🌐 GLOBAL EYES 🌐 – by Claire Berlinski

Russia launched a massive missile and drone attack yesterday morning, hitting Kyiv and other cities across Ukraine and killing five. Zelensky said more than 100 missiles and 100 drones had been used in the “vile” onslaught.

Today, Russia launched another 91 projectiles, including 10 missiles and 81 Iranian-designed attack drones. As of now, we know four more people were killed.

Sites all over the country were targeted. Ukraine’s power grid was battered, forcing authorities to introduce emergency blackouts.

The Polish military thinks a drone flew into Polish territory. A spokesman said “most likely (the object) was a drone, and we assume so because the trajectory of the flight and the speed indicate that it was definitely not a missile.”

A drone deliberately targeting a residential building in the Western city of Lutsk:

Claire—Here’s what the US should do. Biden should remove all restrictions on the use of US weapons to target military sites in Russia. (Big cities should remain off-limits.) He should request more arms for Ukraine and make it clear that we’ll respond to any further attack with more weapons. Kamala should visit Ukraine in solidarity and make her first big foreign policy speech in Kyiv, vowing that under her watch, all of Ukraine will be free. She’d look presidential as hell. Congress should enthusiastically cooperate, passing the request immediately and declaring, in unison and unanimously, that it will always respond to Russian aggression with more weapons. Every time Russia commits a war crime, Biden should ask for and Congress should approve another package. The relationship between Russian aggression and the arrival of US weapons in Ukraine should be so consistent and predictable that an average beagle would have no trouble grasping the relationship. Putin’s bum boys in Congress should just shut up.

Here’s what the US will do: Issue a stern statement, maybe.

Ukraine accused Belarus of “concentrating” troops on the border and warned Minsk against “unfriendly actions.”

The statement said Ukrainian intelligence had recorded Belarus “concentrating a significant number of personnel. … in the Gomel region near Ukraine’s northern border under the guise of exercises. … We warn Belarusian officials not to make tragic mistakes for their country under Moscow’s pressure, and we urge its armed forces to cease unfriendly actions and withdraw forces away from Ukraine’s state border to a distance greater than the firing range of Belarus’ systems.”

Ukraine wants permission from the West to use long-range Storm Shadow missiles to destroy targets deep inside Russia, believing this could force Moscow into negotiating an end to the fighting:

Senior figures in Kyiv have suggested that using the Anglo-French weapons in a “demonstration attack” will show the Kremlin that military sites near the capital itself could be vulnerable to direct strikes. The thinking, according to a senior government official, is that Russia will consider negotiating only if it believes Ukraine had the ability “to threaten Moscow and St. Petersburg.” This is a high-risk strategy, however, and does not so far have the support of the US. Ukraine has been lobbying for months to be allowed to use Storm Shadow against targets inside Russia, but with little success. Nevertheless, as its army struggles on the eastern front, there is a growing belief that its best hope lies in counter-attack.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is worried about the Kursk nuclear reactor:

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi led the mission to the nuclear site after Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed it came under fire following Ukraine’s incursion into the region. Kyiv has denied accusations that it targeted the plant. “The danger or the possibility of a nuclear accident has emerged near here,” Grossi (said) He added that during his visit of the plant he saw evidence of drone strikes in the area.

He warned that the nuclear reactor at the Kursk plant doesn’t have a protective dome, unlike most nuclear facilities, making its core very vulnerable to artillery or drone strikes. “The core of the reactor containing nuclear material is protected just by a normal roof,” he said during his visit. “This makes it extremely exposed and fragile, for example, to an artillery impact or a drone or a missile. A nuclear power plant of this type, so close to a point of contact or a military front, is an extremely serious fact that we take very seriously.”

Russia is still operating nuclear power plants without containment domes?!??! Unbelievable. Actually, no: It’s very believable. It’s just what you’d expect from Russia. But it’s appalling. What a screwed-up country.—C.

