Translated: “Good evening. We are from Ukraine!”
Pronounced: “Dobroho vechora. My z Ukrayiny!”
Seen on T-shirt with Ukrainian tractor towing a captured Russian tank
There are plenty of signs in the news these days that the Russian invasion of the Ukraine is not going all that well and that’s not even considering the Ukrainian counter-offensive that is expected to start presently now that Spring has truly arrived.
The Russian command and control apparatus seems anything but in command and control of the situation with noticeable infighting amongst the most senior defence officials and no clear plan on how they intend to deal with a Ukrainian military that has stubbornly resisted the Russians at every turn.
This week, Yevgeny Prigozhin (the commander of the Wagner group of mercenaries used by Russian in some of the nastiest fighting of the war) let fly with a tirade full of vulgarities that General Patton would have approved of aimed squarely at Sergei Shoigu (Minister of Defence) and Valery Gerasimov (Chief of the General Staff) where he repeated his accusations of their treason for not providing the Wagner mercenaries with ammunition and support.
He’s threatened to have his Wagner mercenaries leave Bakhmut which has seen some of the most intense fighting and heavy casualties on the Russian side even though the city seems relatively unimportant strategically.
This isn’t the first time he’s threatened this to spur the Russian military into providing him with munitions but this time it seems he’s had enough of his mercenaries being used as cannon fodder even though that’s usually how Wagner operates with their new recruits who are often poorly trained (if at all) and ill-equipped to fight as anything resembling a professional military force.
Were I Prigozhin, I’d be far more concerned that Putin might be of a mind to try to take out Wagner as well as the Ukrainian forces. Wagner certainly seems to have fallen out of favour with the powers-that-be and I can’t imagine Putin being all that keen on having a bunch of pissed off mercenaries start turning their attention toward fomenting domestic terrorism and distracting the regular Russian military from the “special military operation” even more than they already are.
Then there is the drone attack upon the Kremlin with President Putin the presumed target. It didn’t take long for Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to blame Ukraine and the United States for being behind the drone attack…accusations that have been denounced as ludicrous at best by Kyiv and Washington.
If anything, it’s surprising the attacks on the Kremlin were reported at all considering that it speaks to how poor the defence of the heart of the military and government establishment in Moscow truly is. That would not reassure whoever Moscow is trying to convince that Moscow is actually properly defended.
I wouldn’t rule out that it was a false flag operation staged by the Russian military itself ahead of the 09 May celebration of Victory Day (signifying the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945) to further the propaganda that the Ukrainian government is a fascist regime and try to justify escalating the conflict in Ukraine even further to eradicate the Ukrainians.
It could also be a sign that there are opposition groups within Russia who feel that Putin has been sufficiently weakened by the lack of success in Ukraine that they can now risk taking a shot at assassinating Vladimir Putin even knowing the likely response is an even more intense crackdown on dissidents than is already the case. That’s a rather dangerous response given that there is credible reporting that the Russian people themselves are not believing everything they’ve been told and that they think things are far worse than is being admitted.
They ought to know…the glowing reports of how well the Five Year Plans were doing in spite of what everyone could see for themselves is right out of the old Soviet propaganda playbook!
It doesn’t appear that Russia is doing any better on the diplomatic front. At an economic cooperation summit hosted in Turkey for all of the powers that border the Black Sea (which includes Russian and Ukrainian representatives), tensions have been running very high between those delegations.
The Russians were greatly annoyed when the Ukrainians unfurled their flag behind the Russian envoy as she was speaking and a scuffle between the delegations broke out.
However, that was merely foreplay.
The main event happened in the main hall outside the meeting chamber when one of the Russians rips the Ukrainian flag out of the hands of Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Marikovskyi who was understandably quite unpleased about that.
So much so that he immediately started chasing after the Russian and letting him know of his displeasure with a few nicely placed punches to the Russian’s head as he took back the Ukrainian flag.
But it’s what Marikovskyi wrote about the confrontation later on his Facebook page that was truly interesting:
Лапи геть з нашого прапора, лапи геть від України, російська сволота!
Translation: “Paws off our flag, paws off Ukraine, Russian b**tard!”
Pronunciation: “Lapy hetʹ z nashoho prapora, lapy hetʹ vid Ukrayiny, rosiysʹka svolota!”
Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Marikovskyi
It may not be terribly diplomatic but it’s something Putin and his henchmen just might want to consider.
Before it’s too late, that is.