“Russia has likely lost one-third of its ground combat forces in Ukraine and the forces who remain are depleted and have been unable to make any territorial progress in recent weeks, British intelligence officials said early Sunday.
Russia “has now likely suffered losses of one-third of the ground combat force it committed in February,” the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense said in an update.
“Russia’s Donbas offensive has lost momentum and fallen significantly behind schedule,” the report continued. “Despite small-scale initial advances, Russia has failed to achieve substantial territorial gains over the past month whilst sustaining consistently high levels of attrition.”
The UK government also said these losses will “almost certainly” be worsened as tactical and support equipment continues to run out.
“These delays will almost certainly be exacerbated by the loss of critical enablers such as bridging equipment and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance drones,” the UK government said. “Russian bridging equipment has been in short supply throughout the conflict, slowing and restricting offensive maneuvers.”
The report added: “Russian forces are increasingly constrained by … low morale and reduced combat effectiveness.”
The UK Defense Ministry predicted Russian forces would not return to the initial successes they saw unless these conditions substantially change.
“Under the current conditions, Russia is unlikely to dramatically accelerate its rate of advance over the next 30 days.”
Comment: OK. ISW are just neocon freaks? How about UK MOD? pl
P.S. How could possibly the reports from any belligerent side not be GROSSLY EXAGGERATED?
Even Scott Ritter has started to say that Russia is in trouble.
Do you have a specific link or video to that effect?
I looked for videos, found 6 in the last 2 days and he does not appear to have changed his tune.
jld,
Sure – I was thinking of this video:
https://rokfin.com/stream/18315/SATURDAY-MORNING-LIVE-WITH-SCOTT-RITTER–RAY-MCGOVERN
See for example the 5:45 mark.
James – late comment, if the Colonel doesn’t mind, after looking at the link you provide. Earlier I missed the Ritter interview you were referring to.
Two threats to Russia are examined. 1, the basing of missiles close to the Russian border. 2, the provision of weapons and training to Kiev, thus turning this into a “long war” with the purpose of “bleeding” Russia.
Neither of these threats is new. The first figured largely in the Russian security demands made last year and far from being removed has been intensified. The second threat, for all I know, may also be on the cards. There’s been enough talk about “bleeding” Russia, or about turning Ukraine into Russia’s Afghanistan, for it to be likely that it’ll be tried.
Both threats have been around, or have been implicit, since well before February. One can only say now, as then, that there’s been nothing as dumb – ever – as these threats. Are the people in Washington and Brussels living entirely in dreamland?
Neither of these threats can be carried out without the willing co-operation of the Europeans. Europe is the indispensable battleground. Without the use of EU territory missiles cannot be based close to the Russian border. Without the use of EU territory as a staging post arms cannot be got into the Ukraine.
Judging by the statements coming out of the EU and some of its constituent countries the willingness is there to be so used.
I’d say eagerness rather than just willingness. We’d do well not to underestimate the gut hatred of Russia to be found in so many EU countries and in Brussels itself. In many parts of the EU this Ukrainian conflict has opened up a Pandora’s box of tribal European hatred of Russia and that box isn’t now going to be closed.
But Europe is not only an eager ally. It is, as said, an indispensable ally. These threats cannot be implemented without Europe.
If Russia finds itself sorely pressed by these threats it won’t need to make any of the dramatic responses one sees excitedly discussed in the media or on the internet. It won’t need to invade Finland or bomb Poland. If the conflict becomes truly “existential”, in the way so many seem to expect, all Russia will need to do is just turn off the gas.
So dumb of Brussels and Washington to have ignored the possibility of that response. It would cut both off at the knees and barring nuclear there’d be no answer to it.
James – no disrespect to Mr Ritter, but life is simply too short – or at least my evenings are – to follow video analyisis to any great extent. So I’ve rather lost touch with what he’s been saying of late. Google found me this, which I’ve set a minute or so in to get a clip summarising (I hope!) his current take.
https://youtu.be/OTt4lzOJSv8?t=170
While hunting for that I also found President Biden in his younger days. Bit off the subject but I found it instructive. This one’s mercifully brief:-
https://youtu.be/CZMsrQ1prUE
You see a difference between neocon freaks and UK MoD?
