Two quick notes: 1) PatrickG if you read these updates, please check the email you use to comment here. I sent you a question earlier today. Thanks!

2) Larime: if you read these, please send me an email I’ve got a question for you, but can’t find a contact email. I’d like to get some pet portraits done. Thanks!

President Zelenskyy made a battlefield circulation to Robotyne on the Zaporizhzhia front today.

Brave move by Zelensky, visiting troops of Ukraine’s 65th Separate Mechanized Brigade at the frontline in Robotyne, Zaporizhzhia region, a particularly tough spot. pic.twitter.com/5s6BUyPHj5

— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) February 4, 2024

He has consistently made these visits throughout the war, but I expect this one was partially the result of the week long drip, drip, drip over whether he is or is not replacing General Zaluzhnyi. Speaking of which:

In an interview to Italian Tg1, President Zelensky says Ukrainian "leadership needs a reset, change of leadership, not just military".

He said he is "considering" the replacement of, presumably, Zaluzhny, but it is not just one person who needs to be replaced.

Personally, I do… pic.twitter.com/jLOzAIUkTU

— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated) February 4, 2024

In an interview to Italian Tg1, President Zelensky says Ukrainian “leadership needs a reset, change of leadership, not just military”.

He said he is “considering” the replacement of, presumably, Zaluzhny, but it is not just one person who needs to be replaced.

Personally, I do not see this as a direct confirmation of the dismissal.

He also added has something “serious in mind, which is not about a single person but about the direction of the country’s leadership”.

Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

We are working to enhance the ability to shoot down missiles and drones – address by the President of Ukraine

4 February 2024 – 18:34

I wish you health, fellow Ukrainians!

It’s a very active Sunday today.

In the morning, I visited Robotyne, one of the toughest areas of the frontline, Zaporizhzhia sector. I personally thanked the warriors and awarded five of the best directly on the front line – those who have distinguished themselves in combat over the past weeks: Senior Soldiers Ihor Honcharuk, Ivan Taran, Yaroslav Polishchuk, Sergeant Mykhailo Blashkiv, and Senior Lieutenant Andriy Olshanskyi – Andriy was awarded the Cross of Military Merit. All of them are exactly the kind of guys whose bravery and endurance preserve our positions and our country. I thank you, warriors, and all your brothers-in-arms!

I held a security meeting in Zaporizhzhia related not only to the region and the city. There were reports from military commanders, including on the situation in Avdiivka. Of course, we had a separate conversation about Zaporizhzhia, this whole direction. I am grateful to everyone involved in the construction of fortifications. Protection from Russian air strikes. Ensuring social life. The state is ready to take further action to ensure employment and social harmony in the region. Today I also introduced the new head of the regional military administration, Ivan Fedorov.

In the afternoon, I visited the East Air Force Command. A report and a detailed discussion on the protection of the skies over the Dnipropetrovsk region. The threat remains constant and severe, as Russia views the region as one of its primary targets for terrorist attacks, specifically targeting our enterprises and our economic potential. We are working to enhance the ability to shoot down missiles and drones. And our Air Force servicemen, mobile firing groups, everyone who is combating Russian aerial terror specifically deserve our gratitude and further reinforcement. We are preparing new talks with our partners to this end.

Now I am in Kryvyi Rih, focusing on the entire district and other communities in the region. We held a meeting on energy and water supply for the cities and villages in the Dnipropetrovsk region, including Kryvyi Rih. Protection of energy facilities. Reinforcement of mobile firing groups, air defense, and electronic warfare. Restoration of power facilities. I am grateful to all those who have been working to restore power supply after the recent strikes – every repair crew. I am also grateful to those who are currently working on the construction of a new water supply infrastructure. This is a strategic task. Hundreds of thousands of people depend on it. Nikopol, Marhanets, Pokrov, part of Kryvyi Rih and Kryvyi Rih district. There was a separate report on protection against saboteurs and collaborators. The law enforcement officials have achieved good results.

Maximum respect and gratitude to everyone who fights for the sake of the state, works for Ukraine and its people, and to everyone who helps – every volunteer, every volunteer community. To everyone who is in the state and with the state.

Glory to Ukraine!

Estonia:

Ukraine is grateful to our Estonian partners for their unwavering support.

