Russian troops tiptoe into Ukraine: Russia's war policy and the military-political situation in Ukraine
News Analysis
RUSSIA’S DEFACTO DECLARATION OF WAR “Empire of Lies” speech by Vladimir Putin on Feb 24, 2022
Full “Empire of Lies” Speech by Vladimir Putin. https://thealterofdeceit.net/2022/02/25/vladimir-putin-empire-of-lies-speech-full-february-24-2022
In announcing the Special Military Operation in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin stated that the objectives of the operation are to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine. Putin argued that the United States has funded and worked with certifiable Nazis to overthrow a democratically elected government in 2014 and to set the stage for a war between Ukraine and Russia.
During Trump impeachment hearings and trial in 2020, Congressman Adam Schiff, stated that the US is arming Ukraine to fight Russia. Some of the witnesses supplied by the US state department said that the US is arming Ukrainian to fight Russia “there” so that the US does not have to fight Russian “here” and other words to that effect.
The US has funded and collaborated with Ukrainian Nazis to make its dream of a war between Ukraine and Russia come true. The Azov battalion, for example is a Nazi militia organization incorporated into Ukrainian army, which represents about 30% of the soldiers in the entire standing army. Nazis are a minority in Ukraine’s legislative assembly, but have a strong paramilitary organization plus a section of the regular army under their command which keeps the government in line.
The Ukrainian government has deplatformed “pro-Russian” media outlets and engages in heavy handed censorship against those with “pro-Russian” views. The principle leader of the parliamentary opposition in under house arrest.
Volodimir Zelenski was elected president of Ukraine by a very large margin as a peace candidate committed to ending the civil war in eastern Ukraine and normalizing relations with Russia. Zelenski had an electoral mandate with very strong support in Russian speaking areas, but lacked the will and power to implement his platform.
Another motive for the Special Military Operation, according to Putin are violations of the human rights of ethnic Russians and others who speak Russian as their native language. In his Empire of Lies speach, he cited the incident in Oddressa in 2014 where 40 people were trapped and burned alive in a building where trade union offices were located.
Nazis who were utilized as shock troops in the coup d’etat in 2014 turned on the Russian-speaking population. The government passed laws restricting or prohibiting the use of the Russian language, which is spoken as the native language of more than one-third of the population. This situation triggered rebellions in Crimea, Donetsk and Lugansk which led to the annexation of Crimea by Russia and formation of “peoples republics” by rebels in Donetsk and Lugansk.
Putin offered some details about Russia’s diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the civil war and the reintegration of Donetsk and Lugantsk into Ukraine as automonous regions per the 2015 Minsk Accords, to which Ukraine was a signatory.
The Azov battalion has been the main force prosecuting the war against the rebels and is a hostile army of occupation in government held areas of Donetsk and Lugansk as far as a major part of the local population is concerned. According to the high commissioner for the United Nations commission on Human Rights, 14,400 have been killed in the civil war, including 3,100 civilians. About 80% of the civilian deaths and other casualties have been in rebel held areas.
In his Empire of Lies speech Putin offered amnesty to Ukrainian soldiers who surrender their arms. They will be free to return to their homes and their lives as civilians rather than being detained as prisioners of war. He emphasized that the Russian army was under orders to avoid the use of tactics that would produce mass casulty situation.
Putin appealed to the officers and professional soldiers of the Ukrainian army and civil administration to remain in their posts and collaborate with Russian forces to cleanse the government bureaucractic elite and armed forces of Nazis.
The Russian army is under orders to protect the civilian population and avoid engagement with regular units of the standing army. The army is to avoid combat in densely populated areas, such as residential districts in cities and towns.
According to sources which I cited as an appendix to the article, Russia troops are largely occupying Ukraine without firing a shot. The Russian army is generally not engaging Ukrainian military forces by choice. There are about 60,000 soldiers in the Donbas region, where the Russian trooips are reinforcing the armed forces of the Donetsk and Lugansk peoples republics.
