April 5, 2024 (EIRNS)—When Ukraine crashed an unmanned aircraft into Russia’s Shehad drone production plant in Yelabuga, Tatarstan, on April 2, the neocon Hudson Institute wanted the world to know that only a few weeks before, one of their team had recommended Ukraine strike precisely that plant.
Hudson Senior Fellow Can Kasapoğlu publishes a regular “Ukraine Military Situation” report. His policy memos have included analyzing “the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ military courses of action for disabling the Kerch Bridge in occupied Crimea.” In his March 13 report, he addressed “The Military Necessity of Exploring Ukraine’s Unconventional Options,” given that Russia has the upper hand on the battlefield (to put it mildly).
Kasapoğlu recommended three “unconventional” options: (1) “Targeting the Joint Russia-Iran Shahed Drone Plant and Other Military-Industrial Facilities inside Russia”; (2) “Temporarily Seizing Russian Territory”; and (3) “A Ukrainian Military Campaign in Transnistria.” Each option is madder than the one before.
Option one required Ukraine to develop the capacity to hit targets deeper inside Russia than its then-maximum range of 620 miles, since the Shahed plant in Yelabuga, Tatarstan, lies 900 miles from the Russia-Ukrainian border, by Kasapoğlu’s calculation. Three weeks later, Ukraine had somehow developed the capability to hit the plant, even if it did little damage on the first try.
Option two is underway with the paramilitary incursions into Belgorod, but these have been “at best probing efforts.” Larger scale operations are in order, “potentially using additional fire-support elements to temporarily seize and control terrain,” Kasapoğlu urges, suggesting Ukraine “employ other battle-hardened groups more effectively, such as the Georgian Legion … as well as several Chechen battalions that would gladly take part” in carrying out such raids.
Kasapoğlu’s third, blithe proposal is for “Ukrainian troops conducting systemic incursions into Transnistria, augmented by targeted drone strikes” to expel the Russian military’s 1,500-strong force from Transnistria. He admitted this “bold move … comes with risks”—!
Such brazen “advice” from a think-tank the Russians know full well is run by Anglo-American intelligence, is strategic madness. The Hudson Institute is home to the CIA’s Mike “lie, cheat & steal” Pompeo, and the likes of Luke Coffey, proud of being the first non-U.K. citizen ever appointed special advisor to a British Defence Minister (nominally, he is an American) and being close buddies with the head of the Ukraine-based neo-Nazi Georgian Legion, Mamuka Mamulashvili. For his part, Kasapoğlu’s prior career included stints at the NATO Defense College in Italy, NATO’s Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence in Estonia, and Zbigniew Brzezinski’s long-time homebase, the CIA-founded Jamestown Foundation.
Hudson and Jamestown generally swap spit. The two neocon bastions jointly run the so-called Free Nations of Post-Russia Forum, a front group established by U.S. and British intelligence in 2022 to coordinate yet-another attempt to build up separatist jihadi movements to fragment Russia from within. These “Post-Russia” separatist jihadis next meet publicly in Washington, D.C. on April 16—at the Jamestown Foundation.