Another military aid package has reached Ukraine. The package includes Javelin anti-tank missiles, machine guns, small arms ammunition, various land and water vehicles, and diving equipment.
🇺🇦🤝🇪🇪… https://t.co/DMLDl8Xw6i

— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) February 4, 2024

While Estonia steps up, Susan Glasser takes a deep dive into why the US is unable to meet the current moment. She correctly places almost all of the blame on the House GOP majority, a plurality to majority of the Senate GOP minority caucus, and Trump.

The carnival of stupidity that is a Donald Trump-led Republican Party remains the most distracting show on earth. Last week, after a jury found Trump guilty of repeatedly defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll, who has credibly accused the former President of sexual assault, the news was dominated by the eighty-three-million-dollar penalty that Trump will now have to pay because of his big mouth. This week, Trump’s G.O.P. has been hyperventilating over the nation’s most celebrated pop star, Taylor Swift, promoting elaborate conspiracy theories about the liberal-leaning musician and her Super Bowl-bound boyfriend, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce. Trump, naturally, relished the fight, reportedly insisting that he is “more popular” and has more committed fans than Swift, who endorsed Joe Biden in 2020 and whose prospective support for Biden again seems to have sent the Trumpier corners of the Internet into a frenzy. Even the Wall Street Journal was appalled. Whether it’s “lunacy or it’s theater,” the paper’s conservative editorial board wrote of the “Taylor Swift ‘Psyop,’ ” it reinforced one of the signal problems for the country in 2024: “paranoia on the right” makes the Republican Party and its kooky demagogue “seem, frankly, weird.”

If only weird were the sum of it. The problem, as ever with Trump, is that the performative foolishness serves only to divert attention from the real and serious consequences of the Republican Party’s decision to get behind the defeated ex-President for another go at the White House. It’s hard to imagine a more concrete example of this 2024 dynamic than the debacle unfolding on Capitol Hill, where Trump has demanded that his party kill a major deal linking funding for the wars in Ukraine and Israel with changes in immigration policy designed to stanch the flow of asylum seekers at the U.S. southern border. The deal—still not yet formally unveiled—has been a couple of months in the making. Republicans were the ones who demanded it in the first place.

Whatever the impetus of the current negotiations, whether folly, hubris, or just plain denial, it never seemed realistic to me that the two parties were going to engage with each other in good faith on immigration—arguably the most toxic subject in American politics in the Trump era—and somehow come up with a deal that would pass in an election year with Trump on the ballot. Both parties deserve some censure here. Have they not been paying attention these last eight years? The opportunity to prove his continued dominance over the G.O.P. by tanking any breakthrough was inevitably going to prove irresistible to Trump. He spoke “at length” about it to House Speaker Mike Johnson, Johnson acknowledges, and sure enough Johnson, a nonentity who never would have become Speaker last fall had Trump not approved of him, did what Trump wanted, announcing in unequivocal terms that House Republicans would never go along with the Senate’s bipartisan deal. “Madness,” he called it on Wednesday, in his first floor speech as Speaker. (Though he insists it’s “absurd” to say he was blowing up the deal just to please Trump.)

Tying the fate of Ukraine in its existential fight with Russia to a resolution of the near-irresolvable politics of the American border seems a particularly cruel twist. For Trump, it’s like a gift. Why wouldn’t America’s most noted admirer of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, want to undercut Ukraine while, at the same time, sinking a package that might look like a real bipartisan win for Joe Biden? Trump wants an issue to run on, not a solution. (And a potent issue it is—recent surveys suggest that Biden is highly vulnerable to the charge that he’s let the border problem fester, with voters in battleground states giving Trump a wide advantage on immigration.) Never underestimate the appeal of personal vengeance to Trump as well—it hardly helps the case that this deal has been the top priority of his remaining nemesis in the Republican Party, the Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell.

You know McConnell is in trouble when Democrats seem to almost be feeling sorry for him. On Wednesday night, at the annual Washington Press Club Foundation congressional dinner, the Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer, went out of his way to assure everyone that the current mess was not McConnell’s fault. “I’ve got ninety-nine problems but Mitch ain’t one,” he joked, though it was unclear whether the audience fully appreciated the Jay-Z reference. McConnell, at eighty-one, and visibly frail since an accident last year, is widely assumed to be on his way out of the Senate. He has long wanted support for Ukraine to be a part of his legacy. For months he has gone to the Senate floor to implore colleagues in his party to stick with the fight. Instead, more and more of them are sticking with Trump, which has led to some awkward moments for McConnell, who, at one point in recent days, seemed to abandon the deal that he himself had asked another Republican senator, James Lankford, of Oklahoma, to negotiate. By Wednesday, McConnell offered a near-admission of failure, suggesting that it may be time to cut loose aid for Ukraine and look for a separate vote to continue funding. At the same time, Trump was in Washington, blasting away at Republicans senators who still support the deal as making a “terrible mistake.”

