I finally had a chance to read the entire piece published last week in the Economist — Volodymyr Zelensky and his generals explain why the war hangs in the balance — and it is consequential. Given that the Economist magazine functions much like a ventriloquist dummy, with the British intelligence services’ hand jammed up Ukraine’s backside — pulling the strings and moving the mouths of Ukie officials — this article signals a clear shift in the United Kingdom’s policy towards Ukraine and Russia. The Brits are prepping an exit strategy to get out of Ukraine.
When you read the article you will see that Volodomyr Zelensky is handled as an after thought. He says nothing relevant. The real focus is on the top two Ukrainian military leaders and their comments are at odds with Zelensky’s previous pronouncements.
In recent days The Economist has interviewed the three men at the crux of Ukraine’s war effort. One is Mr Zelensky. The second is General Valery Zaluzhny, who has served as the country’s top soldier for the past year and a half. The third is Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrsky, the head of Ukraine’s ground forces, who masterminded the defence of Kyiv in the spring and Ukraine’s spectacular counter-offensive in Kharkiv province in September. All three men emphasised that the outcome of the war hinges on the next few months. They are convinced that Russia is readying another big offensive, to begin as soon as January. Whether Ukraine launches a pre-emptive strike of its own or waits to counter-attack, how it garners and distributes its forces, how much ammunition and equipment it amasses in the coming weeks and months—these looming decisions will determine their country’s future.
The Economist scribe responsible for this article identifies three critical challenges Ukraine faces in its war with Russia. First problem, the escalating air war:
But neither General Zaluzhny nor General Syrsky sounds triumphant. One reason is the escalating air war. Russia has been pounding Ukraine’s power stations and grid with drones and missiles almost every week since October, causing long and frequent blackouts. Though Russia is running short of precision-guided missiles, in recent weeks it is thought to have offered Iran fighter jets and helicopters in exchange for thousands of drones and, perhaps, ballistic missiles.
“It seems to me we are on the edge,” warns General Zaluzhny. More big attacks could completely disable the grid. “That is when soldiers’ wives and children start freezing,” he says. “What kind of mood will the fighters be in? Without water, light and heat, can we talk about preparing reserves to keep fighting?” On December 13th American officials said that they were nearing a decision to give Patriot air-defence batteries to Ukraine, which, unlike the systems sent so far, are capable of shooting down ballistic missiles.
Second, Russia’s grinding success in the Donbas, which is a consequence of General Surovikin becoming the Supreme Russian Commander and instituting coordinated operations, and Russia’s growing cooperation with Belarus:
A second challenge is the fighting currently under way in Donbas, most notably around the town of Bakhmut. General Syrsky, who arrives at the interview in eastern Ukraine in fatigues, his face puffy from sleep deprivation, says that Russia’s tactics there have changed under the command of Sergei Surovikin, who took charge in October. The Wagner group, a mercenary outfit that is better equipped than Russia’s regular army, fights in the first echelon. Troops from the Russian republic of Chechnya and other regulars are in the rear. But whereas these forces once fought separately, today they co-operate in detachments of 900 soldiers or more, moving largely on foot. . . .
Ukraine also faces a renewed threat from Belarus, which began big military exercises in the summer and more recently updated its draft register. On December 3rd Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister, visited Minsk, the Belarusian capital, to discuss military co-operation. Western officials say that Belarus has probably given too much material support to Russian units to enter the fray itself, but the aim of this activity is probably to fix Ukrainian forces in the north, in case Kyiv is attacked again, and so prevent them from being used in any new offensive.
The third observation from Zaluzhny and Srysky is a real stunner — they acknowledge that Russia has Ukraine out mobilized.
The third challenge is the most serious. Russia’s mobilisation effort has been widely disparaged, with countless stories of inadequate kit and disgruntled conscripts. Ukraine’s general staff and its Western partners are more wary. “We all know that the quality is poor and that they lack equipment,” says Kusti Salm of Estonia’s defence ministry. “But the fact that they can mobilise so fast is an early-warning dilemma for Ukraine and ultimately for NATO.” Schemes run by Britain and the European Union can train around 30,000 Ukrainian troops in 18 months, he says. Russia has been able to conjure up five times as many new soldiers in a fraction of the time.
“Russian mobilisation has worked,” says General Zaluzhny. “A tsar tells them to go to war, and they go to war.” General Syrsky agrees: “The enemy shouldn’t be discounted. They are not weak…and they have very great potential in terms of manpower.” He gives the example of how Russian recruits, equipped only with small arms, successfully slowed down Ukrainian attacks in Kreminna and Svatove in Luhansk province—though the autumn mud helped. Mobilisation has also allowed Russia to rotate its forces on and off the front lines more frequently, he says, allowing them to rest and recuperate. “In this regard, they have an advantage.”
After 10 months of Ukrainian and Western officials and media insisting that the Russians are a beaten force and led by incompetents, Zaluzhny and Syrsky kill that meme. Not only is Russia a powerful force, they can mobilize and train 10 times the number of troops in half the time that NATO can. The two Generals also reveal an uncomfortable truth — only 28% of the Ukrainian army is “trained for combat:”
Ukraine has enough men under arms—more than 700,000 in uniform, in one form or another, of whom more than 200,000 are trained for combat. But materiel is in short supply. Ammunition is crucial, says General Syrsky. “Artillery plays a decisive role in this war,” he notes. “Therefore, everything really depends on the amount of supplies, and this determines the success of the battle in many cases.” General Zaluzhny, who is raising a new army corps, reels off a wishlist. “I know that I can beat this enemy,” he says. “But I need resources. I need 300 tanks, 600-700 IFVs [infantry fighting vehicles], 500 Howitzers.” The incremental arsenal he is seeking is bigger than the total armoured forces of most European armies.
I don’t know if General Zaluzhny is a Christian and a believer in Santa Claus, but his wish list of weapons can only be met if Jesus perform’s a miracle, e.g. raising Lazarus from the dead, or Santa decides to take on an army of elves and turn his workshop into Raytheon and Lockheed Martin production facilities. Ho, ho, ho!
Zaluzhny and Syrsky are signalling the desperate and deteriorating state of the Ukrainian military capability to fight Russia and their grudging concession that Russia is winning and Ukraine has no viable path to victory.
So why would British Intelligence give the Economist the green-light to tell the truth? I think it has something to do with the tsunami of strikes flooding the English labor force, double digit inflation and scarce energy. This trifecta makes it politically impossible for the UK to continue funneling billions into the black hole of Ukraine. I think this is the first sign of wavering resolve on the part of the Brits. Will NATO follow suit?
NATO ,UK,USA balls are in a economic vice. Putin is cranking its jaws close . Meat grinder running full speed mincing nazis. Ammo is low .
Nazi Ukraine is finished
Black outs of heat and light across Europe, Industries shutting down.The people are taking to the streets. No bread little food no jobs.
It’s more of a Chinese finger trap. They got into it by themselves, and the more they pull, the more it tightens. Putin is just watching in disbelief.
But there will be Plenty of mRNA jabs to go around. Thanks WEF!
“We all know that the quality is poor and that they lack equipment” (about Russian conscripts)
To what extent this is true is probably unknown, but it just reads like an axiomatic truism that military planners regularly regurgitate, particularly concerning the opposition. Such reflexive notions should be scrutinized, but too often aren’t.
(This comment has little to do with Ukraine per se, and more to do with groupthink)
Seems to me that if you live in snow half the year then you will be equipped for it. As far as arms and ammo go it appears that Russia’s forces are sufficiently supplied to have destroyed everything Ukraine started with, and most of the resupply. I think we can safely regard lines like “ill supplied and badly trained” as mandatory derogatory bovine excrement.
“that military planners regularly regurgitate”
Which “military planners”?
Ones who “finally had a chance to read the entire piece”?
Agreed. I’ve been hearing for litrrally months straight now that the russians are down to their last salvo of missiles, last spam can of ammo, and their mortars are all out…. months now, they’re on the ropes, their conscripts are going awol in record numbers, lines about to break, full on retreat!
50 cruise missiles slammed into Kiev last night. Russia is clearly ramping up equipment to the area for a winter offensive.
At this point, if the west said the sky was blue, I wouldn’t believe them.
“At this point, if the west said the sky was blue, I wouldn’t believe them.”
Totally agree, except we passed that point a looooong time ago.
In one of the latest Duran shows – Robert Barnes and Alexander Mercouris both noted that Ukraine’s and the West’s various pronouncements seem more a case of projection than intel.
So read this way, Western MSM output concerning Ukraine is correct:
RussiaUkraine is running out of ammo.RussianUkrainian soldiers are poorly trained and deserting at an enormous pace.etc etc.
Indeed. I believe they labelled it ‘confession by projection’.
Second only to my favorite overheard on a live mic during a Nuland address to Congress for additional lethal aid to Ukraine, “A friend in need is a friend to bleed.
Yeah a similar thought is a way to keep everyone on the same page about their fake number of Russian casualties is to just use the real number of Ukrainian.
Yes, “The Economist” interviews were fascinating. I found them absorbing reading and in fact re-read them, so astonished was I by their candour and their implications Larry’s analysis of them, moreover, was exceptional.
There is one thread, however, that I have yet to see teased out of Zeluzhny’s remarks and his references to Mannerheim. It seems to me that – beside one day, perhaps, having to tell his troops, like Mannerheim, that they cannot carry on the good fight – Zeluzhny is surely indicating by his references to the famous Finnish Marshall and President his own ambition to be a future President of Ukraine.
You are absolutely right. There is even a list of propaganda principles to apply in times of war.
– We do not want war.
– The opposite party alone is guilty of war.
– The enemy is inherently evil and resembles the devil.
– We defend a noble cause, not our own interests.
– The enemy commits atrocities on purpose, our mishaps are involuntary.
– The enemy uses forbidden weapons.
– We suffer small losses, those of the enemy are enormous.
– Recognized artists and intellectuals back our cause.
– Our cause is sacred.
– All who doubt our propaganda are traitors.
You forgot “We will be greeted as liberators!”
I didn’t make the list. It’s just copy-paste from the Wikipedia page of the book it originates from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsehood_in_War-Time
There’s no group of warriors I rather go into war with than those Chechen and Buryat fighters.
Putin has several times acknowledged that there have been problems with the partial mobilization. Even today he said that these problems must be fixed and all soldiers must get new equipment. For those of us who follow Russian telegram channels these problems are well-known.
Putin even said that he wanted people to speak up about the problems and not hide them.
How serious these problems are, we don’t know, but to deny them is as stupid as making them greater than they are.
