Some interesting points on developments in this war....or if you prefer, the propaganda that would go down better at the Edinburgh Fringe:
Well, firstly to restate : it is not a war in the sense of one people against another, it is an operation to prevent Ukraine joining NATO on grounds of national security, provoked by the continuing attacks on Russian people in the Donbas. And this means squashing the Ukrainian army and replacing the regime in Kiev ( which came to power as a result of a coup in 2014 and whose mandate under the Constitution of Ukraine ran out both president and Parliament earlier this year ) - so not a war against the Ukrainian people, just their leadership and now increasingly obvious that it is a war Russia against NATO.
Back onto some more specific points ...
I notice that Europe is saying it needs permission from America to send these long range missiles (up to 300 kilometers) into Russian territory because the missiles contain component parts made in America, but we know that this is not the reason at all. The reason is that America is controlling the strategy and providing the data from its satellites, and that specialist operators from Britain and France are needed to launch the missiles. So attention The Propaganda - this is not about use of proprietary components or getting software codes, this is about coordinating the direction of the war.
Plus, we should not lose sight of the American purpose which is to weaken Russia through escalation and eventually the Federation should explode into ethnic pieces, much like the Soviet Union collapsed. This is why there are gradual crossings of apparent American red lines. First it was tanks, then it was etc etc now it is F-16s and soon these long range missiles. The missiles available are too few to make any difference to the course of the war and is it worth the West risking its very existence (Putin has said striking the Russian Homeland would be an act of War) for this? The American strategy is escalation to weaken and eventually collapse Russia and I would add then to pillage its resources. Just talking...
Next point. European leaders are asking why they cannot attack Russian territory and why Poland cannot destroy incoming Russian missiles near its border, but without admitting that such behaviour would be to bring NATO and America into direct confrontation with Russia and thus (undeclared) war with a nuclear armed super power (though Putin said this week that this an act of war). Attention this kind of thinking which seems emotional, irrational and delusional ... does Europe really want to be at war with Russia? The UK too is not that far away and should be more cautious in its attempt to extinguish its neighbour.
Zielinsky is asking why it is that America can and Israel can launch missiles into Lebanon and conduct operations in Syria and assassinate leaders in Iran, while it, Ukraine, cannot; without acknowledging that Russia is a military superpower, armed with nuclear weapons; whilst of course the only nuclear power in the middle east is Israel. Again this is not strategic thinking, not taking account of realities, this is just emotional wishful thinking. Also, we need to recognise that even if nuclear is taken off the table, America and NATO still cannot defeat Russia, particularly as Russia is now supported by China (America is now accusing China not just of supplying components but of supplying entire lethal weapons to Russia, it seems).
The people asking these questions - journalists and European leaders - when I watch and listen to them, seem to be increasingly agitated. I get the impression that when they want to counter attack from Poland and want to invade Russia, it is because they feel that Ukraine is a slick of territory that is evaporating under Russian fire and they feel cornered, like wild animals trapped in a forest fire ... refusing to acknowledge that it was they who started the Fire!
(Recap : U.S. Secretary of State James Baker's famous "not one inch east-ward" assurance about NATO expansion in his meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on February 9 1990, declaration by President Clinton in 1994 that NATO would expand into the buffer zone left by the Soviet collapse, the declaration at the NATO summit in 2008 that Ukraine and Georgia would join NATO, the Maidan coup of 2014, the Minsk agreements of 2014 & 15 that were not implemented, the Rand strategy document RAND_RR3063.pdf of 2019, Putin's warning and peace proposal of 21 December 2021, the SMO of 24 February 2022 and Russia's immediate retreat from Kiev for negotiations which were initialed between the parties, but cancelled by Boris Johnson in April 2022.)
So if China is really now in the direct supply of finished equipment, it will suffer further sanctions beyond those of the commercial war between America and Russia. We can see that this is now taking the shape of a world war, though there is no direct military confrontation as yet and war has not been officially declared.
The Kursk incursion or invasion is described as a "bold initiative" which has "put heart into the Ukrainian army", but at some point The Propaganda will die down and it will be recognised that just as with Napoleon's and Hitler's armies (the two invasions we remember, out of 52), this incursion will be repelled. The Russians have killed thousands of Ukraine's best troops, troops Ukraine transferred off the important frontline in Donbas, speeding up its collapse, and it is a sorry and ragged crew that limps back over the border. Zelinsky is now making out that the purpose was so that Russia and its people should "feel the war" (a very Slavic instinct, I am told), but we know that it has only reinforced Russian feelings against Kiev and illustrated the reality of Ukraine's weakness.
Perhaps the most daring (and amusing) of the propaganda stories is how certain defend the universal corruption for which Ukraine is famous, as being an inheritance from the days of Russian control when corruption - the line goes - "was a form of civil disobedience"... you've got to laugh!
Another amusing recasting of reality is to claim that Zielinsky has created an effective war economy, never mind that it only survives thanks to monetary transfusion from the West.
And another recast (spin) is the explanation for the difference between the poor Ukrainians who are sent to the front line and the cafe-society that flourishes amongst the rich in Kiev. We are told that everyone plays their part - the poor die on the front line, while the rich knit bonnets and send food parcels ... you've really got to laugh at that one, if it wasn't so sad!! The flower of Ukraine's youth has been chopped down by at least half a million dead and wounded and many millions have left irrevocably this, the poorest of European countries.
As to the F-16s, the explanation for why they don't fly is not for fear of being shot down, no no, it is that they fly but they must keep hidden from the Russia Force, so no one sees them and especially they are never seen taking off or landing.
And Ukraine will build one million drones this year in the new factories on its territory.
Anyway, I could go on, but I'd be surprised if you have read this far ... just to say that the propaganda would go down better at the Edinburgh Fringe.
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