A Bit Of Context For Those Who Decide To Read This
The information in the article you are about to read, if you choose to read on, will most likely clash with some of the mainstream media’s presentation of what has been taking place in Ukraine over the last three-plus months. I’m not sure what else to say about this possibility other than I hope that this discrepancy spurs you to further investigate the information I’ve presented in this article. I encourage you also to check out the links I’ve shared in the citation section of this piece.
Russia’s Shift To Plan B After A Thwarted Initial Attempt
After a failed attempt at taking Kyiv in February and March that would have ended their special operation mission very quickly, Russia went on to its plan B which was to destroy the core of the Ukrainian army in the Donbas region of Ukraine. It’s been known from the beginning of this conflict that if Russia were to take the Donbas region that Ukraine would have very little to no chance of prevailing in turning back the much larger, more skilled and better armed Russian army.
This Past May
On May 26th the key town of Lyman was taken by Russian forces within a few hours. This followed a major Ukrainian collapse in Svitlovodsk along with another defeat in Poposna a few weeks earlier. During this period there was also a mass surrender of Ukrainian forces at the Azovstal Steelworks plant in Mariupol. (1) This brought the total number of Ukrainian prisoners taken by the Russian army to upwards of 8,000 by the end of May.
So Far This June
During the first week and a half of June other towns and villages in the Donbas region have also been falling. Russian forces have since moved on to encircle Severodonetsk and Lysychansk and they are steadily breaking through their defenses layer by layer, generating heavy Ukrainian casualties.
On top of all this, two days ago there was a televised report delivered by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu during which he confirmed that the land corridor from Russia to Crimea is now complete and in full operation. “Full fledged traffic” (2), road and rail, can now move from Russia through the Donbass region through to Kherzon and Saporischschja which are both now almost completely controlled by Russia.
The US Media Is Fanning The Flames Of War
As Katrina Vanden Heuvel described while being interviewed two days ago by Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman, “The one-sided media debate” is fanning the flames of war in Ukraine. (3) Aside from the considerable amount of seriously questionable reporting that the Western media has been spewing about what is taking place on the battlefield in Ukraine, there has also been a proliferation of cartoonishly ghoulish accusations that the Russian army has been undertaking atrocities like child torture and infant rape. However, none of these accusations have been backed up by any actual proof. In fact, the Ukrainian parliament recently removed their Human Rights Chief Lyudmila Denisova when it became clear that she herself was creating and proliferating the aforementioned gruesome stories.(4)
The Western public’s swallowing of the mainstream media’s propaganda fueled demonization of Russia as a country and as a people, along with the total misrepresentation of their army as an inept band of unscrupulous renegades and rapists has made productive dialogue about the current conflict all but impossible up until very recently.
There is a history behind this war. In actuality this conflict did not begin in February of this year. This battle has been going on for the better part of eight years and, whether it is hard (right now) to read this or not, there are, without question, two sides to the story of what is going on in Ukraine right now. That said, we will leave this issue aside for the moment, as it is beyond the scope of the objective of this particular article.
Questioning The Western Media Is Absolutely Not Synonymous With Supporting The Invasion
Questioning the US’ role in the escalation of this conflict absolutely does NOT imply a condonation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In other words, articles like this one that question and at times clash with the corporately controlled status-quo line of thought are not “pro-Putin” pieces in anyway whatsoever. Until this is understood, we, the one’s paying (monetarily) for this war, will continue to spin our wheels in a comic book-like fantasy, attempting over and over again to pit a supposed all good protagonist against a supposed all evil enemy. And as we demean and cancel each other in this way we will continue to side-step anything that could contribute to the construction of an actual solution to the problem at hand.
The 40 Billion Dollars That You And I Just Gave To Ukraine And Raytheon
Despite what some Western pundits have said about the new weapons shipment to Ukraine being some sort of “game changer”, the truth of the matter is, the weapons sent to Ukraine are not going to make any sort of substantial difference to the outcome of the conflict.(5)
In fact, if you read between the lines of Joe Biden’s Op-Ed in the NY Times from May 31st, it’s fairly clear that the US and NATO are aware of the fact that Ukraine has no chance of resurrecting itself at this stage of the game.(6) This means that what was actually sent out was a 40 billion dollar gesture signal (made up of US taxpayer money) that included a multi-billion dollar gift to the Raytheon Weapons and Defense Conglomerate.
The US and NATO Must Immediately Shift From Promoting Escalation to Promoting A Settlement
Ukraine’s overall fighting capacity has seriously weakened. Frankly, there is no realistic chance of a turnaround at this point in the conflict. On the contrary, all indications are that Ukrainian forces are going to continue to be crushed as their numbers decrease at an accelerated rate with each passing week.
Ukraine, with the US and NATO’s blessing, must now agree to become a neutral state. Ukraine must also agree to cede land to Russia. They will certainly lose more territory than they would have if negotiations had not been pre-empted in March.(7) But what is the other alternative?! Tens of thousands more dead Ukrainians? A complete takeover of Ukraine by Russia? Both?? All indications are, if we can find a way to look past the Western media’s smoke screen, that Putin and Russia would have and will still negotiate if a serious attempt is made to work out a settlement. Again, a serious attempt at a settlement would mean that Ukraine would absolutely have to cede territory to Russia, territory already controlled by Russian forces. This is, in this writer’s opinion, the only reasonable, workable and sane move for Ukraine and the US/NATO to make at this point.
CITATIONS:
(2) https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-06-08-22
(3) https://www.democracynow.org/2022/6/6/katrina_vanden_heuvel_kyiv_severodonetsk_ukraine
(5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93iHs2eG3Gw&t=303s
(6) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/31/opinion/biden-ukraine-strategy.html
