Are Global Elites Afraid of Ukrainian Democracy?
"These are just notes about freedom. I wish you had the time to read them." —Swedish band Act II
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Near-Daily War Journal Podcast: Are Global Elites Afraid of Ukrainian Democracy?
Here's today's episode of our Near-Daily War Journal with Ukrainian bartender Zakhar Pikh and American journalist Joe Lindsley.
—How the world’s intel was wrong about Ukrainian strengths
—Are some Westerners afraid Ukraine will destroy Russia? If Ukraine wins, a model of true democracy could spread. Does this frighten some in Brussels and Washington?
—Why did American embassy leave Ukraine so quickly?
—Does the US defense establishment want a long war?
Also on Spotify (except in Ukraine, where Spotify doesn’t allow podcasts):
The Past Week in Ukraine: Key Things
With the Ukrainian Freedom Fund, a U.S. 501c3 nonprofit that brings supplies, equipment, and humanitarian aid directly to Ukrainian soldiers and citizens in need, we offer you a weekly report on the situation in Ukraine:
by JOE LINDSLEY
Thanks to the half-dozen American HIMARs—high mobility rocket launching systems—in use, the Ukrainians have reportedly destroyed 50 Russian munitions warehouses in occupied Donbas and Kherson and the Russians have gained little ground the past week, a trend for most of July.
"If we had received 155mm artillery and more MLR systems in time, then Lysychansk and Severodonetsk [in Donbas] would have been under the control of Ukraine,” says Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs. Ukraine's defense minister said with 100 HIMARs Ukraine could take back its territories.
Unable to advance on the ground, Moscow hits cities, villages, houses, gardens, and shops in the Sumy, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk regions (listed from north to south, clockwise) with missiles and artillery fire. In Nikopol, which has taken daily shelling without advance warning from across the Dnipro River, citizens are on high-alert for Russian saboteurs scoping targets. Nearby in occupied Kherson, where many of Ukraine’s most fertile fields are ablaze, the Ukrainians have destroyed a bridge to cut off a key Russian supply line.
Moscow signed an agreement July 22 in Istanbul with Turkey and the United Nations to allow Ukraine safely to export an estimated $10 billion of grain from three Black Sea ports including Odesa. But less than 24 hours later, Russian missiles hit Odesa’s port. This strike did not violate the agreement—Russia only promised not to interrupt the grain export process—but the attack made clear Russia’s intention: to defeat Ukraine, regardless of humanitarian concerns.
Hungary's Prime Minister Orban, a Putin ally, says Kyiv can't win. Meanwhile, Polish people, taking a lead from the Lithuanians, are crowd-funding the purchase of a Turkish Bayraktar combat drone for Ukraine. Poland has purchased 116 American Abrams tanks, something not permitted to the Ukrainians, in an effort to create "the strongest ground force" in Europe, according to the country's deputy prime minister.”
Daily Situation Summary, 26 July: Gas land lease, US Congress on arms smuggling in Ukraine
by PAVLO VITENKO
Summary by regions
LUHANSK REGION
Dozens of settlements were hit by multiple rocket launchers and barrel artillery. The enemy also used aviation. The recently occupied territories are actively preparing for a "referendum,” a staged vote on joining the Russian Federation. The "reception hall of the Referendum Public Headquarters" has been opened in Luhansk.
DONETSK REGION
Shelling from artillery, mortars, anti-aircraft guns "Hrad", air and missile strikes on the cities of Bakhmut, Soledar, Krasnohorivka, Maryinka, Avdiivka, Toretsk. The village of Tonenke, the village of Netaylove, the village of Georgiyivka, and the village of Velyka Novosilka were also affected. During the night and in the morning - a missile attack on Toretsk. Three shellings with cluster munitions on settlements of the Cherkasy community, three private houses were damaged. Mortar shelling of the old part of Avdiivka. In one day, three people were killed and eight were injured in the region.
CHERNIHIV REGION
At night, there were two shellings from mortars of the territories near the villages of the Novgorod-Siversky district ….
Read the full report at Ukrainian Freedom News.
Life Before the War: Ukraine’s Dniester Canyon
Memories from Summer in a Country at Peace
by JOE LINDSLEY
"These are just notes about freedom. I wish you had the time to read them." —Swedish band Act II
"Everything was calm. No permits, no cops, no Karens. Just calm and good life."
Recently, a fellow traveler at a mountain guesthouse told me, “We didn’t realise it [before the war], but we have had the perfect country. "
Last summer with great friends I traveled to the Dniester Canyon. A few centuries ago, this riverside spot was a holiday place for Polish and Ukrainian nobility. The village is abundant in produce: It’s a lush warmer microclimate within Ukraine and I felt like I was inland on a Caribbean Island.
We drove to the top of the cliffs. In the shadow of those cliffs, on the river-beach opposite, Ukrainians pull up their cars, have barbecues, enjoy life. Later, on the beach, with strangers we shared food, samohonka (moonshine), and conversation.
An off-duty cop with whom we drank showed us the way to our hotel. The next day, we returned to the beach. I saw a small homemade barge floating toward us. They were singing “We Are the Champions," all different generations of several families, around a big table under a canopy. They had a grill. Some people were jumping off the barge to swim.
“Ahoy!” I said.
They invited us aboard. I sat on the table, floating on the river, eating excellent hearty Ukrainian food like salo—pork fat back—while taking shots of samohonka, washed down with cold beer.
This group had sailed like this for several days. My friends and I pledged do the same in summer 2022 but then war started.
🎙🎙🎙 Chicago WGN Radio Daily Ukraine Report: Fighting the Orcs
Joe Lindsley of Ukrainian Freedom News speaks in a daily report with Bob Sirott of Chicago’s WGN Radio. You can listen here.
Here’s a Ukrainian Song For You:
“Kuba” (Cuba), by Dakh Daughters
"On the beach in Miami … "