Time is not on the side of the Ukrainian armed forces in their long-running counter-offensive, writes Colonel Richard Kemp in the Telegraph. They are battling not just against the strongest Russian defences but also the clocks of eastern European weather and US electoral politics. Here’s an excerpt.
Now it looks like the Ukrainians have identified the most favourable axis of attack, from south of Zaporizhia towards Melitopol, and they seem to be committing elements of the NATO-equipped and trained 10th Operational Corps. Of the various options, that would be the most productive, potentially enabling Kyiv to break Russia’s land corridor from the east, isolating Crimea and cutting off forces in the west of the country.
But if and when Ukrainian troops succeed in smashing through the first line of defences – which they have not yet achieved – the road ahead will be very long and very bloody. They face mile after mile of obstacles including tank traps, barbed wire and minefields, plus dug-in infantry, pillboxes, machine guns, tanks, artillery fire, combat planes, attack helicopters, drones and missiles.
War is more unpredictable than any other human activity, and no one, not even those directing events in Kyiv or Moscow, can possibly know whether or to what extent Ukraine will succeed. But after spending two precious months trying to shape the battlefield, as the autumn mud approaches, there remains only a matter of weeks before any armoured advance will become bogged down. That means major offensive operations will have to pause at least until the onset of the winter freeze in November and possibly even until next spring.
This is well understood and will be built in to battle plans by both Ukraine and Russia. But there is an even bigger problem to contend with than the capricious General Winter, which can work for either side, and that is the American general election, which will almost certainly work against Kyiv.
Biden will be wishing for this war to end before the election season gets under way in earnest, because he knows that, among much of the U.S. population, war is something to campaign against rather than campaign for. Continued fighting is more likely to lose votes than to win them, especially if things go wrong for Ukraine, for which Biden will be blamed at the ballot box.
There is, of course, another American anxiety; one that is perhaps greater than the fear of drawn-out battle. That is a level of Ukrainian victory that could lead to collapse in the Kremlin and possible fragmentation and chaos across the country with potentially catastrophic geostrategic consequences and untold global economic harm. This immediate vision of doom may or may not be right – but it endures in the back of the minds of White House officials.
It also goes some way to explaining why the U.S. has been generous only up to a point on military aid for Ukraine. Far more could and should have been provided and much more quickly. Instead the administration has supplied just enough to achieve a certain level of success but not sufficient to inflict outright defeat on Putin’s regime.
Expect Washington to push forward peace talks by the autumn, writes Kemp. “The ground has apparently been laid over many months, with some suspecting secret channels between the head of the CIA and his opposite number in Moscow.”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Thomas Fazi in UnHerd says the war in Ukraine is about to get a lot worse.
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Superb analysis, as always.
You are easily misled. Go and look at the actual facts.
And who are you.. rayc.. with knobs on. ???
No; rayc with no brain
Just made for you, rayc…
“Go and look at the actual facts”
Give every one a clue as to where to look.
They don’t because they can’t.
It’s a bloody disgrace. If it’s shoddy work by incompetent people, then they need a kick to the place where they normally apply loo paper, followed by a warning to shape up, and if they don’t, a P45 and directions to the Exit door.
If it’s done on purpose, then it’s criminal deceit, and it’s high time the people supposedly in charge of this packed up the spin and terrorism games, and dealt with those responsible for this fear-mongering and lying in the manner described above. If they don’t, then it’s plain they can’t run a whelk stall, let alone a country with 60-odd million inhabitants and billions of pounds spent on “services” and “the pandemic”.
The trouble with the politicians is that most aren’t very intelligent, and their minds, such as they are, run in tram lines. The medics and paper-pushing administrators are no better. The miasma of total dishonesty and scheming for their own ends envelops them all, like a poison gas cloud.
“If it’s shoddy work by incompetent people, then they need a kick to the place where they normally apply loo paper, followed by a warning to shape up, and if they don’t, a P45 and directions to the Exit door.”
Of course they do, but this is the public sector!
Which means they’ll be promoted to another job somewhere else in the taxpayers’ money wasting public sector
“It’s a bloody disgrace. “
yes it is another very misleading article.
How about you put up some solid facts to counteract it, or shut up?
A full explanation would help your view no end….
Have you ever heard of the phrase “Better to keep quiet and let people think you’re an idiot than to open your mouth and prove the point”?
I think the “Incompetent People” have had the boot of public opinion applied to their arses enough times for that to be a sufficient warning. Sign of the times that the Doctor from the BMJ can deliberately be disingenuous – OK, lie – and not fear for her professional status. For me, this is as dangerous as any pathogenic risk of “the virus”; so called professional people with a “higher calling” abandoning their Hippocratic oath and overall ethical imperative; how can “they” ever be trusted ….again?
The GloboCap plan has always been to destroy legacy welfare and healthcare safety nets:
https://twitter.com/SubjectAccesss/status/1484907250821046273?s=20
https://thephilosophicalsalon.com/red-pill-or-blue-pill-variants-inflation-and-the-controlled-demolition-of-society/
Be seeing you…
Having worked within the NHS such low numbers in ICU at this time of year are probably causing consternation.
Senior figures at hospitals and health boards have got no need to worry – the backhanders will still flow in from the equipment suppliers.
They are low at the trust I work at. As are covid cases. That is the reality. Yet still we are on high alert and routine admissions cancelled again.
You mean they are 75% full….
The actual number of empty CC care beds is 645 for England. The lowest number since October.
Irrelevant. The article is about occupancy in a January month.
Pay no heed.. its a 77th starter without stabilisers fitted..
An apprentice Tobias Elwood with no parliamentary seat?
Spoiler alert – “its winter Jim, but not as we know it”
If you were anywhere close to being “even handed”, you might point out the twin follies of a mass testing regime directly leading to a very significant reduction in staffing levels through isolation – involving staff from a setting which is dually responsible for the majority of acquired coral infections and therefore some of these people are likely to be CV19 recovered as per the Consultant saying just that to Javed – and the threat to further reduce staffing numbers by sacking those who wish to determine what goes into their bodies…
But you aren’t capable of seeing that, are you?
BTW, in case you splutter “prove it, how do you know that”, TOH is career NHS and she has told me this for ….2 years…..and she no lie.
Yes, they won’t have expected the extra time available for their Tik Tok rehearsals
As possible causes for the reduction in ICU numbers:
The latter may be the biggie.
Government “health” policy is now closely bound up with public relations propaganda, and those in the critical community need to get a grasp of the sheer extent of its schizoid character. While the authorities (political, “medical”, “shientiffick” and otherwise) are saying on the open level
“We love you so much, we care about your health, all we want is for you plebs to be healthy, healthy, healthy – and telling you to stay cooped up and to wear masks hurts us more than it hurts you, but we have your best interests at heart“,
what they are saying on a deeper level is
“When you’re sick, you can f*** right off. We’re f***ed if we’re going to let scum like you swan around thinking you’ve got any rights, whether you’re gasping for air, have got pain in your bodies, are about to croak, would like to spend time at your dying progenitors’ bedsides, or what the f*** ever.”
There are millions of people in the country who know damned well this is true – they know it from their own experiences over the past two years.
My God this is bad.
Now covid makes you invisible.
Quick lock it all down.
But hospital ICU beds are overflowing with selfish intubated unvaxxed and keeping decent people unable to get into ICU or hospital – must be true because that’s what the sheep continue to believe and say.
At least you know what you are.
I rather think you overlooked the sarc in Alkanet’s message.
No… I just look for small fragments of hope in the insane ramblings of fools.
Better get back to your mates in the barracks then.. maybe you’ll find something there..
Not far to look then, rat.
Have you been missing your psychiatry outpatient appointments?
Not much point in you re-reading your own posts …..
Unlike you, who seems to think you are “rational”.
Well duh! Of course he did; he’s a first-rate buffoon, but a politician no less. Will the appeased thank him for it? You bet they will.
Is there an honest break down of vaxxed v unvaxxed in hospital, ICU and dying for England at this time?
By honest I mean not using the two week post booster injection window as a time where any negative covid outcome is chalked up in the unvaxxed column?
Excellent shredding of UK Goverment agency ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated’ lies by Norman Fenton, Joel Smalley et al https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357778435_Official_mortality_data_for_England_suggest_systematic_miscategorisation_of_vaccine_status_and_uncertain_effectiveness_of_Covid-19_vaccination
Thanks, I’ll have a look.
