Ukraine Reality and Putin’s Warnings

Neocon False Narratives, Oreshnik Hypersonic Missiles, Truth, and Peace

On Friday, November 29, Fox News national security reporter, Jennifer Griffin, gave one of her famously Neocon biased reports on the Ukraine proxy War. She had some of the straight-forward facts right. On November 28, the Russians had launched close to 200 missiles and drones against Ukrainian electrical infrastructure, knocking out power for over a million Ukrainian homes in addition to military, industrial, and communications targets. However, she made the ridiculous statement that the Russians had lost 730,000 men during the two and half years of war beginning February 24, 2022. She has it almost completely upside-down.  This is the usual highly  exaggerated propaganda of the Ukraine General Staff aided in its gross deception by CIA and British MI6 intelligence advisers. In fact, part of her presentation was a short clip of MI6 Chief Robert Moore, expounding on his 1938 World War II based analogy that if Putin gets part of Ukraine, then Warsaw, Berlin, Paris, Brussels and London will be next. This ignores the last 35 years of Russian history, 25 years of Putin’s leadership, and common-sense analysis of real facts and realistic long-distance logistical capabilities.  

The term “Neocon” is used here for those who embrace an interventionist foreign policy in the name of “democracy” for the real purpose of world economic, political, and cultural dominance by the exercise of military and economic power. Rather than a light to the world, they advocate being the sword-wielding hegemon of the world.

Recently, John Mearsheimer, University of Chicago professor and chief proponent of the Realist Theory of international politics and foreign policy, commented that the Ukrainians admit they are now badly outnumbered by the Russians and that the Russians have a ten to one artillery advantage, perhaps considerably more so in available ammunition. Thus far, over 80 percent of war casualties have been from artillery.  Neocon propaganda that the casualties are disproportionately Russian do not make common sense. Retired army Colonel Douglas Macgregor, author, and highly respected military analyst, estimates from European military contacts, newspaper and social media burial reports, and satellite  photography of new graves, that Ukrainian military deaths are over 600,000 and growing by more than a thousand a day.  Moreover, the Russians have air and air defense dominance. A reasonable estimate for Russian military deaths would be less than 10 percent of the Ukrainian figures. The ratio may be over 12 to one. Russian losses of 50,000 to 60,000 dead are in the range of U.S. dead during the much longer Vietnam War, serious but substantially below the nation-wrecking Ukrainian losses.   

I still watch Fox News because it is far better on conservative issues and Donald Trump than the propaganda dominated mainstream channels. However, Fox News is Neocon dominated and has not been a credible source on the Ukraine War, since they fired Tucker Carlson for revealing the real facts and truth about it. Here are some reliable sources on Ukraine that can be found on the internet: Besides Mearsheimer, Macgregor, and Tucker Carlson;  economist Jeffrey Sachs; retired LC Daniel Davis (Deep Dive); former CIA Reagan cabinet briefer, Ray McGovern; retired Swiss Strategic Intelligence Chief, Col. Jacques Baud; Alexander Mercouris (London, the Duran); Alex Christoforou (Athens, Cyprus);  former Marine and geopolitical researcher, Brain Berletic; Ted Postol (MIT); Norwegian economist Glenn Diesen;  former Russian Navy officer and retired U.S. Aerospace Lab Director, Andrei Martyanov; former CIA/State Department, Larry Johnson;  former Marine intelligence officer Scott Ritter; and Scott Horton  There are more that deserve mention.  I may not agree with these on everything, but they are speaking truth on Ukraine, which is badly needed for understanding the Ukraine War and its terrible ongoing calamity and threat of global tragedy.

Scott Horton’s has just published a 678-page book meticulously detailing the deception and calamity of “Project Ukrraine”— Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine. It is thoroughly researched and documented, completely blowing away the shallow and dangerous nonsense prescribed by Neocon politicians and their beneficiaries and media enablers. The Neocon foundational propaganda that the Ukraine War was a February 2022 “unprovoked” invasion by the Russians may turn out to be the most unconscionable and destructive lie in more than a century of American history.

On November 17, President Biden approved Ukrainian use of American missiles to strike targets in Russia. On November 19, six American ATACMS missiles were launched into the Bryansk region of Russia just north of Ukraine. The next day, Ukrainian Su-24 attack-bombers hit Kursk oblast with 10 British Storm Shadow missiles. Neither of these hits were very effective, but in response, on November 21, the Russians demonstrated their advanced missile technology by introducing their new Oreshnik hypersonic missile which demolished a military-industrial target near the city of Dnipro in eastern Ukraine. According to MIT missile and nuclear expert Ted Postol, as many as 23 separate warheads hit the area. Postol currently believes Oreshnik uses relatively new multi-engine rocket and warhead technology and is not merely an improvement over older missiles in the Russian inventory. The main damage may have been from deep-penetrating high-speed impact, much like a meteor.  Since then, the Ukrainians have hit the Kursk region with ATACMS missiles on November 23 and 25. These caused some damage and deaths.

The Russian Ministry of Defense reported on November 28, including videos, that direct hits by four Iskander missiles had destroyed five U.S. M142 HIMARS launchers involved in in the November 23 and 25 attacks on Kursk targets. The HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems) can launch six smaller rockets or one ATACMS missile at a time. According to the official Russian Telegram channel, at least 30 personnel were killed, many of which may have been of American, British, or other NATO nationalities. The Russians responded further  on November 29 with their massive, 190-missile/drone attack on Ukrainian electrical infrastructure.

