🇺🇦 Ukrainian forces found a containerized command post developed by Russia to be used for electronic warfare. UA is immediately turning this over to the US for exploitation.
🇺🇦 This containerized command post was designed to target a bunch of things like spy satellites, but also the US Air Force’s E3 Century plane. This is an intelligence goldmine. This will tell us exactly how Russia and China jam enemy radar and satellites.
🇺🇦 If the above doesn’t make it clear, Russia has lost far more than it will ever gain from this war.
🇺🇦 The Zaporizhzhia regional military administration (south eastern Ukraine of Russian control) said that Russian forces are imprisoning fellow soldiers for refusing to fight.
🇺🇦 Is Zaporizhzhia, Russia is also burning bodies of dead Russian soldiers to hide casualty numbers— that update is specifically for the people who took issue with my update that Russians were staking bodies 2 meters high!
🇺🇦 In what has to be the most Shakespearian ways of calling Russia uncivilized, UA spokesman Ola Nikolanko(sp) said, in response to Moscow’s threats over Kyiv’s plan to join the EU, ‘Russia has not reached a historical development high enough to reflect European values’ (Note: There is no Shakespeare emoji)
🇺🇦 The war in Ukraine is causing a global food shortage. The second largest wheat producer is India, and they are facing a food scarcity, so they are banning exports of wheat.
🇺🇦 Turkey was going to vote against the nordic nations from joining NATO, which means Sweden and Finland would not be able to join NATO. The US had ‘diplomatic discussions’ with Turkey, and now Turkey is changing their messaging, saying something about how Sweden and Finland needs to suppress what Turkey characterizes as ‘terrorist activity.’ Anyway, TL;DR: Turkey is backpedaling in their opposition to S and F joining.
🇺🇦 The Finnish president told Putin on the phone—directly—that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is what made Finland’s decision to apply for NATO membership. So for all of you who were yearning for that moment, there you go.
🇺🇦 Update: Finland has officially applied to join NATO
🇺🇦 Ukraine has won the Eurovision Song Contest. This apparently is a huge deal and a lot of people follow this contest and I have no idea what it is but all of you do so enjoy this update!
🇺🇦 Pictured: Last night in a surprise visit, Mitch McConnell (R) lead a delegation of representatives to meet with Zelensky. I want to point out this bipartisan effort. As you recall, last month, Pelosi (D) (pictured) also led a delegation of representatives to Ukraine. Republicans and democrats are working together. There are few, if any, partisan lines. We are all in this together.
🇺🇦 In a rare effort of solidarity, Chuck Schumer (D) and Mitch McConnell (R) worked together to get a deal done to get aid to Ukraine. They went so far as to have a joint press conference announcing this aid package. However…
🤦🏼♂️ The Senate needed a unanimous vote. The vote was 99-1. The lone holdout was Sen Rand Paul. His objection has officially stalled the aid package.
🤦🏼♂️ What happened: At the last moment, long after he had a chance to give inputs, Rand Paul said he wanted language inserted into the text of the bill.
🤦🏼♂️ McConnell offered an immediate vote to give Rand Paul EXACTLY what he wanted. When given what he wanted, Rand Paul said no.
🤦🏼♂️ The purpose of the unanimous vote was to get aid passed quickly. Aid will likely still go through, but it will be slow rolled through the standard senate process, which gives Russia extra time to meet their war objectives.
🤦🏼♂️ In 2017, Rand Paul was the single vote that blocked the Balkan nation of Montenegro from joining NATO, which was a huge win for Russia. (Montenegro eventually joined anyway)
🤦🏼♂️ A C-SPAN video of John McCain (R) from 2017 recently resurfaced. In this video McCain was discussing Rand Paul blocking Montenegro’s inclusion into NATO. In the clip, McCain said that Rand Paul "has no argument to be made. He has no justification for his objection to having a small nation be part of NATO, that is under assault from the Russians….So I repeat again - the senator from Kentucky is now working for Vladimir Putin.”
🤦🏼♂️ On April 26, Rand Paul used a pro-Kremlin talking point to arguing against Ukraine’s NATO membership, saying Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova used to be part of the USSR, and implied those countries may not have the right to self-determination. This, of course, is Russia’s entire rational for the invasion.
