President Joe Biden’s visit to Kyiv generated praise across the Western world. However, there is one place—other than Fox News—where the response was less enthusiastic. As might be expected, Biden’s visit came in for state-sponsored disdain on Russian media. What might not be expected is just how much despair the hosts of Russia’s top propaganda program revealed and how much they let slip their actual feelings about the demonstration of U.S. commitment to Ukraine.
“Right now, Biden looks like a hero,” says one of the regular panel members on the show. “He wasn’t afraid to come to a zone of military conflict.”
When the host of the show says that Biden was only able to come to Kyiv because Vladimir Putin gave him permission, the others look at him with the disdain most people might reserve for… thin Russian propaganda. ”He asked for our permission,” insists Vladimir Solovyov. “Asked for our permission.”
But he can’t even convince the people sharing the stage. As the next speaker makes it clear, yes, the U.S. did inform Russian authorities that Biden was on the way, but it wasn’t asking permission. It was a warning. It was Biden informing Putin, “Don’t make any sudden moves.”
Another of the panelists dismissed the whole argument around permission vs. warning. “This is not good. In reality, Biden came to Kyiv. … Biden carried out an excellent PR operation. Which is a very important thing during a hybrid war. It’s very important! People in America had started to wobble. They said, ‘he will get us into World War III!’ But Biden goes there and says ‘Guys, what are you talking about? What World War III? … Russians fear me!”
It’s also very clear that Russian state media has a firm grasp on who they can reach out to in America for help. “Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump, and Ron DeSantis, along with Marjorie Taylor Greene can get lost with their claims about World War III!” says a panelist.
Then they go back to arguing, with increasing venom, over Biden informing Russia that he was going to enter Ukraine. Because, clearly, attempting to twist this into “asking permission” is all they have. If nothing else, it’s a good preview of what you should expect to hear from … Tucker Carlson, Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and Marjorie Taylor Greene
In advance of Putin’s state of the union address before a very distant collection of very bored sycophants, Russia conducted a launch of a new SARMAT “heavy” ICBM with the capability of carrying multiple warheads. That launch was reportedly meant to underline Putin’s announcement that he was suspending Russia’s participation in the New START agreement.
However, according to U.S. military sources, this three-stage, 200-tonne, 36-meter-long punctuation mark failed to make the final draft of Putin’s speech for one simple reason. It failed.
According to CNN, the test occurred on Monday just before President Biden crossed into Ukraine for his historic meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv. It was clearly meant to be a symbolic signal that Biden’s entry into Ukraine could lead to a nuclear conflict.
However, having produced a squib, or as they say at SpaceX, experienced “rapid unplanned disassembly,” Putin failed to drop any mention of his missile test in his lengthy, rambling, and exceeding dull speech.
Just like the T-14 Armata “super tank,” the SARMAT II was meant to be part of Russia’s arsenal long before now. In fact, this is supposed to be Russia’s only land-based missile at this point. With a short boost-phase design that’s meant to evade interception, high speed, long-range, and large capacity, this is Russia’s replace-them-all warhead carrier. When it was announced in 2014, it was said the SARMAT would replace 100% of Russia’s existing missile fleet by 2021.
As of 2023, it has replaced exactly 0%.
Just a year after that first announcement, development of the SARMAT II was already running behind schedule. One test flight was made in 2017, another in 2018, but neither of these reportedly went more than a few kilometers and it’s unclear if they tested more than the first state of the missile. Considering that the SARMAT is intended to boost warheads into space and is supposedly capable of traveling 35,000 km, two short flights doesn’t seem all that impressive. Another test flight was reportedly conducted in April 2022, as Putin was warning the West against arming Ukraine, but there seems to be no public information about this other than an announcement that it took place.
Russia followed up that claimed 2022 test with a report on state media that 15 of the missiles were “combat ready.” However, none of these missiles seem to have been deployed. The failed test on Monday is a good indicator that the best thing for everyone would be … if Russia went ahead immediately with replacing 100% of their missile fleet with SARMAT II, just as planned.
