TUESDAY 17 MAY 2022

Podast: The Telegraph, Ukraine The Latest

• Ukraine has had success in the north pushing Russians back to the border.
• Surrender of those left in the Mariupol steel plant.  It is said that they are in separatist held areas in the Donbas.
• The port cities on the Sea of Azov have been badly degraded.
• An explosion in Lviv last night.  It is thought that these strikes were from the Black Sea and are punitive strikes without strategic benefit.  Russians are able to fire missiles across the whole of Ukraine.  Their air force is not venturing out of Donbass. 
• Indiscriminate use of artillery by the Russians.  They cannot achieve much on the ground so the indiscriminate firing. 
• There are warnings of global rises in food prices.  Central Banks are warning that they will not be able to do anything about this. 
• The pulling out of McDonalds from Russia is symbolic as well as an economic issue.  It’s a sizeable presence in Russia.  Over 800 stores.
• Companies are also selling out because this is the optimal time to do it.  Who knows what the situation will be in a year.
• Putin and Gerasimov have been “meddling” in the military operation at a level way below what is normal.  Putin’s job is to keep the population on board and any alliances together, not directing military operations. 
• There are about five different wars going on.  The North, the east and the South, then the air force doing its own thing and the Black Sea Fleet threatening an amphibious landing and lobbing missiles.  None of this seems to be coordinated.
• There is a complete lack of trust that runs through the entire system.  This slows down the entire process.  There is a lack of willingness to delegate decision making.    

NOTES

• Ukrainians are fighting and dying to keep authoritarianism from taking over their country.  Americans are gleefully voting authoritarians into office.  It makes me ashamed.  We now have the conversation: “Where are we going to move?” every day.
• On the corporate news programs, they are talking about the horse race, i.e., “the republicans could win if they said this or that.”  The Republicans stand for an authoritarian take over of the country, I don’t give a f..k about what somebody thinks they ought to do as better strategy.  The amazing thing is that everybody thinks this is a relevant discussion.

UKRAINE WORLD

• Russians are saying that Kherson will take a decent place in the “Russian family.”
• Over 1500 educational institutions have been attacked in Ukraine.
• The total number of Russian troops currently used against Ukraine is about 167,000, said the Ukrainian defense minister.
• Russians organize forced mobilization in Luhansk.  They threaten to kill men who refuse to fight.
• Russians shell a plant which is one of the largest producers of building materials in Ukraine.
• Russia’s state Duma “aims to pass legislation banning (defenders of Mariupol from the steel plant) them from being swapped for Russian prisoners.
• Russian State-owned TV anchor is talking about “millions of armed Ukrainians” as a real possibility. 

THE KYIV INDEPENDENT

• Zelensky signs decree establishing a commission to assess the damages of the Russian invasion so that Russia can be held accountable.  (Note: Unlike the U.S. where those who tried to overthrow the government are allowed to continue to plot and run for office.)
• Germany’s national railway company plans to help get Ukrainian grain to ports.