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Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.

If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / War for Ukraine Day 273: Russia Pounds Civilian Targets and Civilian Structure in Ukraine Again

War for Ukraine Day 273: Russia Pounds Civilian Targets and Civilian Structure in Ukraine Again

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The Russians opened up and bombarded Ukrainian civilians and civilian infrastructure again today.

More on this after the jump.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address to the UN Security Council from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump:

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen!

We expect a strong reaction from the world to today’s Russian terror. We expect the reaction of partners. We expect the reaction of friends – not just observers. We expect the reaction of all those who really recognize the UN Charter.

We are doing everything possible. Ukraine presented the Peace Formula. The world heard it.

10 points – how to restore the full power of the UN Charter violated by Russia, and guarantee the safety of Ukraine, the safety of Europe and all the peoples of the planet who suffer from the consequences of Russian aggression.

In response to our Peace Formula, Russia is following the steps of its formula of terror.

The very next day after I proposed the Ukrainian Peace Formula at the G19 summit in Indonesia, we received ten Russian missiles per each point of the Peace Formula.

The strikes continued.

We liberated Kherson – and as soon as the Russian army fled from there, it began to methodically destroy this city. Strikes every day.

This night – another missile attack on the Zaporizhzhia region, on the hospital – on the buildings where the maternity ward was located. Russian terrorists took the life of a baby – the child was 2 days old when it was killed by a Russian missile!

And then again – dead, dead, dozens of wounded. In the city of Vyshhorod this afternoon, a residential building was hit, 35 people were injured, 4 were killed.

This is one of the main points of the Russian formula of terror – missiles.

Only today – almost 70 missiles. Against our energy infrastructure.

Unfortunately, a residential building was also hit.

Hospitals, schools, transport, residential areas – everything was affected.

Russian terror led to a blackout – and not only in Ukraine. The light also went out in neighboring Moldova.

But the understanding of what Russia wants to achieve with such strikes should not disappear anywhere in the world.

Energy terror is an analogue of the use of weapons of mass destruction.

When the temperature is below zero outside, and tens of millions of people are left without electricity, heat and water as a result of Russian missiles hitting energy facilities, this is an obvious crime against humanity.

Ladies and Gentlemen!

Among you are representatives of a state that offers nothing to the world except terror, destabilization and disinformation. Any Russian formulas do not provide for anything else.

And that’s why I emphasize once again – it’s time to support the Ukrainian Peace Formula!

There must be no opportunity left for terror in the world!

That is why we are turning to our partners for support to protect our skies. We need modern and effective air defense and missile defense systems, and I thank everyone who is already helping.

What can a representative of a terrorist state tell you now? That civilians do not suffer from their missiles? Everything is obvious. It’s all too obvious.

And I urge you to take concrete steps to protect humanity and life!

Russia has long been trying to turn the UN Security Council into a platform for rhetoric. But the Security Council was created as the world’s most powerful platform for decisions and actions. This is what we can demonstrate.

The Security Council should provide a clear assessment of the actions of the terrorist state in accordance with Chapter Seven of the UN Charter. Ukraine proposes that the Security Council adopt such a resolution condemning any forms of energy terror.

Let’s see if anyone in the world will be able to say, along with Russia, that terror against civilians is supposedly a good thing.

I confirm the invitation from Ukraine regarding the mission of UN experts to critical infrastructure facilities of our country that have been or may be hit by Russian missiles.

It is necessary to give a proper assessment of damage and destruction. It should be stated that these are strikes against the very infrastructure that ensures the lives of tens of millions of people.

And finally, justice must be restored within the UN structures themselves.

The terrorist state should not participate in any voting on the issues of its aggression, its terror.

It is a stalemate when the one who caused the war, the one responsible for the terror, blocks any attempt by the UN Security Council to fulfill its mandate.

This is nonsense that the veto right is reserved for the one who is waging a criminal war.

It is necessary to lead the world out of this impasse.

It is absolutely possible.

The world should not be held hostage by one international terrorist.

Russia is doing everything to make the electric generator a more powerful and necessary tool than the UN Charter. We must and can return real meaning to all things – and above all to the UN Charter.

Your decisions are needed!

Thank you for the opportunity!

