Month: February 2022

USA Today

Poor planning, low troop morale and a fierce Ukrainian resistance. Why Russia is getting bogged down

Tom Vanden Brook – February 28, 2022

WASHINGTON – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in its fifth day Monday, has been stymied by a fierce, creative resistance and apparently poor planning by the Russian military, U.S. Defense officials and experts say.

The combination has left the Russian force charged with assaulting Kyiv about 15 miles from the capital city’s center, according to a senior Defense Department official. That force entered Ukraine from Belarus shortly after the war started.

Meanwhile, some Russian combat vehicles have been abandoned, out of fuel, while others have been reduced to smoking husks by Ukrainian attacks. And the Russians, despite a vastly better air force, have not achieved control of Ukraine’s air space.

Experts attribute some of the missteps to hubris inside Russian President Vladimir Putin’s military leadership. They failed to bring along enough supplies, assuming quick capitulation by Ukrainian forces and speedy collapse of the government in Kyiv. Other issues dogging the Russians: an operation spread too thin, poor equipment and low morale among the troops.

“They planned their logistics on a blitzkrieg,” said James Townsend, an adjunct senior fellow in the Center for a New American Security’s Transatlantic Security Program, referring to the concept of overwhelming an adversary quickly with superior force.

“When they started getting bogged down, they started running into logistics problems,” Townsend said. “They’ve got a long logistics tail. Fuel has been a bit of a big deal and that makes them targets for Ukrainian soldiers going in there with anti-tank weapons.”

Zelenskyy government:What happens if Kyiv falls? What would a government in exile look like?

The Defense official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about intelligence assessments, said Russian vehicles have been running out of gas. According to Pentagon assessments, the Russians either didn’t anticipate their re-supply problems or their troops are failing to execute the war plan properly.

The Ukrainian fighters have ambushed Russian convoys and destroyed a key bridge that slowed the Russian advance, the official said.

However, the Russians are expected to adjust, the official said. They still have significant advantages in weaponry. And there are indications the Russians plan to lay siege to Ukrainian cites, surrounding them and possibly firing rockets with poor accuracy into city centers.

That is an urgent concern, the official said, because of the potential for civilian casualties and devastating damage to infrastructure.

Retired Gen. Peter Chiarelli, who served as the Army’s vice chief of staff and spent several years in Iraq, praised the leadership of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the tenacity of the Ukrainian resistance.

‘Erratic’? ‘Delusional’?: Lawmakers question Putin’s stability as he puts nuclear forces on alert

Chiarelli said the Russians made a major tactical mistake by dividing their forces along three main routes of attack. Doing so, Chiarelli said, requires three separate efforts to supply its troops.

“I really fault the initial plan of this,” Chiarelli said. “It’s war on seemingly all fronts, rather than a main effort to capture Kyiv and then move on to some some other objectives. It doesn’t seem they have the ability to be able to do that. It’s extremely difficult when you have so many different locations to support your your soldiers.”

At least some of the Russian military equipment, despite years of investment by Putin, appears to be second-rate, Townsend said. It appears that shoulder-fired Javelin anti-armor missiles supplied to Ukrainian forces have destroyed a number of Russian vehicles.

“Some of their older vehicles didn’t look very upgraded to me,” Townsend said. “Our assumptions about the Russian equipment wears off in the sense that while some that is more modern, not all of it is.”

The longer the war grinds on, morale among Russian troops will likely erode, Chiarelli said. He noted that the Russian build up of more than 150,000 troops on Ukraine’s borders was underway for months before the invasion began, leaving some forces in the field during harsh winter weather.

The mood among troops could get worse. Urban combat in Kyiv, against a motivated and well-armed population, could lead to many deaths and injuries among Russian troops. If the Russian military can’t evacuate casualties quickly, morale will plummet, he said.

“There is nothing that will impact the morale of the force more than taking casualties and not seeing those casualties taken care of,” Chiarelli said.

“Believe me, if they move into the urban areas, they’re going to take a lot of casualties,” he added. “Not all (are) going to be deaths. There are going to be wounded. Arms, legs blown off.”

An even worse outcome, Chiarelli fears, is that Russian forces will opt instead to encircle Kyiv and other cities and lay siege to them, a brutal tactic the Germans used against the Soviet Union in World War II.

“If their casualties are too great, one thing that they could do is back off, surround the city and cut it off,” Chiarelli said. “The Germans tried to do that to many cities in the Soviet Union. Starve them and shoot rockets and artillery in the city.”

