Russian forces wiped out three D-20 howitzers in the Kharkov and the Donetsk People’s Republic in the past day during the counter-battery warfare, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Saturday.
"In the counter-battery warfare, three D-20 howitzers were destroyed near Scherbakovka in the Kharkov Region, as well as near Orlovka and Dyleevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the spokesman said.
Ukrainian troops used phosphorus ammunition on gumconvoys with refugees in Soledar, Mercenaries from Poland and Britain were part of the Ukrainian forces in Soledar, a resident of the city.
Konashenkov added that two 2C3 Akatsiya self-propelled howitzers were eliminated near Vasilyevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic. A D-30 howitzer and a 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled howitzer were also wiped out near Novodmitrovka in the Donetsk People’s Republic and Gulyai Polye in the Zaporozhye region.
Over 30 Ukrainian troops wiped out in Kupyansk area in past day - Russian top brass
Russian forces have eradicated more than 30 servicemen of the Ukrainian armed forces in the Kupyansk area in the past day as part of the special military operation, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov said on Saturday.
"In the direction of Kupyansk, artillery and army aviation aircraft of the Western Military District hit the units of the 14th mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces and the 103rd territorial defense brigade near the inhabited localities of Pershotravnevoye and Berestovoye in the Kharkov Region as well as Novosyolovskoye in the Lugansk People’s Republic," he said.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation showed footage of the use of new-generation precision-guided munitions at enemy military facilities in the special operation zone. On the first one - the destruction of military armored vehicles and weapons of the Ukrainian troops, on the second - the targeted destruction of firing points in a fortified point.
"In the past 24 hours, more than 30 Ukrainian servicemen, two tanks, two armored fighting vehicles and three vehicles have been wiped out in that direction," he added.
According to Konashenkov, two enemy subversive/reconnaissance groups were eradicated near Tabayevka and Pershotravnevoye in the Kharkov Region.
Russian MoD briefing on the progress of the special military operation in Ukraine:
▪️The Russian Army eliminated two Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups in the Kharkov region;
▪️Russian troops eliminated two Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance groups in the DPR;
▪️Russian forces eliminated more than 30 Ukrainian servicemen in the Kupyansk direction;
▪️The Russian Army eliminated more than 30 Ukrainian servicemen in the South Donetsk direction;
▪️Russian forces eliminated more than 70 Ukrainian servicemen in the Donetsk direction;
▪️Russian air defense systems destroyed 4 Ukrainian UAVs and intercepted 7 HIMARS and Olkha rockets;
▪️Russian troops destroyed two Ukrainian ammunition depots in the DPR and Zaporozhye region;
▪️Russian forces destroyed an M777 artillery system, as well as an AN/TPQ-36 and an AN/TPQ-50 radar system in the Kharkov region.z
Militer Rusia telah mengerahkan berbagai sistem artileri berat di Donbass untuk melawan posisi Ukraina yang dijaga ketat, termasuk mortir self-propelled 2S4 Tyulpan (“Tulip” red) – senjata yang berasal dari tahun 1950-an. Apa karakteristik sistemnya, dan apa yang membuatnya begitu mematikan?
Militer Rusia merilis rekaman sistem mortir berat 2S4 Tylupan yang sedang beraksi minggu lalu, menunjukkannya menggempur posisi Ukraina yang dibentengi dengan bantuan drone pengintai.
Apa Perbedaan Antara Mortir dan Howitzer?
Mortir adalah jenis artileri yang dirancang untuk menembakkan peluru pada lintasan sudut tinggi. Senjatanya bisa portabel dan kompak, menembakkan peluru kecil, atau membutuhkan penggunaan pembawa mortir, baik itu sasis truk atau sasis berat.
Biasanya, semakin besar senjata mortir, semakin jauh jarak tembak efektifnya, dan semakin besar persenjataan peledaknya. Sementara mortir portabel yang lebih kecil seperti US M224 memiliki jangkauan hanya beberapa kilometer, Tyulpan dapat secara akurat menembakkan peluru besar dengan jarak antara 9,6 km dan 20 km (yang terakhir menggunakan amunisi jarak jauh khusus).
