The above is an informative discussion of Nicolai Petro’s The Tragedy of Ukraine. It covers areas that haven’t been discussed in much detail in the West, generally, at least in the MSM, particularly the regional (Galician) character of Ukrainian nationalism, its origins in the 19th and early 20th Century, its attempt to establish a particular Ukrainian identity within a multiethnic state, and how this is implicated in the present conflict in Ukraine. There is much more also so very much well worth watching.
Quite evocative. Many thanks
The Slavic communities never forget, so the intensity of the resistance is not surprising.
Never forget what?
How Arming Ukraine Has Made America Weaker
Pedro L. Gonzalez
Jan 13, 2023
@emeriticus
Supporting Ukraine has made America weaker and undermined our national industrial base. 1/
Pedro L. Gonzalez
@emeriticus
The Navy is now talking about how at some point in the near future, we’re going to have to choose between arming Ukraine and arming America. But that is old news. 2/
Pedro L. Gonzalez
Jan 13, 2023
@emeriticus
Replying to @emeriticus
Last year, the Marines shipped nearly a quarter of its M777 Howitzer systems to Ukraine. These aren’t so easily replaced. The world’s largest manufacturer of titanium, a critical component in the M777, is Russia’s VSMPO-Avisma. 4/
Russia needeed to be big on titanium, Waaay back, they built a class of SSN with titanium hulls. That’s a lot of titanium.
Ukraine suffered a humiliating defeat in Soledar after a relentless Russian assault: ‘The entire town is littered with bodies’
This marks Russia’s first major victory since the withdrawals from Balakleya, Krasny Liman and Kherson
There was, however, a second, military purpose to the city and its industries, as was typical for the Soviet Union. In the case of Soledar, several of its depleted mines were used as spacious and secure military warehouses.
Last year, this previously disregarded aspect of Soledar’s identity became its most prominent feature. Salt production stopped, and the gypsum plant ceased operating; the only visitors around were now Ukrainian soldiers – and developing asthma was the least of their problems.
Yet, over the summer of 2022, Ukrainian defenses in the area held strong – so much so that one of Ukraine’s top media spokesmen, Aleksei Arestovich, boasted that the Russians would not take a single Ukrainian town beyond Lisichansk, including Artyomovsk and Soledar. The frontline stabilized, and the armies switched to positional warfare. In the Donbass farmland, fields are separated by strips of trees to prevent soil erosion; these strips were fortified and used as strongpoints.
The Russian troops wrestled the farmland away from the Ukrainians, 500 meters at a time – however, an unconventional approach was required in order to achieve a decisive breakthrough.
Fresh blood
What finally got things moving was the Wagner group’s decision to focus on assault tactics and scale up its operations by increasing its numbers. To get an influx of fresh blood, it used several approaches. First, friendly media created an entire subculture that praised Wagner as the leading military force and made it desirable to serve in its ranks. This promotional effort was driven by military bloggers (often Wagner veterans themselves), journalists, musicians and artists, and was certainly helped by the outspoken head of the group, Prigozhin.
As a result, when Russia announced a partial mobilization, some eligible men decided that it would be better to go to war themselves than sit around and wait for a draft summons. Volunteering gave you one privilege: You could choose which force to join. Wagner was one of the top choices.
Second, it was decided to start recruiting among prison inmates. Subject to strict discipline, they were offered equal treatment to other soldiers and a six-month contract, after which it was promised that they would be pardoned and their criminal records cleared. The first unit made up of such volunteers set out for the front in July, and those who survived until January went home, as shown in videos published by Prigozhin’s affiliated media.
The whole enterprise would not be as effective if not for the training system, in which assault units were actually prepared for this role, without wasting time on other skills that would be useless in this context.
Another factor was Wagner’s combat control system that enabled coordination between many small groups.
By December, the assault units had proved their worth in Artyomovsk, breaking through Ukrainian defenses south of the city. Ukrainian commanders had to send brigade after brigade over to this front, losing opportunities in other areas.
The Ukrainian resistance in Soledar and Artyomovsk is currently weakening due to the intense Russian offensive. There is a clear shortage of battle-ready Ukrainian troops up to the challenge of withstanding the efficient offensive tactics employed by the Wagner PMC assault units.
And yet, the outcome of the Soledar offensive is up to the Russian command now. It remains to be seen within the next few weeks whether the command will take the risk of large casualties and try to step up the offensive or revert to slower tactics in crushing the Ukrainian defenses.
This is Russia’s first major victory since the withdrawals from Balakleya, Krasny Liman and Kherson and it’s important for boosting the morale of the troops. It is certainly a bitter pill for the Ukrainian Army.
Whether we can expect Kiev to try and adapt to the new situation and look for out-of-the-box solutions remains to be seen.
All we know now is that President Zelensky keeps promising the Ukrainian people he will recapture all of Donbass even though his troops are retreating.
Very intelligent discussion. Pity our so-called leaders won’t listen.
“Never forget what?”
The Holodomor, for a start.
The Armenian genocide.
.
Ed Case vindicated by Zelensky?
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is an anti-democratic fascist who distrusts his own people so much he has banned his domestic political opposition and Ukrainians’ favourite Christian orthodox churches because they aren’t all in with Zelenskyyism.
But Ukraine has made America’s newest crime family, the Bidens, fabulously wealthy — not to mention most of the corrupt US Congress — so the global left is all in with the US military industrial complex in taking on Moscow’s corrupt anti-democratic autocrat because he’s worse than theirs.
Of course, no-one is allowed to to tell the truth about Zelenskyy or anything else in geo-politics because the anti-social nerds who run the Silicon Valley social media monopolies are uniformly against democracy and free speech as they are currently enemies of The Tribe.
God help us.
I thought you might raised the first but the second is left-field. What the Russians or Ukraine had to do with the Armenian genocide is beyond me. But, to return to the Holodomor. Setting aside that it involved the Russians and the Kazaks as well, largely effect the southern and eastern areas of Ukraine, areas that are largely ethnically and linguistically Russian. So, its unclear what the Holodomor has to do with this conflict apart from being an easy reference that purportedly explains a grudge that Ukrainians might have against Russians.
The other thing, seeing as you clearly didn’t watch the video, is that Ukrainian nationalism would have been unaffected by the Holodomor because in the 1930s Galicia and surrounding regions were a part of Poland, not the Soviet Union.
I made a general comment about the Slavic people. They tend to hold grudges, and I doubt that dismissing the famine as only affecting ‘non Russians’ has any validity. If people are so desperate that they resort to cannibalism I doubt that they care about the ethnicity of their food.
Where do I say it only affected ‘non-Russians’? Again, the areas most anti-Russian then and now are in Western Ukraine, and during the Holodomor they where a part of Poland, not the Soviet Union.
Replying to Pedro L. Gonzalez.
The world’s largest PRODUCER of titanium is AUSTRALIA.