By John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with The month of August is for dead-heading the roses, so that there will be fresh blooms before winter. It is the time to charge empty vessels (lead image, rear). Plato was mistaken to claim that empty vessels make the loudest noise; that depends not only on the vessels but on […]

by Editor - Sunday, July 30th, 2023
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with In the advertising Hall of Fame, three of the all-time winning slogans are “Just do it”; “Where’s the beef?”; and  “Good to the last drop”.   Three Ukrainian army soldiers and a military press officer from Kiev  have pressed all three on the Financial Times of London, and they just […]

by Editor - Friday, July 28th, 2023
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with When the Ukrainian and NATO forces have lost their war in eastern Ukraine by Christmas, what will happen to the rump of western Ukraine? The Russian warning, issued last Friday at the Security Council by President Vladimir Putin,  is that the Russian Army will defend western Ukraine, known as Galicia, […]

by Editor - Wednesday, July 26th, 2023
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with President Vladimir Zelensky has enough fingers to count that $115 billion is worth almost three times more than $41.3 billion. The first number is the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) calculation of  “external support over 2023–27 involving sizable official financing in the form of grants and concessional loans, as well as […]

by Editor - Wednesday, July 26th, 2023
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with Russia’s warning to Poland not to send troops into the western Galician region of the Ukraine has fallen on deaf ears in Warsaw. Instead, electioneering ahead of an October national parliamentary vote has dictated different priorities for the governing party, the main opposition party, and the rising Konfederacja (“Confederation”) party. […]

by Editor - Monday, July 24th, 2023
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with Soldiers lay down smoke on the battlefield to conceal their movements, advancing or retreating, from the troops on the other side. In the US Army manuals for warfighting with smoke, there are four kinds for the battlefield (lead image) – obscuring smoke which is aimed at blinding the enemy so […]

by Editor - Sunday, July 23rd, 2023
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with Officially speaking, the Russians ended the year-long Black Sea Grain Initiative by refusing to renew it on July 17. Practically, it has been doomed for weeks.  The Ukrainian attacks on the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline (June 8) and the Taman ship-loading terminal (June 2); Ukrainian efforts to use the grain carriers […]

by Editor - Friday, July 21st, 2023
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with On the battlefield the Ukraine has pioneered the Mosquito Tactic – that’s sending units of dozens of soldiers running towards Russian defence fortifications in several swarms at the same time, across a half-dozen salients up and down the line of contact. In parallel, in the air and on the sea […]

by Editor - Wednesday, July 19th, 2023
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with In war, the losing side has several options. Fighting to the death is one of them, capitulation and surrender are another. Depending on their rank, religion, honour, and offshore bank accounts, the losers may run away or commit suicide. The Ukrainian regime, with the assistance of the North Atlantic Treaty […]

by Editor - Sunday, July 16th, 2023
No Comments »

By John Helmer, Moscow   @bears_with For all its public talk, NATO has agreed on a secret six-month plan for Ukraine. It’s a case of do or die by December. Either the Ukrainian forces, firing everything the NATO allies can give them — from US cluster munitions to Franco-English Storm Shadow missiles and German Leopard tanks […]

by Editor - Wednesday, July 12th, 2023
No Comments »