Today the House passed a aid package for Israel that excludes Ukraine. Its not expected to get through the Senate.
It doesn’t bode well for Ukraine’s future. Meanwhile Russia intensifies their attacks.
Not for discussion The current politics is the Elephant in the Ukrainian War room.
LINK US House passes $14.3bn aid package for Israel despite Democratic opposition | House of Representatives | The Guardian
I meant the former but it would be an interesting number to calculate together.
So is the Republican Party just full on Putin supporters now? Does he own that many of them?
It seems like Ukraine is barely keeping a stalemate with Russia. The article I linked yesterday reported a record number of villages hit in one day. Russia is pushing their war machine hard.
I don’t need a crystal ball to understand Ukraine will falter quickly if their war supplies are significantly reduced.
Due to the House rules, they don’t all need to be Putinists, just the Speaker. The Speaker controls what legislation gets to the floor to be voted on. There’s a way around this called a discharge petition and I expect that’s eventually going to get used to pass a combined Israel/Ukraine (plus other stuff) aid package.
I wish they’d hurry. Putin is definitely taking advantage of the situation. I’m seeing comments from Ukraine fighters that they are suffering from the lack of help from us already.
Compared to Russian “news” they are a model of truthiness.
Russia is bleeding through their antique collection of army surplus and using it to supply paroled prisoners. I’d say “barely keeping a stalemate” a serious accomplishment.
Takeout is that airpower is what would be most likely to break the stalemate but neither side currently has that.
Ukraine has likely damaged or sunk one of Russia’s most modern ships, a Kalibr cruise missile carrier based in the Kerch shipyard. Russian defense has confirmed the attack.
quite a sobering representation on what has happened on the s-e front in the past 11 months:
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the talk about a stagnant war is for a reason
Wars aren’t all about territory, though. Let the enemy pound on a static front line for long enough, especially the way that Russia has been doing, and eventually there won’t be any enemy left to do the pounding. Once that happens, you can pretty much take all the territory you want.
I think Zelenskiy is making a mistake. Even UK intelligence confirms what the General said.
Zelenskiy should continue asking for more aid to break the stalemate. It’s not a failure of his military.
Ukraine needs a effective air force to break the stalemate. (That’s from the general’s comments)
I hope Zelenskiy didn’t demote his best General for speaking out.
And of course he is. What’s the mistake?
Since after ~week 4 in this stupid Putin-caused war, Putin has been gambling that he can make the Russian military outlast the Western public. Especially while said public (and the elected politicians and up-and-coming candidates) are under continuous Russian propaganda assault.
If the US House is representative (heh 
) of many other Western nations, Putin may well win his gamble in the next 6-12 months.
I saw the NY Times article earlier today.
I know this is probably a translation. But the people are tired comment is a slow burn against the General. I do understand Generals usually stay quiet and don’t make public statements.
I don’t believe Ukraine has many top strategists. They shouldn’t shoot themselves in the ass by demoting one that spoke out.
The Guardian
Zaluzhnyi is thinking military strategy, Zelensyy is thinking Diplomatic strategy. While Zaluzhnyi may be 100% correct, this is not the message that Zelenskyy wants to send out, both in terms of troop morale and in terms of getting more outside aid. Zelenskyy wants the message to be, “we are all most at the tipping point just give us a little more and we can win, you don’t want to scrap all we’ve acheived when we are so close to victory”, not “there is no end in sight and you are going to have to keep pouring in money for the foreseeable future just to keep us afloat.”
You don’t get to his level in the military having no political sensibilities. His job as much as anyone in the upper levels of command is to make sure his forces have the right strategy and resources to do the job. Making public ( emphasis on public) statements that are going to have a detrimental effect on getting the right equipment are either a brain fart, intentional , or downright stupid and he should probably realize a slap down is coming and likely deserved.
Obviously that is for public statements, behind the scenes anything other than a honest perception of the situation is of course required.
As MacArthur also found out, a soldier can get to the place where they have an irreconcilable difference of opinion with their political leadership. One way or the other they’re going to end up out the door once they get there. Either back down, resign, or get fired. Once you take “back down” off your table the end state is clear; it’s just a matter of choosing your route to get there.
At least this is true in healthy governments where the military does actually work for the civilians rather than vice versa.
Photos and video of Russian Karakurt-class corvette Askold, hit by SCALP/Storm Shadow missiles:
