“Those tankers also wanted to live.”

“What’s there to recover? From three tankers, maybe there are enough remains to fill a half liter bottle.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-ukraine-mig-29-fiasco-gets-worse-joe-biden-vladimir-putin-poland-ukraine-russia-nato-11646953225

It turns out the U.S. decision to deny Polish MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine is even worse than we wrote Thursday. The White House is now confirming that the decision went all the way up to President Biden, who vetoed the jet delivery lest it provoke Vladimir Putin and risk escalating the war.

The logic seems to be that sending lethal anti-aircraft and antitank weapons won’t provoke the Russian, but 28 fixed-wing aircraft would. That distinction is hard to parse . . . . By so ostentatiously not sending the fighters, and saying the reason is fear of escalation, Mr. Biden is telling the Russian what he doesn’t have to worry about. Instead of deterring Mr. Putin, Mr. Biden is letting the Russian deter the U.S.

I’ve seen Ukrainian men volunteer from the very beginnings of the war.

I know a veteran with health problems practically clawing the wall because all his friends are fighting but he cannot.

I’ve seen them wait at home, and answer when they were called.

I’ve seen them attempt to cross the border, and remain unregistered to avoid the call.

And I’ve had one (via his sister talking to my wife), insist that I “lend” him my US passport so that he can leave the country. She insisted he’d mail it back to me.

details unkown

These are the internal stresses Ukrainians are hoping for, though historically, the Kremlin has managed to keep them under control.

This report is consistent with this extremely interesting thread — supposedly a translated analysis from within the FSB.

They fail because it’s the yes-men who’ve been promoted for decades. There’s nobody left to push back against stupid ideas.

After nine centuries living next to them, this is exactly what Ukrainians expect.

When Russian took control of Lviv after WWII, the families of Russian bureaucrats moved into abandoned homes of Lviv (mostly Polish) aristocrats. There they saw luxuries previously unknown to them. Their women, often mistaking underwear for evening dresses, were seen in the streets, flaunting silk undergarments like the barbarians they were — and still are.

First map (higher res):

Updated:

From a tactical perspective, these are the types of weapons systems Ukraine needs rather than fighter aircraft. Discussing these arms transfers so publicly is rather curious and something I would not have expected.

https://twitter.com/HoansSolo

I wonder if the very public debate about fighter jests isn’t deliberate PR cover while other efforts get underway. It seems plausible, but that may be giving too much credit to various government bureaucracies.

Source (ukrainian): https://www.unian.ua/war/vodiy-rozpoviv-shcho-z-nimechchini-v-rf-dostavlyayut-jizhu-liki-ta-inshu-produkciyu-cherez-polsko-biloruskiy-kordon-novini-donbasu-11738569.html

Ukrainian man in Poland attempts to block it: https://twitter.com/OscDomesticated/status/1502217391085920258

This makes sense, though I don’t see a consolidated shift to a different strategy. I see RU forces doing things which don’t make sense – like executing pieces of old plans or completely unrealistic plans.