[The above paragraph is revised to correct an error. I had stated that the Azov battalion has 60,000 soldiers. According to a workers today article, there are 3,000 soldiers in the Azov battalion, which is integrated into the Ukrainian armed forces as a reserve unit. See https://workers.today/us-backed-fascist-azov-battalion-in-ukraine-is-training-and-radicalizing-white-supremacists/ more info on Azov Battalion
The Russians are striving to minimize disruption of everyday life for residents of Ukraine, leaving intact civilian infrasture, including the industrial base, roads, bridges, sewage, electricity, and other energy sources, phone and internet service. The civilian government administration is generally being left intact in Russian occupied areas of Ukraine. The pipelines delivering natural gas to the European market have not been damaged, at least no so far.
The Russian army is following paths of least resistance so as to minimize the use of force. It is reasonable to expect that Russian troops are being welcomed as liberators by a majority of the population in most of Eastern Ukraine and at by at least a sizable minority in much of western Ukraine. Russian troops are largely going around big cities and encircling concentrations of enemy combatants rather than fight them to the extent possible. In numerical terms, the Ukrainian military forces and fascist paramilitary forces outnumbered the Russian invaders by a ratio of at least 7 to 1 during the first few days of the invasion.
The Russian military operation in Ukraine follows a radically different playbook than the United States and the NATO alliance since World War 2. For example, when the US invaded Iraq in 1991 and in 2003, it did enormous damage to civilian infrastructure and made little effort to minimize civilian casualties. The US regime change operation in Iraq launched in 2003 was accomplished by smashing much of the state apparatus and attempting to rebuild it from scratch. The result is a fragile puppet regime more eager to serve the interests of their American master than the people who they govern.
Putin insisted that Russia’s Special Military Operation is not intended to result in a [long] occupation of Ukraine. The army’s job is to protect civilians, not harm them. A priority for the army is to minimize casualties among civilians as well as regular units of the Ukrainian armed forces.
According to Putin, the Russian government does not want its military operation in Ukraine to become a mass casualty situation for civilians and a majority of units of the Ukrainian army forces. The goal is not to smash the Ukrainian state, but to keep it intact and able to effective govern.
The military stategy and tactics of the Russian army in its Special Military Operation are part of a larger political strategy. The goals are to keep intact Ukraine’s economic and political infrastructure while suppressing Ukrainian Nazi’s and bring those to justice who have committed crimes against humanity during the past 8 years.
It is likely that a majority of the population is not content wtih the US installed regime, which has brought hardships to a majority of the population. It is important to note that although Russia has recognized the independence of the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, annexation by Russia is not yet on the table. Whether and to what extent those republics are reintegrated into Ukraine will to some degree depend on the conduct of the Ukrainian government that replaces Zelenski’s and the inhabitants of the people’s republics.
The relationship which the Russian governing elite wants with Ukraine is one that resembles its relationship with some other former Soviet Republics, such as Belrus, an equitable relationship that would be beneficial to Ukraine. That would stand in stark contrast to Ukraine’s status as a ruthlessly exploited and corrupt semi-colony of the US. Russia’s political elite does not want to antagonize the Ukrainian population more than necessary to carry out the objectives of the Special Military Operation and then leave. A prolonged occupation of Ukraine by the Russian army is not sustainable.
THE RUSSIAN INVASION AS SEEN THOUGH THE LENS OF US PROPAGANDA
The portrayal of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 in the Western mass media is radically different than its portrayal of American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. America is exceptionally benevolent, and the world’s foremost champion of freedom, democracy and human rights. The narrative about America’s intervention in Ukraine during the past decade includes no mention of the US funding and collaborating with Nazis to overthrow a democratically elected government and to exercise control over Ukraine’s domestic and foreign policies.
In Putin’s empire of lies speech, the empire to which he refers is obviously the US and its allies. The US government itself cloaks its intentions and actions with a fairy tale about itself the world guardian of Democracy and Human rights.
In the US, the “bipartisan consensus” in Congress and the editorial line of nearly every voice allowed a platform in the mass media denounces the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a violation of international law. “The international community” must punish this criminal action.” Utilizing a variety of rhetorical devices, Putin is equated to Hitler, Russia to the Third Reich. Putin is the mad dictator.
