On Friday, February 23rd, 2024, a day before the second anniversary of the Ukraine war, the Biden administration administration delivered 500 sanctions to Russia with a MIM-104 “Patriot” SAM (i.e., surface to air missile), ending the week. The MIM-104 “Patriot” SAM struck one of Russia’s aircraft the night the Biden administration announced the new sanctions.
The sanctions targeted more than 500 people. Among the sanctions, which seek to reduce Russia’s revenues from oil sales, is a sanction the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Asset Control levied against 14 Russian vessels for carrying Russian oil above the West’s price cap on Russian oil. These, as well as many more, signified a new phase in the breakdown of Russo-American relations, as the Biden administration seeks to react to the most recent developments on the battlefield in Ukraine.
In that regard, the Biden administration’s sanctions are most certainly a reaction to Russia’s strategic victory in Avdiivka, the last Ukrainian stronghold on the eastern outskirts of the besieged Donetsk region, one of the most heavily fortified Ukrainian positions for the past decade. In a description of the battle of Avdiivka, the LeftOpposition published an article on February 17th, 2024 entitled: “Kharkov Battles: On the Fall of Avdiivka.” With the fall of Avdiivka, the situation in Ukraine became critical with Kyiv facing the increasingly real threat to an advance on the capital.
In reacting to the news on the new sanctions, the NYT, which is one of the leading voices openly discussing US sanctions objectively, followed its more than three years of reporting on sanctions. Throughout the more than three years of its reporting on US sanctions, the NYT has presented both sides of the debate on sanctions with stunning equanimity, an uncharacteristic aspect of its reporting, especially for the Ukraine war.
In an article entitled, “While Piling Sanctions on Russia, Europeans Spare Some Sacred Cows,” New York Times published as early as October 19th, 2022, the Times explains how “the continued success of Belgium [in the face of] the Russian diamond trade” exemplifies how there are “sacred cows some E. U. Nations refuse to sacrifice, even as their peers accept pain to punish the Kremlin.” The Times wrote, for instance, how “[supporters] of the Greek shipping industry say that if it pulled out of that business, others would step in to deliver Russian oil to places like India and China.” These remarks underscore NYT‘s objective reporting on the impact of the International Sanctions Program, the United States continues to compel its European ‘partners’ to adopt in a further act of persecution against the Russian Federation with devastating consequences for Europe’s fragile economy.
In its most recent article on sanctions, the Times writes how the “U.S. Campaign to Isolate Russia Shows Limits After Two Years of War,” detailing how the sanctions regime meets with indirect resistance among nations “[insisting] on not taking sides in the war in Ukraine.”
It appears as though the sanctions, which are designed not only to isolate Russia but cripple its economy, have failed. Russia’s most recent demonstration of its economy’s power to produce included a tour of its most notable factories for its war industries. The tour included visits to two tank factories, two of the many helping to produce more than three Russian tanks a day. The first tank factory was Russia’s Ural Railroad Wagon factory. The second tank factory was Sverdlovsk’s Nizhny Tagil, where Russia’s T-72 and T-90 tanks are produced. The tour also included the Kazan aeronautic factory where Russia’s President, Vladimir Putin, flew one of four new hypersonic Tupolev 160 ‘swans’ that are capable of carrying nuclear warheads. The last end of the tour included a visit to Russia’s Kamaz factory where the vast majority of Russia’s domestic diesel engine, heavy freight, or light freight trucks are produced. The Kamaz, Russia’s brand of major vehicle manufacture, appears to have been the subject of inquiry into indicate longstanding deficiencies for its newest models. [1] The results on display at the various factories during the tour appear to undermine the claim that the International Sanctions Program, which is at its 12th package, disables or plays a role in disabling Russia’s war economy. How can one claim that the sanctions regime affects Russia’s war economy, if Russia is able to produce three tanks a day or at least four long-range hypersonic bombers?
