Lovely sunset on the first day of the year.
Yesterday morning a drone creamed a residential flat a stone’s throw away from the President’s Office in downtown Kyiv, according to The New York Times.
[…] Wreckage from one drone fell on a residential building only a few minutes from the Presidential Office, partly destroying the residential building’s top two floors and causing a fire, according to Ukrainian emergency services. Two people were killed and seven others were wounded across the city, local officials said1.
Hours earlier, in his New Year’s speech, Z faced northeast, looking in the same direction as the Rodina Mat’ statue, with his stern face staring straight ahead, symbolizing vigilance and defense2.
The American flag was superimposed on Rodina Mat’ during bits of his overly-produced 20-minute pep talk.
The president has been telling us for months that before new military brigades can be created and deployed Ukraine’s partners must provide pledged equipment and training.
France was supposed to outfit and train up the Anna Kyivska 155th Mechanized Brigade, but something went terribly wrong.
In December, the State Bureau of Investigation opened a criminal case into the circumstances of the formation of the brigade, which entered the battle near Pokrovsk. The case is under the control of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Z, Defense Minister Umerov and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky. One of the leaders responsible for the formation of the brigade died of a heart attack, and the brigade commander was dismissed immediately after the brigade entered the battle. Before the brigade fired the first shot, 1,700 servicemen left it voluntarily [went AWOL]. SBI investigators were tasked with finding the culprits, and I conducted an investigation, obtained a significant amount of testimony and materials to show the public what the formation of new brigades […] from scratch, without the presence of command personnel, technical specialists, weapons, and drones leads to. This is indeed a crime, but it is not a crime of soldiers and officers – but a crime of the leaders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Headquarters, the Ministry of Defense, and the General Staff, who continue to waste lives and state funds on new projects, instead of strengthening experienced and combat-ready brigades. And they are trying to shirk responsibility by shifting it from the hands of the SBI to military officers in a hopeless situation who have to answer for a political project poorly organized by the top leadership. — Yuriy Butusov (Facebook)
Official PR was up to snuff, kind of, until it wasn’t. The mess is now in the western press. We warned you about noticeably renewed vigor on Day 752.
Above is a map of Russia’s missile attack on December 31, 2024.
Oh, look! Lex is in town to chat up Z, Dmytro Gordon-style. And he is already whining that people here don’t like him.
I’ll try to scare the shit out of him if our paths cross, physically, or we can chat about the demise of the 155th Mechanized Brigade, or discuss his ridiculous “push for peace” (as if Ukraine wasn’t being attacked by Russia).
Zelensky Expresses Hope for 2025, but Russia Presses On With Attacks. In his New Year’s address, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine urged continued U.S. support (The New York Times, January 1, 2025)