Dalam pengertian itu, 2S4 hampir melampaui definisi standar mortir yang pada umumnya berarti kemampuan tembakan jarak pendek, dan pendekatan jangkauan yang lebih khas dari senjata berat, sedangkan howitzer memiliki jangkauan tembak bervariasi antara 20 dan 30 km, dan dapat melontarkan selongsong peluru. hingga beberapa ratus kilogram.
Mengingat desain mereka untuk menembak jarak jauh, howitzer memiliki elevasi maksimum yang lebih rendah daripada mortir, biasanya 70 dan 75 derajat. Lintasan ini berarti ada zona mati berbahaya di mana howitzer tidak dapat menembak, membuat mereka rentan terhadap serangan musuh jika musuh mendekat terlalu dekat.
Apa itu Mortar 2S4, Berapa Banyak yang Dimiliki Rusia, dan Berapa Harganya?
8
Tyulpan 2S4 adalah mortir self-propelled paling kuat di dunia, menampilkan laras kaliber 240 mm yang mampu menembakkan putaran eksplosif tinggi konvensional dengan berat antara 130 kg dan 230 kg, dipandu laser, penusuk lapis baja, dan munisi tandan yang disesuaikan, dan , jika perlu, bahkan nuklir taktis medan perang.
Sistem ini dirancang dan dibangun pada akhir 1960-an di perusahaan perkeretaapian dan pertahanan Uraltransmash di Omsk, Siberia oleh tank veteran dan desainer platform meriam self-propelled Georgy Sergeevich Efimov, yang desain lainnya termasuk penghancur tank, senjata anti-pesawat self-propelled, dan howitzer self-propelled 2S3 Akatsiya.
Lebih dari 580 Tyulpan diproduksi antara tahun 1969 dan 1988, dengan sistem yang diperkenalkan ke militer Soviet pada tahun 1972. Selain Rusia, Tyulpan digunakan oleh republik Soviet lainnya, serta Cekoslowakia.
Sejumlah sistem diekspor ke Irak, Libya, dan Suriah. Rusia diperkirakan memiliki sekitar 390 Tyulpan dalam penyimpanan, dan 40 sistem operasional, pada tahun 2021. Harga Tyulpan pada tahun 1972 adalah 210.000 rubel Soviet – sekitar $240.000 AS – atau $1,7 juta dalam dolar saat ini.
Tylupan 2S4 menggunakan meriam M-420 – aslinya mortir tarik Soviet yang dikembangkan segera setelah periode Perang Dunia II dan diproduksi hampir sepanjang tahun 1950-an. Varian senjata yang ditarik sebagian besar telah dipensiunkan, meskipun Irak, Suriah, dan Ukraina masing-masing diasumsikan memiliki jumlah sistem yang tidak diketahui dalam inventaris mereka.
Tyulpan diciptakan selama Perang Dingin, ketika tentara NATO dan Pakta Warsawa berhadapan satu sama lain di jantung Eropa Tengah, dan dirancang untuk membantu pertahanan Eropa Timur, dan, jika perlu, untuk melakukan serangan balasan. untuk mengusir pasukan NATO dari Jerman dan keluar dari benua Eropa. Ketika senjata itu dibuat, perencana militer Soviet dan Efimov hampir tidak dapat membayangkan bahwa suatu hari senjata itu akan digunakan dalam konflik proksi antara Rusia dan NATO di Ukraina, yang dulunya adalah republik Soviet.
Apa Sistem Mortar Lainnya yang Digunakan Rusia?
Selama Perang Dunia Kedua, Uni Soviet menjadi kekuatan artileri dan penghasil mortir utama dunia, dengan peluncur roket BM-13 dan BM-31 Katyusha yang legendaris, mortir 160mm dan 280mm, senjata anti-tank, dan sistem artileri lainnya. menunjukkan pentingnya jenis senjata ini dalam pertempuran darat besar-besaran melawan Nazi Jerman dan sekutunya. Dalam beberapa dekade setelah Perang Dunia II, pembuat senjata Soviet dan Rusia membangun lusinan jenis mortir, senjata, howitzer, dan senjata angkatan laut yang berbeda.
