Safety shot

I’m glad I took a safety shot because my experiments didn’t work. I’ll try again another night.

Foreign traders are storing natural gas under Ukraine. European underground natural gas storage facilities are 94% full. Ukraine does not plan to import gas this winter, it has been filling its stores to meet its needs. 

In Feb 2022 Russia captured Kupyansk without a fight. Ukraine got it back a year ago. Russia is trying to get it back and is failing. “Russia is using Storm Z penal units-made up of prisoner recruits -at the Kupyansk front, according to Ukrainian commanders. Some of the units were so poorly equipped that only one out of three soldiers carried a rifle, with others expected to pick up the weapons of fallen comrades or to capture them, said a Ukrainian battalion commander on the Kupyansk front who goes by the call sign Phoenix.” One of the recently captured Russian soldiers was convinced he was saving Ukraine by fighting Americans who were occupying it. 

In Kupyansk, municipal crews are mowing lawns and picking up leaves because, war or no war, it is their city and they will keep it clean. 

The Russian navy had its worst day since Ukraine sunk the Moskva. Russia's Defense Ministry said ten cruise missiles and three naval drones attacked Sevastopol. Videos and pictures show Sevastopol's drydock area engulfed in flames, with the Minsk Ropucha-class large landing ship and Rostov-on-Don Kilo-class attack submarine believed to have been damaged.

Russian vessels will no longer approach Ukraine’s southern coast. The most valuable ships have been relocated far, far away. Russian ships are great targets. Russian ships are valuable targets. Russia regularly uses its Black Sea Fleet to launch cruise missiles and to enforce a naval blockade of southern Ukrainian ports vital for Kviv's exports.

And the best news, finally another animal story. Scotland has a new bear. A Scottish zoo gave a home to a bear rescued from Ukraine. He’s getting a new home at Five Sisters Zoo in West Calder, West Lothian. The zoo is seeking donations from the public to pay about £200,000 for Yampil's new enclosure. A rescue operation took Yampil from Ukraine to Poland and then to Belgium, where he is temporarily being held in the Natuurhulpcentrum animal shelter. (Who made up that name?)