The Washington Post reports the White House is planning for an extended conflict in Ukraine. Leaders in NATO, the UK and Germany have joined the US in support of a long war. However, there is anxiety among some in the Western alliance that war fatigue will set in and support for Kiev will dry up.
The Post reported an unnamed senior State Department official said, "Biden administration officials had discussed the possibility of a protracted conflict with global spill-over effects even before February, as U.S. intelligence suggested Putin was preparing to invade."
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said, "We’re here to dig in our spurs." Austin made the comment during a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. At the conference, the defense secretary announced Germany was sending long-range rockets to Kiev, and Slovakia was sending Mi-series helicopters.
The White House followed the conference by announcing a $1 billion weapons transfer to Ukraine. The package includes Harpoon anti-ship missiles and 155MM howitzers. On Friday, Ukrainian officials claimed a Harpoon missile was used to sink a Russian tug boat in the Black Sea. In a now-deleted tweet, a Ukrainian official said that Western countries were planning to arm Ukraine with the anti-ship missiles to sink Russian ships in the Black Sea.
On Sunday, NATO Secretary-General Jen Stoltenberg said, “We must prepare for the fact that it could take years. We must not let up in supporting Ukraine.” He added, "Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices.”
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson made his second trip to Keiv since Russia invaded on February 24. While meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Johnson pledged the UK would train 10,000 Ukrainian troops every 120 days. "The UK is with you, and we will be with you until you ultimately prevail,” Johnson said.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz indicated Ukraine should expect more support from the West. He said at an upcoming Group of Seven summit the attendees will make clear Kiev can expect to receive the support it needs "for as long as necessary."
The Washington Post report says the White House hopes transferring the increasing advanced weapons to Ukraine will lead to a negotiated settlement. However, the weapons seem to have emboldened officials in Kiev who now want an outright military victory.
Last week, Zelensky said his forces would reclaim the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014. "We will liberate our Crimea!" he said in a video address. In a separate speech, Zelensky noted, “There is a direct correlation: the more powerful weapons we receive, the faster we can liberate our people, our land.” A top aide to Zelensky said that if Ukraine receives heavy weaponry soon, the war could be won in three to six months.
Ukrainian leaders misreading the White House’s intentions does not appear to be changing the Biden administration’s plans. Politico reports the next weapons package to Ukraine will include four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMRAS). David Arakhamia, the majority leader of Ukraine’s parliament and Keiv’s top negotiator, said the war was transforming into a "distance fight," and a supply of long-range artillery was essential.
However, Kiev is concerned some of its NATO partners are not committed to the long-term fight and will succumb to "war fatigue." Zelensky said, "The fatigue is growing, people want some kind of outcome (that is beneficial) for themselves, and we want (another) outcome for ourselves."
While Ukraine is concerned about losing support, it’s unclear how long it can keep fighting Russia in a lengthy war. Last week, Chair of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley stated the numbers favor Russia. "In terms of artillery, they do outnumber, they out-gun and out-range," he said.
A UK defense ministry daily assessment said Ukraine was suffering desertions among its ranks. "Combat units from both sides are committed to intense combat in the Donbas and are likely experiencing variable morale." It continued, "Ukrainian forces have likely suffered desertions in recent weeks."
Ukrainian forces are also taking high losses in battle. Arakhamia recently assessed casualties to be as high as 1,000 a day with 500 deaths.
Oleksandra "Sasha" Ustinova, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, told Politico that her countrymen are being exhausted by the war. "One of the strategies the foreign partners are looking at is exhausting Putin. I’m sorry, we are exhausting our own people. We are literally losing our people," she said.
Kyle Anzalone is the opinion editor of Antiwar.com, news editor of the Libertarian Institute, and co-host of Conflicts of Interest.
And NOBODY cares for what we think. Have we consented to pay for all this through inflation. And the inflation West is exporting to the world, so our debts to them become less of a value to holders. Rusdia lost some savings right off the bat — others, friend or foe — will lose theirs by the straw.
Surely, it is a coincidence that all energy producers — except Gulf — became “bad”, and their energy taken off the market in the West, or severely crippled by the West. Iran, Iraq, Libya, Venezuela, Russia. And — shocker — high energy prices. Energy companies get to clear up
some of the red ink accumulated by purchasing fracking companies that went bankrupt. Taxes are goid for state coffers.
When do we get to vote on our money and the risk to our wellbeing?
Yet, many people have an explanation for a the malaisr— it is called “war”. The mystical, mythical war and Russia is the Grinch that stole sunmer vaccation.
But more problems are coming — thus now long war.
Yet Ukraine is now an albatross around our neck. It will be “ling” so politicians can pass it on to the next election.
US started this war against Russia in the ukraine, but Russia decides when its gonna stop and at what cost to the west.
