TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian Z fascist invaders.
I am a 73 year old Covid hermit who
lives on 10 acres in a sparsely populated area of the Ozarks. I heat with wood that is leftover by the lumber industry. When cutting oak for lumber only the trunk is used.
The largest town is population 2992. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
Finished my first cup (22 ounce) of coffee and not even 8AM yet. Not even Monday either.
TOP NEWS TODAY 🔝👍
🔥 3 russian SU-34s were destroyed today!
🇬🇧 British soldiers helping fire Ukrainian missiles, Olaf Scholz reveals.
🇺🇸 Discussions have begun in the Pentagon regarding the transfer to Ukraine of reserve presidential funds (~4 billion), — СNN
🇺🇦 3rd assault brigade knocked out the occupiers from Krasnohorivka in Donetsk region.
🇹🇷 We fundamentally support the 10 points of the peace plan of President Zelensky, - Erdogan
🇲🇰 Ukraine and North Macedonia signed Declaration on Euro-Atlantic integration.
🇪🇺 Von der Leyen: With or without the support of partners, we cannot allow Russia to win!
💪 3rd Assault and 25th Airborne Brigades defeated russians near outskirts of Orlivka.
🔥 AFU launched a missile attack on the concentration of russian troops in Olenivka.
🇫🇮 Ukraine can use weapons provided by Finland to strike russian territory, - MoD of Finland.
🇫🇷 France may send military personnel to Ukraine for air defense systems, training of AFU or protection of borders, - Gabriel Attal
🇦🇷 Javier Milei plans to hold a summit of Latin American countries in support of Ukraine, - FT
🇺🇦 Ukrainian manufacturers produced about 200,000 FPV drones in Jan-Feb 2024.
@ukrainejournal
3“FROM THE ANALYST” TWO MORE DOWNED AS LOSSES MOUNT
Two more Su-34 tactical bombers were taken out yesterday bringing the total to 12 in the past three weeks.
That’s virtually an entire squadron wiped out. The loss of the A50U’s has effectively forced them to operate without command and control or any early warning.
Yet Russia persists using these bombers to deliver the glide bombs in an effort to maintain momentum.
They’re afraid that without them then Ukrainians can’t be kept down sufficiently to allow their poorly trained meatwave troops to move forward.
It’s been suggested that the Ukrainian forces are using an ‘experimental’ ultra long range Patriot missile - but if these aircraft are having to get within
10km and fly at 2000m to deliver the bombs with any hope of a semblance of accuracy, it doesn’t need a special missile to find them.
@ukrainejournal
CONTINUED..…
The late 2022 offensive when Ukraine retook Kherson and the Kupiansk area made it seem like they would quickly defeat Russia. It acted as a stop on urgency. The offensive last year created a stalemate that stuck. The fall of Avdivka has shattered any illusions - the Russian offensive and Ukrainian withdrawals have crashed through any remaining reticence.
The Europeans are finally awake.
@ukrainejournal
“FROM THE ANALYST” EUROPE FINALLY GETS IT AS MAJOR MOVES TO AID UKRAINE UNFOLD
President Macron of France, no longer facing the pressure of reelection as his second term enters its second half, has suddenly become motivated to press far harder for aid for Ukraine.
Germany has been in quiet negotiations with India for artillery shells. Czechia has led a consortium to acquire 800,000 shells - the Canadians and Dutch have already agreed to finance most of it.
In an unprecedented move, as the EU struggles to meet its commitments to Ukraine, it’s been agreed to use EU money to buy shells from outside of the EU. Countries with sizeable reserves are being approached to supply some of what’s needed as European industry gears up.
The problems for the European industry are a mirror of what’s happened in America. Post Cold War the industrial base shrank so much and so far, expanding it by 100% is still nowhere near where it needs to be. It’s like going from extra small to small with the aim of trying to reach medium in reasonable time, when what’s needed is three sizes bigger and needs to be XXL.
