Russian artillery bombardments reportedly intensified significantly yesterday in the areas around Kyiv and Chernihiv that Russia announced it would be moving its forces out of, but that's not necessarily a sign that Russia was lying about the withdrawals: Using artillery bombardments to provide cover for retreating troops is a standard tactical move, and Russia desperately needed to move some of its battered frontline battalions out from positions that Ukrainian counterattackers were threatening to encircle.
The bad news for Russia just keeps coming, with new reports of Russian troops refusing to carry out orders and new hints that Ukraine's international supporters are willing to expand the range of weapons provided to include distinctly offensive weapons. That's precisely what Ukraine needs to recapture territory that Russia has currently parked itself on; otherwise, Russia is likely to dig in and assert all those new territories are now "part of Russia" as well.
Today's news:
In other Ukraine news, former Trump administration Office of Management and Budget head Mick Mulvaney was one of the Trump aides who directly helped Trump withhold military aid from Ukraine as part of Trump's Rudy Giuliani-led attempts to extort the Ukrainian government into providing crooked election help. Mulvaney was also a key member of the ensuing cover-up.
Why is that news? Because CBS News just hired him despite (or perhaps because of) his role in that corruption—part of the continued embedding of pro-corruption, pro-sedition, and pro-propaganda Republican figures as supposed "news" analysts. It's such an outrageous move that even inside CBS, it's being taken as a thumb in the eye—but with the new focus on Ukraine and the Trump administration's role in weakening Ukraine's government for the sake of his own propaganda claims, one wonders just what sort of new "analysis" Mulvaney is specifically being hired to produce.
The bad news for Russia just keeps coming, with new reports of Russian troops refusing to carry out orders and new hints that Ukraine's international supporters are willing to expand the range of weapons provided to include distinctly offensive weapons. That's precisely what Ukraine needs to recapture territory that Russia has currently parked itself on; otherwise, Russia is likely to dig in and assert all those new territories are now "part of Russia" as well.
Today's news:
- Amidst 'tactical withdrawal,' Russia suffers its worst day yet
- The Kyiv front goes quiet as Russia retreats in defeat
- 'As the tactics on the ground change, we need to change what we supply'
- 'Russian soldiers, short of weapons and morale, refusing to carry out orders'
- Biden opens strategic oil reserve, pushes clean energy, 'use it or lose it' on U.S. leases
In other Ukraine news, former Trump administration Office of Management and Budget head Mick Mulvaney was one of the Trump aides who directly helped Trump withhold military aid from Ukraine as part of Trump's Rudy Giuliani-led attempts to extort the Ukrainian government into providing crooked election help. Mulvaney was also a key member of the ensuing cover-up.
Why is that news? Because CBS News just hired him despite (or perhaps because of) his role in that corruption—part of the continued embedding of pro-corruption, pro-sedition, and pro-propaganda Republican figures as supposed "news" analysts. It's such an outrageous move that even inside CBS, it's being taken as a thumb in the eye—but with the new focus on Ukraine and the Trump administration's role in weakening Ukraine's government for the sake of his own propaganda claims, one wonders just what sort of new "analysis" Mulvaney is specifically being hired to produce.