"Here lies the secret as to why one and the same generation was able to come to apparently contradictory conclusions: to be shattered to pieces in the war, or to be blessed, through the close proximity to death, fire, and blood, with health as had never been experienced before. The Great War was fought between not only two groups of nations, but also two epochs, and in this sense there are both victors and vanquished within our country."

— The Worker

Ukrainians flee after a failed attack in Kherson.
Dead/ wounded try to evacuate in the video ...

Russian (LPR) Forces Heavy Battle Combat Training For Advancing On Kharkov Ukraine

https://youtu.be/nC8tHSWeWec

"I don't agree with the assessment that Russia has already lost the war because they didn't sweep through with a victorious Blitzkrieg. It's possible for it to reach the point where it would become a Pyrrhic victory for Russia to topple the Zelensky regime, but I don't see it as near that point at all. For that to happen, the NATO involvement would have to escalate to the point where it is no longer just a proxy war."
https://news.1rj.ru/str/hyperboread

I don't think there can be any doubt that what America wants is for Russia to push so that another front can be opened up on the world stage. Otherwise, a mistake would serve the same function. The aggressive and reckless actions are precisely for this reason (and of course Ukrainians are just pawns to NATO). "Appear strong when you are weak." Given this, a real sign that Russia has been weakened would be the opening of another front. Iran has been fermenting for a long time now, that it or another location has not been attacked indicates that America/NATO has not achieved its aims in Ukraine. As well, if there were another attack in a new region at this point an extreme degree may indicate desperation.

As Schmitt said, the American law of war is neutrality in principle and presence in practise. This is intensified to the highest degree in this war, which is without question a world war. It will continue until a new spatial order is established – either the Leviathan or Behemoth will perish.

The other aspect is nuclear deterrent. On the cognitive warfare front there is a gigantic force which criminalizes Russia, even as America conducts nuclear testing. But seen from the East, the Leviathan is wounded and presents the danger of all wounded creatures: one does not want to be smothered and choked by the tentacles on the way down. Russia could face nuclear assault itself if it mounted a full attack.

In both cases, Parthian retreat is an essential tactic and strategy. And this tactic is fundamental, absolute in the atomic era of war – jets dominate the skies, submarines the seas, and nuclear weapons are hidden beneath the earth itself. They are submerged in the potential ruins like the old kings buried in the foundations of cities. This is the meaning of Dead Hand – one can still move from a position of total defeat. The nuclear defense is a response to absolute criminality and surrender in international law, and it changes warfare immeasurably.

Putin — who has jailed critics and rivals — took a nonsensical detour in his major foreign policy speech to rail against 'cancel culture'

The Western champions of liberalism and progress have slipped into banning [Fyodor] Dostoevsky and [Pyotr Ilyich] Tchaikovsky," Putin said via a live English translator, referring to a Russian novelist and composer, respectively.

"The so-called cancel culture is basically a cancellation of culture that annihilates everything that is alive and creative. It stunts the growth of free thought in economy, politics, and culture," Putin continued. "The very liberal ideology itself has today changed beyond recognition."

The Russian leader went on to blast Western liberals for what he claimed was their ability to strip freedoms of people who have an opposite view point, and said that attitude is reflected on Russia, too.

"Right now, they've bridged an absurd situation when any alternative point of view is declared to be a subversive propaganda and a threat to democracy," Putin said. "Whatever comes from Russia, well, it's all the Kremlin's doing, but they should look at themselves first."

https://news.yahoo.com/putin-jailed-critics-rivals-took-170506135.html

Putin: ‘New world order’ will compensate for Russia’s losses in Ukraine war

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will “accelerate” the inauguration of a “new world order based on law and justice” in which economic and political gains will justify the losses sustained thus far, according to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“We're facing a historic milestone,” Putin told the Valdai Discussion Club in a Thursday address. “Ahead of us is possibly the most dangerous, unpredictable, and, at the same time, crucial decade since the end of the Second World War.”

