I spent four days in April 2022 during the height of the missile attacks on the Ukrainian Border in Poland trying to get a visa and press pass to find a fellow journalist supposedly kidnapped in Ukraine - one Gonzalo Lira. I called off my vigil at the border when I was given bad information by former US Special Forces operative Scott Ritter, that Gonzo had been tortured and murdered by the “Kraken”, the Ukrainian secret police.
Despite the captivating drama and the personal risk to myself, The Gonzo Lira saga in the end turned into something of a nothing burger.Gonzo didn’t have the juice on the Metabiota labs in Ukraine. In the end, all of our personal hardships take a backseat to finding the Ukrainian Metabiota labs and the proof of a NATO bio lab program.
Citizen Journalist George Webb spent four days at the Polish border of Ukraine trying to get a visa and press pass to get to Gonzo Lira.
Gonzo had foreshadowed his own death, saying if he wasn’t heard from in “12 hours”, he was probably killed by the SBU. I correctly speculated the he probably would be right if he knew the full role of the SBU operatives in the Metabiota labs.
Gonzo did know about the Ukrainian Intelligence, the SBU, otherwise known as the Kraken. He had his phone and computer taken by them in Kharkiv. But he didn’t have the insight into the SBU’s activities in recruiting ex-GRU for the bioagents programs at the Metabiota labs. And truth be told, that is why Gonzo Lira is still alive today.
Even though I spent four days at the Polish border trying to help Gonzo, I didn’t take my eyes off the prize of the NATO Metabiota labs. I still did two broadcasts a day on several different networks in addition to Neighborhood News to keep the pressure on including Dan Happel‘s “Connecting The Dots” and Zero Dark Tony’s “At The Ukrainian Border” show.
In the five days the world missed in news during the Gonzo plight, I had another prediction come to fruition - Putin’s Pivot north to Kramatorsk.
Putin did indeed pivot north to Kramatorsk, but this news was overshadowed by the Gonzo Lira affair. Still, it is important to cover this important turn of events in Putin’s stated objectives. We still don’t know if Putin will find bioagents in the Kolomoisky’s steel mill in Kramatorsk or Akhmetov’s steel plant in Azovstal.
Finding bioagents in either of these two steel mills will go a long way to justify Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The world will hardly notice my predictions in Putin’s first pivot to Kramatorsk did indeed come to pass, primarily due to the Gonzo Lira drama. But the events did come to pass in any case.
And now comes Putin’s second pivot with most of the Kramatorsk objectives achieved. Ukrainian President Zelensky is quoting a Russian General saying “full control” of the Black Sea is the next objective for Putin. This “full control” includes the furthermost Ukrainian port of Odesa on the Black Sea, bordering the country of Moldova.
In my efforts, yesterday to get to the Moldova Ukraine front from Hungary were thrwarted as trains were canceled.
Still, I managed to review some NATO staging areas for the Moldova conflict in Central Hungary. I think NATO will use this new Putin Pivot to Odesa and Moldova to try to swing Moldova to NATO. Most of the weapons being shipped where I am now are from Central Hungary. I personally believe F-35s from the NATO Southern Command in Naples, Italy are being transferred to Hungarian airfields right now, but we shall see in the coming days.
I believe Putin and Russia view this “Pivot To Odesa” in much more historical terms than the “Pivot To Kramatorsk”. The Kramatorsk operation was, I believe” just an operation to capture a second Ukrainian billionaire-owned, suspected bioagent site. All steel mills in Ukraine have extensive underground storage facilities and were built to withstand a nuclear attack.
But I believe Putin’s Pivot to Odesa is different. There is much more history here in terms of Russian sacrifice and memories of the iconic Russian T-34 tanks that swept the Nazi Panzers back to Germany in 1945.
A famous father and son team, the Sergeevs, fought near Odesa in a Moldovian town called Tiraspol in World War Two in several T-34 tank battles against the Nazis from where I am now in Central Hungary all the way to Odesa and the Moldova border.
The T-34 tank story of the son being blown up on a bridge, his tank plunging into the water, then the tank crew continuing to fight until the last bullet while partially submerged in water, is still a legendary story in Russia.
Russian war losses exceeded twenty-four million people in World War II, so the Russians look on the Tiraspol bravery of the T-34 tank crew when they could have surrendered in much the same way we Americans look at Guadalcanal. (Author’s note - my father fought in the US Army at Guadalcanal, New Georgia, and Bouganville).
Putin’s Pivot to Odesa and Moldova is going to be something different in the Ukrainian Invasion up until now. The Russian forces will be treading on ground of their most hallowed heroes of their history.
Great article, George. Thanks, also for covering the total deaths per nation in WWII.
I believe there are at least two reasons Gonzo is still alive.
The first one is the fact he didn’t have the insight into the SBU’s recruiting ex-GRU for the bioagents programs at the Metabiota labs.
The second one are the news reports about his disappearance and the social media outrage over the Ukraine regime.
To me Gonzo Lira's release is a big win of alternative journalism.
PS: I also think Odessa was the ground zero for the breakup of Yugoslavia and the EU but it may also turn out to be the ground zero for the end of NATO. Especially in the case of NATO's another false flag operation.