Didn’t Sun Tzu say something like: “Make your enemy think you’re weak where you’re strong and strong where you’re weak”?
Define problems.
Did the conscription fail?
No
Are the troops not in training and about to be deployed?
Yes
It seems you confuse normal SNAFUs associated with any large scale, unprecedented action with failure or even significant problems.
pretty sure the IPSO doomers and defeatist traitors like sterlkov aka girkin and the notorious pretender wargonzo spread their lies in ‘russian telegrams’
i agree with andrei matraynov , these losers , trolls , scammers pretend to know everything about the war when in reality they know jack shit and yet ppl still naively believe these liars and their telegram channels..
let face the real issue , no one let me repeat NO ONE KNOW what russia doing in the SMO except information gleaned from Rus MOD briefings.. there is no publicly available information and all one can do is GUESSING and extrapolating (aka making up shit) based on what limited data there is.
everyone should read analysis from knowledgable people like LJ , Matraynov , Bernard of MOA and Saker to glean and peek at the curtain of reality.. and even then they can be mistaken due to lack of publicly available data.
My own view of Strelkov is not that he is a traitor or concern troll – more that he is a tactical war leader who doesn’t know shit about economics, logistics or strategy – both military and geopolitical.
Or in other words: a warhammer that sees every problem as a nail.
Gig, you make good points; but after the Twiter revelation, you still believe 100% what is on Social Media? You must be a Millinneal who thinks the Internet is the word of God?
Look my friend, Google, Facebook, Telegram and all social media is controlled opposition and misdirection funded by intelligent agencies, CIA, Unit 8200. MI6, etc. Start from that point of fact and then decide what to believe.
Today I invite everyone to listen to Jacques Baud’s last interview. A Swiss NATO colonel and a true expert on Eastern Europe and Russia in particular. And from Ukraine that accompanied in loco since the EuroMaidan. At the service of NATO and the OSCE on Donbass as an Inspector of small arms trafficking. Perhaps little known in the Anglo-Saxon world because it is normally expressed in French. In my opinion the best analyst of the conflict in Ukraine since day 1! When he immediately offered us a brilliant analysis of the reasons for Russia’s intervention in The Postil magazine. Also online still for consultation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63cYFXOnWqQ
Paolo is right–Baud is an excellent source. In fact, precisely the kind of source the West cannot hear from. As with Merkel’s latest 2 interviews, Baud’s observations very much give the lie to the idea that Russia ever invaded Ukraine–Crimea was simply a Ukraine surrender to troops already in place, and in his professional capacity he found that the vast majority of weapons on the Donbas side came from Ukrainian forces switching sides. He found virtually no evidence of any direct Russian military support. (
“Russia never invaded Ukraine–Crimea was simply a Ukraine surrender to troops already in place”
The legal position was that The Russian Federation increased troop levels up to the levels agreed and incorporated in their agreement with Ukraine.
A component of “the surrender” which de facto were agreements to desist, was not restricted to troops.
Some “old guys” took tea with hesitant Ukrainian forces in their final base, and they reached an agreement including repatriation, changing citizenship from Ukrainian to Russian for them and their families if sought, relocation with accomodation and employment opportunities in the Russian Federation not restricted to the military if sought.
This was not an analogue of the practices of “The United States of America” in such situations.
This facilitated “an invasion” of “old guys” with zero casualties, which through various vectors with different velocities facilitated the ongoing undermining of the ongoing attempted “colour revolution” of 2014, and the preclusion of one of the purposes of the ongoing attempted “colour revolution” of 2014 and subsequent.
Don’t recall the percentages now but Ukrainian troops in Crimea were offered three choices
1 join Russian AF
2 take your uniform off and stay
3 keep uniform on and go back to Ukraine.
Only about 10-15% took option 3.
“Crimea were offered three choices”
No they were offered the contents of “MirrorGazers says
21 December 2022 at 06:02
by the “old guys”, the “old guys” being sent to handle “confidential arrangements” whilst taking tea with the understanding that “journalists” would interpret their own “reality”, and opponents would believe this reality since after all they were “old guys”.
The statistics remain confidential despite “publication” since the “old guys” are old and forgetful so “security” is never an issue – as far as I can remember.
Hence MirrorGazers says
21 December 2022 at 11:13
and the mis-interpretations of notices of intent as ultimata of December 2021 and subsequent.
Thanks for the link. Baud is always interesting. He gives a great explanation of the Ukrainian need to retake territory versus Russia’s goal of demilitarizing the kiev regime.
It is a pity that NATO leaders are unlikely to see it.
Since my French is not good I have the subtitles on. It must be a machine transcription as it is doing some great things: “les troupes” -> “les trous” ; “Zelinski has several renditions but I think the best is “Céline ski”. “Kherson” is now “personne”.
“Kherson” is now “personne” ? Personne in French means “nobody.”
Dunno.
Putin and Lukashenko met in Minsk yesterday, tomorrow Cocaine Ze is meeting demented Joe in the White House. I smell a major confrontation escalation, possibly to the point of no return. Colonel MacGregor (who should be at least defense secretary if not president) seems to think so as well, judging by his last interview with Judge Napolitano. So far in the conflict it is interesting to watch what is going on but that one got me scared for real this time. I am starting to think that Washington has already made the decision to go all the way.
Look, this whole blog has one constant underlying tone: the United States is a place that has no national strategy. This is what you get when you build a country on genocide and greed, not national identity.
When you have no national identity, you have no national interests and hence, no national strategy. Money, corporations, special interests, industrial complexes, academia, journalistic class, banks, wall street, doctors, lawyers – all of it has its own interests and they are all more important than the national interest. Another corollary of this is that in this situation you also do not understand why/how others have their identity/interests/strategy and you treat them as if they should be like you. When they are not, you inevitably end up in conflict. So, in retrospect, this was bound to happen, no other way for this country to end up where it is going.
No identifying labels you are prepared to fight for. No religion, no sexuality, no race, no identity and no dissent. You will own nothing. These ideas were pioneered in Russia in the 1920’s. Total compliance
“No identifying labels you are prepared to fight for. No religion, no sexuality, no race, no identity and no dissent. You will own nothing. These ideas were pioneered in Russia in the 1920’s. Total compliance”.
For the eleventh time, no, those are not the ideas that were tried in the USSR. Learn history and stop repeating nonsense.
The Russia of the 1920s was mobilised over ideas of proletarian democracy, international solidarity, and self defence against internal saboteurs and imperialistic aggressors.
And yes, personal property existed. If anything the masses were fighting not to own nothing but to own everything.
Individual Russians didn’t have onanistic dreams of becoming millionaires one day. And those who did and dared to lift a finger against the people and the state paid dearly for it. Exactly what we need in the world of the 21st century.
Except that Russia kept its national identity, religion, two basic genders etc. etc. Moreover, the state interests of Russia are still above all the industries, the oligarchs etc. As much as people like to criticize the EU, they too are nation states that will eventually come around to the national identity story as a driver of national interests. Yes, they are in the clutches of the globalists/neocons but their populations still identify each as a separate nation. When the bellies start to gurgle from being empty and cold, THAT is the place they will go to – their roots. In America, we have nothing to go to and this is why we are not interested in standing up for ourselves – as a nation, we are not a nation. The hope was that in the “live and let live”, we would be united in the interest to all profit and prosper but as we can see today, that experiment went south fast, only 200 years and no “nation” left.
Oddo, WRT the UK (column subject), The 17th century French called the UK perfidious Albion for a reason. I have read some history of the UK meddling in the US civil war and afterwards, confirming the earlier assessment .
You are so right, Oddo; the Colonel’s interview with the Judge had me seriously worried too. Dare we hope that the message taken from the Economist rings true. Jeffery Sachs had much to say on the Duran yesterday:
https://theduran.locals.com/upost/3235252/global-economic-crisis-the-geopolitical-reaction-w-jeffrey-sachs-live
So sad that the major nations of Europe did not stand up and even worse that Great Britain failed to count [Timeline 21:08 – 29:18].
Thatcher would never have allowed it.
Wow! Jeffrey Sachs with Duran?!?!? Admirable! An economist totally from the Washington establishment at the time of the dissolution of the USSR! That it is true that it tried to negotiate financial aid for Russia as it negotiated for Poland, which should have been the role of the EU that would guarantee peace in Europe until today and instead of peace the EU let the US shoot the Bear and bleed Russia throughout the 90s to the City of London and Wall Street!
But Jeffrey Sachs as an economist remains at his core a neoliberal. I have really enjoyed hearing about the conflict in Ukraine and essentially about the consequences of NATO enlargement, but whenever there is a financial crash, Jeffrey Sachs’ recipe is always the same neoliberal recipe. In short, I don’t think that the Durans really know Jeffrey Sachs nor the latter really knows the Durans! Bizarre to say the least!
That is a very good observation Oddo! I had not looked at it that way before, but see your point and agree with it. Putin is admired by many these days, myself included, because he stands for his country and his people, and places those needs paramount. Sure, if he can line his pocket while doing so, great but Russia’s future, Russia’s needs, are driving his decisikns and actions.
In the US, that is the least or last consideration. Everything is so fractalized, compartmentalized, diversified, nobody belongs to a homogeneous group. We are African Americans, Indian American, Latinos, Asian Americans, Heritage Americans, etc. ad nauseum. Nobody is just an American anymore.
So begs the question, is that the chicken or the egg? Cause or the affect? Historians can write volumes but its irrelevant – “a divided house cannot stand”, as is evident.
Washington isn’t going all the way, so to speak. But they will gladly push their vassals in Europe to go full in.
The interesting part is, what makes them think Russia will spare the US? Problems are best solved if taken up on the root cause. Russia is very practical in those matters.
I think a simpler way of putting it is no Plan B. Plan A — sanctions will collapse the feeble Russian economy and the underbosses will kick Putin out. June-July at the latest — don’t need a Plan B.
I agree with those who say Belarus does not want to get involved in the fighting, but it had allowed Russian troops to transit early in the war, and will do so again. While the Russians focus forces on four or more axis of advance, Belarus can guard its borders to intercept commandos or repel small counterattacks, and even provide artillery support.
A small Russian attack will be made toward Kiev as a feint and to tie up Uke forces, but attempting to take Kiev is mindless. Just surge south across open country and cut the main supply routes from Poland to Kiev and its army is doomed. This will also deter crazy American or Polish intervention. The Russians would capture a billion dollars worth of NATO aid along these roads and rail lines to supply themselves.