That makes it imperative for the U.S. and European allies to speed supplies to Ukraine in coming days, Chiarelli said.

“Humanitarian supplies and ensuring that as much of that as possible gets into the city, so people have food and the basic essentials they need to live, is critical,” he said.

The Week

Ukraine says its pilots are in Poland picking up donated MiG-29 fighter jets. Poland isn’t commenting.

Peter Weber, Senior editor – February 28, 2022

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Burrell said Sunday that individual EU countries had agreed to donate Soviet-era fighter jets to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia’s invasion, and Ukraine’s parliament said Monday that Bulgaria, Poland, and Slovakia had agreed to give the country more than 70 MiG-29s and Su-25s. A Ukrainian government official told Politico Monday that Ukrainian pilots were already in Poland to start the process of taking control of the 28 MiG-29s they are expecting to be donated. (Joseph Trevithick at The Drive explains why he’s skeptical.)

“The potential transfer of older Russian-made planes to be used in combat against Russian forces could be the most significant moment yet in a wave of promised arms transfers over the past 24 hours that includes thousands of anti-armor rockets, machine guns, artillery, and other equipment,” Politico reports. But representatives from Poland and Slovakia did not respond to Politico’s request for confirmation and Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said Monday he had rejected Ukraine’s request for fighter jets.

Other Western countries have promised to send anti-tank weapons and other lethal armaments to Ukraine, including Germany and, it was announced Monday, Finland, Sweden, Australia, and Canada. “President Zelensky said: ‘Don’t give me a ride, give me ammunition,’ and that’s exactly what the Australian government has agreed to do,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Tuesday in announcing that the “overwhelming majority” Australia’s $50 million in aid will now “be in the lethal category.”

Associated Press

Russian forces escalate attacks on Ukraine’s civilian areas

Yuras Karmanau, Jim Heintz, Vladimir Isachenkov and Dasha Litvinovay

February 28, 2022

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces escalated their attacks on crowded urban areas Tuesday, bombarding the central square in Ukraine’s second-biggest city and Kyiv’s main TV tower in what the country’s president called a blatant campaign of terror.

“Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed after the bloodshed on the square in Kharkiv.

Ukrainian authorities said five people were killed in the attack on the TV tower, which is a couple of miles from central Kyiv and a short walk from numerous apartment buildings. A TV control room and power substation were hit, and at least some Ukrainian channels briefly stopped broadcasting, officials said.

Zelenskyy’s office also reported a powerful missile attack on the site of the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial, near the tower. A spokesman for the memorial said a Jewish cemetery at the site, where Nazi occupiers killed more than 33,000 Jews over two days in 1941, was damaged, but the extent would not be clear until daylight.

At the same time, a 40-mile (64-kilometer) convoy of hundreds of Russian tanks and other vehicles advanced slowly on Kyiv, the capital city of nearly 3 million people, in what the West feared was a bid by Russian President Vladimir Putin to topple the government and install a Kremlin-friendly regime.

The invading forces also pressed their assault on other towns and cities, including the strategic ports of Odesa and Mariupol in the south.

Day 6 of the biggest ground war in Europe since World War II found Russia increasingly isolated, beset by tough sanctions that have thrown its economy into turmoil and left the country practically friendless, apart from a few nations like China, Belarus and North Korea.

Overall death tolls from the fighting remained unclear, but a senior Western intelligence official estimated that more than 5,000 Russian soldiers had been captured or killed. Ukraine gave no overall estimate of troop losses.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said it had seen an increase in Russian air and artillery strikes on populated urban areas over the past two days. It also said three cities — Kharkiv, Kherson and Mariupol — were encircled by Russian forces.

Many military experts worry that Russia may be shifting tactics. Moscow’s strategy in Chechnya and Syria was to use artillery and air bombardments to pulverize cities and crush fighters’ resolve.

The bombing of the TV tower came after Russia announced it would target transmission facilities in the capital used by Ukraine’s intelligence agency. It urged people living near such places to leave their homes.

In Kharkiv, with a population of about 1.5 million, at least six people were killed when the region’s Soviet-era administrative building on Freedom Square was hit with what was believed to be a missile.

The attack on Freedom Square — Ukraine’s largest plaza, and the nucleus of public life in the city — was seen by many Ukrainians as brazen evidence that the Russian invasion wasn’t just about hitting military targets but also about breaking their spirit.

The bombardment blew out windows and walls of buildings that ring the massive square, which was piled high with debris and dust. Inside one building, chunks of plaster were scattered, and doors, ripped from their hinges, lay across hallways.

