The current controversy filled with disinformation comes with the Ukrainian casualty numbers likely closer to but still surpassed by the Russian casualty numbers. As noted elsewhere, while artillery counts, the ammunition supplies and associated logistics are likely more important. The disinformation continues apace with Putin projecting his affinity with Peter the Great.
"In early May, the loss of Russian artillery has noticeably increased. This may have several explanations. First, the Russians began to rely more on the artillery firepower and consequently lost more as a result of counter-battery fire strikes. Second, the Ukrainian armed forces have become more effective in destroying Russian guns thanks to the long-range howitzers received from the western allies and the regular supply of shells and projectiles, as well as counterbattery radars, that were previously scarce." texty.org.ua/...
For the theoretical underpinnings of Putin’s geopolitical perspectives on a Russian exceptionalism that also demonstrates the overlap with Steve Bannon’s peculiar brand of fascist traditionalism:
online English version of Foundations of Geopolitics (Основы геополитики / Osnovy Geopolitiki), by author Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin.
Dugin’s neo-Eurasianist vision of Ukraine is particularly chilling in the light of Ukraine’s present resistance. He claims that “Ukraine as a State has no geopolitical meaning, no universal significance, no geographic uniqueness, no ethnic exclusiveness, its territorial ambitions represent an enormous danger for all of Eurasia.”
Also, part of his neo-Eurasianist vision is the notion that Moldova and Finland should become part of Russia, which is equally chilling in the light of Finland’s recent application to join NATO and the British Foreign Secretary’s suggestion that Moldova should be ‘equipped to NATO standard’ to guard against the threat of a Russian invasion.
redactionpolitics.com/…
Telegram:
Russia’s Interests: a Multipolar World
Now what are Russia’s interests and values in this fundamental conflict?
First, geopolitical interests. Russia categorically rejects globalism, a unipolar world, and Western hegemony. In practice, this means hard resistance to NATO’s eastward expansion and to all other forms of Western pressure on Russia. Moscow is building a multipolar world in which it is reclaiming its place as an independent and sovereign pole. It is supported in this by Beijing and a number of Islamic and Latin American countries. India is also drifting to a similar world order model. Later on, everyone else – including the countries of Europe and America – will be convinced of the attractiveness, validity and inevitability of such a construction.
For the Russian geopolitical interests to be realized, anti-Russia must not exist on the territory of Ukraine. And seen from the point of view of the West, it’s the quite opposite, because the West created this anti-Russia precisely to not let it happen. So, we have a fundamental conflict of interests, which Russia tried to resolve peacefully, but it didn’t work out. Hence the new tough phase.
Atlantism vs. Eurasianism is the final battle in the territory of Ukraine. This is a classic position of geopolitical theory from Mackinder to Putin. As Brzezinski (rather correctly) put it in the 1990s: “Without Ukraine, Russia will never rise again”. And with Ukraine it will, the strategists in Moscow decided correctly.
“In short, Dugin and Putin’s Eurasianism are a satanic cult and Dugin believes that Ukraine is a condition for Eurasia.”
-Russian Political Scientist Andrei Piontkovsky
President Vladimir Putin, who has often invoked history to stoke nationalist sentiments, compared himself to Peter the Great, the emperor who expanded Russian territory in the 18th century through protracted conflict, in remarks that underscored his revanchist ambitions.
In an address to Russian entrepreneurs Thursday — the 350th anniversary of Peter’s birth — Putin appeared to link his bloody invasion of Ukraine and Russia’s imperial past. Putin, whose hometown of St. Petersburg bears the czar’s name, praised Peter’s empire building and suggested that land taken by the czar rightfully belonged to Russia.
Peter dramatically expanded the contours of his rule, turning Russia into an empire and declaring himself an emperor. At the turn of the 18th century, he launched the Great Northern War, a two-decade-plus conflict with the Swedish Empire that ended in Russia’s takeover of a swath of the Baltics.
“What was [Peter] doing?” Putin asked Thursday, according to the Associated Press. “Taking back and reinforcing. That’s what he did. And it looks like it fell on us to take back and reinforce as well.” The comments were widely seen as a reference to Putin’s attack on Ukraine, which he has long viewed as part of Russia’s sphere of influence.
The czar, whose legacy is broadly popular with the Russian public, is the model autocratic leader that Putin has long aspired to be, said Kyle Wilson, who served as an Australian diplomat in the Soviet Union.
Putin has made it clear that he is “about reliving the Russian imperial dream,” Wilson said. “And the man who made Russia into an imperial empire was Peter the Great.”
The czar will “live as long as his cause is alive,” Putin told Britain’s Financial Times newspaper in a 2019 interview.
www.washingtonpost.com/...
Ukraine, on the brink of losing the eastern region of Luhansk to Russia, is warning that its outgunned military desperately needs faster deliveries of Western arms. Fierce street fighting is continuing in the strategic city of Severodonetsk, but “most of the city is controlled by Russians,” the Luhansk governor said Saturday. An adviser to Ukraine’s government said its forces could respond with only about one artillery round for every 10 fired by Russia.
The fighting continues despite about 10,000 Ukrainian soldiers already having died during the invasion, a Ukrainian military adviser said Saturday. Ukraine recently noted that between 100 and 200 soldiers are killed each day.
Meanwhile, President Biden said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky “didn’t want to hear” U.S. warnings of a potential Russian attack before the invasion began, according to the Associated Press. Ukrainian officials have objected to Biden’s claim.
Here’s what else to know
- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen met with Zelensky in Kyiv on Saturday to discuss Ukraine’s E.U. candidacy, ahead of an expected recommendation from the commission on Ukraine’s status next week.
- Speaking via video at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a key annual security summit in Singapore, Zelensky said that it’s “too late” to persuade Russia to end its invasion, saying it’s up to the world to put Russia “in its place.”
- Ukraine’s attorney general said the deaths of 24 more children have been recorded in the southern city of Mariupol, bringing the confirmed number of children killed in Ukraine since the war began to 287. The United Nations says it has confirmed the deaths of 274 children. Both totals have been acknowledged as incomplete.
Here are updates from across the country:
Severodonetsk: Russian reserve forces have joined the battle for the besieged city, one of Ukraine’s last holdouts in the Luhansk region, the Ukrainian military said Saturday. Invaders now control most of the city as battles continue over the Bakhmut-Lysychansk highway and the Azot industrial zone, where a fire broke out. Both sides are likely to be suffering high numbers of casualties during street fighting, according to the British Defense Ministry.
www.washingtonpost.com/...
Elsewhere in Donbas: Russian shelling damaged power lines in the northern part of the Donetsk region, forcing the shutdown of electricity substations and leaving people without power in some of the area’s biggest cities, including Kramatorsk, Slovyansk, Kostiantynivka, Bakhmut and Druzhkivka, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram.
www.washingtonpost.com/...
Slovyansk: Russian forces are advancing toward this city in the Donetsk region, where they have made minor gains north of the city. The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War forecasts that successfully attacking Slovyansk will be difficult due to challenges crossing the Siverskyi Donets river.
www.washingtonpost.com/...
Kherson: In Russian-controlled Kherson, Ukrainian forces have made progress in their counterattack against Russian forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday. Ukrainian forces recaptured the village of Tavriis’ke, and there was “certain success” in the Zaporizhzhia region, too, he said.
www.washingtonpost.com/...