THE UKRAINIANS are fighting back strongly and are bringing down helicopters and planes with Stinger ground to air hand-held rockets and air defense missiles. Several high-ranking Russian generals have been killed. Western nations cannot join the war or it will become a wide European war. The most lethal Western-supplied weapon is the shoulder-fired anti-tank missile, the Javelin. Many Russian tanks have been destroyed and verified Russian planes and helicopters shot down are at least 20 but Ukraine claims 48 Russian aircraft have been shot down. European nations and the USA are supplying thousands more weapons and assault rifles and ammunition. The done nations should make it possible for Ukraine to buy Russian-made Mig-29 fighters from Poland, Ukrainian pilots know how to fly them.
This Ukrainian resistance is an unprecedented challenge to an overwhelming modern Russian army ever seen in modern warfare. Led by a charismatic president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a former actor that played a president on TV and became president himself and is a powerful leader in this time of crisis. His TV experience at using the media to rally the people to fight back is invaluable.
Putin might eventually overwhelm Ukraine and destroy the cities and rule a total ruin. He is paying a heavy price already and it will be a Pyrrhic victory. When he does, there will be a Ukrainian government in a secret base fighting and directing an underground guerrilla resistance attacking Russians at will. It will be at a huge cost to Russia to try and occupy Ukraine.
Another big miscalculation for Putin has been the unity of the world’s nations. Asian nations and all free world nations except, China, India and some others, have joined in unity to stop Putin. He has united the EU, NATO and all nations against him. He has defeated himself in the long term and made himself a war criminal and the world is against him. The sanctions against Russian banking, trade, oil and gas and economic boycotts against products are growing, all will eventually cripple his economy and turn his people against him, too. Investors are fleeing and many thousands of Russian people are now unemployed.
The buyers of Russian oil and gas, the source of national revenue, are backing out and seeking alternative supplies. The oligarchs that surround him are losing their wealth, million-dollar villas and yachts are being seized, their bank accounts were frozen and their shares and stocks are in free-fall. There is nothing to be gained and much to be lost in the war made by Putin. The corrupt tyrant falls victim to his own corruption. Putin can’t win this war. He can only pretend to do so.
His massive crackdown on the media is not enough to stop the news eventually getting out to the Russian people that the war is doomed. They will realize they have been led into a quagmire with hundreds, if not thousands of their teenage soldiers, killed in a failed war. Weep for Ukraine but save a tear for the duped and misled Russians and their thousands of dead children and a destroyed economy.
To launch a war of aggression for no cause other than the lust for power and control is the evilest thing one can do and it is as stupid as stupid can be. (preda.org)/PN