Putin took the stage against a backdrop of international anxiety about the risk of nuclear escalation in Ukraine and domestic Russian anger that a series of Ukrainian successes forced the Kremlin to send unprepared connoscripts to the front lines. Putin insisted that “a flare-up” of some sort “would have happened regardless of how Russia could have acted in Ukraine” due to a purported decline in Western power and maintained that his policies would “accelerate” that process.

“Yes, there are some issues — I refer to the losses incurred due to the special military operation — and I always say that, yes, there are economic losses, but there are also enormous acquisitions,” Putin said through an interpreter. “What is happening, indubitably, in the end — I emphasize that — in the end, will benefit Russia and its future. Why is that? Because it’ll help reinforce our sovereignty in all domains, and in particular, in the economic field.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/putin-new-world-order-russia-losses-during-war-in-ukraine

Tide Turning in Ukraine War, Russia on The Offensive Now, Top Official Close to Kremlin

Russia believes that it has halted the counter-offensive by Ukraine and is on track to seize back the initiative, a source close to the Kremlin has told News18.

Manpower reinforcements, which will be in place in the next few weeks, will allow Russia to hold the line and go on the attack simultaneously, the person said.

“The Ukrainians tried a counter-offensive; it was stopped. Our side is beginning to advance again in the centre, while expecting yet another Ukrainian attempt in the south,” said the Russian official, who is a close confidante of President Vladimir Putin. “Worry is for the wider public that maybe expected a quick victory. While the high command, seeing that the West is in fact taking over command from the Ukrainians, is quietly preparing for more serious action."

https://www.news18.com/news/world/tide-turning-in-ukraine-war-russia-on-the-offensive-now-top-kremlin-official-to-news18-exclusive-6256369.html

Jünger's officer coat with beetles talisman; these talismans were commonly sewn into coats by WWI soldiers.

Lesser-known WWI book. Something of an opposite to Jünger, being a non-professional's account, but gives a great image of a titanic yet simple figure.

"I was sick again and vomited severely. Brown and Mickey stayed with me. There was a comparative quiet now in our sector, but heavy firing to both our right and left. Machine-gun bullets whined about so that we had to crawl, and we were back a distance we found the Professor lying on the road bank, riddled with bullets. He was plastered with mud and had lost his glasses and steel helmet. Evidently he had got lost in the darkness and there he lay, after years of study and culture, a smashed cog of the war machine, with not a hope of burial save by a chance shell.

Ten yards on we came into a light vapour rising with the chill of the night. Over on the high bank of the road, we saw Stewart stooped over someone. We called to him softly and told him to get down in the ditch. He did not answer and went on bandaging someone who was lying perfectly still. There was the report of a German rifle. Stewart pitched head-first across the man he was bandaging, so that his kilt fell over his back, and lay there, dead, while the sniper shot again and again, as if venting a crazy hate. The wounded man was still. I had lost a bomb and we had none, but we wormed back to a spot on the roadbank and from there all three of us fired at the rifle flashes. They stopped instantly. We started back. Mickey was at the limit of his endurance. He was not rugged and we had to rest him now and then, so it was an hour before we were back in the trenches. And there I suddenly lost consciousness again.

When I came awake it was late in the morning. I was lying in a corner of the trench, plastered with mud, and Mickey was beside me. Brown was curled like a dog in another corner. Mickey told me I had been violently sick twice and then had lain as if in a coma. He said there had been a heavy shelling of the area. I became aware of the acrid reek of explosives. None of the other survivors were near us. Not a runner had appeared. We huddled there until noon, then I roused up and peered over the side of our refuge. A few yards away there were three green-scummed pools. White chalky hands reached out of one, and from the farther one a knee stuck up above the filthy water. In another bit of old trench, where the parados had disappeared, a soldier stood rigidly, feet braced apart. He had been killed by concussion, and his body was split as if sliced by a great knife. Some German bodies were lying on a bank and one, bareheaded, looked as if he were reclining on one elbow.

A shell came as I looked and erupted almost beneath the body, and the dead man stood up a heartbeat, as if saluting, then tumbled down on the other side. I lay down again and saw that neither Brown nor Mickey were moving. They were huddled side by side, mud-splattered, sleeping."

This includes a few ghost stories. At the time it was common for soldiers to believe in ghosts.