Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Elections aren’t won by handwringing, cowering, and/or bashing your own candidates.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

President Biden is doing good where he can, and getting it done.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

This country desperately needs a functioning Fourth Estate.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

We’re not going back!

White supremacy is terrorism.

An unpunished coup is a training exercise.

It’s a doggy dog world.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

I’d hate to be the candidate who lost to this guy.

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

A consequence of cucumbers

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

The US Supreme Court is on the ballot in november.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / War for Ukraine Day 876: A Brief Thursday Night Update

War for Ukraine Day 876: A Brief Thursday Night Update

by | 15 Comments

This post is in: , , , , , , ,

Two quick housekeeping notes. First, Rosie is still doing great on her off week between treatments. Thank you all, again, for the good thoughts, well wishes, prayers, and donations.

Second, I just want to make a quick point about all the sturm and drang around whether President Biden needs to stay or go. It is important to remember that the Democratic Party today is really a coalition of what would be medium to smaller parties that have a lot of overlapping interests and objectives, but also some significant differences. As the GOP has consolidated into a party with a much narrower constituency, everyone else either finds their way to the Democratic Party of just gives up on political parties. So the Democratic Party absorbs everyone that either is not tolerated in the Republican Party of 2024 or is repulsed by it. And this gets us to the point I want to make. If this whole dispute over if Biden should remain the nominee or withdraw and turn things over to VP Harris or there should be a three week primary or the convention should just be brokered were an actual political warfare operation to break the Democratic Party into smaller parties that can’t garner a majority, what would be done differently? My professional assessment is nothing. Nothing would be done differently. Whether this really started as a political warfare operation or whether a variety of domestic and foreign actors just latched on to and amplified the vendetta that Sulzberger at The NY Times started and is pursuing because President Biden won’t give his paper an interview doesn’t really matter at this point. All that matters is the effects being achieved.

Last night, once again, the Russians launched overnight airstrikes on Kharkiv Oblast:

President Zelenskyy addressed the Fourth European Political Summit today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.

When the Aggressor Loses, the World Wins – Speech by the President of Ukraine at the Fourth European Political Community Summit

18 July 2024 – 13:50

Thank you very much Prime Minister,

Thank you for your kind words about us, about Ukraine, about our fight and thank you for confirming that relations and cooperation between Ukraine and Britain, as well as between Britain and all of Europe, remain crucial.

            Dear friends, dear partners,

We are now at Blenheim, and indeed, this place is associated with Winston Churchill. And however, this palace is not solely connected to him. Among many, it is him who we remember with special esteem, and it is he who adds grandeur to Blenheim. We hold dear Churchill’s jokes and remarks – though we probably would not want to be the subjects of such biting humor. We return to his speeches and measure our own principles against his decisions, aspiring to similar heights. Yet, it was not this that created his legend. It was his ability to be a steadfast barrier between history and cowardice, and that is the key reason people still look up to him. Bravery made Churchill – Churchill. Bravery won the greatest battle of his life. It was the battle for Britain and, of course, for all Europe… Will Europe be a continent that neither surrenders nor sells itself to tyrants? Will Europe be a continent of nations and communities, not a few führers and their hatred? It was resolved then. And we all see how much the bravery of previous generations has won for us. They secured this Europe for us, which has been peaceful for so long. And now, our bravery and cooperation must achieve no less, so that the children of our nations can someday look back at us – at what we’ve done, at what we’ve chosen, at what we have promised – and see the pillars of their peace, their security, and their prosperity just as we see it when we look back at the most famous person from Blenheim.

            Dear ladies and gentlemen, dear leaders,

I will focus on three points today.

First.

We have maintained unity in Europe and are acting together, which means that Putin has missed his primary target – he has failed to create division in Europe. The more decisive Europe is in preserving this unity, the longer-lasting peace we will ensure. Putin cannot sustain relationships with truly strong leaders, and this is our advantage, but it remains an advantage only as long as we are united. He may try to approach you or go to some of your partners individually, trying to tempt or pressure you, to blackmail you, so that one of you betrays the rest – weakening our unity. Yes, everyone chooses for themselves how to act, of course, and what legacy to leave. But if someone in Europe tries to resolve issues behind others’ backs or even at the expense of someone else, if someone wants to make some trips to the capital of war – to talk and perhaps promise something against our common interests or at the expense of Ukraine or other countries, then why should we consider such a person? The EU and NATO can also address all their issues without this one individual.