“People are under the ruins. We have pulled out bodies,” said Yevhen Vasylenko, an emergency official.

Zelenskyy pronounced the attack on the square “frank, undisguised terror” and a war crime. “This is state terrorism of the Russian Federation,” he said.

In an emotional appeal to the European Parliament later, Zelenskyy said: “We are fighting also to be equal members of Europe. I believe that today we are showing everybody that is what we are.”

He said 16 children had been killed around Ukraine on Monday, and he mocked Russia’s claim that it is going after only military targets.

“Where are the children? What kind of military factories do they work at? What tanks are they going at?” Zelenskyy said.

Human Rights Watch said it documented a cluster bomb attack outside a hospital in Ukraine’s east in recent days. Local residents also reported the use of such weapons in Kharkiv and the village of Kiyanka, The Kremlin denied using cluster bombs.

If the allegations are confirmed, that would represent a new level of brutality in the war and could lead to even further isolation of Russia.

The first talks between Russia and Ukraine since the invasion were held Monday, but ended with only an agreement to talk again. On Tuesday, though, Zelenskyy said Russia should stop bombing first.

“As for dialogue, I think yes, but stop bombarding people first and start negotiating afterwards,“ he told CNN.

Moscow made new threats of escalation, days after raising the specter of nuclear war. A top Kremlin official warned that the West’s “economic war” against Russia could turn into a “real one.”

Inside Russia, a top radio station critical of the Kremlin was taken off the air after authorities threatened to shut it down over its coverage of the invasion. Among other things, the Kremlin is not allowing the fighting to be referred to as an “invasion” or “war.”

Roughly 660,000 people have fled the country, and countless others have taken shelter underground. Bomb damage has left hundreds of thousands of families without drinking water, U.N. humanitarian coordinator Martin Griffiths said.

“It is a nightmare, and it seizes you from the inside very strongly. This cannot be explained with words,” said Kharkiv resident Ekaterina Babenko, taking shelter in a basement with neighbors for a fifth straight day. “We have small children, elderly people, and frankly speaking it is very frightening.”

The U.N. human rights office said it has recorded 136 civilian deaths. The real toll is believed to be far higher.

A Ukrainian military official said Belarusian troops joined the war Tuesday in the Chernihiv region in the north, without providing details. But just before that, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said his country had no plans to join the fight.

In Kharkiv, explosions burst one after another through a residential area in a video verified by The Associated Press. Hospital workers moved a maternity ward to a bomb shelter. Amid mattresses piled up against the walls, pregnant women paced the crowded space, as dozens of newborns cried.

As for the Russians’ advance on the capital, the leading edge of the convoy was 17 miles (25 kilometers) from the center of the city, according to satellite imagery from Maxar Technologies.

A senior U.S. defense official described the long convoy as “bogged down,” saying Russia appeared to be pausing and regrouping to evaluate how to retake the momentum in the fighting.

Overall, the Russian military has been stalled by fierce resistance on the ground and a surprising inability to completely dominate Ukraine’s airspace.

The immense convoy, with vehicles packed together along narrow roads, would seemingly be “a big fat target” for Ukrainian forces, the senior Western intelligence official said on condition of anonymity.

“But it also shows you that the Russians feel pretty comfortable being out in the open in these concentrations because they feel that they’re not going to come under air attack or rocket or missile attack,” the official said.

Ukrainians have used whatever they had to try to stop the Russian advance. On a highway between Odesa and Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine, residents piled tractor tires filled with sand and topped with sandbags to block convoys.

___

Isachenkov and Litvinova reported from Moscow. Mstyslav Chernov in Mariupol, Ukraine; Sergei Grits in Odesa, Ukraine; Robert Burns and Eric Tucker in Washington; Francesca Ebel, Josef Federman and Andrew Drake in Kyiv; Lorne Cook in Brussels; and other AP journalists from around the world contributed to this report.

