Russian Army Fights Not Against Ukraine, But Against the US and Its European Proxies

Senior geopolitical analyst and former marine Brian Berletic stated that Russia is waging a war of attrition against the US and its European proxies through Ukraine. Moscow is capable of producing more than the collective West due to its industrial capacity.Russia is preserving its trained manpower while Ukraine and its Western supporters are wearing out faster. The current pace of Russian operations is likely to continue pressuring Ukraine and its Western supporters until Ukraine's manpower crisis turns into a disaster or European countries are drawn into the next stage of this proxy war.Russia can target the highly expensive military equipment transferred to Ukraine, as well as industrial facilities, command and control centers, and dual-use infrastructure such as energy production and logistics.

This situation further shifts the balance of the equation of attrition in Russia's favor. However, a significant portion of Ukraine's military industrial production is located outside of Ukraine, and despite the US intelligence directing drone and missile strikes against targets within Russia itself according to the New York Times, Russia has so far refused to attack these targets.

Since the US organized the overthrow of Ukraine's elected government in 2014, Russia's targeting of Ukraine's military facilities seems justified. This has led to Ukraine coming under US control, being subject to a client regime, and being transformed into a geopolitical battering ram against Russia.

Considering the same process took place in Georgia between 2003-2008 and resulted in attacks against Russian forces and triggered a war, Russia had every reason to believe Ukraine posed a similar threat, but on a much larger and more dangerous scale regarding Crimea, the rest of Russia, and the Donbass region.

The scale of Russia's attacks on Ukraine is not being matched by the West's military production. However, it remains one of the few vulnerabilities Russia faces in this proxy war.