Second.

The reality on the battlefield is more convincing than any abstract deliberations. We have stopped the Russian advance on Kharkiv. Period. Putin has sacrificed tens of thousands of his citizens but has achieved nothing significant. This was made possible by the bravery of our warriors and the bravery of our partners, who have lifted limitations on the use of Western weapons along our border. Did this lead to escalation? No. On the contrary, it blocked Putin’s attempt to expand the war. Did Putin have any response? No. Even when a Russian missile strikes children with cancer, as happened recently, it only repeats the evil we have already seen from Russia in this war. So, we must act as brave as necessary to achieve results. We can steer this war towards its just ending with the power of our weapons and our diplomacy, and we should not fear these capabilities. The more effective our air defense is, the more helpless Putin will be. The fewer restrictions we have on the use of effective weapons, the more Russia will seek peace. Military airfields from which Russian jets take off with bombs against our cities, our people, our children and the launch sites of Russian missiles – all these must be destroyed. This will not only eliminate some targets but will also reduce Russia’s capability to continue this war. The missiles and drones are not “bearers of state sovereignty”, so there must be a collective will, collective will to shoot them down – just as it was with Iranian missiles and drones. I appeal to all of you, to all leaders who can contribute to the required bravery. These steps must be taken. And I address primarily the United States, the UK, France, Germany, and Poland and other friends – your bravery can be decisive for peace.

And third.

Diplomacy. Everything that adds to our collective strength is useful for bringing peace closer. And I thank all of you for supporting the opening of negotiations for Ukraine’s membership in the EU. This proved that even in the most difficult circumstances, the EU can keep its promises, and it gave Ukraine moral strength. The people fighting for Ukraine and for Europe – should feel that Europe is becoming closer. And I also want to thank those of you who firmly support Ukraine on its path to NATO. Although the Ukraine’s membership has not yet united all 32 NATO states, we have achieved that the complete elimination of this security deficit in Europe through Ukraine’s accession to NATO has become irreversible. And what we must do utmost this year are Peace Summits. I am grateful to Switzerland and all the partners who helped us organize the first Peace Summit. It was a success for everyone who wants a just end to this war. Now we are preparing for the second Peace Summit, and soon working groups will begin on the points of the Peace Formula. These are energy security, food security, and a humanitarian group that will deal with the release of prisoners and the return of deportees. Later, there will be other groups. I ask all of you to support these efforts, join the common work, and choose for yourself the points of the Peace Formula where you can show your leadership. And please, this is very important – convince the partners around the globe that they also have to be brave regardless of threats and blackmail – their joint efforts are needed for the sake of peace. When the aggressor loses – the world wins. This has happened repeatedly in human history. It must happen this time too to the Russia’s aggression.

Thank you very much, thank you for every life saved by your support! Thank you for the invitation, Prime Minister!

Glory to Ukraine!

I want to draw your attention to this part of President Zelenskyy’s speech:

“The fewer restrictions we have on the effective use of weapons, the more Russia will try to move towards peace. Aircraft take off from Russian airfields to bomb our children and citizens, and all of these airfields must be destroyed. This will not only eliminate some targets, but also destroy Russia’s ability to continue this war.”

– President Zelensky at the summit of European Political Community.

For want of a nail…

The reason:

Kurakhove:

Oleksandrivka:

The World Central Kitchen team in Ukraine is safe after our clearly marked armored aid vehicle was struck by a Russian drone equipped with an explosive device near Oleksandrivka. Thankfully, no injuries are reported.

Humanitarians should never ever be a target of war. Read our full statement here: http://wck.org/news/ukraine-team-update

From World Central Kitchen:

On Thursday, July 18, a clearly marked World Central Kitchen humanitarian aid vehicle was struck by a Russian short range explosive device fired by a drone as the armored truck was returning from a food delivery mission in the vicinity of Oleksandrivka, Ukraine. Thankfully, no injuries are reported. Our driver was unharmed and there were no passengers. It is unclear if the WCK vehicle was specifically targeted by Russia.

World Central Kitchen has served more than 260 million meals to families in frontline communities as well as first responders in Ukraine. In the past two years of working in Ukraine, seven WCK volunteers have been killed by Russian military strikes. We also lost seven members of our WCK team in April when an Israeli military airstrike targeted our humanitarian convoy in Gaza.

