The Western operatives in Mariupol (Part I - March 11 to April 25, 2022)

chronicle, thriller

In order to preserve a supremacy on the decline if not already an illusion, for its new world order against a multipolar one, the West, that is to say the USA and their vassals, is at cold war against Russia and China. When the posture is admitted, usually in UK, one claims the ambition is to extend democracy worldwide, actually an Anglo Saxon political, social and economic model, in the best economic and financial interest of the Middle-Earth. Although not the main subject here, we will note that this model is compatible in Ukraine with a fascist deep State, Nazi militias and fascist action to resolve a political issue.

That is why the West is supporting Ukraine, like a forward operating base (FOB), with weapons, ammunition, intelligence and also the direct involvement of military operatives.

The military context

On February 24, 2022, Russia starts in Ukraine a special military operation. Its public goals are the liberation of Donbass, a separatist Russian-speaking region in southeastern Ukraine, war torn for eight years, the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.

Mariupol is a port on the Black sea, that the separatist Donetsk people’s militia (DPM) is approaching from the east, when Russian marines land to the west. On March 11, the city is encircled and the siege begins

The ideological atmosphere

Since the beginning of the local conflict in 2014, the city is headquartering Azov regiment (2014–?), a Nazi formation within the Ukrainian national guard, that far-right militants from 22 different countries have also joined. Here is, at the center, the badge of Azov, which is displaying the Wolfsangel (wolf hook), the same heraldic charge which was during WW2 the emblem of the 2. SS-Panzerdivision, Das Reich (1941–1945)

While daily, via social networks, Azov is calling worldwide fans for help, two PSYOPs (psychological operations) are engineered in the city in March 2022. On 9, it claims that Russia has shelled a maternity. On 16, the destruction of the Drama theater is another one.

Aside the fascist deep State, the formal Ukrainian government is also exploiting these PSYOPs, in their common hope of triggering the official and massive involvement of NATO. The Western support is galvanizing them. Government after government, Ukraine has not seriously negotiated, has not implemented Minsk peace agreements, is less ready than ever for territorial concessions. The ruling Ukrainians would sacrifice their own population to preserve their power and their wealth. They would even risk WW3, likely nuclear, that a NATO massive involvement would trigger.

The chronological facts

• November 16, 2017

A multinational team inspects Azov regiment. According to its official site, the issue is its need of assistance from partner countries, in regard to its anti-terrorist operations. The terrorists are therefore the separatist Russian-speaking people in Donbass, that Azov is shelling and fighting since 2014

The domain azov.press is since to sell, but the page has been archived.

> Terrorism is a modus operandi, the word is overused today, contains no information about the ideology behind. Terrorism is violent action to terror civilians, in order to achieve a common political goal. Carl von Clausewitz would have probably written that terrorism is war against civilians.

When Jihadists attacked in Paris on November 13, 2015, they were terrorists. When they defended Raqqa against Syrian Marxist Kurds, their action was military. Funny how the Turkish authorities are regarding the Kurdish fighters, in Turkey or Syria, as terrorists. When Jihadists blow up in the Sahel a French armored car, their action is also military. Funny how States, in anti-terror posture, are often attacking civilians.

A bad habit is to declare terrorist a whole organization. Its drift is to declare terrorist every non State military formation, whatever their modus operandi. In our instance, obviously, the people of Donbass and its military forces are no way terrorists.

• February 26, 2022

Here is in the evening, two days after the beginning of the Russian special military operation, the situation map in Ukraine and Donbass. On the Black sea, between Crimea and Donetsk people’s republic, Mariupol is not yet encircled

• March 11, 2022

George Galloway interviews Scott Ritter, former intelligence officer within the US Marine Corps, former UN inspector in Iraq, who warned that no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) were there. Ritter stresses that Azov regiment is the military branch of a wide Nazi organization, one amid several other fascist groups, that their members have infiltrated the top of defense and security apparatus, that these fascists are a deep State, have weighted against a peaceful solution in Donbass. He concludes