Meanwhile, in Mariupol…
Last night, Ukraine reportedly hit nine cities occupied by Russia, including 15 strikes at Russian bases and stockpiles in and around the battered city of Mariupol. Those strikes included sightings of objects blazing across the sky at extreme high speed in a way that seemed unfamiliar to any of the observers on the ground.
While Ukraine has previously hit targets around other Russian-occupied cities in the Zaporizhzhia area, including Melitopol, Mariupol is way down on the coast, about 80 km from the nearest Ukrainian-controlled area near Vuhledar.
Unless a HIMARS system was dragged right to the front lines in that highly active part of the battlefield—something Ukraine is unlikely to risk—Mariupol would be out of range of the missiles the U.S. has currently provided to Ukraine. Additionally, the movement and nature of these strikes seemed different than previous hits, with some videos showing objects (of the non-balloon variety) moving rapidly across the sky before impacting with a sound like rolling thunder. In city after city, Russian occupiers launched air defense missiles or let loose with anti-aircraft guns.
But this doesn’t appear to have stopped Ukraine from making strikes in location after location.
As the tweet above notes, rumors are flying that Ukraine has some kind of new weapon—one that gives it extended range, has precise targeting, and evades Russia’s attempts to take it down.
Some are speculating that the Ground Launched Small Diameter Bombs (GLSDB) systems that the U.S. had promised to Ukraine, but which were expected to take months to arrive, are actually already on the ground and in use. There are even half-joking statements that Biden brought them along on his visit. The early arrival of these weapons would be a genuinely amazing development, and yes, Mariupol is well within range of GLSDB.
Other analysts have gone beyond GLSDB and suggested that the U.S. slipped Ukraine some of its MGM-140 ATACMS, which can be launched from a M270 or HIMARS, but has a range of up to 300 km. The U.S. just got through saying that it couldn’t supply ATACMS to Ukraine because it didn’t have an adequate supply for its own use in other potential situations. That could have been a ruse, but burning through so many of these missiles in a single attack seems unlikely.
Still others speculate that the overnight attacks on Russian positions came courtesy of Ukraine’s new home-grown missile system. For months, as Ukraine negotiated to get Western weapons and asked for systems like ATACMS, there have been reports that the Ukrainian military was also building its own longer-range weapons. The need to disrupt Russian supply lines, and to strike against bases and stockpiles that Russia is locating at distances outside the normal HIMARS range, has had Ukraine seeking this capability almost since the invasion began. So maybe what hit Mariupol overnight wasn’t ATACMS or GLSDB. Maybe it was UOLRS—Ukraine’s own long-range solution.
In any case, it’s striking (pun intended) that even as Russia is failing to demonstrate its new long-range missile system, Ukraine is demonstrating an absolutely functional new ability to reach out and “touch” Russian assets at longer range.
Among the sites hit in Mariupol overnight was reportedly a large ammunition depot and a loading facility for Russian ships.
Today in Moscow, Russia conducted the next stage of its invasion propaganda campaign. This time, it involved roping a bunch of people into a stadium for bad music and a half-baked spectacle. According to Ukrainian Pravda, extras were paid 500 roubles to fill up the stands.
Hard to believe when they were provided with entertainment like this.
You can practically feel the excitement radiating from the people in the background. And here’s a very special part of the program—one that is certain to get a response in Ukraine and worldwide. Though maybe not the response Russia wants.
The crowd just recently shuffled out of the stadium, leaving with all the fans' enthusiasm at a football game where neither team managed to score. Maybe they’re realizing that they have only begun to lose.
Good to see “Witch” still around and uninjured as she tells the story of one of those much fought-over locations near Bakhmut.
I’m not embedding this tweet, which shows a genuine pile of corpses, reportedly those of former members of Wagner Group killed last week near Bakhmut. But I’m mentioning it because this image is reportedly being circulated by Wagner Group itself, as part of its ongoing argument that it isn’t getting the supplies or support it needs from the regular military.
This morning, as it has every morning for more than six months, Bakhmut holds.
Sign the petition: Solidarity with Ukraine