Corn Flakes for Breakfast

Trump has appointed General Kellogg as his envoy to Ukraine. Kellogg is a Trump loyalist who has put his name to a CASI peace proposal for Ukraine whose key features include a frozen conflict, a 10 year moratorium on the question of Ukraine’s membership of NATO, and a continuing flow of Western arms.

On the basis of what we know, none of these conditions is acceptable to Russia.

Meantime, European NATO is dizzying itself with bellicose noises about beefing up its military expenditure at the expense of civic wellbeing, invading Belarus, making more weapons and sending 1000 troops to Ukraine.

These ambitions for a world in which Europe is only partly a US puppet in the name of defending Europe against a contrived monster fantasy of Russia that up until now has indeed been a fantasy but one that Europe - or Ursula von der Leyden’s centralized aryan fiefdom version of it - seems so morbidly to desire.

Self-fulfilling prophecies.

Putin’s speech to the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, two days ago provides a reality check that Ursula and her colleagues can be depended upon to dismiss.

Putin argues that the Russian analogues of Western weapon systems are superior and a great deal more voluminous.

The mobile land-launched Oreshnik is unique; even without explosive warheads the 4000 degree heat and Mach 10 speed (3 kms a second) pulverizes its target to great depth just on the basis of impact alone. Putin referred to its dozens of independently targeted warheads.

Following Putin’s indications we should soon expect another Oreshnik attack, this one with an explosive warhead, on a target in Ukraine. Putin says that the simultaneous firing of several Oreshniks would have destructive impact comparable to a nuclear weapon. Without the radiation.

Putin has promised that for every Western attack on Russian targets in Russia there will be a Russian response. The West seems unable to recognize ongoing Russian destruction of Ukraine as a response to Western aggressions.

For several days Russia has been striking Ukrainian military and energy assets with hundreds of missiles of all classes and drones. At least one million Ukrainians were without power yesterday and Dima reports today that there may be insufficient power to feed Ukraine’s remaining operable nuclear power plants, knocking power off from even larger swathes of the country.

Putin contrasted US ATACMS and its three modified versions. and UK Storm Shadows, with the nearest Russian equivalent, the Islander missile and its modified versions. These are near equivalent in terms of TNT, but the range of the Iskander is significantly greater. The Iskander is at least the equivalent of the planned US update of the ATACMS namely, the PRSM.

As for air-launched Storm Shadows, Scalps and Tauruses these have a maximum range of 650 kilometers (Taurus) whereas the Russian KH101, also air-launched, has comparable explosive power but a range of over 1000 kilometers. US PRSMs and JASMS are inferior. The KH101 is probably the equivalent of the US Tomahawk in development.

Putin says that Russia knows all about the Western weapons in Ukraine, how many there are and where they are and how many more are planned. In short, Russia claims to an intimacy of intelligence which should be very worrying to a Western intelligence system that Doctorow says has been asleep for 14 years.

Putin points out that Russian missile production is ten times greater than the total produced by the entirety of NATO, and that the Russian production will increase 25-30% in 2025. According to Mercouris yesterday, US stopped production of ATACMS in the 2000s; the British rate of Storm Shadow production is very low; and Germany has stopped production of Taurus.

Adding to Russia’s arsenal one must acknowledge the sea-launched Kalibr; the hypersonic Kinzhal, which is fired by MiG 31s; the ship-launched hypersonic Zircon. A new hypersonic missile is being developed for Suhoi57s that will be carried in such a way that it will not compromise its stealth capacity.

For another day we need to talk about submarine launched nukes.