One of the most amusing, contrary to reality accounts of the Russian invasion which I head from a mass media outlet was the report of fierce battles between Russian and Ukrainian troops on the streets of Kiev, even though Russian troops had not yet arrived in Kiev, according to the same report.
Ukrainians are described as a people united in struggle against the Russian aggressor in a report about the government imposing a 24 hour per day curfew in Kiev to prevent Ukrainians from engaging in reconnaissance missions for the Russians.
There are stories of crimes against humanity with photographs or descriptions of the bombing of apartment building, schools and hospitals. And of course, there is also heavy street fighting in cities which the Russian army has not entered.
The war reporting of the mass media in the service of the state in the West is filled with talking points issued by the government and very little to no historical and political context. But such misleading reports will never be tagged as misinformation or disinformation by Facebook. The Russian government’s propaganda, including Putin’s Empire of lies speech offers some historical and political context and is certainly not as divorced from reality as the propaganda produced by and on the behalf of the United States Government, in my opinion.
To get reliable information and analysis about the military and political situation Ukraine, I turn to sources who have consistently opposed US military interventions in other countries. This includes vlogs that are allowed access to Youtube, such as “The Duran,” the Jimmy Dore Show, the Grey Zone (Aarron Maté, Max Blumenthal and others), RT (Russia Today), plus Press TV, Consortium News, The Moon of Alabama and some others that do not come to mind at the moment.
APPENDIX
Two recent articles about Ukraine by Bryce Green:
What You Should Really Know About Ukraine, FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting) https://fair.org/home/what-you-should-really-know-about-ukraine/
In Ukraine No One hears that there is a Diplomatic Solution. FAIR https://fair.org/home/in-ukraine-no-one-hears-that-there-is-a-diplomatic-solution/
Data of Casualties of war in Ukraine from 2014 to December 2021. United Nations Human Rights, Office of High Commissioner (total deaths 14,400, including 3,100 civilians, about 80% of civilian casualites in rebel held areas of eastern Ukraine
https://ukraine.un.org/sites/default/files/2022-01/Conflict-related%20civilian%20casualties%20as%20of%2031%20December%202021%20%28rev%2012%20January%202022%29%20EN.pdf
Understanding Ukrainian Nazism Lucas Leiroz, researcher in Social Sciences at the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; geopolitical consultant.
Lugansk Media Center
Socialist Unity Party Statement on the military conflict in Ukraine
Thoughts on the Present crisis in Ukraine Stop the wars at home and abroad
Antiwar committee
Putin’s Nuclear Threat, by Scott Ritter, Consortium News https://consortiumnews.com/2022/02/27/putins-nuclear-threat/
Press TV: Ukraine-Russia talks start in Belarus amid “reduced pace of offensive”
Including interview with Richard Becker, Antiwar activist, ANSWER coalition
The introduction (overview) and presentation take up about 40 minutes. At about 1 hour 44 minutes, Gonzalo Lira, a reporter in Ukraine joins in on the discussion. US-NATO are not willing to intervene militarily. Extreme sanctions called for by the US government are likely to backfire. Discussion of Russian military and political strategy, drawing on sources of information and analysis which I consider to be reliable and not in the service of the US state department. At the time that this video, about 40K to 70K Russian troops were deployed as an occupation force, with Ukrainian troops outnumbering the Russian invaders by a ratio of 7 to 1. Yet the Russian are rapidly gaining ground, to a large degree taking control without firing a shot and leaving civilian infrastructure and the Ukrainian state apparatus intact. Russia is avoiding engagement with a major part of the Ukrainian military and focusing on Nazi battalions that are incorporated into Ukrainian Army and Nazi terrorist organizations. The Nazi military establishment is concentrated in eastern Ukraine, where Russia has support of the military forces of the Donetsk and Lugansk Peoples Republics.
John Pilger: War in Europe and the Rise of Raw Propaganda
Many political organizations in the US who identify as Marxist, communist or socialist, as well the Green Party US (which advocates replacing capitalism with a socialist economic system) oppose the Russian invasion in Ukraine. In this article I argue that Russia's intervention to overthrow a regime in Ukraine installed by the US is justified and should not be opposed by those who oppose the intervention of the US in Ukraine