Thanks @MagicFox ! @DesdamonasHandkerchief your contributions really do help - thank you
About the hopelessness and horror - Ukraine really has taken back a lot of territory and most of all, most of Ukraine is still free. Ukraine fought back a 65 km military convoy and Kyiv remains free.
Putin has fucked up royally. Russia's strings might well be pulled by China in 10 years' time. Russia is seen as pretty isolated, very very savage and untrustworthy by the whole damn world now.
The horror in Ukraine is ongoing and personally I'd like to see the hanging-back leaders of the West waterboarded in a Russian latrine (no not really, but GOD the deaths that are unnecessary that are happening!) .. but in 5 - 6 days time we will hear about the Rammstein conference and we can hope for tanks. Ukraine is also building its own long-range missile capability. That's incredible, for something that no one had even thought of 11 months ago.
Training is happening in several countries - US, Spain, UK, I forget the others, but there are some - on advanced equipment and systems.
So it's not hopeless. But Ukraine does need that extra hardware.
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www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/ukraine-conflict-updates
Key Takeaways
Russian forces launched two waves of missile strikes targeting Ukrainian critical infrastructure on January 14.
The Kremlin continues to falsely claim Ukraine poses an existential threat to Russia to reject Ukrainian offers of a peace summit and retain Putin’s original maximalist goals.
The Kremlin continues to use long-standing false narratives that the Ukrainian government is oppressing religious liberties as moral justification for its refusal to negotiate with Ukraine and likely in the hopes of turning international public opinion against Ukraine.
Wagner financier Yevgeny Prigozhin continued to leverage the Wagner Group’s role in capturing Soledar to elevate his political stature and indirectly criticize the conventional Russian military.
Russian forces continued limited counterattacks along the Svatove-Kreminna line.
Russian forces continued offensive operations around Soledar as well as in the Bakhmut and Avdiivka areas. Ukrainian forces are highly unlikely to still hold positions within the settlement of Soledar itself.
Russian forces continued defensive operations and reinforced frontlines positions on the east (left) bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson Oblast.
Western officials are increasingly joining Ukrainian authorities in warning that Russia is preparing for an imminent second wave of mobilization.
Russian occupation officials in Kherson continued measures to forcibly relocate residents to Russia.
Ukrainian partisan attacks continue to disrupt Russian rear security efforts.