Russia widens attack with airstrikes on western Ukraine cities
By: Peter Beaumont and Luke Harding in Lviv (the Guardian)
Russia, or Putin if you prefer, appears to be confident that their primary objectives have been secured. The map shows that Russian military activity has been from the east to the west. So, it seems obvious that the primary objectives of the Russian invasion have been in eastern Ukraine. Russia has essentially ignored western Ukraine. Occupying and controlling western Ukraine would be necessary to isolate Ukraine if the intent was to annex the country. Russia avoiding western Ukraine very clearly indicates that the intent of the invasion was never to install a puppet government.
The final set piece will be to threaten Kyiv and force the United States to negotiate over Russian security concerns. The 40 mile convoy supposedly stalled by Ukrainian resistance is now on the move. Russia is assuming a siege position around Kyiv. And Russia has widened its attacks in western Ukraine using long range weapons rather than wasting ground forces on capturing and occupying territory. It's not clear if Russia will limit its attack on Kyiv to simple bombardment of the city or if Russian ground troops will attempt to assault the city. What is becoming evident is the Russian attacks will continue until President Biden negotiates.
Biden wants to be Franklin Delano Roosevelt or Winston Churchill -- without firing a shot. Biden bears a lot of responsibility for this mess by ignoring Russia's security concerns and refusing to engage in detente. Biden has adopted an uncompromising position that relegates diplomacy, detente, and negotiation to a sign of weakness. And Biden's refusal to sit at the negotiating table has damaged the global economy as much as it has damaged Russia's economy. Russia has not attacked NATO. In fact, Russia hasn't significantly threatened NATO. Putin has pursued the established post-Cold War process of detente -- threaten and negotiate. Putin created a threatened crisis and the normal post-Cold War process of detente is to negotiate to diffuse the crisis. That's the way diplomacy and detente has worked between the United States and Russia following the end of the Cold War.
Biden's autocratic approach to the crisis means neoliberalism is dead and detente is no more. Diplomacy and negotiation has been tossed into the dust bin. Biden's new normal is a return to the Cold War where geopolitical disputes are resolved by threats of annihilation and diplomacy accomplishes little.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Russian airstrikes hit three cities in Ukraine on Friday - including two in the country's west - as the scope of its military offensive widened.
The raids hit airfields in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk, far from the main areas of conflict, and residential buildings in the strategically important city of Dnipro, which sits on the Dnieper River.
The air raids came as new satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies showed that a 40-mile convoy that had been approaching the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, had dispersed as tanks and artillery moved to what appeared to be firing positions to the north-west of the city.
Explosions captured on video as airstrikes hit military airport in Lutsk - video
The Ukrainian military said Russia was trying to "block" Kyiv by taking out defences to the west and north of the capital, adding that there was also a risk to Brovary on the east.
As the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, said that about 2 million people, half the population of the metropolitan area, had left the capital, preparations continued for its defence. "Every street, every house is being fortified," he said.
"Even people who in their lives never intended to change their clothes, now they are in uniform with machine guns in their hands."
Ukrainian soldiers described fierce fighting for control of the main highway leading into the capital, while missile strikes were reported hitting Velyka Dymerka just outside Kyiv's city limits.
"It's frightening, but what can you do?" said Vasil Popov, a 38-year-old who works in advertising sales. "There is nowhere to really run or hide. We live here."
Despite heavy losses of personnel and equipment in the third week of Russia's brutal assault on Ukraine - in which cities have been placed under siege and subjected to bombardment - Vladimir Putin's forces were pushing ahead with their campaign.
The Russian defence ministry spokesperson, Igor Konashenkov, said Russia used high-precision long-range weapons on Friday to put military airfields in Lutsk and Ivano-Frankivsk "out of action".
The airstrike on the Lutsk military airfield early on Friday left two members of the Ukrainian forces dead and six people wounded, according to the head of the surrounding Volyn region, Yuriy Pohulyayko.
Images of the aftermath showed what appeared to be a massive explosion that set fire to what looked like fuel storage tanks and cratered the runway.
Lutsk residents said they were woken at 6.45am on Friday when four Russian rockets hit the city's military aerodrome.
One said: "We live 2km away. The rockets woke us up. We had been living in Kharkiv and left the city last week. The Russians bombard Kharkiv 100 times a day. Compared to that, this wasn't as bad."
