trajectory of the war continues very much along the lines that I have been discussing in these programs now for several months ever since a deel in February the Russians have broadened their offensive they're pushing the ukrainians right across the front lines they have the initi itive they're able to attack wherever and whenever they choose they caught the ukrainians by surprise by launching an attack in khov region at the beginning of May before the ukrainians expected them they then launched an attack in the toret area again which was unexpected to the ukrainians both of these attacks gained significant ground before the ukrainians were able to rush reinforcements to the to hold the positions the Ukrainian Army under intense and continued stress the soldiers the veteran soldiers becoming fewer and fewer in number becoming increasingly jaded and tired and angry criticizing their command and large numbers of reservists thrown into the battle without enough training unable to hold back the Russians in many cases refusing orders to conduct attacks and in a few cases retreating when they are attacked and we've had reports about this from Recently from the volchansk and chuia areas so the wall continues meanwhile there has been considerable diplomatic contct between the United States and Russia now now as I discussed couple of programs ago in the aftermath of the attack on the bridge on on the beach in Crimea the Russians called in the American ambassador and gave her a warning that Russia will respond and will respond firmly to that attack and that there will be a Russian response which will be a Russian response in effect against the United States itself that the Russians will take action against uh the United States at a time and place of their own choosing now the Russians have provided us with a brief report about this uh providing us some further information this comes from Sergey riabov Russian Deputy foreign minister uh he said that the tragedy that occurred in Sasol will certainly not remain and does not remain without our response the nature of this response is a matter that I'm not at all authorized to discuss I think that the idea of certain per permissible scenarios is also on the minds of many in the west they should feel the extreme risks associated with such actions um and then he said that um uh he said in response to discussion about the Russians using tactical nuclear weapons that the president that's to say Putin as the Supreme Commander in Chief makes such faithful decisions the scenarios in which this is permissible are described in detail and precisely in basic documents everything correlates with the current situation which in effect tells us very little indeed um almost nothing in effect about what the Russians are going to do but the fact that they are indeed going to respond anyway the indications are that this has made these this warning has made the United States nervous because directly after the warning was given the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin telephoned and spoke to his opposite number um Andre bellu now the readouts that both the Americans and the Russians have provided are thin to the point of being completely uninformative they both spoke about the importance of remain retaining preserving Communications Communications lines between these two powerful countries must be preserved and arabov had something to say about that also he said channels of communication with Washington are not closed just the day before yesterday a very important telephone conversation between Russian defense minister Bell USF and his American counterpart took place there are contacts at other levels and along other lines along the lines of presidential administrations in particular along the lines of intelligence Services diplomatic agencies are in contact with each other on their own issues and this happen happens on on a regular basis we should not find ourselves in a situation where we are working with a black box where some impulses come from our side inside and the output is zero that's why the channels I mentioned are important that's why the function of ambassadors and embassies is important and we will not abandon any of them and you can treat the genre of diplomatic demares however you like but this is also an important element of the overall work especially in the current crisis period now the most important thing to take from those words is that tells us that the meeting the conversation between Lloyd Austin and bosf was very important now some may think it is a coincidence that Lloyd Austin telephoned B directly after the Russians gave a warning that they're going to take retaliatory action against the United States for the Crimean Beach attack I don't believe in such a coincidence I am sure that the United States very concerned to be receiving a warning of this kind from Moscow has take took the initiative to call the Russians to call the Russian def defense Ministry to find out exactly what it was that the Russians were intending to do or at least if not exactly what the Russians were intending to do to at least try to persuade the Russians that in fact the United States is not as responsible as the Russians claim it is for the Crimean Beach attack and to try to basically calm the situation down and another indication that the situation the the Russians might be trying the Americans might be trying to calm the situation down is an incredible aggressive incredibly belligerent statement that was published by zelinsky's advisor Miko podolak he said that there are no beaches resort areas or beach goers in Crimea that the entire territory is under occupation that everybody who is engaged in such activities is presumably some kind of occupier in effect all but brazenly saying that the people on the beach were a legitimate Target coming as close as the ukrainians are likely ever to do to admitting that they targeted the beach intentionally now when people publish defined comments of this nature I suspect that they're coming under pressure and it could be that they are coming under pressure from the Americans who are telling the ukrainians under no circumstances must anything like this ever happen again and it's possible that the Americans told the Russians this that they've given this warning to the ukrainians this information to the ukrainians and that this was the purpose of the call between Lloyd Austin and belus I doubt that the Russians are going to be very impressed and I doubt that it it will be enough to prevent the Russians from proceeding with the retaliation that they have spoken about though it might affect it might lessen the level of retaliation that the Russians might do but even that I'm far from certain will be the case anyway an interesting set of discussions uh between the Americans and the Russians and note that the United