The only relevant question is why does Putin permit the Ukraine conflict to continue?
The only relevant question is why does Putin permit the Ukraine conflict to continue?
Paul Craig Roberts
The Western discussion of the conflict in Ukraine is the most nonsensical collection of lies and delusions I have encountered in my lifetime. Nothing reported in the Western media is accurate. Consider this BBC report from Johnson’s Russia List today June 23, 2023:
#1
BBC Monitoring
Ukraine says 680 Russian troops killed in past 24 hours
Some 680 Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine over the past 24 hours, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said on Facebook on 23 June.
This brings Russia’s estimated total losses since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine to around 223,330 personnel.
Russia’s other total approximate losses include 4,017 (+four over the past 24 hours) tanks, 7,798 (+15) armoured fighting vehicles, 3,985 (+44) artillery systems, 617 MRLS, 379 (+three) air defence systems, 314 warplanes, 307 helicopters, 3,447 (+nine) UAVs, 1,214 cruise missiles, 18 warships/boats, 6,708 (+30) vehicles and fuel tankers, and 545 (+six) pieces of special equipment, the update reads.
There is not one word of truth in this report.
Consider the BBC’s description of the conflict as “the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.” There is no such invasion. The Russian forces–mainly those of a private military organization known as the Wagner Group and the two Donbass militias–are, and have been, operating in the Russian Donbass now reincorporated into Russia, not in Ukraine. Putin has repeatedly declared that the Russian aim is limited to evicting Ukrainian forces from Donbass, not to conquering Ukraine. It is extraordinary that Western military analysts could be so stupid as to think that a real Russian invasion of Ukraine would still be continuing after 16 months.
Consider the Russian losses reported after 16 months of conflict: 223,330 troops! This number is larger than the combined personnel of the Wagner Group and Donbass militias. If it were correct, there would be no Russian forces present.
Consider the reported Russian losses of military equipment: 4,021 tanks, 7,813 armored fighting vehicles, 4,029 artillery systems, 617 MRLS, 382 air defense systems, 314 warplanes, 307 helicopters, 3,456 UAVs, 1,214 cruise missiles, 18 warships, 6,738 vehicles and fuel tankers, 545 pieces of special equipment.
Anyone who believes these figures is a total moron. If these numbers were correct, there would be nothing left of the Russian forces and Ukraine would have achieved total victory.
The same day that these absurd numbers were reported, CNN admitted that “Ukraine’s counteroffensive is having less success and Russian forces are showing more competence than western assessments expected.” It is unbelievable that there is a single person anywhere who is so totally stupid that he believed in Ukraine’s success! What kind of delusion-creating deceptions from media and officials were necessary to produce such a ridiculous belief?
Next we hear that Ukraine blames the failure of its “counteroffensive” on the West’s failure to provide enough weapons. If Ukraine lacked weapons, how did Ukraine achieve 223,330 Russian casualties, destroy 4,021 Russian tanks, 7,813 armored fighting vehicles, 4,029 artillery systems, 621 aircraft, etc.?
The Western media is so incompetent that it is unable to recognize its own blatant contradictions.
What is the purpose of this massive disinformation from the Western media? How does it help Ukraine’s cause for the Western World to massively deceive itself about the conflict. How can the West prevail when the West has no idea of what is occurring?
As I said this morning in a live interview on RT International television, the only relevant question about the conflict in Ukraine is why does the Kremlin permit the conflict to continue? By applying conventional force at its disposal, the Kremlin can end the conflict in 3 days with total victory over all of Ukraine. Why does the Kremlin refuse to use sufficient force to end a conflict that is ever-widening and growing ever more in danger of spinning out of control and producing a nuclear confrontation? This is the only relevant question. Why am I the only person asking it?
Putin Is Paying the Price of His Never-ending War
Putin Is Paying the Price of His Never-ending War
Paul Craig Roberts
Key points of Putin’s address to nation over PMC Wagner coup attempt
https://www.rt.com/russia/578601-recap-putin-address-wagner-coup/
Putin is responsible for this, because he has let a conflict continue for 16 months that should have ended in one week. But Putin wanted to avoid being labeled an aggressor and confined combat to the Russian Donbass. He got the label regardless, and created a situation of an ever-widening war that he has been fighting with a private military group who are tired of the no-win situation Putin has created by his pretense that it is a “limited military operation.”
I doubt Prigozhin intends a coup. Most likely it is a protest against the Russian military brass. The generals don’t like him, because he refuses to place himself and his forces under their command. As the Wagner Group is the principal military force Russia has fighting in Donbass, it is stupid for the Russian generals to foster bad relations with the commander of the troops doing the fighting. A question I have is whether Putin is being given honest briefings about Prigozhin’s intent or, instead, briefings designed to settle the generals’ score with Prigozhin. For Putin it is just a problem that needs to go away, and he might fail to learn from it.
The way Putin has been conducting this conflict has never made any sense. By refusing to use sufficient force to end the war, Putin has widened the war to the extent that Washington and NATO are involved, and he has apparently lost the confidence of the Wagner Group commander and, for all I know, the Wagner troops.
How is it possible that Putin, the Kremlin, and the Russian military do not comprehend that wars must be quickly be won as their continuation offers endless opportunities for many mischiefs?
It is possible that there has been no coup attempt. The weak evidence suggests that it could be a staged event from outside to disrupt the Russian front lines or an inside staging to get rid of Prigozhin:
“Earlier in the day, footage and audio attributed to Wagner troops and Prigozhin surfaced online alleging that a ‘missile attack’ had been launched at a Wagner camp, and that the strike was ‘delivered from the rear, that is by forces of the Russian Defense Ministry.’ The voice attributed to Prigozhin appeared to call for the ouster of the Defense Ministry’s leadership. The footage and audio were immediately jumped on by Ukrainian and US state-funded media outlets, which have been reporting heavily on Prigozhin’s criticism of Russian generals in recent weeks.” https://sputnikglobe.com/20230623/russian-ministry-of-defense-denies-media-reports-of-strikes-on-wagner-positions-1111429344.html
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