[…] and the biggest embarrassment of all is when British, American and Canadian troops go to Ukraine to train that military and NATO tactics, NATO equipment, the photographs show, that they’re training the Azov battalion, because those were the first units Ukrainian military brought forward for training. We trained Nazis, literally

As US social networks will be enforcing censorship of factual and objective analysts, Twitter will ban Scott Ritter on April 12, 2022. Your servant will have been censored on LinkedIn late March

Three months later, on June 9, Ukrayinska Pravda online newspaper will write how the encirclement of Mariupol, in March, is a nasty surprise for the Ukrainian State and likely, its Western curators

[…] There were two reasons why the siege happened. First, the Russians’ incomprehensible breakthrough from Crimea, which was not stopped by anyone […] If all the cities, beginning with Henichesk, Melitopol, and Berdiansk, had held their defence as firmly and fought back as decisively [as the defenders of Mariupol did – ed.], then the enemy would never have covered the distance between Crimea and Mariupol in four days […]

• March 12, 2022

Here is a situation map in Mariupol on March 12. Azov national guard regiment, one national guard brigade (12th), two regular brigades and smaller elements are stuck in Mariupol, may be 16,000 service members. The author of the map is Erwan Castel, former intelligence officer within the French army, veteran in Donbass, who is living now in Donetsk

On April 16, the Russian defense ministry will release precise data (cf. infra) about the siege. The Ukrainian garrison was lighter on March 11 : 8,100 service members all in all.

• March 18, 2022

As headquarters of Azov regiment, Mariupol is the symbol of the war that Ukraine is carrying out for eight years against the separatist population in Donbass, its refusal to negotiate, in accordance with the fascist deep State.

Azov publishes a video where some members, outside the city, vow to attack and break its encirclement. The background is blurred, in order to prevent localization, but the footage is likely from Kharkov region, where elements of the regiment have been incorporated in the regular army, as two recce battalions

• March 25, 2022

French president Emmanuel Macron announces

[summary] we have decided on an exceptional humanitarian operation to evacuate civilians wanting to leave Mariupol. This operation will be carried out in conjunction with Turkey and Greece […]

But Vladimir Putin will decline on March 29.

> Regularly, Russia is enforcing a unilateral silence regime, in order to enable civilians to leave the battlefield, but according to many witnesses, the Ukrainian forces are using them as human shields. Mariupol is a Russian-speaking city and Azov is contemning the inhabitants.

• March 28, 2022

Amid the remnants of enemy fighters, the Russian forces and Donetsk people’s militia (DPM) find these documents, related to British national Shaun Pinner, 48 years old.

> His Ukrainian hierarchy was probably keeping the copy of his passport, Pinner was likely not a State operative, rather a mercenary

Here is a new situation map from Erwan Castel (cf. supra). According to him, about 5,000 able-bodied Ukrainian service members may still defend the city. He assesses the duration of the resistance to two weeks, until April 11

• March 30, 2022

One Ukrainian helicopter is shot down above the Black sea, while its crew is attempting to reach Mariupol.

> The flight is likely an exfiltration attempt, which occurs the day after French president Emmanuel Macron has failed to implement his own humanitarian corridor. Still on March 30, Éric Vidaud is sacked due to his insufficient reports over Ukraine. The French general was commanding the DRM (Direction du Renseignement Militaire, military intelligence).

What could have been the job of the DRM in Ukraine ? To predict the date of the encirclement of Mariupol ?

Why is this particular failure so serious ? Because French operatives are still in Mariupol ?

On May 31, Ukraine will release a retrospective video, which will mix footage of the suicidal exfiltration attempts. Helicopters are flying at very low altitudes to escape radars

As an ideological reminder, the end of the video will be a short interview of Nazi militant Andriy Biletsky, leader of National Corps political party and founder of Azov regiment.

• March 31, 2022

According to Donetsk people’s republic (DPR), two Ukrainian helicopters have been shot down in the vicinity of Mariupol. They have flew to the city, that they have left half an hour later.

