by George V. Pinchuk volunteer of InformNapalm
1. It is war. A very real and very “hot” war, and, so far, the only war going on in Europe. Media calls it a “conflict” or something similar, usually avoiding the mere word “war.” But that’s cowardice and hypocrisy. Please, friends, do call it WAR when you talk about it anywhere and with anybody – at home, at work, at school, on a plane etc.
2. Russia started this war in spring 2014, and Russia is carrying it out. It is ridiculous and disingenuous to call it a “conflict between the Ukrainian government and the Russia-backed rebels” (or “separatists”). On the side that fights against the Ukrainian soldiers and volunteer fighters, all commanding officers are professional, cadre officers of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Among privates, the “cannon meat,” some are from the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, some – from local lowlife, and many are mercenaries from remote areas of Russia and from other countries (Brazil, Latvia, Italy – to name a few). The local lowlife fights because they are crazy, supplied with Russian weapons, and on the Russian payroll, and the mercenaries fight for money and future career in terrorist armies. But the entire thing is directed from headquarters in Moscow, and the only one person in the world who could command this war to stop is Vladimir Putin. (But he, of course, will never give this command.)
3. The numbers of casualties per day or week are relatively low. However, it is not because it’s a “frozen conflict.” Far from it: the Russian side opens heavy fire 10, 15, 20 or more times a day, almost never missing a day. They use artillery, large-caliber mortars, grenade launchers, guided anti-tank rockets, heavy machine guns, armored vehicles, and drones. They fire at the Ukrainian military positions, civilians’ residences, and even ambulance vehicles. The ONLY reason the death toll is not in hundreds or thousands per day is that the Ukrainian military is, currently, a very advanced modern fighting force equipped with radiolocation and other systems that can detect the exact position of the enemy artillery and quickly suppress their fire. So, the volleys of the Russian fire cease after some 5-10-20 minutes (albeit the aggressor always resumes fire after an hour or so). In addition, the Ukrainian military and civilians who still live near the line of fire have well-designed underground trenches, bunkers, residential spaces, and even schools.
4. This war will, most likely, continue for many more years. It’s not a “land grab,” as some naive American friends of mine tried to explain it to me in 2014. Russia does not need the territories that she annexed or occupied. The goal that Russia pursues is to destroy Ukraine, make Ukraine disappear as an independent state. Russia wants Ukraine to bleed, bleed long and hard, bleed to death – not just literally but also economically, technologically, and ideologically. And it’s not just Putin. A leader that will replace him when he dies will be, in all likelihood, the same, or worse, as far as Ukraine is concerned. The Mordor, the Evil Empire in any of its reincarnations – the savage Finno-Ugric tribes under Andrei Bogolubsky who burned down Kyiv in 1168, the Mongol Horde of the 1240s-1400s, the Moscow Principality of the 1500s-1700s, the Russian Empire, the Union of Soviet Social Republics, the Russian Federation – is incompatible with Ukraine. It’s either – or. Either we (Ukraine) will perish, or they (the Mordor) will be thoroughly defeated, like Germany and Japan in 1945, and dismembered.
5. Of course, destroying Ukraine will not quench the Mordor’s desire for further expansion and domination. At the moment, the US Armed Forces and the NATO still exist, and are a formidable shield from Russia. However, we should keep in mind that currently, the Supreme Leader of Russia (Putin, or whoever will be there after him) OWNS his country with all of its vast natural resources (oil, gas, gold, diamonds, timber, coal, aluminum and other ores etc.). There is no limit to his spending, and he does not need any Congress to approve his decisions to finance Russia’s wars. So he buys, and buys, and buys – politicians, political parties, governments, the entire countries. In the USA, he has, obviously, bought many leading politicians who dance to his tune. This enormous, gigantic, unimaginable ability of Russia to BUY can, in a few years, result in a total disintegration of NATO and in the situation when Russia and the USA (and perhaps China) will just sit down together and divide the world. In that Brave New World, there will be no place for the Western civilization values like freedom, dignity, individual’s rights, pursuit of happiness.
6. It may be not too late to prevent this. But it will require honest admission that Russia is an evil state, the number one enemy of the US and the malignant tumor on the face of our planet. (China, IMHO, is not; it is authoritarian, but it can trade, while Russia can only destroy, using the selling of its natural resources as the means for this destruction.) It will need creation of a powerful military anti-Russia coalition, similar to the coalition created against Germany and Japan in 1941. And that, in turn, will need abandoning the “peaceniks’” myth about “co-existence” and “cooperation” with Mordor, and debunking the anti-historical falsehood that the “free world” “defeated” the USSR, winning the “cold war.” All this is a difficult task, needing a consolidation of the American society, a turn away from partisan bitching along the outdated dualist “liberal vs. conservative” pseudo-opposites. There is no more time for nonsense like “we-need-to-make-greedy-corporations-pay-their-faye-shaye” vs. “Italians-die-of-Corona-because-of-their-socialist-medicine,” or “every-bad-thing-in-the-world-is-because-of-misogyny” vs. “Corona-is-a-hoax-created-by-Deep-State-to-control-our-lives.”
Read in Ukrainian Six days. Six deaths. Six faces we must remember
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