“Russia has evidently, very quietly, in the last three days… begun at last a major counteroffensive in the Kursk region,” said the expert. “We got the word today in the last 24 hours… that Russian forces have begun a major counteroffensive in the Kursk area, at least from the north, probably from the west and, perhaps, from other directions as well.”

“[Russia] have already recovered 10 settlements,” Sleboda emphasized. “About 10% of the total Kursk incursion just went away in the last three days… [Ukraine] don't have any fortifications or big high-rise buildings or factories to hide in because these are podunk, scarce settlements in a forested area, and that's all they got. It's not Eastern Ukraine. It's not the same terrain, which is part of the reason why this whole Kursk [region] incursion was a fool's crusade to begin with.”

“The Kiev regime has begun withdrawing forces from Kursk [region] in the last week and sending them back to the Donbass, sending them to, in particular, Pokrovsk and Selidovo out of panic. So Russia says, ‘well, we've gotten all we really need out of this,’” Sleboda noted. “[Ukraine] don't have any more Western vehicles for us to destroy, and they're pulling troops out. Time to wrap this baby up. And that appears to be what they're doing.”

“So what we expect is that the Israelis will continue with their monstrosity. Netanyahu needs this ongoing war to stay in power. For once they finish with the West Bank, as I said, they will turn towards the Northern Front. The Northern Front is the hardest for the Israeli entity because Hezbollah is not only well trained, but it's the most armed among all of the resistance groups in the region and they know their enemy very well,” said Leila Hatoum, a Lebanon-based journalist, economist, and geopolitical analyst joined Sputnik’s Fault Lines.

“...there will be no more two-state solution. It's no more on the table. The ones who are pushing for it now are the European Union and some basically Western states and Saudi Arabia, because Saudi Arabia believes that it's role to push for what it pushed for 24 years ago. That's it,” she added. “Now it's not feasible at all because of the number of deaths and the scale of monstrosity that the Israelis have shown towards the Palestinians.”

“What if Washington has actually realized that Ukraine can't possibly win this and never could and are basically trying to deny Russia Ukraine as a resource – both land, oil riches, resources, whatever – but most importantly people,” said Malic. “What if the actual endgame is making sure that Ukraine is wiped out demographically?”

“This is an incredibly cynical and sinister perspective,” Malic conceded. “[But] that's the only explanation that comes to my mind at this stage, because they are either complete imbeciles and are literally fighting a completely unwinnable war, or they figure out the war has been unwinnable and their objective is to actually have no more Ukrainians at maximum and bleed the Russians.”

“We see the desperation, despite the fact that this genocide is going on in the full glare of public scrutiny,” said Brar. “Israel is an outpost of Anglo-American imperialism in the Middle East to control the region's resources. They need that there. It's their armed base in the middle of the Arab world to control the Arab world and to be able to keep the loot flowing.”

“Oil remains the single most important commodity in the world today,” noted Brar. “Without controlling the oil and being able to loot it at rock bottom prices in the way that they do because of their colonial position in the region, then imperialism would be in massive trouble.”

“So you see this really existential identification of Western imperialism with Israel… The reason is it's their tool for controlling the region and the region's resources.”