Day 716

Raise your weapon

Photo c/o abdymok

This morning an old white Taurus sedan attempted unsuccessfully to climb the steep little hill on Hospitalna Street leading to the entrance to Kyiv Fortress and Ukraine’s Military Medical Commission Headquarters. The entrance gates to the facility open at 7:00 sharp. About three dozen soldiers stood waiting near the entrance watching the car spin its wheels and slip down the incline, over and over again. They were unable to help because many were missing arms and legs.

The scene was the perfect metaphor for the predicament we find ourself today, 3,638 days after Russia first invaded Ukraine.

As of this writing, February 24, 2022 was 715 days ago, when we wrote:

During the last several months I’ve read many probabilistic analyses of the possibility that Russia intends to further invade Ukraine. Their authors conclude that it is not only possible, but rather likely this could occur in the coming weeks.

Their arguments, some of them rolled out on Twitter, have shaken European leaders, have led the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv to start thinking about relocation to Lviv and forced the international community to worry about the doorman with nukes and no friends¹.

Z then told us not to worry. His PR team at the Office of the President was arguing with foreign well-wishers about meaning of imminent versus inevitable². Today, the same greasy clowns want us to differentiate between stagnation and stalemate³.

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Yesterday, the president sacked the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces.

He did not explain why.

According to Z, the first task of the new commander-in-chief is to present a comprehensive plan for the defense of Ukraine for 2024. This task, of course, is ridiculous, because such a plan cannot be made until Ukraine’s elected officials, starting with Z, figure out how many men they can recruit to replenish the depleted ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and what weapons they will have to fight with.

Another task is to invent a system for rotating troops to and from the zero line. This also is ridiculous, because battle units cannot be replenished or rotated until Z signs into law new measures on forced conscription.

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Two years ago, Putin held three cards against Ukraine: The first was Russian military might. That card was defeated. The second was dependence on Russian energy. That card failed. The third was Putin's hold on Donald Trump, and through Trump, the US Republican Party. That card is working⁴.

David’s tweet reminds me of what we wrote on February 14, 2022⁵.

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Today’s song of the day: Raise Your Weapon

1. 'It's Your Duty, My Beauty.' The Doorman with Nukes and No Friends (February 9, 2022)

2. Lost in Translation. Imminent Inevitability in Ukraine's Underpants (February 4, 2022)

3. В інтерв'ю Президента Володимира Зеленського італійському телеканалу RAI йшлося не про патову ситуацію на фронті, а про стагнацію (Укринформ, February 5, 2024)

4. David Frum (Twitter, February 8, 2024)

5. To Kill a Dragon. The wishy-washy West. What else is the Kremlin counting on? (February 22, 2022)