States even as it announc announces that or least even as we're getting information that the United States is preparing to formalize the presence of US contractors in Ukraine they have been there pretty much since the start of the war the announcement that appeared in Bloomberg that the administration is going to do this formally simply gives an official glass to what has always been the case but it looks to me that this might be intended again as a kind of response to this Crimean breach Beach Affair that it's intended to impress on the ukrainians as well as on the Russians that the Americans are indeed tightening control on attack's Missile launches and that from now on um with American contractors already largely involved in controlling those missile strikes the Pentagon itself will play a more active role an even more active role in this than has been the case before anyway who knows but um even as the United States announces that there have been further statements from the White House that the deployment of us ground troops or indeed any US troops to Ukraine is categ orally ruled out now to be clear all of these American assurances which I suspect is what the Russians are getting I doubt that they're going to C much ice in Moscow I think the Russians are going to be deeply unimpressed by them by this point in the conflict we've reached a stage where they no longer trust the Americans very much at all but who knows maybe just maybe as I said it will diffuse the tensions that have Arisen from this particular incident but the Russians for their part have promised retaliation ROV has reaffirmed that it is coming the Americans have admitted that they're contracted are already working in Ukraine the likelihood is that the Russians part of that retaliation from the Russians as well as providing weapon systems to people in the Middle East and such things apart from that the Russians will probably also be coming after some of those contractors those American contractors in Ukraine itself anyway let's press on and discuss some of the the um other political news the German CDU or want to more precise its leader Fredick matz on Sunday gave an interview in which he seemed to be um moderating significantly his rhetoric about Russia up to recently he has posed as the hardest of hardliners in Germany he's been endlessly demanding that more and more advanced weapons be supplied by Germany to Ukraine and the Germany go all out to support Ukraine in the war I think he's realized after the European Parliament elections that this is not a popular line to take in Germany where by the way I presently am and that he's realizing that um he will pay an electoral price if he continues with this Hardline so for that reason I think he might be in the process of moderating his language at least a little SAR vagen the political leader of the new party on the left which did I thought pretty well in the European Parliament elections for a party that has only just formed she has spoken more realistically she has said that if there is going to be a negotiated settlement in Ukraine which of course she strongly endorses then it must be understood that it cannot be on the existing line of contact she's moving towards in other words acknowledging that the Russian demand that the ukrainians pull out of the four regions is something that has to be conceded if a negotiation um is to be success MZ is not the only European politician who's now talking in a more moderate way Emanuel macron in France perhaps in the last weeks of his presidency the last few opinion polls appear to show the Marine Le Leen party um surging the part the the political group that's set second is the United left the So-Cal popular front whose de facto leader seems to be Jean Luke melanon um macron's own party is far behind polling less than 20% of the vote anyway um it could be that macron realizes that the game is up with the Parliamentary elections and I still think that there's a better than even chance that he will resign if if his party does particularly badly in those elections anyway macron is now also coming out making statements that there will not be French troops sent to Ukraine anytime soon he seems very vague on the dates but his enthusiasm for that project seems to be fading and he is also um saying that he's prepared to enter into talk talks with President Putin though of course he doesn't explain how these talks are going to be conducted or in what form or anything like that but again the language seems to be slightly more conciliatory I wonder whether recent events in Ukraine the failure of the ukrainians to achieve to to mount an counter offensive in KHAK region the fact that up to now the ukrainians have not succeeded in destroying the Crimean Bridge which remember they said they would destroy in the first half of this year the warnings from the Russians whether perhaps cumulatively they AR beginning to hit home but no one no one should Bank on this on the contrary the consistent pattern of the Ukraine conflict is that when the Western Powers seem to be talking peace it's only a question of time before they reverse their position and start talking about war again everything will turn ultimately on what happens on the battlefronts and if we see a sudden Ukrainian collapse which perhaps we will some are suggesting it could happen as quickly as the end of the summer or the beginning of the Autumn well if we see a southern Ukrainian collapse I suspect that we will see talk both of Peace by those who Advocate it and of War more war from those who demand it I suspect we will see all of that intensify well that's my brief summary of the situation in Ukraine we are caught between War and Peace between Russia and the West the Russians continue to advance the situation in hanu region is covered by the fog of war or perhaps the fog of mistranslation I'm not sure um but anyway the tra trajectory is clear enough there doesn't seem to be any real doubt in anybody's Minds any longer about how this war is going to end the only question is how complete will that Russian Victory be now lots of things are of course taking place elsewhere in the world in Bolivia there has been an attempt to overthrow the president there and um this has been uh president Luis AR I suspect I'm not pronouncing his name correctly um um this coup attempt carried out by the military seems to have followed very closely the model of military coups in Latin America as it played out as recently as the late 1980s in fact I seem to remember military coups in Bolivia being conducted in exactly that way um at that time so the Commanding General the chief senior general of the Bolivian Army says that he's going to come and overthrow the government in order to preserve democracy he deploys troops to the capital the troops lays Siege to the president presidential Palace and the