Neverending War

The war business

Dmitri Kovalevich , a Ukrainian analyst has written an excellent piece for Al Mayadeen, which should be on everyone’s reading list.

While many analysts, including myself, have suggested that the slow and careful Russian prosecution of the SMO is very much to Russia’s advantage in a number of important respects, especially in the context of the larger conflict with the US and the West, Kovalevich points out that the Ukraine has had its own motives for keeping the war going, despite an understanding that it cannot win. It is not good for the country but it is to the personal advantage of the people who run the country.

This also explains the recent attack on Kursk, which most strategists saw as madness and also the senseless terror attacks on Russia which are of no military significance and serve only to inflame public opinion in Russia, hardening Russian resolve to advance beyond the Dniepr and also to the Black Sea coast I will be difficult to end the war anytime soon without the total defeat of Ukraine.

Among other things, Kovalevich offers so clues as to why the 2022 peace agreement fell through – despite it being to Kiev’s advantage.

Ukrainian legislator Alexander Dubinsky (a former member of Zelensky's party) wrote on Telegram on January 16 that ever since 2014, one of the key tasks of the liberal elites in Ukraine who supported past-president Petro Poroshenko (2014-2019) and then Zelensky after that has been to silence and destroy any among their elite ranks who might advocate normalization of relations with Russia. Zelensky, in his opinion, dialed up the hate to the maximum, using all the punitive mechanisms available to the Ukrainian state to squeeze out of media, politics, and business any opponents of the course that was rapidly leading to war.

This would suggest that Zelensky never intended to honor the Istanbul agreement in the first place. He wasn’t just following Boris – although the British PM gave him cover. “Not my fault — Boris told me to do it!”. The West hates Russia and Putin – and Zelinski, being the opportunist that he is, jumped on the bandwagon. JHate, hate, hate! He is after all a comedian – a mimic.

The Ukrainian political elite has always been famous for its skills in mimicry. Many started out as Soviet functionaries, then became pro-Russian politicians. Today, most are flirting with far-right Ukrainian nationalism and neo-Nazism.

Ukrainian publicist Serhiy Datsyuk says the Ukrainian elite has done nothing but plunder the country's people and resources for the past 30 years, and Ukrainians are beginning to recognize this across the board. He writes, "It is very difficult to destroy half of the country's population in 30 years, but we managed.

This shows that we Ukrainians don't need Ukraine, and therefore no one else needs it, either. Our elite has robbed the country of resources and infrastructure and did not give a damn about the people."

In his opinion, it is pointless to 'save' Ukraine under Western tutelage because the country is in free fall and there is nothing left to save in such a format. The creation of external enemies, that is, the 'Russians', has been just another excuse for the authorities to relieve themselves of responsibility.

In other words, “Ukraine” – or whatever you want to call it—as Putin says, does not have sovereignty as a national state: it is a quasi-feudal domain run by a corrupt plutocracy-- who have but one goal – profit. Do they actually like Ukraine? Are they planning to move to their villas abroad when all this is over to hobnob with the Davos crowd? Some have already done that.

Ukrainian plutocrat home in Monaco

Datsyuk says these elites are “robbing the country of resources and infrastructure and did not give a damn about the people."

The last part is certainly true – they certainly don’t give a damn about the people . But they are not robbing resources and infrastructure – they did that years and years ago so they already own them all.

Rather, they are selling them to the highest bidder—which could have been the Russians, with a different government--but has been the Western Collective—fellow plutocrats in the US and Europe – since well before 2014 .

The war has also proven immensely profitable with billions of dollars of aid flowing into Ukraine and a lot of it going straight in the pockets of the ruling class.

The net worth of these people ( above, one or two exceptions) is now estimated to be much higher. Akhmetov— now hs 6 billion.

What is the refrain? "Give us more weapons!" Which, in Ukrainian translates to "Give us more money!" Because in the end, weapons are money

Zelinski is also a billionaire now – but his net worth is largely hidden.

The point is: war is good business for the entire comprador class. .

War is hell

The Ukrainian elites will keep this war going as long as possible. And whatever Trump says or does they have lots of support in the US still and in Europe.

The Russians probably understand this and they are in no hurry. In the end, much of Ukraine – at least the valuable part – will belong to them.

Coffee Buyers!

Julian has constructed a new mailing list and replied to everyone who bought him / me coffee. Sorry — he tends to ramble. But he likes personal replies.

If for some reason, you don’t get the urls for the download of the special article, which will go out tomorrow or the day after— or if you want a previous special article—just let me know. I will make sure he does something. Tomorrow he will be checking the article once again — and converting it to EPUB and PDF formats from DOCX.

I also told him to clean up the ending, in view of ontinuity with the next couple of special articles. There is a lot to write about it. Anyway, I didn’t like it! MEOW.

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Love, Chappy