The spectacle of Trump making Senate Republicans squirm was like an unwanted flashback to his years in the White House, when each week reporters would shove microphones in front of unhappy-looking lawmakers as they came and went from the Party’s weekly luncheon, asking for comment on the latest Trump outrage. On Wednesday, Lankford came out of another contentious Party lunch, and complained that he was having to meet one on one with fellow-Republicans to combat “misinformation.” “Abraham Lincoln said, ‘don’t believe everything you read on the Internet,’ ” he said. Lisa Murkowski, like Lankford and McConnell, is one of the few remaining holdouts among Senate Republicans who have not yet endorsed Trump for another term. She told reporters that her party was to blame for the mess. “It was the Republicans, I will remind you, that told the Democrats months ago that if you want to try to get your Ukraine funding, you’re gonna have to take up the border issue,” she said. “This is what we asked for.”

Amid the recriminations on Wednesday, I happened to go up to Capitol Hill for a long-scheduled conversation with Senator Angus King, a low-key former governor of Maine, who refuses to join either party, though he caucuses with Democrats. King chairs the Senate Armed Services subcommittee that oversees America’s nuclear forces, and is a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. He was as alarmed as I have ever seen him about the consequences of the whole mess. While Republicans fight among themselves, the Pentagon has already, as of January, run out of congressionally approved funds for its military assistance to Ukraine. In the now languishing bill, Biden has asked for an additional sixty billion dollars to aid the country; many in Washington now expect that, even if a vote on funds for Ukraine eventually happens, Republicans will insist on billions of dollars less for non-military assistance as the price for their votes. But even that may not happen and, in the meantime, the President’s vow to support Ukraine “as long as it takes” looks to be another hollow promise that a superpower divided against itself cannot keep. “I think this would be, if we don’t do it, the most serious foreign-policy mistake of our lifetimes,” King told me. “It will reverberate for fifty years.”

As this latest grand bargain heads toward its increasingly likely demise, with Trump heckling from the sidelines, the rest of the world will once again be gawking at our dysfunction. “My experience around here is: it’s all about timing,” King told me. He recalled Shakespeare’s Caesar: “There is a tide in the lives of men which taken at the flood leads on to victory.” His conclusion: “If they miss this chance to do something serious about the border, there’s no telling when it would come again.” My conclusion is even simpler: Republicans have chosen which tide to take. After Trump, the deluge.

More at the link.

McConnell broke the Senate in order to accumulate the power to achieve a very specific set of political objectives: 1) to cut taxes for the wealthy, 2) to remove as many regulations on the wealthy and on businesses as possible, 3) to remove as many campaign finance regulations as possible to ensure it was legal for the wealthy to shovel obscene amounts of money at him and his caucus members making them wealthy beyond their dreams, and 4) pack the courts with Federalist Society apparatchiks who would both do through the judicial process what he could not accomplish legislatively and, perhaps more importantly, ensure that none of this could ever be reversed by Democratic presidents working with Democratic majority Congresses. What McConnell did not foresee that in doing so he was hollowing out the Republican Party and the conservative movement – including the white traditionalist Catholic and white evangelical churches – that sustain it. The result of McConnell’s labors is that instead of one Republican Party and one conservative movement, we now have dozens. The one the Kochs fund, the one the Mercers fund, the one the Uhliens fund, the one Art Pope funds in NC, the one the DeVos/Prince clan funds, etc, etc, etc. In some cases these ultra-high net worth individuals just buy their own Republican officials. Peter Thiel owns JD Vance. A multi-millionaire in Miami created the political career of Marco Rubio. And it was into this hollow shell of a party and a movement that Donald Trump, ever looking for his next set of marks and preternaturally capable of identifying them, recognized that he could just waddle right in and execute a hostile takeover for pennies on the dollar. And, in fact, get others to provide the pennies for him to do so. Now that McConnell wants something else from his caucus, as well as their counterparts in the House for his “legacy” he’s not going to get it. But never forget who the architect of the current moment is. Sure he had accomplices like Leonard Leo and Don McGahn and a host of others you’ve never heard of, but we are where we are because McConnell had four objectives and he was willing to and did break every rule, norm, and tradition to achieve them.