A propos of politicians being made aware of these data, so that they at least know what’s going on beyond the lying, hyperbole etc. is there any tested way of getting it to them? I doubt any are DS readers.
Go and have a look at the actual data. It is published by the NHS.
You will find actual numbers and be able to see the trend.
If you do that you will learn that the number of empty critical care beds was 645 on 18 January, for England. You will also see that this is the lowest number since the beginning of October 2021.
Every time you see one of the Will Jones misleading articles (all of them), you can do this.
If you just swallow what is written, you are being his victim.
Go on look at the data, you will find I am correct.
You are completely missing the point. Deliberately, I think.
The point being made is the low occupancy for a January.
The fact that there might be more beds occupied than since October is irrelevant to that point.
We also had empty hospitals right in the middle of the supposed ‘worse pandemic in 100 years’.
Covid is certainly setting records. Its proving to be one of the biggest acts of mass deception in 100 years.
No you didn’t.
You know it isn’t true.
He’s using ’empty’ as a relative term, not an absolute one.
So, you are being silly.
And being anything but rational.
Reading reports like this makes my blood boil. It has been said before but bears repeating, the pathogen is the government with their toxic, dysfunctional machinery, and they are destroying the well-being of the nation and the people in it.
Instead of believing the garbage written, go and look at the actual data.
It’s available. You call yourselves sceptics, but never ask questions.
Don’t just believe… check it out yourself.
I thought you might be along, and here you are. A more patient poster than me has already debunked your nonsense below, so it just remains for me to add, you are an idiot, go and troll somewhere else.
Don’t feed the troll. It satisfies their narcissism.
Might have helped if ‘other opinions’ were seriously considered instead of sticking with those with Funding agendas. Still can’t believe Ferguson’s modelling was given 100% credibility.
Just because he’d been a bit OTT every time before was no reason not to go tonto again. There’s tradition to be upheld, you know.
Emotion should reign.
Try thinking instead.
How come so many ICU beds are empty and not filled with elective surgeries? Because no staff. Either they left the profession or have been told to go home to isolate themselves?
What is the current policy? One cannot keep up, and every trust will have a different approach.
I would say as in Germany at least half of the hospitals are now owned by shareholding companies, this would not happen, as these beds need to make money!
Be careful what you wish for.
Pharma has lots of products that ‘need to make money’ and it is critical for them for there to be lots of sick people to achieve that end.
“Covid vaccines are helpful in reducing severe disease and death”.
Perhaps the “in-house doctor” who wrote this article (an excellent article apart from the above statement) can point to a study that confirms his statement so we can check on it’s veracity?
Do you have some rational reason for disagreeing with
“Covid vaccines are helpful in reducing severe disease and death”.
Yes, its untrue.
Simple irrational. How can it be possible for there to be more covid related deaths in the uk post vaccine then before if they are so wonderfully effective at preventing severe disease and death? And that with more knowledge and better therapeutics and a less severe strains. How can it be the same in the US and many other countries?
How can there be proffesional statisticians that have analysed the ons data and found there to be no clear indication of all cause mortality reduction from the vaccines if they are so wonderfully effective and have saved hundreds of thousands of lives according to the clowns in the gov and msm? The data would be irrefutable if that were true.
And on a side note, how can it be the case that we are told the booster reduces transmission, for a period of time at least, and yet every age group over 30 is showing higher ‘case’ rates then unvaccinated? far worse in 2 doses. How can that be possible?
How is it possible for there to be peaks in all cause mortality for each older age group in 2021 coinciding with the vaccine rollouts rather then historically being at the same point in winter?
How is it possible for 80% of all covid related deaths since august being double/triple vaxxed if they are so wonderfully effective? Surely it should be 80% unvaxxed.
I could go on and on.
Don’t use logic to try to convince someone who thinks they are rational but clearly is the polar opposite. It won’t work.
Don’t feed the troll. The thread ends up being filled crap about it.
Thanks for that!
Yes.
I’ve asked you before to provide a paper or study that shows Covid “vaccines” reduce hospitalizations or death and I’m still waiting so I can show that it is flawed.
