Bob Homans March 23

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As usual, Bob's comments are in bold font, his sources' in light.

The Unz Review has hosted many pro-Russian writers.  For balance perhaps, they picked up this piece I published on VDARE.  Please recognize that the editor toned my writing down a bit.  On this forum, I am glad to get published at all.  Unz accepts comments.   Please express yourselves.

Ukraine – 3/23 Sitrep
Compiled by: Robert Homans
March 23, 2022
A Visit to the “Russian Store” –

“Russian Gourmet” is a Russian food store located near where we live in the Washington, DC area.   We call it the “Russian Store.”  Since the start of the war, my wife will no longer enter the Russian Store so, if we were going to have proper potato pancakes, it was left up to me to go there to buy smetana (sour cream).   Yesterday I went there, clad in my Andriy Shevchenko Ukrainian National Team jersey.   It is the same jersey I wore in 2006, when I went to the Caffe Euro in Beverly Hills, Ca., to watch Ukraine’s World Cup Quarterfinal match against Italy.   Therefore, I’m used to wearing the jersey in hostile environments.   I put on my mask (actually a bandana from Recreational Eq. Inc.), because it is required for entry and I didn’t want to give them a pretext for preventing me to enter.   I went in, bought the smetana, paid, and left, but not before I said to the salesperson, “Slava Ukrainii!”   She grunted.   I didn’t tell my wife I was going, so now I must go back to get more items that my wife needs.

The Owner of Caffe Euro wanted my jersey, to put on the wall of the restaurant. He was going to put it next to another Andriy Shevchenko jersey, the one from the time Shevchenko was a star for AC Milan.  I decided not to give it to him.  I’m glad I did.

“Ukraine Must Win” –

 Article in the Atlantic Magazine by Ann Applebaum.    On the first day of the war, I contacted 2 of my collaborators who contribute to these Sitreps.   Both said, “Ukraine will win.”  Since that day, I’ve never had any doubts.

Ukraine Sitrep – 3/23 -

As usual, any comments of mine are in Bold Face

The obvious is most often overlooked when trying to resolve seemingly intractable problems.  In speaking with colleagues about Ukraine’s current situation the discussion is about horror and despair.  Refugees and war crimes. 

War crimes and refugees are consequences and not the problem.  The problem is that Russia is an amoral autocracy.  Replacing the autocrat is not a solution.

The cultural predilection of Russian autocracy is to see what it wants, and chamberlains and courtiers only show the autocrat what is expected.  Otherwise like the Red Queen from Alice its off with their head. 

Shoigu, Russia’s Minister of Defense who was on news broadcasts daily after the invasion started, was last seen in public March 11.  The cookie continues to crumble.

An anecdote making the rounds.  An elderly grandmother in a village saw a file of advancing Russian soldiers.  Boys, she said, would you like some cake.  The boys agreed and gobbled the cake she offered.  An hour later they all died of poisoning.

As Marie Antoinette said, “let them eat cake…”

Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Lavrov said if peacekeepers enter Ukraine, it will be a NATO act of aggression.  Perhaps Lavrov is becoming senile; Ukraine proposed Chinese peacekeepers.

Russia’s Ministry of Transport admitted it stole liners leased to Russian carriers.

The Ukrainian Orthodox Church issued a call to the laity and clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine to unite with it.  Kirill, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate, blessed the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.   

The Russian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate, is not really a church in the traditional sense.  Instead, it is an organ of the Russian State.  Every year, when Putin delivers his “State of the State” Address, Kirill is sitting in the front row.

Kirill is also known as the “Tobacco Metropolitan,” a nickname he acquired when, as Metropolitan of Kaliningrad, he controlled cigarette smuggling.   Kirill net worth is estimated at $1 billion.    This is a video from Kirill’s last visit to Kyiv, where he was greeted by a member of a Ukrainian group called “Femen.”  If you watch closely, you’ll get a glimpse of Kirill’s $25,000.00 Rolex watch.

The City of Paris bestowed Kyiv with the title of an Honorary Parisian.

Over the last two days Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense recorded the desertion of 520 Russian soldiers.  Two days ago, 300 Russians in Chernihiv abandoned their equipment north of Chernihiv and were last seen marching to Russia.  Today another 220 did the same in Kyiv Oblast.  The Ministry estimates that Russian forces in Northern Ukraine have at most two days of food left.  In addition to direct deserters the Chechen force sent by Kadirov, after losing its commander, retreated to Chechnya.  Kadirov promised to send another Chechen battle group.

