Eight Months into Putin’s war. A New Era. For Ukraine, The European Union, and the World
Interviews with Col Douglas Macgregor and Pepe Escobar
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“It’s very clear now that groups of Russian forces numbering over five hundred thousand have assembled in Western Russia, southern Ukraine, and in Belorussia. So an offensive, a major conventional what we would call “high end conventional” offence is coming in November and December!”
– Col Douglas Macgregor (from this week’s interview)
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As the month of October reaches its conclusion, and as Russia’s military intervention into Ukraine has crossed the eight month long offensive, major events have surfaced signaling, if nothing else, even more escalations of violence inside the besieged country.
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September 21: Vladimir Putin ordered the draft of 300,000 reserves to support the war not only against Ukraine, but against its Western backers. Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu also announced in a televised address that 5,937 Russian soldiers had been killed since the start of the conflict. [1]
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September 26: The Nord Stream pipelines 1 and 2 suffered from leaks, potentially stemming from a deliberate action. President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said she suspected the pipelines were probably sabotaged. The Nord Steam 1 supplied 35% of all gas exported to the EU by Russia. [2]
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September 30: Russia unilaterally declared its annexation of four Ukrainian oblasts – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson after the four regions voted on the decision to declare independence and then join the Russian Federation. Ukraine and Western countries dismissed the referenda as a land-grab. [3][4]
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October 8: A massive explosion crippled part of the Crimean Bridge connecting Kerch with Russia. Vladimir Putin blamed Ukraine for launching a terrorist attack against Russia. [5][6]
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October 10-12: Russian missiles launched their biggest aerial assault since the beginning of the war on cities across Ukraine forcing thousands to flee bomb shelters and prompting Kiev to halt electricity transports to Europe. Russia claimed it was hitting all designated targets on the Ukrainian military, communications and energy infrastructure. [7]
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October 11: Ukrainian President Zelenskiy attended the G7 Crisis Summit and asked for more air defense systems and an international monitoring system on the Ukraine -Belarus border. [8]
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October 23: Russian Defense Minister warned his NATO counterparts that Kiev may be preparing a false flag attack on itself using a “dirty bomb” in order to accuse Moscow of nuclear terror. Such an endeavor would irradiate wide swath of land and endanger thousands of lives. Washington, Paris, and London dismissed the warning the same day, calling it a “false allegation” and suggesting “the world would see through any attempt to use this allegation as a pretext for escalation.” [9]
Throughout the month in the Western Press, the threat of the confrontation warping into a nuclear conflict is relayed as “far worse” than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis exactly sixty years ago this month. There seems to be no off-ramp for de-escalation. [10]
At the same time, beyond Ukraine, what is to become of Europe, now forced to go through a frigid winter with sizable supplies of natural gas for heat and electricity denied to them?
This week on the Global Research News Hour, as the corporate Western Press continues to depict the situation as one in which Putin is losing and in frustration is desperately attempting to escalate affairs, we get the alternate perspective of two analysts who offer different takes on the current Ukraine War State of affairs.
In our first half hour, U.S. Colonel Douglas Macgregor shows up to explain that the Ukrainians are far more beaten than the Press allows us to believe. He also talks about the “dirty bomb” threat and also the picture of a surge into Ukraine in late autumn.
The geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar shows up next to talk about the recent developments in the former Soviet Territory, Europe attempting to adjust to life without gas, and about how the world at large is now radically changed forever.
Col. Douglas Macgregor is a retired US army Colonel and government official. He was a former advisor to the Secretary of Defense.
Pepe Escobar, born in Brazil, is a correspondent and editor-at-large at Asia Times and columnist for Consortium News and Strategic Culture. Since the mid-1980s he’s lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Singapore, Bangkok.
(Global Research News Hour Episode 366)
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Notes:
- https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russias-partial-mobilisation-will-see-300000-drafted-defence-minister-2022-09-21/
- https://www.bbc.com/news/58888451
- Shaun Walker (September 23, 2022), “‘Referendums’ on joining Russia under way in occupied Ukraine”, The Guardian; https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/23/occupied-parts-of-ukraine-prepare-to-vote-on-joining-russia
- https://uk.news.yahoo.com/why-international-community-calling-ukrainian-203201724.html
- https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63192757
- https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/08/europe/crimea-bridge-explosion-intl-hnk/index.html
- https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/11/russia-ukraine-war-list-of-key-events-day-230
- Peter Borger (October 11, 2022), ‘Zelenskiy asks G7 for monitoring of Ukraine’s border with Belarus’, The Guardian; https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/11/russia-accused-of-war-crimes-as-it-continues-to-hit-ukraine-infrastructure
- Ilya Tsukanov (October 25, 2022), ‘What is a ‘Dirty Bomb’ and Why is Russia Warning About It?’, Sputnik; https://sputniknews.com/20221025/what-is-a-dirty-bomb-and-why-is-russia-warning-about-it-1102619770.html
- https://uk.movies.yahoo.com/60-years-cuban-missile-crisis-105500119.html
