The Wall Street Journal, the official mouthpiece of establishment Republicans, owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, that has taken the lead in publishing insider scoops during the four-year tenure of the Biden admin while the Democratic shills, the New York Times and Washington Post, took a backseat out of deference for self-styled “progressives” in the White House, has published another bizarre scoop that’s the talk of the town today and will likely be forgotten tomorrow.

The asinine report claims the Nord Stream gas pipelines, providing Russian natural gas to European countries before the war, were blown up by a six-member Ukrainian sabotage team of skilled deep-sea divers in an operation that was initially approved by Volodymyr Zelensky and then called off, but which went ahead anyway, likely due to a communication glitch in the Starlink video conferencing or a “terrible misunderstanding” between the president of the banana republic and his top military commander.

According to the outlet’s “credible but phantasmagorical” sources, the idea of blowing up Nord Stream was conceived by “a handful of senior Ukrainian military officers and businessmen” as they gathered for drinks in May 2022, a few months after the outbreak of the conflict between Moscow and Kyiv. The plotters believed that it would reduce Russia’s energy revenues and make the EU less dependent on Moscow.

The subversive operation was allegedly directed by a serving army general, who reported to Ukraine’s then commander in chief, Valery Zaluzhny. Zelensky initially approved the plan, but later backtracked after the CIA found out about it and asked Kyiv to call it off. Nonetheless, Zaluzhny pressed ahead with the mission, claiming once dispatched, a sabotage team goes incommunicado and cannot be withdrawn.

Before being nominated Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Kamala Harris was California’s Attorney General and a prosecutor. In that capacity, she dealt with “sexual predators, fraudsters and cheaters.” She evidently knows “Trump’s type” as well as WSJ’s. But even she would’ve contemptuously spurned the scandalous investigation. Because there are so many legal lacunae in the Harry Potter’s latest cock and bull story that any sensible judge would defenestrate the ludicrous petition and might even order damages be paid to victim of defamation.

Nord Stream pipelines were ruptured by blasts under the Baltic Sea in September 2022. Early the following year, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh conclusively proved with irrefutable facts and incontrovertible evidence that explosives were planted on the Nord Stream pipelines by US Navy divers under the cover of a NATO exercise, and detonated on orders from Washington in order to wean Germany off Russian energy amidst the Ukraine War.

The reason WSJ fabricated a malicious report, scapegoating a rogue general while exonerating mainstream media’s “blue-eyed bae” the Ukrainian president, is that Zelensky sacked Valery Zaluzhny in February as commander-in-chief of Ukrainian forces on the whim of US security establishment. As he was hesitant to commit more cannon fodder to breach Russia’s defensive lines in Donbas amid much-hyped albeit easily foiled Ukrainian counteroffensive lasting from June to December last year.

In fact, the planners of the thwarted counteroffensive themselves were well aware that it was a futile effort because Ukraine’s largely conscript and mercenary army was simply not a match for Russia’s professional military and superior firepower. But they kept painting the rosy picture of the battlefield for public consumption in order to oblige the Biden regime to keep providing billions of dollars military assistance to Ukraine.

Similarly, the Kursk and previous Belgorod incursions, too, are simply morale-boosting stratagems meant to create a perception that Ukrainian conscripts are capable of fighting wars when, in fact, sleazy Ukrainian politicians and military commanders are squandering lavish military aid on buying opulent villas in southern France and spending the nights gambling away millions of dollars in swanky casinos of Monte Carlo.

Nonetheless, differences between Zelensky and Zaluzhny had been simmering for many months but appeared to grow wider towards the end of last year, after Zaluzhny said the war had reached a stalemate in a long essay and interview in The Economist magazine in November. After being sacked for defying American masters, Zaluzhny is now paying the price for publicly spilling the open secret, as he is being implicated in ordering the Nord Stream sabotage.

Zaluzhnyi with Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi (left) during the Battle of Kyiv, March 2022 (Licensed under CC BY 4.0)

New commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi has been criticized for pursuing bloody and reckless military tactics which resulted in significant Ukrainian losses during the Battle of Bakhmut, and was nicknamed “General 200,” a reference to Cargo 200, a Soviet military code denoting military fatalities.

He would likely retain his job as long he uncritically obeys Washington’s dictates. But if he made the mistake of developing critical faculties, a cardinal sin in military command structure across the world, then he too would meet the same ignominious fate that befell his disgraced predecessor.

Notwithstanding, on August 6, Ukrainian forces, numbering several thousand and backed by German Marder infantry fighting vehicles, advanced  across the border into Russia’s Kursk region. Previous incursions from Ukraine into Russia, near the city of Belgorod, were led by neo-Nazi militias and foreign mercenaries. But this time, the incursion was reportedly conducted by Ukrainian forces. Subsequently, Zelensky publicly admitted he had ordered the incursion.

The main operational Russian gas pipeline into Europe runs near Sudzha, where a metering station – reportedly captured by Ukraine and confirmed by Ukraine’s new commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi – monitors the reduced Russian supplies to countries such as Austria and Hungary.

Russia has declared a state of emergency in Kursk and over two hundred thousand civilians had been evacuated following an attack that has clearly caught Moscow off guard. In addition, Russia has also declared a state of emergency in neighboring Belgorod region.

The Kursk incursion is clearly the handiwork of Oleksandr Syrskyi, aptly named “General 200,” because it serves no strategic objective, as even mainstream media reports have acknowledged that holding on to Russian territory is next to impossible.

Hence, the only plausible rationale that Syrskyi decided to place more Ukrainian “cannon fodder” in the line of fire was to pander to the dictates of Washington, which has been excoriating Ukraine’s military commanders to show tangible battlefield achievements since the much-hyped counteroffensive was easily thwarted last year in order to keep receiving billions of dollars in military assistance.

But Russian positions in heavily fortified Donbas region were so impregnable that Ukrainian troops couldn’t advance an inch further without taking significant casualties. Therefore, Syrskyi meticulously scanned the map to find an easy military target to assuage American masters. Invading even Belgorod region appeared a daunting task because Russians were prepared.

Suddenly, the general noticed an unfamiliar name on the map, Kursk. He inquired an aid, “Is Kursk in Ukraine or Russia?” The aid obsequiously replied, “Sir, it’s across the border in Russia.” “Viola!” exclaimed Syrskyi, “We’re gonna invade Kursk next to make Gen. Cavoli (incumbent commander of EUCOM and SACEUR) happy.”

Russia shares a thousand miles border with Ukraine, and it could be breached anywhere with a surprise attack. Kremlin didn’t expect a Ukrainian military commander would be foolhardy enough to mount an incursion in poorly guarded Kursk region.

The only comprehensible objective of the Kursk incursion seems to gain international publicity for a few days before Russian reinforcements arrive and beat Ukrainian forces back across the border after taking significant casualty toll.

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Nauman Sadiq is an Islamabad-based geopolitical and national security analyst focused on geo-strategic affairs and hybrid warfare in the Middle East and Eurasia regions. His domains of expertise include neocolonialism, military-industrial complex and petro-imperialism. He is a regular contributor of diligently researched investigative reports to Global Research. 

Featured image: Gas emanating from the Nord Stream 2 pipeline in the Baltic Sea, September 28, 2022. / Swedish Coast Guard.