Freedom on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom

The initial Russian Invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014 was the first salvo signaling the end of the unipolar moment in international relations. This was not recognized by senior political officials in NATO, at least not publicly, because they fell back on sanctions and declared senior Russian officials war criminals. The second part of the Ukraine war kicked off with new Russian incursions into Ukraine on the 21st of February 2022, and since then what's happened is that the NATO alliance has been unable to push Russia back to the pre 2014 border between Ukraine and Russia. Although it is Ukraine doing all the heavy lifting it's still an NATO operation which at this current time has led to a stalemate or an impasse. It's also signaled that in the multipolar world a new security agreement with pragmatic alliances for the future has to be the way forward. In the mean time, two and a half years on, the war in Ukraine grinds on with Russia making some gains but at a snails pace.

Reports that Russian incursions in 2022 were pushed back, as well as some of the territory that they had taken in 2014 were liberated by Ukraine is valid, however, it's unclear if it really was Russia's intention to take the cities of Kiev and Kharkov. Taking large populated cities with hostile inhabitants is a massive undertaking and is something armies hate to do, it's an absolute a last resort as casualties on both sides, either military and civilian are normally horrendous. In most cases, the assaulting army frustrated by fanatical defenders eventually call in the big guns and air assaults which results in a city being completely destroyed; one wonders if Russia really either wanted to do this even if they had the capability to do so??

What ever the real reason, Ukraine was ready for Russia and a well armed and well trained military stunned the Russians with coordinated counter attacks. When Russia was pushed back and the Ukrainian military were making gains in the autumn of 2022, that may have been the time to have forced a rattled Russia to the negotiating table. However, riding high from this initial success, the Ukrainians were hopeful that a spring and summer offensive in 2023 would push Russia out of Crimea and the other occupied territories taken in 2014. By all accounts, this offensive failed and although Russia has taken a lot of casualties, their defensive fortifications along the entire line held firm which also resulted in large Ukrainian losses.

In the years since sanctions were put on Russia and the outpouring of support for Ukraine from the sidelines, NATO offered, financial aid, training and weapons. In the first few months of the conflict, it was considered a public relations coup for major political leaders to be photographed and seen at a podium alongside Ukraine's president Zelensky who in some media outlets has even been compared to a 21st century equivalent of Winston Churchill.

It's important to look beyond the collective opinion that Vladimir Putin is now the most recent incarnation of Adolf Hitler, what we do know is that western sanctions have been largely ineffective and in many ways counterproductive. Consequently, countries who rely on Russian fuel have seen prices double. Energy on the world market has gone up sharply and Russia has been able to sell it commodities for more money and the ruble is in better shape.

Was the west hoping for a Russian defeat and even a collapse of the Russian state ?? The United States track record of successfully toppling leaders is poor. Not only do they not always succeed, but once it is achieved, recent history shows that it leads to a power vacuum, sectarian conflict follows or else a full-scale civil war. In western media outlets the prevailing mantra is that the Russian people want to get rid of the current leaders send them to the international criminal court and welcome in a western style democracy. One must wonder why this thinking prevails, surely nothing would unite the Russian people more than a conflict on their border instigated by the United States.

This thinking indicates that the west they doesn't understand Russia, its history and the people. Three times in the last 200 years, armies from western Europe attacked Russia, the last being in 1941 and 35 million Soviet citizens perished (most of them Russians)during that campaign. That was the worst human toll in any war in the history of humanity. Why that wouldn't be a source of inspiration and honor for Russians to defend their security on their very borders by a hostile and bellicose Ukraine goaded on by NATO really shouldn't have been a surprise. Why would a country like Russia who have been invaded many times in it's recent history not view the expansion of NATO right up to it's borders as an existential threat to them, watching former allies joining another military alliance and then be expected not to mind it.

Why have policy makers underestimated Russian resolve over the Ukraine crisis. There was a jubilant feeling of defiance when countries put on sanctions on Russia, diplomatic unity, a desire to be seen in a photo op with Ukraine president. There was growing consensus that Russia's leaders and government were unpopular, and that Putin was a real threat to Russian freedom and that the Russians were just waiting from outside pressure from the USA/NATO and the EU that would topple Putin and his regime. Kick the door in and the whole rotten lot would collapse, where have we heard that one before.