The strikes also targeted an airport near Ivano-Frankivsk, where residents were ordered to shelters after an air raid alert, the mayor, Ruslan Martsinkiv, said.
Three Russian airstrikes also hit the eastern industrial city of Dnipro early on Friday, killing at least one person, according to the Ukrainian interior ministry adviser, Anton Heraschenko. They hit an area near a chemical plant, leaving a shoe factory completely destroyed, and breaking the windows on a nearby kindergarten.
The new wave of strikes came as clear skies on Friday made Russian air operations easier.
Despite claiming to have "neutralised" the Ukrainian air forces and air defences in the first few days of the war, in the last week Russia has hit Ukrainian airforce sites a number of times, including striking an airfield in Vinnytsia - the city that is the headquarters of the Ukrainian airforce - with eight cruise missiles in a single attack.
The focus on Ukraine's air assets appears to be part of a continuing effort by Russia to gain uncontested control of the air, which it has so far failed to achieve, but which would allow more air support to forces on the ground.
The latest strikes came amid contradictory assessments of Russian progress around Kyiv, with the Ukraine general staff saying the Russian advance had been halted and the Pentagon suggesting that it had moved forward about 3 miles in the north-west.
The satellite photos of Russian concentrations around Kyiv, meanwhile, appeared to show a massive convoy previously detected outside the Ukrainian capital had fanned out into towns and forests near the city with artillery pieces raised for firing, in another potentially ominous movement.
A US defence official speaking on condition of anonymity said Russian forces moving toward Kyiv had advanced about 3 miles (5km) in the past 24 hours, with some elements as close as about nine miles from the city.
It appeared the convoy forces were moving west around the city, trying to encircle it to the south, according to Jack Watling, a research fellow at British defence thinktank the Royal United Services Institute.
"They're about halfway around now, to be able to close off on the south," he told BBC radio. He added they were likely preparing for a "siege rather than assault" on Kyiv because of continuing low morale and logistical problems.
While a move to a more static approach of shelling Kyiv from outside might be less costly for Russian forces in the first instance, it is not without risk.
The Ukrainian use of Turkish-supplied combat drones has been effective against Russian vehicles, and more static positions would be vulnerable to other Ukrainian aircraft, perhaps explaining the recent stepped up effort to knock Ukrainian airfields.
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Joe Biden has made the world much less safe. Biden has even revived McCarthyism and the Red Scare. And nuclear annihilation has returned as an existential fear. Not even Donald Trump was that stupid.
So please tell us how Zelensky and the Ukranians are the thugs and little putin and russia are the peacekeepers?
How is it that little putin invading and killing Ukrane/Ukranians for absolutely no reason whatsoever is the fault of President Biden?
Volodymyr Zelensky and Ukrainians are 'thugs' because Zelensky demanded (and received) advanced lethal weapons to be used against Ukrainian separatists during the Trump administration. Trump withholding portable javelin missiles was part of the first impeachment. Congress voted to supply the Zelensky government with weapons that would escalate the war in the Donbas region.
How long were Russian troops positioned near the borders of Ukraine to conduct exercises? That's how post-Cold War detente has worked. Either Russia or the United States creates a crisis and then both negotiate to diffuse the crisis. Biden adopted an autocratic approach and refused to negotiate.
Is that what Putin is telling Russians at home?
Should the Americans paid by Russian State Intelligence Services get to spread their disinformation on social media unfettered?
The United States is certainly capable of doing what Russia does. The only thing that's required is to shut news reporting that Biden doesn't like and threaten to imprison those that oppose Biden's handling of the situation. Biden certainly has the temperament and character to be the same kind of autocrat as Putin.
Or, just ban their asses on all social media...
Why get the government involved with trash?
The Chinese Communist Party provides an excellent model for ostracizing non-conformists, prohibiting expression of opposing viewpoints, and re-educating wrong thinking.
Yes, Biden has certainly revitalized autocratic social controls and made illiberal and undemocratic enforced conformity acceptable once again. Neoliberalism is dead and detente is no more. Now is the time for autocrats to flex their muscles and impose their party line onto the world.
The only autocrat imposing his will is Putin...
What was the democratic process to impose sanctions, interdict Russian banking, close airspaces, embargo Russian oil? What was the vote tally in Congress for these things? How was the people of the United States represented in these decisions?
