A Week Ago Russia Was Supposedly “Withdrawing”. Now It’s Pouring Large Forces Into Donetsk

We suspected the "withdrawal" would be in the other direction

I am old enough to remember when seven days ago the Russian military said that supposed “exercises” in the Southern and Western Military Districts were wrapping up, and then made a big show of one unit returning from Crimea to the Caucasus, so as to underscore that a gradual withdrawal was already underway.

So after one week of “withdrawing” how far along is the withdrawal? Well, 10 warships have entered the Azov Sea, Belarus has declared that Russian forces there won’t be going home any time soon, and Russia is pouring large forces into Donbass which until yesterday was in Ukraine. If this is a withdrawal, it is in the opposite direction.

Meanwhile, evidence of even more forces moving from rail junctions to take positions along the Ukrainian border (nowhere near Donbass) abounds.

Like I said at the time, the “withdrawal”, which some were clutching at like a straw, was pure unadulterated BS. They’re not coming back from Belarus or anywhere else, and instead, they’re pouring stuff into Donbass.

Nor are these forces on any “exercises” like Moscow claimed in announcing the withdrawal. One company spent five days without provisions at a railway station 17km from the Ukrainian border doing precisely nothing until its conscripts ran out of money and the townspeople had to bring them food and phone soldier’s rights organizations. Nothing out of the ordinary, Situation Normal — All Fucked Up, happens all the time. But not at an exercise. Not even in Russia. It’s SNAFU because this is much beyond an exercise, this is already the initial, non-fighting part of war.

The company forgotten at Veselaya Lopan

Similarly in Belarus, the declared Union Resolve-2022 drills there ended 2 days ago, yet there is no sign of a withdrawal whatsoever. On the contrary, Minsk announced no withdrawal is currently planned and Moscow is happy to take a back seat in talking about that one.

Meanwhile, the forces sent to Belarus in the 2nd half of January (from the Pacific!) were in many cases told prior to departure to expect they would not be back for 6, or 9, or 3-9 months.

There is a very high likelihood of a major war, and this has been the plan all along.

Recognition of Donetsk hasn’t dampened the chances, to the contrary. You don’t amass such forces (complete with a deterrent in the East Mediterranean and nuke drills) just to recognize Donetsk. Putin explained his view of Ukraine as Russia Minor, previously shared in an article that all soldiers had to read, on national TV to the entire nation. In other words, he shared with them the ideological case for war. That is the much more significant development here.

Donetsk recognition and the friendship agreement which now authorizes Russia to come to its aid if it is shelled, or if Russian “peacekeepers” are endangered is just a way to get from A to B.

Further confirmation of that is that FSB fakery continues:

You can’t believe a government (any government) on a good day, and especially not after it has amassed 150K troops ready to go. Read between the lines and look at the troop movements, and at the broken assurances. Troop movements tell a story. So does a series of BS.

UPDATE — Arrival of new Russian troops can not be 100% confirmed (the large columns of troops moving west and north were “unidentified”), but even so it is only a matter of hours.

30 Comments
  1. Victor says

    Amassing 150,000 Ukie troops along the Line of Contact with Donbas, continually shelling civilians and infrastructure, threatening to return to the development of nuclear weapons and steadfastly refusing to adhere to the Minsk Agreement has done no favours for the Ukraine Nazi regime.

  2. Dan says

    Protecting Donbas from ukronazi junta is welcomed by good people, condemned by bad people.

  3. Ilya G Poimandres says

    Since Minsk was meant to be implemented (2015), 7 years have passed.

    WWII resolved itself faster than this festering wound.

    I get the name of the site is “Anti-Empire”, but you must let the people choose at some point. And they ain’t choosing Ukraine, as it has been since 2014.

    All jus cogens of course – the right to self determine as inscribed in Chapter 1, Article 1, paragraph 2 of the UN Charter.

    Can this self determination happen without troops? Maybe – Scotland may see such an event, but I doubt it would work every time. Many Ukrainians east of the Dniper would happily join Russia. But do they get the freedom of choice?

    How patient can you be when your own kin is being suffocated by outside forces?

    Ukraine is not a civil war – it’s a war brought to the nation by distant cousins, who don’t care for its inhabitants.

    What I would wish for now, is rebellion in the Russian identifying half of Ukraine, demanding that right to self determination. Independent state or absorption into Russia would be up to them, but I know how my folks would choose around Odessa!

  4. the nagus says

    oh dear Marko, how disappointing to see you’e gone full anglo zionist globalist…

    wont be looking at this site anymore.

    such a shame

    1. Ray says

      Lol what???? Dude is 100% correct. It is obvious that Russians had enough and will escalate. Of course, they need pretext, even if not a good one.

      1. padre says

        Well, they learned that from the west! Every pretext is good, if you stick to it! As pretext goes, remember the recognition of Kosov, bombing of Yougoslavia, Lybia, occupation of Iraq, Afghanistan, USA troups in Syria, USA base in Kosovo, should I go on? Not to mention throwing sanctions all around!

      2. Jonathan says

        Non-withdrawal and provocation/escalation are two different things. The bad guys never respected the Minsk Accords. Russia gave them eight years to figure it out. The Nazi track record shows the minute you recognize the independence of a people they have continually shelled for almost a decade now, you’d better be ready for a fight. Now, would a NeoNazi provocation give Russia the signal to do what it is likely itching to do (i.e., penetrate further into Ukraine). That’s easy to surmize. But then again, that’s THEIR problem. NATO, their undemocratically chosen puppet politicians, and the Ukro-Nazi provocateurs made their beds. Now they can lie in them…

  5. GMC says

    After decades of the USA crying about Democracy, they jump up and down when the Russians really do democratically vote to go back home. LOL I’ll bet the USG and their whore newsiees are cryin the blues and want revenge on those real democratic regions around Russia. This makes 5 areas now , that have voted to go back to Russia.
    I’ll bet right now Lithuania , Estonia and a few others are thinking twice about housing all those Nato terrorists on their territories.

