Ahead of One Thousand Days

Seven days after the 2024 Presidential Elections in the USA and 10 days short of 1,000 in the latest iteration of Moscow’s war against Ukraine and Russia still hasn’t let up on bombing Ukrainian cities and homes and killing innocent, unarmed civilians.

President-elect Donald Trump campaigned on a platform of not caring whether Ukraine lives or dies and his buddy Vladimir Putin is taking full advantage of this dangerous, anti-Ukrainian political climate. The incoming president apparently isn’t going to complain or threaten Moscow into submission. President Biden, fortunately, has declared his intention to help Ukraine’s war effort as long as he is in office but that will only last some two and a half months. After that, it could be smooth sailing for Russian cutthroats in uniforms. They could continue bombing nonmilitary targets and killing civilians without reproach.

In the meantime President-elect Trump will be fulfilling his promise to end the war within more or less 72 hours without consideration for the lost, dead or subjugated people of Ukraine. After all, as the new foreign policy experts said, the United States doesn’t care about the permanent losses. The USA only cares about ending the war and returning to its interpretation of peace. This is a perfect example of what happens when ignorant, negligent officials hold the reins of foreign policy. The 1000-year history, heritage, culture, and people of Ukraine are meaningless so long as Putin and his heathens have achieved their peace. That word and goal are becoming an insult.

On Monday, yes, the one that boasts 11/11/11, Russian glide bombs, drones and a ballistic missile smashed into cities in southern and eastern Ukraine, officials said, killing at least six civilians and injuring about 30 others.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was quoted as saying that Russia recently intensified strikes that have long tormented civilian areas, in an apparent effort to unnerve Ukrainians and wear down their willingness to keep up a war that is approaching its 1,000-day milestone.

“Every day, every night, Russia commits the same terror,” Zelenskyy said in a post on the Telegram messaging app. “Except that an increasing number of civilian objects are becoming targets.” These Russian war crimes are persisting regardless of who is in the Oval Office. We can only guess what they’ll look like after Trump takes the Oath of Office.

The Ukrainian army intends to expand its mobile units, which are primarily tasked with shooting down drones, in the regions most frequently targeted by Russian strikes, Zelenskyy said on Telegram.

Zelenskyy also said that Ukraine is working on producing its own much needed glide bombers as part of a domestic missile program.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine would conduct a “substantial reinforcement” in areas near the Donetsk settlements of Kurakhove and Pokrovsk, where Ukraine’s army is in danger of being overrun.

Zelenskyy added that Ukraine is holding its positions in Russia’s Kursk border region, where Western and Ukrainian officials say Russia is being helped by thousands of newly arrived North Korean troops. He said Russia has deployed some 50,000 troops to Kursk. Most if not all of these murderers come from the non-Russian peoples of Russian-occupied Asia.

Also in Donetsk, near the recently captured settlement of Hirnyk, the Russians have damaged a dam at the Kurakhove reservoir, according to regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin. This is the second dam in Ukraine that could fail after the collapse infamous Kakhovka dam in June 2023 that killed hundreds of people. Russia is guilty of that environmental catastrophe as well as this impending one.

The local water level in the Vovcha River has already risen by 1.2 meters, though no homes have been affected, and possible flooding threatens both the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, he said.

“We continue to monitor the water level in the river and are prepared for any developments,” Filaskin said.

The major cities struck Monday by Russia are close to the approximately 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line.

Russian drones hammered the southern city of Mykolaiv, killing five people and injuring a 45-year-old woman, local authorities said. Around two dozen people sought psychological help following the attack that damaged houses and stores, officials said.

Mykolaiv, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) northwest of the front line in the Kherson region, frequently comes under Russian attack.

An overnight attack on Zaporizhzhia, also in the south, with three powerful glide bombs killed one person and injured 21, including a 4-year-old boy, Ukraine’s National Police said. The strikes partially destroyed a two-story apartment building and damaged a dormitory.

A five-story apartment building in Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s hometown in central Ukraine, was hit by a Russian ballistic missile, injuring at least eight people. The missile destroyed all five stories in one part of the building, said Oleksandr Vikul, head of Kryviy Rih Military Administration.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s intelligence agency claimed in a statement it destroyed a Russian Mi-24 assault helicopter parked at the Klin-5 airfield in the Moscow region.

Trump team’s focus on peace at any cost will not bring lasting peace to Ukraine and the region. All of the former captive nations bordering Ukraine believe any concession to Moscow would imperil their existence, forcing them into an updated Russian prison of nations.

Regardless of who’s in the Oval Office, Republican or Democrat, if Washington doesn’t embrace the conviction that the nations of Eastern Europe have an intrinsic right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that must be safeguarded and Russia threatens that belief, then no amount of soldiers and weapons will ensure their peaceful, sovereign existence.

Every Iranian-made Russian missile that hits a Ukrainian city is courtesy of Mr. Trump.

Every Iranian-made Russian drone that hits a Ukrainian apartment building killing civilians is courtesy of Mr. Trump.