RUSSIA MAY BE GETTING DESPERATE IN ITS UKRAINE WAR

Putin and the Russian military must have expected a very short and easy war of conquest to subdue the Ukrainian people. Were they ever wrong! Eleven days into the war, the Ukrainian government still controls the vast majority of the nation’s territory. During this time, Russia has been on the offensive and Ukraine has defended itself fiercely. Historically, an attacking force traveling over unfamiliar territory suffers far greater casualties than a defending force fighting on familiar territory. During this time, Russia has lost a lot of tanks and armored vehicles as well as warplanes, helicopters and other equipment. How large are Russia’s losses? The first link gives us an astounding figure: that besides losing over 10,000 soldiers killed, Russia has lost 269 tanks, 945 other armored vehicles, 105 artillery systems, 40 helicopters and 39 warplanes. Not many European NATO nations have that much weaponry in their entire military inventory! That was the total given by the Ukrainians two days ago so the numbers are higher by now.

Are these totals accurate? I think they are far more accurate than any Russian reports. Russia has no press freedom so everything released by Russian media sources has to be censored and approved by Putin’s propagandists–who do not want the Russian people to know how badly this war is going. Also, Ukraine has been honest about the damage being done to Ukrainian cities, and the Ukrainians have anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons quite capable of destroying modern tanks and military aircraft in large numbers. Ukraine had a considerable number of such weapons at the start of the war and they have been re-supplied with thousands of these weapons according to the NATO nations’ own reports. As an example of how deadly these weapons are, the second link shows a Russian helicopter being shot down by a Ukrainian air defense missile. The “kill” was filmed by what must have been a stationary aerial drone being used as a targeting spotter. Another fact to consider: How many video clips are being posted of Russians destroying Ukrainian armored vehicles or planes? I haven’t seen a single one yet. This argues the Russians have a dearth of such videos to show the world.

A previous post observed that Russia’s attack could backfire by motivating other nations to join NATO. This may happen. The third link relates that Russian warplanes violated Sweden’s airspace recently, and Sweden’s warplanes intercepted them. This aggressive act by Russia vs. Sweden plus Russia’s cruel invasion of Ukraine is pushing Sweden and Finland toward applying for NATO membership. The fourth link shows public support for these nations joining NATO has never been higher, and these nations may realize being in NATO is safer than being out of it. If these nations join NATO, the security of the Baltic nations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia will be much improved as NATO will have more strategic depth to support them if all Scandinavian nations are in NATO. The fourth link reports Russia accuses NATO of pushing these nations into joining NATO, but the obvious truth is that it is Russia’s Nazi-like invasion of Ukraine that is pushing them toward NATO. The fifth link adds more information on possible NATO expansion and reports that Kosovo, a Balkan nation, has now applied for NATO membership.

More information on the military aspects of this war: The sixth link examines the high-tech qualities of the US-made Javelin anti-tank weapon and why it is so effective against tanks and all armored vehicles. It even shows the Russians are so afraid of it that they are adding improvised cages over the tops of their tanks to try and withstand the Javelins (I doubt the thin metal strips shown will do much). The seventh link details an aspect of the war that has not been reported in the mainstream media to my knowledge. Ukraine is using its inventory of about 20 armed drones purchased from Turkey, and one embedded link in that story reports Turkey and Ukraine have signed a co-production agreement for it. Be sure to watch the video-clips in that link as it has drone camera footage of the drones destroying Russian armored vehicles while Ukrainians praise the drones in song. This weapon system may be knocking out a lot of Russian tanks and armored vehicles as it can approach from a low altitude and evade detection until it attacks Russian armored columns. The eighth link adds that there appears to be very low morale among many Russian troops, which obviously makes the Russian attack much less effective. If the reported Russian losses are as high as the reported totals, Russia has already lost a significant percentage of its conventional army strength in just eleven days of fighting. How much more will they lose in another few months of such fighting? it is clear that even if Ukraine’s major cities fall, the hinterland of Ukraine will fight on indefinitely. The fact that so many Ukrainian women and children are leaving Ukraine as refugees while all men ages 16-60 are staying in Ukraine to fight the Russians indicates the Ukrainians are determined to fight on for a long time. Ukraine is receiving thousands of anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons so they are now being continuously re-supplied by NATO nations, enabling them to carry on the fight a long time. With the economic sanctions hitting Russia hard, Russia cannot afford to support a fight against a years-long “Vietnam-like” guerrilla war. In a previous post, I discussed a proposal to have Ukrainian pilots sent to Poland and other Eastern European nations to fly MiG jets back to Ukraine to fight the Russians. It was originally poo-pooed in many reports, but even President Biden has now acknowledged openly that this proposal is being considered. This will also tilt things more in Ukraine’s favor if it is implemented.

