Russia on Saturday launched missile strikes across Ukraine that targeted energy infrastructure after a two-week lull in such attacks.
The strikes hit energy facilities in the capital Kyiv and in the regions of Ivano-Frankivsk, Vinnytsia, Lviv, and Kharkiv. A Russian missile also hit an apartment building in the central city of Dnipro, and dozens of civilians were reported killed.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that “all designated targets were hit” in its missile barrage and didn’t comment on the reports of the apartment building strike. Moscow maintains it doesn’t target civilians, but its attacks on infrastructure have left millions of Ukrainian civilians without power.
Oleksiy Arestovych, an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, suggested that the missile that hit the apartment building may have fallen after it was intercepted by Ukrainian air defenses. His comments were picked up by Russian media, and Arestovych faced criticism inside Ukraine for what he said.
Apparently responding to the criticism, Arestovych wrote on Telegram that no one would blame Ukraine for the incident. He said everyone understands that if there were no Russian strikes, “there would be no tragedy, regardless of the specific mechanism of its occurrence.”
He pointed to the Ukrainian S-300 air defense missile that hit Poland in November, killing two civilians. Western officials didn’t put much blame on Ukraine for the incident, even though Zelensky and his top aides initially portrayed it as a deliberate Russian attack and asked for direct NATO action in response.
Zelensky said in his nightly address on Sunday that the death toll in Dnipro rose to 30 and that the number could rise as rescue operations and the clearing of rubble continues.
Does anyone else see another World War in our future?…..
We are in it already. US clearly made a decision to degrade Russian economy and defence capabilities long time ago. It was clear through too many manufactured crisis and blame game to count. Those were designed to condition public opinion, to create a deeply seated image of bad Russia that poisons people using dangerous chemical weapons, cheat in sports through doping, interferes in elections, shoots planes, etc.
Now we are in an active, well prepared phase of economic embargo and military confrontation through proxy.
Simultaneously we are “containing” China and applying unorecedented global push to force other countries to follow Americal diktat, isolate Russia and curtail evonomic dealings with China.
So far, it is very clear that US has pulled back in two areanas,
One, Saudi Arabia. While gullable population was lead to believe that Sanders initiative on Yemen was to end the conflict, it was in fact a War Powers Resolution that would have alliwed US to independently act in Yemen theater, soecifically being able to harm Saudi, Sudan and Egypt’s interests in the cintrol of Straits. After Xi visit to Saudi Arabia — it was withdrawn. Staying with Saudis — a fake notion to start eith — but notvwillung now to cut the ties. Against all odds US ansmd Israel mudt maintain the illusion that Saudi US relations still function.
Second pullback is a selective engagement with China. While loudly blaming China for all US economic woes—-Biden is quietly sending sugnals of selective normalization. Ditto Australia and Germany. Of course this pullback is to feel just how eager is China for improved relations and just how far will it go to trade it for distancing from Russia.
War is going on against Mexico. Our “war on drugs” in Mexico resulted in armed cartels thst are today undermining a very undesirable President and elite. Peru is another active conflict.
US has suffered setbacks in Venezuela and Colombia. And need not mmention from day ind President Lula Da Silva of Brazil will have hard time governing as we stir up opposition. We are not done in Argentina.
Africa is of grave concern as France has bern pushed out from Mali and Russian contract military is engaged in the region. And Egypt presenrs a very triublesome riddle. Ethiopia has weathered Tigray insurrection, and after 39 years of US sway, Ethiopia will turn indelendent.
South Africa, Russia and China are holding maval exercises in Indian Ocean soon. So much for our Indo-Pacific.
Asia is a major battlefield, a complex arena of sophisticated players, where tone day US is assured of stable relationship to be upended by events the next day. Be that Philippines or Thailand, India or Indonesia — what passes for our diplomacy has been slipping.
Europe is in a state of shock — too early to determine the outcome. There has never been a deeper divide between the goals of the elite and the sentiment of the public.
It will be interesting to see if publuc opinion carries any weight in our pist-modern society. Elections have become meaningless.
And be that the quest for glibal domination or the preservation of dollar as a glibal currency – one cannot help it but notice too much ad-hoc thinking.
This is why it is so important to look so determined in Ukraine, And this is why Russia is determined to move in inches in order to degrade Ukrainian capabilities — as Ukraine is investing alm they have to defend those inches. In order not to apoear losing — Ukraine is losing its irreplaceable resource, soldiers.
The war has exposed unexpected asoects of warfare — industrial warfare. Industrial base iin the West cannot ramp up quickly to desl withbthe demands of tertitorial war. With Russia not using its Air Force to decapitate givernmet by targeting its buildings. Instead focusing on infrastructure to degrade ground forces.
Which means that industrial warfare continues. West has wxausted many of its stockpiles.
And this is how world war can gain traction — by one side losing patience and going for risky moves, Such escallations without fail resukt in counter escallations,
And, cajoling the MSM to manufacture consent. Propaganda is flying all over the place.
