Still shaken from the sacking of Hoholiv due east of frontline Kyiv, our battle-weary war NBC chief foreign correspondent, doing his usual shabby Clarissa Ward impersonation, fantasizes that Lukianivska is located in the center of the capital.
It isn’t.
Amid all the death and sadness, scenes from Russia’s siege of Mariupol remain the most horrific, with an advisor to the city saying there could be around 20,000 civilian casualties. That’s about three times the number of people massacred in Srebnica.
Looking on the bright side, it’s obvious Russia will be defeated.
Peanut gallery Ukraine experts still failing to grasp that what’s transpiring isn’t a war against Ukraine, per se, but another bloody episode in Putin’s years-long crusade against liberalism, in the broadest sense of the word.
The United States is Advising and Assisting Ukraine in its war against Russia, the Det-A equivalent of suggesting the best place to cross the death strip in Cold War East Berlin. The decision on authorizing the third A - Accompanying - should be a couple weeks, maybe months, down the road.
The decision to deploy U.S. and/or NATO troops will likely depend on how many thousands more innocent Ukrainian civilians are blown to bits by errant Russian cruise missiles and indiscriminate shelling by multiple-rocket launchers. False-flag limited nuclear and chemical attacks might be triggers, but no one knows. So far, Biden and Jens have been mostly talking about what they’re not going to do.
Today we mark the 25th anniversary of being expelled from Belarus and the start of the Ukraine experiment via Warsaw, Budapest, Belgrade and Millwood.
And we celebrate Balush’s birthday. All day long. He turned nine.
Happy birthday, Balush!
Wednesday was quiet in Kyiv during the day. For the past week or so, the Russians have been lobbing in cruise missiles, usually early in the morning, hitting residential buildings in northern districts of the city.
Some positive developments:
Ukraine’s SBU State Security Service nabbed Onufriy the UOC (MP) priest for collaborating with Russian invaders. Caught him in his underpants.
Chechen fighters from the Sheikh Mansur Battalion began mop-up-orc ops in Kyiv suburbs.
Truth laboratory has denied reported rumors (by FT, of course) of a draft peace deal reached between Ze and Putin. (cf. Pastukhov)
Unshaven Ze addressed both houses of the U.S. Congress. I liked the last part of the performance.
The brother of a friend (and his wife) managed to escape Mariupol by car.
Successful tooth removal c/o Evhen.
And this just in from practicing London-based philosopher Vladimir Pastukhov. A quick xlation below.
There is one simple criterion for assessing the seriousness of the Kremlin's intentions in negotiations with Ukraine - preservation of the mystical "denazification" of Ukraine in the original package of demands. While it remains, nothing serious can be expected from these talks. The demand for "denazification" is a euphemism for surrender and renunciation of sovereignty. As for its meaning, "denazification" of Ukraine is an elusive "Injun Joe," whom only Putin has laid eyes on. In this regard, we can not but recall Putin’s epic “It takes one to know one” response [to Biden for calling him a killer].