OT subject but worth a main-stream read- OT News Feeds...

lousubcap

Wednesday Russia-Ukraine update-

"Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, urged residents — numbering more than 350,000 - to flee. Fierce shelling continues in the region, with military analysts warning of a focused Russian effort there. “The destiny of the whole country will be decided by the Donetsk region,” Kyrylenko told the Associated Press. He described shelling as “very chaotic” and lacking a “specific target.” Francesca Ebel reports for AP. 

Russia fired missiles at a market and residential area in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk, damaging several houses and destroying one. At least two people were killed and seven injured, officials said. Two people were taken to the hospital as firefighters rushed to put out the flames. Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of the Donetsk region, called the strikes an act of “sheer terrorism,” and accused the Russians of “deliberately targeting places where civilians congregate.” Karina Tsui reports for the Washington Post.  

Russian-backed separatists have seized two foreign-flagged ships in the eastern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, saying they are now “state property.” The self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, via its foreign ministry, informed two shipping companies that their vessels were the subject of "forcible appropriation of movable property with forced conversion into state property,” without any compensation to the owners, according to two separate letters. This is the first such move against commercial shipping. Jonathan Saul reports for Reuters."

lousubcap

And the latest- reads UGLY, Russia-Ukraine:

"Russia's military is reportedly preparing for a new phase of its gradual Ukraine invasion,and after nearly five months of sustained personnel and equipment losses, a key Russian official just reconfirmed Vladimir Putin's initial goals of capturing and occupying Ukraine's capital city of Kyiv.

According to Putin's state-run media RIA, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said Tuesday that the aims of Russia's invasion "are to ensure the protection of people from genocide by the Ukrainian neo-Nazi regime, to demilitarize and denazify the territory of Ukraine," allegations that are not at all true—especially since Kyiv's duly elected president is in fact Jewish; but nevermind the truth. 

Patrushev also insisted the war must continue because of "the spread of neo-Nazism in Ukraine, the functioning on its territory of biological laboratories involved in the U.S. military biological program [which is part of a decades-old deception engineered the Kremlin going back even to the Soviet era], as well as the plans announced by the Kyiv authorities to create nuclear weapons [not true] and join NATO [won't happen for a long time, if ever] created significant threats security not only of Russia, but of the whole world." Patrushev also accused Ukraine's leaders of "bullying and genocide" in the country's east—all of which, taken together, amount to a brazen (if sadly unsurprising) combination of disinformation, projection, and machismo. And they also, of course, point to extended economic pain for Ukraine and its allied partners across Europe and the West as sanctions against Russia are unlikely to end anytime soon.

Bigger picture: "Patrushev's statement significantly increases the burden on those who suggest that some compromise ceasefire or even peace based on limited additional Russian territorial gains is possible, even if it were acceptable to Ukraine or desirable for the West (neither of which is the case)," analysts at the Institute for the Study of War wrote Tuesday evening. "

nolaegghead

“Anodyne”….good word.  John needs to add it to his signature file.  All need to be calm, like fluffy bunnies.

lousubcap

This should be required reading. Then think about the way ahead, not for R's but for the USA-

Tom Nichols CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I wonder if the remaining sensible Republicans have accepted the irretrievable loss of the GOP they once knew.