The timing of the sanctions followed a significant breakdown in Russo-American relations with President Joe Biden referring to President Vladimir Putin as a “son of a bitch,” the first time in the history of America’s more than 200 year history of diplomatic relations that a US President has insulted a Russian head of state with a derogatory profanity. Biden’s remarks follow Putin’s response to Tucker Carlson’s question in a February 9th interview with Putin on the prospect for a negotiated settlement for ending the Ukraine war. Putin’s response that the war would be over within weeks, should the US decide to stop funding Ukraine’s war effort or providing weapons, set aside a negotiated settlement. Shortly after the interview, Putin expressed the view that he prefers Biden over Trump as a prospective candidate for the Office of the US President, since Biden is “более опытный, более прогнозируемый, политик старого формата.” Putin’s remark is characteristic Russian humor. Putin’s use of the word “прогнозируемый” rather than the more standard Russian word “предсказуемый” is a double entendre calculated to allude directly to Special Counsel Ben Hur’s refusal to file charges against Biden over concerns about the president’s memory in an investigation regarding Biden’s failure to protect national defense information contained in top secret memos the president ‘forgot’ to return to the US National Archive. The Russo-American dialogue, which is now a record of insults combined with derogatory profanity, represents a historic disintegration of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the outcome of which is a further escalation in the US led proxy war in Ukraine.
The timing of the sanctions was also timed to Friday so that people hear about the sanctions after work but read about the sanctions on Saturday in the Saturday morning newspapers.
The timing of the sanctions also immediately preceded a capstone achievement for Ukraine’s anti-air defense systems, a clearly pre-calculated act of signaling on the part of the Biden administration, whose staff are composed primarily of extremely devout, wildly cavalier Neo-conservative Brzezinski followers that seek to advance American hegemony at all costs. It is often the case that these members of Biden’s staff, Neo-conservative Brzezinski-extremists, intentionally seek to time events whose negativity is calculated ahead of time to embitter the affected parties before the beginning of the weekend, as here.
The event happened on Friday morning CMT, Ukraine’s GUR (i.e., Главное Управление Разведки / Головне Управлiння Розвiдки ) confirmed that Ukraine’s anti-air defense systems successfully struck one of the Russian Military Air Force’s ‘crowned jewels’ from the former Soviet Union, one of Russia’s Airborne-Early Warning and Control Aircraft. Initial reports claim that hackers who took control of Russia’s own anti-air defense systems redirected its anti-air defense missile to strike the A-50U Mainstay. These reports, which were disputed by Ukraine’s GUR, were unconfirmed, even though Clash Report reported “another Russian A-50 long range radar detection aircraft shot down by friendly fire.”
Reports on the A-50U Mainstay’s location at first appeared to suggest that the attack struck the Russian aircraft over the Sea of Azov, a sea fully controlled by Russian land, sea or air forces. However, other reports indicated that the attack actually struck the Russian aircraft in an area just below Rostov-on-Don, the northernmost tip of the Sea of Azov. These reports indicated that the attack successfully struck the aircraft at the tail end of its flight path on a return trip on a carefully planned route over the sky in Russia’s Krasnodar region.
Video footage provided by Russian milbloggers indicate that the A-50U Mainstay immediately became aware of the incoming flight path of the missiles. The A-50U Mainstay desperately sought to outmaneuver the incoming missile. In the video footage available online, the A-50U Mainstay is seen emitting an almost endless series of deflective flares, whose glare is so bright that they are clearly visible from several hundreds of feet on the ground. The A-50U Mainstay launched dozes of these flares, lasting no less than a minute in length. Suddenly, a huge explosion appears in the video, indicating that the incoming missile reached its target. Subsequent video footage witnesses the plane’s crash in a large explosion. The crash immediately ended the lives of the Russian crew on board the A-50U Mainstay. Ukraine’s GUR announced that an MIM-104 Surface-to-Air-Missile shot from a Patriot missile battery struck the A-50U Mainstay.
The Russian crew’s death is many times more devastating than the plane’s loss, as the crew in A-50U Mainstays, which are heavily vetted prior to their assignment, must undergo extensive, years long, expansive training to become operationally proficient with the extremely sophisticated equipment on board. In Russia’s air forces, unlike in other branches of Russia’s military, servicemen remain for the duration of their careers, making the loss all the more significant. It is widely described as a ‘non-renewable,’ since Russia’s legacy fleet of A-50U aircraft are not currently produced at any of its aeronautical factories.
The successful strike on the Russia aircraft comes on the heels of a historic week in the history of Ukraine’s anti-air defense systems. During the course of the last week, Ukraine’s GUR struck multiple Russian aircraft. Among the aircraft struck by Ukraine’s GUR are five Su-34 bombers, two elite, modernized, upgraded Su-35 fighter jets, one Il-22M command center aircraft, and two A-50U Mainstays, a stunning list of downed Russian aircraft. In regards to these successful strikes, there are two important factors contributing to the improvement in the Ukrainian GUR’s strike capability.