Here is a map. https://www.nationsonline.org/maps/Ukraine-Map-L.jpg
The Ukes are aware, but don’t have the forces to defend the entire Belarus border, and can’t move large reserve units to block attacks with Russian air power ready to pounce. Push south, capture Khmelnytskyi in a month, game over!
Hey ya, Carlton! Suppose Ukraine fired missiles across the Belarus border killing or doing damage, do they instantly engage alongside Russia?
I suspect there will be a false flag incident to justify the attack.
well said Carlton.I would like to add Belarus has a large border with Poland and the crazy Balts.If US/NATO goes complete BATSHIT CRAZY Belo forces will protect the NW,Northern flanks while Russian forces drive south to Transnistria/ Moldova.There is only one reason for this flurry of meetings in Belarus and Russia,Battle planning.
Putin is now visiting Belarus for meetings. The first time he’s been there in three years. Humm?
Bullshit is like holding your breath underwater!
Some are good at it, others very good.
But 9 months?
Forget Britain! History already has. When Scotland gets its independence so goes the commonwealth.
Canada becomes the independent “Ukrainian Nazi Federation of North America.”
New Zealand the : “baby snatchers of the the sad south.”
The rest of what is left of the commonwealth will not even notice.
The British Ruling class – The financial interests of the City Of London – doesn’t really care one way or the other about Scottish independence. Brexit was supposedly against their interests. Did it make any difference?
A Disunited Kingdom may make them easier to control…
“Santa decides to take on an army of elves and turn his workshop into Raytheon and Lockheed Martin production facilities.”
Mel Gibson Santa
“Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrsky, the head of Ukraine’s ground forces, who masterminded …Ukraine’s spectacular counter-offensive in Kharkiv province in September.”
LOL, masterminded moving in to an empty, strategically irrelevant, undefendable city that is under Russian fire control.
You might have mixed up Kharkov and Kherson regions. It looks like not even the Economist would dare to call Kherson slaughterhouse a success. Still, this quote is one of the funniest thing I’ve read in while.
“The third is Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrsky, the head of Ukraine’s ground forces, who masterminded the defence of Kyiv in the spring and Ukraine’s spectacular counter-offensive in Kharkiv province in September.”
That guy got surpised by Russian army coming from Belaruss, although it was the only thing news were talking about for a month. He didn’t even bother digging a single trench, just in case.
The spectacular counter-offensive in Kharkov region was obviously masterminded in NATO, by some modern day version of General Melchett from Blackadder Goes Forth.
Advanced World War I Tactics with General Melchett
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rblfKREj50o
It was ‘masterminded’ by Milley himself apparantly. Cost about 28K troops dead and wounded – of a total 35K brought into the field for the ‘counter offensive’ – many trained in the EU. The disaster was all American but did reaffirm their conviction to fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian.
Larry–as you say the sheer size of the ask may serve as either:
1. a fantasy wish list of weapons supplies NATO no longer has in reserve
OR
2. a coded call to arms directed towards some version of a Coalition of the Willing–because what he is effectively asking for is a new army. Poland’s, perhaps, with sheep-dipped UK, Romanian & Baltic ‘mercenaries’ operating more plentiful Western heavy weapons operated by personnel already trained.
The problem I have with this “Coalition of the Willing” theory is: The Poles and Romanians are right there, and should have no illusions about just how well they would fare against Russian troops. The Poles have hundreds, likely low thousands dead in Ukraine already and the Romanians at least hundreds.
So why exactly would they put themselves into the meatgrinder?
Are the military experts and intel types in those countries, not to mention the grunts, totally deluded?
Even if they believe Uncle Sam “has their back” – there seems to be no US military buildup in the sense of armor, logistics etc in Europe that I have seen. Anyone know different?
And if so, Uncle Sam is physically unable to “back them up” regardless of the rhetoric.
In contrast: there are numerous videos, from various parts of Russia, of long lines of train cars with artillery, tanks, supplies etc moving into position around Ukraine.
Larry-
Re: The request for more kit, even if NATO had it available, begs the question: So how much is left then of the pre-war stock? Ukraine reported had over 1000 tanks, with another 1000 non-operational units, thousands of various AFV’s, and thousands of artillery pieces. The unspoken message is its mostly gone, and even the sugar fairy wish list enumerated would only restore a fraction of the pre-war strength. But then of course, Russia is out of everything, once more over the top lads, we’ll take Ypres this time I’m sure…
They have recently deployed T-55s sent from Slovenia (twenty something in total). To me, that indicates that most of T-64s/T-72s are gone.
Interview published just before vote on new budget of $50B in aide and Zelensky speaks to congress. What are the odds?
“Will NATO follow suit?” …….NATO does what it is told to do, by the ‘exceptional’ folks!
Does anyone believe that after successfully mobilizing the Russian military they are just going to stand down and go back to their Dachas …….because the latest little brown Brit in Downing street is worried about his checking balance and a country-wide mutiny on his watch???????
Some may speculate that BOJO, let the little brown Brit wrestle away his power so the impending disaster would forever be viewed as what happens when a Banyan is put in charge of England.
We are well past the point where attempting to put this train in reverse will avoid a wreck.
Russia will/must subdue Ukraine and permanently remove the Azov’s and evict the provocateurs.
The west’s economic house of cards must collapse.
When trust is destroyed, there is only one option left for achieving peace – unfortunately, some things will have to be broken before a lasting peace can be restored.
….unless the nutters in the WH & DoS make everything radioactive out of spite!
Those ‘banyans’ you speak of seem to have eaten much of the Brit’s economy for lunch. The native Brits should thank them for still having a seat at the table, even if it’s the kiddy chair.
Azov!!!???
Being whitewashed as we speak
Ukraine’s Azov Regiment visits Israel: ‘Mariupol is our Masada’
https://www.jpost.com/international/article-725351
Did they hide their nazi tattoos or just let it all hang out?
The one that received a medal at Disney World did cover it:
https://youtu.be/gFpHtufCIZ4?t=270
Where is the Russian Army? Has anybody seen it? It vanished in April and has yet to make a reappearance. We know its out there somewhere, on the great Eurasian steppe, but where exactly and in what strength, no one can say.
Which is remarkable, as one watches the Russian Federation as it spanks the living bejesus out of the whole western world in an extra-double-wide, full spectrum war to the geo-political pain, without it.
– A quick shout out must be made here to the Donbas militias, the Chechens, and the Wagner Group, who as a collective must now be surely ranked ahead of Xenephon’s Immortals? –
Imagine if the Russian Federation decides to reintroduce their army to this fight, and its five times bigger and better equipped than it was in the February and March, when a minor fraction of it was rolling around the Ukraine pretty much doing whatever it wanted, AND, the Buddhist faction in the Kremlim has finally relented to the Christian faction, and will allow the Russian Army to use its 21st century firepower … for the first time!
Imagine that!
Lmao … Larry, I have to believe that someone in the West, besides ten or fifteen satellite photo/recon specialists, at work in the bowels of the Pentagon, knows where the Russian Army is? I don’t know all that much about these things, but I do know I can see my backyard shed on Google Earth, and my shed is only big enough for a lawn mower and some garden tools.
I mean the Russian Army, even if it hasn’t been growing geometrically in size in the 8 months since we last saw it, is still bigger than my shed!
Get out while you can has been my advice to my country (the US) since, I don’t know, 1980? My country didn’t take my advice however, and now it finds itself in a place where maybe, it can’t get out.
Which is doubly troubling considering it still hasn’t gotten around to taking on its primary target, China, and if it can’t get past its secondary target without being, best case scenario, humiliated to its foundational core, what can it possibly hope to accomplish with its primary?
You can always get out, you just have to be willing to pay the price.
Max424, 90% of the Russian army is still stationed between Moscow and Poland where it has been for the last fifty years.
As for the interview of the 3 Western bitches from Ukraine to the Economist, I confess that I no longer remembered some hilarious topics. First of all, how does an army that is nothing more than US cannon fodder mocks with a Czar in Russia?! Certainly with fewer statues than the criminal Nazi servant Stepan Bandera in Ukraine! Secondly, as Zaluzhny himself unconsciously confirms casualties of more than 400K if we take into account the numbers of troops he was talking about at the beginning of the conflict. Apart from the mercenaries. Third, how it continues to try to devalue regular Russian forces to the detriment of Wagner’s mercenaries. That in addition to being mostly Russian ex-spetnaz, the truth is that the overwhelming majority of dead Ukrainian soldiers do not get to see who killed them. And it’s already lucky if get to see a Russian soldier in the big Meat Grinder. Like the stories at the beginning of the conflict that the Russians stole electrical appliances in the poorest former socialist Republic?! To cover up what has always been a practice of neo-Nazi nationalists in eastern Ukraine! And these are more than enough reasons not to mourn a Ukrainian death. They are nothing more than Russophobic shits in a country that had everything to be one of the biggest economies in Europe and they never went beyond the most miserable in a very rich country full of natural resources!
I believe “The Economist” is within the Rothschild family umbrella. It’s a mouthpiece instructing the puppets.
Yep , the only way a striker would use this paper is to lit the midday BBQ.
In between the lines it’s telling the “elite” than Ukraine support must continue, but not being made to obvious for the peons it’s done with public money.
Obviously , the Rothschild enterprise benefits from this war … witch war didn’t they profit from ? Since 1812, I can’t remember a single one.
What a wonderful thing it will be to see the imperial globalist Brit elites and their “intelligence” services get their treacherous, genocidal, sniveling asses bared to the world they thought they still ruled by debt, subversion and colonialism.
Next their lackeys in the states and the rest of 5 Eyes and tge EU.
Off topic
Tom Cruise to play Putin in new movie. June 2023?
“Bear Attack.” 🇷🇺🐻WW3 Continental Mil porn.
Leading lady: a chesty opera singer who wants to be Royalty.
It’s only what’s getting around the traps.
PS. Who is playing Biden? Nobody knows.
The gents at The Duran did a good analysis a few days ago of what all this means: https://rumble.com/v20yu72-general-zaluzhny-project-ukraine-fork-in-the-road.html
Worth checking out.
Russia has already destroyed the number of equipment on Zaluzny’s wish list at least 4 to 5x’s over. How in God’s name does he expect to now have the ability to beat the Russian military with now less equipment, and without a modern air force or long range missile capacity. And completely tattered logistics.
Meanwhile Russia has replaced it’s lost equipment with a more modern supply and reinforced its troops x3. I’m not a military genius, but it seems a decent amount of commonsense and logic should be enough for anybody to understand Ukraine is doomed. Just complete insanity.
