Ukraine — The Shifting Narrative
Something remarkable happened last Sunday night. In a dispatch from Pokrovsk, the BBC reported on the terrible conditions faced by Ukrainian soldiers as Russia advanced on this mining city, about 37 miles north-west of the regional capital, Donetsk. It reported that medics are treating increasing numbers of wounded soldiers, being brought in after dusk to avoid attacks by Russian drones.
What particularly caught my attention was the BBC’s admission that the Russians are gaining territory rapidly. “Since Russia captured the city of Avdiivka in February, the speed of its advance in the Donestk region has been swift. At the start of October, it captured the key city of Vuhledar”.
This is information which close followers of Russia’s incursion are fully aware of, but mainstream media, presumably under pressure from government defence and intelligence sources has withheld this truth from the general public until now. This was followed by an article on Monday morning in the Daily Telegraph about military recruiters launching targeted raids on restaurants, shopping centres, and a rock concert detaining men and press-ganging them into the army. Again, we know that this has been happening for some time, but it is notable that the Telegraph which faithfully reports the defence ministry’s line appeared to be going off-message.
It was only a little more than a month ago that Bill Burns, Director of the CIA shared a platform with Richard Moore, head of MI6 in an interview arranged by the Financial Times. With respect to the Kursk offensive, Moore said:
“The Ukrainians by going in and taking Kursk really brought the war home to ordinary Russians. Since he has gone into this War 2 1/2 years ago not only has he seen things like NATO get two more members, he’s now lost a part of his own territory.”
Burns followed this up by saying,
“What you see first as Richard said is the Kursk offence is a significant tactical achievement. It’s not only been a boost in Ukrainian morale, it has exposed some of the vulnerabilities of Putin’s Russia and of his military.”
Admittedly, Burns and Moore are not military strategists. But it was surely obvious that to remove much needed troops from the Eastern front to invade sparsely populated Kursk which contained little more than farmland was a tactical blunder. The fact that there was no air cover and supply lines were stretched compounded the error. The Russians were able to cut off the invaders and have been picking them off, including any covert NATO advisors and military on the ground.
The FT’s interview was about a month after Kursk was invaded by U
Article from LewRockwell
LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.