Russia is very happy to draw out the war in Ukraine. It just grinds up Ukraine’s Nazi soldiers and the NATO weaponry supplied to them.
from Martin Jay at strategic-culture.org:
Russia’s Operation ‘Meat Grinder’ needs to start
Can NATO expect to survive its policy of blinded-dogma escalation in the longer term or does it face decline, even expiration? Seems far-fetched? Not when you examine the timeline of the past two years and you observe the direction this War Machine business empire conglomerate is heading under the leadership of Washington.
At Vilnius we are expected to believe that despite the summer offensive going well for Ukraine’s army – a lie perpetuated by western media – that Ukraine should be given full NATO membership. The hysteria which can be seen in the eyes of Zelensky who is calling for this is palatable. But few if any western pundits ask themselves “if it’s going well, then why the immediate demand of NATO membership? Where’s the crisis?”.
The real reason for Zelensky demanding this, as well as Eastern European countries talking about putting their own soldiers on the ground, simply, amounts to the same conclusion. The war is not going well at all for the Ukrainian army which, even by the kindest conservative estimation, has lost at least 150,000 men [probably twice that —Eds]. Retired U.S. generals who are in touch with military observers on the ground put this figure over 250,000 as the Ukrainian media operation in Kiev obviously doesn’t provide any serious data on the subject. Zelensky’s problem is two-fold. He has announced to the world that he is about to start a summer offensive, which didn’t get off to such a bad start – it punched a hole in the Maginot Line which Russia has laid complete with mines – and took a few villages. Good video handout fodder for the call-centre journalists in Ukraine who take their orders from the Kiev media office which controls where they can go and what they can report on. But the minor detail of what they are not reporting is the real story.
The Ukrainian army is so understaffed, under-resourced and its men so woefully undertrained that the rate and speed of its losing military hardware is frightening [for the Pentagon]. Brigades are going into battles in armored vehicles with support from artillery and are getting wiped out at a remarkable speed. In just one day, according to one report, 16 Bradley armored personal carriers were either hit and burned, or just abandoned by Ukrainian forces. For Pentagon officials mulling over their intelligence reports, this should be worrying given that this one loss represents a quarter of all the Bradleys given to the Ukrainians. It is this rapidity of material losses which is worrying Zelensky and western elites. They look at the data and when they see minuscule token victories, like the villages recently taken, they do not celebrate. They simply look at the losses and do the math.
How much longer can the Ukrainian army exist? Zelensky knows only too well that he needs at least 2-300,000 more men and the tanks, armoured personal carriers to go with them to make any impact at all. He, along with NATO bosses, also knows that if you sit back from enemy lines and do nothing, as each day passes, your credibility wanes, especially if you have just announced to the world that you’re about to start a massive offensive.
This is really what the next NATO summit is all about. How to send Zelensky much, much more kit, but also the men to go with it. There are really not too many options. Either sending troops from eastern European countries who will not be protected by Article 5 of NATO as it will have to be clearly stated that they are going there not under a NATO mandate. Good luck expecting the Russian military to respect such nonsense. Alternatively, you look at the possibility of creating groups of mercenaries made up of retired soldiers from NATO countries. Western media is failing us here wholesale when it fails to report on unconfirmed reports of plans by Washington to oversee a program which allows a private defense contractor to recruit retired U.S. air force pilots to fly in Ukraine. This is the latest hare-brained idea which is set to escalate the war further and push NATO deeper into the hole it has dug – and continues to dig – itself.