The White House is considering transferring long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine. This is why Ukraine needs them:

If the US decides to transfer JASSM missiles to Ukraine, it will significantly expand the capabilities of the already provided F-16s, as well as those aircraft that will be delivered to Ukraine in the future. These planes will not only fight the superior numbers of Russian aircraft in air battles and strengthen air defense during massive missile attacks but will also independently deal devastating blows to enemy ground targets. Ukraine’s Air Force has repeatedly proven the effectiveness of using such air-launched cruise missiles. Storm Shadow missiles provided by Britain have destroyed Russian Black Sea Fleet ships and even command posts.

Ukraine says it has a new long-range weapon to strike deep into Russia without asking permission from allies, a homegrown combination of missile and drone first used on Saturday to target a Russian military installation:

The Palianytsia was created due to urgent necessity, Ukrainian officials said, as Russia has dominated the skies since the outbreak of the war in February 2022 and Ukraine’s Western allies have placed conditions on use of their long-range missiles in Russia. … Zelensky confirmed on Saturday the existence of the Palianytsia, named after a type of Ukrainian bread and a word so notoriously difficult to pronounce correctly that it was used to unmask suspected spies early in the war. The Ukrainian president called it “a new class” of weapon. … A Ukrainian military video hinted that its range is up to 700 kilometers—on par with the US-supplied ATACMS. It showed a map with various airfields, including Russia’s Savasleyka air base, which lies within that range, adding that the Palianytsia can reach at least 20 Russian airfields.

Ukrainian forces have advanced a few more kilometers in Kursk Oblast, capturing another two settlements.

Ukraine uses Kursk success to press Biden on lifting weapons restrictions. The White House isn’t budging, but that could change:

At the beginning of August, a coalition of bipartisan senators organized a meeting with Sullivan. Sullivan has at various times held meetings with the senators to discuss Ukraine. But during this encounter, the delegation had one, unified message: The administration needs to change its stance now before it is too late, according to a person who was briefed on the meeting. Their argument was similar to one they and many others, including Ukrainians, have made before. The US should lift all restrictions, they say, because if it doesn’t and Ukraine loses, the administration will be known as the one that didn’t do enough when it could.

That framing has at times angered senior officials in the White House who insist Washington has done more than any other country to help support Kyiv and that it shouldn’t have to risk its own national security for Kyiv. Officials in certain corners of the administration, particularly inside the White House, have told the Ukrainians that the US will eventually want to reset relations with Moscow and lifting the restrictions could upend those efforts. (My emphasis.)

Talk about a buried lede. The most important sentence in this article is dead last. The largest war in Europe in 80 years, millions displaced, hundreds of thousands dead, and they’re worrying about a reset? What more could it take to persuade them that you can’t reset a damned thing with that genocidal mafia? This is why Russians believe they can invade their neighbors and murder with impunity: They’re sublimely confident that in the end, all will be forgiven.

I shouldn’t make too much of this, I suppose. The officials aren’t named. The way they’ve written it is ambiguous: Did they hear this directly from someone in the White House, or is this the way Ukrainians are interpreting the situation? As a rule, when sources are neither named nor clearly described, and when the words ascribed to these source are paraphrased rather than quoted, you should treat what you’re reading as no more than a rumor. But I’ve written for Politico and I know their policy on anonymous sources. They won’t let you use them unless you tell them who they are. So the editors, too, agreed that the sourcing was strong enough to pass muster. If this is really what the White House is thinking, I cannot fathom how such obtuseness could be found in nature.—Claire

Ukrainian soldiers defend Donbas town of Chasiv Yar as fighting intensifies. As the Russian army approaches Pokrovsk, Ukrainian forces are fighting for control of the small but strategically situated town.

What Ukraine’s new law on religious organizations means. Issues of religious freedom invite disinformation and propaganda:

Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, on Tuesday Aug. 20, adopted a new law regarding the activities of religious organizations. Law No. 8371, passed by a majority of 265 votes, would, after ratification by President Volodymyr Zelensky, prohibit the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine and terminate the activities of religious structures affiliated with Moscow. … Some critics (many of them pro-Russian propagandists, such as Tucker Carlson) have used the issue to claim there is religious persecution in Ukraine. … The law does not ban any specific church. It restricts the activities of Ukrainian religious organizations only if they continue cooperating with the aggressor country. … The new law provides for the termination of the activities of religious organizations affiliated with Russia if they do not stop cooperating with Russia at the request of state authorities.