The first is that Russia, which recently upgraded many of its fighter aircraft with expanded capacity to drop bombs “more, more often,” is flying a steadily increasing number of sorties over the more than five axes along which Russia is spearheading its massive Winter counteroffensive, which is advancing on villages along those five axes with the speed of a Luftwaffe in a clearly advancing Blitzkrieg.
The second reason is that Ukraine recently received an increased number of Patriot anti-air defense systems, whose ability to target is currently now the subject of Continuous Improvement (CI) with systems based on Artificial Intelligence developed by America’s leading technology companies such as Palantir. Palantir openly confessed in an article published publicly in the most recent edition of the Time its tech obsession with the Ukraine war as a “war lab,” the primary focus of which is targeting.[2]
In the article entitled The First AI War, the Time, whose cover image is a picture of connected dots (i.e., targets) over a map of the entire landmass of Ukraine, including the territories Russia annexed in 2022 after referendums in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Crimea regions, certainly a bold statement. The article states the following: “Palantir’s software, which uses AI to analyze satellite imagery, open-source data, drone footage, and reports from the ground to present to commanders with military operations, is ‘responsible for most of the targeting in Ukraine,’ according to the Chief Executive Officer, a gentleman named Alex Karp, who is quoted as styling his company as the “AI arms dealer of the 21st century.” The Time‘s article appears to suggest that there can be no doubt that Palantir’s software provided the data that the Ukrainian GUR utilized for its successful strike on the Russia A50 Mainstay.
The significance for the successful strike on the Russia A50 Airborne Early Warning and Control or AWACS aircraft cannot be underestimated. Coupled together with Russia’s S-400 anti-air defense system, the so-called “deadly duo” (c.f., DefenseTV) presents a lethal check on the ever evolving qualifiable economy of air forces. With Ukraine’s pilots training intensively in F-16 fighter jets, one of America’s most reliable mainstays in the Air Force, the potential for Ukraine to meet or beat Russia’s air superiority, many pro-Ukrainian bloggers believe, may quickly become a feasible reality. Milbloggers who represent a pro-Ukrainian faction of online Twitter users have extolled the stunning list of downed Russian aircraft, which failed to counteract Russia’s successful Avdiivka siege, as happening without F-16s equipped with AIM-120C-7 AMRAAM (i.e., Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile), yet another mythological ‘silver bullet’.
In a reflection of the deeply embarrassing, if not painful, tragedy for the Russian armed forces, the Russian media appeared to report that first responders extinguished “a fire after the fall of two flying apparatuses in the Krasnodar [region],” apparently refusing to refer to what many Russian milbloggers on Twitter had already identified earlier as a Russia A50 Mainstay. In an article published by the Russian information news agency (i.e., РИА ), the authors state in a report that was further clarified (i.e., “по уточенной информации”) a “flying apparatus in the Krasnodar krai of the Krasnodar region fell” out of the sky.” [3] Subsequent reports apparently avoided any mention of the successful strike on the Russia A50 Mainstay. In reports mentioning that Russia’s anti-air defense systems targeted targets in the air beyond Rostov-on-Don, the authors mention how “divisions of Russia’s anti-aircraft defense systems were working to target a target in the skies beyond the Rostov-on-Don,” saying “the enemy enjoys no weekend.” [4] It could be due to the delicate nature of handling announcements to the fallen servicemen that Russia withheld a confirmation.
The world is witnessing an extremely high point in the pitched battle for control over the geopolitically significant Kharkov direction, as the successful strike on the A-50U corresponded with Russia’s own successful strike on Ukraine’s top brass. Lieutenant Colonel Igor Yaroshenko, a deputy brigade command of the 44th brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces, for instance, was killed in action in the Kupyansk direction, one of the five axes along which its massive Winter counteroffensive proceeds. With the fall of Avdiivka sending shockwaves throughout the Western world, many of Europe’s NATO member nations responded with emergency measures.
