Strategy&Future

Jacek Bartosiak talks to Gen. (ret.) Ben Hodges on war in Ukraine as of 26 April 2022.

At the beginning of the 21st century, two main geopolitical visions were formed in the European Union.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has predictably fixed a substantial proportion of the Russian Armed Forces. Russian forces are not fighting as battalion tactical groups (BTGs), but this remains the manner in which both the Russians [1] and the Ukrainians [2] are administratively assigning troop movements. As such, this overview will use this denominator as well, though again the evidence from the war suggests that the primary unit of tactical engagement will not be the BTG per se.

Jacek Bartosiak talks to Phillip Karber on the war in

In addition to Putin’s two declared goals in Ukraine, “denazification” and “demilitarisation,” we should think about adding a third, which is to deprive the country of access to any source of traditional energy like coal, hydro, thermal, or nuclear power stations, most of which are stationed in Eastern and Central Ukraine. A special component of Moscow’s strategy appears to be to gain control over the nuclear plants, uranium deposits, and to destroy the infrastructure enabling Ukraine to restore nuclear weapons.

Ukrainian political and historical thinking was dominated before 2014 by two main intellectual groups. The first worked under the political, social, and ideological edifice that Ukraine is a European nation. The second targeted the issues of the national history of the Ukrainians as a nation and as a nation that fought against Russian aggression throughout the centuries.

On the night of February 23rd to 24th, 2022, everything seemed to be going as Putin had planned. At the same time, the course of events was the nightmare of Halford Mackinder’s worst dreams. Mackinder was the Nestor of world geopolitics, a faithful son of the sea of Albion (then a sea hegemon) and (more than 100 years ago) the creator of the most famous geopolitical maxim: “Whoever rules East Europe commands the Heartland; whoever rules the Heartland commands the World-Island; whoever rules the World-Island commands the World.” To speak in the language of the 21st century, whoever controls Eurasia has the greatest agency over the rules on which the world operates and sets the rules for key strategic flows between its regions and exchanges between states.

Ukraine is resisting Russian aggression. Ukraine and the Ukrainian people have lost their territories, infrastructure, military material but it still holds its soul, pride, and zealously resists. It is visible from all levels of Ukrainian society, from the President of Ukraine, the Government of Ukraine and many MPs, the governors of the Ukrainian regions that are in place and present in their positions despite the massive attacks and bombardments.

Jacek Bartosiak and Phillip Karber talk about war in Ukraine as of 4 March 2022.

On Sunday 27th February (the day before the meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian negotiating teams), President Vladimir Putin announced that the nuclear forces of the Russian Federation would be under increased readiness. Let’s add that Putin did not specify whether it is a strategic or a non-strategic force.

Jacek Bartosiak and Nicholas Myers discuss the war in Ukraine, situation as of morning 27 Feb 2022.

Jacek Bartosiak and Nicholas Myers discuss the operational and tactical details of the war in Ukraine, as of afternoon 25 Feb 2022.