Fierce battles are underway between the Russian and Ukrainian armies for the approaches to Krasnoarmeysk (called Pokrovsk in post-Maidan Ukraine), a key city in the Ukrainian-occupied Donbass about 60 km northwest of Donetsk. Here's what's important to know about the city.

Russian troops have approached the city’s outskirts, testing Ukrainian defensive lines in Mirnograd (Dimitrov), Grodovka, Novogrodovka and Selidovo. In mid-August, Krasnoarmeysk’s military administration announced that Russian forces had approached to within 10 km of the city, and urged civilians to evacuate. The Ukrainian General Staff said Wednesday that the Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk) area was one of the “hottest” along the entire front.

Situated near the administrative border of Dnepropetrovsk region, Krasnoarmeysk and its environs are a strategic transport hub and economic center in Ukrainian-occupied Donbass. Defense observers say Russia’s liberation of the city would cut supply lines of Ukrainian forces in Chasov Yar, and give Russian troops a chance to flank the enemy in Kramatorsk and Slavyansk.

That’s because Krasnoarmeysk is a key railway and highway junction, situated at the intersection of rail lines leading to Pavlograd and Dnepr (formerly Dnepropetrovsk). The M30 (E50) Pokrovsk-Karlovka-Donetsk highway passes through the city, as do three other major roads.

Krasonarmeysk developed as a major industrial and coal mining center after WWII, enjoying its heyday in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and becoming the home of enterprises related to the coal industry, mechanical engineering (including automotive manufacturing) and railway maintenance, with the city’s population booming to nearly 155,000 by 1989.

The city lost roughly two-thirds of its population in the three decades that followed, and was home to about 53,000 people before the escalation of fighting this summer – when it dropped to roughly 35,000. The Pokrovsky District agglomeration, which includes the city and its environs, had a population of some 386,000 people as of early 2022. Krasonarmeysk was renamed Pokrovsk in 2016, in accordance with the post-Maidan Ukrainian government’s ‘decommunization’ laws (‘Krasnoarmeysk literally means ‘Red Army City’).

Roughly 15 km southwest of Krasnoarmeysk is Krasnoarmeyskaya-Zapadnaya Mine №1, one of the only coking coal mines left in Ukraine’s possession, with its estimated reserves of over 200 million tons of coal crucial to Ukraine’s waning metallurgy sector. Economists say losing the mine could strike a crushing blow to Ukraine’s economy and energy sector.

Western media and officials have sounded the alarm about the dire situation in Krasnoarmeysk. Forbes warned Monday that “hundreds of Ukrainian troops” from four separate brigades could be encircled if local defenses crack, and said that “a Ukrainian retreat may already be underway.”

Former German MoD chief of staff Nico Lange told Newsweek Wednesday that “what we see in Pokrovsk is the result of the very late and insufficient mobilization effort that was delayed politically in Ukraine.” “Not having mobilized enough, defense around Pokrovsk is now a big problem,” with “many units” unable to hold the line or having to retreat “because they are just staffed by 10 or 20 or 30 percent,” Lange said.

Amid fighting near the city, Kiev is apparently preparing the population psychologically for Krasnoarmeysk’s loss. “Will it affect the entire front? Some say that all logistical routes will be closed, that we will not be able to hold the defense and the entire Donbass will be captured. I do not agree, since the enemy is capturing territories only gradually. These are key territories, but even if the enemy takes Pokrovsk, this doesn’t mean the war is lost,” Rada Defense and Security Committee chief Roman Kostenko assured on Monday.

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240904/pokrovsk-pincer-why-russias-advance-on-strategic-city-could-doom-ukraines-donbass-defenses-1120017448.html

MAKE A DEAL PRONTO BEFORE THE SHIT HITS THE FAN:

NO NATO IN "UKRAINE" (WHAT'S LEFT OF IT)

THE DONBASS REPUBLICS ARE NOW BACK IN THE RUSSIAN FOLD — AS THEY USED TO BE PRIOR 1922. THE RUSSIANS WON'T ABANDON THESE AGAIN.

THESE WILL ALSO INCLUDE ODESSA, KHERSON AND KHARKIV.....

CRIMEA IS RUSSIAN — AS IT USED TO BE PRIOR 1954

TRANSNISTRIA WILL BE PART OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION.

A MEMORANDUM OF NON-AGGRESSION BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE USA.

EASY.

THE WEST KNOWS IT.

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

There is a certain fateful pattern to the last days of those who see themselves, and only themselves, as the single universal solution to all their country’s needs.