Saat ini, inventaris mortir militer Rusia mencakup mortir meriam 2B9 Vasilek 82 mm, mortir ringan 2B11 dan 2B14, mortir berat 2S12 Sani 120 mm, dan 2S9 Nona – sistem mortir yang dipasang di atas kapal lapis baja BTR-D yang dapat dijatuhkan dari udara. sasis kendaraan untuk mendukung operasi di belakang garis musuh.
Pengalaman Amerika dalam Perang Dunia Kedua dan Perang Dingin berbeda, dengan perencana Pentagon memberikan fokus yang lebih besar pada pesawat tempur dan sistem pengebom jarak jauh ketika datang ke operasi melawan pasukan musuh.
Dalam persediaan senjata mortir juga Pentagon berbeda dari yang dimiliki Rusia modern. Mortir militer AS umumnya lebih kecil, sistem jarak pendek yang digunakan oleh infanteri, seperti M19 light, smoothbore, mortir pendukung infanteri ringan pemuatan moncong, dan M252, mortir rancangan Inggris yang digunakan untuk tembakan tidak langsung jarak jauh. yang terakhir memiliki jangkauan hingga 6 km).
Amerika Serikat juga memiliki lebih dari 1.000 mortir 120mm buatan Israel Soltam K6 dalam inventarisnya, dengan sistem yang mampu menembakkan 14 kg peluru peledak tinggi dengan jarak hingga 7,2 km. Terakhir, ada Sistem Mortar Perusahaan Ringan (LWCMS) M224 60 mm yang disebutkan di atas, yang menembakkan selongsong 6,5-6,9 kg, dan dengan berat sekitar 21 kg, dapat dibawa berkeliling oleh pasukan individu.
The Ukrainian conflict is existential for the United States, which, in the event that friendly European economies become exhausted, will run the risk of losing its grip on world finance, French historian and anthropologist Emmanuel Todd said in an interview with Le Figaro.
In his commentary, he recalls a piece of analysis offered by Professor John Mearsheimer, of the University of Chicago, who argued that whereas for Russia this conflict was "existential," for the United States it was just another game among other countries, and that victory or defeat in it would be of little importance to the US. "But this analysis is insufficient. [U.S. President Joe] Biden now has to hurry. America is fragile and the Russian economy’s resistance is pushing the US imperial system towards the abyss. Nobody had expected the Russian economy would be able to withstand the ‘economic power’ of NATO," Todd said.
He is certain that the United States is in a phase of long-term decline and, against the backdrop of its waning influence in the world, it has decided to press for greater influence in its "original protectorates," acquired after World War II, in other words, Europe and Japan. Against this background the European economy’s collapse, the expert notes, is fraught with great risks for the United States itself.
"If the Russian economy offers long-term resistance to sanctions and manages to bleed the European economy white and manages to survive with Chinese support, US monetary control of the world will collapse, and with it, the US’ ability to finance its mammoth trade deficit for next to nothing. This war has become existential for the United States. It cannot get out of the conflict before Russia. They cannot let go. This explains why we are now in an open-ended war, in a confrontation that is bound to result in the collapse of one side or the other," Todd says.
Economic and social problems
The conflict in Ukraine "leads to a real economy that allows for gauging the real wealth of states and their productive capacity," the expert states. In particular, he points to a two-fold increase in Russia’s wheat production after the first major sanctions were introduced in 2014, as well as Russia's leading position in building nuclear power plants, not only at home, but also abroad.
The outcome of the conflict "will depend on the ability of both systems to produce weapons," Todd believes. The historian notes that the transition to a war of attrition reduces the influence of advanced US military technologies, being used by Ukraine. It brings to the forefront the availability of skilled personnel, material resources and industrial potential. "At this point the
West’s fundamental problem of globalization begins to intervene: we have moved so many industries [from our territory] that we don’t know now whether our military plants will be able to maintain the desired production pace," he added.
