The world is on “fire!”

The more Ukraine is repealing Russian troops advancing to the capital city and reclaiming areas formerly occupied by Russia in the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war, the more Russia becomes aggressive by changing its military strategy in claiming other areas in the eastern and northern part of the country.

The “fire” continues to gain momentum and almost everybody now is involved, directly or indirectly, in the already global war between Ukraine and Russia.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin now is like a desperate wounded animal doing more destructions as he continues to face defeats and humiliations from Ukraine, a supposedly weaker opponent.

Knowing Putin, however, he doesn’t know the meaning of “defeat” or “withdrawal” and is operating on the concept “the end justifies the means” so, expect more destructions to happen.

Being an advanced and powerful nation, Russia has a lot of resources to spare in order to carry out a prolonged war, which he believes Ukraine don’t have (unless of course the whole world will actively be at war with Russia).

Russia is adopting the withdraw-advance military tactics appropriately leveled as “one step backward, two steps forward” doctrine and… it is working in its favor.

Initially, Ukraine thought they already won the war, but Russia’s withdrawal to occupy Kyiv, the capital city, was just a ploy for a more aggressive offensive in the other side of the country in order to consummate Putin’s selfish ambition to demolish the Ukrainians.

This was a change of military strategy to prevail and gain advantage in the already 2-month-old-war.

Because of this, somebody suggested that the US must stop supplying sophisticated military ammunitions to Ukraine and stop its financial support in order to mitigate the war and perhaps silence Putin.

Otherwise, Putin said, the US will suffer major consequences.

This must be a good idea, but assuming the US will agree and Putin will agree, is there a guarantee that the latter will keep his word? In so many instances, Putin said one thing and do another thing… he is not being true to his word, and he is not following international laws, conventions, protocols, and the articles of war if only to satisfy what he wants to accomplish.

He has been violating many war crimes in the process which the Ukrainian government is documenting to support their claim against Putin in the international court of justice.

His latest violation was targeting innocent lives – children, civilians, religious, day cares, senior living, hospitals, and the like! The humanitarian concept during the war is gone! Gone in thin air! Putin disrespected it!

Putin was a virtual unknown, a mere Russian Intelligence Officer then, but he became known for his ability to take things done. His public approval went up when he launched a well-organized operation against secessionists rebels in Chechnya.

On December 21, 1999, then Russian President Boris Yeltzin unexpectedly announced his resignation and made Putin as acting president who, until the present has prevailed to perpetuate his power.

He orchestrated the annexation of Crimea in 2014, a Ukrainian autonomous republic whose population is predominantly ethnic Russians. On March 16, after Russia’s paramilitary troops effectively taken control of Crimea, residents voted to join Russia and on March 21, Putin signed a legislation that formalized the Russian annexation of Crimea.

Then Ukraine president Viktor Yanukovych fled to Russia refusing to recognize the interim government in Kyiv as legitimate.

So, Putin continue to exercise his power and shifted the Ukraine-Russian battle in the Donbas area with renewed military offensive and heavy artillery.

The offensive is now led by the cruel and ruthless Russian general who led the battle in Syria.

He was appointed by Putin lately to lead the overall offensive against Ukraine and implement a general plan to annihilate the country.

Ukraine president Vlodomir Zelensky is not giving up and is standing tall defending his country from Russian troops.

More supports are coming in to augment Ukraine’s military capabilities with the US sending the latest financial aid to purchase sophisticated military gadgets to confront the advancing Russian troops.

According to a npr special report, Ukrainians had been expecting a renewed Russian offensive in the eastern region known as the Donbas, and now Ukraine’s president says it’s underway.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his evening address that Russian forces have begun their new offensive against cities in the east and south, adding that a “substantial part” of the Russian army is now taking part in the military operation.

“Today we can already say that Russian armed forces have begun the assault on the Donbas, which it has been preparing for,” Zelenskyy said.

The Donbas region in eastern Ukraine along the border with Russia has long been of interest to the Kremlin.

It is a strategic area for them, both for military and economic development.

In 2014, after anti-government protests broke out across Ukraine, two breakaway regions in Donbas formed under the control of Russian-backed separatists: the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic.

Those two regions comprised parts of the larger Luhansk and Donetsk provinces that make up the Donbas.

Russia denied sending any forces into Donbas to bolster the insurgency in the intervening years, but that claim is disputed.

Just before the invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin officially recognized the separatist republics, where forces loyal to the Kremlin had been in an intense standoff with the Ukrainian military.

The unrest in Donbas was used by Putin as a pretext for the wider invasion of the country, saying without any evidence that he was protecting people in the region from genocide by the Ukrainian government.

Meanwhile, a large portion of the Ukrainian army is already in place, and will soon be getting a lot heavier weaponry from the U.S. and NATO in the form of artillery, helicopters, drones and arored vehicles.

Russian rockets and artillery shells fell on multiple Ukrainian cities Tuesday, with Ukrainian media reporting explosions and air raid sirens across hundreds of miles.

Strikes hit targets in the far west of Ukraine, but most reports of attacks came from the eastern part of the country, including in the second-largest city of Kharkiv.

Russian troops, in the new assault, will likely try to box in the Ukrainians, but it’s unclear whether they have enough combat power and competence to do so in the days and weeks ahead.

In the southeastern port city of Mariupol, for example, Russian troops have sieged, bombarded and starved the city but failed to take control of it, due in part to missteps by Russian forces and their commanders.

Urban warfare favors the defenders and Russia’s destruction of the city has given Ukrainian fighters even more advantages, according to the intelligence firm Janes.

Ukrainians also have “the will to fight,” retired U.S. Army officer John Spencer said, while the Russians do not.

A senior U.S. defense official said “The Russians have about 75% of their combat power from the start of the invasion.

The Russian military outnumbers Ukrainian forces, but the Ukrainians “still have a lot of combat power” and are getting “resupplied every single day,” the official added.

Mariupol is a key port, so it is valuable and it would also help the Russians build a land bridge from Russia along the coast to Crimea, which it annexed in 2014.

The Pentagon says:” If Mariupol were to fall most of the Russian troops there would head north to the Donbas region for a major battle.”

Let’s stop the “fire” spreading further!

(ELPIDIO R. ESTIOKO was a veteran journalist in the Philippines and a multi-awarded journalist here in the US.

For feedbacks, comments… please email the author at estiokoelpidio@gmail.com.)