EXPOSED: Leaked stories from the Pentagon have exposed how mainstream media reports Russia’s conduct in the Ukraine war, in a bid to counter the propaganda intended to get NATO into the conflict.
Spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense Major General Igor Konashenkov.
It is now confirmed that Russia's press briefings and reports has been factual and truthful while western media has published fables cooked up by Ukraine’s publicity machine.
Nevertheless, Western countries and the media have consistently ignored and censored what they claim to be Russian propaganda and disinformation. Depending almost exclusively on Ukrainian sources, western media falsely report that Russia is losing the war, with its military offensive “stalled,” and in frustration has deliberately targeted civilians and flattened cities.
The Pentagon has been engaged in a consequential battle with the U.S. State Department and the Congress to prevent a direct military confrontation with Russia. In this context it is also interesting to note that in early March The Pentagon and Russian Defense Ministry opened a direct hotline in order to prevent "miscalculation and escalation"
On Tuesday, March 22, the Pentagon took the bold step of leaking two stories to reporters that largely contradicts the media narratives:
- “Russia’s conduct in the brutal war tells a different story than the widely accepted view that Vladimir Putin is intent on demolishing Ukraine and inflicting maximum civilian damage—and it reveals the Russian leader’s strategic balancing act,” reported Newsweek in an article entitled, “Putin’s Bombers Could Devastate Ukraine But He’s Holding Back. Here’s Why.”
The piece quotes an analyst at the Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) saying:
- “The heart of Kyiv has barely been touched. And almost all of the long-range strikes have been aimed at military targets.”
A retired U.S. Air Force officer now working as an analyst for a Pentagon contractor, added:
- “We need to understand Russia’s actual conduct. If we merely convince ourselves that Russia is bombing indiscriminately, or [that] it is failing to inflict more harm because its personnel are not up to the task or because it is technically inept, then we are not seeing the real conflict.”
The article says:
- “As of the past weekend, in 24 days of conflict, Russia has flown some 1,400 strike sorties and delivered almost 1,000 missiles (by contrast, the United States flew more sorties and delivered more weapons in the first day of the 2003 Iraq war). … ‘I know it’s hard … to swallow that the carnage and destruction could be much worse than it is,’ says the DIA analyst. ‘But that’s what the facts show. This suggests to me, at least, that Putin is not intentionally attacking civilians, that perhaps he is mindful that he needs to limit damage in order to leave an out for negotiations.'”
A second retired U.S. Air Force officer says:
- “I’m frustrated by the current narrative—that Russia is intentionally targeting civilians, that it is demolishing cities, and that Putin doesn’t care. Such a distorted view stands in the way of finding an end before true disaster hits or the war spreads to the rest of Europe. I know that the news keeps repeating that Putin is targeting civilians, but there is no evidence that Russia is intentionally doing so. In fact, I’d say that Russian could be killing thousands more civilians if it wanted to.”
These Pentagon sources confirm what Putin and the Russian Ministry of Defense have been saying all along: that instead of being “stalled,” Russia is executing a methodical plan to encircle cities, opening humanitarian corridors for civilians, leaving civilian infrastructure like water, electricity, telephony and internet intact, and trying to avoid as many civilian casualties as possible.
Until these Pentagon leaks it was difficult to confirm that Russia was entirely telling the truth and that corporate media were publishing fables cooked up by Ukraine’s publicity machine.
Full article at Consortium News
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Kiev has so far refrained from declaring a war on Russia, though maintaining martial law in the country.
The current status makes it possible for Ukraine to maintain the Russian gas transit that it would have had to stop had a war been declared. "Gas continues to be pumped to Europe because no one in Kiev wants to quarrel with a freezing Austria, Germany and Hungary. Besides, Kiev also needs Russian gas. It doesn’t buy gas directly from Gazprom, though, but from EU countries at market prices. Kiev clearly counts on Russia’s payment for gas transit. If transit stops, there will be no money," Sidorov explained according to TASS
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