People keep saying the jabs are working against Covid hospitalisation and death but are they really and at what cost to the future health of the jabbed?
Viruses have a natural trajectory of their own with little deviation from interventions.
Perceived success of a “vaccination” program may instead be due to natural herd immunity (without any adverse side effects).
The jabs briefly increase anti-bodies to the spike protein but NOT to other parts of the virus.
Soon after being jabbed people’s immune systems are compromised and they are more susceptible to viruses for a couple of weeks.
Every country that started a jab program had a sharp increase in infections, hospitalisation and deaths that coincided with the program.
Studies have shown negative effectiveness of those jabbed compared to the unjabbed.
Long term, due to Original Antigenic Sin, Antibody Dependent Enhancement, Vaccine Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome etc. plus all the other possible side effects from the experimental jab including myocarditis people will be potentially more ill from the jab than they would be from Covid.
There are rogue batches of the jabs which are causing the most harm. People are playing Russian roulette with their lives depending on which batch they are jabbed with of which they have no choice.
Around the world the number of reports of injuries and death from the jabs has been horrendous.
Many studies show natural immunity is better than jab induced immunity.
Pathologists have done autopsies where 90% of the people died directly from internal injuries caused by the jabs.
We really need to challenge the notion that these experimental jabs are helping to curb hospitalisations and death from Covid even in the vulnerable.
“The jabs briefly increase anti-bodies to the spike protein but NOT to other parts of the virus” – I think that is too tough a concept for any vaccine zealot, especially when the spike protein induced may not be the version that attacks with infection by the “whole” variant. I think you might have to explain the spectrum of antigens with a virus…..unless, of course, I have got hold of the wrong end of the RNA strand, quite possibly.
I am jabbed due to being immune compromised – a very very tough decision and only made after intense personal self doubt. I now know that Pfizer jab 1, was from a batch with the highest deaths, adverse effects and hospitilisations as detailed on the ‘net. I think I may have dodged a FMJ bullet here, for the 3rd time, 6 to go.
Conversation with GP about D-Dimer tests was very fraught ; she totally refused to sanction such a test, stating that there would have to be cast iron evidence of a health issue before they would do it; when I pointed out that at that point it might be a tad late (and I reminded her about the lack of early CV19 treatments had led to many deaths, NHS ICU/Staff crushing pressure – did not like that one iota) and now the RCOGP is calling for a halt to the NHS vaccine mandate…..I wonder why..
I now take the widest spectrum of vits and minerals to boost my immune system. Somehow, I doubt the “Rational Zealot” has had to go through that process….again I might be wrong.
The said waxines also destroy millions of people’s jobs, mental health, education, society, marriages, cancer survival chances, democracy, rights and freedoms, etc.
In other words, the cure is worse than the disease.
Wake up, if you’re rational!
Do you have some rational reason for disagreeing with, say, “unapproved, minimally trialled, experimental use only authorised gene therapies have caused thousands of post post jab deaths, tens of thousands of adverse events principally but not wholly due to induced clotting with unknown long term consequences, significant increases in deaths in male under 20’s” ?
Have you read how the CDC admitted they fraudulently massaged the enforced trials into how pregnant women have been affected – discovered by two NZ doctors; still reckon these vaccines are “helpful” – or the fact that the post jab deaths from these vaccines, in the US, have far exceeded the total deaths drug trials in the last 30 years (as per Drs Cole, McCullough and others have, for you, very inconveniently pointed out)?
Or are you the most recently recruited Nudge Unit “useful idiot” zealot ? May I suggest if you are so brainwashed, a relocation to Israel may suit your “helpful vaccine” persona; there you can have jabs 5, 6, 7 and more and still help medical research by becoming another number in their ICU wards – or maybe that data has passed you by – difficult to see with blinkers on.
Will there ever be a reckoning?
No, there will be a fudging, there may even be an enquiry, a whitewash of course, and some politician will come out with a sound bite or two, and we’ll all move on. And an approximation of some of the truth will trickle out over 2 or 3 decades. And former establishment figures accused of crimes like Tony Blair for example will continue to walk the streets and rake in money. That’s what usually happens.