Thank you for your attention!

Glory to Ukraine!

Here’s more on today’s bombardment:

  • Same regards Rivne nuclear power plant. This becomes really bad
  • Ok russian war crimes inside Ukraine is none of the NATO business, but this energy terrorism poses very serious direct threats to the safety of entire Europe. For how long russia would be allowed to do that? An answer to this question lies in the hands of every Western leader
  • Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is switched to a full blackout mode, it works on diesel generators, acc to Energoatom

Here is former NAVDEVGRU Squadron Leader Chuck Pfarrer’s most recent assessments of the situations in Bakhmut and Kherson:

Good on Poland!

Here’s the latest aid package from the US:

Well this is interesting:

From Middle East Eye:

Turkey delivered dozens of TRLG-230 precision-guided missiles to Ukraine in the early summer, two sources familiar with the issue told Middle East Eye.

Developed by Turkish producer Roketsan, the 230mm TRLG-230 missile has high accuracy against targets within a range of 20-70 km, thanks to its global positioning system (GPS) and laser guidance.

The TRLG-230 can be combined with multiple rocket launchers, known as MLRS, whose American equivalent, the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), has been very effective against the Russian forces in Ukraine.

MEE understands that around 50 TRLG-230 missiles have been shipped to Ukraine, confirming what defence blog Oryx reported on Monday. One source said as many as 200 missiles could have been shipped so far.

Orxy said in an article that the guided missile could be combined with Turkey’s famed Bayraktar TB2 armed drones, which could pinpoint targets for the guided missile and help successfully destroy them within a range of 70 kilometers.

Stijn Mitzer, an arms expert who runs Oryx, told MEE that Turkey was the first country to deliver such equipment to Ukraine, even before the United States had supplied its HIMARS, which first arrived in Ukraine in June.

“TRLG-230 missiles are destined for pinpoint strikes on target, rather than firing a lot of them at once as with a regular multiple rocket launcher,” he said.

Undated footage surfaced on Ukrainian social media on Tuesday night allegedly showing a TRLG-230 missile being fired in Ukraine, indicating that they are being used one at a time rather than in multiple firings.

 

Much more at the link!

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

And a new video from Patron’s official TikTok:

@patron__dsns

Як і обіцяв, друга частина🤗 #песпатрон #патрондснс

♬ sonido original – Ju💋

The caption machine translates as:

As promised, the second part 🤗 #PatrontheDog #PatronDSNS

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

81Comments

  1. 1.

    Alison Rose

    Good God, fuck russia. Zelenskyy has often referred to Ukrainians as indomitable, and ain’t that the truth. Yet russia refuses to realize it. I cannot begin to comprehend the thought processes behind what they’re doing. Although maybe there aren’t any…

    That photo of Patron with Sunak is very cute. Ambassadog!

    Thank you as always, Adam.

  3. 3.

    Jess

    Only 6 killed? We kill more Walmart shoppers that that on any given week! Without missiles!

    Edit: Was that too soon…?

  7. 7.

    Ohio Mom

    Somewhat on topic I suppose.

    Every few days I take a look at Slava Malamud’s twitter. This tweet from a few days ago, on the occasion of Rishi Sunak’s visit to Ukraine, gave me a chuckle:

    Slava Malamud 🇺🇦
    @SlavaMalamud
    ·
    Nov 19
    9 months ago, I was expecting Zelensky to be dead any minute. He is now on his third British Prime Minister.

  8. 8.

    Jess

    @Urza: Seriously, I think more Americans have killed one another than Russians have killed Ukraines this week. Not to minimize the suffering over there…

  12. 12.

    Spanky

    russia is trying its hardest to add “murderer” to its status as a terrorist state.

    UMmmm, seems like they accomplished that many months ago.

  15. 15.

    Alison Rose

    I don’t think I was aware of this, but it made me smile:

    Ausichicrinites zelenskyyi, an extinct species of feather star described on July 20, 2022 by a group of Polish paleontologists, is named after Zelenskyy “for his courage and bravery in defending free Ukraine”.

    I’m not 100% clear on the connection, but hey, it’s a nice sentiment.

  16. 16.

