Russia's Invasion of Ukraine

[Frelga]

This year for the first time, Ukraine celebrated Christmas with most of Europe on December 25, rather than on January 6 with the Orthodox Church.

In honor of the holiday, Ukraine downed at least 4 (confirmed by Russia) but maybe 5 Russian fighter-bombers. As a result, Russia was forced to stop their glide-bombing raids on the Ukrainian bridgehead across Dnipro.

Russia’s Best Su-34 Fighter-Bombers Are Falling From The Sky In Startling Numbers

Also yesterday, Ukraine exploded Novocherkassk, a large Russian landing warship in Crimea. Russia says the ship "sustained damage", which is an appropriate term when you find 2-meter tall pieces of the hull buried a meter in the ground in the city far from the port. The ship was said to carry Iranian Shahed drones, which caused a huge secondary explosion.

Ukraine strikes Russian naval landing warship, Moscow admits damage

[Frelga]

Overnight, Russia unleashed a huge missile attack on Ukrainian cities, hitting mostly civilian targets as usual.

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I thought this was the maternity hospital where I was born, but it's a different one. There were no casualties there because everyone got to shelter in the time, moms and 4 newborn babies.

But there are victims in apartment buildings and shopping centers across the country.

[N.E. Brigand]

Sergei Lavrov has been Russia's Foreign Minister since 2004 and is perhaps known to Americans for his visit to the White House in 2017, where President Donald Trump bragged to him about having just fired FBI Director James Comey.

I hadn't heard before that in 2005, Lavrov said Russia would have no objections to Ukraine joining NATO.

[N.E. Brigand]

"White House Throws Support Behind Seizing Frozen Russian Assets" (Bloomberg). Those assets totals some $300 billion.

[N.E. Brigand]

Dmitry Medvedev, the former President and Prime Minister of Russia who is now the Deputy Chair of Russia's Security Council, said today that the sheer existence of Ukraine as "an independent state on historical Russian territories will now be a perpetual reason for the resumption of hostilities."

[N.E. Brigand]

"White House Throws Support Behind Seizing Frozen Russian Assets" (Bloomberg). Those assets totals some $300 billion.

"The REPO Act, which would provide aid to Ukraine using confiscated Russian assets in the U.S., passed through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee 20-1. The lone NO vote was Rand Paul." Given that the straight aid package has stalled at Donald Trump's request, this would be a good thing, if it can pass the House. Ukraine is running low on ammunition.

[N.E. Brigand]

The materiel situation in Ukraine seems to be getting worse as Congressional Republican continue to dither on an aid package. However:

The Biden administration appears to have found a partial and temporary workaround to assist. "A U.S. legal authority known as Excess Defense Articles (EDA) allows the president to deem certain weapons systems surplus and transfer them to partner nations at a cheap price or without cost." And apparently the U.S. is set to do that via a transfer to Greece, who will then provide materiel to Ukraine including "two C-130H aircraft, 60 Bradley armored fighting vehicles, and 10 engines for P-3 patrol planes."

And the European Union apparently is on the cusp of sending a €50 billion package to Ukraine.

Meanwhile Ukraine reportedly used drones to sink a Russian missile ship yesterday.

And hopefully something will happen in Congress. Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska yesterday said, "It was the Republicans, I will remind you, that told Democrats months ago that if you want to try to get your Ukraine funding, you're gonna have to take up the border issue. This is what we asked for: let's take up what we asked for."

[Frelga]

Some more conservative accounts I follow on Twitter for Ukrainian updates (Republican but not Pro-Trump, mostly ex-military) have been talking about EDA for months and blame Biden squarely for slow-walking Ukrainian weapons and making sure Ukraine doesn't win.

One result of Ukraine running out of US weapons - those were provided under condition that they are not used on Russian territory. Using domestic weapons, Ukraine has been hitting military infrastructure all over European Russia, including St. Petersburg.

Looks like Orban decided that his bread is buttered on the EU side. Not only he came around on the Ukrainian aid package, he also said he would not object to Swedish entry into NATO. Sweden's membership was recently approved by Turkey, which coincidentally will finally be allowed to buy fighter jets from the US.

[N.E. Brigand]

Ukraine's ammunition shortage is allowing Russia to make some advances.

Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who was fired last year and has since set up shop on Twitter, has spent the last few days in Russia, in order, one associate says, that he may "interview President Vladimir Putin with the hope of bringing the war in Ukraine to an end and averting World War Three."

