TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian 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 2993. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
The resignation of Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, underscores the reality that in wartime, polite diplomacy often has to yield to the more combative approach favored by President Zelensky—a dynamic that both his supporters and critics may not entirely appreciate.
Like his father, Kuleba is a career diplomat who remains committed to diplomatic protocol, even as his country faces an existential crisis, intensified by the dithering of its so-called Western allies.
Kuleba's soft-spoken approach has frequently frustrated Zelensky (Kuleba even admitted it), who has come to realize that without significant political pressure, the West—especially the Biden-Harris administration—will continue to delay and withhold crucial aid to Ukraine.
It’s no secret that relations between Kyiv and the Biden-Harris administration are at an all-time low, with Ukrainians feeling betrayed by an administration more concerned with protecting Russian airbases than with protecting Ukrainian hospitals or stopping a global threat.
As the extent of the Biden-Harris administration's betrayal becomes clearer, and Ukrainian diplomacy continues to fall short in swaying the administration's Russia-appeasing foreign policy, Zelensky has grown increasingly blunt in his criticism.
Zelensky's blunt approach stems from the extreme urgency of confronting Russia's ongoing destruction of Ukraine and his growing impatience with the failed Western policies that enable it.
Zelensky's increasingly hardball style is also shaped by his background—not as a career politician or diplomat, but as an entrepreneur who successfully navigated the cutthroat world of Russian and Ukrainian showbiz.
Despite lucrative offers to work as an actor in Russian showbiz, Zelensky chose the riskier path of launching his own production company in Ukraine. His personality doesn’t lend itself to playing second fiddle to producers or to backroom dealmaking "superpowers."
At this moment, Zelensky has one overriding mission: as the commander of the "Western front", he is focused on applying maximum political pressure on Western leaders to secure the support Ukraine needs to win, recognizing that diplomatic efforts to achieve that have failed.
Zelensky risks further straining already tense relations with the Biden-Harris administration, but he has no choice. Their failed policies have allowed Russia to continue seizing Ukrainian land, destroying cities, and killing civilians with impunity for years.
The policy of the US is to force Ukraine to negotiate with Russia if/when the Kremlin decides it needs a temporary break. Ukrainian victory is not on the US agenda and Zelensky's main role is to resist Washington's inevitable arm-twisting.
Zelensky may fail as a peacetime leader and he cannot plan and implement Ukraine's military operations, but he is using whatever political capital he earned as the wartime leader of a country that is fighting for survival to apply political pressure on the West.
Unfortunately for Ukrainians, the Biden-Harris administration provides limited military aid not out of a desire to help Ukraine win—it's actively taking steps to prevent that—but because of bipartisan pressure to offer some level of support.
Zelensky is amplifying political pressure by exposing the West's betrayal of Ukraine. In a world where genocidal fascism faced true resistance, not cowering appeasement, this wouldn't be necessary. Those fighting for survival wouldn't be betrayed by self-proclaimed friends.
Source
@ukrainejournal
❗️The defense forces stopped the advance of the Russian Federation in the Pokrovsky direction, - the Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in an interview with CNN
Syrskyi says that in the last 6 days in the Pokrovsky direction, the enemy has not advanced a single meter:
"We have deprived them of their ability to maneuver and deploy their reinforcements from other directions. And that weakening is certainly being felt in other areas.
We observe that the number of artillery shells fired [by the enemy], as well as the intensity of the offensive, have decreased."
The life of Svitlana Kravets was taken by the Russian army, striking the Zhytomyr region.
On the morning of August 26, 2024, the enemy attacked the area with missiles and drones.
Svetlana was 32 years old. She worked as a seamstress at the enterprise "LESYA only better" since 2019. She raised two daughters - the elder Daria and the younger Elena.
"She always smiled, no matter what happened, she reacted to everything with a smile. She came to help the girls - if someone had a defect, she corrected it. At the end of the shift, she helped someone sew, and even several at once, so that it was not left over for tomorrow. Very warm talked about her daughters, she loved them very much."
- added the head of the group in which Olena worked.
🇺🇦 @ukraine_report 🇺🇦 (PL)
Russia executed 3 Ukrainian POWs in Donetsk Oblast, prosecutors say
Russia executed three Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) near Toretsk in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office said on Sept. 3.
Earlier, a video circulated on Telegram that showed three Ukrainian soldiers coming out of a basement with their hands up. The Ukrainians were then apprehended by Russian soldiers, placed face down on the ground and summarily shot.
Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin said in June that Russian commanders had given orders "not to capture Ukrainian servicemen, but instead to kill them with inhuman cruelty."
He made the statement after footage was revealed that showed a Ukrainian soldier beheaded by Russian troops.
Read more
@ukraine_report (f🌷)
Put the father on trial for lying to the FBI
https://open.substack.com/pub/joycevance/p/for-love-of-guns?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian 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 2993. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
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