    Alison Rose

    Oh also, Zelenskyy did put up a brief address to the people later in the day, and this line near the end really struck me:

    The russian occupiers still haven’t understood that they have only today.

    And we definitely have tomorrow.

    Just poetry. Beautiful.

  17. 17.

    West of the Rockies

    Adam, may I (im)pose a question?

    How many more rockets does Russia have?  58 million?  47,000?  128?

    I sure hope they are diminishing their ability to cause death and destruction and taking a financial kick to the nuts in the process.

  18. 18.

    Sister Golden Bear

    OT, but a gorgeous and gutting piece: “This Holiday, I’m Going to a Gay Bar.” (It’s FTFYT,  but someone gifted it, so it’s not paywalled.)

    Just as soon as we walk through those doors, past the bouncer checking IDs, up to the bar, where the impossibly cute bartender nods to let us know he’s seen us. He did see us. Someone finally did. It’s been a while. This is where we’re safe. For many of us, it’s the only place. They told us it would be OK, behind those closed doors. They’d leave us alone.
    Often there’s a drag show, a fund-raiser for a homeless shelter for the queer kids whose parents listened to their evangelical leader and threw their children out onto the streets. We’ve heard the panic about drag queens, and it’d be hard to not laugh if we didn’t know the intent behind the manufactured panic. Drag queens talk about sex the way politicians talk about thoughts and prayers and Christians talk about love. Everyone knows they’re full of it. Drag queens are in on the joke.If you’ve ever been to a gay bar on a holiday or ever worked at a gay bar during a holiday, and I have, you get to watch the transformation of every person who walks through those doors: the unwinding of jaw muscles and shoulders, hips that start to roll about halfway across the room, the tone of voice that changes between the front door and the bar. You watch people become themselves as they throw back that first shot, the medicinal shot, then find immediate friends down the bar or out on the patio. It’s as beautiful as it is tragic.
    It’s tragic because they were never going to leave us alone. No matter how quiet we kept it, no matter how much we hid it in front of them. The police came into our houses and dragged us out in handcuffs, printed the mug shots in the paper so our bosses and families and neighbors would know what they had told us to keep secret. The military harassed us and threatened us and threw us out, even though it said it wouldn’t ask if we didn’t tell.
    They don’t want us to feel safe. They don’t want us to be safe.

    Thanksgiving evening, I’ll be going to a gay bar. It’s usually one of the busiest days of the year for them. A home for all those without homes to go, or homes they need to escape.

  19. 19.

    dr. luba

    Patron: Pluses of being a dog, Part 2

    You can chew on everything in sight, and not get in trouble

    Well, almost….

    You can be weird and not worry about what others think of you

    You can hang out with cats (they’re cool)

    Even when you get bored, you always have your tail (to play with)

  21. 21.

    NutmegAgain

    Russia reminds me of the Sta-Puft marshmallow man, only as a giant, very dangerous, 3 year old (spoiled) toddler having a meltdown. “If I can’t actually win, I’m gonna wreck everything I can wreck!; gonna show you!! ”  I know that’s hardly an original assessment, but reading today about not only the shelling of Ukraine, but also the attack on all kinds of internet/cyber systems in Europe just as the European Parliament declares Russia a state sponsor of terrorism really brought this image to mind.

    I’m really hoping that what we’re seeing is the system straining, hard, just before it breaks under pressure. Like a historical dam break, maybe the Johnstown flood–the dam just can’t anymore and it all comes loose in a cataclysm. Of course I hope that particularly for the Ukrainian people, there is less catastrophe, not more.

    Anyway, I wish you all the best kind of Thanksgiving tomorrow~

  22. 22.

    Adam L Silverman

    @West of the Rockies: My understanding from the news reporting is that of their own stockpile, they’ve got about four to six weeks left tops. Which is why they’re so keen on buying Iranian missiles.

  23. 23.

    bbleh

    I forget the name of the general Russia’s got running this campaign, but from all I’ve read, he’s pretty much of a sadist, and he is inflicting a campaign of maximum suffering on the people of Ukraine.  It’s like a medieval siege, except with cold instead of hunger.