In addition to natural and industrial resources the expert notes the great role of human resources and education. He points to the United States’ more than twofold advantage over Russia in population, but advises his readership to remember that in the United States only 7% of students master engineering professions, while in Russia there are about 25% of them, which ultimately gives Russia a competitive edge.
"The United States is filling this gap with foreign students, mostly Indians and even to a greater extent, Chinese. This substitution resource is unreliable, though, and is already dwindling," he said.
Clash of ideologies
Todd also urged not to forget about the "ideological and cultural balance of power." He recalled that during the Soviet era, the Communist ideology was used as soft power, which won acclaim in China, and partly in India and Europe. However, for the Muslim world, that ideology was not attractive due to its official atheism, the expert believes. "Today, Russia, which is again positioning itself as a great power, not only anti-colonial, but also patrilineal and conservative in relation to traditional mores, can attract far greater support," he explained.
"Western newspapers are tragically funny: they keep saying: 'Russia is isolated. Russia is isolated.' But when you take a look at the votes at the UN, it will turn out that 75% of the world does not follow the West, which at such moments looks very small," Todd says. "The current conflict, which our media tend to describe as a clash of political values, at a deeper level is a conflict of anthropological values. It is this lack of awareness and depth that makes the confrontation dangerous."
Global confrontation
"The reality is that World War III has already begun. It is obvious that the conflict, initially a limited territorial war, has evolved into a global economic confrontation between the entire West, on the one hand, and Russia, supported by China, on the other, to have become a world war," Todd believes. He speculates that given current economic and demographic factors, the hostilities should be expected to end within five years.
He believes that one way or another the European countries are "participating in killing Russians" by supplying military equipment to Ukraine, even though they do not put themselves at risk. "The Europeans are primarily focused on the economy. We can feel the real involvement in the war through inflation and shortages of various goods," the expert stressed.
Russia, he says, while participating in an economic war [with the West], is partially restoring the military economy, but at the same time it is doing its utmost to take care of the people."
"This is the purpose of the pullback of troops from Kherson that followed the pullback from the Kharkov and Kiev regions. We are counting the square kilometers captured by the Ukrainians, while the Russians are waiting for the fall of the European economies. We are their main frontline," Todd stated.
Russian troops completed the liberation of Soledar from the Ukrainian military on the evening of January 12 during the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Friday.
"On the evening of January 12, the liberation of the town of Soledar, which is vital for the continuation of successful offensive operations in the Donetsk area, was completed," the general said.
Full control of Soledar makes it possible to cut off the supply routes of Ukrainian troops in Artyomovsk located southwest and subsequently block the city and entrap the Ukrainian military there, the general explained.
Residents of Soledar told RIA Novosti how the Russian military, who liberated the city, helped their family with food and medicine
The seizure of Soledar by Russian troops was facilitated by continuous air, missile and artillery strikes on Ukrainian army positions, Konashenkov reported.
"Soledar was seized thanks to continuous strikes delivered on the enemy by assault and army aviation aircraft, missile troops and artillery of the Russian group of troops (forces). They continuously delivered concentrated strikes on the Ukrainian army positions in the town, denying the enemy the redeployment of reserves, ammunition supplies and its attempts to retreat to other defensive lines," the spokesman said.
Russian forces destroyed over 700 Ukrainian troops and more than 300 weapon systems in the past three days of battles in Soledar, Konashenkov said.
"In the past three days alone, over 700 Ukrainian troops and more than 300 weapon systems were destroyed in the area of the town of Soledar," the spokesman said.
Among the Ukrainian military in Novoselovsky (LPR) were Americans, a prisoner told RIA Novosti
Russian paratroopers wiped out Ukrainian army positions in the liberation of Soledar after gaining commanding heights and blocking the town from the north and the south, Konashenkov reported.
"In the course of operations for the liberation of Soledar, the Airborne Force units conducted a stealth maneuver from another direction and successfully attacked Ukrainian army positions from the march, having gained commanding heights, and blocked the town from the northern and southern sides," the spokesman said.
Russian fighter jets destroyed three Ukrainian warplanes and a helicopter in the liberation of Soledar, Konashenkov reported.