There have been reports that Russia might expand the war by invading Europe’s NATO nations. If that happens, Russia has an immediate problem that few consider. Turkey is a NATO nation and it controls the ability of Russian ships to pass between the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea. It also has has a very large army. If NATO’s Article 5 is triggered, Turkey is obligated by treaty to go to war against Russia. It can close off Russian fleet access between those two major bodies of water. Turkey has been building up its military forces. As evidence of that fact, the ninth link offers information that Turkey is about to activate its first aircraft carrier.

Russia’s militaristic desire to attack other nations and China’s obvious desire to take Taiwan in an invasion if it thinks it can get away with it confirms what I have long predicted, based on Ezekiel 38-39. That prophecy foretells that Russia, China, Iran and other nations will attack the nations of the Western world and their allies (called “Israel” or the “house of Israel” in Ezekiel 38-39.) Most Christian prophecy ministries completely miss a central fact about Ezekiel 38-39’s prophecy. They think the prophecy speaks of a Russian-led invasion of the Israeli Jews in the latter days. However, whenever the Bible references the Jews in latter-day prophecies, it calls them “Judah” (Zephaniah 2, Zechariah 12 and 14). The term “Judah” is mentioned nowhere in Ezekiel 38-39 so the Israelis are not the targeted nation in this prophecy. It is the modern nations of the ten tribes of “Israel” which are the target of the Gog-Magog attack. One must identify the modern nations of the ten tribes of Israel to discern who is targeted in the Ezekiel 38-39 prophecy. Genesis 49 and Revelation 7:1-8 both predict the ten tribes will be among the nations in the latter days so the Bible assures us they can be found. Indeed, it gives us clues for locating them in our time in Genesis 49.

My books, available at the home page of this website, make that identification easy. To give readers a “bullet point” identification of the Israelite tribe of Manasseh in the latter days, please read my article, The United States of America in Biblical Prophecy. The identities of many of the Israelite tribes in the modern world can be found in the “Articles” tab at my website. You can prove we are living in the latter days of our age in my article, Are We Living in the Biblical Latter Days?, and you can understand who will be invading whom in the great World War III at the end of this age by reviewing my article/research paper, What Ezekiel 38-39 Reveal about a Future World War III. Russia’s and China’s malevolent intent toward the West is now so obvious that secular analysts see it as well. The tenth link relates one such non-biblical analysis.

The world will be watching what happens in the Russian war of aggression to gobble up Ukraine. So far, Russia is not doing well at all. China is watching that war and seeing that NATO’s technology (Javelins, stingers, attack drones, etc.) defeats the Russian military technologies. This must give China pause about the advisability of attacking Taiwan to gobble it up. Taiwan ought to be importing Javelins and stingers and other western defense weapons in large numbers to deter a Chinese attack. Taiwan is greatly increasing its missile defense inventory (eleventh link). The worse Russia does in its invasion of Ukraine, the more it will tend to deter a Chinese attack vs. Taiwan. Vladimir Putin cannot be happy nowadays. His expectation of a quick and cheap victory has been shattered. The myth of the superiority of the Russian army has also been shattered. The West seems serious about strangling Russia’s economy to punish Russia for its cruel invasion and to compel Russia to withdraw its forces from Ukraine. The West is seizing mega-billions of assets from Putin’s oligarch cronies which must be making those oligarchs wonder if Putin is a threat to all of them as well. At some point Russia’s people will be pinched hard by the sanctions, and will they blame Putin in spite of Putin’s internal propaganda to deceive them? Putin’s military almost destroyed Putin’s rule by attacking a huge Ukrainian nuclear power station–risking a radiation explosion “ten times worse than Chernobyl.” If that reactor facility had blown up, the radiation would have contaminated much of southern Russia, rendering its land incapable of producing food for many years. Putin desperately needs a way out of his very ill-advised invasion of Ukraine.

We are now watching world history unfold before our eyes in live news reports. The biggest war in Europe since World War II is raging, and it could go on for some time. It could escalate or Russia may do the smart thing and find a face-saving way out of this debacle. Time will tell. The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the extensive damage Russia is doing to civilian population centers is a foretaste of what World War III will be like on a global scale when it happens in the future.

RUSSIA MAY BE GETTING DESPERATE IN ITS UKRAINE WAR

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