Fall of Avdiivka

I know all my rancher neighbors in Arkansas will be devastated to learn that Avdiivka is no longer controlled by Kiev. It weighs heavily on all our minds. https://t.co/VzV56Utdmb

— RAMZPAUL (@ramzpaul) February 7, 2024

Drag Queen Story Hour cancelled in Avdiivka. https://t.co/2k9NybXkxf

— RAMZPAUL (@ramzpaul) February 15, 2024

It has been a busy week for me.

Avdiivka has fallen to Russia. Alexei Navalny died in prison. I missed out on the outrage.

New York Times:

“Ukrainian troops have withdrawn from the eastern frontline city of Avdiivka, Ukraine’s top general, Oleksandr Syrsky, said on Saturday, allowing Moscow to score its biggest battlefield victory in months and dealing a blow to Ukraine’s stretched and outgunned forces as the two-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion approaches.

General Syrsky said he had ordered the retreat “in order to avoid encirclement and preserve the lives and health of servicemen.” Avdiivka — once a city of 30,000 people before being reduced to ruins — sat in a pocket surrounded by Russian troops to the north, east and south. In recent months, they had been slowly advancing through relentless assaults, in a pincer movement. … ”

New York Times:

“In Munich, world leaders were left hushed and hollow-eyed, their annual security conference suddenly transformed into a wake. In London, demonstrators projected a giant image of Aleksei A. Navalny on to the facade of the Russian embassy. In Washington, an angry President Biden called a news conference to declare, “Make no mistake: Putin is responsible for Navalny’s death.”

Rarely has the death of a single man summoned such a cascade of grief, anger and demands for justice. …”

CNN:

“It is a pivotal moment, where both Russian advances and Western atrophy threaten to transform the biggest land war in Europe since the 1940s.

Traveling from the Munich Security Conference towards Ukraine’s frontlines, the polite frustration and manicured pleas of Western leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky feel yet more desperate. The warnings that Ukraine might suffer setbacks on the frontline if the United States Congress continued to hold up a $60 billion aid package have now curdled into a bitter, brutal reality.

The pledges and rhetoric of Munich’s suits and limousines have so far amounted to little; in the wait, or abyss, ahead, Ukraine is losing people and land. It is all very real, very immediate and stark. After months of stalemate, the possibility of sweeping changes on the frontlines is quite real. …”

To be honest, I have more important things to attend to in life than giving much thought to the fall of Avdiivka … a malfunctioning comment section on this website, a broken hot water heater, a car payment, school tuition, working on our duck pen, hitting the gym, and so on.

Russia grinded out another victory like in Bakhmut. Ukraine is inevitably going to lose a war of attrition. The real question is how many people will have to die on both sides until this over. Throwing tens of billions of dollars at Ukraine isn’t going to bring the dead back to life.