Day 1462 War in Ukraine

 “The company’s main activity is the production of chemical products used by the Russian military-industrial complex.”

One of Putin' s objectives in his war on Ukraine was to prevent their acquiring long-range weapons. Ukrainian home-produced Flamingo cruise missiles just hit a target 1k km from their front line.

OTD in 1921, the Soviet Union signed a peace treaty with Georgia and violated it in less than a year. European NATO members agree that Putin can veto having them in Ukraine to ensure peace. There's about a 100% chance he'll do so.

Joint Ukrainian-British defense plant began operating in Britain.

“Trump has no idea what Putin really wants.” It's not like Trump has any excuse as Putin's goals have been clear since the full-scale war started four years ago. According to the blogger, Trump “has no idea what the actual causes of the war are.”

Ukraine was prioritizing hitting oil refineries. Now that that's more or less under control, they're hitting industrial targets. Back during World War II, the US and Britain could simply unload tons of bombs on a target and rest assured it was destroyed. Flamingos have a much smaller warhead, so they need to be very precise in what they hit.

Denys “Redis” Prokopenko makes the rank of Brigadier General (usually, generals and admirals are at least 50 year old).

“Epicenter mall is on fire in Zaporizhzhia after russian attack “

More Russian anti-aircraft systems blown up.

One out of every 25 Russian men is a casualty of the war in Ukraine, either wounded enough to be out of the fight or dead.

https://balloon-juice.com/2026/02/25/war-for-ukraine-day-1462-year-5/

Trump's hyperbole problem

 

I came across this post on Xitter:

My response to the author's explanation:

Someone responded to me:

I presume that what the fellow is saying is true, so I looked around and grabbed some quotes:

As of early afternoon, "Mikey" has no response to what I pointed out. So why do people believe that Trump was going to deliver "instant" results? I think Trump has a hyperbole problem. He describes people as "The greatest ever" or "The most horrible loser ever," he never just tells us about a modest person who's in the middle. I very strongly suspect Trump never said anything on the campaign trail about his economic policies needing several moths or over a year to start working. I think if Trump has said something to the effect of "These policies will take a while" Mikey would have quoted him. I'm sure that someone in the Trump campaign did indeed say this, but clearly, the impression that Trump's economic policies would work instantaneously, like flicking on a light switch, was an impression that, intentionally or not, Trump enabled.   

Day 1451 War in Ukraine

 

A Russian Pantsir air defense system costs $15 to $20 million. Ukraine has now destroyed half of the 42 systems that Russia has.

Zelenskyy makes a lengthy speech observing the 4^th anniversary of the start of the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine. He sounds pretty bitter. I don't blame him a bit. Ukraine has made tremendous sacrifices to keep the rest of Europe from having to fight Russia themselves.

Big turnout for Georgian protesters on Day 444 of their protest.

Secretary of State Rubio makes a racist speech, attributing Western success to factors that are uniquely Western, never mind that others are quite capable of matching our feats. Uuh...whut? “To appease a climate cult, we have imposed energy policies on ourselves that are impoverishing our people, even as our competitors exploit oil and coal and natural gas and anything else” Here Rubio just goes completely off of a cliff and into sheer delusion. Is Trump demanding “seriousness and reciprocity“ of is he just making crazy demands? Rubio doesn't like mass migration but doesn't seem to have any idea why it occurs. It's difficult to battle against something when you have no idea why it's happening. Yeah, defending colonialism as Rubio does is just...no.

“Rubio said the US still doesn't know if Russia is serious about ending the war in Ukraine.” That's completely insane. If you have no idea why the other guy does as he does, you have no hope of resolving the conflict.

European troops don't understand how drones have decisively affected the battlefield. Ukrainians fully comprehend that.

Lots of Russian stuff destroyed.

Russians compensating for lack of Starlink communications with balloons carrying communications equipment to 20km up.

https://balloon-juice.com/2026/02/14/war-for-ukraine-day-1451-president-zelenskyy-in-munich/

Day 1450 War in Ukraine

 “Ukrainian skiers honored fallen athletes after their race at the 2026 Olympics.”

“Trump: 'Zelenskyy is gonna have to get moving. Russia wants to make a deal.'” Sounds like Trump's been chatting with Putin again!

Kate from Kharkiv: “You [Trump] aren’t getting anywhere because you’re pressuring the victim instead of the aggressor—Russia.”

“Rubio skipped a meeting with European leaders on Ukraine” Without Rubio, the meeting was pointless.

Germany's view of diplomatic relations with Georgia.

Many countries pledge money for Ukraine to defend itself.

German Chancellor Merz says the war will end when Russia is exhausted militarily or economically.