Parliament building they seek to break into the presidential Palace however very quickly things began to go wrong the most of the military seemed to be um hostile to this coup attempt the president um was able to mobilize public support including from his former partner and to some extent rival Evo Morales who remains a significant political figure in Bolivia and whose um relationship with President AR has not always been easy but anyway Morales came out and supported AR over the course of this particular coup anyway um even as the coup was underway um the defense minister stacked the chief military commander who was carrying out the coup or trying to carry out the coup the general who took over from him immediately countermanded the coup orders the troops returned to barracks and the coup collapsed and thousands of people came out onto the streets of laaz to protest against the coup and the coup seems to have been a complete and utter failure and one which ultimately stren has strengthened the existing government as to why the coup has happened well I can only guess but I suspect that my guesses are the same as yours my my viewers um I don't think it's particularly difficult to see what might have triggered OU like this at this particular times suffice to say that Bolivia sits on top of I believe the largest lithium deposits or at least known lithium deposits in the world lithium being an essential um an essential component of liquefied um of the new um batteries the uh um liquid lithium batteries which have so revolutionized um so many uh well the electric vehicle industry for example um and um he has been leading with the support of Moralis by the way Bolivia towards the bricks he wants to um conclude an agreement to bring Bolivia into the bricks and he recently just a few weeks ago about two weeks ago he was in some Petersburg attending the St Petersburg International economic Forum he participated in the plary session alongside President Putin of Russia and he's talking about enhancing economic links with Russia and of course China which is the biggest importer of lithium and which has the biggest electric vehicle industry by far in the world so if you think that all of these events are unconnected to the fact that there was a coup attempt just now in Bolivia well as I like to say if you really believe that that there's no connection between all of those events and the coup attempt well I have a bridge to sell you but anyway um suffice to say the coup failed and this will reinforce despite current economic problems Bolivia's existing cause now as to Bricks membership um Sergey lavro the Russian foreign minister has said that for the moment a decision has been made against amongst the existing bricks countries that membership has now expanded significantly it's time to put that on pause but that there will be a u mechanism for countries that wish to join bricks to become associate members and after a certain interval and as the bricks themselves modernizes and reshapes the entry of more countries into the bricks will gradually take place now the Russians have also provided more information about the uh new um global payment system that they're working towards and importantly it looks as if India is fully on board Prime Minister Modi is due to arrive in Russia on the 8th of July significantly he will be meeting President Putin at exactly the same time as the NATO Summit meeting is taking place which President zelinski is due to attend and at which apparently he's going to be told that there will be no further steps made towards admitting Ukraine into NATO but anyway we've been told more about this new um system this new Global Payments system and from what I can see it is going to Center very heavily around digital currencies a digital R&B Yuan Chinese currency a digital Ruble a digital rupe possibly um certainly a digital real which is Iran's currency now I know many people have very strong feelings about digital currencies to some extent I share them by the way but um perhaps it's important to highly light the fact that if you want to circumvent us sanctions then digital currencies are a very strong tool and especially given the fact that blockchain the blockchain technology that will underpin them the Russians by the way are said to be leaders in the Practical use of blockchain technology and one way or the other this is under this this is what is coming I don't think for the record that for the moment the Russians plan to uh the plan involves uh digital currencies being used by in everyday transactions by consumers in everyday life so this will be a purely a trade tool a tool to conduct International Commerce and business and business no doubt at a high level between big companies and entities um for the moment at least as I said I don't think there's any plans to replace ordinary currencies with digital currencies though I accept that maybe that day will come with all of the implications that people talk about anyway this is where I Eng to finish today's program as I said I am under more time constraints than usual so as I said I'm given a fairly short summary of events today um there'll be more for me over the next couple of days we'll see what happens in volchan and whether it is indeed the case that the high-rise the area of the high-rise buildings has actually Fallen as the as group of forces North appears to say if so it will certainly ring alarm bells in uh the west and in Kev zalinsky himself judging from his recent Behavior will probably blow another fit but I'm not sure it's happened so let's wait and see so this is where I finish my program today more for me soon let me remind you again you can find all our programs on our various platforms locals Rumble and X you can also find our work on patreon you support our work by patreon And subscribe star links under this video don't forget to check out our shop where we're still doing our football 24 promotion here in Germany lots of posters about football as well I see and last but not least if you've liked this program please remember to take the like button and to check your subscription to this channel that's me for today more from me soon have a very good day [Music] h

Channel: Alexander Mercouris

Views: 124,098

Keywords: Alexander Mercouris, The Duran, duran news, alexander duran, alex duran, Alex Christoforou, duran alexander, duran alex, US news, EU news, Russia news, China news, Geopolitics, GeopoliticalAnalysis, WorldNews, GlobalAffairs, BreakingNews, GlobalEconomy, putin, russia, ukraine, zelensky, kharkov, nato ukraine, biden, china, nato summit, trump, germany, crimea, sevastopol, merz, cdu, assange, assange free, wikileaks, lng, russian lng, eu sanctions, peskov, atacms, fab 3000, kherson, vovchansk

Id: M-CVFhQ99fM

Length: 49min 38sec (2978 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 27 2024