Russia-Ukraine Update

Victory Day ended up being a big nothingburger, with Putin announcing neither an escalation nor a de-escalation. The story right now is Russia’s capacity to manage its anemic but real offensive in Donbas, which is apparently starting to bother a lot of the hawkish commentators in Russia itself. The Ukrainians are definitely pushing back around Kharkiv, and have even forced the Russians to blow a couple of bridges to cover their retreat.

Some links:

• Very interesting essay on how Russia and Ukraine have appropriated and reshaped the legacies of World War II to suit their own purposes during this war.
• Adam Tooze on the murder of cities.
• More Adam Tooze on the Church of St. Javelin.
• Russia has a human capital problem.

I have some additional thoughts on the role that the United States has been playing in Ukraine’s information economy…

Two stories broke yesterday that confirms the profound role of U.S. intelligence support for the Ukrainian war effort. The first story revealed that the United States has been supplying some of the intelligence that has enabled the Ukrainian armed forces to target and destroy Russian command posts, coincidentally or not killing an unprecedented number of Russian general officers. The second story gave truth to rumors that the United States had been involved in the sinking of the Russian Black Sea Fleet flagship Moskva, having confirmed to Ukrainian officials the ship’s location before the missile strike that inflicted fatal damage on the cruiser. The Biden administration has pushed back a bit on these claims but officials in the intelligence community and in the administration are clearly happy to talk to reporters.