Russian and Chinese journalists have gone to the site of one crash. The helicopter was clearly from the 18th Ukrainian air brigade, based in Poltava. A dozen dead crew members and passengers are lying there. One is still wearing bandages, the trace of first aid, which means that the helicopter has loaded service members in Mariupol and was coming back to its base

Two Ukrainians are alive and prisoners. They are talkative, Russian journalists are interviewing them. One is intelligence officer, call sign Belmak, the other one is member of Azov regiment, call sign Odessit. The operation was under command of the military intelligence department, GUR. Out of four helicopters, two managed to escape to Ukrainian controlled areas.

According to the Russian rumor, from an alleged anonymous military source, two French operatives of the DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure, foreign intelligence, military) are among the dead passengers.

Meanwhile, the cleansing operations are going on. Here are DPM fighters in Mariupol

• April 4, 2022

A new micro-comic is published in the The Tales Of Ukranazistan series

• April 5, 2022

According to the Russian defense ministry, two more Ukrainian helicopters have been shot down in the morning, while their crews were attempting to reach Mariupol from the sea.

> The incident is clearly the third suicidal exfiltration attempt in one week, since French president Emmanuel Macron has failed to implement his own humanitarian corridor.

According later to Russian journalist German Vladimirov, from anonymous military source, Western operatives from France, Germany, Sweden and UK are stuck with the survivors of Azov regiment, in Azovstal steel mill. They have even gotten in touch with the Russian forces, in order to request their exfiltration.

> All these information about foreign operatives are not official. The Russian authorities do not need to make them public. These individuals may be a leverage during negotiations with the West.

• April 8, 2022

At 9:38 pm, 30 km southeast of Mariupol, a Ukrainian cargo vessel, under Maltese flag, changes its course and starts sailing toward the besieged port. The Apache (IMO 8955586) is remaining silent on the international radio channel and Russian ships fire warning shots. While signal fires are visible on the Ukrainian controlled part of the shore, the patrol ships start firing direct shots and at 10:30 pm, the Ukrainian crew surrenders. The Apache is boarded and seized.

> If the vessel was carrying supply, the Russian defense ministry would stress it, speak about the shipment. That is rather a new exfiltration attempt

• April 9, 2022

Russian reporter Semyon Pegov shows us from the west the harbor of Mariupol. Beyond, we can see the stacks of Azovstal steel mill. According to him, the allied forces (Russians and DPM) are controlling so far 70% of the port

Georges Malbrunot is a senior French reporter, is working currently for newspaper Le Figaro. His anonymous source within the French intelligence has told him that British SAS (Special Air Service) and US Delta (1st special forces operational detachment) are fighting in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian special military operation.

A few days later, on April 13, US company Maxar Technologies will publish a splendid satellite photo, taken on April 9, of Azovstal steel mill

• April 10, 2022

Here is a nice situation map in Mariupol on April 10. The three Ukrainian strongholds are the port, in the southwest, Azovmash plant, northeast, Azovstal steel mill, southeast

• April 11, 2022

As expressed on social networks, the moral is poor within the garrison of Mariupol and among its fans worldwide

Eduard Basurin is military spokesman in DPR. Mariupol harbor has been cleansed and on TV, he speaks about his plan to smoke the enemy inside several-floor Bunkers under Azovstal steel mill.

> Failing secret negotiations between Russia and the West, if the Western operatives have not been exfiltrated, they may be inside these still mysterious Bunkers. According to the rumor, the foreigners are several dozens

Via its Telegram channel in the evening, Azov claims that the assailants would have committed a chemical attack, which would cause respiratory failure and vestibulo-atactic syndrome.

Sarin nerve agent may cause such symptoms. But Western media do not react and later, Azov founder Andriy Biletsky adds that the attack would have injured three people, who would be now in satisfactory conditions.

> The casualties seem light. I guess the news are fake or fear, I mean Azov becomes nervous.

• April 12, 2022

They have run out of ammunition and food. Alongside his comrades, he surrenders to the allied forces. 28-year-old Aiden Aslin is a British national, nicknamed Johnny or Cossack Gundi. He fought in Syria within the Marxist Kurdish militia YPG, has joined in 2018 the Ukrainian marines.

