Ukraine Will Not Submit and Russia's Invasion is Stumbling

"Since the end of February there has been a notable intensification of Russian accusations that Ukraine is developing nuclear or biological weapons."

"These narratives are long-standing but are currently likely being amplified as part of a retrospective justification for Russia's invasion of Ukraine."

British Ministry of Defence statement

A member of Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces outside Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-biggest city, on Monday.SERGEY BOBOK/AFP via Getty Images

 

Ukraine, of course, gave up all its Soviet-era enriched uranium and bombs, handing it over to Russia in a mutual agreement. Ukraine's four nuclear plants, including the decommissioned Chornobyl plant are now the target of the invading Russian military. Ukraine's government has no interest in development of nuclear weapons, its plants are strictly for the production of domestic energy. It was the Russian military that potentially placed the area in danger by attacking the nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhya, causing a fire.

And at the Chornobyl nuclear plant seized by the Russian military, 100 plant workers and 200 Ukrainian guards are being held by the Russians. The plant workers performing the necessary work of maintaining safety protocols, essentially besieged, and carefully monitoring their food supplies as well, hoping that one meal daily will stretch out their food for as long as they are being kept in a trapped state. 

Russian propaganda informs the Russian people that Ukraine is a vipers' nest of neo-Nazis, fascist elements dangerous to their region of Europe and Russia has heroically tackled the problem of inhibiting their malign plans by removing the current government to replace it with one friendly to Moscow's values in a hostile world community. 

Supporters hold up signs during a rally protesting the Russian invasion of Ukraine at Lafayette Square across the White House in Washington, DC, on March 6, 2022. Daniel Slim | AFP | Getty Images

 

Over on that hostile continent of North America, U.S. Intelligence has concluded that the assault on Ukraine is set to intensify in view of military setbacks and the hardship to the Russian economy resulting from malevolent Western sanctions out to destroy Russia. According to intelligence estimates between 2,000 and 4,000 Russian troops have lost their lives in the conflict. 

"I think Putin is angry and frustrated right now. He's likely to double down and try to grind down the Ukrainian military with no regard for civilian casualties", stated the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, emphasizing that Russia is unlikely to back down. The U.S. director of National Intelligence stated "Our analysts assess that Putin is unlikely to be deterred by such setbacks [as sanctions and loss of servicemen] and instead may escalate."

 

And there are other losses and setbacks. In one week, two elite Russian generals have been killed. First to lose his life was Maj.Gen.Andrei Sukhovetsky, near Kyiv, by sniper fire. The second was Maj.Gen.Vitaly Gerasimov, chief of staff of the 41st Army, sent to the front lines "to impose his personality on to the battlefield" to reinfuse the stalled Russian advance with the ardour of determination.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during a press conference in Kyiv on March 3, 2022.   Sergei Supinsky | AFP | Getty Images

Fierce Ukrainian resistance added to flawed Russian planning and logistics have served to bog down Russia's invasion plans. To the present, Russia's tactics for Kharkiv have featured the avoidance of direct engagement on the battlefield with the Ukrainian forces, favouring instead the use of artillery and missile fire, pulverizing the city and incurring massive damage to civil infrastructure, while causing civilian injuries and deaths.

 

News of the general's death had been intercepted by the investigative journalism agency Belligcat. Russia, oblivious to the consequences to their own ability to use encrypted messaging services, had bombed communication towers. In so doing they maimed their communication capabilities. Equipped with secure phones allocated to the Russian army which now cannot work in areas where the army is operating. 

 

Forced to use easily intercepted communications devices, a leaked conversation between two members of Russia's FSB, successor to the KGB, who spoke of problems in the new encrypted messaging service. What is also known is that all Russian forces have now been committed to the military assault of Ukraine. Russian artillery continue to hit cities in the east, while missiles and explosions took place north of Kyiv.  

"The Kremlin spent the last 20 years trying to modernize its military. Much of that budget was stolen and spent on mega-yachts in Cyprus. But as a military advisor you cannot report that to the President. So they reported lies to him instead."

"So, in my opinion, he is rational. Given that he is rational, I strongly believe he will not intentionally use nuclear weapons against the West." 

"If Ukraine’s government cannot be kept independent and pro-Kremlin covertly, as he likely concluded, then he will overtly force it to be. He also started to believe his own propagandists that Ukraine is run by a Nazi-Bandera junta. Perfect pretext to “de-Nazify” Ukraine."

Andrey Kozyrev, former foreign minister under President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s 

Two Ukrainian servicemen speak atop a tank following a battle against Russian troops and Russia-backed separatists near Zolote village, Lugansk region on March 6, 2022.

Anatolii Stepanov | AFP | Getty Images