Heading towards World War III?

War between State Department and Pentagon. State Department is in the clutches of the neocons; always wanting to go to war.

Pearl Harbor was a result of the US doing then to Japan what we’re doing now to Russia.

Military is not necessarily political. The deep state is the agencies.

www.bitchute.com/video/uYVZ0zE49rwJ

The Oscar-winning filmmaker spent 20 hours shooting a documentary with the Russian president, and tells the FT's Matthew Garrahan that the western world has Vladimir Putin all wrong.

The family of a British man fighting in Ukraine said he has told them he will have to surrender to Russian forces.

Aiden Aslin, from Newark in Nottinghamshire, has been fighting in Ukraine since he moved there in 2018, and became a marine in the country's military.

His unit has recently been defending the besieged city of Mariupol, which has been heavily bombarded by Russia.

His mother Ang Wood said her son told her he had no choice.

"He called me and said they have no weapons left to fight," she said.

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-60894476

Aiden Aslin, a British man fighting in Ukraine, spent weeks defending the besieged city of Mariupol from Russia’s advances, as battles raged block by block for control of the strategic port.

As Aslin’s unit — Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade — ran out of food, water and ammunition, he called his friend Brennan Phillips.

“The first thing he said was, ‘I’m surrendering to the Russians,’” Phillips, a 36-year-old American, told The Washington Post of their call early Tuesday local time.

Aslin said his commander was planning to surrender the unit within hours. And when Russian forces came for him, Aslin said he would “destroy his phone and dump it in the toilet,” Phillips said.

A British former care worker who fought alongside Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol is to be paraded on an upcoming Russian TV broadcast after he was captured by Russian forces earlier this week.

Aiden Aslin, 28, known by his social media alias Cossack Gundi, moved to Ukraine in 2018 after falling in love with a woman from Mykolaiv and joined the nation's armed forces.

For weeks he had been fighting Russian forces in Mariupol as a fully paid member of Ukraine's army, but surrendered to the invaders two days ago after his team ran out of supplies and ammunition following 48 days of conflict in and around the besieged port city.

As we've been reporting, Russia claims more than 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered in the key southern port city of Mariupol. This remains unconfirmed and Ukraine claims some marines have actually broken through to fight alongside the Azov battalion - an ultra-nationalist militia now part of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Azov fighters and the marines have managed to defend pockets of the besieged city over the past few weeks despite dwindling resources and a fierce Russian onslaught.

If marines were surrendering en masse it would not be surprising, says Dr Aglaya Snetkov, lecturer in International Politics at University College London.

"Their supplies have been degrading, they've run out of food, ammunition and water - Ukrainian soldiers have posted online that their only option is either surrender or death but Kyiv authorities shut that claim down" she said.

But if thousands of Azov fighters are similarly forced to surrender, they would face a "horror show" at the hands of Russian soldiers, she added.

"Many will be killed and many will be made to go in front of Russian TV cameras to recount what they’ve done.

"It will effectively be the end of the Azov battalion which is a major part of the Russian narrative as to why they’re engaged in what they’re doing in Ukraine....to fight the 'Nazis'."

Gaining full control of Mariupol would be a major strategic gain for Russian forces. It would allow them to redeploy thousands of troops further east to focus on the new offensive planned there.

www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-61075759

The defence of Mariupol has involved the Azov battalion - a force smaller than 1,000 men. who make up a tiny part of Ukraine's overall forces, but who've been in the headlines ever since Russia's war began.

Their presence in Mariupol has been a key focus of Moscow's propaganda war.

Russia refers to its invasion as a "special military operation", claiming it is to "demilitarise" and "denazify" Ukraine.

The Azov battalion take their name from the Azov Sea on which Mariupol lies. It did start out as an ultranationalist militia in 2014, when it was formed to resist Russian-backed separatists who seized part of eastern Ukraine.

But it has since been brought under the oversight of the Ukrainian government as part of the National Guard. It has attracted a mix of nationalists, ultranationalists and other young men united by their loathing of Russia, and many of them are Russian-speaking themselves.

www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-61075759

Russia's flagship Black Sea missile cruiser has been "seriously damaged" and its crew forced to evacuate, Russian state media says.

The defence ministry said ammunition on the Moskva exploded in an unexplained fire, but that the 186-metre (610 foot) vessel was still afloat.

Ukraine claims it struck the vessel with its Neptune missiles.

The 510-crew warship has led Russia's naval assault on Ukraine, making it an important symbolic and military target.

www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61103927

The Russian missile cruiser Moskva, flagship of the Black Sea fleet, sank while being towed into port amid stormy sea conditions, the defense ministry in Moscow said on Thursday. According to the Russian military, the warship’s hull had been damaged by an ammunition explosion, itself caused by a fire on board, on Wednesday.

Ukrainian officials claimed their forces had struck the vessel with anti-ship missiles. The Pentagon said it could not confirm the claim. A US drone circled above the cruiser on Thursday, monitoring its progress towards Sevastopol.

“While being towed to the port destination, due to hull damage caused by ammunition detonation sparked by fire, the cruiser Moskva lost stability. In the stormy sea conditions, the ship sank,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday evening.

The Moskva was reportedly some 90 kilometers south of Odessa on Wednesday when a fire broke out on board. This caused the unspecified ammunition stores to explode and damaged the hull, according to the Russian military. The cruiser’s crew was evacuated by nearby Black Sea Fleet ships, and tugs dispatched to tow the Moskva to Crimea for repairs.

www.rt.com/russia/553902-flagship-sank

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that certain Western countries are failing to pay on time for the delivery of Russian energy.

“Banks from most ‘unfriendly’ countries are delaying the transfer of payments,” the head of state said.

According to Putin, despite the calls to reduce energy supplies, Western nations are admitting that they cannot do without Russian energy resources. They are thus “driving up prices and destabilizing the market,” he said, warning that Moscow will redirect its energy eastward.

www.rt.com/business/553864-west-delaying-russia-gas-payments