Ukrainian intelligence suspects there is a connection between this move and U.S. Congressional Republicans' apparent decision to abandon Ukraine.

[N.E. Brigand]

Sen. Angus King (Independent of Maine) says not funding Ukraine now would be "the most serious foreign-policy mistake of our lifetimes" and "will reverberate for fifty years."

[N.E. Brigand]

Russia is apparently using gold to buy weapons from Iran for its invasion of Ukraine.

[N.E. Brigand]

Ukraine's ammunition shortage is allowing Russia to make some advances.

Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who was fired last year and has since set up shop on Twitter, has spent the last few days in Russia, in order, one associate says, that he may "interview President Vladimir Putin with the hope of bringing the war in Ukraine to an end and averting World War Three."

Ukrainian intelligence suspects there is a connection between this move and U.S. Congressional Republicans' apparent decision to abandon Ukraine.

Tucker Carlson is still in Moscow, where he says he's going to interview Vladimir Putin (which he says will be free for viewing on his website and on Twitter) because "most Americans are not informed" about what's happening in Russia and Ukraine because "not a single Western journalist has bothered" to do so. As CNN's Christiane Amanpour notes in response, she and many other American and European reporters have asked Putin to talk to them, and he's declined.

(And of course honest Russian journalists have been exiled, jailed, or killed.)

[N.E. Brigand]

Ukraine's ammunition shortage is allowing Russia to make some advances. Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who was fired last year and has since set up shop on Twitter, has spent the last few days in Russia, in order, one associate says, that he may "interview President Vladimir Putin with the hope of bringing the war in Ukraine to an end and averting World War Three." Ukrainian intelligence suspects there is a connection between this move and U.S. Congressional Republicans' apparent decision to abandon Ukraine.

Tucker Carlson is still in Moscow, where he says he's going to interview Vladimir Putin (which he says will be free for viewing on his website and on Twitter) because "most Americans are not informed" about what's happening in Russia and Ukraine because "not a single Western journalist has bothered" to do so. As CNN's Christiane Amanpour notes in response, she and many other American and European reporters have asked Putin to talk to them, and he's declined. (And of course honest Russian journalists have been exiled, jailed, or killed.)

Apparently Vladimir Putin made Tucker Carlson look like a fool, openly mocking him as being a mere entertainer and noting that Carlson tried and failed to join the CIA in his youth.

[Frelga]

Yes but the funniest part was even before the interview, where Kremlin's spokesman Peskov called him a liar for saying that no Western journalists "bothered" to interview Putin.

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Peskov went on to say that of course they could not grant an interview to mainstream media because they would be "biased." Translated from Kremlin double-speak, it's a pretty damming statement about tucker.

[N.E. Brigand]

Wait a minute: Vladimir Putin said last night that the Poles forced Hitler to invade their country in 1939?

[Frelga]

Yup. And also that Ukraine didn't exist until Lenin made it in 1917, and also that Ukrainians really wanted to be a part of Russia since 1700s. Also Rurik.

Prediction: Poland is going to forget whatever economic issues they are having with Ukraine at the moment because they will want to punch Russia so badly.

[Túrin Turambar]

Carlson: Why did you invade Ukraine?
Putin: In the beginning there was Eru, the One, whom the Elves call Illúvatar....

[Frelga]

Exactly.

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[N.E. Brigand]

Politico reported comments today from French European Commissioner Thierry Breton about a 2020 conversation between then-U.S. President Donald Trump and Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission. Trump told von der Leyen: "You need to understand that if Europe is under attack, we will never come to help you and to support you," and he added, "By the way, NATO is dead, and we will leave, we will quit NATO" (my emphasis).

Today Donald Trump confirmed this story as he boasted at a campaign rally that not only did he tell "one of the presidents of a big country" that he wouldn't defend them against a Russian attack (if their contributions to NATO were delinquent) but he "would encourage them [i.e., Russia] to do whatever the hell they want."

This is just another cry for Putin to help him win, of course.

[N.E. Brigand]

The Senate is going to pass the Ukraine-Taiwan-Israel security funding bill tomorrow. Earlier today, Senator Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah (and former Massachusetts governor and 2012 Republican presidential candidate) said this bill represents "the most important vote we will ever take as United States senators." Even so, more than 30 Republican senators will vote against it, and in the House of Representatives, Speaker Mike Johnson says the bill won't be voted on at all.