Back Story Newsletter
Good morning,
Ukraine
It’s a whirlwind of news this week in Europe as NATO expands its forces in the Baltics and in Poland, to significantly bolster troops and prepare for a Russian attack beyond Ukraine.
For the moment Putin’s forces seem unable to contemplate attacking a NATO country as they are being ground down in Ukraine’s east, but it also seems inevitable with threats to Lithuania and Poland and beyond.
Russia hit with international sanctions, and confronted by an alliance rolling heavy weapons into Ukraine, hasn’t blinked and Putin is undeterred by even thousands of KIA Russian soldiers.
Overnight Russian forces launched missile attacks a residential apartment building in Odesa, killing 17 people. The images are ghastly and daily we are seeing the civilian toll of this war climb without a conscience in the Kremlin.
Putin has never cared about civilian deaths in his wars in Chechnya, or Syria, and now Ukraine, and the brutality of this invasion is stunning but demonstrates why Russian has to be defeated.
The summer will bring much more destruction but slowly Ukraines ability to turn back the onslaught is increasing, and I believe July and August will show Russia can’t hold all the land its illegally taken in the Donbas.
Putin’s war is not going as he planned despite his claims to the contrary, and he trapped between admitting defeat or pushing forward with the unwinnable.
Other News…
-Xi Jinping visited Hong Kong defending China’s rule marking 25 years since Britain returned the city to China
-the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan exceeded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s authority under the Clean Air Act. A major blow to Government led attempts to rein in global warming. The planet should burn says Conservative Justices
-Ketanji Brown Jackson, Joe Bidens first Supreme Court appointee, has been sworn in. She is the first Black woman to sit on the court
Have a good morning all! More later.
Dana Lewis