Friday, June 17, 2022

Saving Ukraine From Itself: Russia's Special Operations Mission

"We were out on a mission and the whole thing went absolutely crazy, with bad intel. We were told the town was clear when it turned out the Russians were already assaulting it."
"They came down the road with two T-72 tanks, multiple BMP-3s [armoured fighting vehicles] and about 100 infantry. The only thing that was there was our ten-man squad."
"Everybody took cover waiting for one of the tanks to hit the anti-tank mine, but Alex and Andy saw a BMP-3 coming from another direction through the woods and realized that it would kill most of us. They opened fire and took it out with their first shot." 
"Afterwards, we sent drones up and had a Ukrainian search team on the ground but we found nothing."
"If they had been hit by the tank shell, there would have been remains of their bodies or equipment."
Unnamed (anonymous for self-protection) former U.S. serviceman volunteer with Ukrainian military

"The United States is providing another $1 billion in security assistance for Ukraine, including additional artillery and coastal defence weapons, as well as ammunition for the artillery and advanced rocket systems."
U.S. President Joe Biden

"[Western countries were] fighting a proxy war with Russia."
"I would like to say to the western countries supplying weaponry to Ukraine -- the blood of civilians is on your hands."
Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia
U.S. army soldiers line up at the Vay Adam Military Training Base near Hajduhadhaz, northeastern Hungary, Wednesday, June 15, 2022. The American unit carries out a joint patrol with Hungarian troops in County Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg bordering Ukraine. Zsolt Czegledi/MTI via AP/TASS
 
Moscow has no tolerance for Western nations and Ukraine's concerned neighbours expressing solidarity with its plight and supplying it with humanitarian aid along with lethal military weaponry geared to coming as close to matching superior Russian armaments as possible, without the fear of triggering a broader conflict. Vladimir Putin has the impression that the West is out to get Russia and him in particular, when all he is doing is trying desperately to save Ukraine from itself.

And in that vein of comradely concern for a neighbour's well-being and future prospects, it has offered Ukraine Russian services in ridding the country of its Western-oriented, democratic-inspired sovereignty riddled with fascism, as opposed to the Russian Federation's superior autocratic system of government that is willing to sacrifice itself to the extent of welcoming Ukraine back into the fold of subservient state as of old under the Soviet Union.

Moscow has let it be known that foreign 'mercenaries' fighting with Ukrainians as international interlopers in Russia's 'special operations' will not be treated as prisoners of war, but when captured will face capital punishment for their crimes of Ukrainian defence. The West, in supplying Ukraine with lethal weapons has been alerted to the fact that should any of those weapons result in harm to Russia, it would warrant a Russian attack against the country whose weapons breached Russian sovereignty.

And just as U.S. President Biden, in speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy divulged plans to supply new, more powerful and longer-range rockets to the Ukrainian military, outgunned and outmanned by the Russian military, Russian media has revealed the capture by Russian troops of three American ex-military volunteers fighting alongside the Ukrainian military against Russia. In this instance it seems far more likely that Moscow will negotiate their release to the U.S. for Russian concessions inimical to Ukraine.

While the West is engaged in providing Ukraine with humanitarian aid in safe drinking water, critical medical supplies and health care, food, shelter and cash, Moscow plots to undermine global support for a country it is destroying, bit by bit. The American volunteers captured by Russian troops are now a bargaining tool. Alexander Drueke, 39 and Andy Huynh, 27 were attached to a regular Ukrainian army unit. Enabling the Kremlin to make the charge that the United States is now directly involved on the ground in support of Ukraine against Russia.

The captured Americans were engaged in the village of Izbytske, a mere five miles from the Russian border, northeast of Kharkiv, captured by Russia. The unit they were with had received information that the town was clear but the reality was that it was under assault by Russian troops. On realizing the situation the squad retreated to set up defensive positions and put down an anti-tank mine to greet advancing Russian T72s where Drueke and Huynh manned a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

When they shot at an oncoming BMP-3 it drew the attention of a T72 tank, which then fired in their direction, missing them but knocked them out with its blast. The tank was hit by one of the anti-tank mines and the two Americans disappeared in the fog of battle, thought to have been captured by  Russian infantry soldiers. The crew realized when they saw a message later that night of two American servicemen taken prisoner: "It is too much of a coincidence -- we are the only Americans fighting in this area".

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba spoke to Secretary of State Antony Blinken from Kyiv, thanking him for the "crucial military assistance. (I) emphasized that we urgently need more heavy weapons delivered more regularly", he added, in line with Ukraine pressing the U.S and other western nations for deliveries of badly needed weapons needed to fend off increased pressure from Russia in the eastern Donbas.


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posted by Pieface @ Friday, June 17, 2022

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