By Kevin Barrett, for the upcoming (July) issue of Crescent International
On June 8, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said that the battle for Severodonetsk would decide the fate of eastern Ukraine. Two weeks later, its fate was decided. On June 23 Ukraine withdrew all its forces. Within 48 hours mayor Oleksandr Stryuk announced that the Russians had taken full control of the city.
Kiev’s loss of Severodonetsk makes Russia’s triumph in Luhansk a foregone conclusion. Donetsk, the other province of the Donbass, is next. If Zelensky and his NATO masters don’t sue for peace and accept Ukraine’s loss of the Donbass and the land bridge to Crimea, Russia will continue grinding away at Ukrainian forces in the south until it controls the entire Black Sea coast. That would leave only a landlocked, economically stagnant “rump Ukraine” under Kiev’s authority, while Russia and its allies would control most of what had been Ukraine’s most strategic and productive regions.
Some European leaders understand that since Ukraine is in an ever-deepening hole, the first thing it needs to do is stop digging.