The vicious, confused, criminally reckless tyros running US policy, and deliberately lengthening this destructive and immensely dangerous, unwinnable conflict, are indifferent to the ruin of Ukraine and the mass deaths of its young men.
Regardless of who operates mobile launch systems, it is openly acknowledged that NATO – mainly the U.S. – provides all launch coordination support for Ukrainian missile and drone attacks.
The Russians have changed their tune. It appears they are no longer willing to accept the terms of the former unipolar order – a shift in attitude which bespeaks of the confidence they find in their new de facto alliance.
Neither the Russians nor the Chinese object in principle to the kind of posthuman future presented by the Neo-Malthusian Green movement. For them, it is a question of whose flag may fly over their sector – that of the rainbow, or that of their own.
There is no realistic chance of defeating the Russian army in the field without direct NATO involvement. A chemical attack would galvanize wavering Western support and provide a perfect casus belli for the direct involvement of NATO forces.
The fall of Bakhmut is taking place in reality. This is a problem for the war campaign, as it shows the Russians are not losing. What will happen as a result of this inconvenient intrusion of rogue reality is that another reality will be crafted in the media.