The following is an excerpt from Oliver Boyd Barrett’s post today. Barrett is a university professor who specializes in media and propaganda studies. I have embedded links that support his various points. Time will tell whether the reporting of Stephen Bryen turns out to have merit. He insists that it does in this updated post from today. – Natylie

Over the past 24 hours we have had reports of French intentions to send between 6,000 and 12,000 troops to Ukraine [The French Foreign Ministry has denied the claims in this Asia Times report by Stephen Bryen – Natylie], and a report that the leader of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives has said that the US will have to send troops if Russia beaks through Ukrainian lines. Which lines exactly are being referred to is a mystery to me as it seems to me Russia is frequently pushing against and breaking through fortifications. If all other NATO troops were to send in detachments we could easily be talking about a combined force of over 100,000 troops, many of whom are already on Russia’s borders because of an ongoing anti-Russian exercise. Such a force, poorly equipped, could easily be countermanded by Russia.

Russia is commencing an exercise of its nuclear-equipped forces. In the event of a major NATO aggression or clear threat of one I believe Russia will strike at the NATO forces with relatively low grade, low radiation missiles. In an ensuing tit for tat nobody knows who or at what point the exchange will cease. Over Gaza the West has shown that there is no evil it will not contemplate to secure its hegemony. In the meantime there will be great pressure on Chinese President Xi Jinping who is now in talks with French President Macron. Xi has said he will do what he can but I think we should expect that his conditions on the West will be onerous. It is always open to the West to stand down, of course. Possibly the West is engaging in a major subterfuge to force a frozen conflict solution which, for Russia, will offer few advantages.

Russia has issued the equivalents of arrest warrants for Zelenskiy, who will lose legitimacy in two weeks, and former President Petro Poroshenko who deliberately deceived the world over the Minsk accords, on his own confession.