When the end is clearly near a frantic effort is often made to create a change in such circumstances. The panic which tends to infest the brain in these circumstances largely precludes the possibility of determining good options which will indeed effect such a change for the better. So it appears in relation to the news today that seven of Zelensky’s ministers have tendered their resignations.

This comes immediately after a devastating Russian strike on a military academy where foreign instructors (Swedish nationals apparently) were training Ukrainian troops in the art of electronic warfare. At least a hundred in total died or were injured. Add to this the loss in the past week of around six HIMARS systems in the Ukrainian region of Sumy which lies adjacent to Russia’s Kursk region. For good measure there is also the Russians taking large swathes of territory and villages along the Donbass line of contact.

Zelensky certainly doesn’t need to go searching for problems. Every day brings more to his door. This is highly reminiscent of the situation and mentality of Adolf Hitler in the closing weeks of the second world war when he hid in the infamous bunker beneath Berlin that was to see his end. No doubt Zeelensky will be shipped out to save his vile skin when his time comes however. What’s the betting whether he will fear the Russians or his own people at that point?

Zelensky, said to be rather overfond of a certain white powder must be running through quite a bit of it right now. The collapse that has been a long time coming is now looking more inevitable than ever. He has already lost a commander in chief because he found Zelensky (like Hitler) giving orders when he had no background knowledge of military tactics and strategy but who just “knew” what needed to be done. Think ‘Operation Barbarossa’ against Russia. Hitler refused all the pleading from officers at the front who saw their men dying in a lost cause. Zelensky has the same ego-fuelled and terminally delusional self-regard as Adolf Hitler going since the start of this conflict.

The loud, virtually never-ending applause Zelensky received with plaudits ringing continually in his ears has made him almost as ruinous for Ukraine as Hitler was for Germany. Ukraine has lost the lives or health of some half a million in a conflict Russia never wanted but that the western powers ensured was inflicted on both nations every step of the way, taking care to block Russia’s every attempt to find sustainable diplomatic solutions. The incredible, cold-blooded cynicism and cold-blooded strategies of the West to do this are breathtaking in their demonic nature.

So now, unable to trust the abilities and advice of his closest advisers and ministers of his government, it appears Zelensky has decided that being a full-blown dictator is the best solution now. The megalomania involved appears terminal. No doubt he has become completely paranoid, believing he is surrounded by people seeking to overthrow him or, at the very least, people who he can no longer trust in the least. Now he will stand alone, making every decision on the basis of whatever madcap idea comes into his mind next. Either that or he will tap the most malleable lackeys he can that he believes will immediately jump to his orders.

This new ‘Winston Churchill’ is much more like Stalin than Churchill or any other western “hero” that British or U.S. acolytes and sycophants may wish to brand him. Notoriously corrupt and terminally arrogant he will no doubt soon shuffle off to one of his Swiss palaces bought from western taxpayers’ hard won paychecks. There he will continue to bray in that dark brown voice of his regaling a diminishing number of people who will listen to him, of how he was so right in all he did… if only, this, that or the other had been done by others.

https://www.theinteldrop.org/2024/09/04/zelensky-is-clearing-the-decks-mirroring-the-end-of-all-such-megalomaniacs/

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

Last week the ABC carried a story about the death of many Israelis on 7 October 2023 as a result of firing by Israeli tanks and helicopter gunships.

The controversial “Hannibal Directive”, which Israel says isn’t named for the famous Carthaginian general who took poison rather than be captured by the Romans, was reportedly enacted after the 7 October Hamas attack, with revelations detailing attacks by IDF tanks and helicopters on homes and vehicles returning to Gaza.

What was significant about the ABC story was that it was 11 months out of date.

In November last year, Pearls and Irritations carried a detailed account of deaths at the hands of the IDF in October 2023.

It is journalistic malpractice for the media to still be repeating so credulously the Israeli military claims about deaths on 7 October.

We cannot claim we broke the story at Pearls and Irritations. Many other independent  journals carried quite detailed stories about the ‘Hannibal Directive’ at that time.

But we know that the MSM largely chose to ignore this issue. It was all part of  partisan media coverage in support of the Israeli genocide in Gaza. That partisanship continues despite the Israelis turning Gaza into a killing field.

Any honest observer would ask how much damage on October 7 could be inflicted on cars and buildings by Hamas with its small arms. But Western media chose not to ask. It would not suit its agenda.

We don’t know the full details of deaths and destruction on 7 October  but we do know without any doubt that most Western media including the ABC and BBC behaved shamefully. And still do on Gaza.

Video: Many Israeli citizens were killed by Israeli forces on 7 October

https://johnmenadue.com/media-censorship-or-incompetence-by-the-abc-and-others/

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.