USA Won't Let Ukraine Hit Russian Missile Launchers. Why?
Saving Kharkiv
Ukrainian Freedom News: THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE DAILY LOOK AT THE REALITY IN UKRAINE.
THE WRAP: The Russians have pounded Kharkiv all week. It seems Russians are amassing forces bordering Ukraine’s Sumy regions which is between Kyiv and Kharkiv. And yet, so far, Ukrainians cannot use American produced weapons to hit the Russians before they cross the line, even as the Russians are firing into Ukraine. Russians calmly sit in traffic and watch their fellow Russians launch rockets at Ukraine.
Plus: In a massive drone attack like something out of Star Wars, Ukraine has hit Russia’s naval base at Novorossiysk. This extraordinary, because Russia has in the past year moved much of its Black Sea Fleet to this mainland port because the Ukrainains had been so successful at hitting the previous naval HQ at Sevastopol, occupied Crimea.
WITHIN TODAY’S EDITION:
Ukrainian Freedom Voices:
The biggest sign of hope: Ukrainians and foreigners every day travel from Kharkiv city to outlying villages to rescue people and puppies, even as Russians shell evacuation lines.
The biggest concern: Will the Russians push through into another region, such as Sumy?
The biggest question for Washington: What’s the fear if Ukrainians use American weapons to hit
TUNE IN TODAY, LIVE AT 8:19 AM EASTERN US TIME for Joe Lindsley’s daily report from Ukraine on Chicago’s WGN Radio with Bob Sirott. Or follow our social media or this newsletter for the daily video version.
Quick daily downloads: podcasts to keep you informed as you go about your day
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“It was our sweet home”: Brave evacuations under artillery fire
“It was our sweet home.”
KHARKIV REGION, UKRAINE—Ukrainians and foreigners alike are racing every day to villages under fire in order to evacuate people and their pets, even as the invading Russians target evacuation points, as volunteer Gregory from the Kharkiv Media Hub describes here. And, as you can see at the end of the video, the Russians send rockets to Ukraine while their fellow Russians calmly watch from their cars.
So: Ukrainians in their cars evacuating people from hell are not safe. But Russians in their cars watching fellow Russians shoot hellfire are safe, because the United States refuses to let Ukrainians use American-made weapons, no matter which country donated them, to hit the rocket launch points on Russian soil.
Make sense to you?
WAR ART
Art by Neivanmade, Art Director, UFN
DAILY WAR JOURNAL ON CHICAGO’S WGN RADIO
WAR DAY 813: The USA Won't Let Ukraine Hit Russian Missile Launchers. Why?
🇺🇦 Every Day Until Victory on Chicago’s WGN Radio with Bob Sirott: Joe Lindsley reports every single weekday 10 minutes from Ukraine 🎙️ Thurday 16 May 2024
LVIV—Russians in a traffic jam watch as their fellow Russians attack Ukrainians. The Russians know that Ukrainians cannot use American weapons to touch them on Russian soil. And then at the moment when Bob notes how nice it is that Joe's connection from Ukraine is so clear every day--boom, we lose connection, right as I was talking about Putin's Chechyn warlords and their views on Ukraine.
50 MINUTES - SILICON CURTAIN: Navigating Propaganda
Taras Byk - Is Putin’s Endless Aggression Exhausting Russia’s Military, Social and Economic Reserves
Taras Byk's special mission is the breakup of the Russian Federation, a project that doesn't seem so far-fetched after the Prigozhin mutiny, and Putin’s endless aggression that is exhausting Russia’s military and economic reserves. Taras is a civil society activist and political strategist, who believes that Ukraine's Maidan Revolution, in which he participated, saved not only Ukraine but also Europe. Today we will be discussing the threat from a resurgent Russia, and the history of imperial expansion that sits behind it. Can Ukraine's stand for freedom and struggle against renewed Russification of its peoples hold the line in Europe between freedom and authoritarianism, between the rule of law and unimaginable barbarism. Can Ukraine's experience even help revitalise the idea of democracy and help us to become more resilience in the face of creeping nepotism, corruption, oligarchy, and aggressive autocrats?
Battleground Ukraine Podcast: Analysis by British military historians
UKRAINIAN FREEDOM VOICES
Scenes from Wounded Kharkiv
by Jens Christian Jensen
russia’s Kharkiv offensive is doomed to fail - here is why. russia has recently opened a new offensive towards Kharkiv and they have massed approx. 30.000 troops. This will however never get them even close to Kharkiv, lets put it into recent history.
To give an idea, lets have a look at the battle for Bakhmut, a city which had a population of 73.212 in 2020. It took the russians 10 months, 2 weeks and 3 days to take this city, using the best eqiupped and the most motivated russian soldiers, including the Wagner mercenaries. It is estimated that russia lost between 60.000-80.000 soldiers (dead 20.000) to take a hold of Bakhmut.
