Russia’s Achilles’ heel is its utter lack of a missile drone defense system to contain the current Kyiv initiative of sending missiles and drones deep into Russian territory. Russia is helpless and weak in defense, having focused its war effort on all-out offense.

Russia can send stealth nuke subs into the Pacific, right to the doorstep of the US, as a psywar tactic, yet it has no response to US-NATO-backed Ukraine missile drones currently hitting targets at will deep inside Russia.

While Ukraine’s air defense system repelled all 11 drones in a Russian response, according to Ukraine’s air force, Russia failed to take out the Ukraine drones that hit key infrastructure facilities within Russia.

Russia admitted that Kyiv took out a third bridge over the River Seym in the Kursk region, as Ukrainian forces attempted to expand their incursion into Russian territory in a quick cross-border offensive.

Zelensky said his goal is to create a “buffer zone” to further neutralize Russian attacks (through) the use of “long-range artillery, missiles, and glide bombs.” (Al Jazeera, 20 August).

In truth, Zelensky’s goal is to hit Russian airbases deep in Russia with long-range artillery, missiles, and bombs. Will US-NATO allow Ukraine to use its alliance-supplied long-range weapons to do this?

US-NATO may hesitate because of the vast implications of this brinkmanship. It could easily lead to a direct US-NATO versus Russia full-blown confrontation. In other words, it is a departure from the proxy war US-NATO has been employing so far with a lot of gray areas, and it is graduating to an eyeball-to-eyeball direct confrontation.

Russian defense option — China

In desperation, Russia may turn to China for help. So far, China is still at a distance, not wanting to get too involved in the war in Ukraine, giving mostly verbal assurances. But Russia, desperate over the lack of a defense system, may drag China into the war by “forcing” it to supply urgently needed defense capability.

It may take time for China to supply defense systems, as the US-NATO-Ukraine offensives pick up speed. So the situation is really unpredictable.

US-NATO-Ukraine emboldened to expand the war

US-NATO-Ukraine, sensing Russia’s lack of missile drone defense systems, is now emboldened by their successes in bringing the war back to Russia. Russia’s silence is an admission of this defense weakness. US-NATO-Ukraine is thus going for Russia’s jugular, a most dangerous escalation, which US-NATO is either blind to or just does not care.

US-NATO’s final goal remains the same — slay the giant enemy, no matter what it takes. And it may take WW3 and a nuclear holocaust to realize it cannot be done so easily.

The Belarus factor

Meanwhile, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko reported that Kyiv has amassed more than 120,000 troops along the Ukraine-Belarus border, according to its state news agency. Lukashensko said that Minsk has deployed nearly a third of its armed forces along the entire border. (Aljazeera, no date)

Now troops from Ukraine and Belarus are eyeball-to-eyeball along their common border, further degrading the situation towards a rapid escalation. The Russian crisis over its defense weakness may trigger a response from Belarus to make its initiatives.

The chances for a peaceful solution are slowly becoming elusive because everyone on both sides is bent on war. No players are suing for peace. All is silent across the eastern front, as the stealth nuke subs of China and Russia linger near US shores in the Pacific.

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