Harsher Truths U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney sits as Vice Chair of the January 6th Committee. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty) View in browser In 1991, the last president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, was briefly deposed in a coup by hard-line members of the Soviet Communist Party. Gorbachev, upon his return to Moscow, tried to differentiate between the plotters and the Party itself. One of his closest advisers, Aleksandr Yakovlev, told him that this effort was pointless, akin to “serving tea to a corpse.” Republicans such as Senator Mitt Romney—an honorable man for whom I voted in 2012—and a handful of others in the GOP, including Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, should take note of Yakovlev’s phrase. Over the weekend, The Atlantic published a plea from Senator Romney for Americans “across the political spectrum” to stop ignoring “potentially cataclysmic threats.” The senator from Utah is right to be worried about the detachment of so many Americans. But Romney, Cheney, and Kinzinger cannot rescue their party, either—at least not in its current form. In fact, I wonder if the Republicans can ever return to being the kind of party that once nominated someone like Mitt Romney for the American presidency. I say this not because of Donald Trump, nor as the apostate Republican I am. (The last straw for me was not Trump’s election, which I regarded as a fluke, but when Susan Collins lectured America on the jurisprudence of Brett Kavanaugh.) Likewise, I say this not because I disagree with the Republicans on many policy issues; I do, but as a New England Republican who identified with (and worked for) moderates of a bygone era, I have always had differences with the hard-right social conservatives. Rather, I say this because millions of Republicans seem to have irreversibly lost touch with reality itself. Senator Romney, for his part, seems to share this concern, but he softens this criticism of his own side with some examples from around the political landscape: I have witnessed time and again—in myself and in others—a powerful impulse to believe what we hope to be the case. We don’t need to cut back on watering, because the drought is just part of a cycle that will reverse. With economic growth, the debt will take care of itself. January 6 was a false-flag operation. But as the old song from Sesame Street goes: One of these things is not like the other. Unfounded optimism about droughts or recessions is one thing; it’s another thing entirely to embrace the idea that an insurrection and an attack on the Capitol was conducted by agents of the United States government itself. At least the false-flag assertions fall within what we might call an ordinary—normal, even?—range of conspiracy theories. Other Republicans have blown past such pedestrian crackpottery and now have escaped the last tendrils of Earth’s gravity. The Republican candidate for secretary of state in Michigan, for example, believes that people can transmit demonic possession through “intimate relations,” according to CNN. Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Republicans have nominated a candidate for governor, Doug Mastriano, who has implied that he might invalidate any election result he doesn’t like in 2024—and that’s probably the least disturbing thing about him. As Jonathan Last put it recently, the Democratic nominee, Josh Shapiro, is an ordinary politician, while Mastriano “is an insane person. A seditionist. A Christian nationalist. A conspiracy nut.” Almost every other national Republican is either silent or on board with the dark fantasies and deepening paranoia that now rule the GOP. For example, Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, the relentlessly ambitious third-ranking House Republican, endorsed the developer Carl Paladino for a newly redistricted House seat in the state; in 2021 Paladino said that Adolf Hitler was “the kind of leader we need.” Some House Republicans are frustrated that Stefanik went rogue by endorsing Paladino, meaning only that they are embarrassed but not ashamed. But this internal GOP griping raises a question. When Senator Ron Johnson, of Wisconsin, is paddling about in the anti-vaccine fever swamps, and Senate candidate J.D. Vance is cozying up to people like the congressional conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene and the execrable Matt Gaetz, what exactly counts as “going rogue” and how can anyone distinguish it from just another day in the Republican Party? In the end, despite the efforts of Senator Romney and other reasonable Republicans, the fringe is now the base. The last rational members of the GOP—both elected and among the rank and file—need to speak even harsher truths to their own people, as Liz Cheney did last week at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Otherwise, the madness will spread, and our institutions will continue an accelerating slide into a nightmare that will engulf all Americans, regardless of party."

Botch

^^^ Thanks for posting that, Cap'n.  Agree 97% with what was said (romney is still quite weak, compared to Cheney, but that's a nit)  

lousubcap

Thursday Russia-Ukraine update-

"Western artillery that has been steadily flowing into Ukraine is starting to make a noticeable difference on the battlefield, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in yesterday’s nightly address. Zelensky praised the accuracy of the weapons, saying they are helping Ukrainian troops “inflict very noticeable strikes” against Russian logistical targets, significantly reducing “the offensive potential of the Russian army,” he added. Andrew Jeong reports for the Washington Post. 

Two proposed economic laws making their way through Russia’s parliament would allow the Kremlin to fund its war effort in Ukraine without formally mobilizing the state economic apparatus, the U.K. Defense Ministry has said.“The legislation is likely an attempt by the Kremlin to put in place economic measures to support the ‘special military operation’ without a formal declaration of state mobilisation, which remains politically sensitive,” the U.K. Defense Ministry said in its latest intelligence update. “It also allows Russia to avoid acknowledging it is engaged in a war or its failure to overcome Ukraine’s military that was outnumbered and outgunned,” it added."

lousubcap

The below article is worth a focused read-
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/07/kevin-mccarthy-lindsey-graham-trump-devotion-2024-election/661508/?utm_source=nextdraft&utm_medium=email

Reinforces the Power Game: How Washington Works book by Hedrick Smith. A tome but worth a read.  You will better appreciate the way the game is played and at the expense of us citizens.  

