Russians aren't the only ones who can hack and send teams to do surgical strikes.

[DFW]

Our Ukie friend is here for a late brunch (I only got it from Spain at around 1:00 CET).

He says (no verification, of course) that a Ukrainian unit snuck across the border to Kursk, inside the Russian border, and blew up an ammuntion dump.

In the Psy war, Ukie hackers have taken to closely monitoring the communications with Russian bomber pilots who are bombing civilian targets, compiling lists of their names, finding out their addresses, and letting them know that they will never be safe anywhere if they bomb civilian Ukrainian targets.

He also showed us a photo taken yesterday by his mother in law from her house in a town just outside Kyiv. Her house was apparently not damaged, but the houses across the street were blasted to pieces. "Not targeting civilians," my ass.

[panader0]

1. Moscow is about 300 miles from Kiev. And the Ukraine northern border is even less.

A missile could go that far, no? That would be quite the shock in Russia. Maybe the Ukrainians
could find some Scuds.

[DFW]

3. They aren't interested in laying waste to Russia

All they want is for Russia to leave them the hell alone.

[Martin68]

5. If Ukraine launches even a single missile towards Moscow, they will be obliterated.

They are much too smart for that. World opinion is as important in this fight as military successes.

[KPN]

7. +1

[tinrobot]

6. That would only give Russia justification for the attacks

They could claim Ukrainians are attacking Moscow, so Russia is now defending herself.

Ukraine needs to stick to defense.

[Hekate]

2. 🌻🌻🌻Thank you, DFW. All the best to your friend.🌻🌻🌻

This is encouraging news.

[DFW]

4. He was really depressed about the refusal of the no-fly zone over Ukraine

He said one of the first things the Russians did was to take out their stationary air defense warning towers. Stingers are fine and dandy, but they need eyes on the sky to warn of approaching Russian warplanes, and these are sorely lacking. He understands the argument that the declaration by the west of a no-fly zone over Ukrainian territory might be interpreted as a NATO declaration of war, but he says the Russians are attacking practically on NATO's border anyway, and what is sending over half a million refugess pouring into NATO land anyway? Obviously, it's HIS country being smashed, and even the impression, mistaken though it might be, that we are willing to stand by and let it happen is really bad for morale.

Even so, the images we see of 85 year old grandmothers standing ready with nothing more in their arsenal than an old rusty axe is very much indicative of the Ukrainian will to fight, which has not in the slightest been broken.

Just today, there was an article in the EU edition of the New York Times about the economic havoc being wrought by western sactions. The US dollar was already the de-facto currency in Russia when I was there almost a quarter century ago. Only local taxis, the Moscow metro and local farmers markets took rubles. Everything else was in dollars. They still have oil and gold they can sell via China, Iran, North Korea, and probably a few of the Stans, but except for China, that will be cumbersome, and Putin still faces the logistics of getting his wares to market via the long way around.

[Eyeball_Kid]

8. Unconfirmed information about Russia's weaponry:

As in Syria's bombing, Russia has a shortage of guided missile weapons, but they have ample supplies of unguided missiles. So they tend to use the latter. This means that their surface and air missiles are indiscriminate and can land anywhere within a specified radius. So they aim them at residential and industrial areas and let fly.