Day 204
Advising, assisting, accompanying
Unable to defeat Ukraine on the battlefield, Russia has declared war on the country’s infrastructure, blowing up thermal heating stations, dams and holding nuclear power plants hostage. Kyiv is unable to respond in kind because it lacks long-range precision strike missiles, like the PrSM.
Generals Zaluzhny and Zabrodsky pointed out a couple of weeks ago1 that it might be a good idea to nullify Russia’s center of gravity — the capability to strike strategic targets in Ukraine with impunity — by providing long-range precision strike systems, like ATACMS and PrSM, which could serve as a deterrent.
Deployment of same would probably require the Third A (Accompanying)2. But judging by the crowd at Tootsie Club over the weekend, the bonhomie, tits, etc, this process is already in full swing. Just ask Malcom.
David over at WAPO says Ukraine represents the same principles held dear by Americans. I can’t recall the last time he visited a courtroom in Kyiv, chatted up IDPs in a chow line or quizzed Ukraine’s top law enforcers about politically motivated persecutions, et cetera. There is no shoulder patch for the philosophy of freedom without an economy or a health care system. It’s not a JKLN remix. Just blood, gore, suffering, disease, bureacracy and slow, painful death.
In other news, Val finally followed my advice and filed a story from Belgorod. Next stops for NYT hacks should be Taganrog and Rostov. Maybe round out the tour in Chara.
Someone should whisper in Val’s ear that there are no laws in Ukraine about what language you can speak in public. I practice my Māori often in the capital without reprisals and experiment with Yiddish during Shabbat.
Oh, and The Operator.
I was going to write something about this Instagram story by the former consultant at the Kyiv Post, but decided to do a ngram on the word needy instead3.
A lot of people have asked about the watermelon from Mykolaiv. I’ll post a follow-up picture when we open it up.
2023 Military Campaign Prospects. The Ukrainian view (September 12, 2022)
Sovereign State. (September 9, 2022)