Kharkiv has a popultaion of 1.419.000, and the russian troops which have advanced some kilometers into Ukrainian territory are primarily infantry supported by artillery and a few tanks and armoured vehicles. So far the russians have not reached the main Ukrainian defense lines, and in some areas the advance has already been stopped, in some areas they continue making very slow progress (taking huge casualties), and in some areas the Ukrainians has been pushing them back (confirmed by videos available).
Another important fact is that Zelensky yesterday announced that for the first time during the war, all Ukrainian Brigades have the artillery shells available they need, thanks to the Chezch-initiative and to the new US aid package.
So the idea that russia with the current force available will be able to take Kharkiv is a russian fantasy.... So why do the russians even try? I have listed a few possibilities below:
1) The russians actually believe they will be succesful
2) The russians want to stretch out the Ukrainian forces
3) The russians want to use the time before the US/EU weapons arrive
4) putin wanted to show China progress
5) The russians want to come within artillery range of Kharkiv to make it impossible to live there by constant artillery fire
And turn that around:
1) Not even the russians can be that stupid...
2) Maybe, but the Ukrainian lines for moving troops from one area to another is much shorter then russias, so this will make it more difficult for russia
3) Too late.... look at Zelensky´s announcement yesterday
4) Shania Twain once song "That don´t impress me much"...
5) Most likely this is the aim, but with Ukraine getting enough shells and with their longer range and more precise NATO type artillery, this will not work in the longer term
Time to arm Freedom & Democracy! Give Ukraine all the tools they need and remove the ban on strikes on russian soil.... seen from a military perspective this ban does not make any sense.
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I was reciting Rudyard Kipling’s “If” with friends on a supply delivery trip to Donbas.
And during that road trip I realized this: In the ancient and still flourishing Ukrainian language, the word for “if” literally means “how-what”: a workman like idea of how to achieve the impossible. Because Ukraine never colonized other countries, the Ukrainian language is an easy window into how early Indo-European humans forumated language based on necessity and possibility. —Joe Lindsley
Quick Hits
From a few days ago after a sleepless night in Ukraine: Did you know that in the weeks following Easter Sunday, people in western Ukraine have a special way of saying hello to each other? It’s yet another way Ukraine holds onto ancient traditions even in the face of modern ballistic missiles from Russia.
Wimbledon, Wine, and War
From American journalist Joe Lindsley: “Sergiy Stakhovsky is a renaissance man but also simply a decent and honorable person: In 2013, he defeated Roger Federer at Wimbledon, when Federer was reigning champ. Meanwhile, back in his homeland of Ukraine, he began to produce excellent and unique wine — @stakhovsky.wines — in the sunny Zakarpattia region, reviving traditions destroyed during the Soviet times. When Russia launched its full-scale invasion, Sergiy first protected his family and then in a Mini-Cooper he drove amid military vehicles to the war, where he continues to volunteer as a soldier.”
Here’s an excerpt of Sergiy Stakhovsky’s interview with Joe Lindsley, American reporting in Ukraine every weekday, with no days off, on Chicago’s WGN Radio. You can see video version of these reports via the link in @jplindsley ‘s bio.
Recorded at the studios of Ukrainska Pravda in Kyiv as part of the Land of the Free podcast.
Ukraine Rains Drones Upon Russia’s Major Naval Port
[On the night of 16-17 May] Ukraine conducted one of its largest drone attacks in the history of this war. According to various reports, Ukraine used up to 80 drones, identified as 'Liutyi' one-way attack long-range unmanned aircraft, to strike different targets in Novorossiysk, Russia (approximately 350km from the nearest frontline) and the refinery in Tuapse, Russia (approximately 450km from the nearest frontline). During the attack, which lasted for hours, dozens of drones followed sometimes the same trajectory, without being intercepted by Russian Air Defense, to strike targets inside Russia. The targeting of Novorossiysk is particularly significant from a strategic perspective because this is the harbor where various ships of the Black Sea fleet have withdrawn to after the strikes on Sevastopol. Source.
Kharkiv: The Soul of Freedom.
Episode 1: “You’re beating the wind.”
Here the Kharkiv writer Anna Gin offers her reflections on living in a city that the Russians shell day and night. “Who do you want to scare?” she writes. “There’s no way to break us. We can’t be broken.”
intro illustration by @citiesandsketches
Ukrainian Freedom Supply: Tools for victory
Thanks to our WGN Radio audience in the USA for continued support of our war reporting and of the civilians-turned-soldiers who stand at the front. Here’s a greeting from a Ukrainian Border Guard—incredibly crucial as Russian desperately tries to break into Kharkiv region—saying just how great it is that we got them some walkie-talkies. These little things make a positive difference. We welcome support here.
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ABOUT US: Reporting Every Single Weekday Since Russia’s Full-Scale Invasion
"Joseph Lindsley's reports are enlightening, frightening, heart-wrenchingly and poetically descriptive." —a regular listener to the daily report from Ukraine on Chicago's WGN Radio with Bob Sirott
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