By David Sole
The magnitude of the defeat suffered by Ukraine in the battle for Avdeyevka on February 17 is creating a military crisis for Ukraine. It is also causing alarm and panic among the Western imperialist powers who instigated the war in the first place.
The New York Times, a firm supporter of the Ukrainian puppet regime propped up by the United States and its NATO allies, wrote on March 6 about “The Harrowing Retreat From Avdiivka.” The Ukrainians were outgunned and outnumbered. The Times described: “The fall of the city, when it came in mid-February, was brutal and fast.” Soldiers described how they warned that they: “would be overrun by Russian forces” but the Ukrainian commanders “told them to keep holding their positions, a delay that cost lives.” “The final retreat was dangerous and costly…Many soldiers died along the way.”
Now towns to the west of Avdeyevka have fallen as the Russian Federation military presses in pursuit of the retreating Ukrainians. Attempts to “stabilize a new front line” are not succeeding since such efforts take much time and preparation. Heavy fighting also is reported as Russian forces press the Ukrainians on the southern front and in the northeast.
Video footage of U.S. supplied heavy weaponry are also showing up in the media. At least three of the heavy duty Abrams M-1 battle tanks, recently supplied to Ukraine by the Pentagon, have been destroyed in battle west of Avdeyevka. Bradley fighting vehicles are also being wiped out. Dramatic footage of a U.S. supplied HIMARS missile system being taken out by the Russians has also been broadcast. Newsweek reported on March 7 that three Abrams tanks, 3 HIMARS and 8 Bradleys were wiped out in 10 days.
Unable to strengthen his Ukrainian forces with either fresh soldiers or scarce weapons, Ukraine’s top general Oleksandr Syrsky took his anger out on his front line commanders, firing several on the eastern front. Syrsky himself recently was appointed “Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces by President Zelensky, who was unhappy with the deteriorating military situation, replacing General Zaluzhny on February 8.
The danger of escalation from the Western NATO nations continues to exist. The Foreign Minister of Poland, Radoslaw Sikorski, publicly supported the idea of foreign military units going into Ukraine to fight. This idea was floated by French President Macron last month.
Estonia, a small country on the Baltic Sea, is also increasingly vocal to see escalation in NATO intervention in Ukraine. Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna welcomed Macron’s open threat of troops and also called for the European Union to seize Russian assets that have been frozen by Western banks and use them to pay for military supplies for Ukraine.
Finland, a new NATO member, shares a long border with Russia. On December 21, 2023 USNI News reported on U.S. expansion into Finland in a big way directed against Russia.. A Defense Cooperation Agreement “will give the American forces access to 15 installations – five in the High North near Russia – and permission to store equipment and weapons on Finnish soil”
The Finnish Foreign Minister, Elina Valtonen, elaborated that the agreement makes it easy “to store agreed upon equipment, allow for pre-positioning at four air bases, one naval base and land force installations and the movement of troops.” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was quoted as boasting “We now have a network of defense cooperation agreements that stretches from northern to southern Europe, from the Norwegian Sea to the Black Sea.” As a strong proponent of the Ukraine proxy war, he has long sought to push U.S./NATO bases into Ukraine to fully threaten Russia.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin noted “There were no problems [along the Finnish border] but now there will be, because we will now create the Leningrad Military District there and definitely concentrate military units there.” Following the U.S. sponsored coup in Ukraine in 2014, Ukraine pushed to join NATO and NATO’s build up of the Ukraine army. This led to the Russian Special Military Operation and the war that is now into its third year.
The threat of a wider war grows as Ukraine’s military situation continues to deteriorate. U.S. President Joe Biden made continuing support for Ukraine a major point of his State of the Union address and shows no signs of considering a negotiated settlement. The expansion of NATO and the escalating rhetoric by NATO member state leaders could presage plans for direct U.S./NATO involvement and a Third World War.
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