Joe Biden, alone, decided to punish Russia after the fact rather than negotiate with Russia before an invasion. Biden apparently thought that threats of harsh punishment would deter Putin. Obviously Biden did not understand the situation and chose to confront Putin in an autocratic manner. Biden was absolutely wrong and here we are.
Even Donald Trump wasn't that stupid.
How has President Biden done that?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
"Russia, or Putin if you prefer, appears to be confident that their primary objectives have been secured."
They've killed all of the neo-nazis? Oh goodie ... /S
According to the map, the Russians control the Sea of Azov and likely control Mariupol. The neo-Nazis Azov Regiment was responsible for recapturing Mariupol from Ukrainian separatists in 2014. The war in the Donbas region has spread westward to the lines established in 2014 following the Euromaidan insurrection.
The war in Ukraine won't end when Russian troops leave.
Actually, it's pretty much becoming a stalemate...Russian troops suffering severe losses and too disorganized and dispersed to occupy, much of their equipment captured or ruined, supply lines not keeping up. The Ukrainians will never give up. It's becoming apparent that Putin bit off more than he's going to be able to chew.
The question being, how long will it be beefore Putin's senior officers and the Russian people have had enough?
They are not occupying anything. They are laying cities to siege and pounding them into submission. This is standard Russian military tactics. One of these days they will learn the value of air superiority over ground forces.
How much of Ukraine will the Russians destroy in the meantime? I mean while the Russian military leaders ( who don't seem the brightest lot); and Russian people (who haven't taken Putin down for any of his other blunders)- decide to finally do the unthinkable?
Also given Russia's history of moving from moderate pro western reform leaders to more hard line ones (after the collapse of the Soviet Union until now)- what do you think is going to follow Putin. The US and NATO on their back doorstep; their military defeated; and their economy destroyed. Think they are really going to put someone in charge to kiss the West's ass? Or they going to go full on introverted; expunge those in the military and government that are too weak; and get ready to defend mother Russia from what they believe is the coming horde from the West? Given the way they fought Napoleon and Hitler I am betting on them turning Russia into a fortress; making sure anyone dumb enough to test them will pay for every foot of land taken; and letting the world know that they will end us if we even think about taking anything else from them.
Maybe they will prove me wrong and the leader that follows Putin will be weak and slow; and roll over politely to the West's wishes.
Russians advancing to the west isn't a stalemate. Russians encircling Kyiv isn't a stalemate. The Zelensky government has lost all the territory captured during the eight year war in the Donbas region. The territory under control of Ukrainian separatists has expanded and the separatists have been trained and supplied with Russian weapons. Putin is threatening a prolonged proxy war in Ukraine between the west and east.
A Russian withdrawal from Ukraine won't end the war.
Sounds heroic; but they have made every last house, every last street, and every last person left within the city a target. They were better off not advertising it.
One of these days the Russians will learn how to fight a war. You would think after watching the US/NATO take apart Serbia, Iraq, Syria, and Libya they would have learned how to do things. Destroy all the airfields; planes; hangars; towers; military bases and air defenses. Then move on to the trains, bridges, roads, and any major arteries that connect major hubs to one another and destroy them. Then take down the power plants (if they are nuclear destroy all the lines and junctions going out from them); then the backup plants; and finally the backup generators. Plunge them into complete darkness. When you start to run out of real military targets hit them where it hurts- the water works and lines than transport it throughout the city. This isn't about winning- this is about making life so miserable for the enemy that they take down whomever is in charge and hand them over to make the destruction stop. Great thing is that you don't need ground forces.
I am sure several of the top brass in the Russian military heads will roll over this disaster. Russian military really are slow learners; but by shear numbers- and Russian stubborn stupidity- they are finally doing what they should have done in the beginning.
As for the rest of the BS may the fascist Russians and the Ukrainian fascist and Nazi military and militias take each other out w/o destroying every last civilian, animal, and plant in the country.
The world won't get that lucky. Russia is nearing the beginning of the end. Just a matter of how much suffering and dead the Ukrainians can stand. The fact that he and the Russians are not talking is not a good sing. Maybe he thinks the US and NATO will come charging in at the last second to save them and defeat Russia. We can't risk Putin's threats about nuclear war. Biden needs to make that crystal clear to Zelensky. None of his normal meandering BS "US and the world stand with you!" What bullshit. The world isn't the ones fighting and dying in a war that in the end they will lose.
How much more debt will Biden be allowed to run up on the US taxpayer credit card to support NATO and/or another war? Who is going to pay this bill?