Transfer of NATO Aircraft to Ukraine Falls Through as Zelensky Resumes His Campaign for a No Fly Zone

"It seemed as though history was about to be made on Monday night. NATO members who

had formerly been members of the Warsaw Pact had agreed to transfer about 70 Soviet-built warplanes to Ukraine. The aircraft, 56 MiG-29s from Poland (28 aircraft), Slovakia (12), and Bulgaria (16), and 14 Su-25s from Bulgaria, were supposed to be moved to an airbase in Poland. There they would meet up with Ukrainian pilots. A week or so of transition training was scheduled as the NATO versions of the Soviet aircraft have vastly superior avionics and flight controls. The pilots would then ferry the new aircraft to airbases in Ukraine.

 The deal came unraveled today as the question of logistics raised its head. The Ukrainian ground crews don’t know how to maintain the NATO aircraft. The spare parts for avionics and engines are different. The only viable alternative open was to imitate Soviet pilots flying MiG-15s from airbases north of the Yalu River to attack UN forces operating in and over Korea. No one thought that was a top-10 idea.

This brings me to my second point. It is nearly axiomatic that bad ideas never die; they just get recycled for all eternity. One of those truly bad ideas is the idea of a “no-fly zone” over Ukraine, presumably enforced by NATO aircraft. The idea is that such a no-fly zone would prevent Russian attack and logistics aircraft from operating under the threat of being shot down. The most famous example of a no-fly zone is the one no fly zones are those we established over Northern Iraq that lasted from 1991 until 2003 (Operation PROVIDE COMFORT, which morphed into Operation NORTHERN WATCH) and Southern Iraq from 1992 to 2003 (Operation SOUTHERN WATCH).

However, the mission there was markedly different in it targeted a ragtag and wildly incompetent Iraqi Air Force and operated in a relatively low-threat environment. A no-fly zone over Ukraine would bring NATO aircraft into contact with a well-equipped (though marginally trained) air force in an environment dominated by state-of-the-art surface-to-air missile systems. Once announced, there would inevitably be combat between the two sides, SAMs would be fired at NATO aircraft, and NATO aircraft would engage SAMs. Some of the SAMs harassing NATO aircraft would be located in Russian territory, so an additional politico-military problem of dealing with them would have to be addressed.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was pleading with NATO to do exactly that." RedState

Russian forces escalate attacks on Ukraine's civilian areas

"Russian forces escalated their attacks on crowded urban areas Tuesday, bombarding the
central square in Ukraine’s second-biggest city and Kyiv's main TV tower in what the country's president called a blatant campaign of terror.

“Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed after the bloodshed on the square in Kharkiv.

Ukrainian authorities said five people were killed in the attack on the TV tower, which is a couple of miles from central Kyiv and a short walk from numerous apartment buildings. A TV control room and power substation were hit, and at least some Ukrainian channels briefly stopped broadcasting, officials said.

Zelenskyy’s office also reported a powerful missile attack on the site of the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial, near the tower. A spokesman for the memorial said a Jewish cemetery at the site, where Nazi occupiers killed more than 33,000 Jews over two days in 1941, was damaged, but the extent would not be clear until daylight." JapanToday

Zelensky’s Stunning Appeal to European Parliament Was So Heartbreaking That Even the Translator Got Emotional

"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a passionate speech to the European
Parliament in defiance of Russia’s ongoing invasion of his country. His words were so moving that the English translator could be heard choking up.

“Nobody is gonna break us,” said Zelensky. “We are strong. We are Ukrainians.” Zelensky continued to say Ukraine fights to be recognized as an “equal member of Europe,” even as he stressed that the country is now “fighting for survival”. M

Pro-Putin Chechen general killed in Ukraine

"Ukraine forces killed Chechen general Magomed Tushayev on Saturday at the Antonov
International Airport (GML) northwest of Kyiv. Tushayev is responsible for the torture and murders of LGBTQ+ individuals in the largely Muslim region of Chechnya in Russia.

The Ukrainian Armed Forces confirmed his death, writing in a tweet that “Magomed Tushayev, leader of the 141 motorized regiment of the Chechen National Guard, was killed!.” JP

Putin Has Moved His Family Into Siberian ‘Underground City’ Designed To Survive Nuclear War?

"A story that sounds completely made up is going viral as the information war ramps up
concerning the conflict in Ukraine. A Russian professor has claimed that Vladimir Putin has moved his entire family into a secret underground city built to withstand a nuclear holocaust.

