The liberation stage (Phase 31) of the war will be, er, stalled, at least for the next couple of months, probably until 2025. That’s the gist of Commander in Chief Zaluzhny’s memo to the world released one day after Halloween.
Some 640 words in the 9-page essay published by The Economist are dedicated to beefing up Ukraine’s SIGINT capabilities, which indeed suck. Team USA hasn’t shared cutting-edge technology to help Ukraine detect very weak side-loop signals at great distances because there are too many snitches.
This is the second memo to the world authored by Zaluzhny. The first, titled “2023 Military Campaign Prospects,” talked about Schwerpunkt23.
Several readers have asked me about Simon’s “dark” portrait of Z appearing in Time Magazine. I am loathe to comment other than to share two observations.
"I've always considered writing the most hateful kind of work. I suspect it's a bit like fucking, which is only fun for amateurs. Old whores don't do much giggling4 — Hunter S. Thomphson
A corrollary of this observation, one (I think falsely) attributed to George Soros, is, “Journalists are sometimes like prostitutes. It is often difficult to tell the difference between the amateurs and the professionals.”
Ukraine is famous for its jornoism, especially dispatches from foreign flaks. Lifting the veil on their war-adjacent bullshit attracted me to this mess in the first place5.
2023 Military Campaign Prospects. The Ukrainian view (September 12, 2022)
Hunter S Thompson: in his own words. A selection of the best-remembered quotes from the master of the one-liner (The Guardian, February 21, 2005)
This is (still) 'ukraine@war.' Lifting the curtain on war-adjacent bullshit (January 1, 2023)