(Intro by Tom Cooper)

Hello everybody!

Like yesterday, got up today to face yet additional questions and requests in style of, ‘where are you since weeks’ and/or ‘why don’t you comment about (‘this or that)’…?

What shall I tell you?

On one side, yes: it’s my ‘job’ that’s keeping me busy. Very busy. Like everybody else, I also have to pay my bills, and circumstances are such that presently my desk is full of work on finalising different of @War books published by Helion. For example, few weeks ago, we’ve released the first of two volumes detailing artillery systems deployed in the ongoing war in Ukraine. That one is covering Soviet-designed systems (readers of two earlier tomes covering ‘tanks’, - for example: this was the first of them - know what kind quality information and details are these books packing). The second volume of that project, detailing Western-designed artillery systems deployed in the ongoing war is about to follow, and I’m also helping finalise the War in Ukraine Volume 11, researched and written by an Ukrainian author, and detailing the story of the Battle of Chernihiv, back in February-March 2022. Two of earlier books from our War in Ukraine mini-series - Volume 2 and Volume 8 - are currently in the process of being translated to Ukrainian, so they can be re-published in Ukraine, and in Ukrainian language, too.

…and that’s not to talk about the work on (literally) dozens of other @War books (yes, as somebody characterised it: we’re publishing almost as many of @War books as the Rider’s Digest is publishing to different other topics).

On the other hand… well, again: what shall I tell you?

On this blog, Don, Benjamin and me have discussed plentiful of things of the kind others are only now starting to discuss - already 10, 12, 16, 18 and more months ago. Things like what’s discussed in this video, that Syrsky's Buddies are foremost excelling in getting lots of Ukrainians - ZSU or civilians - killed:

(Pay attention: the gent in question is highly experienced and recently became a civilian, which is why he can speak openly.)

We’ve discussed the decreasing Ukrainian air defence capabilities already months ago. Indeed, have clearly stated that ‘F-16s’ (and ‘Mirages’) simply aren’t types of aircraft that can increase these to the level necessary to ‘replace’ ground-based air defences - and have also pointed out that the ‘train’ of bolstering the latter on time went away already years ago.

Thus, explaining that Zelensky/Yermak - plus their Syrsky & Buddies - are ruining what’s left of Ukraine’s ability to defend itself, and that on behalf of enriching themselves and their favourites, is ‘nothing new’ (at least not on this blog). The same is valid for the facts that Ukraine has ever less capability left to defend itself from daily - and ever more massive - Russian UAV- and missile strikes, and that this is a logical result of a mass of massive, strategic-level failures of its own, and the top political and military leadership of ‘the West’.

So, about all that I could add right now is something like a ‘clarification’ in reaction to a statement I’ve often faced the last few weeks and months. The one that Zelensky is a ‘dictator’, and neither ‘the West’, nor ‘Ukraine’ are in position to teach anybody anything about something called ‘democracy’…

Sorry to disappoint, but no: Zelensky is no ‘dictator’.

He’s the elected president of Ukraine. That with ‘CIA-instigated coup’, ‘Victoria Nuland’, and ‘dictator’ is all the Russian propaganda.

No doubt, such rubbish is happily spread by lots of non-Russians (especially including the US-American citizens, lots of Europeans, but also the Chinese, Indians, Serbs), too: people with no ties to Pudding’s PRBS-industry. Indeed, had a prominent expert on geo-strategy from India explaining me such nonsense, live on TV, in a recent talkshow on the Indian TV (and couldn’t but laugh in reaction).

But still: that’s all propaganda.

’However’, there’s no denial that Zelensky’s Presidential Advisor - Yermak - is doing everything in his powers to make his ‘boss’ - a person many in Kyiv say can’t even tie his shoelaces without Yermak’s permission - a dictator. Not only because… well: there’s no denial that ‘power corrupts’, and ‘absolute power - absolutely corrupts’… but, because that’s making things easier. For Yermak. And, that’s his clear conviction: for Zelensky, too.

And, there’s no denial that the circumstances are supporting this ‘development’. You see: Ukraine is facing a war of extermination. Should there be any doubts, see what are the Russians doing with the population of those parts of the country they have brought under their control. They’re denied not only their nationality and citizenship, but even the use of the Ukrainian language… not to talk about their life.

Unsurprisingly, millions of Ukrainians have fled the country and the Russian invasions of 2014-2015 and 2022 have not only emptied entire cities of their population (see Donetsk and Luhansk), but completely obliterated vivid administrative-, cultural- and industrial centres like Mariupol, Bakhmut, Vovchansk, Mariinka, Vuhledar… If that’s not enough, the Russians are presently doing their utmost to obliterate Kupyansk, Izyum, Kramatorsk, Pokrovsk and Kherson, and a better part of me does not want to know what exactly is going on in cities ‘behind the frontlines but not heavily damaged by fighting’, like Berdiansk and Melitopol… and that’s not to talk about the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula - with cities like Sevastopol, Simferopol, Yevpatoria - or about cities (still) well behind Ukrainian lines, like Sumy, Kharkiv, Poltava, Dnipro. Zaproizhzhia, Nikopol, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa… and then so many towns, villages, or distant farms…

…and, because all of this, so says the Ukrainian law, the country is in no position to elect itself a new leadership…

…sigh…

The next point was the question: is there ‘free press’ in Ukraine?

