West at inflection point in Ukraine war

M. K. Bhadrakumar

Indian Punchline | June 19, 2022

(L-R) Romanian President Iohannis, Italian PM Draghi, Ukrainian President Zelensky, French President Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz held a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 16 June 2022.

Henry Kissinger predicted some three weeks ago that the Ukraine war was dangerously close to becoming a war against Russia. That was a prescient remark. The NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in a weekend interview told Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper that in the alliance’s estimation, the Ukraine war could wage for years. 

“We must prepare for the fact that it could take years. We must not let up in supporting Ukraine. Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices,” Stoltenberg said. He added that the supply of state-of-the-art weaponry to Ukrainian troops would increase the chance of liberating the Donbass region from Russian control.

Ukraine Update: Ukraine-fatigue Is Setting In Around The World, Says British PM

Countercurrents | June 19, 2022

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday stressed that the public needs to keep up its support of Ukraine after nearly four months of war.

Media reports said:

“The worry that we have is that a bit of Ukraine-fatigue is starting to set in around the world,” Johnson told reporters on the back of a trip to Kyiv. “It is very important to show that we are with them for the long haul and we are giving them that strategic resilience that they need.”

Johnson on Friday made his second surprise trip to the Ukrainian capital. The British government, in a show of support, offered Ukraine a military training program that could train up to 10,000 soldiers every 120 days. Johnson’s office said it would “fundamentally change the equation of the war.”

Russian Sanctions Are Hurting U.S. WAY MORE Than Russia

The contempt US intelligentsia and politicians have for Russia’s accomplishments has rendered them blind to Moscow’ true economic strengths

U.S.-led sanctions were supposed to cripple Russia’s economy and force Putin to pull out of Ukraine, but it turns out that the suffering from these sanctions in an interdependent global economy are spread around, as American consumers are discovering with record-high gas prices. So what happened? According to one French economist, Americans fundamentally failed to understand the importance of Russia’s productive output and talk of Russia’s economy being “the same size as Spain’s” reflected a similar misunderstanding of the modern global economy. Jimmy and The Dive’s Jackson Hinkle tackle the consequences of the west’s underestimating Russian economic power.

Russia Demands Answers on US Biolabs in Ukraine – The Narrative is Crumbling

Regis Tremblay

Vladimir Kozin discussing Russia’s demands answers from the US on US biolabs in Ukraine; the continued and expanded bombardment of Donetsk; The US-Collective West narrative on the conflict in Ukraine is crumbling. Blame is going around from Biden, Johnson, CIA, MI6, NATO, Stoltenberg, and even Zelinsky who is fighting for his life. One day he makes peace overtures, and three days ago he threatens to take back the Donbass AND Crimea. How long before he’s a goner?

Negotiations Needed to Bring Ceasefire in Ukraine: Macron

teleSUR | June 15, 2022

President Emmanuel Macron in NATO’s battlegroup in Romania, June 15, 2022.. | Photo: Twitter/ @JFC_Naples

“We want to build peace, which means that at some point the fire must stop and the talks must resume,” the French president said.

Ukraine’s President Vodolymyr Zelenzky will have to negotiate with Russia, and the Europeans will also be present at the negotiating table, bringing security guarantees, visiting French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday at a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) base in southeastern Romania.

Ukraine Update: Kiev’s Allies Divided

Countercurrents | June 15, 2022

Ukraine’s allies are in disagreement on the question of the war.

On June 14, a New York Times report — A Link to Besieged Ukrainians Is Cut, as Allies Question Strategy — said:

“The last bridge to the city of Sievierodonetsk fell as battles raged, and some Western officials questioned Ukraine’s ability to keep resisting Russia.”

The report said:

“Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, insists that his country may yet prevail if it is given more powerful weaponry, but as Western military leaders prepared to meet in Brussels on Wednesday and Thursday, some officials sounded dubious, with talk again turning to what an end to the war might look like — and how to bring it about.”

Ukraine Update: Momentum Of War Favors Russia

Countercurrents | June 13, 2022

Momentum in the Ukraine War has begun favoring Russia, and as a clear signal, the NATO Secretary-General has told Ukraine to decide how much territory it likes to concede in exchange of peace.

A New York Times report — “Momentum in Ukraine Is Shifting in Russia’s Favor” (June 11, 2022) — said:

Ukraine lacking the weaponry it needs, and Western support for the war effort fraying in the face of rising gas prices and galloping inflation.

The report said:

Russian forces did appear to be making slow, methodical and bloody progress toward control of eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine Update: Kiev Forces Facing Growing Desertion, Significant Losses And Depleting Ammunition

Countercurrents | June 12, 2022

Cases of desertion are growing among Ukrainian force, which is suffering significant losses, says report. It is also almost out of ammunition.

Media reports said:

There has been a rise in desertion as morale declines, says an intelligence report seen by The Independent.

Ukraine is now dependent on Western donations of supplies, Ukrainian officials say.

Reports are emerging that the Ukrainian military is experiencing “massive losses,” and cases of desertion are growing, an intelligence report says.

NO WAY OUT BUT WAR

Chris Hedges

MintPress News | May 23, 2022

PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY (Scheerpost) — The United States, as the near unanimous vote to provide nearly $40 billion in aid to Ukraine illustrates, is trapped in the death spiral of unchecked militarism. No high speed trains. No universal health care. No viable Covid relief program. No respite from 8.3 percent inflation. No infrastructure programs to repair decaying roads and bridges, which require $41.8 billion to fix the 43,586 structurally deficient bridges, on average 68 years old. No forgiveness of $1.7 trillion in student debt. No addressing income inequality. No program to feed the 17 million children who go to bed each night hungry. No rational gun control or curbing of the epidemic of nihilistic violence and mass shootings. No help for the 100,000 Americans who die each year of drug overdoses. No minimum wage of $15 an hour to counter 44 years of wage stagnation. No respite from gas prices that are projected to hit $6 a gallon.

The permanent war economy, implanted since the end of World War II, has destroyed the private economy, bankrupted the nation, and squandered trillions of dollars of taxpayer money. The monopolization of capital by the military has driven the US debt to $30 trillion, $ 6 trillion more than the US GDP of $ 24 trillion. Servicing this debt costs $300 billion a year. We spent more on the military, $ 813 billion for fiscal year 2023, than the next nine countries, including China and Russia, combined.

Ukraine is a millstone around Europe’s neck

M. K. Bhadrakumar

Indian Punchline | May 29, 2022

“Brotherly friends”: Ukrainian President Zelensky (R) and visiting Polish President Andrzej Duda, Kiev, May 22, 2022

The fallout of the war in Ukraine over Europe is largely seen in terms of the uncertainties over the continent’s heavy dependence on Russian energy and the impact of it on the economies of the 27 EU member countries. Imposing restrictions on Russian oil has proven a much more complicated task than imagined previously.

Countries that are highly dependent on Russian fossil fuels are concerned about the implications of such measures for their own economies. Hungary, for example, is apparently asking for financial support of between $16 billion and $19 billion to move away from Russian energy. It also refuses to discuss the matter at the upcoming Extraordinary European summit on Monday/Tuesday in Brussels. Prime Minister Viktor Orban asked in a letter to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, that the oil embargo be removed from the topics of discussion at the summit.