Ukraine, la nouvelle guerre américaine (Ukraine – American’s Latest War)

Biden at bat…

(Note – this is an unofficial translation – mine – of an article in French; the link to the original is here.  I translated it because it documents the degree to which this Ukraine war was conceived and then executed by Washington. Much of this information of the intensity of U.S. involvement has appeared in bits and pieces elsewhere, but I have not seen it put together as extensively as the author, Mériadec Raffray, has done. A few weeks ago both the US Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin along with another Pentagon spokesperson suggested that Ukraine is fighting the war against the Russian Special Military Operation pretty much by itself, that its decisions are made by the Ukrainian military and the Zelensky government. This is not a claim that anyone can or should take seriously. The Ukraine War was made in Washington DC a long time ago – 2014 probably prior to that – and every aspect of the war is dominated by Washington political and military thinking. It is a classic proxy war with the US/NATO fighting Russia “up to the last Ukrainian” as the expression goes… with probably many willing Polish troops thrown into the bargain)

Mériadec Raffray Published 8 July, 2022,  10:59 am

We are only beginning to put in focus the extent of the United States’ proxy war on behalf of the Kiev government. As of this writing Washington’s Ukraine proxy war strategy since 2014 risks spiraling out of control.

Uncle Sam’s invisible hand is behind every Kiev military operation. At the very beginning of the invasion, thanks to Washington’s information, the defenders seem to have thwarted Russia’s audacious helicopter operation (that included 200 helicopters) to seize Gostomel airport, northwest of the Ukrainian capital. In mid-April, without American P-3 Orion maritime patrol aircraft, the Moskva cruiser might not have been hit by the Neptune missiles fired from the coast.

Without American support, nor would the Ukrainians have succeeded in targeting Russian generals in their headquarters on the front either, as claimed by the New York Times, then, immediately denied by embarrassed official sources on the banks of the Potomac. In its June 25 edition, the Times, favorite daily of the democratic elites, reputed to be close to the CIA, gave further details the way in which “a network of commandos and spies” coordinates military support for Ukraine in Europe.

Shortly before the (Russian) invasion, the American group of advisers in charge of training the Ukrainian elite troops were “discreetly” withdrawn to Germany. In particular, these advisers supervised the routes of arms convoys in an attempt to hide them from Russian surveillance and fire. Several other advisor groups were organized into the “European command of the Pentagon”.

Washington has invested 60 million Euros in Ukraine since February

In Kiev, the Times article continues, the CIA advises Zelensky. From 2015 to February 2022, American instructors are said to have trained 27,000 Ukrainian soldiers in Yavoriv, near Lviv, one of the bases targeted on March 13 by the Russians. Added to all these are other Ukrainian troops who have passed through the hands of military advisers from a dozen countries, including France.

After previous denials, Washington was pressed to admit that in Ukraine, the US/NATO is essentially implementing a proxy war against Russia strategy. A strategy change
occurred at the end of April, during the third meeting of the “Ramstein group”, this informal assemblage that America set up at the start of the invasion on its large air base in Germany. Nearly 40 states were represented. At the same time, speaking in Kiev, Washington’s Defense Secretary, former General Lloyd Austin, declared: “We want to see Russia weakened to such a degree that it cannot do the same kinds of things as the invasion of Ukraine.”

What a contrast with the beginning of the war! After predicting the date of the invasion, the White House muzzles all its relays. Off the microphones, Pentagon generals have softened their rhetoric to the media, claiming that they are, the Americans are not that much involved in Ukraine’s military decisions and that that they, Washington, are avoiding being considered cobelligents in Ukraine’s war. Washington is waiting for Kiev to survive the initial shock of the Russian military operation prior to “Saving Private Zelensky”, the sequel of which is called “We must bleed the Russian bear.”

Yet, the airlift that the Pentagon launched at the beginning of the spring to Germany and Poland is extensive. It is the most visible aspect of US interference in the Ukraine war. Hundreds of U.S. military transport craft flew the Atlantic to deliver their batches of equipment and ammunition, portable missiles, killer drones, armored vehicles, mortars, howitzers, surveillance radars and air defense systems.

Just how extensive this military support has been is reflected in the huge aid sums Washington has granted to Ukraine, now exceeding 60 billion euros, a gigantic sum. This is one and a half times larger than France’s annual military budget. And that’s not the extent of it. At the same time, and much more discreetly, the Americans are completing their total military takeover of Ukraine, this Krajina (march or border, in Slavic languages) where, for years, they have been deploying the means to wage a war by proxy. These plans have surfaced as the smokescreen of the propaganda machines fades.

This U.S. dominated military build up began in early 2014, after “the Maidan Revolution” broke out in kyiv. The CIA is active in Ukraine under the supervision of diplomat Victoria Nuland, responsible for the Ukrainian file under Obama; her responsibilities were expanded under Biden. Washington’s goal in 2014 was to replace President Viktor Yanukovych “with a leader ready to cut the umbilical cord with Moscow.” A few weeks later, the (Russian speaking regions in the Donbass rose up and Washington increased its interference. A string of American (and British) military advisers were sent to the front. The US/UK military build up after 2014 was justified as a response to Russian military assistance given to the (Donbass) secessionists. With this military aid ( that included advanced communication systems, portable anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons) Ukrainian military commandos worked “miracles”; all the same, the war against Donetsk and Lugansk separatists did not go well; the latter held their ground. On February 12, 2015, Kiev was pressured to sign the Minsk II agreements with the two self-proclaimed republics of Donbass. France, Germany and Russia guaranteed the agreement’s fulfillment. The cease-fires was conditional, in particular, on the establishment – and recognition by Kiev of a statute of autonomy for the two territories and the withdrawal of foreign troops.

