re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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Reminder to the board that one of the reasons that SirWinston is for Russia is that he's anti-Semite who hates Jews like Zelensky.

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Yes, it is a regional banking center for NYC banks.

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Mont Belvieu, TX would cripple our MASSIVE petrochemicals business the likes of which China and Russia can only dream of having.

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PRAGUE—Ukraine is about to receive large shipments of the ammunition it needs most. It won’t come from the U.S., or any other pillar of NATO.

Rather, the deal was clinched by a landlocked country of 10 million people sandwiched between Germany and Poland famed for its picturesque capital and the quality of its beer, but which was also home to a large arms industry.

The Czech Republic, once part of a former Soviet satellite state and with little sympathy for Russia’s efforts to restore its lost empire, is one of Ukraine’s most ardent supporters. By activating relations dating back to the Cold War, it has sourced around 800,000 artillery shells from a diverse coalition of suppliers spanning the globe and identified another 700,000 that could be secured with extra funds.

The shells include 300,000 Soviet-standard shells and around 500,000 Western-made rounds, to be delivered in batches by the end of the year. More shells will be available as funding comes in, the Czech government said. Altogether, Czech officials say around 3 billion euros, equivalent to $3.3 billion, would secure around 1.5 million shells—a fraction of the $60 billion aid package for Ukraine now stranded in the U.S. congress.

The shipments, which Czech officials say could start reaching Ukraine within weeks, come as shortages of ammunition and troops are forcing Ukraine’s battered army to pull back in places faced with a Russian onslaught.

The Ukrainian forces are so depleted that they now only fire around two shells for every 10 Russia fires at them, according to Western intelligence estimates.

The Ukrainians aren’t running out of courage, but “they are running out of ammunition,” said Jens Stoltenberg, secretary-general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

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Some military analysts say Ukraine needs up to 200,000 shells of various calibers each month to push back against the renewed onslaught. The supplies organized by the Czech Republic could help Ukraine’s defenders hold back Russia’s advance while the West slowly ramps up its own weapons production.

“The Czech initiative will help Ukraine stabilize the front and regain the upper hand,” said Nico Lange, former chief of the executive staff at the German defense ministry.

Czech officials behind the discreet procurement plan said their effort started shortly before Russia’s full-scale invasion two years ago and largely circumvented the ponderous bureaucracies of NATO and the European Union.

Unlike the U.S., France or Germany, which mainly focused on ramping up domestic production to supply Ukraine, Czech officials said their initiative focused on sourcing existing materiel. Czech officials began quietly crisscrossing the globe, clinching sales deals and negotiating export licenses from scores of manufacturing nations.

The Czech officials said the country’s past as a former Soviet satellite was an unexpected boon. It gifted the country both a substantial armaments industry with global customers and good relations with many nations in the Global South with large stockpiles of Soviet-era weapons and the capacity to produce more.

The officials are coy about where the shells are coming from but say suppliers include some allies of Russia. By contrast, similar entreaties by the U.S. and Western Europeans to potential suppliers in Africa, Asia and Latin America have been rebuffed, according to Western officials.

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The Czech Republic would then organize the logistics, with shipments going either through its own borders or through third countries, blurring any direct link between the country of origin and Ukraine so as not to expose the supplier to Moscow’s ire.

“Confidentiality is key here: We talk and will talk to anyone, no matter what their allegiance or political stance is—with a very few exceptions, such as North Korea,” said Tomas Pojar, the Czech government’s national security adviser.

Prague’s efforts exposed a discrepancy between some governments’ friendly attitude to Russia in public and their openness to doing business with Ukraine’s allies in private, said Jan Jires, deputy minister of defense.

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“If you come with a pile of money they are interested, and Czechia is seen as neutral compared with the U.S., which is often polarizing,” said Jakub Janda, head of the European Values Center for Security Policy, a Prague-based think tank, using an alternate English-language name for the country.

So far, the Czech Republic has secured funding for the first tranche of around 300,000 shells. Among the donors are Germany, Canada, the Netherlands and Denmark. The U.S. isn’t part of the buyers’ club at this stage.

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“Western initiatives have been hindered by…a desire to produce in Europe or the U.S. because countries wanted to combine supporting Ukraine with supporting their industries,” Jires said. “Which is a legitimate goal because we need to rearm ourselves but that’s not what’s needed for the immediate relief of Ukraine.”

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The means might be something too horrible to contemplate. But Russia is fighting with an arm tied behind its back. Right? That seems all too easily forgotten. If Putin decided to go with all options upto and including nukes, Russia could easily level the entirety of Ukraine. The consequence would probably be WWIII, and mutually assured destruction. Would Putin do that? If the guy is as he's characterized here -- a murderous, insane, thug -- the answer could well be "yes."

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Putin is ... not that murderous and insane.

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Drone reportedly hits military base in Russian-controlled Transnistria

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