And I don’t think the UK is looking for an exit strategy. I think they are publicly trying to goad Nato allies into agreeing to giving Ukraine more sophisticated weapons.
Western governments will have us all heating ourselves by barrel fire and living on cheese and crackers before they give up in Ukraine.
Western governments will have us all heating ourselves by barrel fire and living on cheese and crackers before they give up in Ukraine.
Not so sure. When it comes to saving face, half a face is better than none. I’m sure they’d spin themselves a new one in no time.
Andre reports Poland and Germany are requesting gas from Russia for 2023. Further evidence of the decline in NATO cohesion.
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2022/12/this-is-serious-lol.html?m=1
This has nothing to do with cohesion. We are talking utter incompetent puppet regimes all over the EU. They all BS themselves and clearly overestimated their own capacities on any level (everyone with two brain cells knew that the moment they called sanctions to be put in place).
Still, they can’t avoid the disastrous consequences of the destruction they have already caused to their own countries. This is just a desperate attempt to survive a little bit longer, nothing more. A very costly attempt thou. Maybe we will see some real backstabbing too, who knows how those psychopaths really work.
So, who’s Russia’s b**ch now?
Andre reports Poland and Germany are requesting gas from Russia for 2023.
That’s very curious. They should well know that if Russia is defeated in Ukraine it will definitely cut off all gas to Europe and they’ll be in an even greater pickle scrambling again for alternate suppliers, so either they must be thinking that Russia will prevail or that Polish jokes are based on a long history of factual precedents.
So the west is seeking negotiations for peace. It may happen something like this;
The west announce their terms and the Russians will be polite and remind them they have surrendered and the first list of terms will be distributed to them when Russia is ready. Russia informs them it is unconditional surrender, the breakup of Ukraine, the joining of Transnistra to the Odessa oblast as part of Novorussia and certain borders are going to be changed due to the host nation allowing NATO missiles and troops on their territory. If the nazis refuse there will have to be a continuation in hostilities until the SMO terms are complete, sorry for this delay.
Russia can remind Europe that the immigrants of Ukraine will never be welcome back near the new oblasts or border of Russia and Belarus , perhaps 40 kilometers or better 300 kilometers. The nazis of western Ukraine will be directed (herded) to unfriendly nations in Europe that have expressed such a great love and sentimental attachment. It will be like a homecoming of like minds, brothers and sisters. They will come from the east bearing yankee weapons of war to a neighborhood near you with ponzi schemes and protection rackets.
Euro nations have to make a choice that seems impossible. Nazi’s or Russia. You know some are going to choose wrong. You just know
I think the plan is really pretty simple and effective. Drive whatever nazi fanatics are left into Europe, where they’ll be prepped as a government and military in exile, just long enough for the natives to get good and sick and tired of them and their nazi magnet for the locals, wondering what in God’s name they’ve unleashed by supporting this lot and begin to sweat the consequences for themselves.
I can’t cite the exact literature on this but many a theme has been somewhat akin to winning by driving your adversaries mad, even suicidal by their own self-inflicted actions. I’m now convinced the sanctions pyramid was only the first act in this unfolding greek tragedy.
Or to make things simpler, just recall the story of the Spartan boy who brought a pet fox from the Ukrainian steppe to school, hid it under his tunic and winced in silence as the fox gnawed at his innards ’til death.
And thousands of newly minted Ukranian hookers. That will please many.
That was always plan B: to unleash these degenerate scum on the working class of Europe. The farmer’s protests are running out of time…
Might there also be a more contributory factor for The Collective West to address, which is the ever growing massive International Bond Market Debt, which runs into many Trillions of US Dollars and is becoming totally untenable, especially as the BOJ has just signalled a floating interest rate for its 10 year Bonds?
This break in Co-ordinated support with All other Central Banks, signals a desperation to fund Japanese Bond Debt, which will have consequential contagion ramifications for other Western Economies Bond Debt where Quantitive Easing has led to much higher inflation than published and can only now be likened to adding fuel to the economic maelstrom now engulfing all of them.
The recent BOE intervention with gbp65 Billion to save the UK Government from insolvency will only be a stop gap and the massive dumping of US Bonds by China et Al will totally undermine the Whole Western World’s Economic Undertakings.
So this might in fact be the real reason for second thoughts on providing any further financial support for Ukraine.
“and the massive dumping of US Bonds by China et Al will totally undermine the Whole Western World’s Economic Undertakings.”
The first loss is the cheapest and not a loss but a potential “profitable” vector when compared with “events” from 1842 until 1949, and 1969 to date.
“Hollywood” even made a television series about it in 3 parts if memory serves – “The Company” but didn’t use bonds but currency, and “Soviets” not Chinese, since it was held by some to resonate better in context with “the target audience”.
“Trillions of US Dollars and is becoming totally untenable, especially as the BOJ has just signalled a floating interest rate for its 10 year Bonds?”
The prime target for the 1971 alchemy of turning gold into paper was Japan, but not the sole target which included “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”, “The Federal Republic of Germany” and “The Republic of France”.
The zaibatsu represented by Mitsui-Mitsubishi attempted from 1970 onwards to circumvent this through association with “The Soviet Union” by proposing joint projects to develop rail transport from Kyushu to “East Berlin” via Nahodka and development zones along the route using alchemised into paper “resources” to finance efforts to be “financed” by “The Soviet Union” by “bartering” materials including oil and gas with Japan.
“The United States of America” undermined these developments through “The Soviet Union” by a four pronged simultaneous instance of minds and balls, offering detente on the alleged bases of “spheres of influence” to which the Brezhnev politburo were particularly attracted, increasing tensions between the PRC and “The Soviet Union” in conjunction with “aiding” the economic development of the PRC, and arranging the Petro-dollar, including as a cautionary second sweep in relation to Japan.
From 1992 onwards Austria and Germany were engaged in attempted economic re-integrations of former “spheres of influence” until 1944 primarily on the Danube from initially Germany with an option to extend via the Rhine and Maas to Rotterdam.
Part of the reasons that “NATO” bombed Serbia in 1998/99 were influenced by the growing understanding that their attempted “colour revolution” in the Russian Federation were not developing as expected, and that alernative options should be explored to balance any shortfalls, and hence the Danube was bombed downstream from the Iron Gates to dissuade Austria and Germany from being principals in their developments, but that the developments should be delivered under the “European Union” PHARE programme upon which they could “bid”. The balls aspect of “We won the Cold War not you” was reportedly delivered but not in the public domain. That remains the position.
Austria and Germany sought to partly re-focus their development efforts towards the Russian Federation and increasingly were dissuaded from doing so, including by sabotaging Nord Stream which served various purposes.
“The United States of America” has always been at war with the world including themselves (although seeking to obfuscate this as “healthy competition”), the target/targets being a function of context and sequencing.
“which runs into many Trillions of US Dollars and is becoming totally untenable”.
Some are aware of this and this tends to increase the targets and the velocities of sequencing thereby bringing “”The United States of America” has always been at war with the world including themselves” into greater focus for many.
You probably should define what you mean by “major dumping”.
China basically stopped increasing its Treasury bond holdings around 2012/2013. The peak in China’s holdings was in 2013 @ $1290B, but China held under $1000B as recently as 2010.
As such, the decrease in China’s Treasury bond holdings in the last 12 months is only slightly exceptional: $1065.4B to $909.5B
Its present Treasury holdings are still higher than they were at the start of 2010.
The real story is that the US national debt was $13.5T in 2010 and $16.07T in 2012 vs. $31T today. Consider China’s Treasury holdings of $900B vs. the US national debt in 2010 and $1220B vs. the US national debt in 2012, vs. the $909B China Treasury holdings vs. $31T US national debt today.
Nor is China’s behavior unusual. Japan’s US Treasury holdings were $882B in 2010 and $1111B in 2012 – they too have not been buying significantly more Treasuries for well over a decade.
Overall, I think mostly nobody has been outside of the US: government, investment funds and the Fed.
Links to above data:
https://ticdata.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/tic/Documents/mfhhis01.txt
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TREAST
Note how the Fed’s holdings of US Treasuries exceeded that of the largest foreign holder of US Treasuries around 2012, and has exceeded pretty much all foreign holders put together starting 2020.
I believe you’ll see Elensky replaced by Zaluzhny as a first step. It is Elensky who’s being sidelined. If his Jewishness is memory holed (as it was emphasised earlier as a smokescreen to hide his nazi regime) then you can be sure he’s being readied for the dustbin, because Zaluzhny can’t be seen to be taking over from a Jewish “hero”; that would be “anti Semitism”. After Zaluzhny is installed, what happens remains to be seen, but I think Ukranazi (in reality NATO crewed) missiles will soon be based in Polandistan on the specious plea that they aren’t getting Polandistan involved in the war directly. What I do not believe is that NATO is preparing to cut and run; there’s too much invested for that to happen, at least right away.
Larry, here is an article I really think you should read:
https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/putin-has-misread-the-west-and-if-he-doesnt-wake-up-soon-armageddon-is-upon-us/
Here Paul Craig Roberts makes some claims about the CIA I wish you would address:
Roberts goes on to assert Putin should have been more forceful in dealing with Ukraine.
When you look at the state of America compared to what China and Russia have both achieved in so short a time America large parts of America are are debt ridden dumps. America and its constant wars and interventions under the genious Paul Craig Roberts and the aarrrggghh Regan and the other superior human beings. America was doing it for nothing more lowly than robbing dollars and attempting to rule the world like thegenocidal Brits before them well they fuked up with Iraq Libya Syria Iran and afghanistan the muslim countries are all coming together with the brics++++++++++++++++++++++ and all the other little coyntries waiting in the wings to all sit down together and enjoy that old dish thats best served cold america is on the plate with england and the EU. Tell that to the oh so wise moron who wrote this garbage https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/putin-has-misread-the-west-and-if-he-doesnt-wake-up-soon-armageddon-is-upon-us/. And point him in the direction of Larry and Scott Ritter and Colonel Douglas Macgregor and the Duran to name but a few realists. By the way I do not hate America or Americans just a lot of its presidents and their self serving money grubbing advisors.
Keith,
Great article. Thx. That is exactly what I’ve been saying all along. The lack of a full on, quick, decisive attack and victory is pushing us all closer to what Putin seeks to avoid; WW3. The longer the SMO drags out, the closer we get. All the explanations about Russia doesn’t care about territory or Russia is slow grinding the Ukies and has all the time in the world, etc, etc (the Martyanov rhetoric) is tactical level thinking (at best). The strategic level concerns the end game, a huge part of which is not getting into direct combat with the US/UK/Poland – which is precisely where the conflict is heading on its current trajectory. Putin is allowing his enemies to develop and implement a plan – they are testing him and he appears weak to them.
