Lies, Escalations, and Carelessness

Despite the increasing possibility of a hot war between nuclear powers, Washington and its partners continue to escalate against Russia.

A view of the dome atop the Senate building in the Kremlin, where a suspected Ukrainian drone attack took place. (Yuri Kochetkov/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

In one of my recent posts, I wrote about the drone attacks that occurred over the Kremlin buildings and the response to them by numerous former American officials alleging that the attacks were a “false flag” operation conducted by Russia against itself. As absurd as that claim sounded at the time, it nonetheless gained significant traction within corporate media circles as if it were what actually transpired.

In the wake of the attacks, a variety of former officials chimed in publicly to present their assessment of the situation. The attack “smells like a false flag operation on the part of the Russians,” former CIA Director Leon Panetta said at the time. Former General Jack Keane agreed, adding that the incident didn’t “fit Ukraine’s pattern of behavior.” Additionally, former national security advisor Robert O’Brien said that the drone attacks atop the Kremlin had “the hallmarks of a Russian false flag operation.”

As it turns out, they were wrong yet again. Last week, a recent report in the New York Times exposed the fact that U.S. intelligence officials, behind closed doors, believe that Ukraine was responsible for attacking the Kremlin. “U.S. officials said the drone attack on the Kremlin earlier this month was likely orchestrated by one of Ukraine’s special military or intelligence units,” the Times noted. This evaluation was reached in part due to intercepted Ukrainian communications that said that they “believed their country was responsible for the attack.”

The recent report materialized after a high-ranking Ukrainian official publicly admitted to a German publication that Kyiv is currently formulating plans to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin. With the recent drone attacks over the Kremlin and the botched explosive drone within Moscow weeks beforehand, Kyiv has increasingly conducted operations aimed at Putin. To state the obvious, these operations serve no strategic purpose in securing victory for the Ukrainian war effort and will only result in further escalation in the ongoing war. If Ukraine continues to attack inside Russia using American equipment and arms, the already high tensions between Moscow and the West will only worsen.

Belgorod Raid

Last Monday, Ukrainian armed forces, under the guise of being a Russian anti-Kremlin group, conducted a cross-border raid into Russia’s Belgorod Oblast, attacking multiple Russian villages and residential areas. As the attack ensued, unfounded reports circulated within pro-Ukrainian media, absurdly suggesting that the attack was symbolic of a Russian “rebellion” against Putin and that Russian civilians within the area established a “declaration of independence.” Ultimately, the operation failed miserably, and the attackers were quickly repelled and forced to turn back in abject defeat.

Some analysts have described the Belgorod incursion as a planned distraction in order to divert media attention away from Ukraine’s devastating loss in Bakhmut. Alternatively, the foray into Russian territory could’ve been an attempt to achieve much larger goals. On May 13, The Washington Post reported on various documents from the Discord Leaks, consisting of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s private ambitions to conduct attacks within the Russian mainland. One of those plans included “moving Ukrainian ground troops into enemy territory” to enact military occupation of Russian villages.

What also makes the Belgorod raid noteworthy is that U.S.-supplied armored vehicles were utilized in attacking the Russian mainland. The Russian Volunteer Corps, one of many groups that participated in the attack, includes members who are openly neo-Nazi. Its leader, Denis Nikitin, admitted unabashedly that his soldiers used American armored vehicles in the raid. Another organization, the Freedom of Russia Legion, cooperated in the outbreak of fighting in the Belgorod region.

Although dishonest media reports attempted to spin the Belgorod aggression as an act of rebellion by discontented Russians against Putin, both aforementioned organizations that bear the name “Russian” are integrated into the Armed Forces of Ukraine. To put it bluntly, this was a Ukrainian-operated attack, plain and simple.

On the other hand, the incident was highly embarrassing for Moscow. The event highlighted peculiar vulnerabilities on the part of the Russians along the border between Ukraine and Russia. Even though these attacks have no military substance, they nonetheless underscore Russia’s susceptibility to being hit by Ukraine within its own borders.

More importantly, vehicles supplied by the U.S. were used by extremist factions within the Ukrainian military to attack Russian residential areas, which is a uniquely dangerous aspect of the incursion. Russian officials have repeatedly stated that Moscow blames the U.S. for such attacks.

F-16s to Ukraine

Recently, U.S. President Joe Biden announced his approval for various European countries to begin sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, the latest in a series of continual escalations emanating from the West aimed at damaging the Russian war effort. Despite private reservations from U.S. officials regarding the aircraft being ostensibly used by Kyiv to attack inside Russia, the Biden administration nonetheless plans to have Ukrainian pilots trained to fly the aircraft.

In response to American plans to supply the Kyiv regime with F-16s, Russian officials once again sounded the alarm concerning nonstop escalation. “We see that Western countries are still adhering to the escalation scenario. It involves colossal risks for themselves,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko recently said.

Truthfully, granting Ukraine F-16s will not alter the reality of what is occurring on the battlefield in Ukraine; rather, it is a move that only further entangles the West in the conflict and makes a direct confrontation between Washington and Moscow all the more likely. Moreover, it takes a considerable amount of time to properly train pilots to operate the fighter jet, sometimes taking up to multiple months for the training to be completed.

While U.S. intelligence officials exude a sense of worry behind closed doors regarding Ukrainian attacks within Russia, certain members of Congress don’t “care” if those attacks produce a vast Russian response. Asked if he was concerned that Ukrainians would use the F-16s to conduct military operations aimed at targets inside Russia, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) brushed off those worries. “I wouldn’t care if they did,’’ he said.

Continual Escalation Eventually Leads to War

Nadler’s remarks are glaringly indicative of the radical, pro-war mindset harbored by many ideologues in Washington. That a sitting member of Congress explains flat-out his carelessness about the potentiality of this conflict encompassing a broader spectrum while at the same time supporting these escalations is truly remarkable. It certainly seems as if a large majority of policymakers on Capitol Hill are immune to realizing that the current conflagration between Russia and Ukraine could turn increasingly dangerous, not just for those two nations, but for the world at large.

Meanwhile, others are not so subtle regarding their view of the ongoing war and the carnage wrought by it. “The Russians are dying,” Senator Lindsey Graham said on Friday. “It’s the best money we’ve ever spent.”

Graham exhibits a “positive” view of the war, but Washington’s proxy war isn’t faring that well currently. Ukraine is in tatters. Untrained men are being thrown onto the front lines against a well-trained Russian army. Ukrainian teenagers are forced out of their homes unwillingly and are coerced into signing up to serve. Ukraine, after pouring tens of thousands of their best into the Bakhmut “Meatgrinder”, ultimately lost to a private mercenary force. Some estimates put Ukrainian troop deaths at around 350,000, while Russian losses are estimated to be much lower. According to retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, “Russian ground forces are now much larger than they have been since the mid-1980s.”

Meanwhile, the Biden administration and its allies hope for a “frozen” conflict, a situation they deem to be agreeable to NATO members in the long term. A frozen conflict is a scenario in which fighting pauses but neither side concedes defeat nor admits that the war is over. However unlikely this outcome may be, it nonetheless indicates that an increasing number of Western leaders don’t believe that Ukraine is winning.

Escalation, escalation, and more escalation. Diplomacy is nonexistent. In essence, that is the path the U.S. has taken thus far in Ukraine. The effusive hatred directed at Russia by various American leaders makes diplomacy and efforts at negotiation near impossible. In the meantime, the Biden administration continues to poke the Russian Bear in the side, constantly intimidating and provoking it to respond. Don’t be surprised when the Russian Bear mauls back. The damage could be irreparable.