According to Emmanuel Todd, the man who correctly predicted the demise of the Soviet Union, WWIII is here.
Yes, in the same sense that WWI began with the various armed skirmishes involving France, Germany, Austria, Russia, and the Ottoman Empire in the mid- and late 19th century.
2028-2030. Mark it.
Only 2 or 3 years long?
Are you posting comments from the year 2026-2027? And if so, please share your technology with us.
Apologies, I see the confusion, I mean the duration of the war, not how long away it is. Would it only last from 2028-2030? The other world wars went on longer.
Thank you. I meant WW3 will commence around 2028-2030.
Not in our immediate future – which I hope will be of some comfort 🙂
For the following reasons:
1) There is nothing to gain for the Russians or Putin in attacking NATO (or the US)
2) There is a lot to lose for NATO by getting directly involved in a shooting war with Russia
3) There is very little to be gained for the Russians by using limited (tactical) nuclear weapon(s) in Ukraine
Ad 1) This follows pretty clearly from that the Russians have been unable to take out the bridges over the Dnieper in e.g. Zaporizhzhia (less than 50 odd kilometers from Russian held territory). Noting this it would be difficult to imagine that the Russians would be able to mount a precision strike on NATO resources.
An all out nuclear strike on NATO countries would be suicidal, even could the Russians use hypersonic missiles to take out all land based nukes – there would still be nukes enough left on submarines to make life in Russia very sad.
Ad 2) NATO has been bending over backwards to avoid getting directly involved – had this not been the case they would already early on have delivered both some tanks* and planes. The fact that they have been ‘escalating’ the weapons deliveries so slowly clearly indicates that they are not eager to get directly involved.
NATO getting directly involved carries a very substantial threat of the SMO escalating into an all out nuclear war, so this is about the only way NATO can lose – as Ukraine losing to the Russians is not the same as NATO having lost. This is perhaps best appreciated by the fact that NATO has been delivering almost exclusively weapons to Ukraine which are about to be retired – there are some drone, hand held anti tank and aircraft exceptions to this rule.
Ad 3) Russia using tactical nukes in Ukraine is:
a) terrible optics even inside Russia – the notion of protecting a brotherly nation is not easy to sustain by using nukes (this is just how things are seen by civilians).
b) problematic as just one is perhaps not even going to get them to surrender so more is likely going to be needed.
c) problematic as breaking the nuclear taboo is most likely going to lead to the other nuclear powers (especially India and Pakistan) taking a much more critical stance towards Russia, but also China, which has AFAIK told / guaranteed the Ukrainians that they would not be attacked by nukes.
https://www.politico.eu/article/china-xi-jinping-warns-vladimir-putin-not-to-use-nuclear-arms-in-ukraine-olaf-scholz-germany-peace-talks/
But also:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/under-new-scrutiny-chinas-nuclear-pledge-to-ukraine-11647007200
d) a tactical nuke does not actually kill all that many soldiers on the ground, as they are often or mostly well dispersed or in close contact with Russia’s own troops – using it on a city is likely again going to lose Russia friendship with many of the nations that still have not taken a firm stance on this.
e) very likely going to lead the west to apply secondary sanctions to all nations that still trade with Russia – in that case it is very likely that very few nations will opt to keep a fairly small trade with Russia over trade with the much larger western markets.
For these reasons I think that another world war will only happen by accident – feel free to question any of the reasons I have given.
“…NATO has been bending over backwards to avoid getting directly involved…”
Good one 😉
And Americans and Europeans are bending over forwards to receive the coming of the Movie Actor in his biggest role evah!
As it happens a proposition I argued for – if you were right that they are seeking an outright shooting war, how do you explain that they have opted not to deliver aircrafts, they have MIG29’s that they could deliver. Until you explain this you are just trying to assert your view without explaining the obvious problems associated with it.
The big thing preventing ww3 is the end of European empires. Ww1&2 saw European wars drag in most of the world as colonies. Now, if NATO goes to war with Russia, then Europe & North America may get irradiated, but Africa, Asia and South America will not join them. It’ll be a North Atlantic war, not a world war.
In the past the Ukrainian government would usually release statements including: “of X missiles launched Y were shot down”. No details this time.
Yeah, noticed that too. Maybe they were too busy trying to get their own people in line with “THE STORY”.
Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are having a significant impact on its telecommunications infrastructure. Cell towers, internet providers, and other services are switching to battery backup. But the disruptions are so frequent and lengthy that the batteries are failing before power can be restored.
Ukraine wants US taxpayers to buy them lithium batteries to replace lead batteries. Ironically, Ukraine is rich in lithium… which might help explain one of the 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐥 reasons for US and Russian involvement there.
https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-kyiv-technology-mobile-phones-telecommunications-e1736a1068c89a6bf1e3cf469fa06977