The cost and the reason 1:

While Ukraine continues the fight with Russia, the likelihood of Russia engaging in a conventional war with NATO or Western allies remains low.

Some strategists suggest that they can indirectly deter direct confrontation with Russia by bogging them down in Ukraine by providing…

— Tatarigami_UA (@Tatarigami_UA) February 4, 2024

While Ukraine continues the fight with Russia, the likelihood of Russia engaging in a conventional war with NATO or Western allies remains low.

Some strategists suggest that they can indirectly deter direct confrontation with Russia by bogging them down in Ukraine by providing Ukraine just enough to survive.

However, the grim and uncomfortable truth is that shortages in artillery ammo and vehicles are compensated with human lives. The only way to minimize casualties is to provide enough military resources to win.

Unfortunately, if you will look at Ukrainian demographics, the population aged 20-30 is the smallest demographic category in Ukraine, which is a serious problem.

Despite big Russian losses, their larger population and relative indifference to casualties create a different dynamic compared to democracies where societies are more sensitive to human losses.

Russian leadership perceives Ukraine’s existence as an existential threat, a conviction reiterated by top officials. This belief makes them resistant to honoring any peace deals or agreements, like it already happened when they occupied Crimea, then Donbas and invaded Ukraine one more time.

While Ukrainians genuinely appreciate the support we get, there are moments when people leave comments and statements like “we sent 15 vehicles, stay strong, it’s a game changer, be grateful”feel akin to offering an aspirin to a cancer patient and expecting lifelong gratitude and kowtowing for decades.

To prevent a war with the EU member or another aspiring country like Moldova, it is paramount to minimize losses in Ukraine and secure its victory, because the reality is that Ukrainians aren’t infinite.

The cost and the reason 2:

Here's a piece by Pravda about Oleksandr, combat medic with the Ukrainian Hospitallers Medical Battalion, who provides a poignant and firsthand account of the challenges faced during the Russian invasion. It is up to date as Oleksandr has been on the frontlines for two years now.… pic.twitter.com/NRsB7mv3EC

— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated) February 4, 2024

Here’s a piece by Pravda about Oleksandr, combat medic with the Ukrainian Hospitallers Medical Battalion, who provides a poignant and firsthand account of the challenges faced during the Russian invasion. It is up to date as Oleksandr has been on the frontlines for two years now.

👉https://wartranslated.com/pravda-com-ua-interview-with-a-ukrainian-combat-medic/

Thank you @Anastasiya1451A for translating this article into English.

Here’s excerpts from that translation:

Author: Sofia Sereda, Ukrainska Pravda, 17th January 2024

Translation: @Anastasiya1451A

Original interview: https://www.pravda.com.ua/articles/2024/01/17/7437671/

“I understood that I would not forgive myself if, at such an important moment for the country, when there is a national struggle, I – a healthy and young man – would not be join the army, to not defend the country. It was unacceptable for me. On the other hand, I had a very strong fear for my life, because I had absolutely no knowledge about the war, about the army as a whole,” says the “hospitaller” [combat medic from the Ukrainian Hospitallers Medical Battalion] Oleksandr.

He is 24. Before the full-scale invasion, he was studying medicine and planned to become a surgeon. 

On February 24, 2022, Russian troops entered Oleksandr’s home-city, and he was forced to flee from the occupation. That is why the man now does not show his face in public and does not give his last name in general.

Having found himself in the territory controlled by Ukraine, Oleksandr joined the volunteer medical battalion “Hospitallers” . Currently, he saves the lives of wounded Ukrainian soldiers.

On the full-scale Russian invasion, escaping Russian occupation and studying tactical medicine

 – What did the first days of a full-scale invasion look like for you?

– Like everyone else, I was scared, shocked, confused, I didn’t know what to do. Within days, my city was under occupation, and I was basically stuck there.

I was worried about how to get to Kyiv, how to do something to help and be useful at that moment.

– Did you immediately decide that it was necessary to leave [the Russian-occupied territories] for the territory controlled by Ukraine?

