Tag: Russia winning

Guest Post by Raúl Ilargi Meijer

A Dutch paper tells me that PM Mark Rutte is “very disappointed” that Switzerland has decided not to deliver 96 more tanks, that belong to Swiss “defense company” Ruag, and which Germany, Holland and Denmark wanted to purchase, to send to Ukraine. The 96 would have come on top of another 100 they also apparently bought for the same purpose. Neither would make any difference for the outcome of the battle. 100 tanks is nothing. The only thing we know for sure is that 96 more tanks will kill 96xY more people. But of course Rutte is not the only EU and NATO “leader” who thinks the way he does. They all do, except Orban and perhaps Serbia’s Vucic. But Biden, Blinken, Macron, Scholz, you name them, they all say the same thing: we must deliver more guns, tanks, jet fighters. US “top general” Mark Milley chimes in:

Continue reading “Assisted Suicide”

Via RT

Kiev has reportedly lost over 25 tanks and IFVs trying to cross a minefield in Zaporozhye © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

Ukraine’s widely anticipated counteroffensive has seen Kiev’s forces lose a significant amount of armor, including dozens of Western-supplied tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, Forbes reported on Tuesday.

According to the outlet, analysts believe that an attempt by the Ukrainian army’s 47th Assault Brigade and 33rd Mechanized Brigade to cross a minefield near the town of Malaya Tokmachka in Russia’s Zaporozhye region on June 8 proved to be “even more disastrous” than previously thought.

Continue reading “Ukraine suffers ‘disastrous’ losses in counteroffensive”

Guest Post by Moon of Alabama

Ukraine’s counter-offensive has failed and it has no chance of a victory in the war.

Its best possibility to still sustain for a while is to now build several new defense lines and to pull back to those. Instead it is continuing to attack on too many fronts with little gains and large losses.

Yesterday the Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation with his Security Council.

Nikolai Patrushev, the Secretary of the Council, reported on Ukrainian losses:

Continue reading “More Weapons Go To Ukraine But What Will It Do With Those?”

Via ZeroHedge

Russia has issued a fresh warning amid new accusations that Kiev is planning major missile attacks on Russian-controlled Crimea.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that Ukrainian forces are plotting attacks with HIMARS long-range artillery systems and Storm Shadow missiles against the Crimean peninsula. Crucially Shoigu said that this would mean full-scale involvement of the United States and Britain in the war, given their military systems would be utilized.

The defense chief said “immediate retaliation” would follow, while underscoring that Russia’s retaliation would be felt directly against HQs within Ukraine.

Continue reading “Russia Says Ukraine Planning Massive Attack On Crimea With US Missiles”

Guest Post by David Sacks

With each passing day, it’s becoming clear that the Ukrainian counteroffensive is failing to achieve any of its originally stated objectives. Recall: the Biden administration’s bet was that the counteroffensive would roll back Russian territorial gains, cut the land bridge to Crimea, and force Russia to the negotiating table. That is almost certainly not going to happen. On the contrary, a stalemate is more likely, or even that Russia will take more territory and win the war, as Mearsheimer has predicted.

What are Biden’s options now? Either escalate or admit defeat. In preparation for NATO’s Vilnius Summit, Blinken has been floating a proposal to give “Israel status” to Ukraine. This means multi-year security guarantees including weapons, ammunition and money that would continue even if Biden loses the next election.

Continue reading “THE FAILING COUNTEROFFENSIVE AND THE PEACE THAT COULD HAVE BEEN”

Guest Post by Moon of Alabama

On June 4/5 the Ukrainian military launched its long announced counteroffensive in southeast Ukraine. Ten days later there is no significant progress.

biggerThis is not the outcome the war propagandists expected:

[General Petreus] spoke about the situation in Ukraine to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.On the counteroffensive, he said:

I think that this counteroffensive is going to be very impressive.

My sense is that they will achieve combined arms effects in other words, they will successfully carry out combined arms operations where you have engineers that are breaching the obstacles and diffusing the minefields and so forth; armour following right on through protected by infantry against anti-tank missiles; air defence keeping the Russians aircraft off them; electronic warfare jamming their radio networks; logistics right up behind them; artillery and mortars right out in front of them.

And most important of all … is that as the lead elements inevitably culminate after 72-96 hours, physically that’s about as far as you can go, and they’ll have taken losses … you have follow-on units that will push right on through and capitalise on the progress and maintain the momentum and I think that can get the entire Russian defence in that area moving, then I think you have other opportunities that will open up on the flanks as well.

