West Says Ukraine is Now “Winning” and Why it is Lying (Again) |
West Says Ukraine is Now “Winning” and Why it is Lying (Again)
Attrition rather than territorial movement is increasingly becoming the decisive factor shaping the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine.
As the collective Western media has done since 2022, the Kyiv Independent cites “flatlined” Russian territorial gains and expanding drone strikes deep inside Russian territory (the article attributes them to Ukraine despite the New York Times admitting such strikes are enabled by the US Central Intelligence Agency and the US military) — all as evidence of growing Russian weakness and increasing Ukrainian strength.
A War of Attrition Is Not Measured in Territory or Headlines
In reality — and even as the article itself admits — the war is not one of territorial gains or headline-grabbing drone strikes, but one of attrition.
At one point the article even admits, “The upper hand will be gained by the side in whose favor the long attritional fight is running.”
In any war of attrition, the primary factors lending leverage to one side over another is military industrial production and the ability to maintain or expand trained manpower. By implication this also means the ability to maintain the economic, social, and political stability required to support these enabling factors.
Here the Kyiv Independent concedes Russia wins out big in both categories, admitting, “Russia continues to be able to steadily recruit between 30-35,000 new soldiers per month, enabling Moscow to sustain its losses on the battlefield,” and that “Moscow aims to produce 7.3 million FPVs in 2026.”
While the Kyiv Independent claims the quality of those 30,000-35,000 Russian troops recruited each month is low, poorly trained, and poorly equipped in the field, it avoids discussing Ukraine’s recruitment struggles. This includes the fact that — unlike Russia’s recruited manpower, who voluntarily sign contracts — much of Ukraine’s manpower is pressed into service, sometimes literally being beaten into submission and dragged to the front line.
Regarding drone production, other Ukraine-based sources put Ukraine’s drone output somewhere around 4 million per year, or about half of Russia’s production numbers, according to the Kyiv Independent.
It should be pointed out that in addition to Russia outproducing Ukraine (and in reality, Ukraine’s American and European sponsors) in terms of drones — an area of supposed “Ukrainian” strength — Russia continues outproducing Ukraine and its Western sponsors in all other categories of conventional military power as well, from artillery shells and precision-guided missiles, to armored vehicles and anti-aircraft systems.
The article repeats recent talking points circulating throughout Wall Street-funded Washington-based policy think tanks regarding the cutting off of Russian forces from use of US-based SpaceX’s Starlink satellite communication network as........