    It’s slightly amazing that Russians can simultaneously consider themselves both a civilized people and justified in pursuing this kind of campaign, but then I remember what MAGA Americans can believe simultaneously, and …

    I don’t know what can be done to help.  Repairing a grid is a long-term process.  Can we ship in a million home-size generators?  Would they have fuel to run them if we did?

  24. 24.

    japa21

    @Adam L Silverman: ​
      They can do a lot of damage in 4-6 weeks. I understand a lot of the pro-Russian military type bloggers are furious at the missiles being used on civilian targets instead of military ones.

  26. 26.

    NutmegAgain

    @japa21: So, do they know nothing about the history of Russia & its military?  (To be fair, about 8,000 years ago my dad wrote his PhD dissertation on the Russian military in the late 18th-early 19th century.) He would be disgusted by the grave robbing of Potemkin! Actually, as a WWII vet himself, he would have been simply appalled by the entire situation.

  27. 27.

    Urza

    @NutmegAgain: I just listened to an audiobook on Russian history.  All I could think the entire way through is that this country learns NOTHING from its history other than how to repeat it over and over.  Maybe there’s new names, but in all the same places the same stupid/evil things are done.

  28. 28.

    NutmegAgain

    @bbleh: Part of the conversation in the European Parliament (I think) was a call Europe-wide for all and any generators that would be actually helpful in this situation. I got the impression it was for industrial && size/type machines? Pretty sure I saw the info in the Guardian, since where else?

  30. 30.

    Another Scott

    @NutmegAgain: I heard a bit of congressional hearings on C-Span radio today talking about the (recently privatized) electrical system in Puerto Rico.  They mentioned that FEMA will be providing ~ 700 MW of electrical power via generators on barges and land to keep the electrical grid up while they make repairs/upgrades to the island’s main system.

    “We know the grid is in a critical state,” he said. “We cannot endure these outages.”

    The move is part of a deal reached last month with the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, which agreed to help the U.S. territory stabilize a power system that was razed by Hurricane Maria in 2017 and pummeled again by Hurricane Fiona in September.

    Nancy Casper, FEMA federal coordinator, said additional generation of 600 to 700 megawatts will be available in two to three months via barges and temporary land-based generators.

    She said the federal government would pay for 90% of the project and Puerto Rico’s government the remaining 10%, but that no estimated cost is yet available because teams will reach out to vendors by the end of November.

    The announcement was expected to quell some of the anger and frustration building up across the island of 3.2 million people whose lives have been increasingly disrupted by lengthy power outages.

    The latest outage occurred on Monday, leaving 178,000 customers in the dark for reasons unknown. Previous outages have been blamed on exploding transformers, iguanas, sargassum and aging infrastructure.

    Puerto Rico’s power grid was already crumbling due to decades of mismanagement and neglect when Hurricane Maria hit in November 2017 and destroyed most of the grid.

    Presumably similar things could be done for Ukraine (and I’m sure folks have been thinking and talking about contingencies like these for many weeks). With any luck, it wouldn’t take 2-3 months to implement a plan though… :-/

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  32. 32.

    Ruckus

    @Urza:

    When evil is all you know, evil is all you do.

    The entire world used to be this way, the only way to get what you wanted was to take it. But as populations grew this became more about burying bodies than winning, and that’s what’s going on in Ukraine. I doubt that Russia still thinks they can win but they know that they can fuck over Ukraine and make them pay for winning this war.

  33. 33.

    dr. luba

    Patron UNICEF video:

    The most famous Ukrainian dog, Patron, received from UNESCO the honorable title of “Goodwill Ambassadog.”

    Speaker (Murat Shahin, head representative of UNICEF in Ukraine):  “In the 76 years of UNICEF’s history this is the first time we are assigning the title of ‘Goodwill Ambassadog.'”

    In cooperation with UNICEF, Patron is engaged in clearing mines and also teaches children to care about the mental health.

    Next speaker (Mykhailo Iliev, Patron’s human): “When a person in a uniform comes to share information, that’s one thing.  But when we engage them in games with the help of Patron, it’s quite exciting for the children. ”

    Patron is a specialist in mine removal in the state emergency services of Ukraine. UNICEF has signed a memorandum of cooperation with him. A virtual Patron is ready to give daily advice to children and encourage them.

