17 November 2024

Day 998 War in Ukraine


Nataliia Hrabarchuk left her job as a preschool teacher to become an anti-aircraft gunner. She “downed a Russian cruise missile on her first attempt.”

Russia launches a very broad, deep and wide assault of drones and missiles that it takes an enormous amount of space to document it all. “120 missiles and 90 attack drones. “ F-16 jets were used to repel some of the missiles.

NY Times reports that Ukraine can now use ATACMS missiles to strike targets in Russia. Ukraine can at first use the missiles in Kursk province, but that might be expanded later.

Many Ukrainians welcome having permission to strike Russian targets, but feel that permission should have been given over a year ago. Ukraine doesn’t have enough missiles to hit all the worthwhile targets in Kursk. Our blogger is less than impressed.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that Russia’s latest attack against Ukraine proved the ineffectiveness of telephone diplomacy.

Moldova complains that their airspace was violated.

A European coommenter blames German Chancellor Scholz’s phone call to Putin and Trump’s criticism of Zelenskyy for the massive aerial assault as both demonstrated weakness. Strength doesn’t provoke Putin. Weakness does.

Russian aerial assault was aimed at Ukraine’s energy grid. The attack was aimed at the “cities of Kropyvnytskyi, Rivne, Ivano-Frankivsk, Cherkasy, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Kryvyi Rih, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, as well as in the Khmelnytskyi and Volyn oblasts.”

Counting up the damage to civilians as a result of the mass aerial assault. The missiles and drones were “targeting not for victory but for deprivation – aiming to plunge the nation into darkness and cold.”

https://balloon-juice.com/2024/11/17/war-for-ukraine-day-998-sumy-burns/

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