Ukraine: The Collapse of the Western Narrative

Ever since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the mainstream Western media has been pushing an ongoing disinformation campaign to have us believe that Russia is not succeeding, and Ukraine could win “if only we give them more support”. This was, and is, in direct contradiction to the actual facts on the ground; a highly competent and methodical operation by the Russians and the LPR/DPR armed forces. That operation is now paying the expected dividends, with the surrender of the 2,000+ troops surrounded in the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol and now the increasing collapse of the Donbass front. The latter has been resulting in, and will continue to result in, the death and capture of tens of thousands of the best Ukrainian troops and the destruction of the Ukrainian army as an effective fighting force. Ukraine is already running out of able-bodied men given their losses and the extensive emigration of young men in the years prior to the conflict; as shown by the increasingly middle-aged, little-trained, and badly armed Ukrainian soldiers found at the front line. Growing numbers of these are refusing to fight, preferring surrender or mutiny to a pointless death. The current Phase 2 of the Russian operation, the clearing of the Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics together with a land bridge to Crimea will be finished most probably within weeks. Then we may expect a Phase 3, to clear the rest of the “Russian” Ukraine that resisted the Western-driven right-wing coup of 2014; the Odessa and Kharkiv regions that like the others will never return to Ukrainian sovereignty. With the core of the Ukrainian army already destroyed, and without the benefit of eight years to build the defensive fortifications of the Donbass, the next Ukrainian debacle may be significantly faster in coming. After that only the Russians know, but their objectives have been very clearly stated and their resoluteness in achieving those objectives displayed. If the capture of the whole of Ukraine is necessary, it will be carried out.

Ukraine has lost the war, the only question is how many Ukrainian soldiers and civilians will needlessly die, and how much of the Ukrainian economy will be further wrecked, before the inevitable is accepted. The Western position, of creating an Afghanistan-style quagmire in Ukraine is utterly sociopathic – fighting the Russians to the “last Ukrainian”. This is not principled support for the Ukrainian people, it is the sociopathic sacrifice of a whole nation and its people as part of a larger war to defend the power of the Western elites against the rise of a China allied with Russia. Another group that is also being sacrificed is the Western masses, especially in Europe, as they become ground down by the shortages and inflation caused by the hypocritical Western sanctions. Where were such sanctions after the illegal invasion of Iraq by the US and the UK, where are they with a Saudi Arabia waging war on the poor of Yemen? This winter in Europe will be a very hard one, as a third or more of the European population will be forced to choose between a warm body and a full stomach, as electricity, heating, gasoline and food prices go through the roof. The elites pushing these sanctions, and the hatred of all things Russian, will not feel such pressures. Neither will their well-paid courtiers such as Ursula von der Layen (President of the European Commission) and Chrystia Freeland (Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance).

The utter incompetence of such individuals was shown by the Russian economy’s and Russian currency’s refusal to collapse in the face of such sanctions. Instead, the Russians took actions to reduce their effect and the West undermined their own legitimacy by openly stealing Russian foreign currency reserves and even the assets of Russian citizens. Western elites seemed to be stunned that Russia would have the gall to take countermeasures, such as forcing them to pay in rubles for Russian energy exports (and perhaps soon Russian food and other exports). In addition, they seemed to be utterly incapable of realizing that the other 7/8ths of the world would not fall in line and also sanction Russia. Instead, nations such as China, India and Brazil have seemed happy to keep trading with Russia, with the result that the West is the one being increasingly isolated, especially with its kleptocratic criminal ways on full display. Why would nations invest in, and keep their foreign reserves in the currencies of, countries shown to be serial thieves? The boomerang nature of Western sanctions is becoming harder and harder to ignore, especially as they threaten to affect significant sectors of the economy and elite wealth.

It will be difficult for the mainstream media and the elites to climb down from the extreme anti-Russian rhetoric and delusional fantasies of victory, but we are starting to see the cracks slowly open up in the face of reality. Some, such as the courtiers named above may still want to double down given their own seeming hatred of all things Russian, but their invisible chains will be pulled by the powerful and a quiet retreat from the extremes engineered. There will be much gnashing of teeth and wailing involved, but perhaps the Western elites can at last learn that this is not the 1990s. It is the 2020s, and the West is no longer the dominant bully in the schoolyard. Others have grown in size, and also learnt to gang together to force the bully to play nice with them. It will be a painful decade or few in the West, as its five-hundred-year narrative of civilizational superiority is slowly dismantled, and a multi-polar world takes shape. The old order must die for new one to be born.