Denmark, the fifth largest donor by percentage of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (henceforth GDP) announced the transfer of its entirety of its military supplies to Ukraine. The supplies include 28 Piranha V 120 mm self-propelled mortars, 22 M109 155 mm self-propelled guns, 21 M125 81 mm self-propelled mortars, 19 CAESAR 155 mm howitzers (whose wiring the French daily Le Figaro claims mice eat), 10 M106 81 mm self-propelled mortars, 159 M29 81 mm towed mortars, 48 mortars, 40 field artillery guns, 28 M10 120 mm towed mortars, and 6 M101 105 mm howitzers.
On February 18th, 2024, the day after Avdiivka fell to the Russians, Czech President Petr Pavel announced that his republic, which is the eighth largest donor by percentage of the country’s GDP, found 800,000 artillery shells. Pavel solicited the shells for sale to Germany, Sweden or other more prosperous NATO member nations. In addition, Pavel noted that the republic has 122 mm shells, which are used in Ukraine’s Soviet artillery pieces, amount to at 200 000, while its stocks of 155 mm shells, which the M777 shoots, are more than half a million.
On February 20th, 2024, three days after the fall of Avdiivka, Sweden, the 13th largest donor by percentage of its GDP, made an emergency announcement, stating its decision to transfer to Ukraine its 15th military aid package, the largest of all of its packages. The package is worth 700 million. It includes the artillery ammunition Ukraine desperately needs to sustain its defense against Russians. It also includes thirty military boats, ten of which are excellent CB90-class fast assault craft.
On February 22nd, 2024, less than a week after the fall of Avdiivka, Great Britain, the elevenths largest donor per percentage of the country’s GDP, announced that it is to transfer 200 Brimstone anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, per the country’s Ministry of Defense, the agency that claims overgrowth is responsible for Ukraine’s failed “Summer” counteroffensive. “These missiles have already had a significant impact on the battlefield, on one occasion forcing Russian troops to abandon and retreat as they attempted to cross a river,” said British Defence Secretary Shapps. Shapps stated that Britain, along with its other allies in Europe’s NATO alliance, would train a further 10,000 Ukrainian militants in the first half of 2024.
Great Britain announced just today its decision to boost Ukraine’s artillery reserves with £245 million munitions package. The announcement also stated that it intends “to invigorate supply chains” to produce urgently needed artillery ammunition for Ukraine.
The successful strike on the Russia A50U Mainstay, coming on the heels of European governments pledging emergency aid to Ukraine, also represents a significant escalatory response to Ukraine’s continuous failure to counteract Russia’s armed forces on the battlefield. In a recent comment an MP from Germany, whose base of heavy industry the Ukraine has devastated [5], said that ‘Ten years of the [Ukraine] war teach us that those who mess with Russia end up either as Napoleon in 1812 or, even worse, as in 1945.” Matthias Moosdorf, who speaks for a thin minority in occupied Germany, is alluding to the state in which Napoleon found himself with his military after his Road to Moscow, a documentary by Kultur, 1993.
In that video the narrator, who is reading a script the great British historian and military expert, David G Chandler, from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, prepared, states: “Of all the great campaigns in the long annals of war there are few which linger much in the consciousness of the public at large but the poignant images of hardship and despair which we associate with the wreck of great army will always ensure that the mere mention of the date of Napoleon’s great Russian adventure still strikes a cord with even the least interested laymen.”
Accordingly, the US led NATO proxy force, which is leading “the wreck of a great [Ukrainian] army,” is on an equal footing with “Napoleon’s great Russian adventure.” It therefore comes as no surprise that the US led NATO proxy force’s “great Russian adventure” strikes a cord with Moosdorf, one among many of Germany’s “least interested laymen,” as he has failed to prevent “the poignant images of hardship and despair” the Ukraine war celebrates in its second anniversary of death agony.
[1] – [КАМАЗ назвал болезнью роста «увеличение дефеĸтности» премиум- грузовиĸа К5, РБК, 1.26.24]
[2] – [The War Lab, Time, Volume 203. NOS. 5—6, February 26th, 2024]
[3] – [На Кубани локализовали пожар, возникший после падения летательного аппарата, РИА, 22.02.2024]
[4] – [Голубев: ПВО работает по воздушный целям за пределами Ростовской области, РИА, 22.02.2024]
[5] – [Germany’s Days as an Industrial Superpower Are Coming to an End, Bloomberg, February 9th, 2024]