Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has seemed quite pleased with himself ever since his country's recent surprise invasion of the Russian Oblast of Kursk and the capture of some territory in the area, primarily farmlands. The real result of the incursion has been something of a mixed bag because the Russians are once again pushing further into Ukrainian territory on the Eastern front, but I suppose the move into Kursk generated some good headlines at home to cheer up his people. But when Zelensky gave a video address to the nation yesterday in celebration of Ukraine's Independence Day, he made an announcement that really caught me off guard. He proudly stated to his people that, "The enemy has been defeated." Really? Is he saying that Russia surrendered? While I'm not any sort of expert in regional affairs over there, I follow the news pretty closely as part of my job and it seems like we might have heard more about this seemingly miraculous victory by now. I suppose we'd better dig in a bit deeper and see what's going on. (NY Post)

Ukraine’s got a new weapon to use out on the battlefield.

The country has successfully used its homegrown Palianytsia drone missile to strike a target within Russia, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video speech to the nation Saturday.

Zelensky boasted about their “new method of retaliation against the aggressor,” named after a type of hearth-baked Ukrainian bread, as he addressed the nation. “The enemy has been defeated,” Zelensky said. “I thank everyone who made it possible."

As is so often the case, there is generally more than initially meets the eye when you hear about a story like this. (Or in this case, less than meets the eye.) When I first read this report, I almost allowed myself a brief moment to hope that it was true. After all, if Putin really surrendered to Ukraine, then I assume that would mean that we no longer have to keep sending billions of dollars in highly controversial foreign aid to them and we can get back to focusing on Gaza. Sadly, the opposite is what really happened. Joe Biden almost simultaneously announced yet another $125 million in new aid.

We should keep in mind the fact that Zelensky's speech was delivered in his native language, only later being published in English and other languages for international consumption. The possibility of some sort of error in translation is always possible, though I'm hard-pressed to imagine what he might have said that would be mistranslated into "the enemy has been defeated." We're talking about a war here, and the words and definitions that are used should be fairly universal at this point.

So what Zelensky was actually talking about was the successful development and deployment of some new drone missiles that the Ukrainians designed and built themselves. They're named Palianytsia drone missiles and they were named after a type of home-baked bread popular in the region. It seems to me that if you really want to instill terror into the heart of your enemy, you might name your weapon after something more dangerous than a loaf of bread. But - again - perhaps that's a translation issue. That bread could be terrifying for all I know.

First of all, I don't want to cast shade on this effort. If the Ukrainians are designing and deploying their own weapons now, I say good for them. However, I couldn't help but notice that there was one seemingly important piece of information missing from the original report. All the Ukrainians are saying thus far is that the bread drone missile struck "a target within Russia." No mention is made of specifically where they struck, what type of target they hit, or how much damage and casualties resulted. We can probably assume that it didn't happen on the Eastern front because that wouldn't be particularly newsworthy at this stage of the game. 

The only other obvious conclusion is that they fired the Palianytsia drone into the Kursk Oblast. What did they hit? As we've previously discussed, that's a largely rural area of farmland and most of the local Russians who weren't captured have already been evacuated. Did Ukraine hit an empty barn? Did they kill a cow? Such a move would no doubt tick off one of the local farming families, but it doesn't sound as if it will be striking fear into Vladimir Putin's heart. If the truth about this strike turns out to be something like that, it might still be seen as a "victory" in the propaganda wars. And propaganda can indeed be useful in wartime, so let's just offer the Ukrainians some congratulations anyway and wait to see what develops next.