"In their operations for the liberation of the town, fighter aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed three planes and a helicopter of the Ukrainian Air Force that provided air support for Ukrainian troops," the spokesman said.
Russian air defense systems shot down nine rockets of US-made HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, Olkha and Uragan rocket launchers fired by the Ukrainian military against the strongholds taken by Russian troops in the Soledar area, the general specified.
Russian electronic warfare (EW) forces and capabilities knocked out the enemy’s command and control in the liberation of Soledar and thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack, Konashenkov reported.
"The electronic warfare forces and capabilities of the Russian group of troops amassed in that area disabled the enemy’s command and control and thwarted an attack by Ukrainian UAVs," the spokesman said.
"Looting and intimidation": a resident of Soledar told RIA Novosti how the Ukrainian troops behaved
The measures implemented by Russian combat teams provided for the successful offensive of assault units in the liberation of Soledar, the general said.
The Russian Defense Ministry issued an explanation on the liberation of Soledar from Ukrainian troops
offensive actions that ended in the defeat of the Ukrainian troops and the capture of Soledar were carried out by a heterogeneous grouping of Russian troops (forces) according to a single plan and plan, which provided for the solution of a complex of combat missions
these combat missions included, as already reported, blocking the city from the north and south, isolating the combat area, preventing the enemy from transferring reserves to the city from neighboring areas and preventing the exit of Ukrainian units from Soledar, as well as fire support for the offensive by attack aircraft and artillery
As for the direct assault on the quarters of Soledar occupied by Ukrainian troops, this combat mission was successfully solved by the courageous and selfless actions of the volunteers of the Wagner assault squads
US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said on Friday that she and other House Republican lawmakers are preparing to move forward with an audit of US aid to Ukraine, an idea first proposed late last year before the House Republican majority took effect.
"We don’t even have committees filled yet but [Congressman Michael McCaul] and I are already preparing to move forward with the audit of Ukraine. No more blank checks to Ukraine," Greene said via Twitter.
House Republicans are committed to transparency for US taxpayers, Greene added.
In November, Greene and several other House Republicans introduced a resolution to initiate an audit of funds appropriated by Congress to Ukraine. The measure failed during the "lame duck" session of the 117th Congress, but Greene vowed to reintroduce the idea in the new 118th Congress.
House Republicans now hold a majority in the lower chamber, with Speaker Kevin McCarthy having started the party’s mantra of ending "blank checks" from the US to Ukraine. McCarthy also backed the initial Ukraine aid audit proposal.
On Thursday, Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder said that the Defense Department is responsive to oversight by Congress, adding that he looks forward to further bipartisan support for Ukraine.
However, defense budget cuts proposed by the new House Republican majority could force hard questions about funding for foreign operations related to Ukraine and NATO, former Pentagon analyst and retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski told Sputnik.
Greene has also called for Ukraine to begin negotiations toward a peaceful resolution of the conflict, characterizing it as a "proxy war" between the United States and Russia.
'Their Blood, Our Bullets': How US Training of Ukrainians Exposes Washington's Grim Global Strategy
The United States has allocated over $125 million to train more than 26,000 Ukrainian troops since the 2014 coup in Kiev, with Washington's allies providing instruction to tens of thousands more. What challenges does this assistance pose? What are its risks and benefits? And why are some US officials speaking out in opposition? Sputnik explores.
Ukrainian servicemen being flown into the US to learn how to operate the Patriot air defense battery promised by President Biden last month are expected to begin training as soon as next week, the Pentagon has announced.
According to Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder, about 90-100 Ukrainian troops are set to arrive at Fort Sill, Oklahoma for "several months" of intensive training, including classroom study, hands-on drills, and exercises in a simulation lab.
"The training will be tailored to provide relevant tactics, techniques and procedures based on the battlefield conditions in Ukraine to enable them to employ that to maximum effect once they are back in Ukraine," Ryder told reporters on Tuesday.