DW News

Scholz pledges €100 billion for German military, end to Russian energy exports A turning point in the history of our continent. That’s how Chancellor Olaf Scholz described Russia’s war against Ukraine. Speaking to a special session of parliament, the German leader announced a raft of policy changes that would have been unthinkable just days ago. Germany will drastically strengthen its military, and move quickly to eliminate its reliance on Russian energy exports. He put the blame squarely on Russian President Vladimir Putin – who he said had brought decades of peaceful coexistence to an end. Here’s some of what he said. Holding out in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Russia’s military assault verges on genocide – and he’s called for Russia to be stripped of its seat on the UN Security Council. Moscow’s forces targeted civilian infrastructure overnight, including gas pipelines – as they stepped up efforts to push further into Ukraine. Moscow’s forces have met stiff resistance as they attempt to push further into Ukraine. The mayor of Kyiv says the capital is holding its defense lines and there are no Russian troops in the city. And after reports of heavy fighting in eastern Kharkiv, the regional governor says Ukrainian forces have retaken full control of the city. Russia’s latest attacks have targeted civilian infrastructure and the military. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has sent tens of thousands of people fleeing their homes since Thursday. Huge crowds have been waiting at train stations to travel to the border and cross into neighboring countries. Scenes from Lviv in western Ukraine show the fear and frustration: There’s not enough space on the trains to carry everyone to safety. Men are forced to say goodbye to their families, as they are not allowed to leave because they’ve been called up to fight. Many of the refugees are headed to Poland. Ukraine is doing its best to repel the Russian attack by training civilians to fight. Support from the US and other NATO members has also bolstered national defenses. But few believe Ukraine is a match for its much larger neighbor. Taking active and reserve troops together, Kyiv can draw on more than 1 million men and women. Russia has more than three million. Ukraine has less than 2,500 tanks, compared to Russia’s 13,000. And in the air, Ukraine has just 67 attack aircraft in contrast to Russia’s 1,500. In Berlin a demonstration calling for restoring peace in Ukraine is underway, with estimates of 20,000 or more people taking part in the protest. The demonstration is organized by a variety of groups including workers’ unions, religious groups and environmental organizations. Protesters are calling on Russia to immediately withdraw from Ukraine and to respect democracy and human rights. In the past days there have been numerous demonstrations across the world in support of Ukraine and demanding an immediate end to all violence.

February 26, 2022

Malcolm Nance visits with Stephanie Miller every Wednesday. Malcolm is an American author and media commentator on terrorism, intelligence, insurgency, and torture. He is a former United States Navy Senior Chief Petty Officer specializing in naval cryptology. Like, Share & Subscribe! New content and interviews every day of the week! More about Political Voices Network… It’s a big country, with lots of voices — and this is America’s audio and video platform representing them all. Political Voices Network is your source for all voices spanning the range of opinion in the political arena. Political Voices Network features some of political-talk’s most popular personalities, opinion-makers, and influencers – such as leading radio hosts Stephanie Miller and Thom Hartmann and MORE coming every week. This is Political Voices Network, available at PoliticalVoicesNetwork.com.

So why is Russia after Ukraine?

For those who ask: “Why does Ukraine matter?

“ This is why Ukraine matters.”

Being the second largest country by area in Europe and has a population of over 40 million,

Ukraine ranks: 1st in Europe in proven recoverable reserves of uranium ores

2nd place in Europe and 10th place in the world in terms of titanium ore reserves

2nd place in the world in terms of explored reserves of manganese ores (2.3 billion tons, or 12% of the world’s reserves)

2nd largest iron ore reserves in the world (30 billion tons)

2nd place in Europe in terms of mercury ore reserves

3rd place in Europe (13th place in the world) in shale gas reserves (22 trillion cubic meters)

4th in the world by the total value of natural resources

7th place in the world in coal reserves (33.9 billion tons)

Ukraine is an important agricultural country:

1st in Europe in terms of arable land area

3rd place in the world by the area of black soil (25% of world’s volume)

1st place in the world in exports of sunflower and sunflower oil

2nd place in the world in barley production and 4th place in barley exports

3rd largest producer and 4th largest exporter of corn in the world

4th largest producer of potatoes in the world

5th largest rye producer in the world

5th place in the world in bee production (75,000 tons)

8th place in the world in wheat exports

9th place in the world in the production of chicken eggs

16th place in the world in cheese exports

Ukraine can meet the food needs of 600 million people.

Ukraine is an important industrialized country:

1st in Europe in ammonia production

Europe’s 2nd’s and the world’s 4th largest natural gas pipeline system

3rd largest in Europe and 8th largest in the world in terms of installed capacity of nuclear power plants;

3rd place in Europe and 11th in the world in terms of rail network length (21,700 km)

3rd place in the world (after the U.S. and France) in production of locators and locating equipment

3rd largest iron exporter in the world

4th largest exporter of turbines for nuclear power plants in the world

4th world’s largest manufacturer of rocket launchers

4th place in the world in clay exports

4th place in the world in titanium exports

8th place in the world in exports of ores and concentrates

9th place in the world in exports of defense industry products

10th largest steel producer in the world (32.4 million tons)

Ukraine matters. That is why its independence is important to the rest of the world. These resources are why Russia is chomping at the bits to take it.