On November 28, Putin had spoken at a regular meeting of CSTO (Collective Security Treaty Organization) in Astana, Kazakhstan. This is both a military and political alliance of former Soviet states.

Here are some selected paragraphs of President Vladimir Putin’s address to CSTO leaders:

“As you know, earlier this month, Western officials announced their decision to authorize the Ukrainian armed forces to launch strikes at Russian territory using long-range high-precision weapons produced in the West. We have repeatedly pointed out that this decision would mean direct involvement of Western countries in the armed conflict, as it is simply impossible to deploy this type of weapons without directly involving the military personnel and the military specialists from the respective NATO countries. As you know, despite our warnings about the dangers of escalating this conflict, strikes were delivered at targets in the Bryansk and Kursk regions with American ATACMS missiles and the British Storm Shadow missiles. I spoke about the consequences of these attacks and the damage we sustained, in my statement on November 21.”

Putin spoke in great detail on the numbers and capabilities of both NATO and Russian missiles and then summarized:

“Without a doubt, we are aware of the number of the relevant weapons systems that are in service of our potential adversaries. We know how many of them are kept in storage facilities. We know their exact location, how many weapons have been supplied to Ukraine, and how many more are planned to be supplied.”

“As far as the production of relevant missile systems and relevant equipment is concerned, Russia has 10 times more of them than the combined output of all NATO countries. Next year, we will increase production by another 25 to 30 percent.”

Commentary: This comparison comes at a time when many NATO countries have ceased missile production for various reasons, but an ongoing ratio is probably at least four to six to one in favor of the Russians.

 Putin continued: “We can see that the Kiev regime ringleaders are begging their masters for military equipment of a different kind. Let no one forget about the Kalibr, Kinzhal and Zirkon hypersonic missile systems, which are unmatched around the world in terms of their technical specifications. Their production is also being ramped up and is going at full speed.”.

“Last night, we conducted a comprehensive strike utilizing 90 missiles of these classes and 100 drones, successfully hitting 17 targets. These included military installations, defense industry sites, and their support infrastructure. I want to emphasize once again that these strikes were carried out in response to the continued attacks on Russian territory using American ATACMS missiles. As I have repeatedly stated, such actions will always elicit a response.”

“Finally, the latest hypersonic strike system, Oreshnik, in its non-nuclear configuration. We had to test it under combat conditions, as I just said—had to, as a response to the Western weapon strikes on the Bryansk and Kursk regions involving ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles”.

“The Oreshnik system, of course, has no equivalents in the world, and I doubt we will see anything comparable in the foreseeable future. Allow me to briefly explain its operation, as requested:”

“The system deploys dozens of homing warheads that strike the target at a velocity of Mach 10, equivalent to approximately three kilometers per second [1.8 miles per second].  The temperature of the impact elements reaches 4,000 degrees Celsius – nearing the surface temperature of the sun, which is around 5,500–6,000 degrees C. Consequently, everything within the explosion’s epicenter is reduced to fractions, elementary particles, essentially turning to dust. The missile is capable of destroying even heavily fortified structures and those located at significant depths.” [One degree C. is about 1.8 degrees F.]

“Military and technical experts note that when used in a concentrated, massive strike – using several Oreshnik missiles simultaneously – the resulting impact is comparable in power to that of a nuclear weapon. However, the Oreshnik is not classified as a weapon of mass destruction. This distinction is due to two key factors: first, as confirmed in the November 21 test, the system demonstrates exceptional precision; second, and most importantly, it operates without a nuclear warhead, meaning no radioactive contamination follows its use.”

”The Ministry of Defense and the General Staff of the Russian Army are currently identifying targets for strikes within Ukraine. These may include military installations, defense industry sites, or decision-making centers in Kiev. All the more so that the Kiev regime has repeatedly attempted attacks on critical infrastructure in Russia, including in St Petersburg and Moscow, with such attempts ongoing.”

Following the CSTO meeting, Putin told reporters that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump was an “intelligent and experienced politician capable of finding solutions” to the war and tensions over Ukraine. He also criticized President Joe Biden for creating “additional difficulties” for the incoming Trump administration, after Biden gave Ukraine permission to fire longer-range American missiles, called ATACMS at targets deep inside Russia. 

Demonizing Putin has been a major project of Neocon propaganda institutionalized especially since Putin’s February 2007 address at the Munich Conference on Security Policy, in which he criticized U.S. foreign policy as having a disdain for international law and imposing U.S. economic, political, cultural, and educational policies on other nations. This demonization of Putin fit well with those who want to continue unipolar American power without regard for moral compass, international peace and prosperity, or means of dominance. Putin’s demonization and the growth of vicious demonization as a tool of politics and statecraft took root and flourished in the CIA, British MI6, and the political tactics of Hillary Clinton. It has infiltrated American and British politics, foreign policy, and media ethics like a blinding plague. Hence most Americans, Brits, and many Europeans know little that is true about Vladimir Putin or the Russian Federation. The is an extremely dangerous darkness risking colossal human misery and destruction.

Both Trump and Putin seem reasonable men who know the value of peace and the reckless consequences of uninhibited power, selfish ambitions, and war. Yet each day that passes, the Biden administration’s “ship of fools” is rolling the dice that could wreck civilization.