NATO General Secretary Rutte doesn't understand what the US is doing.

The leader of the Hungarian opposition claims he was brought into a “honey trap,” where an adult (whew!) woman slept with him in a room that was surveilled. Parliamentary elections will be held in April. Magyar's party is in the lead.

Zelenskyy tours a Ukrainian-German drone factory.

Massive drone attack on Odesa. Apartment buildings and car dealership burned.

Ukraine rescues a prisoner who was behind enemy lines.

Lots and lots of Russian stuff destroyed!

https://balloon-juice.com/2026/02/13/war-for-ukraine-day-1450-looks-like-trump-had-another-phone-call-with-putin/

Day 1442 war in Ukraine

The blogger doesn't give Elon Musk an explicit “Attaboy,” but makes it clear that Musk's action in denying the use of the Starlink internet system to Russia has really messed up Russia's military effectiveness to Ukraine's advantage.

The medium-range ballistic Oreshnik missile had its launch site destroyed by Flamingo missiles.

Good news! Another POW exchange!

Georgia protesters had their bank accounts frozen because of unpaid fines that they were never notified of.

Commenter Georgian Marika Mikiashvili is a guest on a podcast.

Estonia takes the courageous step of emptying out its supply of generators in order to help Ukraine. They then ordered replacements from their industries.

China is financially supplying Russia in its war against Ukraine.

Very interesting Trump gives Victor Orban an enthusiastic endorsement for reelection. Fellow dictators and wannabe dictators sticking together? Also, Trump refers to new American battleships. These exist only in his fantasies.

Russian propagandist Solovyev is very upset that Starlink is no longer to be used by Russians.

Marat from Kazakhstan offers free hot meals to Ukrainians. Hey, I'd take them too! A hot meal is a hot meal!

Cold weather dance party in Odesa!

Railway cars meant to provide warmth and shelter to Ukrainian civilians hit.

Russia hurting badly from sanctions. Whole economy may collapse in a few months. Russian banks have 10 trillion rubles in loans that might not get repaid.

Russian propaganda stations in Moscow have to be evacuated due to a fire.

https://balloon-juice.com/2026/02/05/war-for-ukraine-day-1442-cry-havoc-release-the-flamingo-of-war/

Destruction of exhibits at the President's House.

Just because I spent so much time at Philadelphia's primary court-house today, here's my quickies, once-over-lightly summary of the arguments over the Trump Administration's taking away of the explanatory panels at the site of George Washington's house right next to the Liberty Bell exhibit.

Government: We were authorized to do that. We had every right to do it. Eff the people. Eff having a proper historical explanation for those days. We've got our own interpretation that we're gonna stuff down your throats!  

Philadelphia: We put a lot of time, work and effort into deeply and carefully researching just how Washington, his household and his slaves all worked and interacted together. We spent a great deal of time on the words and pictures for the exhibits. Had Trump's people come and said “Let's have a discussion about your exhibit,” we would have said “Fine,” and we would have carefully gone over all of the evidence with them. They just came and ripped it all down and who knows WHAT sort of racist dog poop they'll put up to replace it?

     

 

Day 1433 War in Ukraine

Advanced batteries mean drones can either fly twice as far or carry twice as much.

Auschwitz was liberated 81 years ago on January 27^th. It's important to remember that Auschwitz did not happen immediately upon der Fuhrer taking power in Germany. The hatred slowly and gradually built up.

Vice-President gives a Holocaust remembrance speech that neither mentions Jews nor condemns Nazis.

Anne Frank and her family were NOT legal immigrants to Holland. They were disobeying a summons to report to a labor camp.

Georgia abuses prisoners of conscience so much, they fear for their lives.

France calls on Georgia to loosen up and hold free and fair elections.

14 countries now reject Russia's shadow fleet tankers.

Trump Administration denies that they're trying to force Ukraine to make territorial concessions.

That IS good news! It was predicted in 2023 that the war in Ukraine would lead to battlefield nukes being launched “within six months.”

Trump thinks things in Ukraine are great. No one knows what he's talking about.

“Elina Svitolina crushes the world No. 3 and reaches the Australian Open semifinals for the first time!“

291 Ukrainians were on a train that was hit with three drones. Russians also struck a school that “serves children with special educational needs.” And they sent 50 drones to Odesa. They hit a church and a kindergarten.

Russians hit pipeline that was serving oil to Hungary and Slovakia.

Russian mortgage debt ha tripled from December 2022 to December 2025, from 91.6B to 265.6B rubles.

https://balloon-juice.com/2026/01/27/war-for-ukraine-day-1433-international-holocaust-remembrance-day/