Yet finally, those problems are recognised. Not only that but what’s also been recognised is that Ukraine needs aid now. Even if America turned the taps on tomorrow and surged supplies, there’s limited capacity in Poland, to force such quantities through the system and get it to the front lines in Ukraine. It will take at least a month to six weeks.
There’s also a growing acceptance in the Biden Administration that dithering about on ATACMS, GLSDB and even more Abram’s and Bradley’s
has finally been put to one side.
The new aid package when it’s passed - and it will be eventually, is going to see some juicy new weapons that are going to make the Russians deeply unhappy. $61 billion is a lot of money- and it’s going to make a difference.
The Macron statement that if it got far enough he would send French troops into Ukraine to make sure Russia doesn’t win, pretty much caused a meltdown in some capitals. Several reacted quickly - including America - saying that’s never going to happen - with their troops - but Russia leapt on the declaration. Of course they would - it played into their propaganda that Russia has always been fighting NATO. Yet by saying it in many ways, Macron almo6st said, ‘well you’re always saying it’s already happening, so what if were true!’ Which forced the Kremlin to say it would open up a war with all of NATO - a war it says it’s already fighting - so it totally undermined their stupid propaganda argument.
As I said after Davos and Munich, the lobbying, advice, the knowledge so many of us have tried so hard to get leadership across Europe to accept as fact, is getting through. The fall of Avdivka and the death of Navalny somehow crystallised the realities for them. Trump with his stupid NATO statements a couple of weeks back, added to that feeling.
The EU has never seen itself as ‘power’. Its is not a United States of Europe and nowhere near it. But it is a community of democratic trading nations that realises it has to be more. Its unity of purpose when it comes to Russia is growing stronger by the day. It wants Ukraine as part of its future - it’s a mutually beneficial prospect that excites everyone - the reconstruction post war will be intense and vast.
Even the Toad of the Balkans, the odious and corrupt Victor Orban, said yesterday that he doesn’t want a border with Russia. 1956 and the soviet suppression of a democratic uprising in Hungary hasn’t been forgotten. Even he knows Ukraine is better intact even for Hungary. And one cannot help but think if Orban is starting to see that Russia can’t be allowed to win. He’s got almost everything he wanted from NATO and the EU. Maybe now he knows which side his bread is
buttered.
There has been a turning of the tide in European capitals. A resilience is building. Democracy takes time to react - far too long - but never underestimate its capacity to act when it decides it must. CONTINUES..
“FROM THE ANALYST” THREATS OF NUKES AND ORWELLIAN SPEECHES
Putin spent two hours yesterday boring an audience of carefully selected characters to death with his ‘state of the federation’ speech. Most of it was domestic policy and outlandish claims about the health of the economy that sounded positively fantastical.
His threats on nuclear weapons use against any NATO Member that sends troops to defend Ukraine came through sharply. He’s genuinely afraid that NATO would change the balance of the war against him.
The tedious ramblings of a boring dictator were broadcast on every TV station, in cinemas (with apparently minuscule attendance), and on ominous building sized screens around Moscow reminiscent of some dystopian sci-fi film. 20m high images of a bald dwarf, puffy faced and wearing makeup making threats about Armageddon to a hall full of people too afraid to fall asleep.
@ukrainejournal
Pentagon considering tapping last source of Ukraine military drawdown authority as Congress stalls on additional aid - CNN
The Pentagon is weighing whether to tap into the last remaining drawdown of ammunition it is permitted to use for military aid to support Ukraine’s war effort against Russia even without guarantees that those stocks will be replenished by Congress, multiple defense officials told CNN
The Defense Department still has around $4 billion in presidential drawdown authority available for Ukraine, which allows the Pentagon to draw from its own stockpiles to send military equipment to Kyiv.
But the Pentagon had previously been reluctant to spend any of that remaining stock without assurances it would be reimbursed by Congress through the administration’s $60 billion supplemental funding request, because taking from DoD stockpiles with no plan to replenish that equipment could impact US military readiness.
