“The infiltration attempt in Bryansk region can be considered an intelligence operation on the part of NATO, since the saboteurs who took part in it came from alliance countries,” political scientist and Russia expert Dr. Abbas Hbeish told Sputnik, commenting on the dramatic events in Bryansk region this week.
“From the very start of the special military operation, Russia said that it was fighting not with Ukraine, but with the West,” Hbeish said, referencing senior Russian officials’ characterization of the conflict as a NATO proxy war.
The observer does not rule out that the infiltrators’ goal “was to prepare the ground for a further, larger-scale attempt, including by NATO forces, to penetrate this Russian region” amid the increasingly dire political and military situation of the bloc’s clients in Kiev.
“Russia has every opportunity to resist Western provocations, fully understanding who is waging war against it in Ukraine and why. It is no longer a secret that mercenaries of all stripes are present in Ukraine, and that military decisions, both tactical and strategic, belong to NATO,” Hbeish stressed.
Lebanese international affairs expert Riyadh Najm concurs with Hbeish’s assessment, saying there’s no doubt “that what is happening in Ukraine is a NATO war against Russia.”
“The alliance is financing this war, training the Ukrainian army, providing it with various modern weapons and teaching them how to use them,” Najm told Sputnik.
Najm characterized the Bryansk provocation as a sign of NATO’s growing desperation amid their inability to achieve their goals, “forcing them to resort to new methods in their confrontation with Moscow, including using mercenaries and saboteurs.”
At the same time, the observer said, “it is the Ukrainian people who are paying for this war, and in the future will be mired in debt, while the West will receive Ukraine’s property and assets in exchange for its military and financial support.”
“The West, not just now, when American, Polish and French nationals are carrying out sabotage operations on Russian soil, but from the time when it was only providing financial and military support to Ukraine, has been one of the parties to the conflict in Ukraine,” Iranian international affairs expert Somayeh Mandegar told Sputnik.
“As the war drags on, the Ukrainian army’s combat capability has weakened, and unprofessional and poorly trained troops have found themselves on the battlefield, while foreign mercs searching for a payday have been caught up in the war for the Ukrainians, who themselves have become playthings of the United States,” Mandegar said.