We haven’t discussed the situation in the Ukraine for a while.

But, I’m sure you know that Russia is perpetrating a slew of war crimes almost every day.  They send in drones and bombs to attack civilian targets- in particular- power plants, electric grids, water supply systems and the like.

And, while the Ukraine attempts to divert/destroy the drones as they hone in on their targets, the activity is not perfect.  So, there are a bunch of villages without power, without water, and with damaged homes/apartments.

The big problem is that winter (ok, not the actual season, but the temperatures/environment) is here.  Which means that these villages and homes lack power, but not only are the residences dark, they are cold and probably have no running water.  That means life is more than “a little bit” difficult.

That has been the way things have been going for a while.  Despite that- or maybe because of that- the Ukraine forces are attacking villages near Kherson, trying to dislodge the Russians and reclaim the land.

But, now something new has been reported.  It seems that the Ukraine has decided to provide the Russians a taste of their own medicine.  Drones have attacked three Russian air bases a few days ago.  Now, the Ukraine has not officially stated that they launched them, but… come on, folks, who do you think is really doing that?

An oil storage in Kursk (close to the Ukrainian border, the Engels-2 air base in the Saratov section of Russia), and the Dyagilevo air base in Ryazan (close to Moscow) were all hit.  While this is clearly an expansion of the war, since Russia is attacking civilian targets willy-nilly, I don’t see a negative development.   Ukraine is entitled to bring the war to the Russian soil.

(By the way, these were Russian era drones.  Ukroboronprom (the Ukraine State Weapons Agency) is developing its own new drone with a 1000 km range, capable of hauling a 75 kg weapon.  Given that the Russians didn’t intercept those first three drones, it’s likely this more sophisticated attack will reach its targets, too.)

But, it’s not just a military war.  Russia has not only been bombing the heck out of civilian targets, it’s been appropriating Ukrainian grain.  Using clandestine (and illegal) processes.  Kind of like what Iran has been doing when it attempts to ship its oil, despite the embargoes placed on that trade.

One of the biggest Russian thieves is RIF Trading House LLC (the toy owned by Putin pal, Peter Khodykin; the largest grain exporter of Russia.)  His system is to smuggle the grain away from the storage areas via a bunch of trucks, which then load the bounty onto small boats (docked in Sevastopol, Crimea).  These then meet up with larger cargo ships (which are  never found to be docked at Sevastopol, so they are not subject to the embargoes) that have their transponders either turned off or masked to be found at a location they are not. Once those larger ships are loaded, they head off and sell their stolen goods.  IT wouldn’t be a big deal to see that the cargo vessels already had some Russian grain on board to mix with the stolen goods, making theft identification more difficult.

And, then, there’s more.  The Russian agricultural minister (of course, yet another pal of Putin, Alexander Tkachev) and his company, Agrocomplex, has appropriated some 400,000 acres of Ukrainian farm land that is part of the Ukraine that Russia has invaded.  One of the big Ukrainian farms that was stripped of its property is HarvEast (Dmitry Skorniakov is the CEO of the enterprise)– in three separate thefts, each of 100,000 acres of land.  Agroton Public Ltd had some 250,000 acres stolen and Nibulon Ltd found the Russians had appropriated about 50,000 acres of its land.

Of course, that doesn’t satisfy Khodykin completely.  No, he is also appropriating 70% of the harvest of other Ukrainian farms under Russian control – either by diverting the crops directly to his firm or to the “Donetsk People’s Republic” or “Luhansk People’s Republic” (the latter two are the puppet states Russia claims to have made from stolen Ukrainian lands).

Obviously, Ukraine is going to be short significant capital to rebuild itself from the destruction imposed by Russia.

This week, Time Magazine names Vlodymyr Zelenskyy its person of the year.  This most unlikely pick of President by the Ukrainian people has turned out to be almost perfect.  A comedian and a Jew- neither of which is held in high esteem by the Ukrainian folks- understood that he needed to keep the world focused on his country;  it was the only valuable currency the country had. He refused to abandon his post when the Russians threatened to kill him.  He galvanized the citizenry to fight back with anything (and everything they had- which were Molotov cocktails) until the world began arming the country with weaponry.  Zelensky (rightly) convinced the world that only by saving his country can the world remain safe and not succumb to autocratic dictatorships.

Kudos to one and all.