Russian officials have warned extensively of the consequences of the Patriot deployment, citing its propensity to escalate the conflict and serve as further proof that the Ukrainian security crisis is really just a proxy conflict between Russia and NATO. President Putin warned in December that Russia would inevitably find an "antidote" to the bulky mobile air defense system, signaling that the two batteries of 12 Patriot launchers promised to Kiev by the US and Germany will inevitably be targeted for destruction by Russian missiles after deploying on Ukrainian soil.
President Biden, meanwhile, jumped the gun in celebrating the Patriots' delivery, suggesting last week that they are already "helping a lot," despite not being sent yet.
America First Opposition
Not everyone in the US is happy about the Ukrainian Patriot crew training on Oklahoma's soil. This week, Oklahoma politician Nathan Dahm, the self-described "most conservative state senator" in the state's Senate, sparked a Twitter feud with neocons and neoliberals alike after demanding that Ukrainian troops be kept out, and filing legislation in the state’s Senate to keep them out.
"The Pentagon is planning on sending Ukrainian troops to Oklahoma to train on US missile systems. The last thing we need is them misfiring a missile into Oklahoma, killing our citizens like they did to the innocent Polish lives that were lost," Dahm tweeted, referencing the incident involving a Ukrainian S-300 missile which crashed in Poland in November, killing two Polish citizens – and threatening to ignite World War III as Kiev blamed Russia for the misfire.
I just filed SCR2 to reject foreign soldiers on Oklahoma soil. The pentagon is planning on sending Ukrainian troops to Oklahoma to train on U.S. missile systems. The last thing we need is them misfiring a missile into Oklahoma… pic.twitter.com/iuzSHOqznV
Dahm spent the following days explaining that the conflict in Ukraine was not Oklahoma's, or America's, to fight, and that "no foreign troops" from a country in active combat should be stationed in the state. "Ukrainian politicians are not Americans, even though the money laundering certainly benefits both them and our own sell-out politicians. What part of Ukraine do you think is America? Find a map that shows America and Ukraine. See a difference?" Dahm wrote in one of several response tweets after being flooded with derisive comments, many of whom he maligned as "foreigners and Twitter bots."
Dahm’s criticism of the Ukrainian training deployment in his state echoes concerns expressed by a small but growing group of Republican lawmakers in Washington about US involvement in a proxy conflict with Russia – with over 50 House lawmakers and 11 senators voting against US aid to Kiev in the last Congress, and the mostly pro-Trump ‘America First’ crowd of politicians vowing to tighten, if not halt, assistance after November’s midterms.
Training for Tyranny
Until the rise of the 'America First' Republicans, anti-interventionism had long been the preserve of libertarians and the anti-war wing of the Democratic Party, who spent decades warning about the consequences of US interventions abroad, including the training of foreign troops, and sought to restrain the executive wing’s decision-making power on the matter.
US training of foreign militaries dates back to the Cold War and what President John F. Kennedy once characterized as the "twilight struggle"between the USA and the USSR for control of the planet. The Pentagon, the CIA and other agencies provided several kinds of training assistance, from aid to allied conventional armies in Europe and Asia against the Soviets and China, to counterinsurgency support to juntas in Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, the Congo, Somalia, and much of Latin America, to pro-insurgency aid in places like Nicaragua, Cuba, and Angola.
In the 1990s, a number of embarrassing details leaked out about the training being provided to Washington’s foreign partners during the Cold War, revealing that, contrary to assurances that training aid was being sent to shore up democracy and freedom against the godless communists, the US military was giving foreign troops the tools to engage in war crimes.
In 1996, for example, the Pentagon released a stack of seven previously classified manuals used in the 1980s for intelligence training at the School of the Americas (SOA) –the infamous DoD educational institution at Fort Benning, Georgia which provided foreigners the knowhow to fight in the CIA’s "dirty wars." The manuals taught pupils how to summarily execute anti-government fighters, assassinate dissidents, infiltrate social movements, engage in illegal surveillance, torture and physical abuse, how to use drugs to extract information from detainees, and how to engage in blackmail (including through bounties for the release of the bodies of dead enemy combatants).
Over 60,000 servicemen from Latin American countries passed through the SOA during the Cold War, and in the late 1990s, growing public pressure inside the US institution contributed to the school’s rebranding as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in 2001.