Russia has not been able to get reinforcements to any front in Ukraine after a week’s effort.

Yesterday Russia undertook 80 aerial attacks on Ukraine, 29 from Belarus, 20 from Russia and the remainder from occupied Crimea.  Ukraine shot down 6 fighter bombers, 5 tactical attack drones and 1 helicopter on Tuesday. 

Three days ago, Anonymous warned multinationals that are continuing doing business in Russia that they will be hacked.  Today Anonymous released 10 gigabytes of commercial information from Nestles servers.  Nestle said it will not stop operations in Russia.

Estimates ranging from 50,000 to 100,000 skilled IT personnel have fled Russia to date.

General Situation - The Pentagon issued a statement yesterday that said the invading Russian army is on the verge, maybe a day or two of completely running out of food and fuel.  The statement went on to say that the Russians did not bring warm clothes.  In confirmation the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense released intercepted communication from Russians encircling Mykolaiv.  Soldiers on the recording were complaining that half of their force was dead or not operational, that they were sleeping in dugouts because they had no tents, and that everyone was suffering from mild to medium frostbite.

General Petraeus explained on CNN why 6 Russian generals and 20 colonels have been destroyed to date.  He said that the Russian command does not entrust junior officers and soldiers to make battlefield decisions.  Consequently, at the rear of every Russian army, battle group or fighting unit there are command vehicles in direct communication with Moscow.  Ukrainian forces are counterattacking from the rear taking out these officers.  Once the command center is destroyed the attack unit halts allowing the counterattack to continue inflicting damages.

British intelligence report yesterday indicated that Russian occupiers plan to shoot demonstrators in occupied territories.  Since passing through most of Kherson Oblast Ukrainian civilians have been holding large demonstrations demanding the Russians leave.  Although some of the confrontations have been met by Russian tear gas, firing on an unarmed civilians in the area have been in isolated incidents not related to these demonstrations.

The Orthodox Church Patriach, Barthelemy I is travelling to Poland today to support Ukrainian refugees.   Based in Istanbul, Patriarch Barthelemy I is the “first among equals” in the Eastern Orthodox Church.   In 2019 it was Barthelemy who issued the “Tomos,” declaring that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is independent of the Russian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate, an event that must have outraged Putin.

Yesterday Russia used its most advanced rockets, the hypersonic missile Iskra, and Tornado C on civilian targets in Rivno and Avdiivka.  The pentagon commented that wasting sophisticated weaponry on civilian targets makes no strategic sense.

 Brovary, a satellite community of Kyiv and the site of a number of manufacturing plants was shelled yesterday.  The mayor of Boryspil another Kyiv satellite community and the location of Kyiv’s international airport, issued an advisory for civilians to evacuate.  A major pharmaceutical warehouse on Kyiv outskirt – Farmak – was hit by rocket and burnt destroying all stored medicines. 

A freelance photographer, Maks Levin, disappeared while filming on the front outside of Kyiv.

Two Russian military infiltrators were caught at a checkpoint in Kyiv.  They were driving and recording military positions.  When they drove up to a Ukrainian checkpoint their drive recorder was operating.  Drive recording has been temporarily made illegal.  The drivers were unable to explain why they were filming and in their trunk were their Russian military identification papers, guns, and ammunition.

The Kyiv Districts of Obolon, Sviatoshyno and Vinohradary were hit by rocket fire yesterday damaging two buildings and a strip mall.

Ukrainian forces that halted the attacks on Irpin and Bucha, satellite communities west of Kyiv, have encircled these Russian attack forces on three sides.  If the Russians do not continue retreating, we expect Ukrainian forces will complete encirclement and liquidate the Russian attack groups.

Russian soldiers holding the Chernobyl nuclear site looted the site laboratory and stole equipment valued at $6 million.  Six forest fires have started in zone around Chernobyl and if they get out of control the danger is that they may send radioactive particles into the air with the smoke.

Two Russian soldiers broke into a home Tuesday night on the outskirts of Brovary, killed the husband and then repeatedly raped his wife.  They beat the couple’s child and locked him in another room while raping the woman.  In an incident near Bycha, a group of Russian soldiers, stopped a man and his son on bicycles going to aid center in the city.  The man was killed and the son was shot.  He played dead and got to a first aid point after the soldiers left.

Chernihiv is facing a humanitarian catastrophe.  It has been without electricity, gas, and water for almost week.  People there are surviving on food cooked over open fires and bodies are seen strewn across the streets.

