(Intro by Tom Cooper)

Hello everybody!

Yes, here we are: yet another Monday morning, and thus time for Don’s summary of the last week of war in Ukraine… where, hand on heart: actually, it’s sad - indeed: tragic - any war is going on, week by week, month by month.

Still, meanwhile, wars are ‘perfectly normal’.

That’s not only the case with the War in Ukraine, but valid for Israel’s genocide on Palestinians… ‘ah see there, another report about “that”’… and it’s the same about so many others. See the ‘civil’ war in Myanmar. The war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (where US-, UK-, and Israel-supported Rwanda continues invading as opportune, via proxies) … Islamist insurgencies in the Maghreb/Sahel … the Mexican Drug War … the Sudanese ‘Civil’ War (the third or fourth since the country’s independence, though this time fueled by the United Arab Emirates and Russia) … the ‘Civil’ War in Ethiopia … the Somali ‘Civil’ War … the war in Afghanistan (ah, you thought that one is over? How funny…) … the war between Colombia and Venezuela (never heard?) … the ‘Civil’ War in Nigeria … the war in Yemen … the Syrian ‘Civil’ War (another one that’s ‘over’, eh?) … the Ecuadorian Drug War … insurgencies (mostly Kurds-related) in Iran and Turkey; the Kashmir Conflict; insurgencies in Pakistan; insurgencies in India; insurgencies in Bangladesh; the ‘Civil’ War in the Philippines; Cabinda War in northern Angola; the ‘frozen’ war in Western Sahara… gosh, I better stop: the list of ‘active’ armed conflicts - ‘major’, ‘minor’, those ‘barely worth mention’, and the ‘but that’s no war’ etc. - is really much too long and nobody wants to get overloaded on a Monday morning…

What’s striking for me amid all of this is not only that all the wars in question are just going on and on and on. They are hemorrhaging.

Yes, sigh, that’s a sad matter of fact. At least as sad as that ‘we’ - commentators, monitors, journalists and all the other people supposed to inform and advise you, estimeed readers, about what and how to think about all these wars - are typing. And typing. And typing. And the mass of us is feeling great about having something to type about. We’re feeling great about this. Free along the motto. ‘oh, this is great, lets write about this’, and ‘oh, that’s great, lets write about that’…

….while, can’t help it: today, that typing feels like carving a gravestone for the humanity. Yes, today I’m tired of all the wars.

So much so, I’m having obscene thoughts. Thoughts of the kind people in my ‘branch’ tend to belittle: thoughts we’re usually associating with ‘simpletons’, ‘good-people who do not understand that wars are military affairs’ and similar. Thoughts like this one: the price tag for a single artillery shell, say, calibre 155mm, is anywhere between US$500, -1,500, and -3,300. In comparison, tourniquets - like those acquired thanks to your donations to the Rickshaws for the ZSU collection - usually cost some €6 to €10… or thoughts like recollection of my happiness when Benjamin was delighted to let me know, the last week, that his UAO Initiative has attracted donations worth US$1000 in a matter of 24 hours…

…elsewhere… and as usually: the share price of this or that corporation was worth more attention than a Ukrainian medic’s last bandage…

But, by side boards toasting record dividends: I find that the core problem is that this affair - the War in Ukraine - is degenerating into an affair strikingly similar to that of, say, Bosnia in 1993, or Afghanistan of, say, 2002-2003, or Iraq of 2004-2005: the attraction and excitement of ‘eruption of violence/invasion/intervention/mass murder’ is over and the war is becoming a routine. It’s in the process of being converted into a wallpaper.

The ‘problem’? No, it’s not the boredom: it’s the scale fatigue.

Yes, I admit it without any remorse: for my mind, it’s nothing less than numbing to first read about yet another Russian mass missile- and UAV strike on Ukraine - including strikes on the gas infrastructure in the Lviv area, the power grid in the Shostka Oblast, passenger trains and pig farms, about people spending 12-15 and more hours in air raid shelters - two days ago, only to then hear Kyiv trumpeting with its own strikes on the Russian oil industry and the Swedish donation of Saab JAS.39 Gripens… someday…

…the last, probably, because already the Europe-donated-, US-made F-16s have turned out to be miracle-making- and war-winning tools…?

