16 hours of exercises. Sorry this came so late! I’m not even bothering with corrections, so if there’s a typo, you’ve been warned!!!
🇺🇦 “…Including Crimea.” Zelensky is now seeking a full restoration of the territory. He said he would not support any deal that would allow Russian troops to remain in occupied parts of Ukraine.
🇺🇦 Ukrainians are naming their newborns Javelin and Javelina.
🇺🇦 Russia is prosecuting (or at least threatening with criminal cases) Russian soldiers who retreat.
🇺🇦 As you’ve seen over the past week, Russia has slowed down their offensive.
🇺🇦 US intelligence is helping UA forces k1ll Russian generals. This was confirmed through the New York Times. The fact that we’re doing this and admitting it publicly is rather fascinating. It means we’re no longer worried about Russian threats.
🇺🇦 EU is considering more assistance to Moldova. See, Russia, you keep chasing countries into EU’s arms. Basically, EU fears spillover from Russia’s war.
🇺🇦 344 UA civilians have been evacuated from Mariupol
🇺🇦 China reached out to Canada a few days ago impromptu in order to bolster bilateral trade with Canada. Canada quickly realized that China was using Canada as a go-between to the US because it would look bad for their relationship with Russia since China is supposed to be allied with Russia. Canada has relayed the message to the US. Basically, China realized that Russia is not a good investment
🇺🇦 The trend I’m seeing from a variety of sources and articles over the past two months is China has had a revelation. China’s whole operating system is cheap labor, and that’s starting to go away. America is starting to move manufacturing to South America. They see how strong the west aligned against Russia, in both sanction and consumer boycotts, and they don’t want any part of that, since China has an export economy and can’t weather an economic storm the same way Russia can
🇺🇦 Georgia is sending a bunch of fighters to Ukraine. Georgia, just like Moldova and Ukraine, was invaded by Russia, then divided and split.
🇺🇦 The Georgian fighters are likely veterans, and were likely trained by the US Marine Corps
🇺🇦 Sweden has received assurances from the United States that it will get support during the period of application to join NATO according to the foreign minister of Sweden. She added that natural she won’t go into any details, but the country is very confident now that they have American assurance.
🇺🇦 The UK said it would defend Sweden and Finland if it were attacked by Russia regardless of whether they were in NATO or not.
🇺🇦 The Biden admin says Russia has already lost this war, and Putin wanted this to be a moment to divide NATO and to divide the West but clearly that’s not what is happening.
🇺🇦 Russia’s invasion has lead to food scarcity in grain, fertilizer, and fuel
🇺🇦 2022 is likely to be one of the worst from a food crisis and global hunger perspective.
🇺🇦 Russia has accused Ukraine of using black magic for their invasion, citing occult researchers. (This is a real news item. I’m not making this up)
Operations:
🇺🇦 Russian forces reportedly entered the Azovstal Steel Plant – rather than its outskirts – for the first time.
🇺🇦 The Russian offensive in Eastern Ukraine remains stalled.
🇺🇦 Russian forces intensified airstrikes against transportation infrastructure in Western Ukraine on May 4 but remain unable to interdict Western aid shipments to Ukraine.
🇺🇦 UPDATE: as I got ready to post this, it turns out that Ukrainian fighters were all to beat Russian forces back from Azovstal.
🇺🇦 Communications with UA fighters in the Azovstal steel mill were interrupted briefly, but have resumed.
📢 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.
⚠️ 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!
"The UK said it would defend Sweden and Finland if it were attacked by Russia regardless of whether they were in NATO or not."
Does this refer to The United Kingdom or Ukraine?