Pundita
What is the basis for your judgment about the Brits. I worked along side them for many years. What is your basis for judgment?
The UK appears to be far more in thrall to the neocons, Zionist gangsters, and assorted other Israel-firster type of influences.
Both Labor and Tories are totally in thrall to Zionists. Witness the defenestration of Corbyn and the completely fraudulent “anti-Semitism crisis” in the Labour party. Corbyn and his allies were unceremoniously dumped and the Zionist cuck Keir Starmer was installed. All done with Mossad assets playing a major role. Tories are even worse.
Are these facts not evidence enough of the sleazy neocon and Zionist freakshow in the UK?
Those with their panties in a wad over Western coverage of the war are facing an existential dilemma. They are being told their god is dead. They’ve been groomed to believe Russia can do and take whatever she wants, whenever she wants and there’s nothing the West can do about it. Well, that’s not reality. The Russian military is not all powerful and irresistible. The rot within the Russian military has become apparent. Of course the true believers are lashing out. God bless them.
Colonel Lang and TTG,
might I ask a serious question of each of you?
If, at some point in time between, say, 1960 and 1988,
one of, or both, Mexico and Canada
had made moves to join the Warsaw Pact,
do you think the U.S. would have stood idly by and said “Sure, that is their right”?
I certainly don’t think so.
I think the U.S. would have taken the most extreme measures to prevent that from happening.
The U.S. would have regarded the Warsaw Pact becoming immediately adjacent to CONUS as a clear threat to U.S. national security,
one which must be prevented by any means necessary.
Your thoughts, sirs?
Keith Harbaugh,
We would have fought Soviet expansion into Mexico or Canada just as we fought Soviet attempted expansion into Greece and Italy. It would be a continuation of containment policy articulated by George Kennan in his “Long Telegram.”
IMO, the post-WWII policies between Washington and Moscow have not changed fundamentally. The Russian Federation is not a fundamentally different country from the USSR. Communism was just an interlude. All our talk of resets was either wishful thinking or just bullshit.
Russian Federation is not the USSR. It’s a Great Power with limited capabilities like the UK and France.
Communism was a political idea that could mobilize people all over the world. Large sections of our own population in the West was into communism and the USSR had as a goal to transform the world into a socialist paradise.
I very much doubt Russian nationalism is going to cause Greeks, Germans or Frenchmen etc. to rally around the Russian government.
America facilitated the looting of state assets after the collapse of the USSR and treated the Russians ever since with an arrogant disdain that is as breathtaking as it is inexplicable. This disdain and our ongoing provocations are the well spring of the current war not some fanciful “communism lives on” in Russia for which there is no evidence. Or did I miss the latest five year plan and the meeting of the Politburo?
And this is against a backdrop of stupefying US arrogance in presuming to dictate to other nations what govern will be acceptable to us when our own nation is a lunatic, authoritarian joke. Libya is now a failed state and we have succeeded in turning Syria into wasteland with a death toll over 500,000 and millions displaced. The moron in charge had “nation building” as his goals in Iraq and Afghanistan with, what, over a million deaths?In addition, we facilitated the killing in Yemen and our viciousness in Serbia was a disgrace.
The Russians have minded their own business while we have hunted the will-o’-the-wisp of “terror.” Who the heck do we think we are?
@ Keith Harbaugh
Why didn’t Mexico or Canada want to join Warsaw Pact?
Why did Ukraine want to join NATO?
Sure, we can theorize about how USA would have maybe made military moves similar to Russia now. The fact remains USA has stuff people are willing to buy in to, Russia has not.
One key difference seems to be that USA’s neighbors aren’t actively afraid of american invasion, unlike Russia’s neighbors are afraid of russian invasion. Why is this, care to elaborate?
Actually don’t even answer, as Russia’s excuse for attacking was Russia itself was afraid of Ukrainian aggression. Meanwhile Russia’s poor military performance shows why Russia is so afraid of their neighbors.
No one said “The Russian military is not all powerful and irresistible.”
That does not explain the position of the people who reject your views on the war at all.