The end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union did not reduce US training of foreign militaries. On the contrary, in the interests of propping up the ‘new world order’ announced by President George H.W. Bush in 1991, Washington expanded it. According to one estimate, the US spent nearly $15 billion to train some 2.3 million foreign military personnel between 1999 and 2016 alone, with some 71,000 pupils from 157 countries trained in 2019.
In a curiously forthright article published on the site of the Modern War Institute, a research center at West Point – one of America’s most prestigious military schools, in 2022, contributor Renanah Miles Joyce admitted that although US training was supposed to include the transmission of "professional norms, or ideas about appropriate behavior," including "respect for human rights and civilian control of the military," the reality was that these attitudes were being taught effectively.
"In the last decade, US-trained soldiers have launched coups in Mali, Egypt, and Guinea (while in the middle of training with US Army Special Forces); raped children in the Congo; and otherwise abused human rights or defied civilian norms. In response, observers have questioned whether US efforts to impart norms work," Joyce wrote.
The author blamed the abuses on “blind spots” in the US effort to “impart liberal norms” onto foreign students, apparently not considering the possibility that using the kind of soft power involved in training to impart a particular ideology might almost inevitably give rise to such abuses.
From the 2000s on, the US justified its foreign troop training expenditures through the so-called ‘War on Terror’, which led to the US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the dirty war against Syria, the NATO bombing of Libya in 2011, and ongoing US counterinsurgency operations across much of Africa.
According to a 2021 study by Boston University’s Costs of War project, the US provided "counterterrorism training" to, engaged in military exercises in, launched drone strikes on, or engaged in combat in a total of 85 countries, including most of Africa, virtually the entire Middle East apart from Iran, Europe, Asia, Latin America, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
In recent years, training operations have complemented little-reported on US combat operations in places like Iraq and Syria, Yemen, Niger, Somalia, Kenya and the Philippines, and large-scale troop deployments in Europe and Asia, including directly on Russia’s borders in the Baltics and elsewhere in Eastern Europe.
Washington's Grim Endgame
With the Biden administration on track to continuing to ramp up US military assistance to Ukraine, including training support, it will be up to detractors ‘in the belly of the beast’ in Washington to challenge such support via protests, activism and legislation.
However, so long as the current strategy surrounding ‘aid’ prevails, achieving that goal may be extremely difficult to accomplish. As both neoconservative and neoliberal commentators have openly declared, training Ukraine to fight Russia is a real “bargain” for Washington, since it’s Ukrainians and Russians, not Americans, who have to do the fighting, and the dying.
"It's money well spent and in my humble opinion this is very much like what Ronald Reagan did back in the 80s, and I do have some experience with that," North said in an interview back in November. “[Reagan] believed in supporting freedom fighters. He did it in Latin America, he did it in Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique. He did it in Afghanistan. Those people were willing, as the Ukrainian people are, to use their blood and our bullets,” the pundit stressed.
Timothy Ash over at the Center for European Policy Analysis, a neoliberal Washington think tank, echoed North’s sentiments in a recent article entitled "It's Costing Peanuts for the US to Defeat Russia." The researcher pointed out that the resources being used to support Ukraine’s war effort are substantially less than the US’s overall military budget, and that propping up the regime in Kiev is “a prime opportunity for the US to erode and degrade Russia's conventional defense capability, with no boots on the ground and little risk to US lives."
Ash gushed about the series of positive policy outcomes for the United States being ensured by the Ukrainian crisis, from raising NATO defense spending, to forcing Europeans to buy American natural gas. "Europe is desperately trying to source alternative energy supplies, and US liquefied natural gas (LNG) is proving to be the obvious beneficiary," he wrote.
Ultimately, the CEPA contributor emphasized that "on so many levels, continued US support for Ukraine is a no-brainer from a bang for buck perspective," and that "miring" Russia in "a war it cannot win is a huge strategic win for the US."
Until the majority view in Washington changes, or some 'catastrophic and catalyzing event' forces it to change, new 'Ukraine-style' conflicts seem certain to continue.