Eventhough Ukraine did have some battle field success, over the long run they were hampered by not having a large fixed wing air force to counter the Russian air force and the inability to strike targets deep in Russia from long range missiles provided by NATO. If one recalls, Ukraine initially called for NATO to enforce a no fly zone, which was rejected by the USA and has allowed Russia to roam the skies unimpeded. The long range missiles were being launched by contractors who were former NATO military or else current military but wearing civilian outfits and were instructed only to fire them into Ukrainian territory held by Russia. So with Russia being unable to punch through decisively and defeat Ukraine and with Ukraine being unable to force Russia out, why continue the conflict in perpetuity - why not just declare victory and end the war??

It's generally considered today that NATO has never been stronger, with all the member states involved - it all seems very impressive, but is it really strong?? Originally NATO was a purely a defensive organization to deter the Warsaw Pact from invading. Central Europe was most likely the theater of war, but after the cold war it found a new role as it morphed into a proactive military organization that has rapid deployment forces. However, that wasn't the only reason for NATO enlargement, it was to provide security between the European countries rather than counter any regional adversary because there wasn't one.

When new members were invited in or applied to join it created the impression that the larger and well-established NATO members were now required to defend newer members. But this has widely been misunderstood by media outlets and pundits who make the case that smaller countries have the right to be given security guarantees virtually no matter where they are. For example, the Baltic states now as NATO members don't provide any meaningful military assets to the alliance and are isolated from the bulk of NATO and consequently couldn't be defended very easily. Another example is Georgia, a former Soviet state has also been offered NATO membership - but where is the strategic thinking about this??

In a way NATO enlargement has the worst of all worlds. Because countries in central and eastern Europe were now part of a security alliance where everybody was all friends, has only resulted in all NATO members with the exception of the USA cutting back on their defense spending and consequently their militaries atrophied. In the UK they have more admirals than ships in the royal navy and their army is about 80,000 the smallest since the Napoleonic wars. France which had and army of 330,000 in 1991 now has an army of 120,000. So on paper NATO is stronger but militarily it is very weak.

With regard to Ukraine and Russia, It's apparent that NATO is not being satisfied with stopping Russia in it's tracks, at least that's what they are saying. When the second round of hostilities broke out in 2022 NATO never declared that Ukraine would automatically become a member because they wanted to avoid a direct clash with Russia. From a military standpoint although from the outset the Ukrainian army was well equipped and well trained the Russians were able to replace ordinance and manpower as well as sustaining attrition rates and losses on the field better than Ukraine. To add to the disappointment, it doesn't appear that Ukraine has done enough to be allowed membership of NATO in the near future.

There is no super weapon that NATO can give to Ukraine which will turn the tide. Therefore, with the Russian Federation stronger and the EU enlarging there was always going to be a clash between the two. So far it's not a direct clash but an indirect one with Ukraine and Russia at war over Ukraine wanting to become a member of NATO. It's complicated by the fact that part of the EU's mission statement is that they are a non-empirical organization and is not a military power.

I don't really have any words to describe how heartbreaking, devastating, and hard is it for these survivors, my heart goes out to them and to the brave soldiers of Ukraine.

Anyways this documentary is outstanding, the presentation is beautifully well handled, with each survivor/interviewee explaining this situation and how they think it's effecting Ukraine and how it really should be handled, I cannot express how disturbed, haunted and actually really scared I was when seeing all those poor souls who died or got severely injured, it's something that did not need to happen at all and watching this makes me hate You-Know-Know even more, this is really vile and evil what he is doing to these people.

But at least there's good people who are willing to help and protect the people from the Russians, bring food, drinks, blankets etc, the documentary truly shines when it doesn't shy away from the heavy imagery and the shocking sites of dead bodies and destroyed buildings and burned land, it's like it's saying "this is not movie, this is real life and this is what they are doing to it", it's truly harrowing how this is somewhat still going (as far as I know) and knowing that there is no sign of ending is just devastating.

Anyways the documentary is terrific, heartbreaking and powerfully scary in how the effects are impactful, truly incredible piece of film that I was truly effected by, I hope the people of Ukraine will get their victory and continue to fight for their country that they love and are proud to be from, I hope one day, it'll be their day to win.

It gets an easy 10/10.