archive https://archive.ph/W8bFQ
A Ukrainian Armed Forces officer, whose brigade is fighting on Leopard-2, pointed out the fragility of the tracks, weakening their tension and leading to breakdowns and this is a disaster in combat conditions. Ukrainian soldiers have to constantly monitor this feature of German tanks.
A commission from Germany, which visited a repair centre in Lithuania for Leopards, was unpleasantly surprised by the number of equipment that failed due to defects.
Problems with logistics and lack of spare parts persist - even in Lithuania, far from the front, mechanics face problems when repairing Leopards.
A German officer admitted to Der Spiegel that German tanks wear out much faster in combat conditions. Based on the experience of the Bundeswehr in Mali, we can say that a mileage of 10,000 km in combat conditions is equal to 100,000 km in peacetime, the officer claims. Added to this is the problem of the need for complex maintenance of tanks, which must be carried out at the factory.
“Attempts at repair by the Ukrainian military lead to additional damage to the Leopards,” concludes a member of the German commission that visited Lithuania.
They need to expedite peace negotiations as continuing this war only further embarasses NATO.
I don’t see any peace negotiations happening as long as the Nazi junta in Kiev remains in power. Even if the US tells them: “negotiate or else the aid will be cut”, Zelensky will refuse because he has backed himself into a corner with the Nazis around him. Also, the Ukrainians know that the current US administration and especially the European governments have really no other choice either. They cannot afford to be seen to allow Russia to win after how much they have invested in Ukraine. They’ve all tied their political future to this war. Kiev understands this and will just call their bluff if they try to apply that kind of pressure.
This conflict is going to end the hard way, with one side collapsing, completely exhausted, and capitulating, and that is not going to be Russia.
Zelensky ought to get a place next door to Bolsonaro in that Florida gated community.
Why would Russia even believe anything the Kiev regime promises in a peace deal? They have disregarded all previous agreements the day after they were signed.
Obviously that’s the plan that the US has. They think they can freeze the conflict, build Ukraine’s military back up and try again in a few years. I don’t know whether Russia would fall for this same trick again, but let’s assume that they did agree (never underestimate the gullibility of liberals and their ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory…because even with all that has happened Putin still fundamentally thinks like a liberal). The problem for them is that this option is not politically viable anymore.
In the current atmosphere in Ukraine the hardline Nazis would see any deal as treason. Meanwhile the general population in Ukraine but also in Europe would become extremely angry and wonder why, if they could have had the same deal back in March 2022, they had to sacrifice so much (because Europe also has morgaged its future on the promise of a victory and the expectation of another influx of cheap resources from Russia after its renewed subjugation).
So every move that the US can make is now a bad one. Russia has the collective West in Zugzwang, and the only thing they can do is prolong the inevitable.
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That would be an outcome that the US would greatly benefit from since it would allow them to disentangle themselves from the Ukraine quagmire, try to also stop the conflict in the Middle East from spinning out of their control, and then devote all their attention to China.
The problem is that the US does not have complete control over Kiev, and in some ways the tail is wagging the dog in that relationship. As i have pointed out, Kiev can and probably will continue to play stubborn since they realize that once they make a deal the US will drop them in favor of more important engagements.
Out of self-preservation Zelensky cannot allow the conflict to end, and given that the US and EU have built him up to be too much of a heroic figure in the eyes of their people they cannot openly betray him now. What they need to do first is to destroy his image, to find a way to put the blame on him for losing the war.
There have been rumors going around for a while that the US is telling Kiev they need to freeze the conflict by spring 2024 at the latest, threatening to expose massive corruption in the Zelensky administration if they do not obey. I don’t know how accurate the rumors are, and even if they are accurate it may be just a bluff.
Another additional obstacle is that in the West there are still a lot of neocon hardliners who are utterly obsessed with Ukraine who will continue to call for more and more escalation and that Biden would need to fight against to push any kind of pragmatic solution through. And i don’t know if he has the political capital for that. His position is very weak already.
I see no way out of this conundrum for the US. They cannot lose this proxy war without catastrophic consequences (dissolution of NATO is a real possibility) and the only thing they can do to delay their defeat is continue to escalate to more and more dangerous levels. Give Ukraine even more weapons and money and sink even deeper into the quagmire. And Europe’s situation is even worse…
At this point I don’t see how NATO escapes utter humiliation.
The usual way, propaganda power. Sure, everyone outside the same map will see the emperor naked butt clearly, but most people inside will be completely oblivious to reality or forgot it in few weeks as every single time before.