– At first, I didn’t really understand how it could be done. But at a certain moment, the “green corridors” for the departure of civilians began to work, and I took advantage of this opportunity. I got to Kyiv already after the end of the Kyiv campaign [end of March 2022].

– Why did you decide to become a “hospitaller” [volunteer at the Hospitallers Medical Battalion]?

– I had friends from this volunteer battalion. They offered to join them, and I agreed.

Oleksandr had to flee from the occupation. That is why the guy now does not show his face in public and does not give his last name in general

– Then you did not have specific knowledge about warfare, but you had a medical education. Is this enough to work in tactical medicine?

– It’s not enough, but it was the only thing I had under my belt when I went to war at that time. Of course, there was some training to be done: I finished the four-day training on a very, very accelerated program and immediately went on my first rotation.

In general, I started studying tactical medicine even when I was in the occupation: knowing English, it was easy for me to master the TSSS [Tactical Сombat Сasualty Сare] protocols, watch a bunch of videos, and watch various presentations.

– Does a combat medic have enough knowledge only in tactical medicine to work effectively on the front line? 

– Not enough. To be effective at the front, one must have general tactical knowledge of firearms training, understand military topography, and how military communication works. Digital security should be highlighted as a separate point, especially if you transfer some important data somewhere.

It is necessary for a person, in principle, to understand how a battle is conducted, what are its main types (defence, offensive, assault), to understand weapons and what “exit” and “arrival” [coming under enemy’s artillery shelling/missile attack] are, how and where to hide.

Some of this knowledge can be gained by reading something, some by hearing from someone, and some only by experiencing it.

According to Oleksandr, only knowledge of tactical medicine is not enough for a combat medic to work effectively at the frontline

– How much time did it take you personally to master all this?

– I don’t think that I have mastered everything at a sufficient level. But I can say that from April 2022, when I joined the battalion, to now, I have grown a lot (mostly, not medically, but as a fighter). Now I continue to gain knowledge and develop.

On volunteering as a combat medic, the Hospitallers Medical battalion and his first time at the frontline

– How was your first rotation?

– Our commander Yana Zinkevich distributed the “kittens” (those who had never been on rotations before), and I got into a very, very experienced crew that was working in the South at that time.

I bought a ticket to Odesa, packed all my equipment (at that time – very heavy: with metal cut-off plates [for the bulletproof jacket] and a huge medical backpack) and left. From there, the volunteers took me to Mykolaiv Oblast, where I already met with my commander. He met me with a big dog – a German shepherd named “Kitty” and the first thing he asked me was: “Why do you want to join the war?”.

He began to “burden” me with questions like: “Do you understand that you will return from the war as a different person, that you may return disabled or not at all?”, “What is the war for you, a promising young surgeon, at all?”. Probably wanted to test my motivation or make sure I wasn’t just a random person in the war.

– Were you scared before the first rotation?

– I will not say that it is exactly fear. It’s just a feeling of the unknown. A certain even excitement. But I had no dread. It was the usual excitement, as before something new.

– There are different stages of evacuating the wounded. Which of them specifically do you work on? 

– I work in an ambulance. It takes the wounded from a “keysevak” [casualty evacuation] – a pick-up truck or some kind of armoured vehicle that takes the wounded directly from the battlefield. And the “medic” [medical evacuation] then takes this wounded person to the nearest field hospital, headquarters or hospital.

The ambulance is maximally equipped to stabilize the injured person and provide them with resuscitation assistance.

– How many people are on your crew?

– Our crew mainly consists of three people: a driver, a doctor and a paramedic (my assistant, who helps me in all medical manipulations and, in principle, performs all other necessary tasks for the life of the crew).

We use an ambulance that has been flown in from Europe, repainted green and equipped by us as we need it.

Blood transfusions at the frontline save lives

– In 2023, there were lively discussions about whether or not combat medics should be allowed to transfuse blood during the evacuation stages . 

What can you say about this based on your experience? How critical is the need for medics working on a casualty or medical evacuation to be able to transfuse blood to the wounded?

– I fully support this initiative. It is necessary to understand: if a person loses a lot of blood, they can be helped only by replenishing the blood.

Ideally, given the current circumstances with maximally prolonged evacuations, a combat medic with a backpack should be able to transfuse blood directly in the trench.

– It is obvious that this requires specific equipment. Does it exist to work in such conditions?