Unfortunately, when we respectfully refute your claims by repudiating the analysis of neocon think tanks, you refuse to post what we have said. That type of action does not show confidence in your own views.
Let’s be honest, the media unanimously supports the Biden administrations position on the war. None of the major media veer even a centimeter from the official storyline.
Even so, some people strongly disagree with that narrative and intend to express our opinions regardless of the criticism
The war in Ukraine has nothing to do with “Russia doing what it wants.” In his 20 years in power Putin has shown zero interest in “imperial expansion.” Russia invaded Ukraine in defense of its own national security, that is, the right of the Russian people to feel safe in their homes, their communities and their country without a hostile military alliance pointing their godda** missiles at them.
Putin did nothing other than what we would expect from any American president.
plantman,
The media near unanimously supports Zelenskiy’s position of defending Ukraine from a Russian invasion. Ukraine and the rest of Europe is living under the threat of Russia’s hypersonic missiles, a strike capability that Moscow has braggingly waved in the face of Europe, yet neither NATO nor Ukraine saw a need to invade Russia in defense of their own national security. Nor has Ukraine or Europe built the military force to realistically invade Russia.
Russia is losing badly? Good. Now we don’t have to give 40 billion of my tax dollars to a parasitic military industrial complex.
Sadly, our representatives are all in with giving our tax dollars to a losing cause.
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1525473473144963074?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/backtolife_2022/status/1521051139252367366?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Glad to know it’s bipartisan. But Americans are nothing if not resourceful!
https://babylonbee.com/news/starving-american-babies-sneak-into-ukraine-in-hopes-of-receiving-federal-aid
Kiev looks to be safer than DC with all the tourists.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/05/08/bono-showed-up-in-kyiv-ukraine-along-with-justin-from-canada/
What took them so long to reach this conclusion? Based on the open sourced information it was stated here by many that Russia had lost 25% or more of thier combat power a month ago.
TTG –
I believe both ISW and the MoD, and also by the many OSINT sites that are reporting massive Russian casualties.
But I’m conflicted by reports that Russia now has 105 BTGs in Ukraine. Are those reports BS? Didn’t they start out with about 95 back in late February? Or are all those current BTGs understrength? Or are the newly arrived BTGs hastily cobbled together with untrained newbies from the recent unannounced & stealthy mobilization going on in Russia?
Leith,
I have no idea how many BTGs are in Ukraine, nor am I sure of how understrength those BTGs are. I am sure our IC has a pretty accurate idea as does Ukrainian Intelligence. But i’m not sure Moscow has an accurate picture of what’s happening at the front.
In view of the shoddy condition of Russian equipment and personnel seen so far in this war, I wonder about the working condition of their nukes of all classes. Not that I am eager to find out. But those things do need close attention lest one blow up on site and ruin everyone’s day.
Whitewall,
Russia was able to put together an efficient and effective effort in Syria. They are clearly not inept in everything they do. I would think, and hope, that Russia’s nuclear arsenal is something that patriotic Russians would keep out of the reach of the kleptocrats.
Anyone want to predict when this bloodbath comes to a whimpering end?
Sooner than later. No coincidence that Austin called Shoigu “demanding” a cease fire.
SRW –
Kiev will be celebrating victory over Putin during their Saint Mary Prokova Fest in October.
2/3 to go…unless they stop coming.
TTG,
You write that current policy of the United States aimed at expanding NATO up to the frontiers of Russia –which, of course, would mean placing nuclear weapons there– would simply be “a continuation of containment policy articulated by George Kennan in his Long Telegram.” That is flat-out wrong. You do not seem to have much awareness of the fear and consternation which has been growing among American foreign policy experts (I could cite about ten) since the state department’s coup d’etat of 2014, a fear which was anticipated by George Kennan back in 1997 when he sounded an alarm, one like Mr. Jefferson’s prescient “fire bell” ringing in the night.
The New York Times published a letter by Kennan on 05 February 1997 titled “A Fateful Error, which said in part: “Bluntly stated…expanding NATO would be the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-Cold War era….”
Fate? Error? FATEFUL ERROR? That is exactly what has happened.