> He is already famous on social networks, where he has explained that when he returned home, the British intelligence questioned him. Aslin is likely a mercenary, not a State operative. When Volodymyr Zelenskyy has created on February 27 the international legion of territorial defense, in order to recruit foreign fighters, the Russian authorities have stated that these mercenaries would not be regarded as prisoners of war (POWs). Aslin was fighting for Ukraine for three or four years, we will see his fate

More than 1,000 service members, survivors of the 36th marine brigade, surrender with Aslin and the DPR states that Azovmash plant is cleansed. Kiev will confirm later the lose of the stronghold.

According to Ukrainian sources, almost all infantrymen have been killed or injured and within the brigade, even cooks were fighting.

> I guess that the marine formation, maybe 4,000 service members late February, has been annihilated. Azovstal steel mill, its mysterious Bunkers, is the last Ukrainian stronghold in the city.

Meanwhile, life goes on in the neighborhoods where fighting have ended, the Russians are distributing food

• April 13, 2022

Young Gabriel Attal is spokesman of the French government. With an idiotic nationalistic pride, so French, he claims that France is in the world, since 2014, the main weapons provider of Ukraine, that the shipments are worth €100M since February 24, 2022, beginning of the Russian special military operation.

> Besides the French involvement for eight years against the population in Donbass, weapons delivery means training, in France or Ukraine, with French instructors

They appear in the evening in a video that Azov regiment publishes on Telegram, likely from a Bunker in Azovtal, confirm the lose of Azovmash plant. At left, lieutenant colonel Denys Prokopenko is commanding Azov. At right, major Serhiy Volyna is a survivor of the 36th marine brigade

Meanwhile, the cleansing is going on. On the outskirts of Azovstal, the Ukrainian forces have dug communication tunnels between basements of the buildings, where the allied forces are chasing them

• April 14, 2022

DPR is regarding British national Aiden Aslin as a mercenary. An interrogation is broadcasted on TV

According to Akhmed Dudayev, information ministry of the Chechen republic, US special services representative Joseph Ward Clark, 34 years old, is dead in Donbass. His passport is showing that he landed in the Netherlands on March 11, entered Poland on 13

Ned Price is spokesman of the US State Department. During his daily briefing, a journalist questions him about Joseph Ward Clark

Staying on Ukraine, pro-Russian social media accounts published what appears to be the US passport of an American citizen named Joseph Ward Clark, claiming that he was captured or killed. Can you confirm whether or not that’s the case ?

[Ned Price] I cannot confirm that because reports that this US citizen was captured in Ukraine are not true. Can’t offer anything further due to privacy considerations, but those reports and those claims are not true.

So are you saying that he wasn’t captured, but is the possibility that he was killed or is – it’s entirely false ?

[Ned Price] I’m limited in how much I can say due to privacy considerations, but I have reason to believe that this individual is safe.

> A possible translation

Joseph Ward Clark or whatever his name has lost this passport, but has managed to escape. I can assert that he is so far safe, but cannot say more, because of defense considerations. He is our man [State operative]

• April 15, 2022

Andrey Klimov is a member of the Federal Council, the upper House in Russia, deputy chair of the committee on foreign affairs. He states

[…] we already have prisoners among the military personnel of NATO countries, we will show all this when we put them on trial. The whole world will see what really happened […]

• April 16, 2022

> Today is an anniversary. 77 years ago, the Red Army started the final offensive across the Oder river and two weeks later, destroyed in Berlin the Nazi State.

Another British mercenary appears alive. Shaun Pinner (cf. supra, March 28) was member of the 36th marine brigade, 1st battalion

Retrospectively in 2018, second from right, he looked like a proud member of Azov regiment

The Russian defense ministry releases precise data about the siege. On March 11, the Ukrainian garrison was composed of the 36th marine brigade, 109th territorial defense brigade, 503rd separate marine battalion, elements of the 53rd mechanized and 17th antitank brigades, elements of fascist formations –Azov, Aidar and Pravyi Sektor-, police and border guards, 8,100 service members all in all. 1,464 are so far prisoners, maybe 2,500 entrenched in Azovstal steel mill. More than 4,000 are dead. The overall Ukrainian military fatalities are at least 23,367.

