The whole idea of "#Swedengate is Russian propaganda!" is so funny to me, the actual anti-Swedish propaganda Ive seen from them is like, posters that say that a famous author and a filmmaker that lived during WW2 said they would prefer Germany invading over the Soviets, and also the founder of IKEA had sympathies or something, and that makes Sweden nazi friendly.

And now all of a sudden the propaganda is about how we don't cook food for spontaneous guests and thats why we are bad? Seriously bad propaganda if that is all they have compared to all we have done.

https://old.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/v1nqb8/russian_army_on_brink_of_collapse_as_putin_loses/ supplemental cope

The European Union’s embargo on Russian oil will bite into the country’s export of crude — a cornerstone of the nation’s economy — but it may not do much damage until the restrictions actually kick in.

No it won't. Westoids are not the only ones buying oil.

Essentially the galaxy brains in the EU has decided to hurt an oil producing country by driving up oil prices.

The only damage that will be done will be the damage to European consumers and industries who are already hurting from western kamikaze sanctions.

Comrades, I have a brisket on the smoker that should be ready by dinner. Let’s go

I've been reading up on the Interwar and WWII era Ukrainian Fascists and I'm kind of surprised Poland is going along with all this. The OUN-b, Bandera's merry band of fascists, killed tens of thousands of ethnic Poles during the war, and... well... his outfit is where Ukrainian Nationalism has it's roots. I'm sure that there are some non-Nazi Ukrainian nationalists but from what I've seen like 30% of Ukrainians view Bandera positively, and that number is heavily skewed to Western Ukraine. Like 70% of Western Ukrainians view him positively, and the number drops off sharply the further east you go. Realpolitik is a hell of a drug.

A rapid-fire Dipshittery and Cope:

• Psychology Has a Label for Putin’s KGB-Made Mind Bloomberg

One way to think yourself into the warped mind of a despot like Russian President Vladimir Putin is to first probe into the dark recesses of your own psyche, then figure out what’s different in his. The list is long, but one cognitive snafu that’s both common and relevant is called deformation professionally.

We use the French term not only because that language often captures things better, but also because the phrase has an embedded pun that doesn’t translate into the English “professional deformation.” Formation professionelle means vocational training. Deformation professionelle therefore refers to the tunnel vision, biases and distortions we imbibe as we become expert at whatever we do.

• The E.U.’s embargo will bruise Russia’s oil industry, but for now it is doing fine. NYT

The European Union’s embargo on Russian oil will bite into the country’s export of crude — a cornerstone of the nation’s economy — but it may not do much damage until the restrictions actually kick in.

For now, analysts say, Russian oil production is proving resilient as European buyers and others snap up the opportunity to buy crude at a discount of around $30 a barrel to Brent crude, the international standard.

• Ukraine Battle Expands as Kyiv Launches Counteroffensive NYT

Ukrainian soldiers, seeking to spread Russian forces thin, launched a counteroffensive on Sunday in Kherson, the key southern city that Moscow considered so securely under its thumb that it had introduced the ruble.

Ukraine’s push in Kherson came as its forces were desperately battling to hold off Russia’s efforts to conquer and cut off a strategic strip of Eastern Ukraine that is central to Moscow’s struggling war effort, and it had the effect of expanding the battlefield.

Check the MoA article I posted in the other comment if you wanna know how that's going. Hint: not good, folks.

• Russia or China? The U.S. Has a Choice to Make. NYT

In a speech on Thursday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken revealed the long-awaited outlines of the Biden administration’s official posture toward China. Rather than Vladimir Putin’s Russia, Mr. Blinken said, it is China that represents the most potent and determined threat to the American-championed world order. Only China, he continued, has “both the intent to reshape the international order” and the power to do so, he said. The United States will seek to rally coalitions of other nations to meet Beijing’s challenge.

But the intensifying fixation on China’s potential to disrupt the world order shrinks space for cooperation with Beijing and distracts from the real threat in the world: Russia.

• For NATO, Turkey Is a Disruptive Ally NYT

That's certainly one word for it.

Latvian PM: ‘Russia has to lose’ Politico

“It’s the challenge of Europe and actually the challenge of the world to persevere, and to keep the eye on the ball,” Kariņš said. “The main goal of ours has to be that Russia loses — and the other side of the coin is that Ukraine wins the war. Anything short of that means we have a very bad security situation in Europe.”