In June 2020 I had the misfortune of being admitted to hospital for a serious asthma attack. I spent three days in ICU, followed by four days on a respiratory ward. The ward was one of about 12 on an entire floor. When I left ICU it was literally empty. Not a soul there at all. On the respiratory floor, there was just two of us. Not in the ward, but on the whole floor. Obviously there was a full compliment of staff – including six physiotherapists!
We both left on the same day, leaving the place completely empty.
How can it have been empty, if there were 2 people in it?
Why don’t you look at the data before writing twaddle?
There were zero in ICU and 2 in the respiratory floor.
Zero in ICU = empty ICU.
Two people on the respiratory floor left on the same day.
2 – 2 = 0, i.e. empty.
Rational,
I would suggest you re-read the post from fractaltrader. He clearly states that it was empty when he and his fellow patient left the ward.
Please read and understand before replying. You will not rally anybody to your cause if you continue to misinterpret / misunderstand other posters. It just annoys everybody.
Doesn’t annoy me……..I just laugh at the chunt
“We both left on the same day, leaving the place completely empty”
If you find that tough to assimilate, I suggest you seek urgent medical intervention; it concerns me that you may require treatment.
And I am not joking or being sarcastic.
Halfway through reading this, I had a sudden urge to check out how things looked over at the Grauniad, where I feared the bedwetting would be unabated.
The sheets were soaked.
Fearless investigative journalism indeed!
So the statement of “One quarter of ICU beds are empty” is easy to understand, even for the idiots who read this blog.
It actually also means that only one quarter are available.
Now let’s find out what that means.. the data is published, so you don’t need to believe the “in house doctor” as an author on this site cannot be considered neutral.
on 18 January, there were 645 unoccupied critical care beds in England. The lowest number since October 2021.
If you want to know if an article is misleading look for the words “Will Jones”
Your tripe continues to be really easy to rebut: Your statement is only one quarter [of ICU beds] is available. The only suggests that this an unusually low number. But such occupancy numbers are meaningless unless one also knows how many of these would usually be occupied during this time of the year. According to the article, the usual occupancy towards end of January ought to be 90% and not 75%. Hence, you’re misleadingly framing an unsually low number as unusually high number.
Nobody knows what your second statement is supposed to refer to. I meant, you can’t really try to compare ICU occupancy during a spell of cold in the middle of winter with occupancy numbers in the middle of an unusually mild, almost summery fall, can you?
NB: I’m writing this mostly because I consider the off-hand intellectual exercise amusing. Any attempts to draw me into a flaming conquest by hurtling insults at me will be futile.
I think ‘rational’ is being deliberately dense.
Troll activity.
It is probably one of those pretend soldiers from the 77th brigade.
Go easy on ‘it’.. it’s first time swimming without arm bands..
It’s spluttering a lot, and bloviating, out of its depth probably.
Clearly you have zero understanding of how hospitals are run. If approx 23% of ICU beds are AVAILABLE, this in itself is highly unusual for this time of the year. I concur with other commentators on this forum who state that the normal available ratio for ICU beds is about 5%.
I would suggest you check the MSM headlines which were published for the last 20 years stating that the NHS was in danger of collapsing. Well I hate to disappoint you but it is still here, notwithstanding it urgently needs whole scale reform from the top down.
surely if there was ever a case crying wolf…. This is it.
“Absence of influenza for the second year in a row”
This, of course, raises the question of how much severe respiratory disease is actually ‘Covid’
No I beg to differ, the real question is, when they actively prevent hospital treatments less people die, why’s that?
Or perhaps ‘Covid’ is a cure for the flu?!!
It’s not down to any lack of demand for ICU. My stepmother (otherwise very healthy and still walking up hills) could do with a heart operation pretty quick so she doesn’t drop dead. Likely she’ll take up a bit of ICU after that.
Guess what – the operation had been delayed due to NHS self isolation rules taking staff off work which has screwed their planning. The reason there aren’t people in ICU because they aren’t treating people who might need ICU for a little while.
It’s just more madness. Heart operations just aren’t important any more. None of the top 10 causes of death are even worth a thought. What’s covid on the list now – still top 20?
I don’t want to look after my dad because my work is 400 miles away. My stepmother does the job really well and could still outlive him if she is allowed the operation.