And it doesn’t matter now.
If you wanted to send a message to New York City, particularly to the media industry centered there, and to the financial industry, one way to do it, I am fairly certain, if you could do it, would be to take out the new Google Grace Hopper internet fiber optic cable that runs from New York area to Bude, in Cornwall, and to Bilbao, in Spain.
Tidewater,
Why do you assume membership in NATO means US nuclear weapons must be stationed in country? Only Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey currently have US nuclear weapons stationed in country. Not Poland. Not the Baltics. Not Romania. Ukraine wanted membership in both the EU and NATO long before 2014.
Kennan no longer thought containment, and especially rollback, were wise policies by 1997. There were many who never liked those policies. That doesn’t mean the policies are not being maintained as US policies.
TTG,
Respectfully. I think we are at war.
Tidewater,
Not an unreasonable view. We’re about as close to being at war without engaging in the shooting ourselves. Under the fairly new multi-domain operations (MDO) doctrine, we can engage in narrative, direct and indirect competition before engaging in conflict. We are clearly in several of those competition thingies.
TTG,
“engage in narrative”
Russia Collusion II, Putin’s Puppets strike back! Will GCHQ and various allied ambassadors be weighing in on the next election, or was that overt interference by our own allies in our elections a “narrative competition” too far that they pledge not to repeat?
Tidewater –
God bless Grace aka Grammy Cobol, the first Admiral of the Cyber Seas.
Leith,
CyberSeas? Not CyberSpace? Not up there in the Cloud? Isn’t there going to have to be a new ‘Cable Command’–a military organization bigger than the Space Force?
Or do you leave national security with Amazon and Google?
I see now that there actually is a US Fleet Cyber Command. Part of the 10th Fleet. Wonder what they do?
Incidentally, I am not saying that the Russians have a fleet of 10 or so Losharik submarines. They could very well have switched over by now to large submarine drones to be carried by a mother ship like Belgorod.
But Russia has at least ten submarines such as Kilo class subs which have been modified for the internet attack mission. But not in the deepest part of the ocean. A scallop dragger, say. like the nicely named Dixie Dandy, out of Seaford, VA. could do some real damage to a cable in Atlantic coastal shelf water if it were commandeered for whatever reason by whoever, after probably a good deal of violence. Sort of like a Stephen Crane story.
I have read that GUGI operates six nuclear mini-submarines, said to be the largest fleet of covert submersibles in the world. Their purpose is not at all clear. Research? These little boats are: two 730 ton Paltus; three 1580 Kashalot ; and 2100 ton Losharik , which may come out of the yard redesigned for an entirely different mission. Who knows?
To which I would add Eisenhower’s concern for the accumulation of power by the military industrial complex.
Concern for the viability of the planet is of little consideration, when it comes to holding onto one’s golden nipple.
I was leery of ISW for awhile. The names on the board are a crew of people that AFAIK still think Iraq II was a great idea, just maybe poorly executed. However over the span of this conflict their reporting has born-up quite well. Pretty good at knowing what’s confirmed and confirmable from what isn’t and are careful about what they assert.
I chalk it up to the academics they seem to be using to do the real work. There’s an extensive list on their site, they appear to be non-political and their work so far indicates they aren’t.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/15/world/europe/pro-russian-war-bloggers-kremlin.html
… Russian battlefield failure is resonating with a stable of pro-Russian war bloggers — some of whom are embedded with troops on the front line — who have reliably posted to the social network Telegram with claims of Russian success and Ukrainian cowardice….As the news of the losses at the river crossing in Bilohorivka started to spread, some Russian bloggers did not appear to hold back in their criticism of what they said was incompetent leadership.
“I’ve been keeping quiet for a long time,” Yuri Podolyaka, a war blogger with 2.1 million followers on Telegram, said in a video posted on Friday, saying that he had avoided criticizing the Russian military until now.
“The last straw that overwhelmed my patience was the events around Bilohorivka, where due to stupidity — I emphasize, because of the stupidity of the Russian command — at least one battalion tactical group was burned, possibly two.”