He continued: “The only way to get a lasting peace and security is by Russia losing, because anything else that Russia does not perceive as a loss means that it’s just a way-station. So maybe the conflict slows down now … it’s frozen, as many conflicts had been in the past … and then Russia would understand, ‘hey, this worked, land grab worked, nothing really happened,’ continue to rebuild its military and move forward, whether it’s in Ukraine, or Moldova, or Georgia or Kazakhstan or elsewhere. That is what will lead to long-term instability.”

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STEM moment: Statistical physics rejects theory of 'two Ukraines'

TL;DR they ran some kind of data analytics related to Ukraine in 2021 and determined the civil war isn't happening. I might be exaggerating, just too tired to engage this critically.

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Europe’s Partial Russian Oil Ban Is Flawed, But Necessary Bloomberg

European Union leaders have finally agreed to ban most Russian oil imports, paving the way for a sixth package of sanctions aimed at eroding the Kremlin’s capacity to fund its brutal war in Ukraine. It’s an imperfect solution that comes late, makes multiple concessions that draw out timing and caves to Hungary’s demands for exemptions. Sanctioning gas, where infrastructure ties Russia far more tightly to European purchases, remains off the table. It’s a vital step forward nonetheless.

...

None of this should take away from what is still a significant achievement, almost unthinkable just months ago. An energy embargo, even an imperfect one, is painful for the Kremlin immediately — and is an important signal of intent. This one, if pledges from Germany and Poland to wean themselves off pipeline oil are fulfilled, should cover 90% of Russian oil imports into Europe by the end of the year.

The effects on the markets for oil and, in particular, oil products could be dramatic. Russia is by some margin the largest net exporter of petroleum products in the world (the US, whose gross volumes are larger, derives much of its exports from refining other countries’ crude). European imports of Russian diesel account for about a fifth of global trade in that product. Almost all of that will be shut down in a matter of months. Futures contracts for European diesel, which averaged $630 a metric ton over the past decade, are currently changing hands at about twice that. Inventories in western Europe’s oil trading hub are at levels last seen in a sustained way in 2008, when Brent crude prices peaked at $146 a barrel.

A repeat isn’t impossible this time around. Brent is already trading at $123. In the event of an embargo similar to the one we’re now seeing, it could hit $150 by July, the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies estimated earlier this month. That’s likely to squeeze diesel-dependent European heavy industry that’s already struggling with high prices, as well driving further inflation and enhancing the appeal of electric and hybrid vehicles that now make up nearly half of the continent’s passenger car sales.

In the short term, it’s feasible that Europe will get hurt, while Russia benefits from higher prices. The long term picture, however, looks far more challenging for Moscow. It cannot simply turn off supply temporarily without consequences, and sanctions on maritime insurance will prove nearly impossible to circumvent, given specialists operate largely in Europe, the US and allied nations, choking oil trade.

Yes, gas is absent. Russia is the biggest exporter of gas and Europe is its biggest customer, and it’s true that other than shelving Nordstream 2 pipeline, Europe has shied away from restricting imports, which Russia would have found it harder to work around. It may still have to turn to Russia to fill underground gas storage before winter. All problematic, no question.

But there’s encouragement to be found here. The wider package includes other irritants, like removing more banks, including Sberbank, Russia's largest, from the SWIFT payments system. Sanctions have a patchy record of getting states to change their behavior — especially authoritarian governments involved in activities they perceive as core national interests — but the aim is now clearly to isolate and drain the Kremlin’s financial wellsprings. Despite a lofty ruble, propped up by capital controls, and a chunky current account surplus, measures imposed by Brussels, Washington and partners are already working.

VERSUS

EU Continues to Try to Hurt Russia by Shooting Itself in the Foot Naked Capitalism

For the details: this sixth package gets the EU its much-sought-after embargo of Russian oil, although it’s only a partial embargo, thanks to prime minister Viktor Orban acting like a bad Hungarian populist rather than a good European. Orban threatened to veto a full-bore embargo since all of Hungary’s oil comes via the Druzhba pipeline. By contrast, most of the EU’s oil comes by tanker, which as we’ve pointed out and Alexander Mercouris has confirmed, allows for Russian oil to still come to Europe via out and out laundering through cut-outs and mixing with non-Russian source product, albeit at a higher cost. So landlocked countries on a Russian pipeline can’t cheat while the others can. So after weeks of wrangling, the EU relented and voted through the Hungarian scheme.

...

If you think the EU will really, truly, will have cut its imports of Russian oil by 90% in a few months, I have a bridge I’d like to sell you. And yet more sanctioning of individuals is a sign that the EU is hitting the bottom of the barrel.