lousubcap

Friday Russia-Ukraine update:

"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CNN yesterday that Ukraine is unwilling to cede any of its land to Russia, standing firm that a concession of Ukrainian territory won't be part of any diplomatic negotiations to end the war. "Ukrainians are not ready to give away their land, to accept that these territories belong to Russia. This is our land," Zelenskyy said. He also praised U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who resigned from his position yesterday, for his support of Ukraine. Jeremy Herb reports for CNN. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday issued a warning to the West and Ukraine, saying the war might drag on until the “last Ukrainian is left standing.” “Today we hear that they want to defeat us on the battlefield. Well, what can I say? Let them try,” Putin said during a meeting with the heads of the State Duma party factions that aired on state media television Russia-24. "We have continuously heard that the West is ready to fight with us until the last Ukrainian is left standing. This is a tragedy for the Ukrainian people. However, it seems like everything is going towards this," he said. Uliana Pavlova reports for CNN. 

Russia's defense ministry said in a briefing today that Russian forces had destroyed two British-supplied Harpoon anti-ship missile systems in Ukraine's Odesa region overnight. The U.S.-designed missile systems are one of several weapons supplied to Ukraine by NATO. Reuters reports. 

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told foreign ministers at the G-20 Meeting that Russia has embarked on "a well-thought and cynical strategy" to destroy Ukraine's agriculture. "The Russian naval blockade of Ukrainian ports has already shredded global chains of food supply and has a detrimental effect on global food security. Adding insult to injury, Russia steals Ukrainian grain and bombs Ukrainian granaries," he said via video link. "Russia is essentially playing hunger games with the world by keeping the naval blockade of Ukrainian ports with one hand and shifting the blame for it on Ukraine with the other hand,” he added. Tim Lister and Olga Voitovych report for CNN. "

lousubcap

Additional Russia-Ukraine info:

"Putin's UK ambassador says Putin's forces probably won't ever leave southern Ukraine,he told Reuters Friday in London. "Of course it is difficult to predict the withdrawal of our forces from the southern part of Ukraine because we have already experience that after withdrawal, provocations start and all the people are being shot and all that," Ambassador Andrei Kelin said. 

"Is escalation possible? Of course," the ambassador said. "If the flow of weapons is organized in such a way that it endangers our strategic situation, our defense, we will have to take serious measures against that," he said, and added, "If sanctions will continue to be imposed on Russia, we will make a big turn to China and the East." Read the rest at Reuters, here. 

Russian leader Vladimir Putin is escalating his autocratic tough talk, claiming his troops "haven't even started yet" in Ukraine, according to a speech delivered to parliament Thursday—and after Russia has already lost 25,000 troops, by some estimates, to its poorly-launched invasion. (One Ukrainian official said Friday the number of Russian troop losses is closer to 37,000.) "Everyone should know that, by and large, we haven't started anything yet in earnest," Putin said, rejecting anyone who "want[s] to defeat us on the battlefield. What can you say, let them try." 

"At the same time, we don't reject peace talks," said the aging leader who increasingly casts himself as a modern-day Peter the Great. "But those who reject [peace talks] should know that the further it goes, the harder it will be for them to negotiate with us…The course of history is unstoppable, and attempts by the collective West to enforce its version of the global order are doomed to fail," said Vladimir the underpants poisoner on Thursday.  

For the record: Ukraine's conditions for peace talks include a nationwide ceasefire and a full withdrawal of Russian-backed forces, presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak tweetedSunday. But that's not all for Kyiv, which also demands the return of "kidnapped citizens. Extradition of war criminals. Reparations mechanism. [Ukrainian] sovereign rights recognition," Podolyak wrote in his tweet, and punctuated it with, "The Russian side knows our conditions well." The Associated Press has a bit more, here."

JohnInCarolina

http://twitter.com/Biz_Ukraine_Mag/status/1545369044915818496?s=20&t=0RDkdXnw75Ng6Q4CeASFQQ

fishlessman

JohnInCarolina said:

http://twitter.com/Biz_Ukraine_Mag/status/1545369044915818496?s=20&t=0RDkdXnw75Ng6Q4CeASFQQ

doing the weekends food shopping and the bread isle is looking pretty sparse, some areas they were spacing out the loaves diagonally in just one layer to make it look fuller. italian scali bread is a big seller here and there were just 6 loaves left in the market basket

Ozzie_Isaac

Putin is the equivalent of the middle school bully.