That’s, actually, easy to answer (at least for me): yes, there is.

…with limitations imposed by the Russian invasion and a war of extermination of Ukraine. Read: by the Russian genocide on Ukrainians.

Result: the local and foreign journos are not free to report about topics related to the defence of the country. They can get themselves in trouble by criticising the political- and military leadership. This is a matter of fact; ‘but’: this is less related to personal freedoms and more to a combination of ‘traditions from Soviet times’ and the ‘System Zele/Yermak’, than to actual laws.

Neither is a ‘joke’: too many people in Ukraine are seriously concerned for their safety. Really scared. One can literally feel this when online-communicating with them.

And that’s not all: there are other limits to that freedom. Like it or not, but spreading Russian propaganda is prohibited by law in Ukraine.

Hand on heart: ‘even’ I - as an outspoken, insistent, and practicing pluralist - find this OK. If for no other reasons then because I’m fed up, to death, of all sorts of PRBS flying all over the World.

It’s a bit different in regards of religion. Is a topic of crucial importance for so many (even if none at all to me: I’m a ‘convinced and practicing atheist’). There, the Ukrainian law has forced the Russian Orthodox Church to cut off its ties with Moscow. Because Moscow is (mis)using the Russian Orthodox Church for support of its invasion and the war of extermination against Ukraine (read: in support of its genocide on Ukrainians). Doesn’t mean the Russian Orthodox Church was anything like ‘prohibited’ in Ukraine, though: people can continue worshiping there as much as they like. Just like followers of other religions are free to follow their own convictions and conscience.

Where the situation is a lot less ‘clear’ are the jurisdiction, the economy, and the armed forces - and then especially the ‘intermingled’ aspects of these. For example: the top leadership of the armed forces, which is currently responsible for production and distribution of goods worth billions. This is where, meanwhile, even very few well-informed people in Kyiv can precisely state who is in charge - and thus cashing the income - of specific enterprises. Plus bribes that ‘have to be paid’ by anybody who wants to manufacture anything for the armed forces, big style.

That’s also Yermak’s primary aim: secure as much of income from such ‘sources’ as possible. For himself. Ah yes: for Zelensky as well.

…and that at the time at least 40% of the remaining Ukrainian population is dependent for their survival on the provision of humanitarian aid. On collections and donations in money, food, medicine, vehicles, and clothes. Primarily from ‘the West’.

So, again… cannot but counter all the questions mentioned at the start of this introduction with: what shall I tell you? What kind of ‘news’ can I offer - whether on this blog or in any kind of interviews for TV or other media any more? Have studied the details as closely as possible, and discussed the geo-strategic, socio-economic, and military backgrounds and context - the reasons, the circumstances, the results - up and down, ‘to death’. At some point in time, this process has reached a point of ‘constant repeats’: the same things are happening again and again. Principally because those in charge, those who are responsible, are not just ‘not learning from their mistakes’, but stubbornly insistent on doing exactly like before.

…which can only have one result: the Russian genocide on Ukrainians is going on.

…just like the Zionist genocide on Palestinians is going on, and I’m thus not reporting about related affairs.

….because, as a dear friend and colleague has observed, recently: well, there’s not much point in doing things like, just for example, trying to prepare ‘military history of the Uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto of 1944’ - simply because that’s, actually, a story of systematic mass murder. And, sorry but: I’m not into researching and writing about mass murder.

At the time this ‘(contemporary) military history’ is, no matter where, controlled and dictated by entire bunches of ‘politicians’ and ‘administrators’ actually behaving like gangs of racoons on dope… well, sorry, but there is only one result: there’s not much for me to do - but working on conflicts from the past.

In the meantime, I’m in a lucky position to be accompanied by people like Donald, who’re continuing to diligently collect ‘details’. Details of crucial importance, because they’re helping recognise patterns and trends. Because, one can’t figure out the patterns and trends without finding out the details. Presently, these ‘details’, and the resulting patterns and trends are ‘simple’: corruption, incompetence, and mass murder, ‘all over the place’, anywhere from Anchorage, Alaska, to Kharkiv, Ukraine…

Therefore, over to Don.

***

Sumy/Kursk

The 225th Assault Regiment continues to push Russians back to the border and eliminate counter attacks. A drone lies in ambush and waits for Russian troops. The 73rd Naval Special Operations troops patrol the woods.

Tyotkino is hit by a Ukrainian airstrike. Korovyakivka was hit twice. Ukrainian positions in Andriivka are attacked.

***

Milove

The 425th Assault Regiment was reported to be in the Sumy region last week but they turned up in Milove, assaulting it from the north. The exact amount of territory that they recovered wasn’t reported, but based on their performance in the Pokrovsk sector, they will likely recover all the territory at some point.

***

Kupiansk

The front lines remained stable despite the heavy fighting. Two Ukrainian logistics vehicles were shown burning but there were a total of six within a hundred meters of each other. The Achilles drone regiment destroyed five Russian armored vehicles in a single attack. The 10th Corps posted footage of 14th Brigade drone operators destroying a 152mm gun. A Russian occupied house is hit by a precision bomb. Cars in Kupiansk are hunted.

Civilians were waiting for humanitarian aid and a Russian rocket killed five and wounded three others.

***

(…to be continued…)

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This text is published with the permission of the author. First published here.

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