SIGINT (signal intelligence) has unveiled that the survivors are short on food and water. In the evening, Russia offers the militants of the nationalist battalions and foreign mercenaries a chance to surrender the day after, in the morning. Azov publishes on social networks a defiant photo from Azovstal

while the British tabloid Daily Mail is imagining how the defenders could resist in the underground tunnels of the steel mill

• April 17, 2022

The allied forces are ceasing fire from 6:00 am to 1:00 pm, in order to allow the defenders of Azovstal to surrender. The artillery still fires 122 mm Shrapnel shells, which are carrying leaflets, not bullets. The message is SURRENDER !

According to the Russian defense ministry, SIGINT unveils that the Ukrainian central command orders Azov to shoot anyone keen to lay down weapons, among Ukrainians or foreigners. HUMINT (human intelligence) among prisoners has assessed the number of foreign mercenaries in Azovstal, up to 400. Most of them are from Europe or Canada. The 2,500 defenders are occupying six underground floors, have much ammunition, but less food or water. Several hundreds are already injured. In the afternoon, air forces and artillery resume the strikes on precise targets

• April 18, 2022

The red banner is raised in Azovmash, the plant which has been seized on April 12

Viktor Medvedchuk is a political opponent in Ukraine. The State security agency (SBU) has arrested him on April 12 and Volodymyr Zelenskyy published on his Telegram channel the photo of the hobbled man

On behalf of the Ukrainian authorities, the political prisoner asks on TV to be exchanged for Mariupol garrison.

> Kiev has understood that the city is already lost but wants to prevent the death or custody of the Ukrainians and foreigners. I guess that Ukraine and its allies wish to prevent publicity about the identities of some individuals stuck in Azovstal.

The Russian response is mischievous. Both British prisoners, Shaun Pinner and Aiden Aslin, ask to be exchanged for Medvedchuk.

Today is Easter, Serhiy Volyna, active commander of the annihilated 36th marine brigade, asks publicly the pope for help

Heavy strikes are still targeting the steel mill. In the evening, Azov shares on social networks a video where its commander, Denys Prokopenko, complains about the shelling to the leaders of the world and claims that civilians are in the Bunkers. A distinct video shows women and children.

> During the first stages of the siege, the battle for the city, many civilians were indeed human shields. Moaning about them are a new stance. The West is a good audience for false humanitarian pretext. These women and children are hostages.

• April 19, 2022

The context of the siege is changing, Russia reduces its manpower around Azovstal, the offensive resumes in eastern and southern Ukraine.

> The main goal may be north of Mariupol, the encirclement and destruction of the Ukrainian forces in Donbass, about 60,000 service members

At 2:00 pm, a new unilateral ceasefire is implemented around Azovstal, to allow the surrender of nationalist battalions and foreign mercenaries. The Russian defense ministry demands at least the release of all civilians from the steel mill.

> This opportunity to save civilian lives should satisfy Denys Prokopenko, if the former are not hostages.

Sadly, nobody comes through the humanitarian corridors. Here is a Chechen checkpoint

After the end of the ceasefire, some fighters attempt in vain to escape in broad daylight

In the evening, major Serhiy Volyna publishes a video on Facebook. He addresses all world leaders, pleads with them to use the procedure of extraction, to bring fighters and civilians to safety, in the territory of a third party State

> That is an academic hostages situation.

• April 20, 2022

Among most Western politicians and media, especially British ones, the state of mind about Ukraine is hysteria. Graham Phillips is a British journalist who has interviewed British mercenary Aiden Aslin on April 18. At home, Phillips is now regarded as a war criminal

> The point is that Aslin would be a POW, who should not be questioned publicly. But Russia has stated on February 27 that foreign mercenaries would not be regarded as POW and anyway, his interview was deliberate. Actually, the problem is that Phillips’ work does not feed the Western narrative. Harassment is also a method of censorship.