“Humanitarians are not, and can never be a target,” said WCK CEO Erin Gore. “Safety is fundamental for our ability to show up when disaster strikes and urgently feed communities in the most challenging situations.”

You can read more about the WCK heroes killed in Ukraine and Gaza here.

More on the Battle for Krynky:

Machine translated from the Investigation Club:

The operation to occupy positions and expand the bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnieper by Ukrainian forces lasted from mid-October 2023 to July 2024. Basically the fighting was over the village of Krinka — the only one on the left bank of the Kherson region, where the defense forces managed to gain a foothold. Village held Marine brigades and separate units of the TrO brigades.

On July 17, OSU spokesman «Tavria» Dmitry Lykhova in a comment «Info» said that « Defense Forces continue to conduct a defense operation on the left bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region, in particular, and in the Krynok area ».

On July 2, 2024, a video appeared in pro-Russian telegram channels of the Russian military dropping anti-tank mines on the positions of the defense forces. «Indeed.Info» geoloculated this video as actually shot in the south of the village of Krinka.

According to «Info», the Ukrainian military is now fighting for islands between the right and left banks near the village of Krinka.

During the defense of this settlement, hundreds of Ukrainian families received reports that their sons, husbands, parents and brothers had disappeared there.

Journalists «Info» learned how many Ukrainian soldiers have now disappeared from Krynki. We tell about several of them in the material.

Much more at the link.

Russian occupied Luhansk:

Occupational “authorities” of Luhansk demolished a memorial dedicated to the victims of Stalin’s era repressions placed there in 1990.

It was on the spot where mass burial was discovered, including of women and children, murdered by the soviet regime.

The “authorities” alleged that it was installed by nationalist authorities, which is not the case.

Lazurne, Kherson Oblast:

Pokrovsk:

Lake Donuslavsk, Russian occupied Crimea:

Sea and air drones of Ukrainian Security Service attacked the Russian coast guard base on Lake Donuzlav last night.

It is reported that the combined attack had disabled:

▪️headquarters with a control point;
▪️a warehouse of ammunition and equipment;
▪️electrical substation;
▪️technical structures;
▪️enemy firing positions.

For you drone enthusiasts:

The Wild Hornets team has been working for several months to ensure that the enemy helicopter won’t escape next time 😏🐝

There’s more to come… 😈

If you also want the ruzzians to burn in the sky and on the ground, please make a donation to our developments:

💲PayPal: [email protected]
🔗Monobank: http://send.monobank.ua/jar/E5kHzqvBb

(The off-screen voice is an FPV drone operator from the BULAVA unit sharing his impressions of almost hitting a helicopter, but he is pleased with the effect it had on the russian pilot 👹 It’s okay, next time we’ll get him 🐝)

Here’s the fully video. I’ve got the English closed captioning turned out. It’s not perfect, but it’ll do till they get the video properly subtitled.

 

Perm Oblast, Russia:

Commander Prothero makes an appearance in Milwaukee on the Moskva:

“England prevails…”

That’s enough for tonight.

Your daily Patron!

A new video from Patron’s official TikTok!

@patron__dsns

🐭🍦#песпатрон

♬ Mouse eating sound – حدوري🇮🇶

Puppy cup!!!!

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

15Comments

  1. 1.

    Lyrebird

    Thank you Adam.

    ETA: sorry I am more blunt than lyrical.

    It sucks that your educational series here from numerous years ago, teaching noobs like myself about Maskirovska (sp?), continues to be so darned relevant.  And further credit to you for being willing to call an ambiguous situation what it is, versus insisting on one option when we don’t have enough information to tell.

  2. 2.

    Gin & Tonic

    That German video made me recall some things. I was going to write about some other stuff tonight, but that’ll have to wait.
    Let’s say, just for the sake of argument, you run a successful mid-size business; you import and distribute “stuff” – I don’t know, maybe plumbing fixtures. So you have a warehouse, and there’s goods moving in and out a lot, and packages arriving from foreign countries.You’re in kind of run-down area, people don’t pay too much attention. So you hire some young computer-engineering types, maybe fresh out of university (since theoretically military conscription age begins at 25.) Lots of stuff starts coming in from China. The young engineers are very busy customizing some components. You have 3D printers running 24×7 manufacturing some parts you need. Works in progress are stacked floor-to-ceiling.