"Stop putting your face in front of my fists!", except with nuclear weapons.

How he can say, "We have just begun", while having sent 20k+ soldiers to their death, and is calling back fat old retired generals would be hilarious under different circumstances.

lousubcap

The Atlantic's Tom Nichols once again-  you should read and reflect-

Tom Nichols CONTRIBUTING WRITER

This is my last day writing The Atlantic Daily (for now!), and I’d like to thank you all for reading. I know it’s something of an ask to allow the same fellow into your inbox every evening to opine about the day’s news, and I appreciate it.

Keep the Faith Coronado, California's 73rd annual 4th of July parade. (Daniel Knighton / Getty) View in browser It’s been a tough month. The mounting toll of the war in Ukraine, the murders in Highland Park, the Supreme Court’s disturbing decisions—there hasn’t been a lot of great news. Boris Johnson finally packing his bags, I suppose, counts; so does today’s jobs report. But even before I began to write this, we learned that former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is dead, assassinated during a political rally. If you feel like the world is spinning out of control, you’re not alone. I have been trying to think about what connects many of these stories. It’s easy to say—and I know, because I’ve said it—that America and other democracies are falling prey to a kind of mass psychosis. Many Americans are becoming unhinged, unmoored from reality, unable to process even the tiniest bit of information if it conflicts with their biases. A few days ago, Mitt Romney wrote in The Atlantic that the problem of denial affects us all. He’s right. I feel it too; I sometimes do not check myself fast enough when shuffling new information into the pigeonholes of my priors. Confirmation bias is normal human behavior. What’s not normal is the emergence of a populist madness on the American right that counts on the intimidation of the sensible many by the delusional few. This development threatens to turn a great republic into little more than a collection of unthinking and dangerous reflexes, its citizens like a school of fish aimlessly darting back and forth as they are lured by bait or chased by predators. This, I think, is the link that binds so many recent events, including the January 6 insurrection, the callous and even reckless decisions of the Supreme Court, the Illinois massacre, even the Ukraine war. At almost every turn, democracy and basic human decency are under siege because a paranoid and rage-blinded mob will shout down and sometimes go as far as threatening the rest of us. Ordinary citizens, overwhelmed and exhausted, soon turn away from public spaces. In a different time in America, almost every story this month would have been an immense scandal or upheaval in and of itself. The Russian army invading a nation in Central Europe while brandishing its nuclear weapons at NATO would have been an ongoing national crisis that once would have unified America and its two parties. A mass shooting at a July 4 parade would have shocked our national conscience and moved us to look closely not only at our ridiculous gun laws but at a society that seems to produce an endless stream of violent young losers. Talk of stopping women from crossing state borders by turning the United States into a giant version of East Berlin with a pregnancy-testing Checkpoint Charlie on every highway would have provoked outrage on both the right and the left. Most important, an attack on the U.S. Capitol aimed at the overthrow of an American election, instigated and cheered on by a sitting president, would have been a national trauma that would have made Watergate look like a comic opera. And yet, a violent insurrection seems to barely register with some Americans—while others actively continue to support it, and still others believe it was a “false flag” operation by the left or by operatives of the U.S. government. I started by asking you to forgive me if I’ve cast a pall over your optimism about America, and here I am, doing it again. So let me try to leave you with some of the good news. Rational and decent citizens are still a significant majority in the United States of America. Cynical Republican officials might cower in fear of the small clutch of their own extremist primary voters, but on many issues—including Ukraine, abortion, and gun control—a durable majority across both parties is in favor of doing what’s right, what’s humane, and what’s sensible. And that means America endures. Yes, American democracy is on the ropes, and the destruction of our constitutional system is still possible if enough of the unhinged minority votes and enough of the rational majority does not. The Constitution was not designed to withstand a frontal assault from its own citizens and elected officials; it relies on shared norms and values about essential things like basic human and legal rights. That means it’s up to us to assert those norms and values in everything we do in our daily life. It means that citizens of good will must hold their ground, calmly and without reacting to the many bad-faith provocations thrown at them. It means linking arms with people with whom we disagree about almost everything, so long as we agree on the Constitution and our rights as citizens. And that means, more than anything else, voting in great numbers together as a coalition. We must, as John Adams encouraged us in 1765, “dare to read, think, speak and write.” "

Botch

Ozzie_Isaac said:

Putin is the equivalent of the middle school bully.

