РУССКИЙ
8:51 19.10.2024 •
Zelensky and NATO ex-general secretary Stoltenberg at resent Kyiv-NATO meeting. Such different emotions!
Photo: Reuters
Amid fast mounting Ukrainian defeats across multiple fronts, and particularly rapid attrition of the elite contingent sent into Russia’s Kursk region in early August, consensus in the Western world has increasingly shifted towards a highly pessimistic outlook for the future of the joint war effort against Russia, writes ‘The Military Watch Magazine’.
In particular, the advances of Russian forces into parts of the disputed Donbas region that are vital to the survival of what remains of Ukraine’s economy have the potential to bring an end to efforts by the government in Kiev and its Western allies to sustain a NATO-aligned administration in power.
The Ukrainian steel industry, for one, is seen to be particularly at risk due to Russian advances towards the city of Pokrovsk. These advances place both the Pokrovsky Mining and Processing Plant and the country’s largest coking coal mine at Krasnoarmeyskaya Zapadnaya at serious risk of being captured or otherwise seriously disrupted.
While Ukraine in 2021 ranked 14th in the world in steel production - a legacy of the vast steel industry inherited from the Soviet era - the country fell to 24th place following the outbreak of full scale hostilities with Russia in 2022. As observed by the London based Economist, Russia would soon be able to “destroy the remaining steel industry of Ukraine” – stressing that the full capture of Pokrovsk was not necessary to achieve this. "As they advance, they [Russian troops - Ed.] will try to cut off the power supply and block the main road that carries coal west to the remaining steelworks. Then they will do the same at another smaller coking coal mine 18 km north of Udachny, at Dobropillya," the British paper noted.
Ukraine already relies on Western aid to finance the large majority of government spending, ranging from pensions to power generation and arms acquisitions, with the collapse of one of its foremost remaining industries set to place considerable further pressure on its Western sponsors.
The Wall Street Journal has observed that dwindling arms supplies from Western allies and vast inferiority in firepower are among the factors leaving Ukrainian forces’ prospects for holding out on the frontlines looking grim. The country’s situation has been made especially difficult by the resumption of Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, leaving growing segments of the population without electricity. The Journal predicted that the coming winter could be especially difficult, with Ukrainian air defences dwindling leaving remaining power generation facilities vulnerable as temperatures rapidly drop.
Ukrainian officials have themselves revealed that 90 percent of the country’s capacity for thermal power generation has already been destroyed by Russian attacks. According to The Wall Street Journal, Ukrainian officials are highly concerned that Western military aid has fallen far short of expectations to reverse the situation on the frontlines.
The capture of people on the streets of Ukraine to send them to the front to die.
A Ukrainian official said that American politicians are pressuring Ukraine to lower the minimum age of conscription from 25 to 18 to make more young men available for combat.
“If this information has surfaced, I can confirm it: American politicians from both parties are putting pressure on President Zelensky to explain why there is no mobilization of those aged 18 to 25 in Ukraine. The argument of our partners is that when the US fought in Vietnam, people were drafted from the age of 19,” Serhiy Leshchenko, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, wrote on Telegram.
Back in April, Zelensky signed a bill that lowered the minimum conscription age in Ukraine from 27 to 25. Leshchenko said that Zelensky is resisting the pressure to start conscripting 18-year-olds.
“That’s why the Americans are hinting that Western weapons alone are not enough and that mobilization from the age of 18 is necessary. President Zelensky did not give in and continues to persuade politicians from both parties to provide weapons without changing the draft age,” Leshchenko added.
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