Friday!!

And the week is done!
Hallelujah!

Yesterday Trump blamed Zelensky for starting the war with Russia.

I avoid talking about Russian losses of life because that isn’t happy news. Many to most of the Russian soldiers are not culpable, did not choose to go to war and kill/rape/rob Ukrainians. So I’ll sugarcoat it by saying Russia had a very bad day, its second worst single day. 

Russian soldiers are fed up. In the first six months of 2023 there were charges for >2000 cases of desertion. This is double the number in 2022. The real figures are probably much higher. They are exhausted but they also feel the war is unfair and some of them feel they’ve been sent to the slaughterhouse, which, they have. Early in the re-invasion Ukraine released videos of captured soldiers talking to their moms and telling them they’d been shooting at civilians. This is actually against the Geneva Convention, you can’t exhibit prisoners this way. Russian soldiers cannot legally quit, to leave they have to desert. 

Ukrainian air defenses destroyed 80 Russian drones.

The Netherlands has ordered more DITA howitzers from the Czech company Excalibur Army to give to Ukraine. The cost is 271 million euros. They ordered some before in Feb 2024. 

The Pentagon said that Ukraine has cleared out Russian naval forces from Crimea. Destroying half of Russia’s warships and driving the others away is pretty impressive for a country that has no navy itself. They’ve been able to do this with drone boats and tactical brilliance. 

One of the reasons Ukraine can’t push for peace with Russia is that Russia will just build new tanks and invade again. It isnt’ the only reason, but it means that trying to negotiate peace now is pointless. NATO members want Ukraine to be part of NATO. This would help protect Ukraine from another invasion because by invading a NATO country, Russia would be starting war with all of us. 

Russian carmaker Sollers is having problems. Their gearshifts are falling off. They have leaks. They have engine problems. They provide SUVs and trucks to Moscow’s troops. Sollers is blaming Western sanctions costing it key suppliers.