It doesn’t matter if west’s interpretation is wrong. It doesn’t matter if WW3 is insane. It doesn’t matter if the west has “no appetite” for direct conflict. It doesn’t matter that the west doesn’t have the military resources to prevail short of going nuclear. Perceptions, pride, emotions and escalation spirals/brinkmanship are all that count. Putin is affording those phenomena ample time to metastasize – and they will.
Many nations have started wars they should have known they couldn’t win and that would destroy their society if they lost. If we could have spoken privately with the leadership, many would have conceded that victory would be dubious. People, even Generals, are followers and will perform their duty even against their better judgment if they’re ordered to. Politicians are idiots.
Combat aside, there may be some potentially “strategic” level thinking in Russia’s current “performance” being backed into a corner fighting some “war of attrition” (albeit from a possibly more defensible position)…
And that is, just the plain simply strategy of just “buying time” — Russia buying time to advance its own geopolitical/economics/etc (BRICS?) ambitions as well as better prepare its own turf for larger-scale conflicts up ahead.
I’ve mentioned before — the “split” from the West will take time for Russia to recover / replace. And, the more time Russia gets, the better for any “preparation” on its end (unless, of course, someone claims NATO is trying to cook up some big/dangerous new upcoming tricks on its own end too)….
Is it possible that the casualty rates that UKR admits to is maskirovka? That maybe they are not suffering such huge numbers of KIA/WIA and are instead keeping a lot of troops well back from the front? Ready to move forward in a big push when the time is right?
Yes, they do leave their dead scattered about and there are plenty of videos showing the RAF destroying many of them and the RF MoD counts those that can be seen. And there are many.
But is it possible that UKR is inflating those numbers? And using people like the CO of Mozart to promulgate a 70% loss rate when it is actually much lower to cause the RAF to underestimate UKR’s strength?
And maybe those videos of disgruntled UKR troops are fakes.
The same would go with the numbers of troops and combat-ready troops. Why would you ever give out such a number if it is real? I wouldn’t. I’m not giving my enemy accurate information. I’m either going to understate or overstate my numbers based on what my goal was.
As to vehicles, it’s impossible to hide destroyed machines. Their burned out husks are right there, easy to count. However not all vehicles are totaled. Some make it to repair depots. Which the RF has been targeting, so some are lost even if they make off the front lines.
But, what if, the UAF has been better at recovering and repairing vehicles and have been banking some to go along with these hypothetical hidden troops?
What if the same argument could made about the lack of shells for their artillery? Maybe they have more than they’re letting on.
Counter-arguments:
Now all of these troops and vehicles would have to be somewhere and that means there is a logistical tail that leads to them and the RAF is good enough to notice that sort of thing, and do something about it.
Opsec among conscripts is probably not great so something should have leaked by now if this theory is true.
—–
Now this doesn’t matter as long as Russia sticks with its grinding, small-arrow strategy as there is no way for UKR to concentrate enough troops in one area to break through as long as Russia protects its flanks, maintains its lines and can put fires on any large groupings.
The problem would be if Russia goes “big-arrow” and starts dashing further into UKR and leaving its flanks open and/or assaulting an area that was better defended and more mobile then they thought.
That would be a nasty surprise.
So is the UAF general staff capable of arranging such a thing?
Are they willing to let Russia grind on until Russia thinks that UKR is sufficiently weak enough to be rolled over and so the RAF makes its big push and then gets hammered by an unlooked for army?
“But is it possible that UKR is inflating those numbers? And using people like the CO of Mozart to promulgate a 70% loss rate when it is actually much lower to cause the RAF to underestimate UKR’s strength?”
Yes, this is possible. One thing I believe is clear from the video evidence, out on the open steppe, the vaunted Ukraine trench stystems are nearly emptly, or non-existent. You see time and again, hundreds of example actually, of Russian artillery drone hunting 10 or less men in farmland areas hundreds of square meters across. Sometimes these men are hunkered down in short, makeshift trenches, but more often they’re in a fetal postion in a foxhole, or scampering into a treeline to hide from the incoming.
There is also plenty of video of Russian drones flying over miles and miles of empty trenches, which leads one to the conclusion; the last place you want to be if you are a Ukraine soldier, is in a prepared and extensive trenchline out in the middle of nowhere.
It’s all very surreal, actually. I keep asking as I watch these vids, where is everybody?
On the other hand, video evidence is growing that Russian kamakazi drones are quickly reducing whatever is left Ukraine armor in the south and east. If you dare dare to show yourself anywhere within 20 miles of the contact line, and you are made out of metal, you will be destroyed. In fact, it seems to me these videos provide inescapable proof that armor can no longer survive out in the open, its only place in the 21st century, is in the tight confines of an urban setting.
Friedrich von Paulus is twisting in his grave.
All this said, it clear to me the Russian Army can launch any kind of big arrow offensives they want, because as long they by-pass big towns and cities, there is nothing standing in their way.
They just need to show up.
That’s why I’m convinced this is all coming down to Karkov, Sumy, Chernihiv, and Kiev, and maybe a few smaller cities in-between. In those places, that is where you find the bulk of the Ukraine Army, if you’re looking for it.
And the main reason I believe this war will end in a siege … or three or four. Same as it seemed in beginning, when the Russians surrounded all these places in blitzgrieg fashion, and then decided not to do anything, except wave hello to their enemy from outside their city walls.
This time they will tighten the screws. In fact I predict, the Russians will allow the non-combattants of Kiev 7 days to exit via the one human corridor they will provide, then they will shut the power off, and proceed to starve the Pride of Ukraine into submission.
There’s an organisation of wives and mothers looking for contact, or an explanation why not, with a silent/missing 340,000 troops. There may be some duplication some incapacitated but it’s still an awfully large number.
I have a feeling that post-January 7, 2023, the world will begin changing at a pace that makes all that transpired in 2022 a veritable “work in still life.” The Ukraine is and has been finished as a coherent state entity for almost 10 months, now nothing but a bullhorn amplifying the rantings of ethnic supremacists of both the Nazi and Zionist persuasions (and those two, paradoxically enough, are true bedfellows in the spiritual sense). I’d strongly advise citizens of Poland and the Baltic states to get their political houses in order, and fast, for otherwise their future is Ukrainian. Let this be a message of warning to other European states, too: the Imperial periphery will continue to disintegrate and shrink, inexorably, year by year, until all that is left is the fragile center, and even that will come to dissolve in the sands of time.
I compare Russia and the West is like two guys trapped in a cave, one of them a real monster, and the normal guy trying to make a deal with the monster so it wont try to kill him. But in the end the monster (because monsters do what they must do) break every possible deal and kill the normal guy.
The bottom line is this, if Russia wants to survive she must kill FIRST the monster, well suffocate it by not selling ANY resources, turning it into a 3rd world entity and maybe selling it resources but with one condition: to place russian military bases on the european countries that need russian resources. I assume of course that US bases would have been kicked out previously.
The ukranian drone strike on Engels airfield and Dyagilevo be considered as a Decapitation Strike test, after all the second one is only about 150 km away of Moscow.
Nah, Russia is more like Rorschach in Watchmen: “I’m not locked in here with you; you’re locked in here with ME!”
And we (the West) are turning ourselves into 3rd worlders, because the elitists have calculated that they can do away with 70% of our population and increase their control to boot. Dunno about European armies, but the US military is dropping like flies from the jab mandates. If Russia can keep the nukes from flying (big if), there won’t be a force capable of challenging it in a year or two.
Granteed that Russia should have had better intelligence and Yanukovych better preparation and infiltration of the forces gathering against him. Had Yanukovych just acceded to the EU plan and Russia simply dropped the tariff-free trade, it’d prob. have taken the steam out of the Maidan and moved the crisis to the next election, with time given to regroup. OR…maybe Russia wanted it all to happen, sooner rather than later – and proceed accordingly.
That said, I’ll go back to contemplating my navel now.
I think that when the average Russian reads Angela Merkel’s words how the west never had any intention of honoring the Minsk agreements coupled with being framed for Trump’s 2016 election he knows who his enemy is. An enemy that sought him out. He will fight as his existence is at stake and he fully understands this. He will show up and honor his ancestors who fought in the Great Patriotic War. He will show the same tenacity that his ancestors did. He knows that he is in the right and he is.
I think that if the average anyone were to read Merkel’s words, the reaction would be the same. It’s no mistake that the MSM MUST be controlled, else it’d be lights out in the very first bout.
Russia will have its way. It has tried repeatedly and in vain for years to bring Europe and America to the negotiating table to agree a pan-European (incl Russia) security agreement. All such efforts were turned away or completely ignored. So with her back to the wall, Russia decided to take matters into her own hands. She would make Ukraine a poison chalice from which Europe, America, and NATO would drink and ultimately be forced into such an agreement. The West is using vast resources and seriously self-harming economic sanctions in the Ukraine effort to weaken Russia. Time is on Russia’s side as Europe and America fight growing public discontent over sanction-driven inflation and shortages of energy, food and other vital products. The outlook is not good for us. Hunger and energy deprivation will cripple Europe in 2023. Deindustrialisation will occur unless drastic steps are taken to sit down with Russia on an equal basis and seriously listen to their security concerns. Otherwise, Russia will continue bleeding the West until they are exhausted and broken – make no mistake, exhaustion and breakage are inevitable, as Russia has the real resources and Europe has nothing but childish threats and foolish sanctions.
Good assessment. But negotiating with the west is not an option in my opinion anymore. Russia knows the west will only try to buy time, they will never honor anything they put their signature on, they never do as we know now too. So I think Russia will keep EU and US very weak for a long time while the multi-polar world is being established and the western systems have alternatives which will eventually make the western ones obsolete. BRICS is one such successful example, also MIR and many more.
When sanctions and military interventions won’t work there are only two ways out for the west. Accept their new role and play along or try something very stupid and pay the consequences.
Poised on the cusp of the complete destruction of NATO’s military capabilities and the economic collapse brought about by debt fueled economies need for ever increasing growth and decreasing interest rates, why should Russians sit down and negotiate when a little push will topple the giant.
Europe is cold this winter but without Russian energy next winter will be even worse. How will the diversity find cold weather when you have no heat, no money and no food. Top it off with Ukronazi’s and I hear a party starting.
That doesn’t even address the issue of who would you trust in the west to make and keep an agreement?