Reuters

Neutral Swiss poised to freeze Russian assets – president

Stephanie Nebehay – February 27, 2022

GENEVA (Reuters) -Swiss President Ignazio Cassis said on Sunday that it was “very probable” that neutral Switzerland would follow the European Union (EU) on Monday in sanctioning Russia and freezing Russian assets in the Alpine country.

Cassis, interviewed on French-language Swiss public television RTS, said that the seven-member Federal Council would meet on Monday and review recommendations by the departments of finance and economy.

Asked whether Switzerland — a major financial centre and commodities trading hub — would follow the EU in freezing Russian assets, he said: “It is very probable that the government will decide to do so tomorrow, but I cannot anticipate decisions not yet taken.”

Cassis said that Switzerland’s neutrality must be preserved and it stood ready to offer its good offices for diplomacy if talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials on the Belarusian border do not succeed, for example by reaching an armistice.

“That does not prevent us from calling a spade a spade,” he said.

Switzerland has walked a tortuous line between showing solidarity with the West and maintaining its traditional neutrality that the government says could make it a potential mediator.

But it faces growing pressure to side clearly with the West against Moscow and adopt punitive European Union sanctions. The government had so far said only that it will not let Switzerland be used as a platform to circumvent EU sanctions.

In the biggest peace march in decades, around 20,000 people demonstrated in the capital Bern on Saturday to support Ukraine, some booing the government over its cautious policy.

Cassis said on Sunday that Ukrainians fleeing the conflict would be welcome “for a transitional period, which we hope will be as short a possible”.

Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said separately that Switzerland was ready to take in those who need protection and also to support the neighbouring countries affected. “We will not leave people in the lurch,” she said.

The Swiss government last week amended its watchlist to include 363 individuals and four companies that the EU had put on its sanctions list to punish Moscow.

Russians held nearly 10.4 billion Swiss francs ($11.24 billion) in Switzerland in 2020, Swiss National Bank data show.

($1 = 0.9252 Swiss francs)

(Additional reporting by Michael Shields; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Diane Craft)

THe Hill

Veteran interpreter breaks down in tears after Zelensky remarks

February 27, 2022

A veteran interpreter broke down in tears on Sunday while translating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s speech for a German news outlet.

In an emotional video shared on social media, the translator, who has not yet been identified, could be heard starting to choke up while interpreting Zelensky’s speech for the German news service Welt.

She translated part of his speech and could be heard saying, “Russia is on the path of evil. Russia must lose its voice in the U.N.”

She then started to struggle as she continued the translation.

“Ukraine, we definitely know,” she said before pausing briefly and adding, “what we are defending.” As she spoke, her voice began to break and she tried to calm down. Then, after a breath, she quietly said, “Sorry” and went off the air.

Zelensky spoke to the Ukrainian people on Sunday after several cities in the country were attacked by Russian forces.

“The night was hard,” he said. “The people rose to defend their state, and they showed their true faces. This is terror.”

“They are going to bomb our Ukrainian cities even more,” the Ukrainian president added. “They are going to kill our children even more insidiously. This is an evil that has come to our land and must be destroyed.”

Reuters

EU to urgently link electricity grid with Ukraine’s

Kate Abnett – February 27, 2022

BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Energy ministers from European Union countries on Monday agreed to urgently link a European power system to Ukraine’s grid, a move that would increase its independence from Russia following Moscow’s invasion of the country.

The invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Europe’s top gas supplier, has sharpened concerns of disruption to energy supplies and increased scrutiny of European Union countries’ reliance on imported fossil fuels.

It has also raised concerns about Ukraine’s own energy system, and EU ministers on Monday backed a long-planned link of Ukraine’s electricity grid with Europe’s.

“There was a broad agreement around the table. Based on this, we will move forward… to connect Ukraine’s electricity system as quickly as possible,” EU energy commissioner Kadri Simson said after the meeting.

Ukraine disconnected its grid from a Russian system last week and has asked for emergency synchronisation with a European system. That would mean Russia would no longer control technical aspects of Ukraine’s network such as grid frequency. EU officials said the link could be completed within weeks.

Simson said it was possible that Russia could take “retaliatory steps” affecting Europe’s energy supplies in response to sanctions from the West, but that current gas storage levels and increased liquefied natural gas (LNG) deliveries could see Europe through this winter.

