Moon of Alabama

On the seventh day, the incursion of the Ukrainian army into the Russian Kursk region seems to have stopped. The front lines harden and the Russian side uses its artillery and bombing to push it back.

Three Ukrainian brigades are involved, plus a number of battalions which have been dispatched away from their brigades engaged in other parts of the front. The 80th and 82nd Parachute Brigades are the main forces, which were partly trained in Britain and Germany and use Western equipment. The 22nd Mechanized Brigade is the third major unit. There are then five to ten battalions from various other brigades. 

The Economist, reports (archive) about the operation carried out in a hospital in Sumy:

«The report of injuries in Ukraine suggests that it was no walk in the park, and remains risky. The hospital room smells of sacrifice: dirt, blood and rancid sweat. Burnt foil bandages line the hallway. In the courtyard, the patients, some wrapped like mummies from head to toe in bandages, smoke furiously. Angol, a 28-year-old paratrooper from the 33rd Brigade, looks like a Christmas tree. His left arm is immobilized by a fixation device. Tubes, bags and wires protrude from his body. He was also about 30 km away in Russia when his luck changed. He is not sure if it was artillery or a bomb that hit him. Perhaps it was the fire of the allies; there were many. All he remembers is throwing himself to the ground and shouting “300,” the code for injured. The Russians were on the run until then, he insists, abandoning their equipment and munitions as quickly as they could.».

No wonder the Russian border troops fled. They were mostly conscripts and were not sufficiently armed to resist an attack with armor:

«Some aspects of the Ukrainian operation appear to have been carefully planned. Operational security provided the element of surprise, a crucial aspect of warfare. “We sent our most combat-ready units to the weakest point on their border,” says a general staff source deployed to the region. “The conscripted soldiers faced the paratroopers and simply surrendered.” But other aspects of the operation indicate a certain haste in the preparation. The three soldiers cited in this article were withdrawn, without rest, from the pressured front lines in the east with barely a day's notice».

The Ukrainian army showed up with the best soldiers it had left, plus a few extras that had been thrown there. Russian units that were moved to the border put an end to the Ukrainian movement. The mobile reconnaissance platoons that the Ukrainians sent on the roads to outflank the towns have been largely eliminated. The huge progress seen on some friendly maps of Ukraine now looks much smaller. About thirty small settlements were taken, but even the local administrative center of Sudzha, which previously had 6000 inhabitants, was not completely conquered.

A new Ukrainian attempt to cross the border at the Kolotilovka checkpoint in the Belgrade region failed and Ukrainian units involved suffered losses.

Russia therefore mainly contained the Ukrainian assault. The operation is now a new meat grinder like Krinky on the Southern Front was before. An operationally isolated attrition pit in which the Ukrainians will have to feed more and more reserves they don't have or retreat from one treeline to the next.

Russian drones and bombers are now leading the fight. The Russian Ministry of Defense says that the Ukrainian incursion lost much of its armored equipment (automatic translation):

«In total, during the fighting in the Kursk region, the enemy lost up to 1610 servicemen, 32 tanks, 23 armored personnel carriers, 17 infantry fighting vehicles, 136 armored fighting vehicles, 47 vehicles , four anti-aircraft missile systems, a multiple launch rocket launcher and 13 field artillery pieces».

The Ukrainian side was aware of the danger that its operation could represent. As written The Economist, :

«Ukraine does not seem to be strengthening its positions in any serious sense. “Our calf needs a wolf,” warns the security source, who uses a local saying to warn against overly ambitious goals. (…)

Source warns against comparing Kursk incursion with Ukraine's rapid and successful recapture of much of Kharkiv province in late 2022. Russian military takes war more seriously now, he says: “The danger is that we fall into a trap and that Russia breaks our teeth”».

It seems to me that is exactly what happened. It was completely predictable.

The operation was, however, a momentary success, because it increased the morale of the Ukrainians:

«Tired, dirty and exhausted, the soldiers say they do not regret any part of the risky operation that has already killed dozens of their comrades: they would do it again in a heartbeat. «For the first time in a long time, we have movement,” Angol said. “I felt like a tiger”». 

