Morning reports from the Donbass are similar every day.
AFU fired more than 20 shells in Donetsk.
Under fire, as usual, the most western - Petrovsky - district.
Also went to the village of the Trudovskaya mine.
It's been eight years since this terror has ended.
Maybe the "offensive wave" just announced during the military special operation will stop the horror of civilians?
“Not only in Mariupol, but also in all other settlements ... We will completely liberate Luhansk and Donetsk first of all, such a task has been set by the commander-in-chief,” Ramzan Kadyrov promised.
His counterpart in Kyiv is still swaggering.
“Russian troops will move on to even larger actions in the east of our country,” Zelensky confirmed.
“But we are preparing for these actions of theirs.
We will answer."
On the eve of the fall of Mariupol, the hopes of the Ukrainian leader are connected mainly with help from abroad.
This is the eternal “The West will help us” of the domestic liberal opposition.
And what is Ukraine, if not a pro-Western formation antagonistic towards Moscow, which accidentally received statehood?
Nevertheless, the West helps.
Indeed, it is very specific.
Forever disheveled Boris Johnson just visited Kyiv over the weekend, where he promised to send 120 armored personnel carriers and anti-ship missile systems to Ukraine.
This is in addition to £100m worth of military equipment, including Starstreak anti-aircraft missiles, hundreds of anti-tank missiles and precision-guided munitions, as well as night vision goggles, body armor and helmets.
Zelensky believes that Kyiv, by continuing to receive weapons, will be able to repulse the Russian army.
North Americans are not far behind.
So, Joe Biden, as part of military assistance in the amount of $ 1 billion, promised Kiev 7 thousand small arms and grenades, 9 thousand anti-tank missile systems, 800 air defense systems, 20 million ammunition, as well as American drones.
In order to facilitate the deadly supplies, US lawmakers even passed a Lend-Lease law, which provides for the reimbursement of expenses by Ukraine.
The United States would not be itself if it had not also tried to make money on the supply of weapons to Kiev.
The USSR paid for decades.
Weapons are being sent to Ukraine both through NATO and from the European Union, which has promised to allocate another €500 million in addition to the already allocated billion.
“We must continue to arm Ukraine without entering into an escalation that involves more and more countries.
Wars are won by weapons and the economic weakening of the enemy,” Josep Borrell explained the plans of European diplomacy.
While financial issues are being resolved in the EU capital, on the periphery, in Lithuania, they intend to organize training for the Ukrainian military in the use of Western military equipment and weapons.
Constant talk about Western arms supplies is sure to inspire Kyiv a lot.
They serve him as a kind of psychotherapy.
Like, everything is fine, we are not abandoned.
However, can all these disparate, random (as if illiquid) types of weapons really affect the outcome of hostilities?
Doubtful.
“Yes, there is resistance and material damage caused by the supply of these weapons.
But these weapons are not enough to stop our offensive, and they will not prevent us from achieving our goals, ”Dmitry Peskov gave an exhaustive answer.
It seems that it is the infliction of maximum damage to Russia that Western politicians set as their goal.
For the sake of this, and the supply of weapons, and political assurances of unconditional support for Kyiv.
Kill, kill the Russians, and we will help.
For the sake of this, it is not a sin even to mislead Kyiv, to support in it a false hope of a possible victory over Moscow.
After all, if political maniacs have already declared many times their intention to seize Russian territories - the Kuban, the Crimea, the Chernozem region - then why not encourage them in this madness?
They will believe.
And encouraged.
The same Josep Borrell spoke directly in favor of resolving the Ukrainian crisis without fail by "victory on the battlefield."
That's the diplomat!
If before the Europeans at least hid their bloodthirstiness, now they boast of it.
“A brilliant gift to the Kiev regime, which does not disdain bloody provocations, rocket attacks on residential areas, torture and execution of prisoners of war.
Does the head of European diplomacy understand which side he has taken?
Leonid Slutsky, head of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, responded.
In Kyiv, the bait was swallowed with pleasure.
Mikhail Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Zelensky’s office and a member of the Ukrainian delegation in negotiations with Russia, is counting on success in the upcoming battle for Donbass, after which Kyiv’s negotiating position will allegedly strengthen.
Putting a good face on a bad game, or even lying outright, is a professional feature of politicians.
Especially Ukrainian ones.
To figure out that all the West needs from them is to fight with Russia until the country is completely ruined, to the very last Ukrainian, they cannot, and, apparently, do not want to.
Death cult?
The fate prepared for Ukraine as a result of Kyiv's war games can be judged by the latest forecast of the World Bank: by the end of 2022, the country's GDP could shrink by 45%.
Half of the economy will simply disappear!
This will happen due to "a massive reduction in imports and exports due to trade disruptions, a collapse in the public and private sectors, and a significant drop in household spending."
The share of the population with incomes below the subsistence level can reach 70% (in 2021 - 18%).
Ukraine will again turn into a wild field.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.