Don’t believe Kremlin lies, Russia’s losses are significant - Yorkshire Post Letters

For many months now I have been reading Patrick Mercer's musings on the Ukraine conflict and have come to the conclusion that, like Trump, he obtains his information from the Kremlin.

He has consistently inferred that the might of the Russian war machine will prove overwhelming and that it is only a matter of time before Kiev falls. True to form, in the 'Zelenski's Impossible Choices' article, he tells us that Moscow's battle-hardened troops (a phrase he often uses) are killing Ukrainians at an alarming rate and are now poised for a final offensive.

In fact, battle-hardened Ukrainian troops are killing poorly trained, ill-equipped and often starving Russian troops, at the rate of over a thousand per day, adding relentlessly to the current tally of well over a hundred thousand Russian casualties; the equivalent of the entirety of the attacking Russian force in February 2022.

The Black Sea navy has cut and run, the air force is severely limited in its operational capability and the Russian army has been forced to resort to using North Koreans (of which over a thousand are already dead) in a desperate attempt to slow the Ukrainian Kursk offensive. Once feared Russian heavy amour is now mostly scrap and the museum pieces hastily brought into service about as relevant as the cavalry employed by a desperate Russian attacking group recently.

Donald Trump's total reversal of US foreign policy stunned the world and turned every dynamic of this conflict on its head. Trump's motive is two-fold; to be awarded a Peace Prize like Obama and to get himself into the Russian property market, where his corrupt business practices will sit comfortably amongst endemic Russian corruption. He cares not one jot about Ukraine or the rape of its sovereignty.

President Zelensky and his people have endured untold stresses in the defense of their homeland and his popularity remains high. A guaranteed defense against further Putin madness is essential to any agreement and Ukraine will not surrender its mining riches without one, however much thuggery Trump employs. It will be up to Europe now to step up with increased support until such a resolution is achieved.