– Yes, the blood must always be refrigerated. Transporting it to the front, storing it at the front in conditions where there is no power is a problem. For this we use small transport refrigerators.

To deliver the blood as close as possible to the trench, specialized equipment is also necessary – small transport cases that can maintain a certain temperature for a day/two/three days.

In addition, it is necessary to understand that cold blood cannot be poured into the victim. It should be warm. For this, there are blood warmers – expensive devices that raise the blood temperature from 5 degrees to 38 degrees in a matter of seconds, while you directly infuse it through the system. Such a heater should work without an outlet and be compact.

Therefore, it is a scarce and very expensive equipment.

– What amounts are we talking about?

– The heater itself costs about 60k UAH [$1590]. But the problem is that for each blood transfusion, one disposable blood vessel is used, and the price of such blood vessel is about 8 UAH [$215]

That is, 10 wounded soldiers, to whom you will conduct a blood transfusion, is, roughly speaking, already 80k UAH [$2150], if you do not take into account the cost of the heater itself.

It is quite expensive. But it saves lives.

– Can you give an example from your work experience when a blood transfusion really helped to save a soldier?

– Yes. It happened in the South. I performed a hemotransfusion directly in the car, under fire.

Three tourniquets were placed on the wounded man, he was in severe haemorrhagic shock . Thanks to the fact that we gave him one vial of blood, we managed to get him to the hospital alive. After all, of all the wounded that we had at that moment, he was the most stable afterwards.

Eastern and Southern fronts: the most memorable moments

– You gave an example of your work in the South. And in general, during this time, where else did you have to work?

– I participated in the defence of Severodonetsk in the summer of 2022, Bakhmut in December 2022. I was in many directions of Donetsk region, in the South. Took part in the Kharkiv counteroffensive.

– Your most difficult evacuation during this time?

– It is difficult to single out one, but probably the most memorable evacuation in the South.

We waited a long time to take the wounded soldier. The moment we got him, I immediately saw that he had upper airway obstruction. He could not breathe normally.

I immediately performed a cricothyrotomy , an operation where an incision is made in the neck to insert a breathing tube, but during the evacuation he had 7 cardiac arrests. We resuscitated him 7 times, restarted his heart, did everything possible, but, unfortunately, he did not survive.

The fighter was younger than me and the fact that he could not be saved hit my psyche very hard.

There is much, much more at the link.

Kyiv:

The other day, a filmmaker from Beverly Hills called me.

He said he was really interested in making a documentary about the Battle of Kyiv.

And he asked me if I was interested in joining the project and also asked if I had good ideas and thoughts that could be pitched to…

— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) February 4, 2024

The other day, a filmmaker from Beverly Hills called me.

He said he was really interested in making a documentary about the Battle of Kyiv.

And he asked me if I was interested in joining the project and also asked if I had good ideas and thoughts that could be pitched to Hollywood bosses.

And heaven knows I did have quite a few ideas on why people should tap into that page of modern history.

I often get back to those days in my thoughts. This always gives me a new bit of strength and motivation.

On those days of February and March, we in Ukraine were all alone. Half of the world was literally burying us alive. Our fate seemed to have been decided upon forever.

We were surrounded by a cloud of darkness that was closing in. We had very few weapons sent to us from the West in the final moments before the H-hour. We all were facing a gargantuan wall of doomsday that was just about to bring an end to our little world.

I don’t think that many of us were seriously thinking about a new day to come when hundreds of Russian missiles were roaring from all around Kyiv in the invasion’s initial hours.

Yet, there was this ‘fuck this shit, we’re not going down that easy’ kind of attitude. The spiritual uplift of the final stand or the finest hour, if I may.

So many of us were doing what he or she should and ought to do.

The military was ambushing and slaying gargantuan advancing Russian armored columns. Reporters were staying in the semi-encircled city and doing their job. Many ordinary people were getting rifles and ammo from the police just in the streets of Kyiv and were cooking up Molotovs to give Russians a warm welcome in the end.

Many, yours truly included, took care of their loved ones and got back to the city under attack to never ever feel ashamed of themselves.

Businesses were keeping the city afloat and feeding the old and the poor. Those whom we elected to lead us were doing their thing.

Those tragic days were about this very simple and basic moral principle: do what you must and come what may.

We did not come to terms with ‘there’s nothing that can be done’ and ‘Kyiv will inevitably fall within 72 hours.’