Nearly a third of Western weapons turn up on the black market.

Piotr, a Ukrainian very committed to his country’s defense, a former legionnaire in the 2nd foreign parachute regiment, says: “We saw the Anglo-Saxons on the front line handling the missiles themselves. The corruption within the (Ukrainian) army was such that the Americans did not want to run the risk of these weapons being immediately resold on the black market and used elsewhere against American soldiers. Seven years later, the pressure of the military confrontation swept away this reluctance to hand US (and other) weapons’ systems evaporated. The following scenario became a reality, commonplace: nearly a third of Western weapons entering Ukraine have been diverted to the blakc market, this, according to specialists. Moreover, in Donbass, foreign special forces (fighting for Kiev) no longer wield missiles on the front line, otherwise there would be “deaths among them”, a high-ranking European confided. Instead they, the foreigners fighting have a new role; they are busy managing and supervising the army of “civilians” employed on the spot by private companies, European and especially American, to whom Washington has delegated a range of tasks on an unprecedented scale.

“Previously, these “contractors” (a polite term for “mercenaries) supplemented the American army; now, they replace it, ”insists a French expert. In Iraq and Afghanistan, where recourse to their “services” was systematized, there were around 200,000 in total, essentially occupied with peripheral functions: logistics, security of rights-of-way, mine clearance and training. In Ukraine, a new threshold has been crossed, with the externalization of the war itself. Since the onset of this conflict, these “contractors” that include Canadian, British and Baltic “partners” fight alongside the Ukrainians and their U.S. Army advisers.

There are supported by its Canadian, British, Baltic partners and the battalions of its “civilian” subcontractors, began by restructuring the Ukrainian army. The Pentagon also has plans to transform Ukrainian citizens into “resistant-combatants”.

A new mode of action called “war through the social milieu”, (I believe this translates as hybrid warfare), an elaboration of what in the past was simply called “political warfare”. It is a question of putting “all the means at the disposal of a nation, with the exception of war, to achieve its objectives, to increase its influence and its authority, and to weaken those of the adversary”, summarizes battalion commander Raphaël Chauvancy in the National Defense Review. A development also documented by Colonel Laurent Bansept, seconded to the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri), author of a noted note on “relay actors” in “grey areas”.

Americans were also involved in Ukraine’s effort to build extensive defensive fortifications in the Donbass, which were called a “Maginot Line” (reference to the defensive fortifications Paris constructed to confront a Nazi invasion… which simply went around it). The backbone of Kiev’s Maginot line included a those cities and towns currently targeted by the Russian offensive. Moscow notes that this Maginot line was more than defensive, and was a springboard, a base from which Kiev could launch a military operation to reconquer the territories it lost to the separatists in 2014. It included concrete defenses lined with electronic sensors, connected to a string of fuel, food and ammunition depots scattered at the rear. Islets sometimes cut off from each other which are based on a very compartmentalized terrain favorable to defense, intermingling urban areas, hills, woods and rivers.

Referred to as “hedgehogs” these defensive fortifications did manage to slow down “the Russian steamroller”. One source noted: “Isolated, the units opposed a decentralized defense which proved to be formidable. They were able to operate in an agile mode, because they were autonomous in designating targets, opening fire and ensuring their logistics. They benefitted from two critical sources of information: : the mass of American intelligence coming from above and data from Turkish drones as well as information coming from smart phones of those elements of the population friendly to Kiev’s cause.

Enter Tesla: It transforms civilian smartphones into military terminals

Billionaire Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite constellation was able to construct this digital network. The owner of the favorite car brand of wealthy bobos, Tesla, the favorite brand of the rich, provided this turnkey communication system which transformed civilian smart phones into military terminals by connecting to their apps. Example: using an application called DIAA, originally launched in 2020 by the Ukrainian state to allow citizens to digitize all their official documents, the system has been used since the start of the war to geolocate and designate enemy command posts in real time. From the photo of a dead Russian, the algorithms of the Clearview AI facial recognition tool sift through social networks to identify him and then send the snapshot to his family: information warfare is not the prerogative of neither camp. A cowardly expert: “The Americans have set up a giant Pegasus in Ukraine. The formula refers to Israeli bugging software that caused a scandal in the summer of 2021, following revelations about states that allegedly used it to spy on our leaders. And to protect this giant digital web from Russian cyberattacks, Americans rely on their cybersecurity companies. It is from a subsidiary of Google that kyiv directly subtracts all its digital warfare.

“The nature of high-intensity warfare has not changed”, French soldiers observe: the effect of large coordinated military operations remains decisive in this “clash of wills” (Clausewitz). What counts most is always the balance of power in terms of men and equipment. True it could reverse at the end of the summer, with Kiev announcing an upcoming counter offensive. In the meantime, if the Ukrainian the defensive wall cracks, the Russians will be able to say: “We have beaten the Americans and NATO. “The members of the latter have understood this so well that at the summit in Madrid, at the end of June, they took a new series of measures which bring the world that much closer to a state of co-belligerence…