Prof. Bonk 🇺🇦 Perverse & Unintended Consequences @actfast (Keeping up with views of the Ukraine for me)
🧵Russia assumed a village 400 miles behind the lines was safe. But at 7 AM Tuesday, a motorcycle idled outside a Saratov home. When the general who bombed Kyiv's children's hospital walked out, the rider shot him in the head and vanished. 1/🧵
Major Gen. Nikolai Varpakhovich commanded the 22nd Heavy Bomber Division. Just 72 hours prior, Ukraine put his name on a kill list for the hospital strike. He is now the 4th Russian officer hunted down deep inside Russian territory in 5 weeks. 2/
The myth of the safe Russian rear is dead. Varpakhovich lived in Engels, an elite bomber base. Down south in Sevastopol, a car just blew up. It detonated exactly 200 meters from where a different car bomb killed a Russian soldier three weeks prior. 3/
The terror is trickling up. Russian propagandists are now so frightened that they are being assigned riot police
as personal bodyguards. A state defense firm tried to calm nerves by promising to build sci-fi weapons based on 'previously unused principles' of physics. 4/
From a prison cell, former Donbas commander Igor Strelkov is asking the quiet part out loud: will Russia win this at all? His cellmates are former high-ranking state officials. They forecast a massive, hidden mobilization within 30 days. The panic is absolute. 5/
The chaos is spilling into Europe. Three drones rigged with explosives targeted a German airport. They failed to detonate, but Berlin is closing the last Russian consulate. Dmitry Medvedev replied with a literal mafia threat against European leaders riding trains. 6/
Domestically, Russia is running out of gas. Refineries fall short by 30,000 tons every day. Seventeen regions are rationing fuel. In Crimea, the government now broadcasts a daily morning weather report telling residents which gas stations actually have supplies. 7/
Putin stood at an economic forum and told reporters to 'be ready for anything.' He admitted the Kremlin was wrong to assume refineries were safe. His solution? A new decree forcing private companies to buy their own air defense systems or forfeit them to the state. 8/
At the front, the Russian military is lying to itself. Near Kupyansk, the 1843rd Regiment is digging literal wells because their pipes ran dry. Meanwhile, commanders told Putin they captured Kozacha Lopan. Russian troops on the ground say they are not even close. 9/
The contrast in resolve is absolute. Danyil Smyrnov was killed in action on August 28. He was 21 years old. His widow, Yeva, is 21 and pregnant. She is also a drone pilot in the Ukrainian military. And she is going right back to the front to fly tomorrow morning. 10/
Putin (Trump's hero) thought he could fight a colonial war from a comfortable distance. Now his troops dig for water, his citizens ration gas, and the generals who bombed children are bleeding out in driveways 400 miles from the front. (So watcha think Dope? Is this accurate? Wanna correct it?)
The full report 11:
professorbonk.substack.com - Ukraine named the general who bombed