All indications are that the US strategy through this year is to ‘hold, build and strike’ at Russia. Meanwhile, Moscow’s best option would be to create a buffer that keeps Russian territories out of reach of game-changing western medium and long-range missiles

Putin’s message is that any new Western narrative on the war is doomed to meet with the same fate as the previous one unless there is realism that Russia cannot be militarily defeated and its legitimate interests are recognized

Ukraine will remain a priority issue for Russia and that is one main reason why the Russian elite and the nation at large want Putin to remain in power until 2030

Russia can carry on with the attritional war in Ukraine for years to come. Meanwhile, the cruel fate that awaits Ukraine may turn out to be far worse than what Iraq and Afghanistan experienced

The US is considering sending ATACMS long-range missiles that Ukraine has been asking for a long time with the capability to strike deep inside Russian territory. The most provocative part is that NATO reconnaissance platforms, both manned and unmanned, will be used in such operations, making the US a virtual co-belligerent

The heart of the matter is that Biden realizes that the ongoing Ukrainian offensive is heading for a train crash and the decimation of Kiev’s remaining army

NATO expected the Ukrainian forces to punch through key Russian fortifications by now. In reality, they are struggling to get anywhere near the sprawling layered fortifications and in that desperate attempt, are taking massive losses

The Northeast Asian theater is going to be a crucial arena in the brewing big-power confrontation, what with the Arctic hotting up and the Northern Sea Route becoming operational. This will catapult the strategic importance of the Russian Far East and Siberia as the powerhouse of the world economy in the 21st century

If the Anglo-Saxon alliance keeps climbing the escalation ladder, the Russian campaign may well expand the operation to the entire region east of the Dnieper River. The Russians are in this war for the long haul and the ball is in the American court

Is the Biden Administration in a position to overcome the influential body of opinion in the US who also happen to be in alliance with top officials in Ukraine’s corridors of power?

Russia has the capability to launch a “big arrow” offensive towards the Dnieper but the Kremlin’s preference is to continue to grind down the Ukrainian military — a strategy that proved cost-effective in human and material terms, productive, and sustainable. Depending on the trajectory of the Ukrainian offensive, Russia has the option to switch to a massive attack to pulverize the adversary

By the sixth day of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, the echo chamber in the West has fallen silent. There are no tall claims. Zelensky must be a worried man as he needs to convince the US that such massive multi-billion dollar military aid has been justified