I don’t know how many of the readers here have heard it or not, but there is a theory circulating that Zelensky is in fact a Mossad agent tasked with destroying as many Ukrainian Banderistas Nazis as possible. The motive? Payback for their involvement and collaboration with the Nazis during WW 2. It’s a highly plausible theory in my view which would explain why he’s sending so many Ukranian males to a useless death instead of coming to the conclusion that everything is lost and surrender is the only remaining option. The theory goes even further and describes how the Soviets infiltrated the West as far back as the early 50s inserting deep sleeper cells everywhere, Nikitas as they are commonly known. Many of these then rose to positions of power and influence in Western society changing the course of Western thought and consequentially, causing it to decay from within.
Yes, and perhaps Putin is actually a Chinese intel agent working to bankrupt and demilitarize the West so Beijing can then easily seize Taiwan. Puhleez….
Y’allz ain’t payin’ attention. All the “information” that you have is propaganda designed to desceive.
Putin supposedly blockedca takeover by Western financiers in favor of Russian “oligarchs”. Like our “Swamp”, the oligarchs didn’t even let a small portion go to military training, maintenance or up grades. Why do you think “Fearless Leader” has a heavily armed security detail with him at all times? One of them who hasn’t “fallen” out of a window, may be happy to “drop a dime” on “Fearless Leader” during a walk in the park.
There are two unmentioned armies in the game.
1) Mothers, Grandmothers, Wives, Sisters, Daughters who will not be pleased to get Ivan’s picture on an urn with a mass-produced trinket glued to the side.
2) China. China has gone toe to toe with Russia, not too long ago and they have ancient claims on eastern Siberia. If Russia get entangled with Europe, do you think that China will jump in to help the Russians or will it move to get what it can in Siberia? Going against Taiwan/USA/Japan/S.Korea/Australia would be dangerous at best.
During the early stages of the Ukraine invasion, Russia had a lot of fires and explosions. Those ceased suddenly as if someone said “Not now”. Such incidents are still in play.
The attack on airfields with modified TU-141 drones may have been a warning. The range arcs look like the Don, Volga, and the Don-Volga Canal are at risk. The Canal and Rivers have many shallows where a sunken ship/barge would be a big problem. Russia is very dependant on those Rivers and the rail lines that run along side to supply the troops and population in the south. Similarly, the Kersch Strait Bridge which help supply the Crimea is vulnerable. In a similar vein, the Ukrainians seem determined to lower the water level behind the dam at Kerson, which would cut the canal supplying the water for the population, crops, and troops in the Crimea.
Beylorus has a pro-Russian leadership from the old Soviet days. The population is pro-Ukrainian and did a decent job of buggering the Russian rail and road supply traffic during the early stages of the invasion. No one has any idea which way the military will go, if things get really nasty.
Poland had tens of thousands of their people murdered at places like the Katyn Forest. They learned the game from Granny and Gramps. Russia has announced plans for a new border at the Vistula River. I’d guess that Poland is “All in”.
The Fins are buying lots of rifles. They are good at winter warfare. Their pre-WW2 military used the Swastica on their gear. Them pine forests go on forever, and they are full of grinning snipers who probably hope that the Ukraine and NATO leave some for them.
Russia/Putin previously accepted the borders of the Ukraine when the Soviet nuclear weapons were surrendered so, whatever Putin/Russia might negotiate now, everyone knows that they are lying.
With the Fins and Pols and even a reluctant NATO on one side, and the Chinese PLA on the other, Putin ought to be worried. The Western Wunderwaffen work and theres a lot of Chinese who like winter work.
There are lots of unplayed cards in this game. The Ukrainians have been creative and determined. This looks like a real grudge match. I am glad that my old bones are not in the middle of this war.
You write like a troll, sound like a troll, so seem like a troll so very likely are a Troll. Please keep up these thoughts as they are very humorous.
Your ignorance on these matters is profound. China? What you’ve written is nonsensical. Are you getting paid to pretend you are uninformed?
Mike-SMO could be Zelensky himself. Then again, the style is also similar to Kamala Harris. Washington DC IP address?
I read as far as “desceive” and stopped. Misspellings are often an early warning signs of the work of a brain macerated in bullshit.
“I finally had a chance to read the entire piece published last week in the Economist”
Old habits die hard.
Including but not restricted to:
Mike-SMO says
21 December 2022 at 05:01
I don’t really understand most of people commenting on this war – even those that have military experience can’t see the obvious things in front of them, and I myself am full armchair general…
Namely, I don’t think that RU will change anything in their combat approach, and I think that they will continue the grind because that approach allows them to make maximum damage with minimal own human casualties (the most important for RU at least), and faster maneuver warfare would only increase their casualties, and help them capture more UKR soldiers that they don’t really need, when they can actually grind them.
Granted, grind will now be faster since they will have more troops and weapons at their disposal (thus stronger pressure), and due to force count increase, they won’t be afraid anymore that some suicidal UKR troops would be able to probe or encircle them from the sides, or brake their line in some non defended area as now they have enough combat troops to properly defend their flanks while grind continues. For that reason also, they are building defenses all over the place to simply make UKR suicide excursions like that even more costly/deadly.
In any case, the main reason why I think that they will not make some bold maneuver moves is exactly because when you move fast, your flanks and supply chain are getting strained/exposed and you also risk that you pass by some well hidden troops thus entering ambush. Exposing flanks (even solidly protected flanks) would also ensure that UKR attempts to make strong counter-attacks on these places, since if they are now willing to lose 10 to 1, just imagine what they would do for a chance to fight you with 2 to 1 ratio.
So, when you are fighting against suicidal opponent that is running out of equipment and munition, the worst thing you can do is give them opportunity to get into close combat with you, since in close combat, your artillery/air support is less valuable, and even if they would still lose 2:1 ratio, those odds are something they prefer since they are suicidal anyway.
Also, minefields, and plenty of time they had to place them are making any rash movements extremely dangerous.
In the end, I think that we will see massive troop movements only once RU are sure enough that UKR will to fight is broken (or their armed forces are ground down to dust), and even tho that moment might be soon, its still not here, so until then,my opinion is that we will only see more forceful grind, and noting more fancy than that.
Back in March and April I kept putting forward the ridiculous idea that the reason the Russians hadn’t knocked out the bridges over the Dnieper, and so on, is they wanted the Ukraine Army to march into those multiple cauldrons that were being formed in the Donbas, so they could more easily annihilate it.
I was eviscerated in Russian leaning comment sections everywhere, as a dunderhead. Back then, there was general agreement, that the reason Kiev and other northern cities were being surrounded, was to make it IMPOSSIBLE for the Ukraine Army to transfer forces to the Donbas.
As for the Dnieper bridges, and other vital infrastructure that allows for the rapid movement of armies that the Russian’s were leaving untouched, there was near unanimous agreement that this was only because the Russians did not want to cause unnecessary damage to a brother nation, and had nothing to do with facilitating the easy movements of the Ukraine Army, so they could wonder aimlessly into cauldrons and kill boxes and other similar type set-ups.
I mean, what Army would ever be so foolish, Max424, to do such a thing? Are you an idiot?
But as time passed, and the stasis in the Ukraine grew, this ridiculous idea of mine caught on. Now the general consensus is, in Russian leaning blogosphere, that since the April withdrawl, this has been precisely the Russian strategy all along.
Fight on the defensive until the entire Western world demilitarizes itself by charging straight into the Russian guns.
It’s been quite a trip. I never for one moment believed what I was saying, I just kept putting the idea out there to see how long it would take before certain people would grasp on to it, and grasp on to it they did, because what else was there?
The Russian Army had disappeared, and all they left behind, was three or four smallish sized proxie armies, some artillery pieces, and a contact line.
“May the soldiers in the trenches forgive me,” says General Zaluzhny. “It’s more important to focus on the accumulation of resources right now for the more protracted and heavier battles that may begin next year.”
The General Staff of the Ukraine Army is not filled with fools, after all, they trained at the same academies as their Russian counterparts. This is not to say the Ukraine Army has fought wisely or well, in fact I’m on record, their performance thus far ranks among the most pathetic in the history of organized warfare.
The Ukraine Generals have allowed Western politicians to fight their battles for them, and at minimun, it seems to have cost them at least half the strength of their original army, and what makes this calculus even more troubling for them, they have yet to really tangle with the Russian Army.
The Ukraine Army, whatever is left of it – and my bet is, quite a sizeable bit remains, of the best parts of it – is hunkered down in the cities of the north.
Now the Russians can either root these forces out block by block and street by street, or they can surround these cities and siege them and starve them into submission. The getting their is the easy part, the hard part will be convincing this foe to give up, because I for one believe they are, in fact, Nazi’s to their core, and I’ve been predicting since Day 1 of this war, that when the inevitable conclusion nears, we will see Death Rides at all levels, including a Death Ride of the Ukraine state itself, in the same fashion as the Death Ride of the 3rd Reich, in March and April of 1945.
Yep. It seems that common sense is not that common, as usual. Surovikin says (and does) grinding and minimizing casualties, while the whole Internet talks about big arrow offensives. I blame Hollywood and mainstream media, as usual.
Zelensky will be in the USA to address Congress.
He may stay there, while a coup takes place in his absence.
Zelensky stays alive, and in the US safe from assassination.
Regime change in the Ukraine is the West’s off ramp.
A possible scenario; vulnerable leaders are often deposed as soon as they leave their Country.
I think this is one scenario. There are others that spring to mind:-
1. the one you mentioned
2. Zelensky takes off and is shot down by the Russians. A new martyr like Banderas, Russia gets the blame and the west has a reason to step in heavily.
3. Zelensky just stays in the USA and the generals push for peace talks. This depands on who goes with Mr.Z. If a lot of top notch folk like advisers and hangers on go then its the rats leaving the ship.
4. The UKies shoot him down and blame Russia. Effect as in No.2
If he is just going to receive new orders and gets to check his bank accounts, nothing will change and things will only drag on.
The BS about low quality troops and weapons of the Russians just makes on wonder if anyone really believes such nonsense. OK, admittedly looking at the quality of the German PUMAs which are just expensive mobile scrap, the term quality gets another meaning and would imply Russia is up to Western standards.
Just remember the German combat rifle from Heckler and Koch.
I commented the exact same below, before reading. This scenario is almost too obvious, but how else can they save his hide and their faces at the same time?
The Western leaders have all stressed that any decision about continuing or ending the war is strictly up to Ukraine. Now, the new government of Ukraine sues for peace, the collective west can can that it did everything possible, and then begin the climb-down from its disastrous sanctions strategy.
