Russia will apparently launch a major offensive this winter, which will escalate the war. From Daniel Davis at 19fortyfive.com:
Russian Special Forces. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Ahead of a looming winter battle in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday defiantly claimed that his troops would not only push Russian forces back along the current fronts, but would also “definitely liberate Crimea” as well. Elsewhere on the same day, the firebrand leader of Chechnya, now Col. Gen. Ramzan Kadyrov, vowed Russian troops would conquer all of Ukraine, and that his troops would not take prisoners in battle, but “we will burn them” all.
(The author of the piece, Daniel L. Davis, a 19FortyFive Contributing Editor, sounds off on Fox News, speaking live to Tucker Carlson)
This battle, however, has major ramifications for American national security, as the risk of nuclear weapons’ use grows in tandem with the escalation of the conventional conflict.
Most Western attention has been riveted to spectacular Ukrainian gains made since late August in the Kharkiv region in the north and the Kherson region in the south. But those rapid advances have now been reduced to relatively static lines on the Kharkiv front in the north, the Donbas front in the east, and the Kherson front in the south. Russia sent emergency reinforcement troops to stabilize the lines in each location while Ukrainian troops engage in an operational pause while it seeks to rebuild its striking power.
But the Russian and Ukrainian moves are largely centered on either holding or expanding the current fight. It’s the fight that is likely coming next, however, that is of most importance, both to the direct combatants and the United States, especially as it relates to the potential of nuclear escalation.