"Stop putting your face in front of my fists!", except with nuclear weapons.

How he can say, "We have just begun", while having sent 20k+ soldiers to their death, and is calling back fat old retired generals would be hilarious under different circumstances.

I've been having a violent change of thoughts on how to deal with a madman in control of nukes.  But they haven't settled.  

lousubcap

@Botch- Putin's only first world relevance is the nukes.  That cannot be discounted but the rest of his empire is third world.  To me that is a major factor in why he plays that rhetoric so often.  If her truly wants to reestablish the old Soviet Union ( not a chance) he will become totally irrelevant if he plays the nuke card.  I think he knows this (perhaps wishful here) but the nuke blustering is just to keep him front and center.
I have no idea how such talk is received in the motherland (if heard at all) but his audience is everyone else.  
Perhaps I'm naive here.  Just an opinion and we all know what those are worth-
compounded on a Friday PM.  

Ozzie_Isaac

lousubcap said:

@Botch- Putin's only first world relevance is the nukes.  That cannot be discounted but the rest of his empire is third world.  To me that is a major factor in why he plays that rhetoric so often.  If her truly wants to reestablish the old Soviet Union ( not a chance) he will become totally irrelevant if he plays the nuke card.  I think he knows this (perhaps wishful here) but the nuke blustering is just to keep him front and center.
I have no idea how such talk is received in the motherland (if heard at all) but his audience is everyone else.  
Perhaps I'm naive here.  Just an opinion and we all know what those are worth-
compounded on a Friday PM.  

He is dying, and his army has been shown to be a laughing stock.  To think we were concerned about War with Russia.  That is what makes me worried.  Ego is everything to him.  If he is going to lose, so is everyone else.

Ozzie_Isaac

nolaegghead said:

“Anodyne”….good word.  John needs to add it to his signature file.  All need to be calm, like fluffy bunnies.

I suspect JIC is more apt to use alodine.  Of he confuses them, his paper will take on a whole new meaning.

lousubcap

Learn something new here dang near every day.  

lousubcap

Monday Russia-Ukraine update:

"Ukrainian officials expect the death toll from an attack in the eastern city of Chasiv Yar to rise, as two dozen people remain trapped under the rubble of two high-rise apartment buildings reportedly struck by Russian missiles. Six people have been pulled out of the rubble alive, and 18 people have died. “Unfortunately, this is not the final number,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in remarks Sunday evening, promising to find and punish those responsible. Russia carried out dozens of airstrikes across the country this weekend, Ukrainian officials said, with an intensifying focus on the Donetsk region. Byran Pietsch, Annabelle Timsit and Jennifer Hassan report for the Washington Post.

Ukrainian forces have made unsuccessful attempts to push against the Russian defensive line in the southeastern Kherson region, according to the U.K. Ministry of Defense’s latest intelligence update. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has urged residents of these southern regions to evacuate immediately, ahead of planned efforts by Ukrainian forces to “de-occupy” the area. They should leave even if it means temporarily heading to Russia or annexed Crimea: “It will be a huge fight,” she said on television, according to local media reports. Bryan Pietsch reports for the Washington Post. "

Edit to add the below:

"The Biden administration is sending to Ukraine four more medium-range rocket artillery systems and higher-precision ammunition in a new package of donated weapons that defense officials said would allow Ukrainian forces to save bullets for a conflict that could extend for months or years. 

The $400 million offering is the United States’ third in as many weeks as the Pentagon tries to catch up to Ukrainian forces’ needs to launch counter-strikes and hold off further Russian advances in the Donbas region. The United States has provided $7.3 billion in military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February, a defense official told reporters Friday.

 The medium-range High Mobility Rocket Artillery Systems, or HIMARS, is a wheeled rocket launch system, and the rounds the United States has provided Ukraine to use with HIMARS allows it  to hit Russian targets from a distance of about 40 miles away. Eight systems are already in Ukraine and the United States has trained about 100 Ukrainians on their use. 

Friday’s package also includes “demolition munitions, counter-battery systems, and importantly spare parts and equipment,” the defense official said. 

