Horror on the Ukraine border
Cluster bombs wipe out hundreds of troops in a death trap
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In peace,
Steve
They took cover in a grove of trees. But it was a trap.
News of a bloody battle along the border of Ukraine and Russia trickled out last week, but went largely unreported by the media.
An article by Forbes journalist David Axe gives us a rare look at the ferocity of fighting between the two countries.
Here’s what happened:
On Thursday, January 23 a column of Russian troops in military vehicles launched an attack on Ukrainian forces who were hunkered down in trenches and bunkers in Russia’s Kursk region (which I wrote about last summer).
The Russians became stuck in a choke point and the Ukrainians launched a devastating counterattack using drones, missiles and artillery fire, destroying scores of vehicles. But a nearby grove of trees was left intentionally unscathed.
The surviving Russian troops abandoned their vehicles in a panic to take cover among the trees to regroup, unaware the Ukrainians had lured them into a kill zone.
The Ukrainians fired a barrage of U.S.-supplied HIMARS missiles armed with devastating cluster bombs to carpet bomb the trees where the Russians were taking cover. Exact figures are unknown, but reports estimate that “hundreds” of Russians were killed in a bloodbath.
“The strike destroyed a significant part of the enemy’s manpower, and our groups returned to complete the clearing of the territory,” the Ukrainian 225th Assault Battalion reported coldly.
Cluster bombs controversy
As you may recall from earlier PeaceQuest article, it was very controversial when the U.S. Biden Administration authorized cluster bombs to be sent to Ukraine in 2023, bombs that are banned by many countries.
At the time Prime Minister Trudeau said cluster bombs “should never be used,” but he had little power to prevent the transfer.
“A single cluster bomb typically contains hundreds of explosive sub-munitions designed to blanket a large area,” said former disarmament negotiator Earl Turcotte. “They are among the most indiscriminate weapons ever conceived – indeed, the polar opposite of a precision weapon.”
“Meat assaults”
To be clear, neither side of the conflict is above reproach and the Russian side would not have hesitated to attack had the roles been reversed.
Some observers, however, suggest that the Russian death toll has been so much higher than Ukraine’s because of their willingness to send waves of soldiers against dug-in forces in so-called “meat assaults.”
Explainer video by pro-Ukraine YouTuber explains what happened, according to reports
Prospects for peace
U.S. President Trump is wrong about many things, but he’s not wrong about the terrible death toll in the Russian-Ukraine war, and the need to end the killing.
Ukraine says more than 40,000 of its soldiers have been killed across the sprawling 1,000-kilometre front line, while U.S. officials estimate that the Russian military has lost more than 100,000 of its troops in battle, due to its willingness to keep sending waves of men directly into the line of fire.
Clearly, Trump’s boast to end the war in 24 hours after becoming president has not come to pass, as many PeaceQuest readers predicted. Putin rejected the incoming President’s peace plan, but now Trump’s representative on the war suggests that a solution will be found within “100 days.”
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Last week’s poll results
Last week we looked at the terrible devastation of Gaza by Israeli bombings, and asked if Canada should play a major role in rebuilding Gaza, including funding. Two out of three respondents want Canada to play a roll in rebuilding Gaza (67%), with the third out of three saying they didn’t know or were unsure (27%).
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Thank you for everything you do for peace,
Steve
Things are too chaotic to predict about these days. We'd want many different contingency preparations.
"I am an old man, and I have seen many troubles, most of which never happened."
- Mark Twain