By John Helmer, Moscow
@bears_with
The Russian missile attack on central Kiev and on the airbase bunker at Bela Tserkva, 75 kilometres south of Kiev, over Saturday evening and Sunday morning, was a calibrated retaliation for the Ukrainian attack on the children’s dormitory at Starobelsk, Lugansk region, on Friday.
Measured tit for tat against neo-Nazi terrorism — that is how the Kremlin believes it will deter Ukrainian escalation of the war against Russia.
The official Russian Defense Ministry announcement, issued late on Sunday afternoon (May 24), identified the missiles used as Oreshnik, Kinzhal, Iskander, and Zircon.
The targets were “objects of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex, military infrastructure, as well as the control points of the Main Command of the Army, the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and other control points of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”
This is regime decapitation for Ukrainian military commanders, not for the civilian leadership of Vladimir Zelensky.
Russian sources in a position to know also say that President Vladimir Putin now believes his campaign of bribes for President Donald Trump, his family, his negotiators and their business associates has achieved a new level of freedom to act against the Zelensky regime by military means because negotiations for a peace settlement have failed and ended.
“They were not fruitful, unfortunately,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio acknowledged at a NATO meeting in Sweden on Friday (May 22). “Despite leaks that are not true, despite stories out there about us forcing the Ukrainians to take this position or that position, which are not true, we – if we see an opportunity to pull together talks that are productive, not counterproductive, and that have the chance to be fruitful, we’re prepared to play that role. There are – there are no such talks occurring at this time, but we hope that will change because that war can only end with a negotiated settlement. It will not end with a military victory by one side or the other, at least from a traditional standpoint of how military victories are defined.”
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had already acknowledged that the negotiating framework Putin and President Donald Trump had agreed on last August – the Anchorage Formula – has come to nothing, and that the Russian army will bring the war to an end on its terms. “Many good words are being said about the enormous potential for mutually beneficial, modern, technological, energy-related, and other projects between Russia and the United States. However, nothing is happening in real life…we will achieve the goals of the special military operation under any circumstances. Preferably through diplomatic means, but if not, we will continue to do so within the framework of the special military operation.”
Putin believes he is being clear in his public statements.
In his address after the Starobelsk attack, he said “it is clear to us, and it is once again made evident, whom we are dealing with, whom we are fighting against, and what we are fighting for. This constitutes a manifestation of neo-Nazism. It once again serves to confirm the terrorist nature of the Kiev regime.”
“What makes things even worse for the ruling elite is the all-consuming corruption that is rotting society from within – corruption the regime’s leaders are covering for. In reality, they are participants in these corrupt schemes themselves. That is why they then help each other flee the country, seeking refuge in Israel and elsewhere abroad. Everyone – in Ukraine and around the world – knows that the Ukrainian government is corrupt through and through. Embezzlement everywhere. It has got to the point where they are stealing military equipment and personal protective gear meant for those being driven to the front like cattle, sent to die for the very people who are plundering Ukraine and its foreign aid.”
“The Kiev regime clearly needs crimes like this. They need them to distract attention from what is happening at the front and inside the country, to provoke a reaction from Russia – and then, we know this, we have seen it many times before – to blame everything on us. On Russia. On our country. All the escalation, all the consequences of such crimes. I repeat, we have been here many times before.”
This was the first time that Putin has identified Israel on the side of Russia’s enemies in the war, and as a safe haven for the Jewish members of the Zelensky regime on the civilian side, not the military command.
Was Putin signalling that he is now lifting his restriction on the General Staff plans targeting Zelensky and his civilians because they are “neo-Nazi terrorists”?
A Russian source in a position to know says yes. “The Anchorage formula looked like Putin’s agreement with Trump that he would push Zelensky into agreeing terms in diplomatic negotiations. In fact, it was agreement on the bribes to be paid to Trump in return for Russian freedom of action if Zelensky wouldn’t agree. Now the deal is – you [Trump] don’t have to deliver Zelensky. We [Russia] can take him out.”
Another source confirms the confidence of Kremlin officials that the Trump “fix is in – the war will end in three more months.”
Listen or view the discussion with Dimitri Lascaris in the Reason2Resist podcast, recorded on Sunday morning, Moscow time.
Leave a Reply