While the Western media and its politicians keep pumping up the bullshit that Ukraine is defeating Russia, the opposite is true. Russia now controls some 20 percent of Ukraine and they have destroyed much of the nation’s power and water infrastructure… along with its economy. 

And now, despite Ukraine losing Bakhmut, AP reports that “the Ukrainian military leaders are determined to hold onto” it Kyiv officials said Monday. 

Also on Monday, a statement posted on Ukraine president Zelensky’s website declared that, “The president asked the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces Valery Zaluzhny [and another senior commander] about further action in the Bakhmut direction. They backed the continuation of the defensive operation and the further strengthening of our positions in Bakhmut.” 

TRENDPOST: We note this because, preparing for the Ukraine defeat in Bakhmut, as with Ukraine’s other losses, it is being downplayed by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin who said, “The fall of [Bakhmut] won’t necessarily mean that the Russians have changed the tide of this fight.” Therefore, despite the devastating consequences of ongoing war, the United States and its allies will continue to sell the lie that the more weapons of death they send to Ukraine, the quicker Russia will be defeated. 

The Ukraine War has evolved into a war of attrition because the West continually provides Kyiv with weapons to stand up to the Russian invasion, and now it appears that the Ukrainians are running low on ammunition.

Antony Blinken, the U.S. secretary of state, announced that Washington will provide Ukraine with $400 million in additional aid to temporarily replenish Kyiv’s stocks. Blinken said the ammunition will include HIMARS artillery “which Ukraine is using so effectively.”

The package will include eight armored vehicle-launched bridges (AVLBs) to help with river crossings to help Ukraine stage its supposed offensive in the coming weeks in an effort to take back land now controlled by Russia.

The U.S. has urged European allies to increase the production of artillery ammunition. 

Jens Stoltenberg, the head of NATO, said Ukraine was using ammunition faster than NATO members can produce it.

“The current rate of Ukraine’s ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current production rates. This puts our defense industries under strain. (…) So we need to ramp up new production and invest in our production capacities,” he said last month, according to DW.

The U.S. has provided Ukraine with more than $30 billion in security assistance since the start of the war and Blinken urged other European countries to continue supporting Kyiv with weapons.

NBC News reported that Estonia issued an “ambitious proposal” that would cost about $4.25 billion to have Europe increase 155-millimeter artillery shell production by seven times, “moving manufacturing capacity from 240,000 to 300,000 shells per year to up to 2.1 million shells annually.”

Andriy Zagorodnyuk, who previously served as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s defense minister and is now advising the Ukrainian government on arms procurement, told the news outlet that Ukraine could run out of shells this year if production levels in Europe remain at the same levels of even slightly higher.

Defense News, the military-themed website, also said it viewed Estonia’s proposal. Estonian leaders believe that the European defense industry’s output is one of the most pressing issues of the war.

“Russia fires Europe’s monthly artillery production rate in a single day in Ukraine. The urgent need for increasing our defense industrial capacity is clear,” the report said.

Zelensky said earlier this month that artillery is his country’s top need and a “large number of shells.”

Josep Borrel, the European Union foreign policy chief, said last month that Ukraine may lose the war if it doesn’t receive enough supplies.

Mark Cancian, a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Defense One that the U.S. has already provided Ukraine with more than a million 155mm rounds. The U.S. is expected to increase production of the artillery to 20,000 shells per month by spring 2023, and 40,000 per month by 2025, the report said.

Cancian said even that rate may not be enough to support Ukraine and the issue could become a crisis. 

TRENDPOST: The Trends Journal has long criticized the endless support by the U.S. and Western allies for Ukraine, not because we agree with the Russian invasion, but because we want as few people killed and lives destroyed as possible. Russia will not lose to Ukraine, and NATO—while content with providing weapons, training, and intel—does not want a kinetic war with Moscow.

We called for immediate negotiations because it remains our belief that Ukraine will end up losing the same amount of land anyway. But we’ve learned that this war has been in motion for years, with one of the most pivotal moments being the 2014 coup. (See “ZELENSKY SAID HE REFUSED TO HONOR MINSK ACCORD WITH RUSSIA” 14 Feb 2023, “U.S., NATO, UKRAINE: NO PEACE PERMITTED. TANKS NOT ENOUGH, ZELENSKY WANTS MORE WEAPONS”  31 Jan 2023, and “ZELENSKY TO MEDIA: I OWN YOU” 10 Jan 2023.)

There has been a palpable change in the Western propaganda media’s coverage of the war, which initially famed Russia as an incompetent military power. Russia is now considered a brutal and relentless adversary.

Urmas Reinsalu, the Estonian foreign minister, said in an interview published Thursday that Ukraine either needs to join NATO after the war or receive nuclear weapons if there’s any hope of co-existing with Russia in the future.

“Honestly, the only guarantee except NATO would be to deliver nuclear weapons to Ukraine,” he told Newsweek, theorizing. He said it would almost be impossible to consider a post-Ukraine War world without Kyiv benefiting from NATO’s Article 5 protection, which means an attack on one is an attack on all.

He said Ukraine would otherwise be stuck in a “hedgehog” self-defense strategy, like the “Wild West, standing in their fort with rifles and waiting for Russia.”

Gerald Celente has accused Zelensky of needlessly prolonging the war that will lead to more deaths and punishment inflicted from the more-powerful Russian army.

Before the Ukraine War began, Celente pointed out that Napoleon sent 422,000 “brave” young men to defeat Russia and 410,000 were killed. He also pointed out that Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa campaign killed some 25 million Russians in World War II, yet the Russians defeated the Germans.

“You think Biden & NATO can beat Russia? Stop the senseless murder!” he posted. And Mr. Celente is among the very few calling for peace, and for nations to stop sending military armaments to Ukraine and end the needless death and destruction.