ZH Geopolitical Week Ahead: Fears At Davos Of Globalization ‘Under Siege’ While Kiev, Moscow Agree ‘Russia Is Fighting NATO’
A weekly round-up of geopolitical flashpoint and energy news we’re keeping our eyes on, and trends impacting global markets, which will later be accessible for Premium members and above…
Finally the Ukrainian and Russian governments agree on something… but it doesn’t bode well for the prospect of WWIII. Days ago Ukraine’s defense minister called his country a de facto NATO member in a television interview. Well over a week has passed since the interview was published and even offered in English translation (which was done by Russian state media). And yet scant attention was paid in Western media – at least not on the level the remarks deserved. Here’s what DM Oleksii Reznikov said…
“At the NATO Summit in Madrid [in June 2022]…it was clearly delineated that over the coming decade, the main threat to the alliance would be the Russian Federation. Today Ukraine is eliminating this threat. We are carrying out NATO’s mission today. They aren’t shedding their blood. We’re shedding ours. That’s why they’re required to supply us with weapons.”
In follow-up to the rare, ultra-blunt assessment from a top Kiev official, independent geopolitical analyst Aaron Mate teased out the implications, particularly at a moment both sides have committed to a fight to the finish over Bakhmut. Matte writes:
Predictably, Ukrainian soldiers that “bear the consequences of war” are facing heavy losses. Speaking to Newsweek, retired U.S. Marine Corps Colonel Andrew Milburn, who has trained and led Ukrainian forces for the private mercenary firm Mozart Group, reports that in the battle for Bakhmut, Ukraine has been “taking extraordinarily high casualties. The numbers you are reading in the media about 70 percent and above casualties being routine are not exaggerated.”
…click on the above link to read the rest…