  35. 35.

    Lums Better Half

    Orthodoxy, Nationality, Autocracy

    These are the key concepts Putin is trying to restore.

  36. 36.

    Amir Khalid

    @Ruckus:

    You’re right. It’s not about winning anymore for Russia, that’s clearly out of reach. It’s about lashing out at Ukraine for humiliating them on the battlefield, for weakening their influence over other neighbouring countries, for every slight Putin got in an international summit this year.

  37. 37.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Russians have spent a shitload of very expensive and disposable missiles (over 30 against Kyiv alone) to cut most of Ukraine off from electricity. By the end of the day, power grid restored in most regions, again.

    Any ideas what Russians are trying to achieve here?

    It’s even more baffling with the Russian demands that the Ukrainians should surrender for an orderly mass exaction.

  38. 38.

    bbleh

    @NutmegAgain: @Another Scott:  Generation is certainly a problem when generating stations have been targeted — and what’s happening with the nuclear plants is little short of an international crime — but even if you replace generation with anything large- or even medium-scale, you’ve still got the transmission-and-distribution (aka the grid) to worry about, and when that is under regular attack — unlike what happened in PR — you can’t count on it either.   That’s why I was suggesting small-scale generation, eg at house or block level, where the transmission distances are very short.  But then the problem remains, how do you fuel a large and distributed field of small generators?

    Offhand, I can’t come up with an obvious answer.  There may be some sort of “golden mean” — small-scale enough that local grids are intact but large-scale enough that generation can be done at scale and refueling isn’t necessary at thousands of locations, but I dunno.

  39. 39.

    Dan B

    @Sister Golden Bear: When I moved to Seattle in 1973 there were lots of people who had been shunned by their parents.  It was more pronounced in the previous cities I’d lived in, Chicago, Louisville, etc.  We organized Thanksgiving and Christmas “Orphans of the Storm” dinners.  They were wonderful.  Seattle was in a scandal where the gay bars were paying off the police.  It seemed trivial to me since Chicago bars were controlled by or directly run by the Mafia. In Louisville one of the bars had a self appointed bouncer who wore six guns.  Neither cities bars were friendly.  The goal was to pick up someone and get out – not a way to have a healthy gay community.

  40. 40.

    Anoniminous

    Saw a statement today from a Russian Putin Worshiper Journalist saying the same Nazifaction process that happened in Ukraine is starting to happen in Kazakhstan.

  43. 43.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Alison Rose: It’s madness, eh?  I mean ….. how can they possibly think that they’ll get away with this sort of behaviour?  The rest of Eurasia will join together to stop them.  Can’t have a rabid dog running around biting law-abiding citizens, FFS.

  44. 44.

    Anoniminous

    @Alison Rose: ​
     
    There are a lot of similarities between Ukraine and Kazakhstan. They had their very own famine in 1930 to 1933. 38 to 42 percent of all Kazakhs died. So many they became a minority in their own territory.

  45. 45.

    Bill Arnold

    @bbleh:

    It’s slightly amazing that Russians can simultaneously consider themselves both a civilized people and justified in pursuing this kind of campaign

    They are not a civilized people, collectively. Not currently.

  46. 46.

    MomSense

    People must need cold weather gear.  Does anyone know of any reputable organizations collecting winter coats, hats, etc?

  48. 48.

    West of the Rockies

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Thank you for sharing your knowledge yet again in this interminable conflict.  Your posts are nightly reading here!

    Be a shame if an Iranian rocket factory accidentally blew up.

  50. 50.

    Anoniminous

    @MomSense: ​
     
    Having done emergency Logistics for decades it’s better to give cash. Everybody in Logistics has their fund of horror stories of what happens when dealing with donated goods.

  51. 51.

    GreyMichael

    @Amir Khalid:   You and Ruckus could both be right. However, russian media has it that bringing Ukraine’s infrastructure down, plus the cold, etc, will force President Zelenskyy to the negotiating table.
    Since russia is a dictatorship with no guaranteed freedoms, who can say how much the anchors actually know, versus delivering happy sounding pablum?

  52. 52.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Anoniminous: My grandmother and her two young daughters were deported from Ukraine to Kazakhstan (along with many, many others) when my grandfather was sent to the Gulag.