Yesterday Russian aerial bombs destroyed the bridge over the Desna River on the outskirts of Chernihiv.  The bridge was the main link between Chernihiv and Kyiv.

Russian soldiers are not allowing civilian funerals in Trostianets, Sumy Oblast.  The graveyard is on city outskirts and mourners are being shot at.  The Russians are also not collecting their own dead, which are lying in the open on approaches to Trostianets.

The city of Lozova in Kharkiv Oblast was hit by artillery fire killing six, wounding two and destroying 20 homes.  There have been no ground attacks on Kharkiv in the last 48 hours as Russian forces have retreated.  Russian attack helicopters on the approach to Kharkiv were met by Stingers and without firing a shot returned back to Russia.  Russian forces expected that Kharkiv, located 35 kilometers from their border, would be occupied in less than 12 hours after the invasion started.

A Russian tank destroyed a civilian passenger car and its occupants.  The car left Izium and was on its way to Kharkiv.

Ukrainian anti-aircraft batteries destroyed two bombers over Kharkiv yesterday.  There were 30 artillery attacks overnight on Kharkiv.

Civilians evacuated from Mariupol said that the Russians are trying to systematically destroy every standing structure and kill every living person.  Yesterday Ukrainian forces shot down a Russian bomber over Mariupol.  They also destroyed 4 tanks, 2 armored personnel carriers and approximately 40 soldiers.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said that Russian ground attacks emanating from occupied Donbas were repulsed, and Russian ground forces retreated after trying to attack Popasno, Severodonetsk, and Lisichansk.  Before retreating from Lisichansk Russian forces managed to would civilians standing in line to buy bread and hit set the roof of the municipal hospital with rocket grenades.  Ukrainian forces drove out all remaining Russian forces from Volnovakha.

Russian bombers partially destroyed the crude oil refinery belonging to Rosneft, Russia’s state oil company, in Lisichansk.  The refinery is idle and no one was injured.

Chornobaivka, the airport outside of Kherson, has been hit again.  This is eight attack on the airport, seven of which were by Ukrainian forces.  The latest attack was by a Russian anti-aircraft Buk missile whose rocket motors after lifting failed and the rocket fell, exploded and took out the anti-aircraft battery and additional vehicles.  Following the incident Russia pulled back all its attack helicopters from the base to Crimea.

A village elder from the village of Stara Zubivka, Kherson Oblast was forcibly taken and driven away.  He has been missing for over 36 hours.

Yesterday a Ukrainian journalist, taken captive by Russian soldiers three days ago was released and has since made her way to Zaporizhia.  Russia’s Prosecutor General launched criminal prosecution against a well-known Russian journalist, Nevzorov, for admitting that Russian planes bombed the maternity hospital in Mariupol.

Parliamentary deputy from the pro-Russian party, Opposition Party for the Right to Life, Ponomariov was taken from a refugee help center in Berdiansk, where he was serving as a volunteer, by Russian soldiers.  His and other businesses in the city went on strike in protest of his abduction.

Yesterday Bunge’s export elevator in Mykolaiv port was hit by a bomb causing enough damage that the export elevator will need repairs before it can be functional.

Ukrainian national guard forces defending Mykolaiv destroyed in street skirmishes a column consisting of a tank, two armored personnel carriers and a truck killing eighteen invaders.

Russians fired five rockets without hitting any target in Odesa Oblast.

Tuesday morning the Russian marine battle group trying to reach Odesa by skirting Mykolaiv came under heavy fire and has since pulled back to Crimea.  50% of its force was killed or seriously wounded and today it became known that the team of commanding officers was eliminated in the battle.

Russian occupiers in Crimea have freed up space in Sevastopol’s municipal jail for Ukrainian politicians and soldiers taken by their forces in mainland Ukraine.  Two Crimean tartars received 13 and 16 year sentences yesterday for supporting terrorism against the Russian occupiers.

Yesterday 13 apartment buildings were destroyed or damaged in Zhytomir by rockets.

Russian forces launched three more rockets at a military base on the outskirts of Rivno.

Yesterday Russian Forces tried to infiltrate Kryvi Rih, on the southeastern tip of Dnipro Oblast, on civilian vehicle.  Territorial defense forces have mined the fields between the roads, and the diversionary group was destroyed by a tank mine.  Russians also released two rounds of ballistic missiles at villages on the boundary of Dnipro and Kherson.

Russians fired a rocket at Pavlohrad and hit the railway station killing one person and damaging the station.  Six more rockets were fired at civilian targets in Dnipro oblast