Why is Zelensky heading to Congress? How does it connect to the Economist article? Putin was just in Belarus. Medvedev just saw Xi. A Russian offensive is looming. Is Zelensky coming to force the Republicans to vote for escalation? Was the article a first step in the process? I don’t think that it was a plea for an exit but for an escalation. It’s the military guys saying: look, we need urgent help! Zelensky’s visit will trap the Republicans. Biden is saying to the GOP: support Ukraine or take the blame if Ukraine falls. And: we need a domestic consensus in the event of unforseen consequences of escalation. So, domestic and international imperatives are pointing to US/UK escalation??
This war seems more like one of fiat economic system vs. commodity economic system. US/NATO are on their fiat system and Russia on commodity system. When the rubber meets the road, the commodity system is real and sustainable while a fiat system collapses because it is not real in terms of material. It cannot produce real material and does not have the means. It will fail.
“Zelensky’s visit will trap the Republicans.”
Repugs are trapped, odious mc connell says:
”Providing assistance for the Ukrainians to defeat the Russians, that’s the #1 priority for the United States right now, according to most Republicans. That’s sort of how we see the challenges confronting the country at the moment.”…
As one commentator asks, tell me again how the Republican Party is salvageable.
The Republican party is salvageable because there are significant numbers of Congress who actively oppose various parts of the war agenda.
Just because McConnell exists as a holdout from the neocon/dinosaur wing of the Republican party does not mean every Republican officeholder nor Republican/Independent voters feel the same way.
In fact, Robert Barnes noted that 10 Senators voted against McConnell retaining his leadership of the Republicans in the Senate, which Barnes said is unprecedented for an incumbent.
Barnes also noted that McCarthy’s confirmation is not going well. He talked about a (to me) very edge case scenario where Trump stands in as House majority leader for a short duration (the House majority leader doesn’t actually have to be an elected member of the House of Representatives) until the Republican party sorts it out.
The sad reality is that all of the anti-war movement in actual office holders are Republican: Rand Paul, JD Vance most prominent among them.
Where are the Democrats/Liberals in office who are doing so?
The Republican Party will survive only because the candidates put up by the Democrats are so repugnant: homosexuals, nonbinary freaks, overt pedophiles, virulent anti-White racists, virulent anti-Christians, communists, Israeli agents…
If those monsters did not exist in the Democrat Party establishment, the Republicans would disappear.
You have a view – I disagree.
Peter Theil noted that the Conservatives are like the Star Wars Rebel Alliance: a rag tag, highly disparate group with some shared views but without any form of high cohesion – in contrast to the authoritarian lockstep of the Democrats.
Note I am not saying that the populist types in the Republican party will take over; that is the question being fought in the back rooms right now.
On the one hand, the traditional big-money types behind the traditional Republican party are still there – but on the other hand, Trump has shown that populism can generate electoral success.
The question is not when do ordinary people start to acknowledge the bleeding obvious.
But when can political leaders start to reverse on their promises that Russia is defeated and actually do some proper leadership – out of Ukraine.
That seems to be taking a long time.
Sunak and the Republicans could both claim no responsibility and offer leadership out – but it isn’t happening.
My guess is that MI6, like the Pentagon, is desperate for some Political leader willing to do his job right now.
So Boris Johnson scuttles a peace deal and the Brits help blow up Nordstream, plan unmanned boat attacks in the Black Sea and plan the Crimea Bridge attack, but now it’s time to tuck tail and run away leaving behind a human disaster. Sort of sounds like the same thing they did in WW2, but on a smaller scale.
But the kleptocrats of the Uniparty are voting to shovel $45 billion more funny money for Ukraine into the MIC furnace with their Omnibus scam. Will this will be the last handout to Zelensky’s mob? Americans should be storming the capital with pitchforks.
… sit down at the negotiating table with Russia on an equal basis and seriously listen to their security problems…
Everything is said correctly, except for this phrase. It will no longer be possible to sit down at the negotiating table with Russia on an equal basis, Evopa missed the chance because of Pride.
Putin:
On December 17, Putin spends the day at the joint headquarters.
On December 18, Shoigu inspected the troops in the SVO zone.
On December 19, Putin visits Belarus.
On December 20, Putin meets with Pushilin and the Beekeeper, and pushes Pushilin out loud, on camera, to talk about the shelling of civilians in the DPR.
On December 21, an expanded board of the Ministry of Defense is held with a speech by Putin and Shoigu, where the phrase is pronounced:
“It became clear that we would not be given a chance to restore normal relations with this part of our former common country” (with Ukraine).
Who won’t allow it is obvious. If normal relations with Ukraine are impossible, then with its curators in Europe and masters in Washington and Britain are even more impossible. And why should Russia do this after everything that has happened over the past year?
Russia does not benefit from the ruin, impoverishment, humiliation of Europe. Russia does not benefit from the destruction of Ukraine.
No one wants to have a drug-addicted neighbor who has fallen by the side. It’s nice to deal with equals.
But what can we do if in Western civilization, living in a world based on rules, the rule dominates: our well-being can only be built on the ill-being of others, despised by us.
Otherwise, it is impossible to understand the obsession of the USA and the Europeans with the idea of dismembering, humiliating and robbing the Russian Federation. And then China, India, etc.
Russians, in contrast, have a proverb: “You can’t build happiness on someone else’s misfortune.”
England blinked.
I would not be surprised if Zelensky is coming to the US to address Congress and then stay here permanently, leaving his generals and underlings holding the bag.
Maybe he just wants to work from home like everyone else these days. He already has a house or two in USA, and all the green screens that he need.
So, Zelensky has to get in one more fund-raising grift in front of the US Congress before the plug is firmly pulled.
This shopping list, and interviews, are solely for the kind of people in Western society that still watch their national broadcasters, read their national MSM and generally like to hide their heads deep up their rear end. The British MSM are well aware that HM Forces do not possess 300 tanks of their own, while France built 400 for the defence of themselves and their colonies. The MSM fail to point out the absurdity of a non allied nation who had the largest armed forces in Europe bar Russia, demanding a thousand armoured vehicles from other European forces who do not have them.
Reminds me of Hitler in his bunker ordering non existent armies to defend Berlin as the Soviets were attacking his bunker. Same people today, the same ‘to the last citizen’ approach to defeat.
After considerable debate with my like minded pronouns, we have concluded that the CIA brainwashed the Banderites of Ukraine, both bodies of the US Congress, the FBI, the White House, the Pentagon, and the mainstream media with the determination that Americans need a world war with Russia to boost homosexuality and gay pride in the world or because they still think Putin got Trump elected.
https://gab.com/BeSmartnMatter/posts/109551701211205986
Meanwhile, decisions of today collegium of the Russian Defense Ministry.
translated from https://t.me/boris_rozhin/73288
About new units and formations that will be formed in 2023.
– Create two interspecific strategic territorial associations of the Armed Forces – the Moscow and Leningrad military districts.
– To form three motorized rifle divisions, including as part of combined arms formations in the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, as well as an army corps in Karelia.
– Reorganize into motorized rifle divisions seven motorized rifle brigades in the Western, Central, Eastern military districts and in the Northern Fleet.
– In the Airborne Forces, it is necessary to additionally form two airborne assault divisions.
– In the coastal troops of the Navy, on the basis of the existing marine brigades, form five divisions of the marine corps.
– For each combined-arms (tank) army, maintain a mixed aviation battalion and an army aviation brigade, numbering 80-100 combat helicopters.
– In addition, to additionally form three directorates of aviation divisions, eight bomber aviation regiments, one fighter aviation regiment, and six army aviation brigades.
– To create an artillery reserve in strategic directions, form five artillery divisions of military districts, as well as high-capacity artillery brigades.
– Next year, three repair plants will be formed and repair units at the military level will be strengthened.
– To increase the number of military personnel under the contract, taking into account the replacement of mobilized citizens in the groupings of troops and the recruitment of new formations, by the end of the year, to 521,000 people.
That’s SEVENTEEN divisions that will be formed from existing brigades or from scratch, plus FIVE artillery divisions (each ca 150-200 guns) and multiple heavy artillery brigades (each forty-four 203mm 2S7 and 240mm 2S4).
“VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY AND HIS GENERALS EXPLAIN WHY THE WAR HANGS IN THE BALANCE”
Emulating their “friends” talking about things of which they have little knowledge.
Could anybody explain why russians have not shelled Kiev’s airport and tower, yet?
Just saw on the Communist News Network (CNN) that Zelensky is coming to America to beg for more money. To pour into the Black Hole that is Ukraine; to continue to finance the SLAUGHTER of his own people and lands; to perpetuate the Big Lie that this was an unprovoked attack by Russia…
… to appear before a Congress of Fools, who will no doubt hand him everything he wants, so as to continue the slaughter. But, having done so, they will all be able to say that they have offered up their sacrifice — to the false idol and god of democracy; the god responsible for murdering millions of babies; the god that mutilates children; the god that allows homosexuals to become “married”; the totalitarian Marxist Socialist Statist god named Satan…
… Most of America’s leaders are democracy-worshipping FOOLS. Let us hope that there are few voices among Republican ranks who will counter Zelensky’s lie’s and propaganda, and insist he humbly sue for PEACE. Amen.
Michael McFAIL
https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1605628044411998210
https://twitter.com/just_security/status/1605564016029421568
[[. . . .The combination of Russian military setbacks, its reduced economic power, and war crimes charges against top leadership will undermine the credibility of Russia’s posturing as a leader of a “multipolar world” able to deliver a more appealing economic and political alternative to western-centered globalization. Countries in the Global South that have tried to ignore the war so far may end up joining Ukraine’s efforts to bring Russia’s rogue regime to justice.
The key to ending this war is Russia’s realization that it cannot win it, not Ukraine’s willingness to negotiate. A negotiated settlement will come only with assertive diplomatic efforts focused on impressing hard facts on Russia.]]
https://www.justsecurity.org/84539/time-is-on-ukraines-side-not-russias/
-30-
“Russia’s posturing as a leader of a “multipolar world””
That is an oxymoron and hence a misrepresentation facilitated by projection.
“assertive diplomatic efforts focused on impressing hard facts on Russia.]]”
Is also an oxymoron and hence a misrepresentation facilitated by projection in illustration of “The American Way”.
Thank you for your service, but perhaps decreasing the dosage of Viagra may prove more beneficial and timely?
“with assertive diplomatic efforts focused on impressing hard facts on Russia.]”
Since
In their minds there’s something lacking
What they need is a damn good whacking ?