The Commission will next week propose a requirement for countries to fill gas storage to minimum levels ahead of winter, to bolster countries against supply and price shocks, according to a draft plan seen by Reuters.

The proposals will also include measures to expand renewable energy faster, as Brussels reemphasises the need to shift away from relying on imported fossil fuels — not only to fight climate change, but as a matter of security.

To meet its 2030 climate target, the EU expects to reduce gas consumption more than 25% from 2015 levels, although gas is expected to retain a significant share of Europe’s energy mix for at least the next decade.

“We have to work on developing low-carbon energy, renewables so we’re no longer so dependent on gas,” said France’s ecological transition minister Barbara Pompili, who chaired the ministers’ meeting.

Russia supplies around 40% of Europe’s gas. EU rules require all member countries to have a plan to respond to gas supply shocks, which they have updated in recent weeks.

Analysts have said a complete or prolonged halt to Russian gas deliveries to Europe would have severe economic repercussions, requiring emergency measures such as factory closures.

Dutch front-month gas prices spiked by around 11% on Monday amid concerns about possible disruption to Russian flows. Gazprom said it was supplying gas via Ukraine in line with demand from European consumers.

EU ministers also discussed a proposal from Greece for a new EU fund to provide low-interest loans to help governments finance measures to tackle high energy prices.

Soaring gas prices in recent months have hiked bills for households and industries, prompting governments in most of the EU’s 27 countries to offer subsidies and tax breaks.

“We must not underestimate the consequences of the Russian invasion on energy prices and energy security,” Greece’s energy minister Kostas Skrekas said.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett, Francesco Guarascio, Tassilo Hummel, Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise, William Maclean and Andrew Heavens)

Miami Herald

Our leaders’ contempt for the truth has led us into war | Opinion

Leonard Pitts Jr. – February 25, 2022

Then as now, it began with lies.

On Sept. 1, 1939, Adolf Hitler’s forces crossed the border into Poland. The German chancellor did so on the pretext that ethnic Germans were being persecuted. German operatives, disguised as Poles, even staged an attack on a German radio station, yelling anti-German threats into the microphone.

With that lie, the most devastating war in the history of the world began.

It is far too early to know how devastating this latest European war will turn out to be, how many will die, how many will be left homeless and stateless, how the repercussions will play out across the globe. There is, however, an ominous resonance in the lies from which it arose.

First, Russian leader Vladimir Putin claimed he had no intention of invading Ukraine, even as he massed troops on that country’s border. Then he announced Russia would recognize two separatist regions. Finally, shortly before Russian ordnance began to pound the smaller country, he announced a “military operation” aimed at “peacekeeping” and “denazification.”

Now, as then, lies. And now, as then, what strikes you is not just the utter brazenness of them, but the threadbare flimsiness of them. Hitler, granted, put some work into his lie, but at the end of the day, was anyone really expected to believe that Poland, which had more horses than tanks, had suddenly decided to attack its heavily armed neighbor?

Putin’s lies are even shoddier. He would have us believe his forces were needed to keep the peace in a nation that was at peace and to evict Nazis from a nation whose democratically elected president is a Jew. These are the kinds of lies you tell when you don’t care what anyone thinks. Their very shabbiness is an expression of contempt.

And the fact that Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, J.D. Vance, Steve Bannon and other denizens of the American right either lionize this liar — “Savvy,” Trump called him — or dismiss the suffering of his victims — “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine,” said Vance — is a clear, albeit superfluous indicator of just how broken our own country has become.

Like Putin, much of the right bears allegiance not to truth, much less to democracy, but rather, to the brutish power of the strongman to do as he pleases, unfettered by such niceties. That’s what they very nearly imposed in 2016. It is what they promise in 2024. And if you’re not frightened, you’re not paying attention.

This moment has been a long time coming. A little more than a quarter century ago, a House speaker named Newt Gingrich declared politics war and an upstart cable network called Fox declared facts optional. It was called a conservative resurgence, but it was actually the foundation stone for the kingdom of lies our country has become.

No wonder Trump likes Putin and claims the feeling is mutual. Each recognizes himself in the other.

What they recognize, what they have in common, is that transactional disdain for the truth and, more to the point, for anyone naive enough to expect it. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented her Russian counterpart a red “reset” button, Russia accepted it, but kept right on being a thugocracy. TV pundits kept assuring us Trump was going to “become presidential” any second now, but to his last day, he remained a willful child. Now families seek refuge in Ukrainian subways, while Trump cheers their tormentor on.

Let no one be surprised.

What begins in lies tends to end in carnage.