This week of good news for Ukraine is coming to an end. The units involved, which have already lost an entire brigade of equipment, will be reduced even further. There will be no one to replace them. In the Donbass, the Russian army continues its offensive against weakened and retreating Ukrainian units. New York, Chasiv Yar and Toretsk will soon be taken.

There will soon be questions asked in kyiv, “What was the point?” To which no one will have a good answer. Ukraine's commander-in-chief, General Syrski, may have to leave the region even though pressure to carry out this desperate operation came from elsewhere, as the Times (archive:

«President Zelensky's fingerprints are everywhere. For several months, it has been a secret from kyiv that the president has been urging his military leaders to launch a summer offensive.

Given the labor and resource problems in Ukraine, they have been hesitant. But Zelensky is desperate to overturn the narrative that Ukraine is losing its war».

Zelensky believed that the Kursk operation would help to maintain the war, with Russia failing over time and Ukraine becoming the winner. The Russian Duma announced today that there will be no further mobilizations. Zelensky had hoped for mobilization and unrest. There will be no uprising in Russia because of the Kursk incursion, just an increase in nationalism.

The week-long operations were certainly not enough to change the long-term narrative. The upsurge it caused in kyiv and elsewhere will soon give way to a deep depression.

source: Moon of Alabama 

https://en.reseauinternational.net/rapport-de-situation-sur-la-guerre-en-ukraine-lincursion-a-koursk-a-ete-arretee/

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Ukraine's ill-fated Kursk terror attack could be part of the US Democratic establishment's effort to prop up their candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, in the 2024 presidential election, according to Wall Street analyst Charles Ortel.

Despite the US State Department and Pentagon denying any involvement in the Kiev regime's Kursk aggression, it has all the earmarks of US-NATO management and planning, according to Major General Apti Alaudinov, deputy head of the Russian Defense Ministry's Military-Political Directorate and Alexander Bortnikov, director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).

"At this stage, nothing likely happens in Ukraine and vis-a-vis Russia unless approved in advance by someone in the US," Wall Street analyst and investigative journalist Charles Ortel told Sputnik. "Relevant questions include: exactly who approved these offensive operations and what debate, if any, occurred in Congress before these raids happened?"

Ortel called the Kursk attack a "wag the dog 2.0" operation, saying that it "seems a reprise" of then-US President Bill Clinton’s assault on one of Sudan's biggest pharmaceutical factories in Khartoum in 1998. The US attack based on faulty intelligence was presented as retaliation to Al-Qaeda bombings of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

However, some analysts noted at the time that the US bombing came as investigations into Clinton's lies about his affair with Monica Lewinsky intensified. Dubbing the case a "wag the dog" situation, they suggested that Clinton urgently authorized the strike as a distraction, with the backing of many Democratic lawmakers including then-Senator Joe Biden.

The Kursk aggression appears to be as dubious in terms of military planning and strategic value as the senseless bombing of the Al Shifa factory. US Congressman Paul Gosar called Ukraine's border incursion "suicidal" in an interview with Sputnik, while retired US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski wondered whether Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan had a hand in the Kursk aggression planning.

Earlier, on August 8, CNN quoted Ukrainian officials as saying that the Kursk attack was aimed at demoralizing Russian forces and diverting them away from other parts of the front. However, as of August 12, the Ukrainian military told the New York Times and Financial Times (FT) that the Russian Armed Forces' advance in Donbass, including near strategically important Chasov Yar and Torestk, is continuing unabated.

To complicate matters further for Kiev, at least six Ukrainian brigades that previously fought near Kharkov, Sumy, Chasov Yar and Toretsk were redirected to participate in the Kursk aggression, according to FT. The newspaper cited Ukrainian soldiers' worries about leaving positions in Donbass to take part in the Kursk gamble.

On August 15, Russia's Tsentr Battlegroup destroyed a Ukrainian military stronghold in the Avdeyyevka direction in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). On August 12, the Russian military liberated the settlement of Lisichnoye; earlier, Timofeyevka and Veseloye were retaken from the enemy. Russia liberated a total of 19 settlements of the DPR in July, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Harris and Walz's 'Illusionary' Campaign Doomed to be Busted

One might ask why the US Democratic establishment would need any "prop-up" of their presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz, given that the two are currently enjoying a surge in the polls.