• ★ An interview with theologian Cyril Hovorun, who says the law is not about banning the Russian Orthodox Church but giving it a way out of an impasse of its own making:

  What I see prevailing in Ukraine’s political class is Hobbesian thinking of the state as Leviathan. This way of thinking emerged in Europe after the Thirty Years’ War, a religious war in which Protestants and Catholics tried to eliminate one another and engage the state on their side. Europe was decimated in the early 17th century, and after the Peace of Westphalia, it was decided that the state shouldn’t side with any religious group because this is damaging. … But the state is trying to play the role of Leviathan, a neutral force above the religious groups’ fight, more like a moderator.

• You can also watch this interview, here.

Putin’s media coverage suffers in aftermath of Ukrainian counteroffensive. Sentiment around Putin is falling in key areas around Russia:

Since the start of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, sentiment toward Russian president Vladimir Putin has been deteriorating in mainstream news media and social media across Russia. From August 6 to 16, sentiment in social media discourse related to Putin dropped more than 0.3 (on a scale of 1.0 to -1.0) in regions the Russian Ministry of Defense has targeted for recruiting contract soldiers, and almost 0.4 in regions with increased military production. 

While the Kremlin is able to exert influence on news media coverage—which we see, for example, in the small number of Kursk-related items on the front page of Russian news web portals—additional factors such as natural disasters and economic issues almost certainly play a role in the downward trend in sentiment in mainstream Russian news. We also found that regional media is less likely than the nationwide mainstream outlets to sugarcoat news that may reflect poorly on the president. In contrast, social media users directed their discontent with the incursion toward the president, calling it a failure of the government and of Putin himself.

★ How Biden’s Russia Strategy emboldened the Axis of Autocracy. US policy to date has made Russia and its supporters bolder and more determined in their intentions to overthrow the Western liberal order:

The consolidation of (the) Autocratic Axis occurred not because the West became suddenly weak, as the Axis thinks. It happened because of the Biden administration’s grave mistakes on Russia and Ukraine. They were a consequence of a strategy that was inadequate to the challenge and led directly to two major history-changing wins for Russia.

• Russia’s second success was that the Biden administration allowed Putin to go scot-free in autumn 2022, when Ukraine’s initial wildly successful counteroffensive was interrupted due to a lack of weapons.

Both scores were possible for Russia because the Biden administration chose to design its Russia strategy based on responding only, and—as with military aid—responding minimally. In lame terms, Biden allowed Putin to lead the dance. In political vernacular, instead of pursuing proactive deterrence, his administration settled for reactive policies.

She should have taken a moment to excoriate Congress, too.—Claire.

“The fallout from (Ukraine’s) audacious military conquest—plus the siege of Crimea and a significant drone attack this week on Moscow—has rattled the enemy, cratered the Ruble, undermined Vladimir Putin, and triggered geopolitical repositioning,” writes Diane Francis. “This has contributed to a sense of unease about his leadership, and a senator even told the news outlet Verstka that ‘the mood has become very alarming’ about Putin’s future.” Here she argues the same point:

Ryan Evans, a security advisor to the Reuters team reporting on the war in Ukraine, was killed in an August 24 Russian missile strike on the Hotel Sapphire in Kramatorsk. Six people were injured, including two Reuters journalists.

🍾🎈🎉🥳 ❗️ An Israeli hostage was rescued by Shayetet 13 commandos from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip earlier today. Qaid Farhan al-Qadi, 52, who’s from a Bedouin community near the southern city of Rahat, is in good health despite 326 days of captivity. The “complex” operation was led by the IDF Southern Command, Shin Bet, and the 162nd Division. His family is overjoyed: “I can’t explain this feeling, it’s better even than the arrival of a new baby,” his brother said. “Thank God, we are thankful to everyone and we hope to see him soon healthy. We’re so happy, very happy to get this news.”

Gosh, that’s good news. Here’s his family, running to see him: