The propaganda flooding Western media about the situation on the ground in Ukraine surpasses anything I have seen in my 67 years of waddling around the world. Consider this whopper. Did you know that NATO is the big winner with respect to the war in Ukraine? (Before reading the following paragraph, please put on a neck brace to minimize your risk of whiplash.)
Without firing a shot, NATO is emerging as a winner from the Ukraine war as Russia’s invading force stumbles and nations clamor to join the Western alliance. . . .
Throughout the year’s fog of war, NATO leaders have walked that fine line, staying out of the business of lethal military aid for nonmember Ukraine, and playing to their strength as a forum for coordination instead. The alliance has, however, delivered communications and jamming equipment. . . .
Even with Ukraine doing the shooting, the benefits of a weakened Russia have not been lost on the alliance. According to one NATO official, who spoke on condition of anonymity while discussing internal deliberations, there is an acknowledgment in Brussels that members can choose to accept more risk when they reach deep into their arsenals to scrounge up equipment for Ukraine previously retained for self-defense. . . .
On the ground, a more concrete conundrum is beginning to present itself: Ukraine and its backers are running out of ammunition.
Several Western officials recently cited a rough statistic for artillery rounds, ascribed to Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, that goes something like this: Ukrainian guns are firing in one week what the West can produce in a month.
https://www.defensenews.com/outlook/2022/12/05/at-arms-length-nato-juggles-conflicts-from-ukraine-to-the-balkans/Did you catch the contradictions? The authors initially insist that NATO is not providing lethal aid (NATO leaders have walked that fine line, staying out of the business of lethal military aid for nonmember Ukraine). But then, in the penultimate paragraph, we are told that, “Ukraine and its backers are running out of ammunition.” I wonder who those “BACKERS” are? Could it be NATO and the United States? Last I checked “ammunition” counts as lethal military aid.
Tom Kington and Sebastian Sprenger, the authors of this piece of fantasy, should be indicted for journalistic incompetence. Are they bereft of an editor? If NATO and the United States are “running out of ammunition” then how does that constitute a win for NATO? That sounds more like a Russian victory. If Kington and Sprenger had a functioning brain between them, they might have noted that Russia is firing in one day what the West can produce in a month.
I suppose there is another way to look at this article — perhaps it is an indicator that NATO is looking for an exit strategy from Ukraine and may be contemplating declaring victory and moving on. It is not just the shortage of logistics, including weapons and ammunition, that is hampering Ukrainian operations. Ukrainian troops are suffering catastrophic casualties.
Russia’s use of sustained artillery fires on entrenched Ukrainian troops in places like Bakhmut and Soledar is taking a toll that is being counted in the thousands. It appears that for every single Russian casualty there are 10 Ukrainians killed or wounded. Take a look at this letter notifying prospective patients who had planned elective surgery in Kiev to stay home:
Scheduled hospital admissions have been halted in Kiev since 2 December on the orders of the Kiev administration.
The reason is the huge number of wounded coming from Bakhmut.
According to an eyewitness, a journalist for the major Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, more than 100 seriously wounded Ukrainian soldiers are being admitted to one hospital evacuation point alone.
A further indicator that the United States has entered the desperation phase is the promise to send Patriot Missile batteries to Ukraine. The Patriot is useful for one thing — decommission it and stash it in a park or a town square as a past symbol of U.S. military prowess. The Patriot is completely useless as a defense system against cruise and hypersonic missiles. Just ask the Saudis. Their Patriot system could not stop attacks launched by the Houthis in Yemen. If you want more particulars go read Andrei Martyanov’s recent piece, About Patriots.
Here is Brian Berletic’s review of the Patriot Missile system.