My problem with all of this is that the ‘bottom line’ remains the same it was a week ago, and a month ago, and a year ago: keeping oneself informed about this war is meanwhile comparable to reading a railways schedule - and that while trapped in a train with windows painted over, and the conductor is reciting the same stations all the time. There’s everything one can want to read and inform him/herself regarding this war: everything about the effects of the disease.

…just no trace of an idea how to end it in a way that would make sense: through a victory against the Russian invasion. No cure to the disease.

Nobody seems to even try thinking about that ‘solution’. Defeating Russia remains an ‘anathema’ (if not ‘impossible’, eh?). Instead… and that in the Anno Domini 2025, we have super-smart politicians making press-releases about the creation of an ‘anti-UAV wall’ as some sort of magic umbrella against the Russian UAV strikes on Denmark, Germany, and Poland - probably because they’ve missed the day at school, when the fate of the Maginot Line was taught…

(…where even that with the Maginot Line is over-ripe: not only that every armchair general since 1940 has whipped that dead horse, but the matter of fact is that the idea of building walls at the times the wars are flying over and around them - is absurd…)

…grrr…

Better I hand over to Don.

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The front lines remained static in many sectors. A common report is that Russia is no longer using armored vehicles but are sending groups of 1-2 people to penetrate the front lines.

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Kursk/Sumy

As a remnant of Ukraine’s invasion of Kursk, Russia bombs a building that’s 800 meters inside Russia near Gornal. 7 km south of Yablunivka, a Ukrainian tank is spotted in the forest and destroyed by multiple drones.

The 73rd Separate Marine Special Operations Center sent a team into Russia, probably west of Tyotkino. While there, they ambushed a car and killed its three occupants. The 144th Fire Support Center kill three and captured one from the 810th Brigade while on patrol in the thick foliage. Other members of the 810th are killed on the water. A Garmon radar with a 40 km range was destroyed in Kursk. South of Snagost in Kursk, the road is littered with vehicles and more are being destroyed each week. A transporter/loader for the Iskander missile system was also reported destroyed in Kursk.

At Shostka, about 45 km from Russia, a civilian train was attacked and 30 people were sent to the hospital.

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Vovchansk

The 57th Motorized Brigade had command of four infantry battalions and had operational control of three separate motorized battalions. These three separate battalions are now a permanent part of the 57th and their independent headquarters and support units are rolled into the brigade formations. This is part of the ongoing effort to improve command and control as part of the corps-brigade reorganization effort.

Russians riding a ferris wheel see the drone attack on the Belgorod power plant. Russians trying to cross the river and move south are attacked by drones.

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Kupiansk

Russian artillery and tanks north of Kupiansk are destroyed by the 40th Artillery Brigade.

Immobilized Ukrainian vehicles are destroyed southeast of Kupiansk. Ukrainian ground drones are destroyed by aerial drones.

Russians crawling in a pipe are passed by something fast.

A 20 minute video with the 15th Kara Dag Brigade north of Kupiansk. A Ukrainian officer said he’s never seen Russian troops thrown into such senseless deaths anywhere else, and that he’s never seen the Russians evacuate their casualties. There are a lot of messages that they are short of water. One hungry Russian broke cover to pick an apple from a tree. He was spotted and ran into the bushes, but the drone hovered until he was spotted again and it was over. Back in the headquarters, the video feed of a Russian drone was intercepted and all the Ukrainians in the area were warned. The reporter said he was 3 km from the front lines and because of the drones, he’d been there for three days and may be there for several more days. Like the soldiers, he is at the mercy of the drones and weather that might keep them grounded.

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Terny

In Nove, a Russian broke into a elderly woman’s home and stole her food. The 66th Brigade drone tracked him back to their hiding spot with predictable results. Ukraine clears out Russians around Ridkodub.

Russians secure Shandryholove.

Russian flags were spotted in Zarichne again. Ukrainian drones harass two Russians before infantry shoots them in the street.

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Siversk

Small Russian groups continue to walk into Dronivka from the south. They are also expanding in front of Vyimka. After entering Pereizne last week, Russians entered the southern end of Fedorivka.

Kostiantynivka

Ukraine bombed Chasiv Yar.

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