Sort of, yes. However, as the WAPO indicates, this “dig in our spurs” (BTW, general, it’s “heels”, not “spurs”) thing is a bluff to start negotiations. Telling Putin “Look, we still have one card left, the BIG one; so you’d be advised to make a deal and give us a peace-with-honor.”
Thanks for pointing out “dig in our spurs”, which actually makes the runaway horse go faster. Jesus, the clowns in DC can’t even get their cliches straight. They need to just read what’s on the teleprompter and get off the stage.
Yes, which makes it all the scarier, …clowns enough to inflict nuclear Armageddon on their own children?
Let’s hope not, but the truth is we don’t know. You can’t rule out anything with these people. They seem to think they’re in a play.
Maybe it was a Freudian slip and he’s a crossdresser.
… high heels & spurs? … feels more like BDSM
Oleksandra “Sasha” Ustinova, a member of Ukraine’s parliament: “We are literally losing our people.” Now, you tell me? Who could have thought?… Well, every sane/awake person in the world realized that was going to happen even before the war started. What’s worse?… Ukrainians are dying to make neocons, pimps of war, finally happy by igniting WWIII. Sasha didn’t say that. I suspect she might be thinking about that. It’s not hard math. It’s hard to sleep when you think about that. It’s so very sad.
I for one am hoping there is no WWIII. I base my hope on the fact that the U.S. let itself get scammed & conned into the war on terror, which wasted vast time & trillions of dollars chasing Arabs around in second & third world countries. While the Russians and China were upping their game in advanced technology and cutting edge tools of war. Like missile defense systems, the best in the world. Faster, lighter and more nimble jet fighters! nuclear powerd drone torpedos with a hundred megaton warhead. The stuff of Great Game deterrence. Moreover the U.S. has no homeland defender against ICBMs, and not even a
plan to defend against hypersonics. In short, the U.S stands naked against the latest Ruaaian and Chinese weapons.
In Washington the inmates are running the asylum and as we all know, inmates can’t be trusted, they are crazy.
“US and NATO are planning for a long war” … let us hope they will be disappointed.
They always did plan for a long war. The detailed path is unexpected, but the length is the original hope and expectation.
When did they plan for anything?
Ain’t gonna be no longterm war, just a longterm degrading of Ukraine military assets, capabilitie’s and personnel. All one need do is look at how long the Afghan puppet government lasted after the U.S. snuck out. The U.S. said it would last two years, it lasted 6 weeks…The U.S. squandered it’s prestige clout and gravitas on the terror debucle. To train for a heavy weight prize fight, one does not go to a middle school and fight children. When we attack other countries, we do not weaken them, we make them stronger, unless we destroy them like Russia is destroying Ukraine.
Unintentionally they are doing their best to hide their disappointment.
There are so many ways this US strategy can go wrong…
It is Not a strategy…. rather Self Destruction…!
Only a short time ago the melody was “Ukraine is winning this war”. It is good to remember which countries were driven into bankruptcy or near-bankruptcy by long wars. That is a very long list which contains the names of countries which were in the top-5 GDP’s when their wars began. A long Russo-Ukrainian war will endanger the national banking systems of the EU counties and will be unhealthy for ours. Our material help for the Ukraine will be paid by our personal income-tax payers because the people of Ukraine cannot pay for this long war.
“A top aide to Zelensky said that if Ukraine receives heavy weaponry soon, the war could be won in three to six months.”
This guy must do stand-up comedy too. What an idiot. As if Russia can lose and Ukraine still exist.
Kiev Bob … and you’re absolutely right: there is no scenario for victory for Ukraine. Russia can’t afford to lose here, this is not Afghanistan, this is Russia itself.
They steal from our wages and savings to drag out a proxy war while they enrich themselves and the MIC. That’s our government alright.
And we are too weak minded to stop them.
That’s what comes from decades of government controlled education, in which children are indoctrinated to trust and obey their government.
“Hard times make strong men. Strong men make good times. Good times make weak men. Weak men make hard times”
What does it take for all these insane people to get some common sense in their knuckleheads? How are such idiots allowed to run any country even a little one?
What a mad house Washington is. Not even Biden’s senility is an excuse for such madness.
This is one long line of continuous development since Bill Clinton. Biden was a part of it while in the Senate, but he is just stepping into the role that is not near 30 years old. It is not him or his lightweight advisers. It is The Plan playing out over decades.
Biden was very much involved with regime change in Ukraine 2014 he was practically Obama’s Vice Roy in Ukraine, he fired the prosecutor who was about to investigate the energy company which hired his son Biden for an outrageous million $$$ salary for a job he knew nothing about. Biden is a very ruthless man, he supported every war during all his years in government, he put sanctions on Afghanistan after 20 years of suffering of blood and pain for the people, the chaotic retreat after 20 years of killings in Afghanistan, now he continues starving the children.