The Daily Mail reported on the assertions of Valery Solovey, a political scientist and former professor at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, who claims that Putin is both physically and mentally unwell, and has ordered family members to take up residence in a nuclear bunker in the Altai Mountains.

In a video posted online, Solovey asserted that “At the weekend, President Putin’s family was evacuated to a special bunker prepared in case of nuclear war,” adding that “In fact, it is not a bunker, but a whole underground city, equipped with the latest science and technology.”

“I hope this means something to you? That the President sends his family to this bunker?” said Solovey, who claims to have insider contacts in the Kremlin, and claims to have been interrogated for hours only last week by Russian authorities.

He also claims that Putin has a secret wife almost half his age in Olympic Gold-winning rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabaeva, who has been moved to the underground city.

This is all 99.99999% likely crackpot." SummitNews

Other Developments Today....

"A Russian attack on a TV tower in Kyiv Tuesday killed five people, Ukrainian officials said,
and a Russian rocket strike on a local administration building in the city of Kharkiv killed at least 10 civilians. A Russian military convoy stretching more than 60 kilometres and headed toward Ukraine’s capital is making little progress, a senior US defence official said, partly due to ‘logistics’ challenges. 

 

On the sixth day of the war, Russian troops are pushing deeper into Ukrainian territory, advancing on the capital and setting up checkpoints outside some towns and cities.

 

The strategic southern port city of Mariupol was without power after heavy shelling.

 

Russian Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, an ally of Putin, on Tuesday said two Chechen fighters were killed and six wounded in his first casualty report in the war.

 

The International Criminal Court plans to open an investigation into Russia's invasion of Ukraine and alleged war crimes committed there." France24

Joe Biden’s America Pays Putin $70 Million Per Day for Oil

"Think about the madness of this… Joe Biden is running around trying to look tough, hitting
Russia with sanctions over Vladimir Putin’s obscene invasion of Ukraine. But at the same time, we pay Russia in the vicinity of $70 million per day for oil imports.

In other words, during these seven days of Putin’s criminal war against Ukraine, we’ve sent this same Putin during those same seven days close to a half-billion dollars!" Breitnart

"The Market Is Starting To Fail": Buyers Balk At Russian Oil Purchases Despite Record Discounts, Sanction Carve Outs

"While in their unprecedented broadside of sanctions on Russia, the U.S. and Western allies
went out of their way to spare Russian energy shipments and keep economies humming and voters warm, the oil market has gone on strike anyway. Acting as if energy were already in the crosshairs of Western sanctions officials, refiners have balked at buying Russian oil and banks are refusing to finance shipments of Russian commodities, the WSJ reports citing traders, oil executives and bankers.

This self-imposed embargo which has effectively halted a majority of Russian oil shipments, threatens to drive up energy prices globally by removing a gusher of oil from a market that was tight even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Russia, waging war and in need of revenue with its financial system in turmoil, is taking extreme steps to convince companies to buy its most precious commodity.

We previously reported that owners of oil tankers had already started to avoid Russian ports because of both the military invasion of Ukraine and apprehension that sanctions for oil could also come soon, and as a result rates for oil tankers on Russian crude routes had exploded as much as nine-fold in the past few days.' ZH

Belarus invades Ukraine

"Local reports indicate that a column of 33 Belarusian units has entered the Chernihiv region
in northern Ukraine, north of the capital Kyiv." Mirror

200 Russian captured soldiers who were "badly equipped"

"Ukrainian Major General Borys Kremenetsky told reporters in Washington Saturday that
Ukraine had captured around 200 Russian soldiers who were "badly equipped."

 "We captured around 200 Russian soldiers, some of them 19 years old, not trained at all, badly equipped. We treat them according to Geneva Convention, according to international humanitarian law," Kremenetsky, who is a defense official at the Embassy of Ukraine in the US said." CNN

 

Russian artillery hit a military base in Okhtyrka

"More than 70 Ukrainian soldiers were killed after Russian artillery hit a military base in
Okhtyrka, a city between Kharkiv and Kyiv, the head of the region wrote on Telegram." AP

Czechs Could Face 3 Years in Prison For Supporting Russia on Social Media

"People in the NATO-member state of Czechia have been warned that they could face up to three years in prison if they express support for Russia on social media.

The country’s Attorney General Igor Stríž announced in a press release that it was “necessary to inform citizens that the current situation associated with the Russian Federation’s attack on Ukraine may have implications for their freedom of expression.” TP