Ukraine defiant as Putin’s terror bombing plunges cities into darkness

In Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine, rolling power blackouts are now the new normal. With Russia’s terror-bombing campaign of civilian targets and critical infrastructure currently in its third week, the Ukrainian government has been forced to limit electricity and impose regular cutoffs in order to preserve energy amid damage to around 40% of the country’s power grid.

Vladimir Putin hopes that by destroying Ukrainian infrastructure and depriving the civilian population of essential services such as heating, water, and electricity, he can break Ukraine’s will to resist and force the Kyiv authorities to accept a peace deal on Moscow’s terms. So far, there is little sign of that happening. Instead, Ukrainians are responding to Russia’s terror tactics with the kind of resolve that has characterized the country’s war effort ever since the invasion began eight months ago.

A new nationwide poll released this week underlined the current mood of defiance across the country. Conducted on October 21-23 by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, the survey found that 86% of respondents supported the continuation of Ukraine’s military counteroffensive and rejected negotiations despite Russia’s escalating airstrikes against civilian targets.

This latest data point provides an indication of attitudes in Ukraine as Moscow’s terror-bombing campaign reached the two-week mark. It mirrors a number of earlier surveys which have consistently identified little Ukrainian appetite for any territorial concessions to the Kremlin.

This determination to stand up to Russian aggression was perhaps best articulated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an iconic September 11 social media post addressed to the Russian leadership in which he underlined just how far Ukraine was prepared to go in order to achieve an historic break with Russia. “Do you still think we are “one people”?” asked Zelenskyy. “Do you really think you can scare us, break us, force us to make concessions? Don’t you understand who we are and what we stand for? Read my lips: Without gas or without you? Without you. Without light or without you? Without you. Without water or without you? Without you. Without food or without you? Without you.”

This rousing Churchillian rhetoric has been accompanied by generous helpings of the good humor that Ukrainians have become renowned for over the past eight months. Ukraine has emerged as something of a social media superpower since the start of the Russian invasion, with the country’s ability to embrace dark humor in even the most desperate of situations striking a chord among international audiences. As the lights have gone out in recent weeks, many have quipped that the move will backfire on the Kremlin and lead to a baby boom, resulting in many more Ukrainians at a time when Putin is so desperately trying to destroy the nation.

There is nothing funny about Russia’s intentions, of course. Kremlin officials and regime proxies make no effort to disguise the fact that their bombing campaign is an attempt to render Ukraine uninhabitable and force millions of citizens to flee the country. For the past month, government officials and other prominent pundits have regularly appeared on Russia’s carefully choreographed state TV political talk shows to express their support for targeted attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure and to demand an expansion of airstrikes.

The current offensive represents a dramatic escalation in Russia’s invasion at a time when Moscow already stands accused of committing genocide in Ukraine. Russian troops have reportedly engaged in systematic human rights abuses and mass executions throughout areas under Russian occupation, while tens of thousands of civilians are believed to have been killed when Putin’s forces reduced Ukrainian port city Mariupol to rubble during the early months of the war.

Meanwhile, Russian occupation authorities have allegedly subjected more than a million Ukrainians including thousands of children to forced deportation while eradicating all symbols of Ukrainian statehood and identity in areas under their control. The forced deportation of children is classified as genocide under international law.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba argued on October 22 that the current wave of airstrikes against civilian targets was further evidence of Russian genocide in Ukraine. “Deliberate strikes on Ukraine’s critical civilian infrastructure are part of Russia’s genocide of Ukrainians,” he posted, noting that the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention specifically refers to “Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

“This disaster is caused by Putin’s “Special Military Operation” Invasion” wanting to re-unite the U.S.S.R.

Very Interesting: Putin warned of ‘Kremlin power struggle’ as Russian military ‘professionally humiliated’:
Russia has struggled to get on the front foot in the Ukraine war as troops get pushed back by fierce counter offensive operations.
Oct 25, 2022
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1687658/putin-news-russia-military-armed-foces-general-staff-ukraine-war-update

Vladimir Putin has been warned the military staff of the Russian Armed Forces have been “professionally humiliated” by the Kremlin, with a “significant power struggle” rumbling from within over the war in Ukraine. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has entered its ninth month but since then, Putin’s war plan has threatened to completely disintegrate, with tens of thousands of military personnel killed and claims Moscow is quickly running out of weapons.

During recent weeks, Russia has suffered crushing blows after being pushed backwards out of key Ukrainian regions by fierce counter-offensive operations from Ukrainian troops.

Ben Hodges, the former Commanding General US of the US Army Europe, has warned tensions have exploded between the Russian General Staff and the Kremlin.

He told Express.co.uk: “Russia’s General Staff have a lot of well-trained officers, but they have been professionally humiliated after seeing what has been going on and the fact that seemingly, the Kremlin took it out of their hands.

“This has been run from the very top and not through the normal General Staff processes.

“A lot of their deep-rooted problems were already there, regardless of who was in charge and who was planning it - the corruption, lack of operational experience etc, but they are unhappy with that.”

He added: “They see Sergei Shoigu, who is not really a general officer but still parades around in uniform. Some others, who should have retired a couple of years ago through old age, are still there.

“Then you have the promotion of the Chechen, Ramzan Kadyrov, who is the Colonel General. That is outside the norm, and I would imagine a number of professional Russian officers would be unhappy about that.”

Former Commanding General Hodges warned that as a result of the deep-rooted unhappiness from the General Staff, there is a “significant power struggle going on inside the Kremlin”.

READ MORE: Putin’s warlord ‘gifted’ Ukrainian ‘slaves’ by his own son

He believes there are now deep divisions between the General Staff and Putin, who has now lost the trust in his generals to deliver on his objections in the Ukraine war.

The retired US Army officer continued: “There is a significant power struggle going on inside the Kremlin. You have people that are even more ultra-nationalist and hawkish than Putin that are unhappy with how it’s going.

“When you go below that, there does seem to be a widening gap between the general staff and Putin himself.

“I don’t think Putin trusts his generals much anymore and that’s why they have finally found Sergei Surovikin, whose two redeeming qualities seem to be brutality and loyalty.

https://thedreizinreport.com/2022/10/25/return-of-the-living-check/

It’s now well known that a newly-unified, Russian-Belarussian command is planning a winter offensive….. …..a “second front” against unprepared, largely unguarded areas in the Ukraine’s north. There may be some diversionary raids, but it’s understood that the most likely axis of advance is near the Polish border, south to Lutsk and then potentially to Lvov….. …..cutting off the main supply lines into the Ukraine….. …..without which all organized resistance by Ukrainian forces employing large modern weapons, would cease totally in as little as six weeks.

(Yes, the Ukraine’s largely-electric trains, which now run those supplies once they cross the border, will very likely be brought out of commission well before the winter, as Russia continues to destroy the power distribution system, and no foreign-donated diesel locomotives can replace them, as Europe uses different track gauge from the USSR. But, some material can be brought all the way by road, and the Polish route is by far the most realistic, in terms of terrain, the number of available roads, and a well-established base on the Polish side.)

Outside of Kiev, the Ukraine simply does not have the manpower to guard its northern border against the force being assembled.

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