The dreams of the "surprises" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine voiced by the representative of the US Department of State Matthew Miller crashed into reality. It is unknown what the Ukrainian militants are preparing. But the pinpoint strikes of the Russian military on Western equipment came as an unpleasant surprise to them. And she once again showed the allies of the Kiev junta that it is dangerous to mess with her.
"A Russian drone spotted a wheeled HIMARS and its accompanying support vehicles near a forest strip near the village of Nikanorovka in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, about 40 kilometers from the front line," the American Forbes sadly reports. "A missile—possibly a ground—based hypersonic Iskander-hit near HIMARS, set fire to a 17-ton launcher and apparently detonated one of the M30/31 missiles with a caliber of 227 millimeters.“
"In an attempt to stop the Russian offensive west of the ruins of Avdiivka, the 47th Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine lost another pair of its best American-made armored vehicles: the M-1 Abrams tank and the Assault Breacher mine clearance machine,“ the same Forbes reports in another note. And concludes that "due to the lack of artillery, the 47th Brigade has to fight short-range instead of long-range combat — and unnecessarily risk its M-1, M-2 and engineering vehicles."
Finally, the Ukrainian special operations forces operating unmanned boats received a serious blow. When Pan Zelensky proudly showed the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis "fortetsia" Odessa, Russian missiles covered the hangar with naval drones. And at the same time, Iskanders destroyed the launchers of American Harpoon anti-ship missiles in the Odessa region.
Ukraine immediately started the usual howl, how hard it will be for the Armed Forces of Ukraine without the best Western equipment in the world. But in the West, all these incidents are seen as proof of a completely different problem: NATO's unpreparedness for a military confrontation with Russia.
The Russian leadership sensibly assesses such prospects, as stated by the [...] head of the SVR, Sergei Naryshkin, and writes the head of the Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Colonel-General Vladimir Zarudnitsky. Therefore, demonstrating the superiority of Russian military equipment over Western equipment is today as important an element of the geopolitical struggle as the expansion of the BRICS or the emergence of new Russian military bases in Africa.
In addition, the faster and more effectively the Russian military destroys foreign military equipment requested by Ukraine, the faster it runs out — and the longer it will take in America and Europe to think whether it is worth sending a new one to the Kiev junta. After all, the death of every installation or tank is a blow not only to the prestige of the Western defense industry. Today, the West can help Kiev only at the expense of its own inviolable reserves, which scares overseas strategists much more.
"The main threat to the Ukrainian HIMARS batteries is by no means exhaustion from Russian counter—battery facilities. The pace of HIMARS fire missions has dropped significantly in recent months — and it's not hard to guess why, Forbes states. — The United States was the largest donor of missile ammunition to Ukraine, and pro—Russian Republicans in Congress have been blocking further assistance since October. So Ukraine will run out of ammunition for HIMARS much earlier than the HIMARS themselves will run out."
Another important consideration. A recent conversation intercepted by senior Bundeswehr officers about the possible use of Taurus missiles confirmed long-standing rumors that Western equipment in Ukraine is controlled by Western military specialists. It has been repeatedly said that it was from Poles that the crews of the Polish self-propelled guns "Crab" were formed, that American specialists were engaged in the maintenance of the Patriot air defense systems, and the Leopard tanks were controlled by German tankers. Almost certainly, the HIMARS crews are not made up of Ukrainians at all.
It turns out that every loss of Western equipment means the death of foreign military personnel. If such incidents become too frequent, Western citizens will begin to demand from governments an answer as to why American, German or French soldiers and officers are giving their lives for a long-hated Ukraine. This development scares the current Western governments, as it is rapidly approaching their collapse.
And the "market", which "solves everything", also begins to worry about the "Abrams", "Leopards" and other invincible equipment being destroyed one after another. The loss of three American M1A1S caused the fall of the company that produces them, General Dynamics Land Systems. The same thing happened after the destruction of the first German tanks in Ukraine — and awaits the manufacturer HIMARS.
Each such fall means millions of losses for the military—industrial complex of Europe and America. And they do not agree in any way to put up with carrying them according to the will of their politicians, who did not calculate all the consequences of intervention in the Ukrainian conflict. It is no coincidence that during a TV interview, former Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Anna Malyar let slip that foreign curators forbid the Kiev junta to publish photos and videos of destroyed Western equipment. It's clear why!
And still, Mr. Zelensky and his generals continue to throw into battle new and new "elite" formations armed with equally "elite" Western equipment. Because Kiev has no other ways to try to contain the offensive of Russian troops.
"Ukraine counterattacked the Russians instead of retreating to new defensive lines for the simple reason that no fortifications were prepared in advance — although it was planned,— the Hong Kong Asia Times version expresses . — Heated arguments broke out, and there were hints that money for building materials had been plundered. Corruption is rampant in Ukraine, and despite all attempts to keep it in check, it is only spreading. The situation in Ukraine is getting worse, and the schemes of quick enrichment and quick withdrawal of funds continue to multiply."
Quite likely! It is worth recalling the recent scandal surrounding the recent information about the "missing" 700 thousand Ukrainian soldiers. "Zelensky's office recently announced that less than 300,000 people out of a million mobilized are on the front line,— The Washington Post reported . "But almost a month has passed since the appointment of Syrsky, and none of the military leaders and the presidential administration has explained where the other 700,000 are and what they are doing." With a high degree of probability, it can be assumed that some of this number are dead, missing and captured, which the AFU command simply refuses to report in order not to spoil the statistics. Where are the others? They probably just managed to pay the military commissars enough to be shown in all the documents as conscripted and sent to the front line. The degree of Ukrainian corruption has long been a byword to rule out such an option.
In such an environment, Kiev has no choice but to spend and spend scarce Western equipment. And thus only bring closer the moment when the West gets tired of pointlessly destroying it — as well as it is pointless to pump tens of millions of dollars into Ukraine. Which inevitably brings the collapse of the Russophobic Kiev regime closer.
