by Michael Wood
Russia is compelling Ukraine to defend assets in Kiev and use up all its Patriot air defence missiles – which the USA literally cannot replace. Ukraine used over 40% of yearly US production of Patriot missiles in one week.
The pointless battle for Bakhmut killed thousands upon thousands of Ukrainian soldiers while the actual Russian army merely manned the artillery well behind the lines. The Wagner mercenaries did the hand to hand killing.
British intelligence has warned Ukraine that Russia has only used 5% of its aircraft so far, and is holding a reserve for a future offensive. Further, Russians have converted thousands of 250KG iron bombs to glide bombs, perfect for hitting infantry and armour from all models of Russian aircraft. Further, they warned that the air blitz on Kiev is to force Ukraine to commit and use its very scarce air defence missiles, since they must defend Kiev. The Ukraine is now forcibly calling up over 60s and disabled men with subpoenas being issued by all sorts of minor officials and no avenue of appeal. Ukraine is desperately short of men to fight.
With the destruction of the Rybalsky Island command centre and its personnel, the enormous loss of air defence missiles, artillery ammunition, tanks and other equipment sent from the west when the huge Khmelnytskyi storage facility was hit with Russian hypersonic missiles, the destruction of the underground command centre south of Lviv, and the destruction of Ukrainian air force squadrons on the ground together with their storm shadow missiles, Russia’s Special Military Operation may have taken a turn towards becoming a real war.
Russia has a whole freshly trained army of 400,000 young men equipped with the brand new T-90M and T-72B3 high tech tanks, Terminator urban warfare vehicles, a very large Air Force equipped with very large numbers of anti-infantry glide bombs, and artillery with enormous stocks of ammunition.
President Putin is known to be very careful and concise in his use of language and yesterday when talking about Ukraine he used the term “the territory currently known as Ukraine” so what is he telling us?
Is the real war about to begin? And what is Russia’s objective?
I’m very sorry to see England such a trouble maker on the world stage – deliberately fomenting an unwinnable war that has no connection to our national interests.
I agree. It is utter madness. It is only due to Vladimir Putin’s forbearance and restraint that we are still alive. Putin has already hinted at the possibiity that the UK may be regarded as an enemy nation, and face the consequences of such a status. And yet, with every passing day, we pour more fuel on the fire of a war in which we have no legitimate interest.
This lunacy will keep future historians exercised for some time. They will not believe we can have been so utterly stupid as to invite nuclear war for no conceivable gain.
I think Russia may feign losing interest, but wait until Ukraine is truly exhausted, then, when the west has drifted away a bit, suddenly launch its own offensive. Putin’s terminology is very important I think. I think as I’ve always thought, that the Dniepr will become the new frontier. It may take a couple more years to achieve. BlackRock and the American defence industry won’t mind how long it drags on.
The Dniepr yes, but Russia has one shot to get this right. They won’t be able to settle now and then attack again in a later year, so it would be a mistake not to get Odessa, which is on the west of the Dniepr, so I think we need the East of the Dniepr+the whole Black Sea coast including Odessa.
It was a buffoonish mistake for president Z. not to take Putin’s offer in March 2022, agreed in Turkey, for the war to end, the Ukraine to be neutral and for the Donbass to decide their own future. They will end up losing much more now. Even now, an agreement to allow the status of 8 Russian-speaking provinces to be decided by referendums conducted by the UN would be a compromise – an obvious one – and one that Z. won’t even consider. So they deserve their fate.