Mr. Podolyaka ridiculed the Kremlin line that the war is going “according to plan.” He told his viewers in a five-minute video that, in fact, the Russian Army was short of functional unmanned drones, night-vision equipment and other kit “that is catastrophically lacking on the front.”
“Yes, I understand that it’s impossible for there to be no problems in war,” he said. “But when the same problems go on for three months, and nothing seems to be changing, then I personally and in fact millions of citizens of the Russian Federation start to have questions for these leaders of the military operation.”
… Another popular blogger, who goes by Starshe Eddy on Telegram, wrote that the fact that commanders left so much of their force exposed amounted to “not idiocy, but direct sabotage.”
… And a third, Vladlen Tatarski, posted that Russia’s eastern offensive was moving slowly not just because of a lack of surveillance drones but also “these generals” and their tactics.
“Until we get the last name of the military genius who laid down a B.T.G. by the river and he answers for it publicly, we won’t have had any military reforms,” Mr. Tatarski wrote.
I’m still waiting to find out the name of the officer who was responsible for organizing our withdrawal from Afghanistan.
RO
The State Department played the leading role with DoD left to pay the freight.
Thank you. I understand there should be a pecking order where we have a presence but I can’t understand how a military commander could agree to the “operational concept” of a civilian that is just an expensive version of musical chairs.
What we saw was an embarrassment that no commander should have acceded to. At a minimum it should have involved higher authority (people at a higher paygrade to quote Brandon). Instead what we saw was a ceding of responsibility to incompetents.
“Security of the troops” seems to me justification for all manner of creative foot dragging at worst. Brandon pulled the plug to his credit but what rank humiliation was baked into the cake by State! And if State was “it” for purposes of the withdrawal I am sure I’ll wait in vain for someone there to pay a price for rank incompetence.
I, a mere LT, drafted a military scrip exchange plan for use in the Delta in 1970 and I assure you I tried to math it all out and foresee obvious problems. Where was that LTC who got tasked with something similar?
Well, such are the times. Every decision now is precisely the wrong decision. The end.
I apologize for posting twice. Don’t know how this happened.
I would like to add that if the Apollo North / Apollo South cables were damaged, knocked offline, or if large sections of these cables were cut out and simply towed away, then that, too, would most likely send a staggering shock to New York City and to the American financial industry.
I suspect that the Apollo North cable–Cornwall to Fire Island– is critical to the transfer of data from Wall Street to the City in London.
If these two cables were actually knocked out, it seems likely to me that Wall Street might just have to shut down. Maybe there’s still enough redundancy. Of course, this is all speculation, I don’t really know.
When the Luzon Strait break happened maybe 16 years ago it took eleven ships some 49 days to fix this accident. That one came very close to a financial catastrophe for Hong Kong. The whole economy there hung on one cable.
Tidewater,
You don’t need a submarine capable of going ‘20,000’ fathoms beneath the seas to do that. All you need is to know where the cables come ashore and what buildings house the switching centers.
Fred,
If there is a successful attack on cable systems like the Apollo North at some location that is, say, at 3,800 feet of depth, it is likely that, like the shallower Svalbard cable attack, the perpetrator will be suspected but not known. It will be the perfect crime. And it could happen again… As the full implications of the carnage that will have ripped through and gutted the financial markets, and the stunning shock that the country has endured begin to be comprehended and internalized in Washington, and then gradually comes the shocking realization of the existence of an astonishing weakness of the United States –one that seems to be beyond any remediation that is not nuclear insanity– then the time for American bombast will be over.
Wouldn’t that be the historical moment to sit down at Geneva with Russia and begin comprehensive diplomatic discussions that might include a wide range of problems beyond military or economic competition, such as cooperation in possible Geo-engineering projects to try to find some solution to the emerging and very dangerous destabilization of the Arctic permafrost?
There is not much time left. War with Russia is mankind’s final death trip.
The Russian forces are advancing, too slowly according to Western impatience, I grant you, but they are advancing. As Joffre said of the Germans in 1915, “I am nibbling at them”. To which Liddel-Hart replied: “You might as well attack a safe door with your teeth”. Easy criticism. In 1915, the Allies had no other means to hold back the Germanic fury. Note that the UK battleships had no wheels to make the Germans in France and Belgium feel their formidable firepower.