But with Ukraine growing increasingly desperate for US military aid and Republican leadership in the House refusing to hold a vote on providing more funding, senior defense officials are discussing whether there is any financial cushion internally that would allow the department to spend at least part of that remaining $4 billion to help Ukraine fight Russia.
No decisions have been made yet, officials emphasized. But the conversations about that option and other potential plan Bs have become increasingly urgent over the last several weeks as the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine has become more dire, the officials said.
“At issue here again is the question of impacting our own readiness, as a nation, and the responsibilities that we have,” he said last month when asked about the money. “
And so, yes, while we do have that $4.2 billion in authority, we don’t have the funds available to us to replenish those stocks should we expend that. And with no timeline in sight, we have to make those hard decisions.”
From "The Analyst":
A VICTORY ON THE EASTERN FRONT
As part of their offensive campaign, the lower part of the Eastern front at Novomikhailivka was a Russian target that they have tried for weeks to take. Capture would have eased their path to breaking the key Vuhledar defences they’ve been after for over a year. It’s the first in a long line of villages that sit mostly in lower land either side of which are strategic higher ground. However either side is also mostly open farmland and tree lines. Their ultimate aim is a key transport hub at Kurakhove. It’s this hub and the Ukrainian transport routes that prevented them succeeding earlier.
Having failed they planned a wider offensive pincer movement to get around Novomikhailivka.
The fiercest battles took place along the northern sector of the viallage flanks. Russians aimed at the small village of Pobeda, aiming to get behind Novomikhailivka.
Pobeda had been a target for the past two years but had been impossible to take while Marinka was fought over. Ukraine withdrew from that devastated town two months ago after fierce battles.
Using air bombs, thermobarics and artillery to reduce the defences, the Russians launched a mechanised assault, which they repeated a dozen or more times. Eventually they gained a foothold in two farms east of the village. Eventually, with a supply road and endless troops they took the whole settlement.
However then village, which has significant local tactical importance, is split by a river and Ukraine realised quickly the importance of a counter attack, and that Russian positions were not well placed to defend from although they’d been good to attack out of.
The next day the Ukrainian forces, using Leopard-2 tanks (at least one was lost), counter attacked.
The attack was hugely successful and drove the Russians out of the southern part of the village and over the river.
Meanwhile in the North, Russia is trying to reach a position where it breaks down the frontlines and defences, trying to restore Second World War levels of manoeuvring warfare, to give itself an advantage using the armour it has and Ukraine does not. They seem to want to open a blitzkrieg style front and quickly regain the area they lost in September 2022.
Otherwise, a good day for Ukraine - the Russians are not having an easy time of getting what they want.
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦!
From "The Analyst":
A VICTORY ON THE EASTERN FRONT
As part of their offensive campaign, the lower part of the Eastern front at Novomikhailivka was a Russian target that they have tried for weeks to take. Capture would have eased their path to breaking the key Vuhledar defences they’ve been after for over a year. It’s the first in a long line of villages that sit mostly in lower land either side of which are strategic higher ground. However either side is also mostly open farmland and tree lines. Their ultimate aim is a key transport hub at Kurakhove. It’s this hub and the Ukrainian transport routes that prevented them succeeding earlier.
Having failed they planned a wider offensive pincer movement to get around Novomikhailivka.
The fiercest battles took place along the northern sector of the viallage flanks. Russians aimed at the small village of Pobeda, aiming to get behind Novomikhailivka.
Pobeda had been a target for the past two years but had been impossible to take while Marinka was fought over. Ukraine withdrew from that devastated town two months ago after fierce battles.
Using air bombs, thermobarics and artillery to reduce the defences, the Russians launched a mechanised assault, which they repeated a dozen or more times. Eventually they gained a foothold in two farms east of the village. Eventually, with a supply road and endless troops they took the whole settlement.
However then village, which has significant local tactical importance, is split by a river and Ukraine realised quickly the importance of a counter attack, and that Russian positions were not well placed to defend from although they’d been good to attack out of.
The next day the Ukrainian forces, using Leopard-2 tanks (at least one was lost), counter attacked.