According to Ortel, the surge appears to be short-lived and most likely artificial and made-up by the US corporate press, especially given that Harris' poll numbers as Biden's veep had been disastrous. For instance, the Wall Street analyst referred to a recent survey published by the Hills that claimed that more voters trust Harris than Donald Trump on the economy as completely detached from reality.

"The corporate-owned press, including Fox, has lost all credibility which explains their financial losses and the rise of Twitter spaces, Tucker Carlson and alternative truth-tellers that thrive," Ortel said. "Traditional actors are resolved to sell fiction as fact to promote a singularly unaccomplished airhead to lead America out of the messes she helped create."

Indeed, US conservative commentators and pundits have recently thrown Harris' poll numbers, campaign performance and unwillingness to make one-on-one interviews into question.

"[The media] are so in the tank for Harris that they are defending her decision not to talk to them," remarked US investigative journalist and author Michael Shellenberg on X on August 14. Earlier, the journalist drew attention to the fact that, for some strange reason, Harris has not put a policy agenda on her website.

Former White House Political Director Matt Schlapp tweeted that there is nothing short of a "push by the national media and Democratic National Committee (DNC) to legitimize Kamala Harris," adding that she is not giving interviews to evade criticism over her vice presidency.

Similarly, Fox News host Sean Hannity recently called Harris "an illusion, built on a mountain of lies" on X.

Rogan O'Handley, a former entertainment lawyer, claimed on X on August 7 that the Harris campaign was caught offering Instagram* influencers money to post personal stories about how the Biden-Harris administration helped them.

Axios reported on August 13 that it found that Harris' campaign was editing news headlines and descriptions within Google search ads to "make it appear as if the Guardian, Reuters, CBS News and other major publishers are on her side." The news outlet noted that while such activity is in line with the Google rules, the tech giant admitted there was a "glitch" that removed a disclaimer "sponsored" near the news headlines touting Harris.

US conservative journalist Kyle Becker also alleged on X that pollsters are "oversampling" Democrats for no reason "except deceiving the voters." Becker believes that the reports that Harris is leading her Republican competitor in key battleground states are made up to justify her future win. "It is all designed to try to keep Harris within the margin of cheating," tweeted Becker. In 2020, Biden won the presidential election after outperforming Trump by a razor-thin margin in crucial swing states. Many Republicans believe voting procedures were rigged there.

According to Ortel, the Harris-Walz campaign "honeymoon" may end as abruptly as it started.

"The true mud-slinging will start after Labor Day [September 2] and continue thereafter. No one yet has vetted Harris or Walz and I suspect their reputations will be gutted, fairly, well before November 5, 2024. Moreover, neither are effective, battle-hardened debaters, campaigners or leaders," Ortel said.

Looming Crises Won't Allow Harris-Walz to Fool Voters

While the Harris-Walz campaign needs good news, be it record-high poll numbers, Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, or their proxy Zelensky claiming victories, the problem is that the "looming crises and worsening economic prospects" won't let "conflicted grifters" in the US establishment fool American voters again, according to Ortel.

As Ukrainian forces continue to lose ground on the battlefield, the Biden administration is still struggling to reach a ceasefire agreement amid Israel's war in Gaza, fuelling discontent with the Democratic Party among Palestine supporters. According to the New York Post, an August 14 rally supporting Vice President Harris in the New York City descended into chaos after pro-Palestinian protesters infiltrated the gathering and later started to clash with the police.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg experts warn the US economy is expected to slow down under the Biden-Harris administration, casting an additional shadow on the Harris-Walz campaign.

Commenting on the Democratic administration's chaotic domestic and foreign policies, Ortel noted:

"The period 1991 to present stands already as a rare epoch during which too many leaders combined arrogance and ignorance into a toxic cocktail, gulling voters with effective lies into bullied serfs, grateful for gruel as the donor class and their paid stooges seemingly prospered," the pundit said. "'What could have been' from 1991 forward unburdened by Harris, Walz and other incompetent, conflicted has-beens is truly a marvel to contemplate! Let’s see whether the American election is free and fair and let’s see who actually wins."

https://sputnikglobe.com/20240815/is-ukraines-suicidal-kursk-attack-part-of-us-establishments-desperate-effort-to-win-in-2024-1119780479.html

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