Although the mass surrender of Ukrainian troops from beneath the steel mill in Mariopol continues, with 1730 troops giving up to Russian forces (according to Russian sources as reported in the Irish Times but apparently confirmed by various others), the West continues to believe that Russia is losing.

That may not, of course, be the case. But most westerners believe it, courtesy of Kiev’s propaganda war, aided by London, DC, and of course New York and Hollywood.

Indeed, the mainstream media so far seems to be ignoring (well, not reporting) that the Azovstal plant’s defenders are surrendering in large numbers. (Although the BBC did state a few days ago that Russian forces have in essence defeated the Ukrainians in the city. And Fox News just published a story about 2 PM EST on Saturday that Russian forces had apparently taken the plant and were claiming total control and victory.) And the alternative media also seems to be ignoring this: World Net Daily, The Blaze, Breitbart and others reported nothing in the past 48 hours.

But even a few correspondents, still confident that Ukraine will win, with massive western support from their de facto allies, have admitted that this time Ukraine has lied. Never mind all those other times. One of the lies continues to be that the infamous Azov Battalion is not National-Socialist.

One of my correspondents, with contacts in both Russia and Ukraine, and fiercely partisan FOR the Ukraine, told me he had seen video of Azov troopers with Waffen-SS patches on their uniforms. (I’ve not been able to verify that due to limited time – the only patches I’ve seen on videos of Azov soldiers were an EMT (emergency medical tech) patch and a British Union Jack. (On what was immediately identifiable as a surplus British Army parka – all of which have a small Union Jack sewn permanently on their sleeve.)

But what I did see clearly shows the lies: it is not just a few dozen seriously wounded defenders that have given up to the Russians: most of the men and women I saw surrendering in videos were tired and perhaps disheartened, but not even walking wounded.

The reduction of Mariupol means that the entire southeastern coast of Ukraine, to the north, east and even west of Crimea, is now in Russian hands. As Ukrainians dig in more and more – creating modern versions of the First World War trench systems in France and Belgium – they are allowing Russian control to be consolidated in most of the Ukraine which observers said was (a) the home of majority Russian speakers and (b) the logical areas for Russia to seek to break off from Ukraine.

But the media and the White House and Congress all continue to play out a political and media version of Gresham’s Law: “bad money drives out good money.” The major news stories tout the failure of Russia’s war, the upcoming collapse of Russia, ultimate Ukrainian victory, and more. And Congress comes close to unanimously giving Ukraine 40 billion dollars of rapidly-devaluing American money. Admittedly, most of that money will be used to turn around and buy American and other NATO weapons and ammo. (Except the rake-off to Zelenskyy and his fellow kleptocrats and of course, the doubling back to Congressional campaign chests and Hunter’s lucrative contracts.)

So – war as usual, business as usual, and little or no real truth to be had.