So the Russians are advancing and if we are to believe the pro-Ukrainian PR, the more they advance, the more the Ukrainians win. This is a point of view that does not hide the minister’s discomfort. The UK minister should think about the attrition rate of forces on both sides in relation to UK land power. He is right, and he is not alone. For on the one hand, there is no denying the significant losses, and on the other hand we (UK and France) are almost disarmed relative to the forces in Ukraine.
We can always hope that Ukraine will reinforce itself (finally Western equipment and effective general mobilization). It seems to me that time is against them if things follow their current course.
d74,
Russians are advancing on one front, actually only one part of that front and extremely slowly and painfully. Elsewhere, they are stuck or retreating. They were advancing pretty well the first week or so, after that, not so much.
Possible but unlikely.
What is better: to conquer the ground and leave the enemy army almost intact or to destroy the army and have the field free to impose to the enemy your will?
It seems that the Russians do the first alternative. If a certain area is too difficult, they go elsewhere in an orderly and disciplined way. Their tactical retreats are not defeats in any sense.
Ouah! Mistake: second alternative, free hand.
d74
Rubbish. They are losing their hat, asses and overcoats. They have no reserves and are bleeding to death in Ukraine.
TTG, so there we have it;
“IMO, the post-WWII policies between Washington and Moscow have not changed fundamentally. The Russian Federation is not a fundamentally different country from the USSR. Communism was just an interlude. All our talk of resets was either wishful thinking or just bullshit.”
Like all of us, you are a prisoner of your childhood. In your world, everything Russian is automatically bad.
walrus,
Russian culture, both high and folk, are chock full of wonderful things. The indigenous circumpolar peoples of Russia are also magnificent. Russia, both imperial and communist, did a far better job of letting them be than we did with the indigenous peoples on our territories.
But you’re right about being a prisoner of our childhood. Russians are still wed to mass deportations as a means to expand the empire, be it imperial, communist and federal.
Walrus,
Yeah, but the dude can roll.
What happened to the “imminent cauldron” that Bernhard @MoA was crowing about? Is it happening yet?
Don’t know if it’s imminent. This is an interesting map.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1B1PLMhbHmG1aJ2-QNxHY1TksI6HlNhqF&ll=48.54527316037363%2C34.435229663990675&z=6
Russia seems to be moving on their own timeline and against the Ukrainian military forces instead of cities.
Mariupol “secured by Ukraine” on May 15?
That’s wrong for sure. What I found interesting is the huge number of Ukrainian entrenched positions. They must have been planning this for quite awhile. A Ukrainian officer recently posted that the biggest mistake the Russians made was giving Ukraine 8 years to prepare for this.
KMD,
I assume you’ve been following the Iranian nuclear story. In particular there has been much use of the threat to use “bunker busting”bombing that can eliminate production facilities built deep into rock formations. If we have those – and I’m not saying we do or don’t – wouldn’t you think the Russians would have pursued similar technology if only to destroy command centres in case of a war against NATO?
The Ukrainians may be deeply dug in when speaking of regular defences but I would guess the Russians have the advantage of much higher level weaponry that they still haven’t yet brought to bear. Of course, there’s always the option of bypassing those defences to allow time to take its course.
Russians retreated from Kharkiv, some went all the way back. Short video here of Ukrainian troops putting up a boundary marker post at the border between Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast and Russia’s Belgorod Oblast. These are local TDF troops from a battalion of Kharkiv’s 127th Territorial Brigade.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1525935012222316545
Probably the video was made for PR reasons. Nothing wrong with that, good on ’em. They need to establish an armed checkpoint there and start apprehending Russian stragglers.
“Likely…” is the language of speculation which means, essentially, they are guessing.
The Skripal case was ascribed to Russia as being “Highly likely”, again speculation but they were more certain about that than their comments on current Russian progress.
No comment on US asking for a ceasefire or the fall of Popasna(ya)?
Adamski
“Likely…” is the language of speculation which means, essentially, they are guessing.” “Likely” is the language of ESTIMATION. Another Russian bot heard from.