And now, whatever happens, be it America abandoning us in the worst European war of aggression since Adolf Hitler or anything else, we’ll still be doing what we all should.

Because we still have no choice but to do what is right.

But until then – good night from the fighting Ukraine that is repelling the biggest European war of aggression since Adolf Hitler for over 700 days and is not even thinking of giving up.
🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦

Avdiivka:

New footage of the failed Russian attack to encircle Avdiivka back in October 2023 appeared. The concealment of the Russian attack force and their initial thrust were surprising. From all what we know and saw, it is likely that this assault was their make or break thrust. It… pic.twitter.com/KmVNoIVji6

— (((Tendar))) (@Tendar) February 4, 2024

New footage of the failed Russian attack to encircle Avdiivka back in October 2023 appeared. The concealment of the Russian attack force and their initial thrust were surprising. From all what we know and saw, it is likely that this assault was their make or break thrust. It failed and Ukrainians held the line. You can see that cluster ammunition hitting the center of those columns, causing absolute chaos. I’m sure that over the time more details will emerge.

Since this fateful day, Russians were stuck and doomed to repeat their suicide attacks. S

ource of video: https://t.me/operativnoZSU/134988…

#Ukraine #Donetsk #Avdiivka

More from Avdiivka:

First tweet from the very long thread followed by the rest from the Thread Reader App:

Avdiivka thread. Part IX🧵

Call 911, we have a tank accident.

This attack took part at the South of Avdiivka, village Vodiane, 27.12.23

The result of a attack:

– 9 tanks;
– 12 IFV;
– 23 KIA and 46 WIA

Achievements: ~ 200-400 metres👇 pic.twitter.com/K9lk6OkyEv

— Kriegsforscher (@OSINTua) February 3, 2024

T-62M, BMP-1 and MTLB.

Another T-62M zr.2022. Was hit by a couple of FPV drones and, unfortunately, was evacuated later.

T-80BV was damaged and left. Then was destroyed.
It’s very important to destroy the left armour.BTW, those T-62Ms were combat tanks. Not kamikadze.

One more T-80BV. Also was damaged and then destroyed.

Two more extra photos of a previous one and new left T-80BV.

Two left and then destroyed T-72B3M tanks.

Extra photo of a left T-80BV.

And two destroyed MTLBs.

One destroyed and one left BMP-1.

Two left and one destroyed MTLBs. Yes, that black spot was a AFV.

And a funny story happened after👇

Russian BMP-2 was driving and the driver somehow didn’t see the crater and U can see what happened. They tried to evacuate the BMP but didn’t manage to go far.

This shit was a little bit chaotic.

Do you see another black spot? Another MTLB disappeared.

MTLBs, BMP-2🤌

One more, the third one, modernised BMP-2.

One more MTLB (in the middle).

Damn, I remember when in this place there were 2 AFV. Right now when I right this post — 9.

And the last one — BAT-2. Just look at this piece of art.

BTW, since 10.10.23 RUAF lost only 5 combat ingeniring vehicles. They are really lack of them. And it’s good.

People, we need your support. We feel and see your support. Right it’s very important for us:

– Jackery power station: 3
– Antennas: 10
– Antenna tower: 1
– Repair cars: 3
– Special cables: 10

In general: ~ 10 000$

Our PP: [email protected]

BMAC: buymeacoffee.com/ukranianmarine…

Membership | freedomfighterThe main goal of this page is to share my memories and thoughts about the war.https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ukranianmarines/membership

Bryansk, Russia:

Ukrainians drones spotted over Bryansk right now. As Ukraine lacks ammo, drones are proving to be a real game-changer, pushing the war deeper inside Russia pic.twitter.com/MxdxjUw8X0

— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) February 4, 2024

For those of you wondering what Ukrainian air defense doing?

Ukrainian air defenders in action.

📹: 1129th Anti-aircraft Missile Regiment pic.twitter.com/jurjKrtCaX

— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) February 4, 2024

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

First, some adjacent material from the Ukrainian MOD:

Blue eyes.

📷: 127 @TDF_UA Brigade pic.twitter.com/zJFA3BkTKU

— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) February 4, 2024

And a new(ish) video from Patron’s official TikTok (it’s from the 27th of January):

@patron__dsns

🤭🐾 #песпатрон

♬ Animal baby – 上野燿

Open thread!