🤦🏼♂️ During the lead up to war, in January and February, United States senators of BOTH parties worked TOGETHER to come up with a unified response, in the even that Russia invade Ukraine. In the end, Rand Paul was the lone person who stalled this effort. The foot-dragging went on for weeks, until Rand Paul had successfully inserted language that was less threatening to Russia. A toothless rebuke to Russia’s impending invasion was finally issued about two weeks before the invasion started.
🤦🏼♂️ After FSB asset Sergey Kislyak toured the White House in 2017, Rand Paul released a statement saying he was “pleased” to announce that contact with Russia would continue.
🔎🔎🔎All about annexation..brought to you by the Institute for the Study of War🔎🔎🔎
🇺🇦 There is no annexation emoji
🇺🇦 The Kremlin is openly announcing its intentions to annex areas of occupied Ukraine.
🇺🇦 Putin intends to annex occupied southern and eastern Ukraine directly into the Russian Federation in the coming months to consolidate his control over these territories and possibly deter Ukrainian counterattacks. This would, in fact, make taking back those territories much more difficult
🇺🇦 The Kremlin’s planned wave of annexations could also include proxy territories outside Ukraine.
🇺🇦Putin cannot—and will not—accept a return to a pre-war status quo.
🇺🇦After annexation, Russia would refer to it as a Russian territory
🇺🇦A Russian military collapse combined with further Ukrainian battlefield successes or the Kremlin's acceptance that a military collapse is imminent are likely the only other circumstances under which Putin would accept something less than his stated objectives for this phase of the war.
🇺🇦The Kremlin likely intends to annex all of the territories it wants to incorporate into Russia at once, rather than stagger the annexation process.
🇺🇦The Kremlin will need to establish relatively comprehensive security and administration structures within its occupied territories before it can announce effective annexation.
🇺🇦The Kremlin must also work to transform its military occupation of Ukrainian territories into a series of political administrations capable of governing newly minted Russian regions before it can formally annex those territories.
🇺🇦As I mentioned, this means the clock is ticking on Ukraine’s ability to regain control of the southeast.
🇺🇦The longer that Russian forces have to control and subdue occupied Ukrainian territory, the more difficult it will be for Ukraine to rebuild local administrative and governance structures in those areas if they can regain control.
📢 Countries apply to be in NATO. NATO doesn’t seek to expand. Saying NATO is encroaching on Russia is Kremlin messaging. Russia has three primary propaganda efforts directed at the West, and that’s the first.
📢 Yes, Ukraine has a nazi problem, but it’s a very small percentage of the country, and not representative of the whole. Using a small group to smear the entire group is called “guilt by association.” Russia has three primary propaganda efforts directed at the West, and that’s the second.
📢 If you ever hear anyone say “What about America…” in an effort to redirect attention away from Ukraine and onto the west, that is called “Competitive victimhood” and the associated meme is *always* created by Russian-backed media. Russia has three primary propaganda efforts directed at the West, and that’s the third.
⚠️ Note: I got lazy with my citations and I apologize. My top sources are: Current and former military planners, singularly-focused pundits, and all manner of vetted open-source intelligence. Top cited open source pundits and sources include: CP Scott, Institute for the Study of War, Kyiv Independent, Aaron Parnas, Philip DeFranco, John Aravosis, Malcontent News, and mainstream news with high levels of journalistic integrity and track records. Sadly I can’t source private individuals, of course.
⚠️ Speaking of sources, thanks to all of you who have forwarded me tips. You’re the private individuals I wish I could source publicly
⚠️ These posts are not affiliated with my employer, nor done during my employer’s time. Every item I report is from my own research, my own opinion, and written during my own time.
⚠️ Note: War happens fast and even high fidelity news needs a ton of corrections after the dust settles. Also, I’ve been spoiled by social media’s format where I can update the final product every time I find a typo. That poses a problem because…
⚠️ I started a Substack newsletter to accommodate the individual emails requests. Feel free to subscribe!
cRussia denazification makes no sense at all, as they don't even denazifie their own country... Cause Russia has a nazi problem, but instead of dealing with its domestic issue they prefer to use it as a scapegoat to invade other countries