Me on Skripal with a lot of stuff about the Russian chemical warfare programme you haven’t seen put together before. For my money he poisoned himself while fencing the drug for an assassination attempt that took place anyway.
https://waleseuroperussiafuture.blogspot.com/2018/03/revenge-of-spies-how-to-become-target.html
I’ve read multiple Russian sources claiming that the UK bulldozed the Ukrainian regime on attempting to retake Snake island on 7-8 May.
The Ukraine invasion has turned into a proxy WWIII between NATO and the Russian Federation. Russia has not gained air superiority. Perhaps, it is holding its air force back in case Poland gets involved. Since 2014, the civil war between the Ukrainians and Russians has turned into a hell on earth, trench warfare, with the armored forces, so far, unable to make a breakthrough. It is WWI being fought, once more, in Europe with all the lessons from the first two long forgotten.
A nuclear war is teetering on a razor’s edge. I am hoping that Defense Secretary Austin’s call for a cease fire is recognition of this fact. If Russia mobilizes and breaks through to advance on Poland, tactical nuclear weapons will be used to stop them. No wonder Sweden and Finland want to join NATO. Either it is WWI type trench wars in Scandinavia that destroys them or it is NATO’s MAD deterrence that tactical nuclear weapons will be fired to stop Russia’s next invasion which will most likely lead to both side’s use of strategic nuclear weapons.
To keep western civilization alive, right now, the neo-cons and war profiteers, must be terminated and a peace treaty negotiated that separates the Ukrainians from the Russians and a manned DMZ established along the line of contact. Ukraine keeps Kiev and Odessa and access to the Black Sea and Russia keeps the Czar’s land it has reconquered east of the Dnieper River.
The propaganda/information world war has gotten so bad that common sense has disappeared.
Vietnamvet
Hysterical. Get a grip. VP knows that if he initiates a nuclear exchange with NATO and the US Holy Russia will be utterly destroyed.
U.K. military assessments are worse than the ISW. The U.K. is joined at the hip w/any U.S. agenda, Libya, Iraq, Syria, Venezuelan gold, … they even pirated an Iranian oil tanker for us. The French are the only ones, in pre-expansion NATO, who occasionally show some independent thought.
The current British government is in deep trouble domestically.
Too many chickens coming home to roost with Brexit and the tremendous fall in living standards. The British government with its pseudoChurchillian lying Prime minister feverishly need a victory somewhere, anywhere to show the suffering of the people is worth it.
Manipulating military assessments would be small change for this gang of incompetents
To get an idea of how bad things are in the UK read the domestic headlines (and the comments) on daily mail, enjoy the magnificent articles of Marina Hyde (and John Crace) in the Guardian
It will take years for all of NATO to get off Russian fuel and resources and Russia can still cut them off at anytime…meh. But Russia is losing. I give it a few more months before reality sets in for those living in legacy media’s fantasy land. Especially those that said Russia would NEVER invade.
McDonald’s is quitting Russia. I recall thinking when the deal was made to open in Moscow 30 yrs ago, “that’s it, we won.” The oligarch-owned (& operated!) clone/clown show will be turning out some pasty Big Vlads, for sure.
& the French are so independent Renault is dumping the Moskvitch auto biz on the city of Moscow. Talk about the revenge of Communism…
ked,
I wonder what the Biden administration threatened to do if McDonalds, or Renault, failed to stop doing business there? Good thing we have an independent press asking such questions. Lets wait for them to report. I’m sure it won’t take long. Meanwhile, Russians will have to deep fry thier own potatos without sending a cut of the corporate revenue to Chicago for marketing the product. We have victory! Praise Biden, Victor of Afghanistan!
Who is fighting and dying for Russia? Not Chechens. Troop deaths as (under) reported in Russian media.
https://twitter.com/PCOwen_a/status/1526332059467165696?s=20&t=6cYraOAoqMvGl_6aYmF0Og
PL
You don´t need to print this as it is a late reply to you. But the MOD says what is told to say in public, that is why it has a PR department. Does not change the fact that ISW is a SIS dumping ground for wannabe cowboys who can barely spell their own names.