Continue reading “On The Failure Of The Ukrainian Counterattack”

Via RT

Before committing to limitless military aid, Kiev’s backers wanted to inflict maximum Russian losses prior to Ukraine’s surrender, Aleksey Reznikov has said A Ukrainian soldier is seen in a trench at the frontline near Artyomovsk in Donestk Region, Russia, May 22, 2023 © AP

In the initial days of the conflict in Ukraine, Kiev’s Western backers wanted its forces to make do without military aid and “kill as many Russians” as they could before admitting defeat, Ukrainian Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov has told Foreign Policy magazine.

Continue reading “West told us ‘to kill as many Russians’ as possible – Ukrainian MOD chief”

Guest Post by Moon of Alabama

Another Ukrainian attack got bogged down in a minefield.

biggerLosses:

• 3 Finnish Leopard 2R with mine clearing equipment
• 1 German Bergepanzer III recovery tank (based on the Leopard 2 chassis) with mine clearing equipment
• 2 German Leopard 2M6
• 2 U.S. M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles
• 1 U.S. MaxxPro armored transport vehicle
• 1 U.S. HMMWV armored transport vehicle
• 1 unidentified vehicle

This follows other significant recent losses.

The total replacement cost of the above vehicles at present value is about $60-70 million.

Continue reading “Ukraine SitRep: Destruction Of Its Third Army – Issues To Negotiate”

Guest Post by Scott Ritter

Over the course of the past few days, Ukraine has thrown two of its best-trained, best-equipped mechanized brigades into offensive operations against entrenched Russian defenders in the Zaporozhye sector of the front lines.

These two brigades had been hand-picked for this job, having been equipped with modern Western tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, supported by Western-supplied artillery, and using NATO-specific tactics shaped by NATO-provided intelligence and NATO operational planning. In short, these two brigades represented a top-level NATO-level capability, the epitome of the nexus between Ukraine and the Collective West in their ongoing war to destroy Russia.

As the world comes to grips with the imagery of destroyed US-manufactured M-2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and German-made Leopard 2A6 tanks abandoned and burning on the Ukrainian steppe, the harsh truth regarding the futility of its larger designs—the strategic defeat of Russia—is starting to sink in.

The reality, however, is that Ukraine was never going to achieve its stated objective of punching through the Russian defenses to sever the land bridge connecting Crimea with Russia proper. This was pie-in-the-sky thinking promulgated by Ukraine’s Western supporters to motivate the Ukrainians into committing the equivalent of mass suicide to inflict similarly prohibitive casualties among the Russian defenders.

Continue reading “Ukrainian Counteroffensive Runs Into Defensive Wall”

Via RT

The Ukrainian military has suffered “significant” casualties in its faltering attempt to mount a counteroffensive against Russian forces, US officials told CNN on Thursday. While Kiev has kept quiet about its losses, Moscow estimates that the offensive has already cost Ukraine almost 5,000 lives.

Ukrainian troops hoping to break through Russia’s defensive lines have met “greater than expected resistance from Russian forces,” the American network reported, citing anonymous “senior US officials.”

CNN’s sources described how Russian forces used anti-tank missiles and mortars to put up “stiff resistance” and inflicted “significant” casualties, as the Ukrainians struggled to get their Western-provided vehicles through densely-laid minefields.

Continue reading “Ukraine has taken ‘significant’ losses this week”

Authored by James Rickards via DailyReckoning.com,

It looks like the much-anticipated Ukrainian spring offensive may finally be getting underway. Yesterday, Russia repelled Ukrainian attacks in five places.

It’s very early — these were likely probing attacks looking to detect weak points in Russian defensive positions — but these attacks were much heavier than previous probing attacks.

We’ll have to see what happens.

When the main offensive comes, it’s very possible that Ukrainian forces will break through in certain areas. They might capture some territory (with plenty of U.S./NATO-supplied reconnaissance and intelligence to assist them), but it’s unlikely that their gains will be sustainable.

The offensive will probably peter out as Russian forces gradually grind it down.

Russia has several defensive lines in the region, fortified by minefields, anti-tank ditches, concrete obstacles known as dragon’s teeth, etc. These are formidable defenses that Russia has spent several months creating.

If Ukraine breaks through one line, it’ll have to confront another. And another. And another one after that.

It’s also important to realize that offensives on the scale envisioned require massive logistical support, and it’s far from clear that Ukraine has the resources to sustain a major offensive. It doesn’t help that Russia has been steadily targeting Ukrainian ammunition depots, transportation links, marshaling points, etc.

Meanwhile, Zelensky wants more Patriot missile systems. That’s because the Russians have already destroyed one-third of the systems we sent.

As I’ve argued before, Russia is winning the war. The West can’t afford to give Ukraine much more weaponry, and support for the war effort is declining.

Continue reading “How Does This End Well?”