An American tourist in Russia
Woke cancel culture has claimed more victims; this time, the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Yes, you read that correctly. Celebrating WWII woman veterans is racist. Last week a proposed WNBA shirt celebrating the WASP legacy hit the airwaves, and the news eventually dripped into the victimhood echo chamber known as Twitter.
The plot thickens. Russian authorities claim to have foiled a planned assassination attempt against the Belorussian president, Alexander Lukashenko. Two men were allegedly in Moscow to meet with disloyal Belorussian generals to discuss murdering Lukashenko on May 9, Victory Day. Lukashenko also alleges a kidnapping conspiracy against his family.
While significant in itself, assassinating Lukashenko correlates with the standoff simmering in Ukraine. The Black Sea Fleet currently maintains total superiority and could effortlessly sink the entire Ukrainian navy within minutes of hostilities breaking out. Russia has combined arms units assembled in Crimea, along the Eastern border of Ukraine, and in Belarus, creating a three-sided “cauldron” that could potentially end a shooting war almost before it started.
The standoff in Eastern Ukraine continues. Here’s a rundown of events so far and what may come next. I’ll continue adding live updates to this post as the situation develops.
The Kremlin doubles down on their troop and ship movements, the White House is ineffectual as always, and Ankara gets bolder with their support of Ukraine. That last development (which includes new Turkish drones and Syrian mercenaries) is particularly good for Kiev, but probably gives them little comfort since just about every player at the table has made it clear they won’t face open warfare with Russia.
Ukrainian Special Forces are recruiting Syrian mercenaries to fight in the disputed Donbass region. The American media has mostly declined to report on this event, for reasons that I’ll leave up to readers to infer. However, The Syrian Observer reported last month that Turkish special forces asked Syrian militants to prepare for deployment to Ukraine.
As pretty much everyone who doesn’t live under a rock already knows, the U.S. and NATO has pledged support to the nationalist government of Ukraine during the current standoff with Russia. Steven Pifer, former diplomat and avid warhawk, has proposed five courses of action. They’re hopelessly insane.