WAITING
THE COUNTER-OFFENSIVE
When, How and From
Where Will the Kiev Counteroffensive Come? Rambling through the streets of
Novorosiyya
By Sir Charlattam
A stroll through St. Petersburg was just what I needed. I am talking about the legendary Russian city on the Baltic Sea. It had been several years since I had boarded a plane to visit old Russia and what better time than now. When I arrived and wandered through its streets I realised that the publicists of the collective West should pay a visit to clear their heads of the information toxicity of the companies that pay their salaries and see up close the reality that is not as they tell it.
Admittedly, that was
the quiet, touristy part of my trip. What mattered most was to see with my own
eyes the situation in the hot zone. I was motivated to walk through the Slavic
territories of historic Novorossiya (New Russia) liberated by the Special
Military Operation and see for myself what the terrain looks like in the face
of the much-heralded counteroffensive that Kiev and its Anglo-American backers
were preparing just beyond the horizon.
After travelling by van
through one of the settlements near Lisichansk in the Lugansk Oblast, it is
still necessary to go around certain roads or simply go down and continue on
foot through the mud that saturates the roads. Looking out over an expanse
where you lose sight of it, it would seem easy for brigades of NATO “donated”
tanks and ARES armoured personnel carriers, FV103 Spartans and old
British-built FV430s to speed through the yellowing fields, supported by air
assistance. It sounds easy, but it is not.
Of course, for such a
thing to happen (if that were the plan), the roads would have to be dry and the
vanguard would also have to be well equipped with anti-tank systems. This is
probably why the Pentagon signed a juicy $7.2 billion contract with Raytheon
and Lockheed to supply some 4,000 Javelin missiles a year.
I couldn't help
thinking that while we were walking with a LPR militia patrol, NATO satellites
and their stationary high-altitude drones are 24/7 scanning the whole
territory. I know. Their technology has been an advantage they exploited with
small Arab and Latin American countries, but here it is different. This is
Russia and unlike those countries it can strike back even before Brussels and
Washington have given the order.
We should not lose
sight of the fact that the US administration has invested the not inconsiderable
sum of 160 billion dollars to finance (in addition to the luxuries, cars,
prostitutes and cocaine of its officials) the war apparatus of the
ultra-nationalist regime in Kiev. Of course, into that account go the millions
of British pounds and a substantial stock of Javelin missiles paid for out of
the taxes of British citizens. Charming indeed! Don't you think so?
The morale of the
Lugansk fighters is high and they know that Kiev and its sponsors' military
advisers are preparing for a desperate onslaught, but they are prepared and
confident that they will not do it head-on. That was a point of view that
struck me and so I asked, "How do you think they will do it? All I got was
a few laughs and that was it. The attitude is understandable and even though
they know my position, they are not going to risk it.
Even though we
continued our excursion, I couldn't get what I had been told out of my head and
began to ponder the point. A Blitzkrieg sounds rather old-fashioned in today's
military reality. A wave of thousands of tanks all breaking through at the same
time along the entire front for thousands of kilometres is impossible. If so, a
significant section of that spearhead would have to cross the Dnieper River and
many of the donated armour would not float. That begs the question: who will
provide the bridges or the armoured vehicles that can cross it?
Another problem with
this idea is where will so many Ukrainian tankers come from? Nowhere, as most
of the regular crews are either dead or prisoners. Add to this the fact that it
will not be the old Soviet-era T-72s but Bradley tanks, Abrams and Leopards,
and the number of trained tankers is much smaller. Although it should not be
ruled out that crews were already being trained even before the war in the US
and obviously in Britain. With regard to the latter, it would not be surprising
if Ukrainians in British uniforms were being trained in any of the three
armoured regiments.
Undoubtedly, many of
these vehicles will be manned by NATO troops who, while wearing Ukrainian
uniforms, are foreigners in camouflage.
Such an offensive would
require substantial air cover unless NATO creates a naval diversion in the
Black Sea that forces a significant part of Russia's aerospace force to come in
support of its fleet. Such a trick would be an amphibious mobilisation that
looks like preparations to invade Crimea by sea. Another possibility would be to create
movements at air bases in Poland and Romania that would give the appearance of
preparations for a massive incursion into Ukraine, or even to put false radar
echoes in the air that would give the impression of an air strike from unexpected
directions.
NATO assets could also
conduct massive movements of artillery pieces to give the appearance of
providing cover for an imminent attack.
In reality, whatever
stratagem the Kiev regime employs, it is clear that it will not be without
NATO's superlative assistance, making its interference in the hostilities
politically no longer excusable and allowing Moscow to draw on its strategic
nuclear assets to ward off and defend against an imminent threat to its
national security.