Captain Sviatoslav Palamar, call sign Kalina, is deputy commander of Azov, speaks in the evening, claims that the shelling would prevent the civilians from leaving Azovstal

> Every serious observer knows that he lies, in accordance with the new communication strategy, for an evacuation to a third party State. Today like yesterday, Russia implemented a unilateral ceasefire, to allow the surrender of fighters and/or exit of civilians. Nobody came from Azovstal through the humanitarian corridors, but the allied forces freed 127 civilians from the basements of buildings on the outskirts of the steel mill

• April 21, 2022

The assault formations leave Mariupol for other areas of the special military operation. DPR police and Russian elements remains in the city

The siege is going on, artillery and mortars will shell Azovstal until the surrender of the garrison.

> Humor is the best tribute to these supremacist fighters and foreign mercenaries

• April 22, 2022

According to Turkish daily Aydinlik, a socialist newspaper, from anonymous, likely Russian military sources, Azovstal garrison is numbering about 2,000 Ukrainians and 400 foreigners.

> I guess that these foreigners are not all State operatives, but mostly mercenaries.

Among the former, about fifty are French. Some are instructors for the weapons that France has delivered, others are intelligence officers.

> Fifty is huge. I fear that among foreign States operatives, the French are the majority.

Two members of the DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure, foreign intelligence, military) indeed died in a Ukrainian helicopter shot down on March 31. One of them was an electronic intelligence specialist (SIGINT / ELINT).

Emmanuel Macron is fearing such a publicity before the second round of the presidential election, on April 24, has given the order to not surrender.

> According to that detailed account, their own hierarchy, not Azov Nazis, is preventing the French from surrendering

In the freed city, the schools begin to accommodate kids

• April 23, 2022

Nazi Azov regiment publishes a new video on YouTube. The title in Ukrainian means Forgotten by the world, but not by Azov ; as a regiment, Azov helps civilians in the basements of Azovstal

We can see Azov fighters in the basements of a damaged facility. They bring toys to a second underground floor, in a room where a dozen, may be two dozen children are living. Many women are also there, do not seem to be all mothers, are wearing grey and red uniforms of owning company Metihbect (Metinvest). Some children are there without parents. The women are not so friendly with the fighters, at least cautious with them. In short, they would like to be elsewhere.

> Azov could release them but do not.

• April 24, 2022

Today is Orthodox Easter and the Russians are merry. Here is a funny micro-comic about Azovstal. Many racist Ukrainians and their memes in the West are calling the Russians Orcs. But at right, we can recognize Denys Prokopenko (Azov) and Serhiy Volyna (36th marine brigade). I love it

Mariupol Now is a local Ukrainian channel on Telegram, hostile to Russia, which is usually sharing videos and photos of the damages in the city. Its original picture of the destroyed Drama theater, on March 16, documented the PSYOP that Azov engineered. The channel publishes a photo that a friend has sent from a Bunker under the steel mill, then deletes it, but too late. According to the caption, the garrison is short on water, food and drugs

> The servicemen are wearing blue armbands, are therefore fascist paramilitaries (Azov, Aidar, Pravyi Sektor) or militiamen (109th territorial defense brigade).

Meanwhile, with artillery support, elements of DPM and Russian marines are cleansing a facility at the northeastern edge of Azovstal, in order, I guess, to tighten the encirclement

• April 25, 2022

> Today is an anniversary. 77 years ago, the Red Army achieved the encirclement of Berlin and started the final assault against the Nazi State

As usual, Moscow has announced the implementation of humanitarian corridors on the outskirts of Azovstal, from 2:00 to 8:00 pm UT. As usual the allied forces will cease fire, in order to allow the exit of civilians, whom they will check and identify. Kiev protests that no accord has been found and complicit Western media are broadcasting the Ukrainian statement as if Russia was preventing the exit of civilians.

> Pure rhetoric : such accord is useless, since the allied forces are actually enabling the exit of civilians. The Ukrainians are seeking a complex operation which would exfiltrate incognito the Nazi staff and some Western VIPs.

To part II