Day 1021
Snow is better than no snow.
The misleading article appearing in NV the other day about faulty mortar shells produced domestically now looks even more misleading. Defective batches from the $600 million ammo order continue to be sent to front line units. No one is taking responsibility for this gigantic, life-threatening fuck-up, much less fixing it.
Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, Z adviser Oleksandr Kamyshin and Strategic Industry Minister Herman Smetanin are the prime suspects. Sabotage? Stupidity? Greed? All three? None of these jokers have any time in service, but they like dressing up in tac gear, emulating Z, who also has zero military service. Maybe sending them TDY to a mortar unit defending Pokrovsk from “meat attacks” in eastern Ukraine will incentivize them to fix the problem.
Some recent war footage from Kursk.
The priority of Z these days appears to be prolonging his time in office. He knows the walls are closing in on him. Our war machine is hobbled by problems the president himself created, chiefly the crappy mobilization system that leans heavily on recruiting older men lacking the wherewithal to evade the country’s wacko corrupt draft system.
The result: not enough manpower. The need for soldiers is now more acute than the need for weapons, even defective ones, according to Team USA.
Most of Z’s rapidly dwindling number of supporters inside the country are on the couch with their remote controls watching Telemarafon. On the one hand, they support de-occupying Russia-occupation areas and restoring control over the country’s 1991 borders, but, on the other, they oppose lowering the draft age and forced conscription, in general. They think Ukraine’s patriots — not them — should be the ones doing the fighting.
Flashback to Day 525.
Ukrainians today are divided now into those who fight and who actively help the army, those in the rear who try to make ends meet between anxiety attacks, those who live as if nothing has happened, and the people who take bribes, buy up real estate and think about prolonging their political careers.
Z says the need for weapons, even defective ones, is bigger than the need for soldiers. For months, he has been complaining about deliveries. The delays, he says, have prevented Ukraine from creating from 10 to 14 new brigades. The number keeps changing.
Another reason for the lack of battlefield success, according to the president, is Ukraine not being invited to join NATO1.
NATO is not going to invite Ukraine to join. An invitation would require the consent of all 32 NATO member states. The more Z beats this dead horse, instead of fixing the military manpower problem, the less western leaders will take him seriously. About anything.
“As for the NATO invitation, for example, it is difficult to talk to President Trump because he is not yet in the White House. He doesn't have all these legal rights. And I'm going to call President Biden in the near future, if he has the opportunity to talk to me, and raise the issue of the NATO invitation.” — Z
Its either more manpower or autonomous AI drones.