Russia continues to pummel Ukrainian positions throughout the country and Ukraine continues to insist that it is shooting down Russian missiles and that the Russian attacks are inconsequential.
Well, as Chris Berman of ESPN was fond of saying, “let’s go to the video tape.”
The following video provides clear evidence that Ukraine’s air defense system is not working (you can see the launches from Patriot or IRIS batteries) and that Russia is blasting the Ukrainian air defense system into smithereens. Focus on the lower left hand quadrant of the video...
Ukraine does not have the weapon systems capable of doing the same thing to Russia.
All Ukraine can do is fire artillery rounds at civilian targets along the border. Killing Russian civilians reinforces the Kremlin’s view that Ukraine is no long operating as a conventional military and must be treated as a terrorist threat. [<—what they had been doing since 2014 to their ethnic-Russian neighborhoods leading to the RF's SMO.]
That means we can expect Russia to expand its attacks on “decision making” centers in Ukraine, which means targeting Ukrainian leadership responsible for military and intelligence activities. I am sure the West will howl with outrage but there is little it can do to compel a change in Russia’s strategy.
The ability of the West to continue its open ended support for Ukraine is being eroded by a string of negative economic news.
Veteran CIA/State Dept Intel Analyst Larry Johnson of Tampa
