By David Sole
The Western powers who promoted and continue to finance Ukraine’s proxy war against the Russian Federation are being forced to admit the dire military situation facing their puppet regime. They are desperate not to lose control over the vast untapped mineral wealth of Ukraine and are inching toward dangerous escalation of their direct role in the war with Russia.
The September 11 New York Times headlined “Russia is closing in on a key city in Ukraine’s East in one of the fastest advances for its military since the early days of the war. If Russia captures the city, Pokrovsk, it would gain a big strategic advantage in seizing the rest of the Donbas region.”
What the Times fails to mention is that there is little in the way of fortifications to the west of Pekrovsk. The fall of this crucial military hub, along with looming losses of other Ukrainian fortress cities like Vuhledar in the south and Toretsk further north, may mark the collapse of Ukraine’s entire military.
CNN’s September 8 report was much more graphic. The headline read “Outgunned and outnumbered, Ukraine’s military is struggling with low morale and desertion.” One former battlefield commander “was in charge of around 800 men who fought in some of the fiercest, bloodiest battles of the war – most recently near Pokrovsk…that is now on the brink of falling to Russia.” He told CNN that “most of his troops [are] now dead or severely injured.” CNN notes that for decimated Ukrainian units “reinforcements are few and far between, leaving some soldiers exhausted and demoralized. The situation is particularly dire among infantry units near Pekrovsk.”
Interviews with six commanders revealed that “desertions and insubordination are becoming a widespread problem, especially among newly recruited soldiers.” They admitted that “Not all mobilized soldiers are leaving their positions, but the majority are…. They go to the positions once and if they survive, they never return. They either leave their positions, refuse to go into battle, or try to find a way to leave the army.” It is reported that in just the first four months of this year “prosecutors launched criminal proceedings against almost 19,000 soldiers who either abandoned their posts or deserted, according to the Ukrainian parliament.”
Ukraine’s desperate gamble of sending thousands of its best troops to invade the Kurst region of Russia far to the north did not change the overall situation. The Kursk incursion did not advance far before it stalled. Russia was able to protect the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant which probably was the main aim of the operation. Nor did the thrust into Russian territory force Russia to divert troops from the Donbas region where the biggest gains are being made against Ukraine.
Recent news has recently reinforced Russian forces launching a strong counteroffensive to push back the Ukrainian units from the forested area they seized last month. Russia is not compelled to commit strong forces to the Kursk area and may rather simply utilize drones, missiles and fighter jets to search out and destroy Ukraine’s heavy weaponry and troop concentrations.
Since the beginning of Russia’s Special Military Operation in February 2022 the U.S. and its allies have opposed any negotiations. Numerous reports have exposed that a peace deal was reached, and then scuttled by Ukraine in March 2022 only weeks after the start of hostilities on the orders of the U.S. government.
But if the U.S. and NATO refuse to allow peace talks by their proxy, and if losses on the battlefield are moving to a military collapse by Ukraine, then one can predict that the imperialists may be driven to wild escalations.
Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Aleksandr Fomin speaking at a conference in Beijing on September 13 warned “NATO nations are preparing plans to deploy their own troops to Ukraine … This is a dangerous game, which may result in direct clash of nuclear nations.” He added that it looked as though the U.S. and U.K. are close to permitting Ukraine to use Western supplied long-range missiles to strike deep into Russian territory. Up until now these weapons were supposed to be restricted to Crimea and former eastern Ukraine regions, now incorporated into the Russian Federation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also weighed in on possible Western long-range missiles being used against Russian territory. Putin pointed out that “Ukraine lacks to capability to use Western long-range systems…noting that targeting for such strikes requires intelligence from NATO satellites, while firing solutions can ‘only be entered by NATO military personnel.’”
Putin warned “If this decision is made, it will mean nothing less than the direct participation of NATO countries, the US and European countries, in the conflict in Ukraine. Their direct participation, of course, significantly changes the very essence, the very nature of the conflict.” He added that Russia will “make the appropriate decisions based on the threats facing us.” The response might include “shooting down the weapons in question and then retaliating against those responsible.”
What could be driving the US and other NATO imperialists to such dangerous lengths of escalation. The answer may lie in a recent article in Geopolitical Economy of June 13, 2024. US Senator Lindsay Graham spoke to CBS’s Face the Nation on June 10 revealing that Ukraine is “sitting on $10 to $12 trillion of critical minerals….They could be the richest country in all of Europe. I don’t want to give that money and those assets to Putin to share with China.”
Graham went on “If we help Ukraine now, they can become the best business partner we ever dreamed of…That $10 to $12 trillion of critical mineral assets could be used by Ukraine and the West.” “This is a very big deal, how Ukraine ends. Let’s help them win a war we can’t affort to lose,” Graham stated.
The Washington Post pointed all this out back in 2022. “Ukraine harbor’s some of the world’s largest reserves of titanium and iron ore, fields of untapped lithium and massive deposits of coal.” Ukraine represented “a raw-material mother lode … home to 117 of the 120 most widely used minerals and metals, and a major source of fossil fuels.” Most of this mineral wealth is found in the eastern region where Russia is gaining control.
Anti-war forces in the West need to educate the broader public to the real imperialist forces driving the US and Europe toward dangerous escalation into a wider war with Russia. This drive to control Ukraine has been steadily accelerating ever since the CIA sponsored coup in Kiev in 2014 that has led up to today’s proxy war.
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