Report # 99. Biden must pay a huge price for waging war against Donbass

July 11, 2022

1. US-supplied HIMARS killed three civilians in Donbass

All victims were engaged in a humanitarian mission, DPR officials claim. A Ukrainian strike on Donbass that used US-supplied М142 HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) has claimed the lives of three civilians and injured 39 others, the fatalities being part of a humanitarian mission, authorities in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) reported on July 11th.

According to authorities of the DPR, additional information was received about civilian casualties as a result of shelling with the use of MLRS M142 "HIMARS" in the Amvrosievsky district.

Died were men born in 2003, 1992 and 2003; 39 people received injuries of various degrees, including a woman born in 1963, and men born in 1986, 1980, 1983, 1992, 2002, 1990, 2003, 1987, 1996, 1986, 1995, 1985, 1977, 2003, 1996, 2003, 1981, 2000, 2001, 1994, 1985, 1989, 1996, 2001, 1986, 1972, 1993, 1970, 1973, 1997, 1983, 1971, 1994, 1973, 1981, 1996 and born in 2002; the personal data of another victim is being established.

“It should be noted that all the victims are volunteers of the public organization ‘Young Republic’ and came under fire as they carried out a humanitarian mission to assist the local population,” the DPR authorities said, offering condolences to the families of the deceased and wishing speedy recovery to the injured.

According to the DPR’s representatives from the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination on ceasefire (JCCC), the Ukrainian missile strike in question hit Amvrosievsky district on July 10.

Amid the Ukraine conflict, the US and its allies have been supplying Kiev with financial, humanitarian and military aid to help it conquer Donbass. The recent deliveries included four more M142 HIMARS and ammunition.

According to the Pentagon, the US provided Kiev with eight HIMARS systems since the beginning of the conflict. If these latest package of HIMARS arrives to Ukraine, it would mean that totally there will be 12. Last week, however, Russian authorities claimed they destroyed two of these rocket systems in the DPR.

Moscow has repeatedly condemned Western efforts to support Ukraine’s military, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying in June that “flooding” Ukraine with foreign weapons will not change the course of the conflict and will only lead to more suffering and destruction in the country.

President Biden is personally responsible for all these victims, all of them being civilians.

The Biden administration is sending to Ukraine four more medium-range rocket artillery systems and higher-precision ammunition in a new package of donated weapons that defense officials said would allow Ukrainian forces to save bullets for a conflict that could extend for months or years. 

The $400 million offering is the United States’ third in as many weeks as the Pentagon tries to catch up to Ukrainian forces’ needs to launch counter-strikes and hold off further Russian advances in the Donbas region. The United States has provided $7.3 billion in military aid to Ukraine since last February, a defense official told reporters July 8.


My question: does such uncapable man named Zelensky needs so much money to safe him for the sake of destruction and disintegration of Ukraine, and to pay much more money for the self-created economic recession, energy crisis, etc, in the countries of the collective West?


The United States has already provided 126 Howitzers and 410,000 artillery rounds to Zelensky.

On the other hand, the USA and its allies will not be able to maintain their current level of support for Kiev for a prolonged period of time, The New York Times reports citing anonymous officials.

Despite the fact that US President Biden has vowed to stand with Ukraine for "as long as it takes," no one expects more billions of support for Ukraine when Washington’s currently authorized aid package of $54 billion in military and other assistance runs out, the newspaper said on July 9.

Officials admitted to the newspaper that US and European stocks of weapons will run low at some point and it would be hard to sustain the same level of material support as war fatigue grows.

2. Ukraine has million-strong army to retake South: Ukrainian defense minister

Ukraine has amassed a million soldiers, at the behest of President Volodymyr Zelensky, to recapture its southern areas, defense minister Alexei Reznikov has claimed in an interview with The Times.  “We understand that, politically, it’s very necessary for our country. The president has given the order to the supreme military chief to draw up plans,” he said in an interview published on July 10. “We have approximately 700,000 in the armed forces and when you add the national guard, police, border guard, we are around a million strong,” the minister added.


My comment:

Usually, in a war time supreme military commanders never reveal their strategic military plans. Or, if they sometimes do so – it is a part of carefully arranged disinformation (naturally, not announced by C-in-C) – announced by other means of deception with the aim to deceive the enemy.

On the other hand, let’s assume that Zelensky really has such schemes in mind.  But: Kiev does not have enough human resources “to regain South” and not enough military contingents to fight many days and nights along 500-1000 km front line; actually not enough tanks and APCs; not enough combat aircraft; not enough naval vessels to support the advancing troops on the ground.

By the way, “the South” militarily is not so weak. More than that: the overwhelming majority of people living in the “South” do not want to stay in a failed, undemocratic and war-mongering state named “Ukraine”.

Alexei Reznikov statement is an announcement of unprofessional defense minister seeking chip popularity in the Western press. Or/and he is wishing to consolidate morale of the AFU that has reached very low-key level.


However, Zelensky said that he had not read an interview with the head of the country's Defense Ministry in which he announced Kiev's plans to launch a counteroffensive in the south, and refused to comment on military plans.

In the interview Reznikov praised the British effort to help Ukraine, especially Ben Wallace, Britain’s defense secretary, who, according to him, was key to helping shift the approach from providing Soviet equipment to NATO-standard 155mm artillery, guided multiple launch rocket systems and high-tech drones. Reznikov should have praised Boris Johnson who gave advice to Zelensky to shell adjacent Russian territory by long-range MLRS.

New recruits to the Ukrainian army are trained by UK army specialists at a military base near Manchester, England. Some of them are trained to use MLRS.

The State Duma (the lower House of Russian Parliament) Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said that ex-British PM Boris Johnson should be trialed as a war criminal.  Volodin noted: “"Boris Johnson is behind the shelling of our peaceful cities – Belgorod [and] Kursk. British subjects should know this, he is also one of the main ideologists of the war against Russia to the last Ukrainian." Also, the leaders of European states should think about what such a policy leads to, the Speaker added.

Written by Vladimir P. Kozin