The official would not specify what type of new ammunition was being sent for use with the 155mm Howitzers but its intent is to enable Ukraine to attack Russian positions with greater precision, so fewer rounds are needed to hit a target. 

“It will save ammunition,” the official said. 

The United States has already provided 126 Howitzers and 410,000 artillery rounds but the Ukrainians need more due to the heavy ground campaign. 

Russia took control of Luhansk over the last several days, but not without significant cost, a second senior military official told reporters. On Thursday Russian state-owned media reported those forces would have an operational pause, while Ukraine’s mayor of Luhansk said Friday the offensive was continuing. 

“The Ukrainians made them pay for that land pretty hard,” the military official said. “If I took the number of casualties that the Russians took to gain that portion of ground, I’d probably have to stop and refit.”"

lousubcap

Another bit of isngith regarding the US position with Ukraine:

"The Pentagon's message to Moscow: "If the Russians think they can outlast the Ukrainians, they need to rethink that," a defense official said Friday, "because this effort—we are already pivoting towards thinking about what the Ukrainians will need in the months and years ahead." Another Pentagon official told reporters the flow of U.S. arms to Ukraine "is a steady drumbeat now and it is a long-term commitment…So we'll be ready for whatever the experts tell us is required for the battlefield. And if there is a peak or an ebb or flow I'm sure we'll work that in." "

lousubcap

Tuesday Russia-Ukraine update:

"Iran is preparing to supply Russia with drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles to support its invasion of Ukraine, the White House said yesterday.White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters the U.S. had information indicating Tehran was “preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred UAVs . . . on an expedited timeline”. The shipment would include drones that could be used as weapons, Sullivan added.  “Our information further indicates that Iran is preparing to train Russian forces to use these UAVs with initial training sessions slated to begin as soon as early July,” he said. Courtney Weaver reports for the Financial Times. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to Tehran to hold talks with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on July 19, according to the Kremlin. “President Putin's trip to Tehran is being prepared. There will be a meeting of the heads of guarantor states of the Astana process, a process to promote Syrian regulation,” Putin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. The Chief of the Economic Commission of Iran’s Parliament, Mohammadreza Pour-Ebrahimi, told Iranian state news agency IRNA yesterday that Putin would visit Tehran next week to discuss the expansion of economic ties between Iran and Russia. Anna Chernova and Radina Gigova report for CNN. 

​​Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday signed a decree offering a simplified path to Russian citizenship for all Ukrainians, in an effort to broaden Moscow’s appeal and solidify its presence in the county. Putin’s decision indicates that Russia might seek to establish permanent control of the Ukrainian territories currently occupied by Moscow’s forces, and that the Kremlin is also interested in extending its presence beyond them. Ivan Nechepurenko reports for the New York Times."

lousubcap

Wednesday Russia-Ukraine update:

"Ukraine's military says it has destroyed a Russian ammunition depot in the southern city of Nova Kakhovka, killing dozens of soldiers. Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhaylo Podolyak attributed the attack to the U.S.-supplied Himars multiple rocket launcher and spoke of a "reality collision" for the world's "second army". A Russian-installed official in the southern Kherson region, Katerina Gubareva, accused Ukraine of bombing "peaceful cities with American weapons," saying that homes and warehouses were hit, leaving seven dead and up to 80 injured. Paul Kirby reports for BBC News. 

Russia's defense ministry said yesterday that Russian forces shot down four Ukrainian military jets in Ukraine. Russian forces destroyed an Su-25 and Su-24 - both Soviet-era jets used by the Ukrainian air force - over the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine along with another Su-25 and a Mig-29, another Soviet-designed fighter aircraft, in the Mykolaiv region of southern Ukraine, the defense ministry said in a daily briefing. Reuters reports. 

A Russian military delegation has arrived in Istanbul to meet their Ukrainian and Turkish counterparts and U.N. officials for talks on resuming exports of Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea port of Odesa. Turkey has been working with the U.N. to broker a deal after Russia's invasion of Ukraine sent prices soaring for grains, cooking oils, fuel and fertilizer. "We are working hard indeed but there is still a way to go," U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said yesterday. "Many people are talking about it. We prefer to try and do it." Reutersreports. "

lousubcap

And more Russia-Ukraine material:

"America's top diplomat says Russia's "forced deportations" of nearly a million Ukrainians is a war crime. Kremlin officials refer to the relocations as "filtration camps," but U.S. State Secretary Antony Blinken calls it the "unlawful transfer and deportation of protected persons," according to a statement on Wednesday, July 14—which is day 140 of the invasion Vladimir Putin is believed to have thought would take only two days. 

