There was no surrender by Azov National Battalion militants, Kiev assures us. There was only an “evacuation” (not clear to where), and this bit of demagoguery was happily picked up by both Ukrainian and world mass media. The effort to conceal the embarrassing truth about the situation on the frontlines is consistent with how Kiev explains the catastrophic state of the economy.

Thank God, Russia eschews any triumphalism over the surrender of the so-called neo-Nazi Azov regiment in the Azovstal factory complex in Mariupol. The Defence Ministry in Moscow announced on Friday that a total of 2,439 “Azov Nazis” and Ukrainian servicemen had laid down their arms since May 16, and that the entire Azovstal complex is now under control of Russian forces.

Let us begin with my lede, we shall answer the question posed by my title, and then circle back to this point later. In a word, No. The Azov Nazis were not good fighters.

“In so many ways Canada has provoked this conflict in Ukraine.”

The Ukrainian government is quickly learning that it can say anything, literally anything at all, about what’s happening on the ground there and get it uncritically reported as an actual news story by the mainstream western press.

“Ukrainian Army Soldiers Shot Into My Home and Burned All My Things,” Says Elderly Luhansk Woman

One country’s special military operation to avert an existential threat may be another country’s unprovoked and illegal invasion.

The Senate passed a $40 billion emergency aid package for Ukraine on Thursday, but with a small group of isolationist Republicans loudly criticizing the spending and the war entering a new and complicated phase, continued bipartisan support is not guaranteed.

Jeffrey Sachs, a renowned Columbia University Professor of economics and former Special Advisor to three UN Secretaries-General, espouses views uncommon for the mainstream media in the West when it comes to the real origins of the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. Professor Sachs argues that peace negotiations in earnest should start immediately, proceeding from Ukraine’s neutrality and no NATO enlargement. He does not believe in isolating Russia, being convinced that Washington is undermining U.S. dollar worldwide prevalence by imposing sanctions on international payment systems. Finally, the famous academician and the author of many foreign affairs bestsellers maintains that the U.S. should respect the notion of a multipolar world with mutual respect for and observance of the UN Charter. Russian daily newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta reached out to Prof. Sachs, asking him to share some of his thoughts on the critical challenges that we are going through.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made a goal of his war in Ukraine the ‘denazification’ of the country. Kremlin propagandists often refer to the Maidan regime as a ‘Nazi junta’ and fascist regime.