It’s becoming more likely that Xi will get the parts of Russia he has had his eye on.
Most likely for financial compensation…but maybe something stronger once Russia’s military has been drained.
Xi won’t incur the wrath of the West for doing so, unlike expansion into Taiwan.
Update on Russian military operations in Ukraine for October 15, 2022
- Elon Musk placed temporarily on notorious Ukrainian kill list;
- US aid to Ukraine continues to dwindle;
- NATO air defense project spans years and unlikely to help Ukraine in short-term;
- Ukraine's offensives are increasingly depleted quickening arrival at inflection point when irreversible Russian advances begin;
“MSM Confirms Ukraine Crisis in Bakhmut; Ukraine Kherson Defeat; Putin Makes Hint of End of Ukraine”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9WZYq1ebus
Needless to say, that massive missile strikes by Russia continue all over 404 and there are reports of massive explosions and power outages in Nikolaev and other places, plus Kiev remains to be targeted. And, as was expected, all VSU attempts to perform "offensives" have been repelled with massive losses for VSU, including at Kremennaya and Svatovo (in Russian), but NATO--let's drop the pretense here--will try to throw as much cannon fodder at Russian formations as possible because they need something, like "breakthrough" in some sectors, because the Midterms are coming and Russians amassing troops for obvious things. Time is running out.
So, there are signs that the realization of grim reality begins to descend on Washington D.C.
I was on record for years--pardon me for my pleasure in reminding everyone--that NATO cannot fight a real war with the peer. Russia is not just the peer, Russia fields combat capabilities many of which are simply non-existent anywhere in NATO (US, of course, included). This becomes increasingly obvious both through operational and strategic incompetence of NATO planners and through admissions of such nature as by Austin or, if you read further, by:
Mark Cancian is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic & International Studies who spent seven years working on DOD procurement issues for the Office of Management and Budget. His assessment based on inventory levels, industrial capacity, and information from the Biden administration is that the U.S. has "limited" supplies of HIMARs, Javelins, Stingers and M-777 Howitzers. "There are some areas where we’re basically at the bottom of the barrel," he told Fox News Digital. In some cases, this means the U.S. will likely start meeting Ukraine’s request for weaponry by sending over lower-end substitutions, such as lighter Howitzers that are serviceable but not what Ukraine is after. In other cases, the U.S. may not have much to give – Cancian said that while there is talk of the U.S. providing more air defense equipment, there is not much the U.S. can give in that area. Cancian said he reads Austin comments as a sign that the days of the U.S. giving Ukraine its best stuff are gone.
###
But this fast review may give you some glimpse into the "thinking" by NATO planners who need something, anything to show for their failed "offensives" and to somehow spin (to cover up, that is) an atrocious record of the US-made weaponry (plus from other lapdogs) in real combat conditions. There will be a talk about well documented utter failure of the US AGM-88 HARM missiles against Russian Air Defense, but we need to be patient and wait for the conclusion of the active part of SMO and with anti-terrorist operations by FSB and MVD coming at the forefront of this war. In the end, terrorism is the only type of war combined West excels at.