Jonathan Beale - Ukraine: Is Russia's invasion going as expected?

By Dilip -

History shows that it's much easier to start a war than to end one. That's certainly true of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. And it might turn out to be the same for President Vladimir Putin in Ukraine. There's an old axiom that military plans never survive the first contact with the enemy. It certainly appears to be true for Russia's forces in Ukraine. Ed Arnold, an expert on European security at the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), describes Russia's initial assault as "underwhelming" and "slower than expected".

He points to a number of reasons. Military doctrine for an invasion, he says, is usually "to go for overwhelming force". While Russia had massed between 150,000 and 190,000 troops on the border, so far it hasn't used them all. That might be because Russia will need them for later phases of the invasion. It's normal for militaries to keep reserves as they adjust plans…

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60539113


Ukraine: India refuses to take a clear position on the Russian invasion


Jonathan Steele: Understanding Putin’s narrative about Ukraine is the master key to this crisis / Oliver Stone: American Exceptionalism Is on Display in Ukraine / Mariia Shynkarenko: Not about NATO


Kelly Denton-Borhaug: The True Costs of America’s All-Consuming War-Culture / Chris Hedges: Chronicle of a War Foretold


Tory lobbying row over unregulated ‘Westminster Russia Forum’ / Donald Trump can't stop praising Vladimir Putin


Marina Hyde: Putin’s tale of two cities–London for his oligarchs, Kyiv for his bombs / Oliver Bullough: Butler to the World


Kelly Denton-Borhaug: The True Costs of America’s All-Consuming War-Culture / Chris Hedges: Chronicle of a War Foretold

 

Salute the spirit of resistance to tyranny - 'We can only help ourselves': women in Belarus take protests into their own hands


Book review: Peter Pomerantsev's 'This Is Not Propaganda' is quietly frightening. By Steve Bloomfield



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