Staggering scope: "Russian authorities have interrogated, detained, and forcibly deported between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, including 260,000 children, from their homes to Russia," Blinken said, and added these Ukrainians are often sent "to isolated regions in [Russia's] Far East." (And the wider refugee outflow from Ukraine has now eclipsed 9 million people, the UN's refugee agency said Wednesday in its latest update.) 

Russia's apparent purpose: conquest, as "Moscow's actions appear pre-meditated and draw immediate historical comparisons to Russian 'filtration' operations in Chechnya and other areas," Blinken said. "Putin's 'filtration' operations are separating families, confiscating Ukrainian passports, and issuing Russian passports in an apparent effort to change the demographic makeup of parts of Ukraine," the secretary said.  

"Accountability is imperative," Blinken insists. "This is why we are supporting Ukrainian and international authorities' efforts to collect, document, and preserve evidence of atrocities." Along with Ukraine and its allies and partners around the world, "Together, we are dedicated to holding perpetrators of war crimes and other atrocities accountable," Blinken said. "

lousubcap

Thursday Russia-Ukraine update:

"A pair of SU-27 Russian fighter jets have tried to bomb Snake Island, according to the South Ukrainian Operational Command. The targeting of Snake Island is significant, as Russian forces had abandoned the island on Jun. 30 following a Ukrainian offensive. The island, located in the Black Sea off Ukraine's southern coast, is widely seen as strategically important to the war as it grants access to the Danube River and its small inland ports to ships carrying Ukrainian grain. Yulia Kesavia reports for CNN. 

Three Russian missiles have struck the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, killing 12 people including a young child and wounding dozens. National police said an office block had been hit, nearby residential buildings were damaged and a medical center was destroyed. Ninety people sought medical attention and about 50 of them were in a serious condition, the police added. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack as an act of terrorism. Max Hunder reports for Reuters. 

The U.S. has called on Russia to immediately stop its systematic “filtration” and forced deportation of millions of Ukrainians in territories under Moscow’s control. “The unlawful transfer and deportation of protected persons is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians and is a war crime,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement yesterday. Blinken also called on Russia to allow outside observers access to the so-called “filtration camps”  through which those who are detained and deported pass. Christopher Miller reports for POLITICO. "

Edit to add the below:

"U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that negotiations between Russia and Ukraine took “a critical step” forward yesterday in ensuring the export of grain from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. Guterres cautioned that “more technical work will now be needed” to reach an agreement, “but the momentum is clear … I’m encouraged. I’m optimistic, but it’s not yet fully done.” The U.N. chief spoke in New York, hours after military officials from Russia, Ukraine and Turkey met with U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths in Istanbul to discuss stumbling blocks to a deal. Turkey’s defense minister said agreements would be signed when negotiators meet again in Istanbul next week. Ayse Wieting, Suzan Fraser and Edith M. Lederer report for AP. "

lousubcap

Friday Russia-Ukraine update:
https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/14/europe/ukraine-western-weapons-russia-front-lines-intl-cmd/index.html?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dfn-ebb&SToverlay=2002c2d9-c344-4bbb-8610-e5794efcfa7d 
All I've got worth much so far today.  

JohnInCarolina

http://twitter.com/brhodes/status/1548284437976125440?s=20&t=7s_A5WJerXtZodLGE0hfRA

JohnInCarolina

Interesting analysis here:

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/energy-crisis-will-deepen-no-supply-by-daniel-yergin-2022-07

Much of it is clear and credible to me.  If he’s right it’s not good.  In any case, it’s worth your time.

lousubcap

Good read.  I think the refining capacity is/will be the first choke point in cranking up oil output based on what I recall from when those along the Gulf were hit with fires or hurricanes.  No hard research here-

HeavyG

https://twitter.com/MarkHertling/status/1548704887906701314

JohnInCarolina

Real question how much the world is going to look away from all of the atrocities in Ukraine when paying attention means … much higher energy prices.