Topics:
Welcome back to Political Misfits on Radio Sputnik, where we bring you news, politics and culture - without the red and blue treatment. I’m John Kiriakou here with Michelle Witte.
Greater Moscow experienced multiple explosions this morning as a result of aerial strikes by Ukrainian kamikaze drones. The strikes came in response to a Russian drone strike on Kiev over the weekend. The Ukrainian action forced the temporary closure of Moscow’s airport, resulting in the cancellation or delay of hundreds of flights. // American officials say that they fear Ukraine has become “casualty averse” and overcautious, which has slowed the summer counteroffensive. A true counteroffensive, they say, would result in huge numbers of casualties, something the Ukrainians apparently don’t want to risk. In just the past year and a half, since the start of the conflict, Ukraine’s military deaths have already surpassed the number of American troops who died during nearly 20 years of war in Vietnam. // The BRICS countries–Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa–are preparing to meet in South Africa over the course of three days this week. The countries account for 40 percent of the world’s population. And on the agenda will be the issue of expanding BRICS to include countries like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia. Others, like Argentina, Kazakhstan, and South Korea, are also interested in joining. // And the Netherlands and Denmark confirmed over the weekend that they would supply F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine sometime before the end of the year. The US will train Ukrainian pilots, apparently in the United States. That sounds great for Ukraine, but it’s not so easy. We’ll talk about why.
Mark Sleboda is an international affairs and security analyst.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/18/us/politics/ukraine-russia-war-casualties.html
The BRICS Club of Emerging Nations Debates Letting Others In
Saudi Border Guards Accused of Killing Hundreds of African Migrants
Ukraine live briefing: Kyiv to get F-16 fighter jets from Netherlands and Denmark, Dutch PM says
Questions:
Welcome back, Mark. Thanks for joining us. Let’s start with the Ukrainian drone attacks on the Moscow region this morning. There were apparently two injuries and not a lot of damage. But these attacks were largely on civilian areas. Tell us what happened.
It’s my understanding that military attacks on civilian infrastructure, including airports, which, I should add, is something that the United States does in every conflict in which it’s engaged, is a war crime. With that said, several of these drone attacks were near the Moscow Airport, and they caused all kinds of problems. Was there any damage at or near the airport? And is it running normally now?
I also wanted to ask you about casualties. There were several softball stories in the Washington Post and the New York Times this morning lamenting, for example, the fact that in their down time, many Ukrainian soldiers are playing video war games on their phones. “Oh, these poor people! They’re so overtaken by war that they even play war games on their phones!” That’s nonsensical, of course. Who cares what they play on their phones? But the more important issue is casualties. US officials fear that the Ukrainians are unwilling to keep up the fight because they don’t want to incur more casualties. Is that what you’re seeing?
Along those same lines, give us your thoughts on Ukrainian casualties. Frankly, I had no idea that the numbers were so high. More than 58,000 have been killed or wounded in the past 18 months. That’s pretty dramatic. Do you think it has affected the Ukrainian psyche to the point that they just don’t want to fight?
How do you think casualty aversion will affect the Ukrainian counteroffensive? We’ve already seen reporting here in the US saying that the counteroffensive has not gone according to plan. The Ukrainians had hoped to cut the Russian lines in half by now, but no such thing even looks possible anymore. The Ukrainians had hoped to be in a position to threaten the Russians in Crimea by now, but that’s also not possible. So what next for the Ukrainians?
Turning to the issue of F-16s, we know that delivery will be made sometime before the end of the year. So the F-16s will not be of any help to the Ukrainians in the counteroffensive. You also mentioned last week that we’re talking about a relative handful of F-16s, not an entire fleet. The pilot training won’t be done in the near term. There aren’t enough Ukrainian pilots who speak English, while the training is in English, and there aren’t any spare parts yet available. This doesn’t sound like F-16s are going to be any help at all.
There was a piece in the New York Times today saying that the cluster munitions provided to Ukraine by United States have been fantastically effective in killing and wounding Russians (even though many countries consider use of these munitions to be a war crime) but that many have been left unexploded and are now a danger to Ukrainian civilians. Literally everybody predicted that this would happen. How much of a problem are these unexploded munitions going to be? Are we looking at a problem like what we’ve seen in Laos and Cambodia with unexploded landmines?
Finally, Mark, I wanted to get your opinion on the BRICS summit that’s taking place in South Africa this week. It seems like, because of the conflict in Ukraine, every country is on its best behavior. So first, do you expect anything substantive to come out of this summit? And second, what are the prospects of other countries soon joining BRICS. A lot want to join.
Kiev's Incessant Pinprick Drone Attacks, Casualty Number Propaganda, US Blames "Casualty Averse" Kiev Regime, F-16 Wonderwaffe, Ukraine is Cluster-F*cked, BRICS Expansion and more...