It does take an evil person to do that. The US lost and yet, he still must punish the Afghan people. He insults people, that is more than enough for me, and I voted for him.
Ukraine ought to be worried that it was set up by the US to bleed Russia.
This war was provoked by the US, and the goal was a Long War, an insurgency in the eastern Ukraine regions the US expected would be the limit of fighting. It is an extension of the Wolfowitz Doctrine.
Ukraine on the numbers could never win, and the US did not care. Ukraine was set up to fail, a kleptocracy just like Russia that was used and abused without a moment’s remorse.
Initial size of attack, and initial success in resisting it, were both unexpected by the US, but just used for the same purpose. This won’t help Ukraine, it will just bleed Ukraine more for the purpose of bleeding Russia more.
Evil people are using foolish people. Normal.
You put it nicely, yes the USA set up Ukraine to bleed Russia, and the same is true for the EU and NATO, CALL A SPADE A SPADE.
PNAC IS TILL AROUND.
“U.S. intelligence suggested Putin was preparing to invade.” HAHA. For years the USA had its huge influence in country 404, had for months at the end of 2021 goaded Russia to invade by piling up Uke troops in the Donbass, then blaming them for their response after 8 years of trying to sort out the statue issue of Russian speakers through the UN-sponsored Minsk accords.
Finally admitting what many of us have known for weeks. Ukraine is losing between 500 and 1,000 people a day. Do the math. 15,000-30,000 losses per month. They have lost probably 100,000 soldiers over the last 100 days, replacing them with poorly trained Territorial Battalion and conscripts. They admitted losing 50 percent of their hardware, and that figure is much less than reality. Russian casualties are probably less than 5,000 – easily replaceable from the Western Military District alone.
Russia killed 50 high-ranking officers yesterday in one missile strike, plus several hundred more soldiers in various strikes.
No matter what weapons the US and NATO send (short of tactical nukes), Ukraine’s military will be done for within a few months.
When the Ukrainians surrendered in Mariupol they included 50 French officers too.
It struck me as somewhat ironic that Mario Draghi, Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz, Boris Johnson, and Klaus Iohannis visited Kiev last week.
Aside from discussing the weather and Ukrainian emigres, the topic of foreign mercenaries from their respective nations was certainly a hot topic.
For all we know there are hundreds of NATO soldier as trainers and consultants in Ukraine. NATO is the real the war party, they pay, supply and train Ukrainians. They are only proxy cannonfodder, that way the NATO governments can win elections, no KIA bags coming home, Zelensky and the neo-Nazis are selling their country, just another corrupt outfit like in Afghanistan, and Biden signs the checks.
Tactical nukes will make the war end VERY quickly. The Russians have the most powerful nuclear weapons in the world. The largest nuclear weapon ever known to have been detonated we by the USSR.
I wish Americans would search for alternate news about the Ukraine conflict. MSM and the US government are feeding Americans with so many lies while keeping them in the dark about the truth. My neighbor who is a retired public school teacher, in her mind she thinks Ukraine is the good guy and Russia is the bad guy according to MSM and US government lies. I told her to search for Patrick Lancaster on Youtube and see the other side of the story. She didn’t behave stupid with me when I told her. Haven’t seen her since and when I do see her again I want to see her reaction. I wish Americans would wake up and discover the lies which are being spewed on them.
There isn’t much subject matter unless you are cheering for Russia.
Russia when full hitler on Ukraine to take their land. They didn’t have to invade.
Just cause you don’t like MSM’s position, it doesn’t mean they are wrong.
Is the defense industry paying them in dollars or in euros to encourage them voice for more military supplies?
https://www.rt.com/russia/557469-nuclear-reduction-talks-frozen/
“Russia should wait for US to ‘come crawling back’ – former president”
The impression I receive from listening to Russian media and parts of President Putin’s speech at SPIEF, mutual government contacts will be minimized and mostly as it relates to declining trade interests.
I doubt an arms reduction agreement is being seriously discussed in either capitol. The US isn’t agreement capable and Russia has an overwhelming advantage in hypersonic missiles.
The US and EU are so close to economic decimation that an arms agreement seems out of place amongst those ills. Others may observe it differently.
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/all-this-and-world-war-too-2/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter-post-title_2
“But slowly after 1991, and then all at once, Europe and the USA fell under their own mass formation spell, apparently at the instigation of a certain Schwabenklaus and his WEF factotums implanted throughout Western Civ, like poison raisins in a fruitcake, rendering the EU members and the USA insane, which is to say no longer normal nations able to entertain normal relations with others.”
https://russian.rt.com/ussr/news/1016915-ukraina-peregovory-rossiya-prepyatstviya
Ukraine might consider restarting negotiations if Europe and the US pull back on uncontrolled financial largesse to Kiev and the accompanying money laundering cycles.
