Day 1515 War in Ukraine

 Slovak Prime Minister Fico is VERY upset that the Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) will not let his plane overfly them in order to attend an event put on by Russia's Putin. He'll find some way to attend.

Blogger examines the distinction between drones and troops. Most important difference is that troops can hold territory, drones just assist them in doing that.

Canadian Prime Minister says that Canada has to be more independent of the US.

Viktor Orban is very upset that NATO wants him to unblock the €90 billion for Ukraine before they allow oil to flow from Russia via the Druzhba pipeline again.

Is Russia just pretending to negotiate because they're confident Trump will hand over the Donbas?

An injured Ukrainian boy ran alongside his father in the Boston Marathon for five km to raise funds for Ukraine.

Zelenskyy is determined to create a homegrown duplicate of the US Patriot anti-ballistic missile system.

Ukraine has made a number of 10-year contracts with many countries.

Ukraine's deep strike drone program may prove to be decisive.

Just by setting up barbed wire, Ukraine slows down infantry advances and makes Russian soldiers easier to pick off.

Several unpleasant episodes of Ukrainian criminals shooting up fellow Ukrainians.

https://balloon-juice.com/2026/04/19/war-for-ukraine-day-1515-the-cost/

Day 1504 War in Ukraine

 

Referred to as “vomit-inducing.” Prominent Russian Sergei Lavrov's conversation with the Hungarian Foreign Minister.

The Baltic States may have been providing intelligence on Russian ports. Not smart for an American professor to say that on TV, but not smart for someone to have spilled that in the first place!

Our blockades and sanctions on both Iran and Cuba are pretty clearly a waste of time and resources. Both sets of leaders might have a harder time holding on to power if their citizens were free to travel and to import US intellectual and material products.

April 9 is the anniversary of day Soviet troops killed 21 demonstrators on this same Rustaveli Avenue in 1989.

Anticipating Orban's defeat in the upcoming Hungarian election, a Georgian Dream ideologue blames US VP Vance.

The EU has the same problem with the Hungarian Foreign Minister that Democrats had with Senators Manchin and Sinema, who just continually obstructed every measure. They need to go to majority rule as opposed to unanimity.

Orban caught in unsuccessful plot to bomb and to then blame Ukraine for the bombing.

Anne Applebaum of The Atlantic: “Victor Orbán has been in charge of Hungary for 16 years. He has used his power as a democratically elected leader to take over the institutions of the state, judiciary, media, bureaucracy, universities.” Funny, but Hungary isn't much of an economic success story. His campaign is essentially blaming all of Hungary's problems on Ukraine.

VP Vance says Ukraine and Russia are merely having dispute over "a few square kilometers of territory" Not true and quite insulting.

Pope Leo XIV denounces US diplomacy.

Zelenskyy warns that drones are already very long range. They will improve on that.

“The Donets-Zakharzhevsky estate in Velykyi Burluk, Kharkiv region, has been destroyed down to its foundations.” Built in 18^h Century, it survived two world wars.

Last remaining Russian rail ferry disabled across the Kerch Strait.

Russians developing remotely detonated mines.

https://balloon-juice.com/2026/04/08/war-for-ukraine-day-1504-we-are-clean-on-opsec/