Ukraine Attacked
Good morning, the waves of air attacks aimed at Kyiv overnight are unprecedented and are meant to overwhelm Western supplied air defences.
34 waves in 24 hours have sent school children in Kyiv screaming as they were sent running for bomb shelters, and the fallout from intercepted missiles set several buildings on fire including an apartment complex.
The first was sent by Russian President Putin’s attack forces were a combined missile drone assault, then later ballistic missiles, and finally overnight UAV’s.
In his nightly video address on Monday, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, praised US-supplied Patriot anti-missile defences.
“When Patriots in the hands of Ukrainians ensure a 100% interception rate of any Russian missile, terror will be defeated,” Zelenskiy said.
But Ukraine is said to be running low on air defence ammo supplies and need more, and need it to be supplied quickly.
The timing is critical - Moscow is trying to test Ukraine just as it is beginning its counter offensive to retake regions lost in the East to invading Russian forces.
MOSCOW -
And drones appeared over the Russian Capital this morning, with several striking buildings in Moscow causing “minor” damage and no serious injuries, the mayor of said early on Tuesday.
“All emergency services of the city are at the scene of incidents,” Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said in a statement.
Kosovo NATO
In 1999 NATO set up a peace keeping force in Kosovo, to prevent further attacks by Serbia accused of ethnic cleansing in the tiny Country now recognized by 100 Countries around the world.
Russia has never accepted Kosovo’s independence and in recent years has stoked tensions in Northern Kosovo where a Serb majority still looks to Belgrade for security and vows reunification.
Kosovo is a tinder box and over the weekend it began to burn with Serb’s attacked administration buildings, and NATO forces guarding them. The scenes were disturbing, with several dozen NATO soldiers badly wounded by rock throwing and shock grenades.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said 52 Serbs were hurt, three seriously, in the unrest, andKosovo’s president, Vjosa Osmani, accused her Serbian counterpart of trying to destabilize Kosovo.
Notable the Serb protesters spray painted NATO vehicles with the letter ‘Z’ to show their support for Putin’s war in Ukraine, and it is the same symbol used by invading Russian forces in Ukraine. And, some of the attackers were identified on social media as serving Serb policemen.
Turkey Election
President Erdogan won a critical election run off over the weekend to tighten his grip on power in Turkey.
Here’s how the Washington Post wrote it -
“through his two decades in power, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has pioneered a path that leaves many of these demagogues in his shadow. Few statesmen on the world stage have left such a defining imprint on their nations. And few have staved off real electoral challenges with Erdogens guile and ruthlessness mobilizing a core bloc of religious and nationalist voters with incessant culture warring, while also leveraging his overwhelming control of the state apparatus in his favor.
Erdogan has full control of the State media and used everything in his power to get reelected. Hardly a fair election say critics.
The election tested Turkey’s immigration policies, and both parties used anti immigration rhetoric. Erdogan has walked a fine line between being a member of NATO and supporting Russia.
He cast the opposition as figures backed by foreign enemies, in favour of a supposedly radical embrace of feminist and LGBTQ beliefs.
“Didn’t German, French and English magazines throw their covers to demolish Erdogan? Here they lost too, my brothers!” Erdogan said in his victory speech. “You’ve seen the alliances that have been formed for months. You have seen who is standing against us from terrorist organizations to deviant ideologies. What happened though? They failed.”
Erdogan’s religious block may now attempt to strip LGBTQ communities of their rights, and there are fears by human rights organizations of what the next 5 years of Erdogan rule in Turkey will look like.
Other News…
-The eastern Canadian city of Halifax declared a state of local emergency late on Sunday after a wildfire caused evacuations and power outages, with authorities shutting several schools in the affected area. Officials say the fires, span a total of more than 25,000 acres and have destroyed multiple buildings with more than 16,000 people forced to evacuate the area around Halifax, Nova Scotia’s largest city.
-Details of a deal between Democrats and Republicans to suspend the debt ceiling are slowly being spelled out. It’s a 2 year suspension of a cap that sets a limit on spending at 31.4 trillion $. So the American Gov can keep spending. But there are limits on the growth of federal discretionary spending over the next two years. There are also some new work requirements for certain recipients of food stamps and the Temporary Aid for Needy Families program.
Have a good morning everyone.
Dana