  54. 54.

    Ksmiami

    @japa21: I think aiming long range missiles back at Russia and turning off all their in country communications systems are justified. The nation is a menace.

  57. 57.

    Anoniminous

    The Russians don’t have anywhere near the same ‘punch’ as the WW 2 US and British bomber fleets and they couldn’t defeat Nazi Germany. The only way for Russia to defeat Ukraine using air power is using nuclear weapons and that wouldn’t end well for the Putin Regime.

  60. 60.

    Ruckus

    @Amir Khalid:

    Actually I don’t think I’ve ever read that the area we know as Russia has ever not been what we think of as a terrorist state. At least not in the last 200-300 yrs.

  61. 61.

    Another Scott

    @MomSense:

    United24 seems to be buying clothing (along with ambulances and drones) – in their Defense and Demining fundraising efforts.

    Saint Javelin is trying to raise $1M before November 30 for winter gear.

    what do our soldiers need

    Our winter campaign goal is to buy $300 worth of winter clothing and support for 3,333 Ukrainian soldiers.

    $200 will be spent on each soldiers clothing and medical equipment:

    $7 – Balaclava
    $5 – Fleece beanie
    $100 – IFAK
    $13 – Thermal layer
    $5 – Tracking socks

    the MOST IMPORTANT

    $100 for each soldier will be spent on generators.

    DONATE NOW SHOP NOW

    HTH a little.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  62. 62.

    Dan B

    @raven: Awful stuff to read about.  When I was in Chicago there were only four gay bars since all had been raided and closed by Mayor Daley before the 1968 Democratic convention.

     

    Most gay men were married by the time they were 25 because it was assumed you were deviant if you were not married.  There were many guys who would have sex but not kiss because that would mean you were “queer”.  It was a horrible time.

  63. 63.

    Geminid

    A Turkiye story from last month, reported by news site Middle East Eye:

           Two Russian Navy ships have finally left the Mediterranean Sea after sitting idle for nine months due to Turkey’s ban on the transfer of warships amid the Ukraine war.

    The Ukraine based Black Sea Institute of Strategic studies repoerted Sunday that the Russian missile cruiser Varyag, flagship of tbe Pacific fleet, and Admiral Tributz, a large anti-submarine ship, both left the Mediterranean Sea on October 21 through the Suez Canal.

    Both ships originally arrived in the Mediterranean Sea on 2 February, a couple weeks short of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

    Turkiye has used its powers under the 1936 Montreaux Convention to refuse other Russian warships passage to the Black Sea:

         In March, at least four Russian ships- two destroyers, a frigate, and an intelligence vessel- were tirned away after Ankara denied them access.

  64. 64.

    Ruckus

    @Amir Khalid:

    vlad is a very obnoxious toddler with parental issues masquerading as the insane head of a country that is completely corrupt on a rather massive, lopsided scale and seems willing to destroy anything/anyone to be seen in his country as king of all.

  66. 66.

    Ruckus

    @Urza:

    All countries were like this at one time. Many have figured out that if you stop trying to steal land just to have acreage and make better use of what you have you can actually have a better life. But Russian history is full of people with big ideas – for themselves and what they can steal. Right now vlad is playing true to form, if he can’t have it then there won’t be anyone alive to have what’s left.

  67. 67.

    Nelle

    @Dan B: Hey Dan, I was on Captitol Hill in Seattle from 77-80 and was teaching at Seattle Central CC after that so was around that area a lot (I also lived in Ravenna and Ballard during my Seatttle years).  So many students at Seattle Central wrote excruciating essays about coming out.

  69. 69.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: The Middle East Eye article about the blocked Russian warships also discusses areas where Turkiye has been more cooperative with Russia:

        Turkiye has been walking a fine line on the Ukraine invasion since February, arming Ukraine with combat drones and ammunition while cutting deals with Moscow. Turkey is seeking a 25% discount on Russian gas purchases and a payment postponement until 2024.

    Moscow has already pumped $7 billion into Turkish Central Bank through the Alakuya Nuclear Power Plant scheme, building a lifeline to depleted foreign currency reserves through back door transfers.

