Day 481
Update from June 19, 2023:
Countries with kangaroo courts are not eligible for automatic NATO membership. The answer to the question, “Why can’t Ukraine join the alliance?” is five syllables long: Roman Chervinsky.
Ukraine’s “allies,” including Team USA, have been flooding the country with cruddy equipment, according to a report published on June 19 by The New York Times1.
The unidentified “two people” could be regulars at Tootsie Club, the “best night club in Kyiv” we never tire of writing about. It’s the home of funny arms deals.
In other news, the so-called counteroffensive has so far been much less impressive than General David Petraeus predicted it would be at the start of June. (Yes, the same Petraeus who had a Lara Logan’s picture on his wall in Iraq).
By June 14, David had changed his tune (but only for paying subscribers to the Cipher Brief). Maybe that’s because Russia on June 6 blew up the Kakhovka Hyrdroelectric Power Plant/Dam, commiting an act of ecocide? Stefan gives all the gory details about how Ukrainian forces are attempting to cut the pink blog in two on his Substack.
Deepstate’s map of the mess shows some progress in the Zaporizhia direction, but not much. Same goes for fighting around Avdiivka and Bakhmut.
Maybe Ukrainian forces will bust through the lines of fortifications and lay siege to Berdiansk and Mariupol before the summer ends. Maybe not.
The news I’ve been following most closely all day, though, are court proceedings involving Roman Chervinsky. Remember him2?
In Rush to Arm Ukraine, Weapons Are Bought but Not Delivered, or Too Broken to Use. Some of the weapons sent to Ukraine by other countries have been unusable, and hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts paid up front have yet to be fulfilled (The New York Times, June 19, 2023)