Greetings all. Sending along a recording of the conversation I had with Stuart Stevens of Lincoln Square earlier today. Stuart returned from his latest humanitarian trip to Ukraine on Sunday and shared his reflections on what he saw there. Here is some of what he told us:
Then we drove into Kyiv, and while we were in Kyiv, the Russians really changed their strategy — something you’ve been reading and writing about, Simon. Previously, they’d focused on nighttime air-raid attacks. Lately they’ve been using hypersonic missiles, which are very destructive because they’re big, and also because there’s no defense against them, short of Patriots, which they’re running out of. The time from launch to impact is under three minutes, so the utilitarian purpose of an air-raid warning is really negated. A lot of times you don’t even hear the siren until after [impact]. And if you do get a warning, the most dangerous place to be is out on the street, but if you only have two minutes to make it to a shelter, most people can’t. That had been their pattern. And they’ve changed it to use these new drones, which are jet-powered, 300% faster than their other versions of the Shahed drones. What they’ve figured out is that if they launch just two or three of these, it triggers air-raid alerts across the city, which then triggers a whole sequence of events in Kyiv — supermarkets close, schoolchildren go to shelters, businesses do whatever they plan, and it effectively paralyzes the city. When I was there last Thursday, they had the most air-raid alerts of any day during the entire war.
But here’s what’s interesting — when I read about this, it sounds very frightening, dark and dire, like something out of Stalingrad. But when I was actually there, what I saw was a city that treated the sirens sort of as an annoyance. It was beautiful weather, people were out on the streets, cafés were filled. Some people go to shelters. A lot of people don’t. Most of the attacks were in the suburbs, hitting warehouses. But it’s interesting -- you know, one of the other realities in Ukraine right now. When you talk to these military experts, and the group I’ve been volunteering with, they work with a drone engineering company focusing on land-based drones, not armed, which can take supplies to the zero line. And they’ve invented a new type of drone for casualty evacuation — flatbeds on big tires, low to the ground, and they have an armored compartment on top sort of like a coffin. It enables them to put wounded soldiers in them and evacuate them…
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You know, the average life expectancy of a Russian soldier on the front lines is under 30 minutes. It’s just what’s happened to these kill zones. And we’re still not clearly on this side. We’re more with North Korea, and Russia, even though Russia is helping kill Americans. It's insane.
For background here’s today’s Hopium post, Trump’s Clown Show Has Become A Raging, Dangerous Global Dumpster Fire, which we reference several times during the discussion.
We also discuss this new announcement from Zelenskyy:
Enjoy this very compelling discussion with our friend Stuart Stevens and keep working hard all. For we have countries to save (the US, Ukraine), and elections to win all across the US this November, together! - Simon
