Gonzalo Lira is free again - for the moment. He was taken in the early PM of 15 April by the SBU and released a week later. They've kept his Internet devices. He cannot speak of what happened, as the SBU continue to look into his case. Which leads one to infer he could still be in trouble.
Gonzalo's credentials are today beyond dispute, and not only because he's been interviewed by Alex and Alexander of the Duran, or only because he's been interviewed by Eva Bartlett, but because he's on the ground behind enemy lines, so to speak, in Kharkov.
Gonzalo rises early. Today he published an extensive thread on his new Twitter account that was picked up by MoA.
Quick recap for those who haven't followed what's been going on in Ukraine but want to understand:
02/24: The Russians invaded from the south, south-east, east, and north, in a lightning campaign. The Russians invaded with 190 K troops—against 250 K combat troops from Ukraine.
The RF put 30 K troops near Kiev - nowhere near enough to capture the city - but enough to pin down some 100 K AFU defenders. The RF also launched several axes of attack, with reinforcements on standby (including a famed 40 km long tank column) to see where they might be needed.
Crucially, the Russians' blitz on several axes pre-empted an imminent UKRAINIAN blitzkrieg. The AFU had been about to invade the Donbass. This was the immediate motivation for Russia's invasion: To beat them to the punch and scuttle Ukraine's imminent invasion - which they did.
Also, by attacking from the north and south, the Russians disrupted weapons supply chains from NATO. Had the RF only attacked in the east to prevent the AFU invasion of Donbass, there would have been an open corridor for resupply from the West.
Threatening Kiev stopped that.
So the main AFU army was left stranded in east Ukraine, with the rest of the Ukr forces isolated and pinned down, with no easy resupply from the West. The RF then went about hitting AFU command/control and resupply links, further isolating and immobilising Ukrainian forces.
The Russians soon nominally controlled land the size of the UK in Ukraine - but it was a tenuous control. The south of Ukraine was more fully in Russia's grip. The AFU around Kherson simply scattered. Mariupol became a clear battleground, as did the Donbass proper.
What the Russians initially wanted was to:
Short-circuit the imminent Donbass invasion - which they did.
Scare the Zelensky regime into negotiating a political settlement - which they failed to do.
Kiev had no intention of negotiating a ceasefire because of orders given to them from Washington: “Fight Russia to the last Ukrainian!” Also, the Neo-Nazi goons around Zelensky threatened him if he negotiated and surrendered because they are terrified of the Russians.
(True. Yarosh threatened to hang Zelensky from a lamppost in Kiev in such case. And Zelensky’s benefactor and co-billionaire, right back to the days of that television comedy series, is a big sponsor of the Azov battalion.)
So Zelensky launched a massive PR and propaganda campaign, primarily to motivate AFU forces to fight to the death. Myths were created (Ghost of Kiev). False flags were carried out (Bucha, Kramatorsk). And media stories were flogged relentlessly.
The Russians kept negotiating and trying NOT to destroy Ukraine infrastructure. In fact at first they were even trying to minimise AFU casualties. The evidence for this is overwhelming: The RF did not hit civilian infrastructure - water, electric, phone, transportation. They did not hit AFU barracks, command centers, government buildings, etc.
(We know this to be true, and knew it back in the day. Gonzalo’s still in Kharkov, yet he and everyone there still have utilities and full Internet access.)
The Russians' initial priority was for a *negotiated settlement*. But, by late March, they realised this was impossible.
(Russia’s stated goal was to demilitarise and denazify. Anything else would have been untenable.)
This is why the RF withdrew from Kiev. There was no sense putting men near the city when they were not doing what they were supposed to do - putting political pressure on the Zelensky regime to negotiate. This withdrawal was claimed as a “victory” in the “Battle of Kiev”! lmao
Starting in late March, the Russians pulled back and solidified their control over the area they had captured, ceding to the AFU areas that were either pointless to or potentially too costly to control. The Ukraine propaganda machine called all these pull-backs “victories”.
There was still a glimmer that the war might end in a negotiated settlement, but that ended in early April. After the Istanbul talks of 3/30, the Ukraine side gingerly agreed to some compromises but within a week publicly disavowed those concessions.