    I’m not going to say our friend K showed us anything of the sort, this is just a thought experiment. But maybe some very smart and motivated kids with substantial backing could make commodity components do creative things, no? Possible? Maybe a visitor with a bundle of portraits of Benjamin Franklin could be of some assistance?​​

  4. 4.

    Sister Inspired Revolver of Freedom

    As militarily ignorant as I am, I can’t see how Russia sustains this level of equipment losses. Those vast Soviet era stockpiles are getting mighty empty, according to satellite photographs & some quality Osint.

    There has been a rumour, what Adam would call ruminit, that Xi Jingping has sustained a stroke of some kind. Anyone have some solid information about that?

    Anti-Putin Russian partisans seem to have really stepped up their operations. Good for them!😁

    Thank you Adam, as always.

  7. 7.

    Traveller

    On the issue of Ukrainian manufacturing, good…but it has long been a developing thought of mine that Europe and whatever other friends Ukraine can find might have to go this alone.

    This being said, and there having been lots of criticism of Mr Biden here, some fair, some not in my opinion, but there is now an urgent task before Mr Biden at this moment…and I don’t want this shrugged off to Ms Harris or Loyd Austin or anyone else…there needs to be instantly established an emergency task force as to what is needed for Ukraine going forward….if it is fuses for 155mm shells then this needs to be stockpiled in Poland or Western France or wherever is is safe. And this would apply to all things that Ukraine or Europe might not be able to manufacture themselves.

    I would like to see a stockpiling of the AGM-158 JASSM cruise missile, though I accept that this may be a bridge too far…but then at least all possible Air to Air AMRAAM’s, as well as what has proved to be very effect on the ground, dozens or hundreds of Bradley Fighting Vehicles with spare parts galore and tons and tons of ammunition.

    In other words I want to see the entire 60 Billion dollar Ukraine appropriations spent, and delivered not in in 2B here and 1.4B there…I want to know what is needed, and most especially what is needed to fill in any gaps that European/Ukrainian manufacturers might have trouble producing. This could well be mostly electronics and guidance….I don’t know, but, I would like to know that either publicly or clandestinely real and substantial efforts are being made in this direction.

    Not tomorrow, now.

    Equally important, I was some assurance that actual title to these supplies be legally transferred to the Ukrainian Government and stored at non-US military bases. Adam and others can chime in and, please feel free, to criticize my passionate wishes in these regards…I really want to know this is happening. Best Wishes, Traveller

  8. 8.

    Chris

    Second, I just want to make a quick point about all the sturm and drang around whether President Biden needs to stay or go. It is important to remember that the Democratic Party today is really a coalition of what would be medium to smaller parties that have a lot of overlapping interests and objectives, but also some significant differences. As the GOP has consolidated into a party with a much narrower constituency, everyone else either finds their way to the Democratic Party of just gives up on political parties. So the Democratic Party absorbs everyone that either is not tolerated in the Republican Party of 2024 or is repulsed by it. And this gets us to the point I want to make. If this whole dispute over if Biden should remain the nominee or withdraw and turn things over to VP Harris or there should be a three week primary or the convention should just be brokered were an actual political warfare operation to break the Democratic Party into smaller parties that can’t garner a majority, what would be done differently? My professional assessment is nothing. Nothing would be done differently. Whether this really started as a political warfare operation or whether a variety of domestic and foreign actors just latched on to and amplified the vendetta that Sulzberger at The NY Times started and is pursuing because President Biden won’t give his paper an interview doesn’t really matter at this point. All that matters is the effects being achieved.

    Something that often gets brought up in the CIA’s classic coups (Iran, Guatemala, Zaire) is that they’re actually co-productions.  It’s not something the CIA does to another country, so much as the CIA and the elites of that country working together against that country’s people and elected representatives.  It’s not certain, but extremely possible, that the same coups would have happened even without any CIA presence at all; the domestic elements for it were definitely there.  I’ve been reminded of that a lot when watching U.S. politics over the last eight years.

    (Also why the CIA’s attempts to pull similar shenanigans in actual communist states or other hostile dictatorships, against the likes of Castro or Saddam, always seem to faceplant embarrassingly.  When the local ruling class isn’t riddled with willing turncoats, they have nothing to work with).

  15. 15.

    strange visitor (from another planet)

    …woah. sorry about the multiple comments. got caught by the two o’clock bug.

Comments are closed.