From Russia RT 🤣
Be careful what you wish for…! I am not pro war but in this case this conflict should continue…! Why you ask… Because Russia is large enough country both economically and in territories that this conflict is a minor absorbable incident, but its benefits are substantial for multi polar world and for Russia itself…! I know Ukraine will be sacrificed but they have to blame themselves for doing so…!
Your life, your family and your property are not in danger, you are comfortable to watch the war on TV, thousands of miles away from the suffering, what gives you the right to decide for people on another continent, far from your safe home to decide for a war the people in Ukraine must suffer, all because we have lots of weapons to sell?
What is in it for the USA, is it only a minor incident for the large USA. You are ready to sacrifice Ukraine for your benefit, after all it is nothing for the big USA, and the polar American Supremacy will benefit all Americans, to sacrifice another nation just for your benefit is justified as long as it benefits the Supremacy of the USA.
And that is the point, the POLAR SUPREMACY of the USA.
“Ukrainian will be sacrificed, but they have to blame themselves.”
That one sentence says it all, the evil attitude of a monster like the USA, the world sees the monster for what it is a more than brutal hegemon, morally on the level with the NAZIS.
If it comes to a nuclear war, I hope Putin will sent the first and second bomb to Washington and the Pentagon, no one deserves to be wiped out more than these people.
Deep breaths, RL. netman advocates a “multi polar world”, though he does it in Machiavellian fashion, supposing a long war hurts the US more than Russia. And yes it’s harsh to blame the Ukrainians for their situation but they’re not lilly white in this. 14,000 dead in Donbass is a serious body count.
But the US helped to put the the neo-Nazis in power, that was what the regime change was all about. As usual the average people pay the price. The 14 000 dead were the result of that civil war, the Azov people did most of the killing too.
It would be nice if the Europeans had guts and tell Biden to get lost, they will not continue to finance the slaughter and destruction in Ukraine. They could demand serious diplomatic negotiations, but instead they get their talking points from Washington DC. Of all people, the Europeans should understand more than anyone the suffering of the people. They should refuse to participate to sanction any nation, time to sanction the US.
All true. I expect the average Ukrainian had little to no say in their country being hijacked. But hating each other is kind of the eastern European national pastime. Whenever I imagine the Europeans being all civilized I remind myself of WW I and II. It seems like everybody west of Russia needs an enemy, and Russia is it.
Like all wars, the 2 wars were about economic competitions, same as now, but people can be manipulated to hate people they don’t even know. Germany was destroyed twice, now maybe the third time will do the trick. With Germany goes the EU and NATO. This looks like the end of the institutions, a diplomatic solution is not in sight.
Both wars were fought for economic power and markets, like all wars for economics and natural resources and strategic reasons, never for ideals like freedom and democracy. And people can get manipulated to hate people, enemies, they don’t even know.
I initially read “Ukraine Defense Contact Group” as “Ukraine Defense Contract Group” and thought dang, they’re really getting brazen about it.
Yeah, “long war” …. I was at the gas station and grocery store yesterday and everybody was talking about just how much they wanted a long war with Russia. Maybe we can get gas over $10. They should call it a “crushing defeat of the incumbents in November” war, assuming we’re not a radioactive wasteland by then. But so anyway, imagining DC actually gets its “long war”, what would it look like? Where would the front/DMZ be, or more precisely where would the Russians put it? I think they want to hold as little foreign territory as possible, consistent with not taking any sh*t, which won’t be happening. DC no doubt has fantasies of taking pot shots across a line of demarcation. Bad idea with the Russians. And ultimately there are only so many warm Ukrainian bodies to churn into the meat grinder. Sounds like a job for AI. Cha ching!
DUH….!!!!!!!! The senseless goals only add to more carnage, dreams and delusions. It seems to me that Zelenski is out to prove how tough he and Ukraine are to the last building & soldier standing. Which the Russians are more than happy to help him accomplish.Ukraine as the Spoils of War are one of the rewards that the Ukrainian and NATO intransigence gift whomever is the winner. Bad decisions & reckless rhetoric, like dimwit hubris, are the ruin of many a man, & I believe Zelinsky.will surely be one.
Putin,Biden and Zelenskyy ( Un-Holly trio) were underestimated eachothers and non of them willing to admit,mean time war is going on more viciously then ever.
So what it takes to stop it?
How can you sleep at nights and show your faces in public places without putting on Brown bag on your faces?
The point is that the Ukrainians will never give up, never. Hence, there is no scenario in which Russia wins. That’s a fact.