Sadly, Ukraine believes Washington's spin.

 CONFLICT ESCALATES, MOSTLY AT UKRAINE'S EXPENSE

WEST CAN NOT GET OFF FAILED STRATEGY TRACK

The last few days have seen a response by Russia for the attack on the Crimean bridge. It is just another step in the escalation of the Ukraine conflict. A conflict orchestrated in reality by Washington and London. The media and the foreign policy experts have been pushing the line that Russia is losing this war. That they are out of munitions and that their military is falling apart. It seems the U.S. population and sadly the Ukrainians have mostly bought into this narrative. So far, the losers have been the Ukrainian population who is doing the bidding in this proxy war with Russia.

The reality is that Russia has never declared all out war on Ukraine. They have not taken out the infrastructure by attacks launched from Russia. Contrary to the western spin, they could have taken out all the bridges, electric and other infrastructure, but they have not. They could have destroyed all the government buildings in Keiv, they have not. This has been a limited conflict and could have been entirely avoided with an accommodation of Russia's insistence on an end to NATO expansion to Russia's very borders.

This conflict was started decades ago by a strategy to contain Russia's economic and domestic prosperity in an effort to control Russia. It does seems that it is now past any turning back and this government does not have the statesman or the diplomatic talent to change direction. It is hell bent on continuing with this policy, no matter the consequences.

Many believe this is similar situation as Afghanistan in 1979. That it is an opportunity to bleed Russia into submission and ultimate defeat, it is not the same situation. This conflict is on Russia's border, compare it to a conflict with the U.S. and Canada.

Up to now, Russia has primarily used munitions stock piled from the cold war. Artillery rounds that may be decades old and needed to be disposed of somehow. They have refrained from using their advanced weapons except in a few instances. U.S. analysts know the truth, yet put forth narratives that the Russians are running out of weapons. I assume this is to keep Ukraine fighting and dying to fulfill their political objectives.

Russia is never going to give back those parts of Ukraine it has incorporated into Russia. 

It seems that the Biden administration would like if Russia could be blamed on some NATO attack so they could attempt to destroy Russia, especially before the midterm elections. Time is running out to make that happen, so we can expect more attacks on Russian infrastructure in a hope for a retaliation.

The only reasonable conclusion is a negotiated settlement that considers Russia's insistence on its security concerns. We can expect that reasonable is not in the immediate cards. So we can expect to watch as Ukraine and western Europe suffer from the policies decisions made in Washington. 

Let us hope that Washington does not conclude that they must make a preemptive nuclear strike on Russia to save face.