Free Republic

Russia destroyed the largest power-generating plant in Ukraine’s Kyiv region in a missile attack on Thursday, as President Volodomyr Zelensky accused the West of “turning a blind eye” to his country’s need for more air defenses. Ukraine’s Air Force said it shot down 18 of the incoming missiles and 39 of the drones. Russia fired 82 missiles and drones in total, including six hypersonic Kinzhal missiles – none of which Ukraine’s air defenses were able to down.

The Book of Proverbs, Chapter 26, contains this invaluable insight: “As dogs return to their vomit, so fools repeat their folly. You see those who are wise in their own eyes? There is more hope for fools than for them.” Invaluable because, in connection with the Russia-Ukraine War, the passage powerfully illuminates the current debate about Ukraine’s future strategic prospects.The past few months have witnessed the dog returning to its vomit in the form of any number of efforts to once again make the case that Ukraine still has a path to total victory in its war against Russia. In...

The Russians are losing their war on Ukraine. They just don’t know it yet.Many armchair generals ignore that fact. Putin is stronger than ever, they say. Even if his invasion failed to conquer Ukraine, the crushing burden of war cannot be sustained indefinitely by its defenders, we are told. And even if they do hold out, the Western democracies are already tiring of their role in providing military and financial lifelines to Kyiv while sanctioning Russia.Or so the “realists” say – though such arguments are often indistinguishable from appeasement or defeatism.The Western media has been filled with stories quoting unnamed...

Nato needs to brace itself for the prospect of Ukraine’s counteroffensive failing to achieve major success. Indeed, so far, Kyiv has attained only limited gains. But those who expected a lightning breakthrough were always going to be disappointed. This is not German panzers against Polish horse cavalry, nor is it American shock and awe against demoralised Iraqi forces in antiquated tanks with no air cover.Instead, we are seeing something closer to an attritional style of warfare, with attacking forces battering against heavily fortified defences. Current operations are at the stage of reconnaissance-in-force along four separate axes of advance, with Ukrainian...

Garland Nixon's vision of the future of the former klepto-nazi pseudo-state ("ukraine"/Country 404) begins around minute 45 of this video.