Victory Chronicles
-DAY 145

COMBAT HIGHLIGHTS

Above: According to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry, the enemy has struck military facilities about 300 times, civilian infrastructure over seventeen thousand times.  Photo via Forbes

• The front has been relatively quiet in the last week.  Analysts are watching closely to determine when the enemy lifts its “operational pause” that was intended to let it pull its decimated forces and supplies together before new offensives start.
• Enemy defense minister ordered the orc army to concentrate on destroying Ukraine’s artillery capability.
• The Ukrainian military has been warning that a massive counter-offensive will start soon to retake occupied southern Ukraine.  Big guns arriving from the West make it possible.

SANCTION RUSSIA: TURBINE FLIES TO GERMANY

Above: A worker poses next to a turbine at the Siemens Gas Turbine Plant in Berlin, Germany.  Photo via Euractiv

• Canada sent a turbine for the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline to Germany by plane on July 17 after repair work had been completed, as reported by Russian newspaper Kommersant.
• German politicians have dismissed Russia’s technical explanation for last month’s reduction in gas flowing through Nord Stream 1, saying the decision was a political gambit by the Kremlin to sow uncertainty and further push up energy prices.
• Speaking about the controversial decision, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said, “That was a very difficult decision for Canada and I understand the concern that Ukraine has about it, but it was the right thing to do.”
• Ukrainian World Congress filed suit against the government of Canada last week for relaxing adopted sanctions designed to prevent Western financing of the Kremlin’s war on Ukraine.  The Canadian parliamentary committee for foreign affairs has called two federal ministers and three ambassadors to appear to discuss Canada’s decision.

RUSSIA DESPERATE FOR CANNON FODDER

Above: Russians leave their dead behind.  Ukrainian emergency workers are often left to collect the remains.  Russia hasn’t updated its casualty numbers since late March, but Ukrainian military says enemy dead is approaching forty thousand.  Photo via New York Times

• Illegal occupation authorities in Mariupol have been ordered to draft human cannon fodder ASAP.  The occupying orcs are running fake employment ads, then “recruit” respondents to serve in the army.  Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko responded, “I appeal to the people of Mariupol, who are in the city, do not succumb to Russian propaganda and avoid employment where you will be thrown to the ‘front’ to die. Every day the victory of Ukraine is getting closer and our Mariupol will definitely be liberated.”
• According to British Intelligence, the mercenary group Wagner is lowering recruitment standards, hiring convicts and formerly blacklisted persons. Very limited training is made available to new recruits. This will highly likely impact the future operational effectiveness of the group and will reduce its value as support to regular Russian forces.
• The high death toll among soldiers from poorer republics populated by ethnic minorities, like Dagestan in the Caucasus and Buryatia in southern Siberia, indicate that they fill the front ranks in disproportionate numbers.

KREMLIN HAS POWER TO PLUNGE WORLD INTO DEEP RECESSION

Western dependence on Russian fuels – probably not a good idea in hindsight.  Photo via CNBC

• The world’s reliance on fossil fuels and, more specifically, Europe’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels, creates vulnerabilities with the potential to send the world into deep recession, according to a story in the Independent.  The story opens with an ominous scenario:
• “A few weeks ago, the US bank JP Morgan offered an apocalyptic warning that barely made a ripple outside the financial press. It said that if Russia completely halted oil exports, the shock to the world economy could be so large it would instantly quadruple the price of oil to nearly $400 a barrel…Since the world is still heavily reliant on oil, the shock to the world economy would be far worse than during the 1970s – and plunge us into a deep recession.”
• Putin has already drastically reduced gas supplies to Europe under the pretense of maintenance, but many are worried that deliveries won’t return.  “Since world supplies are already stretched to their limits, a ban from Russia would instantly drive up prices to what JP Morgan called ‘stratospheric’ levels.”