Ukraine successfully strikes Russian base in Donbas region

The Ukrainian army has entered the new year with a successful strike aided by the US-made HIMARS in the occupied areas of a town in one of the Donbas regions, Makiivka, Donetsk. Reports of this successful strike of a school building housing Russian army recruits are pegged at 89, the biggest loss of life Moscow has reported so far. This was announced minutes ago by the Russian Defense Ministry contrary to its tradition of not commenting on its losses. However, the Ukrainian army’s strategic communications department said that nearly 400 soldiers were killed and 300 injured in the strike in Makiivka.

The centerpiece of the new battle order is the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or Himars. Provided by the U.S. and operated by Ukrainian soldiers since June, they are augmenting lightweight and precise weaponry that includes drones, Javelin antitank rockets and Stinger antiaircraft missiles, enabled by GPS guidance and advanced microelectronics.

On one hand, you had Russia, whose military was considered one of the most powerful in the world. Some people thought it was just below the American army and for that matter didn't see Ukraine not falling within days.

You will recall that early of 2022, no one was giving the Ukrainians a hard time on February 24, 2022, when Putin ordered his army to invade Ukraine in a shameful manner. An invasion that Moscow itself refuted upon US intelligence found them otherwise. Moscow later invaded upon initial denial.

At the beginning of the Ukraine invasion, Putin intended to take Ukraine in a few days before installing a straw man as the head of the country. Putin wanted to do in Ukraine something similar to what is happening in Belarus where he really decides everything in foreign affairs.

And then, the Russian army was expected by the Ukrainian army which had excellent information about the coming offensive thanks to the American intelligence services.

Ukraine has had the massive support of the West since then, and the massive sanctions on Russia are beginning to take their toll on the Russian economy.

The result is that this war that Putin imagined to be very short and without any reaction from the West is becoming a nightmare for Russia. The Russian army shows its weakness to the whole world. The Russian army is demotivated, badly organized, and now badly equipped, because it has to resort to the stock of weapons of the Soviet era.

The Russian army will not be able to buy modern weapons anymore because the Russian industry is at a standstill in many fields, and things will get worse and worse.

Putin knows now that he cannot win this war if the West continues to support Ukraine in this way. He is looking for a way out from the top so that he is not humiliated by a defeat that could make the Russian people revolt by withdrawing their consent.

BY Abdul-Razak Lukman
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