Into the Dark

Greetings! (I recall this term of address was frequently employed in diplomatic exchanges - or translations thereof -between the Soviet Union and China and the countries of the communist and socialist world; I use it now in the spirit of fellowship that it was originally intended for and with a sense of nostalgia for a different world).

This is my final day of travels. I don’t find it easy to keep abreast of battlefield conditions without the benefit of a workstation screen. I will resume regular postings by the end of the week.

But for now, suffice to say that my main impressions are threefold: Russian advances, modest overall, are sufficiently numerous, increasing in number, and persistent that I believe we may be approaching a serious and perhaps fatal disrupture of Ukrainian defense lines; (2) Russia has inflicted very significant damage to Ukrainian airfields and fighter jets in recent days such as to deny Ukrainian forces in Kharkiv sufficient air support, even as Russia continues to shoot down Patriot missiles after launch; (3) with the possible result that Ukraine will not, after all, be able to launch its third major counter offensive.

All this is in the context of political paralysis across the collective West: a doddery old fool in the White House; a lame duck French president; a lame duck German chancellor; a piece of worm-eaten wood likely to take power in Britain; and an illegitimate home-wrecker in Kiev, slave to Azov, paranoid and spiteful.

Far from these developments offering consolation they enhance the dangers of irrational and accidental moves; they cast us further into the darkness in which the outrageously rich and powerful and egregiously sinister forces lurk, with zero transparency, zero accountability and maximal evil.