So how can the EU be so blind? Have they really convinced themselves that Russia is teetering on the verge of economic disaster despite evidence to the contrary, like the estimates of the GDP fall for 2022 being lowered slightly as export substitution is ahead of schedule, or the central bank again cutting interest rates? How about the fact that shops have plenty of food, food prices aren’t appreciating much, and ordinary Russians aren’t seeing signs of hardship (as in going without European goods and vacations do not make a crisis)? Yes, there may be some reductions in living standards in some sectors, but even to the extent that there are some costs, they are trivial compared to the 1990s…and here Russian overwhelmingly see their national survival at stake. Oh, and Putin just raised pensions by 10%. That arguably just represents an inflation catch-up but it’s a sign that the government has room to maintain social safety nets.

Maybe readers can make sense of the EU’s commitment to its self destruction, but I sure can’t. And given how long it take for governments to be voted out, it looks very likely that Europe will inflict permanent damage on itself and its citizens before regime chage takes place.

What's in it for European elites?

The sanctions seems to be hurting nobody but the west, Europe in particular. You can sort of see why the yanks would like Europe to decouple from Russia and be completely dependent on Washington politically and economically.

But why do European elites commit these acts of self-harm so eagerly? They get hurt by the energy and supply crisis as well but seems to reap none of the benefits.

Are they so afraid of the Russian bogeyman that they want to sacrifice everything to keep the asiatic hordes at bay? This doesn't make sense, you have to be blind not to see how the sanctions are not making any significant dents in the Russian war effort. Are they still high on pure ideology, and how long can that high last?

Some articles to get this thread started:

• The Biden Administration Is in No Rush to Help Ukraine Negotiate an End to the War Jacobin

Almost all knowledgeable observers believe the war in Ukraine will have to end with a negotiated agreement. Yet the US, Ukraine's leading patron, has signaled it has no patience for diplomatic efforts that cut against its hope for Moscow's "strategic defeat."

• Turkey’s War Against the Kurds Exposes NATO’s Aggression Jacobin

With all eyes on the war in Ukraine, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is planning a fresh invasion of northern Syria. For 70 years, Turkey has been a key NATO member — and NATO's backing for its aggression shows the alliance is no mere defense pact.

• Ukraine Bits: Russian Artillery - Counter Attacks - New Missile Systems MoA

The amount of copium available for Ukraine fans seems to be dwindling.

More mainstream media now report on the huge damage the Russian artillery is causing to the Ukrainian frontline troops. Even the New York Times joined in:

Under the fire of Russia’s long-range arsenal and facing a desperate need for ammunition and weapons, Ukrainian forces remain outgunned on the long and pockmarked eastern front, according to military analysts, Ukrainian officials and soldiers on the ground.

Just one engagement on Thursday and Friday on a small swath of the line, in a forest north of the town of Sloviansk, sent about a dozen Ukrainian soldiers to a military hospital with harrowing shrapnel wounds.

“You ask how the fighting is going,” said Oleksandr Kolesnikov, the commander of a company of soldiers fighting in the forest, interviewed on an ambulance gurney outside a military hospital in Kramatorsk. “There was a commander of the company. He was killed. There was another commander. He was killed. A third commander was wounded. I am the fourth.”

After for months hyping Ukrainian victories that had never happened 'western' headlines now finally acknowledge the real state of the war

The write ups about supreme Russian artillery quoted above are of course in support of the U.S. intent to send multiple rocket launcher (HIMARS) to Ukraine. These can, in theory, fire on targets from up to 300 kilometer away. However, Ukraine would only get ammunition for significantly shorter ranges of about 30 km [...] With 300 kilogram each missile has significant weight. A truck with HIMARS can carry 6 of those while a tracked vehicle version carries 12. Resupplying these in significant numbers will be a logistic nightmare.

• U.S. Gasoline Prices Surge To New Record High On Memorial Day OilPrice

• Saudi Arabia Set To Raise Its Oil Prices To Asia OilPrice

• Washington’s Attempts to Approach Riyadh have So Far Failed to Produce Results NEO

• EU Set To Agree On Russia Oil Embargo With Pipeline Exemption OilPrice

• How The EU Plan To Ban Russian Oil Could Cause Stagflation OilPrice

• West Bank: Israeli Police Leaves 219 Palestinians Injured TeleSUR

My first and only comment on r/worldnews that got me permanently banned:

These subs are run by the US state dept. Not joking, not hyperbole. This website is western propaganda.

"The Armed Forces of Ukraine are seriously engaged in equipping fortifications around Kiev [!!] in case of an expected offensive by Russian troops. They understand that the defeat in Donbass is already close, and the Russian army can move deep into Ukraine." https://t.me/intelslava/30463

Basically: once the fort falls, you just run across the meadows behind.