William Walter Kay, Ecofascism.com
In monarchies, the Monarch is Commander-in-Chief of armed forces. In republics these duties fall upon presidents, as per Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the US Constitution. Ukraine, a supposed republic, follows suit. Pursuant to Article 106, Section 17, of Ukraine’s Constitution, the President:
“Is the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine”
Fourteen months into the Russo-Ukrainian War, Russia remains intriguingly parsimonious in deploying its world-class heavy artillery. This might change. On April 3 Russian media made much ado of a ceremony celebrating the transfer of TOS-1As to Airborne Forces. Hitherto TOS-1As were exclusively in the Radiological-Biological-Chemical Forces’ toolkit. Days later a TOS-1A struck Bakhmut.
“Toss-One-Alpha” to NATO, “Sunshine” to Russians, the TOS-1A is an armoured, self-propelled, ground-assault, multiple-launch-rocket-system firing unusually heavy, unusually short-range, unguided rockets with thermobaric warheads.
NATO prophesied a Second Russian Offensive (SRO) on the muddy heals of rasputitsa. Then when queried, on February 13, about upcoming festivities, Secretary-General Stoltenberg imparted: “we are seeing the start already.” The SRO crept imperceptibly. April Fools’ came early.
Center for American Progress’s fav pop-psych term, "denier," best applies to addicts refusing to admit to their problems. "Climate denier" implies the Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming hypothesis is so obviously correct that only the clinically delusional could doubt it.
CAP’s first "Deniers in Congress" report defines "climate denier" as anyone:
The real tragedy is what we don't see. We see billions squandered on wind and solar. Tragic enough, but we don't see the magnificent electrical infrastructures coal might create if similarly furnished with funds.
The world's largest coal-fired power stations, Inner Mongolia's 6,720 Megawatt (MW) Tuoketuo Station and South Korea's 6,100 MW Taean Station, were built in stages as additional generators were needed. Tuoketuo now sports a motley array of 12 steam turbines ranging in size from 300 to 660 MW. Taean's managers topped-up their 8 original 500 MW turbines with 2 Hitachi 1,050s.
Circa May 2021, NATO ordered its Ukrainian proxies to escalate provocations to invasion-provoking levels. With these marching orders came preaching orders from Chatham House's Russia and Eurasia Programme (CHREP).
CHREP prospers alongside the forty or so Russia & Eurasia faculties that blossomed across Western campuses after the Soviet Union's demise. Soviet Studies became Eurasian Studies. The Google Ngram graph of "Eurasia" hits a cliff at 1991. Outfits like Harvard's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and Stanford's Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies employ 50 to 100 PhDs each. Combined with Ukrainian Studies faculties, NATO's legion of Russia-stalking professors numbers 2,000+.
On July 9, Britain's largest circulation newspaper, the Daily Mail, claimed Ukrainian officials believed Ukraine was "suffering more than 20,000 casualties a month;" and, currently: "200 troops are killed and 800 wounded daily." Moreover, there were: "fears that the true scale of losses is being understated."1
This casualty count jibes with a June 15 Axios report which quoted Ukraine's lead negotiator and top Zelensky adviser, David Arakhamia, saying:
"Up to 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers are being killed and wounded each day in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, with 200 to 500 killed on average and many more wounded…" 2
At 10:40 AM local time on July 14 three cruise missiles launched from a Black Sea-based Russian submarine struck an 8-storey office building in downtown Vinnytsia – a city of 370,000 located 260 kilometers southwest of Kyiv and 400 kilometers north of the Black Sea coast.
In his nightly address to the nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the attack as a Russian terror bombing. He claimed the target was a cultural centre frequented by veterans, and that 23 civilians, including 3 children, died. He implored Western allies to designate Russia as a terrorist state.
Historians will agonize over when the Russo-Ukrainian War actually started; but as Russia’s February 24 breach of Ukraine’s borders has been deemed by our media as Day One, let’s run with that. This makes June 4, Day 100.
Western war reportage can be predicted a week in advance by the simple expediency of reading Russian Ministry of Defence communiques. For instance, Russian news outlets detailed the demise of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol, complete with video of thousands of troops surrendering, a week before our media begrudgingly conceded this fact. This time lag repeats regularly, lending credence to Russian claims.
Donetsk Oblast spans 26,517 square kilometres. (For comparison: Maryland covers 25,142 sq. k.; Wales encompasses 20,789 sq. k.; and Vancouver Island: 31,285.)
In 2014 Donetsk separatists joined their northern comrades in Luhansk Oblast in declaring independence from Kyiv. The ensuing 5-month war yielded a 450-kilometre "Line of Contact" severing western Donetsk Oblast from its capitol. Ukraine's army held western Donetsk at the current war's outset, February 24, 2022.
Prior to February 24 both Ukraine and Russia poured troops and equipment into this theatre. Ukraine positioned half its 200,000-strong ground force along this eastern front.
"Canadians will likely need booster shots to protect against Covid-19. We need to be ready… Conservatives will implement a plan to ensure that Canada has faster and more consistent access to vaccines and that we have rapid access to booster shots to deal with future variants."
"…the military-industrial-complex does not walk alone."