Remember the Kursk

Russians fleeing Kursk

You might recall that when Putin took office way back in 2000, he let the Kursk submarine lie at the bottom of the Barents Sea well past the point that any chance of rescuing the 23 survivors of the explosion was lost.  Now, he finds himself in an interesting dilemma where a region by the same name is occupied by Ukraine and he is reluctant to provide the necessary military forces to regain it.  By doing so, he would sacrifice strategic gains he has made in the Donetsk region.  

This was a bold move on the part of Ukraine.  Patience was wearing thin after they received the first installments of the $60+ billion military aid package from the US, along with F-16 jets and heavy artillery from NATO countries.  Ukraine needed to do something to justify these enormous expenses, and so they struck Russia's weakest point, its own border.  No one saw it coming, least of all Russia, which had minimal forces stationed in Kursk.  

At first, the US and its NATO allies were a bit miffed.  They had allowed Ukraine to hit targets in Russia but not to invade Russia.  However, with peace talks back on the table, Zelinskyy felt Ukraine needed some bargaining power, so his military forces seized a huge swathe of Russia roughly equivalent the territory Russia currently occupies in Ukraine, not counting Crimea.  

While Ukraine has changed the landscape in the ongoing war, it really hasn't altered the situation significantly.  However, it has disproven two myths.  One that Russia is impervious to attack and two that Putin would use tactical nuclear weapons if pressed.  It's been more than a month since Ukraine took Kursk and still Putin dawdles.  This can't look good in the eyes of Russians who thought themselves safe from the war in Ukraine.  

The news media was filled with images of fleeing Russians begging for mercy, but for the most part Ukrainian soldiers obliged them in their exodus.  There was no attempt made to hold them or separate children from their parents as we saw in Donetsk when Russian forces occupied the region at the start of the war in February, 2022.  It has been a relatively peaceful operation with very few casualties.  Ukraine has taken out three bridges and destroyed airport tarmacs, making it difficult for Russia to launch a counter attack.

The Great Commander hasn't taken this turn of events lying down.  Putin fired more missiles and drones on Ukrainian energy infrastructure and cities, even having his occupying forces set one of the cooling towers of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant on fire and try to blame Ukraine for the damage.  At this point, very few persons are buying his lies.

It's been a tough month for Vlad.  In July it looked like he had everything going his way including the US election where Trump was poised to take Biden down in a historic landslide.  Russian media was literally drooling over this possibility, as they felt they would soon have all of Ukraine for the taking, not just the land bridge Putin had created to Crimea.  But a funny thing happened.  Old Joe withdrew from the race and all of the sudden this heretofore barely known Kamala Harris rose to the top of the ticket and Trump's lead in the national polls disappeared in a blink of an eye.  Now, the election is a toss up, and Vlad is none too happy about that.

Much of the misinformation and absurd claims spreading through social media emanate from the Kremlin.  Their spokespersons, Maria Zakharova chief among them, are pushing the bogus claim that the move to replace Biden was illegal and have called for an investigation.  If that sounds familiar it is  because American conservative outlets work hand in hand with Russian propaganda outlets to spread these distortions either as tools or useful idiots.  It was very effective in taking down Biden. They just didn't think it would happen before the election, so now they are forced to come up with new lines of attack on Kamala Harris.

I hope at some point this vast shared network will be fully exposed and all those who knowingly took part in this collaborated effort will be held to account.  Namely, guys like Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, who have direct ties with Moscow.  In the meantime, I hope that Americans will be more circumspect about what they see and hear in their conservative news, both in regard to the election and Ukraine.

It was great to hear Kamala say in her acceptance speech that she would defend Ukraine and NATO allies.  A far cry from the gobbledygook we have been hearing from Trump in his interviews, like this one with Dr. Phil.  Safe to say he has no idea what is going on but still tries to project himself as the only one who can bring peace to the region.

Of course a lot of people would like Ukraine to go away.  No one likes malingering wars that threaten armageddon.  However, this is a war we can't afford to lose especially as we see Afghanistan brought back into the news three years after its downfall.  To do so would be to forfeit any role we have in bringing autocratic governments to task.  It's fortunate that Ukrainians are willing to fight for their freedom whereas Afghanis were not.  Once the pullout began under the Trump administration, Afghani forces simply rolled over and played dead with the Taliban seizing much of the NATO ordnance in the process.  

This war is not only about Ukraine's right to self determination but about bringing Putin to heel for what has been a 24-year terror campaign in which he has openly attacked two countries, fommeted wars in Central Asia and put bounties on American soldiers' heads in Afghanistan. Throughout, he has claimed no culpability even when it was shown that his forces shot down a civilian airliner over Donetsk in 2014.  In his addled mind, everyone else is the terrorist.

Ultimately, Russians need to wake up and see what his failed leadership has wrought their country.  If it wasn't for China and India propping up its economy, Russia would have long ago fallen into a financial tailspin.  But, they all still dream of BRICS and becoming the dominate player in the world economy.  Seeing Russians flee Kursk must have given them some pause.