Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has spent most of his days poking allies to shake loose new military resources for his nation's efforts in fighting off Russia's attempts at annexation. On Monday he appeared in France and the United Kingdom after secretly being spirited out of the war zone for a weekend flurry of meetings with European leaders. It's part of a multistop international circuit to coordinate new rounds of military support.
The trip is being described as very successful. In France, Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron locked down an agreement for new equipment deliveries and pushing forward Ukraine's plan to join NATO.
New pledges from the United Kingdom include hundreds of new air defense missiles and attack drones to be delivered "over the coming months."
On Saturday, Zelenskyy had appeared in Rome for meetings with Italian officials, and to meet with Pope Francis. We're going to make the presumption that the Pope did not also pledge new military support, but Zelenskyy called the meeting "a great honor," saying in a statement that the meeting "focused on stopping Russian military aggression and restoring peace."
And, of course, all of this comes as Russia continues to take a pounding on the battlefield while wasting its own dwindling resources on attacks like:
In other news, Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko is still alive.
But Wagner mercenary group head Yevgeniy Prigozhin might not be alive for long if Russian leaders believe new Ukrainian claims:
Did Prigozhin try to make the deal? Who knows? Ukrainian officials could also be making the whole thing up in an attempt to get Prigozhin into a new "accident" orchestrated by angry Russian military officials or Putin's innumerable murder goons. Probably one involving windows, polonium, and/or somebody in the Russian army accidentally firing one of their valuable missiles into his bedroom.
Speaking of that: This is still in the realm of speculation, but could the alleged loss of five Russian aircraft within the span of minutes on Saturday be the result of yet another Russian friendly fire incident?
Dimitri of WarTranslated has been doing the essential work of translating hours of Russian and Ukrainian video and audio during the invasion of Ukraine. He joins Markos and Kerry from London to talk about how he began this work by sifting through various sources. He is one of the only people translating information for English-speaking audiences. Dimitri’s followed the war since the beginning and has watched the evolution of the language and dispatches as the war has progressed.