A modern Communism does not require a Marxist ideology, politics, or economy.
A State Health Service is all that is required, because the modern currency is choice and consumption – which can be delegated to the citizens, especially with technology.
A State Health Service replaces priesthood, justice, law, and ideology. It asserts and propagandises that it alone can PREVENT DEATH: the final frontier, the only fear, once conscience and faith is destroyed.
This is a lie, the Big Lie, the total lie, within Covidianism. The NHS can ‘stop you dying’.
We have a society of degenerates bound together by self-interest and Salvation at the point of a needle, delivered by the priests in white coats.
They might offer cures and delay some deaths, but they can never give the meaning, faith, hope, and love that CONQUERS DEATH. Only God can do that. Only God can raise a person up to die for another – and die well, as opposed to clinging to a morbid half-life of the Covidian zombie, terrified of ‘death’ and judgement.
This is the malaise at the heart of it all. With sawbones and SS Dentists now the arbiters of Salvation. And it doesn’t even work, does it? Neither medically, socially, politically, nor spiritually.
When ‘mere life’ is what you want at all costs, you will sacrifice your whole civilisation to keep that mummies’ eternity on earth.
Excellent!
Sadly the Government can deny,manipulate the ICU occupancy and the sheep will gurgle it like a $20 Hooker.
A thought has occurred to me, what is the history of ICU, when was the idea conceived (intensive care) how has it evolved, specifically time frame & technology. I’m guessing it’s relatively new in terms of technology 15-20 years.
What i’m getting at is what did the human race do for the other 230,000 years! I’m thinking we didn’t put off a mammoth hunt in case there were no ICU beds available, just in case.
I know who I blame, fffing socialist liberals, man up, end this health & safety culture take responsibility for yourself .
No messing around, Croatian MEP Mislav Kolakušić addressing French president Emmanuel Macron in the EU Parliament macron the mass murderer.
Brilliant!!
For context:
10 years of Gaurdian Headlines showing winter NHS crisis
https://ibb.co/ws0NctQ
Annual flu/respiratory figures
https://ibb.co/Vt67yWz
What pandemic?
Jon Gaunt on the attack now and backtrack
He disgraced himself
I don’t follow this guy but he did himself zero favours on Neil Oliver’s show last night.
Perhaps the excess mortality of the past two years means there aren’t enough “customers” for ICU beds.
Would it also be useful to see the absolute numbers of ICU bed capacity, regardless of occupancy, from year to year, especially with the isolating induced staff shortages of the last two years?
Do NHS Trusts reduce ICU bed numbers if there is no staff to “man” them? Even to a non statistician like me, I can see all manner of number tricks to distort the “data” here…
Medical clinics and hospitals in USA are denying life-saving Ivermectin medicine even with court orders. Big Pharma doing all that they can to push the vaxx and inoculate us while effective and cheap COVID cures exist. There turns out to be censorship that we have never seen before for those who are looking for these treatments. We say over and over again that indepenedent researchers found Ivermectin safe and very effective for these Flu-Corona symptoms. Getting Ivermectin is easy https://ivmpharmacy.com
Please watch Planet Lockdown The Documentary a thorough explanation of the plandemic. The BBC continues to be dishonest in their reporting. Turn them off. They serve no purpose other than to stoke fear. They refuse to report with integrity, clarity and honesty. I guess you could say the same about this gov’t.
The best one can say of the predictions of doom is that they were made by false prophets. I have said from almost the beginning that the experts are the wrong experts. Dealing with a disease requires doctors with sharp end experience, not statisticians, mathematical modellers or even dare one say epidemiologists.
False profits surely.
One cannot now consider reporting by the BBC to be objective; it is simply the propaganda arm of government.
The UK MSM received money from the government to pimp the fear porn as proposed by the SPI-B Nudge Unit. Bill Gates threw even more money around.
An interesting point to note about malaria risks in children due to lack of immunity is the importance of breastfeeding which has been undermined over many years by corrupt pharmaceutical companies promoting formula milk. Breast milk provides essential and lasting immunity which protects children while their own immune systems are developing. Supporting and promoting breastfeeding is the elephant in the room when it comes to health promotion.