That's when the Russians realised the Zelensky regime was agreement-incapable: Their Washington masters, Victoria Nuland and Anthony Blinken in particular, wouldn't allow a peace. They want this war to sap Russia dry. It is a classic proxy war and Ukraine will pay the price.
Something else the Russians realised: sanctions. They hurt but Russia bounced back with remarkable speed. They didn't really hurt that bad. But the theft of Russia's $300 billion in foreign reserves by the West DID hurt - badly. The Russians realised they were in a total war with the West, and since their foreign reserves were lost forever, likely to be pilfered by corrupt Western politicos, the Russians now have nothing left to lose. By stealing their reserves, the West lost all power over Russia.
(Not just an own-goal, but a hat trick of them by the West.)
This has sealed Ukraine's fate. The Russians now have no incentive to give up what they have conquered. It has cost them too much in terms of men and treasure. And they know that they can't negotiate a ceasefire. The Zelensky regime will simply break it later.
Which means:
The Russians intend to conquer and permanently annex all the south and east of Ukraine. This is why their strategy on the battlefield has dramatically shifted: Now they are carrying out a slow, methodical grinding-down and destruction of the AFU.
The war in the first 30 days was speed, feints, nominally capturing vast swathes of Ukraine territory, with the aim of pressuring the Zelensky regime into a negotiated settlement. But the West's total financial and political break with Russia means they have nothing to lose. And they have a lot to gain: the Donbass is mineral-rich, the really productive farmlands of Ukraine are in the east and south, Kharkov is a major industrial city, the Sea of Azov has untold natural gas reserves.
And besides: the people love them. Why would the Russians now give up this hard-won prize?
(The green? Possibly a reference to what Nazis did to folks at the Maidan?)
And they have won - make no mistake. Ask any military man who is not a system pig and he'll tell you: There is no way for the AFU to retake their country. They have no armour, no air defence, no fuel, no comms - it's over.
The great tragedy is that so many THOUSANDS of young men will die, and die NEEDLESSLY, in order to postpone the inevitable. These brave boys will have fought so valiantly and died so young, so cruelly, because of the evil of the Zelensky regime.
That's the hard truth.
And, in the end, this will be the map that will remain: a bitter image of Ukraine's future. Russia will pour billions into their newly acquired territory. It will prosper and flourish. But the rump-state of Ukraine will be left poor, destroyed, forgotten.
A tragedy.
b
Bernhard has importamt observations.
I concur with the above except for two minor details. The move on Kiev was not intended to hinder resupply to Ukrainian troops in Donbass but to 'fix' potential reinforcement around the capital. That enabled Russian troops to open the corridor from Crimea to the Russian border as well as to cross the Dnieper in the south and to take Kherson. Those were the most important moves for the further development of the war.
Sounds plausible.
I also do not believe that Russia will 'annex' the areas it is liberating from fascist control. Once liberated, the people in those areas will vote on becoming independent from Ukraine and the various regions. Donbas, Lugansk, Kherson, Odessa will form states that will become part of the Federal Republic of Novorossia.
Sounds irrefutable. Russia (Putin) doesn't want to expand like the ravenous US. They want to contain. They already have too much land and all the resources they need.
That country will be recognised and supported by Russia and its allies.
Of course.
Was this, at least in part, an attempt to salvage the hopeless US mid-term elections? Right after the bloody fiasco of Kabul people were muttering the incumbents would need a war, just like Bushie, to rally support. But whatever: it seems to have failed. And those in Washington have serious blood on their hands. They're soaked in it.
Strategic Culture
Further reading by former diplo Alistair Crooke:
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/04/25/the-dynamics-of-escalation-standing-with-ukraine/
The Russia-China axis possess food, energy, technology, and most of the world's key resources. History teaches that these elements make the winners in wars.
Russia won this one. Get over it. And the stakes are far wider than Europe's breadbasket. Even Mr G of the UN now cites the new multi-polar world. It's the sanctions that really hurt - and it's not Russia that's hurting.
As many of you have undoubtedly noticed.
Hold onto your hats.