  6. anon says

    ha ha ..mosche schwartz….michael koffman, riley waggerman…

    have you imbeciles worked it out yet?

  7. MHC says

    This was long overdue. Marko has lost the plot or turned to the dark side I’ll refresh his memory.

    How all this began: US fomented a coup in Ukraine, replaced the legitimate government with a Russophobic US-owned government to start a proxy war against Russia and to build US/NATO based in Crimea. Ukraine started burning and killing Russians in Ukraine. Donetsk/Lugansk territories broke away from Ukraine

    US supports the Ukrainian neo-nazi Russophobic extremist groups, refusing to denounce them. The US has steadily been giving Ukraine offensive weapons to entice them into waging a war against their fellow Slavic brothers. US has not denounced Ukraine’s shelling of DNR/LNR territories for nearly 8 years, resulting in the deaths of civilians. US and the EU have done nothing to force Ukraine to begin implementing what was laid out in the Minks agreements. Instead they accused Russia of violating the Minsk agreements to which Russia is not a party to.

    NATO said at the Bucharest summit that Ukraine will become a NATO membership. This is a violation of the principles of the OSCE which is not to strengthen their security at the expense of the security of other states.

    Russia has finally decided enough is enough. They’ve been patient for 8 years, tolerating the lies and sanctions. With the situation at a dead end and no good options, they’ve done what is moral and right.

    If the reverse situation happened in Canada or Mexico, the US would not have acted with the restraint Russia has shown. They would have bombed Mexico/Canada into submission or oblivion.

    1. Fred Mc says

      I would upvote your comment 100 times if I could. Marko has gone rogue.

  8. Julia says

    Remove marjanovic, he supports the Nazis. Ah whatever, I’m leaving this site

    1. jim says

      Me too. I am fed up with the bias towards zog(s) and its Plonk time fur marko.

    2. Jerôme says

      Me too!

    3. Stephan Williams says

      It’s always good to know what the enemy is either thinking or wants you to think. Marco provides that service for us.

  9. EstibenDelMar says

    Crimea was a harder objective to take but Putin did it silently and swiftly. Why havent he done the same here? considering the dombass iffers easy ground access, i thought it would be easier than Crimea. Also, why amassing so many russian troops if you can defeat the Ukranians with stand off weapons?

    Is Putin willing to fulfill Stalin’s dreams of invading the whole of Western Europe? After all the blood that west europe governments have spilled around the world, a nice shake up would be welcomed.

    1. Coos Palmboom says

      Hasta Lisboa

    2. Peter says

      Vladimir Putin has been carefully nurturing his inner Sun Tzu. And now it’s all in the open: “Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”

    3. EstibenDelMar says

      a week after the initial attack, putin once more had most of internet analyst dumbfounded by invading Ukraine through several points. This was Crime ^10.

  10. Jonathan says

    These are the kinds of (rational) analyses we ought to be reading:

    https://thesaker.is/russia-recognition-of-the-ldnr-a-few-initial-thoughts/

    1. jim says

      saker went Plonk a few weeks ago. I WILL NOT read that POS ever again after his vax passport and other pro zog views. He lost many many readers recently.

  11. Marco says

    Marjanovic is a Zio Jew-Boy. He doesn’t like Russia protecting the Donbass from the Jew Bolsheviks installed by the US…Ha! He was crushed by 99% of responders, who all are supporting Donbass & Russia. Ironic that Russia may save Humanity from the Rothschild Commie Bolshevik Jews.

    1. jim says

      Putin needs to start sending weapons to more of his supporters world wide. Mister Putin has millions of supporters world wide. Most real people of every race HATE the zioscum.

  12. Thomas Malthaus says

    The US didn’t withdraw troops from Ukraine. That contradicts Biden’s statement last week.

  13. Hostage (Raptar) Driver says

    I will no longer read any words from this man called Marco.
    Looks like the Friendly Terrorist was right all along.
    Kudos to him.

    1. Kevin Barsi says

      If you noticed the constant pop ups asking for money every 2 seconds are gone I think he’s got somebody new paying his bills

  14. Jerôme says

    God is blessing Christian, peace loving Russia; God is blessing Vladimir Putin!

  15. Peter says

    Vladimir Putin has been carefully nurturing his inner Sun Tzu. And now it’s all in the open: “Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”

  16. Eric the Red says

    The lack of self-awareness on the part of western governments is stunning. The US is goading other people to die about protecting the borders of a country that US diplomats can’t even find on a map. Meanwhile, its own southern borders are overrun daily, and it couldn’t care less.

    Now let’s talk about democracy. Maybe you thought “democracy” means that a majority ethnic culture gets to rule themselves within their own national borders. Silly you. “Democracy” means whatever lets western governments usurp more power, destroy more individual liberties, and coerce the masses with more psyops. Oh, I almost forgot, it also means making the world safe for anal sex.

    Western societies are busily engaged in committing suicide. They’re eager to sacrifice themselves on the bloody altar of their holy narratives, screaming “our values” as they die. Putin figured all this out long ago, and he refuses to let Russia be sucked into the death spiral. You can take what’s left of western society, and cram it up your collective ass.

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