Zelensky is in fact in the US today asking for both money and weapons:
Money and Patriot Missiles:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/biden-announce-patriot-missiles-ukraine-zelensky-arrives-dc
I’m sure the US congress ass clowns and crash test dummy Biden will blissfully approve whatever is asked for…
The US spent over $2 trillion dollars in Afghanistan…any bets on how much they are willing to spend in the UKR…more than what’s being asked for I guarantee you that.
Whether or not “the outcome of the war hinges on the next few months” is really up to Russia…a major Russian offensive could be in the works but US-NATO-UKR is anticipating that to happen so now I am not sure Russia will play into that hand.
The near term decision point for US-NATO is to concede or escalate…with Russia, expect the unexpected in terms of operations, offensives and overall theater strategy.
I see the UKR-SMO ending when Russia wants it to end and under its terms…if I am wrong I will certainly be the first to admit it…one thing’s for sure, it sucks to be a Ukrainian right now and it ain’t going to get any better no matter how much money or how many Patriot missiles the UKR military is given.
and now this, too )
Our tanks are kaputt, German general warns
During a recent exercise, all 18 participating Puma infantry fighting vehicles broke down.
Defence Minister Lambrecht Visits Bundeswehr Tank Brigade As Germany Considers Deploying More Troops To Lithuania
German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht had to call an emergency meeting with her generals to discuss the broken tanks | Sean Gallup/Getty Images
BY MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG AND GABRIEL RINALDI
DECEMBER 19, 2022 3:12 PM CET
BERLIN — Maybe it’s a good thing Germany refused to send Ukraine tanks after all.
German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht called an emergency meeting with her generals on Monday to discuss the latest crisis to befall Germany’s beleaguered military: broken tanks.
The emergency meeting follows the leak of an email from a senior commander to the head of the Bundeswehr armed forces, in which he laments the sorry state of his division’s infantry fighting vehicles.
“Even with the best preparations, the question of the vehicles’ readiness has become a game of lottery,” Major General Ruprecht von Butler wrote his boss, according to a copy of the email quoted by Der Spiegel over the weekend.
During an exercise this month to prepare a Bundeswehr tank brigade for inclusion in NATO’s “high readiness” response force, all 18 of the modern German infantry fighting vehicles failed, von Butler wrote.
The tanks, known as Pumas, suffered a myriad of malfunctions from electronic failures to “turret defects.” Soldiers had to abandon one of the tanks after its wiring caught fire.
Pumas are designed to move troops around the battlefield and are equipped with a variety of weapons systems, including a 30mm cannon capable (at least in theory) of firing hundreds of rounds per minute.
As a result of the problems, the Bundeswehr has no choice but to rely on the Puma’s precursor, the 1970s-era Marder — one of the tank models Ukraine has been eager to purchase from Germany, but that Berlin has refused to sell.
Germany’s main battle tank, known as the Leopard II, also took part in the recent exercises and performed much better, the general reported. (German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has also blocked the transfer of Leopards to Ukraine, arguing that the U.S. has also held off sending battle tanks.)
Lambrecht commented on Monday afternoon — outlining the outcomes of the crisis meeting.
“Until the vehicle proves to be stable, there will be no second batch. The criticism from parliament is completely justified,” she said, putting the planned re-procurement of the combat vehicle on hold.
The Bundeswehr will participate in NATO’s “high readiness” response force using the 1970s-era Marder, a Defense Ministry spokesman confirmed.
“We just released money last week in committee to purchase more Pumas. The minister was right to suspend this today. As long as the errors have not been clarified, no further purchases will be made,” Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, chair of the Bundestag’s defense committee, told POLITICO. The manufacturer has been called upon to find the errors and fix them as quickly as possible, the FDP lawmaker added.
Johann Wadephul, vice chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, lamented the state of the Bundeswehr. “The problems at the Puma were also known for some time. However, both the industry and the army have said over a year ago that the basic issues are all fixed,” he told POLITICO.
The Bundeswehr’s equipment problems aren’t new. Indeed, the German army’s shoddy gear has made it the laughingstock of NATO. Nonetheless, the military’s battle with its most modern tanks underscores the systemic nature of the problems.
Germany’s main battle tank the Leopard II performed much better in recent military exercises | Leon Neal/Getty Images
It’s been almost a year since Scholz declared a Zeitenwende, a turning point in Germany’s strategic perspective triggered by Russia’s brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine. As part of the German shift, the government created a €100 billion “special fund” to upgrade the Bundeswehr’s equipment.
Last week, the defense ministry signed the first contracts, including an order for U.S. F-35 fighters. The delivery of that equipment is years away.
Leopards did very badly in Afghanistan, as did Abrams. Raggedy mujihadeen turned them into scrap regularly.
In the videos of combatants on Telegram, the Russians look well equipped, well fed and act as if they know what they’re doing. Whereas the Ukrainians generally look shabby, hungry and sort of confused, often videoing themselves sitting in a trench getting shelled.
Then there’s the shots of lines of Russian tanks parked by the side of the road, trains with countless armoured vehicles chugging to somewhere, artillery of all sorts and helicopters blasting away, missiles and drones flying around blowing shit up.
So where this trope of “ill equipped Russians” comes from I’m not sure.
Foreign mercenaries who have given up and gone home tell stories of no weapons, ammo or food, endless shelling and never having seen a Russian soldier.
At an absolute minimum 100,000 Ukrainian KIA, probably another 2-300,000 wounded or MIA. Why wouldn’t the Russians just carry on grinding away while the West and Ukraine self-immolate?
Slow and steady works against escalation to overt NATO involvement or nuclear exchange.
Meanwhile Zelebobble rants about retaking Crimea in 2023. I mean c’mon . . .
“So where this trope of “ill equipped Russians” comes from I’m not sure.”
It came from the team that brought us:
– Ghost of Kiev
– Zaporozhie Avenger
– Snake Island defenders
– Russians are running out of missiles
– Russians are running out of tanks
– Russians are running out of Russians
– Russians can’t fight in winter
– Putin has cancer
– Putin fell down the stairs and soiled himself
– Russian soldiers given Viagra to rape more/better
– Russian blew up their own pipeline
– Russian are shelling their own nuke
– Russians are shelling their own civilians in Donetsk and planting HIMARS fragments collected from somehwere else to make it look like Ukros did it
– and many more
Although I’m sure many Christians will disagree, I believe that Jesus has given the neocons over to their worst proclivities and is using the Russian military to judge anyone who is stupid enough either to bear arms for the neocons or to support financially/militarily the neocon agenda at the Ukraine.
I believe many a Christian or Pagan would agree that Jesus, Osiris, Serapis, Isis, Mary/Meriam and other saviours gods/goddesses (and their Holy Mothers) have been very patient but now are simply fed up with neocons … Happy Christmas/Winter solstice!
Larry, have you seen this article
https://cepa.org/article/its-costing-peanuts-for-the-us-to-defeat-russia/?
It claims “The cost-benefit analysis of US support for Ukraine is incontrovertible. It’s producing wins at almost every level.”
Representative of Beltway logic and morality.
Thanks Stephen. I had not seen this. The cocaine crowd in Canada working overtime.
Hey Larry, ya see Scotland Yard found cocaine residue at party venues at 10 Downing Street and the Queen’s palace when Liz Truss was PM? There you have it.
“Here we are at the point: the current plunge of the consciousness out of the “state of equilibrium”. the decisive one happened proceeding from the storm of the mansion of the ousted president and the determination of a new president: the coup d’etat, in German : die ‘Machergreifung’, of the fascist ‘Bewegung’ in the spirit of the Ukrainian national-‘socialism’ of West-Ukraine.
First law of the new power: ban on the russian language in offficial communication.
Language is soul. The blatant low rating of the soul in the current west comes across in that nowhere an anti-fascistic outcry was to be heared, against this officially spreading totality of hate against the russian part of the populace in the Ukraine, enforced by butal fascist commandos, finanzed by the Olygarchs and Washington.”
…
and this entire traveling society of
archetypal gods
currently in and around
our collective soul
in the conservative state of
Capricorn
is quasi hoiked
into the revolutionary human spirit
of Aquarius
who ownes the future:
hence
the conservative revolution
back to the inception of a
new holy beginning
in our time
51. second last week of the years: the powers are assembled:
https://astromundanediary.blogspot.com/2022/12/jupiter-again-rules-zeitgeist-by-mars.html
THe interview showed how bad the state of NATO military in term of warstock and readiness. Decades of ‘peace’ and ‘bushwar’ against insurgents with no high tech weapons rotted the militaries of NATO with no exception even the great US of A. We saw how the US military become cash cow for the defense industries making bloated and ineffective weapon systems not for warfare but to feed the MIC.
and US want to make war with China ? the industry powerhouse ? backed by energy titan like russia ? the only weapon US can use now is their financial empire and everytime US use their financial weapon the demise of US is acceledated..
it is a good thing that US dollar going into the drain and american empire gone.. it will be great for american people
i do not understand with the writing on the wall ; why ukraine does not give up or at least begin negotiations
these are some headlines.
i hope russia wins quickly so more of this does not occur anymore
https://brutalproof.net/2022/07/child-organ-trafficking-the-ukrainian-red-cross/
do not know if sabotage or an accident
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/explosion-rips-gas-pipeline-russia-95601065
ship of fools below cheering on the drag queen of kiev
https://republicbroadcasting.org/news/mcconnell-republicans-1-priority-is-ukraine-defeating-russia-in-1-7-trillion-spending-bill/
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/biden-announce-patriot-missiles-ukraine-zelensky-arrives-dc
this is the contrast between russia and the usa. shows why the usa and the woke west is toast in my opinion
https://www.foxnews.com/world/russian-president-valdimir-putin-signs-law-expanding-restriction-lgbt-propaganda
https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/trump-hosts-gala-for-homosexual-republicans-after-biden-signs-same-sex-marriage-law/
this was a roundtable on the military situation- all about military- lots of good discussion with allot of different opinions. the part i also found interesting was a prophesy about russia, beleruss and the ukraine from a romanium lady near the end of the program. 3 different links below
The Roundtable #38: Why Bakhmut Matters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNhUoLwgP08
https://odysee.com/@GonzaloLira:1/TheRoundtable38-Why-Bakhmut-Matters:0
https://rumble.com/v21oyn8-the-roundtable-38-why-bakhmut-matters.html
download link – right click and save
https://sp.rmbl.ws/s8/2/K/5/k/y/K5kyh.oaa.mp4
regards,
ralph