Day 715

Photo c/o abdymok

It is unsettling at best to see someone once considered a hero descend into madness, yet curiously unsatisfying to see the product of his idiocy cleanly and elegantly blown to smithereens. Maybe because I’m in Kyiv.

The weeks-long tragicomic dismissal of Ukraine’s commander-in-chief has been dictated by purely political, indeed very delicate, considerations. That’s unfortunate. Z appears less concerned with the reaction of society to his decision to sack a top general than with transitioning the entire country to total war.

The kurfuffle is less a conflict between Z and the military’s top brass than a tug-of-war in Z’s own mind. Pluracy in one head is called schizophrenia. The new law on forced military conscription is an excuse, not the reason for the president’s reticence to put all the country’s eligibility male adults on full wartime footing.

Front-line Ukrainian infantry units report acute shortage of soldiers (The Washington Post, February 8, 2024)

According to today’s The Washington Post,

The messaging [about mobilization] has been confused, with Z and [Commander-in-Chief Valery] Zaluzhny contradicting each other publicly and creating an appearance of infighting.

Actually, no. It has only been confused by Z and journalists employed at The Washington Post and Ukraine’s Telemarafon.

Just listen to what Zaluzhny said a month ago.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is uninterested in politics. It has consistently, over the course of the last two (2) years, told Ukraine’s elected politicians, including Z, requirements for equipment, ammunition and personnel. These classified requests, until recently, have apparently not been approved or ignored or unfulfilled.

Adding insult to injury was Z’s popular decision to In August 2023 to fire the heads of all of Ukraine’s regional military recruitment offices. That, er, was a big mistake.

"During the full-scale war, Z began to form his own understanding of what should happen on the battlefield, how the troops should drive the Russians back, where to attack, how to attack, what to attack with, how to use the limited resources that the armed forces had at one stage or another. These priorities did not always coincide with the plans and strategies of the generals."

The above recipe for military disaster was provided by Simon interviewed recently by Ukrainska Pravda.

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These policemen in Dnipro don’t want to be transferred to the zero line.

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On the American jacket, MAGA maggots and the neverending soap opera in the US Congress involving the supplemental bill providing $60 billion of additional assistance to Ukraine. Another vote in the Senate is scheduled today, but it remains unclear whether the House will decide to vote on the measure.

Putin counted on Ukraine’s silly, unreliable partners when he first invaded ten years ago. He counted on them two years ago and still counts on them today.