The attack was hugely successful and drove the Russians out of the southern part of the village and over the river.
Meanwhile in the North, Russia is trying to reach a position where it breaks down the frontlines and defences, trying to restore Second World War levels of manoeuvring warfare, to give itself an advantage using the armour it has and Ukraine does not. They seem to want to open a blitzkrieg style front and quickly regain the area they lost in September 2022.
Otherwise, a good day for Ukraine - the Russians are not having an easy time of getting what they want.
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦!
'Several' Republicans Ready To Sign Discharge Petition Against Mike Johnson
A discharge petition, if adopted by a majority in the US House of Representatives, would force a vote for Ukraine aid, bypassing the republican majority speaker Mike Johnson, who is currently blocking the vote.
It would however require a number of republican house representatives to go against their own speaker to achieve a majority for the discharge petition, helping to save Ukraine from the Russian onslaught - they would be required to prioritise Ukrainian lives over party politics.
The threat of a discharge petition can also put additional pressure on Johnson.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick said he spoke to "several" other Republicans in the House who are prepared to find another way of bringing forward, in some form, a $95 billion foreign aid bill agreed on by the Senate.
"I wouldn't necessarily phrase this as going around anybody, this is just to add a pressure point," Fitzpatrick said on The Lead with Jake Tapper on February 27.
Tapper asked the Pennsylvania Republican if there were other Republicans willing to support efforts to bring a Ukraine deal to the House floor. Fitzpatrick said he was unwilling to name any of the supportive Republicans he spoke to, but that there were "several."
- Readers in the US may wish to contact their representative on the matter.
The US Senate Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell nudges Johnson as gap grows between the GOP leaders
On Ukraine and spending, the Hill’s two top Republicans were looking further apart on Tuesday.
“What I hope is that the House will take up the Senate bill [on Ukraine] and let the House work its way. If they change it and send it back here, we have further delays,” Mitch McConnell said.
“We don’t want the Russians to win in Ukraine. So, we have a time problem here. And I think the best way to move quickly and get the bill to the president would be for the House to take up the Senate bill and pass it.”
The split of NATO, the loss of Ukraine and the rule of dictators on the world stage are predicted by the leader of the Democrats in the US Senate, Chuck Schumer.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke to reporters after meeting with President Biden and other Congressional leaders at the White House.
"There was a kind of consensus in that room that Zelensky and Ukraine will lose the war if we don't get them the arms quickly," Schumer shared.
"This was so, so important," the Senate Majority Leader said. "And that we couldn't afford to wait a month, two months, or three months because we would in all likelihood lose the war."
"NATO would be fractured at best," Schumer continued.
"Allies would turn away from the United States. And the boldest leaders, the boldest autocrats of the world, the Putins, the Xis, the presidents of North Carolina -- North Korea -- i like the governor of North Carolina actually -- the presidents of North Korea and Iran would be emboldened thinking that the United States was this soft, fat country that lost its way and will take advantage."
"And so we said to the Speaker, get it done," Schumer sternly said. "I told him this is one of the moments -- I said I've been around here a long time. It's maybe four or five times that history is looking over your shoulder. And if you don't do the right thing, whatever the immediate politics are, you will regret it, I told him, two years from now and every year after that. Because really it's in his hands. It's in his hands.
We told him how important it was. It was passionate. I talked about my trip to Ukraine where I met soldiers who had Russian artillery in range with the drones, but not ammunition to fire at them."
Trump is embroiled in a Truth Social problem.
https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/donald-trump-has-a-whole-new-truth-social-problem/54771/
Good morning Resisters everywhere. It was supposed to be in the 40s to start the day. Instead it's 35⁰ and rainy. Bad for cell reception. But I will get by.
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian Z fascist invaders.
I am a 73 year old Covid hermit who
lives on 10 acres in a sparsely populated area of the Ozarks. I heat with wood that is leftover by the lumber industry. When cutting oak for lumber only the trunk is used.
The largest town is population 2992. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
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