    The US and Ukraine don’t raise a lot of ruckus over Turkiye’s double dealing. While its NATO membership requires Turkiye to support other NATO countries, its policy towards Ukraine is not conditioned by any obligations but rather the self-interest of a sovereign nation. The U.S. and Ukraine ask for more in private, but they are taking what they can get from this major regional power without much public complaint.

  71. 71.

    Dan B

    @Nelle: I was at Seattle Central 1973 to 1975 in the culinary program.  I lived in the gay student collective house on 12th on the other side of the Broadway Playfield.  I lived on the Hill a couple blocks off Broadway until 2009.

  72. 72.

    Geminid

    @Ksmiami: If Israel’s going bombing in Iran, that country’s nuclear facilities will be it’s highest priority targets.

    But they won’t stand in the US’s way if we want to bomb those factories. They’d probably help so long as we also helped them destroy the nuclear facilities they regard as a greater threat than the drone factories.

    There was a story that Israel attacked an Iranian drone base early this year. The subsequent salvo of Iranian missiles that hit a compound in Iraqi-Kurdish capital of Irbil was said to be in retalitation. No one has disclosed too much about this affair, but the Iranians apparently believed the compound it struck had been used by Israel’s Mossad to coordinate the drone base attack. The Israelis probably used their own drones that they smuggled into Iraqi Kurdistan..

  73. 73.

    Carlo Graziani

    @GreyMichael: I think we should take the Russians at their word here. They do actually believe that depriving Ukraine’s population of energy in wintertime may make them more amenable to negotiating a settlement on terms that the Russians find acceptable.

    How they should have come to this — certainly incorrect — belief is a separate question. My best current theory is that Russians apparently experience a very different world from us, and their weltanschauung keeps leading them to the most surprising, murderous, and ultimately self-defeating conclusions.

    At the moment they are still entranced by the power of their “energy weapon”, despite the many demonstrations of its impotence and irrelevance that they received this year. So the idea of crippling Ukraine’s “vital energy resources” must have struck some strategists as pure genius. This would particularly be the case because every other bet that they have placed in this war has turned out so fecally, bankruptingly badly that it seems likely that any mere suggestion of such a sure-fire victory plan at relatively low cost would have been adopted out of sheer desperation, irrespective of its plausibility.

    All they seem likely to achieve, in the medium term, is to make Ukraine bristle with state-of-the-art western air defense technology that outmatches their own, and raise the level of other defense cooperation. And stiffen Ukrainian resolve. But they can’t see it.

  75. 75.

    ByRookorbyCrook

    The civilian bombing campaign is the same playbook Russia uses in all of its conflicts. They want to depopulate and make Ukraine uninhabitable for Ukrainians while creating a refugee crisis in Europe to weaken Western resolve and support of Ukraine. Putin and his goons believe this will work because it has worked in the past. Donbas, Crimea, Syria, Georgia, and Chechnya all have similar patterns of aggression and devastation. Putin just tried it on a larger scale this invasion and Ukraine stopped them. That is why Putin brought in his Terrorist General from Syria to take over the Special Military Operation to manage the Siege of Ukraine.

  76. 76.

    GreyMichael

    @Carlo Graziani:  When you talked about a “different world”, I couldn’t agree more. Lately, I’ve been watching translations of russian talking head shows. In these shows, the incessant lying and calls for genocide are disgusting.
    I doubt a true peace with russia is possible until there’s a cultural sea change there.

  79. 79.

    trnc

    I understand why NATO countries don’t want to put ground troops in Ukraine and why we don’t want Ukraine to fire missiles into Russia, but I don’t get why Russia should continue to be one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. I’ve read the claim that they were automatically left on it after the USSR dissolved. This article supplies more context for that, but also a suggestion on how to kick Russia off.

    https://cepa.org/article/expelling-russia-from-the-un-security-council-a-how-to-guide/

  81. 81.

    Citizen Alan

    @Bill Arnold: I imagine the Saudis consider themselves a civilized people, even though by any objective standard, they are a nation of barbarous ignorant peasants who have unexpectedly been awarded unimaginable wealth by a happenstance of geology and geography. Like The Beverly Hillbillies, but not funny and with a lot more beheadings.

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