Ukraine Blows Up Druzhba Pipeline In Response To Hungary's Demand It Reopen

Hungary's Putin acolyte Orban has blocked a 90 million Euro loan to Ukraine and, along with his other Kremlin favorite, Slovakia's Fico, has threatened to cut Ukraine's electricity transfers further unless Ukraine restored access to the Druzhba pipeline from Russia through which the small eastern European countries get much of their oil. 

So in response today, Ukrainian drones flew 1,200 kilometers into Russian Tatarstan and blew up a crucial section of the pipeline. Which suggests that Ukraine thinks the pipeline cutoff hurts Hungary and Slovakia more than their threats hurt Ukraine. And it is sending yet another message to the Kremlin and its supporters that Ukraine is getting stronger and more deadly. JL

Stefan Korshak reports in the Kyiv Post:

Kyiv responded to Budapest’s threats to block a €90 billion EU loan and cut off electricity to Ukraine until oil transit through Russia’s Druzhba pipeline resumes on Monday – by blowing up a critical section of the pipeline deep in Russia.  Monday morning, Ukrainian long-range drones pummeled the Kaleykino oil pumping station in Russia’s Tatarstan, setting it ablaze and shutting the operation of a critical transit node in the Druzhba pipeline system – the main artery for Russian crude oil deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia. 

Day 1461 Of Putin's Three Day War - With No Victory In Sight

The Kremlin is having a rough winter - and it's only February. Not only have even its miniscule advances largely slowed, but it can't replace its dead and wounded troops at the same pace - and its economy continues to slide. 

Despite Trump's trying to tip the war in Russia's favor, his pressure tactics aren't working on either side and Ukraine appears to be getting stronger as Russia gets weaker. When a famed columnist like Paul Krugman, who usually focuses on the economy, chooses to write about this war, it is probably a signal that Russia's - and by extension, Trump's - failure is becoming more widely recognized as a significant change. JL

Paul Krugman reports in his substack:

Putin's dream of a short, victorious war has turned, as such dreams usually do, into a long nightmare of blood, destruction and humiliation. Ukrainian courage and Russian incompetence — combined with the effectiveness of British and American weapons — ensured that the attempt to seize Kyiv became an epic debacle. The three-day war is about to enter its fifth year. (And)  despite Trump’s pro-Putin policy, Ukraine is still standing, as Russia’s year-long offensive has been a bloody failure. While Trump may have thought that he could hand Ukraine over to Putin, it turns out that he didn’t have the cards. The likely outcome is that European aid and Ukraine’s growing prowess in arms production will shift the military balance in Ukraine’s favor, and Russia’s war effort will eventually collapse.

Russians Panic As Losses Spike With Ukraine's Offensive Entering 2nd Week

The opportunistic Ukrainian counteroffensive, primarily in the Zaporzhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts is entering its second week amid signs that Russian forces are starting to panic. 

"Significant" numbers of reserve units are being redeployed to those sectors, ignoring standard operational security, which has led to even greater casualties among the Russian forces. The Kremlin is clearly embarrassed, angry - and increasingly careless. JL

Euromaidan Press reports:

Two weeks into Ukraine's counteroffensive, Ukrainian forces are still advancing. As the Russians rush reinforcements toward their fracturing southeastern positions. (But) frantic Russians are sloppy Russians—so Russian casualties have spiked. A battlegroup drawn from Ukrainian assault units attacked the western flank of the Russian 36th Combined Arms Army. The Ukrainians cleared out Russian troops from the wide "gray zone" between Russian and Ukrainian lines. Next, they penetrated the Russian line itself around Dobropillia. Panicking, the Russians committed a significant number of reserve units to the fight. 15 Russian were killed or wounded when they piled into an unarmored truck and rolled along the highway north of Dobropillia, easy targets for Ukrainian drones. When Ukrainian infantry arrived to mop up, they found only dead Russians and parts of dead Russians.

It's Come To This: Advice On Acing A Job Interview With An AI

Yes, it's come to this: we are being advised on how to succeed at being interviewed by an AI system, even as we understand some enterprising programmer will see this article, feed it into her AI and train it to counter the advice given. What a world we have permitted ourselves in which to become trapped, all in the service of 'efficiency and productivity.' As if.  

But it is the one we live in and, frankly, the advise proffered is mostly common sense. The guidance to not sound too robotic nor to keyword stuff is richly ironic, though probably worth noting and, pointing out that, if the system deems you worthy, a human will eventually review your recorded interview is useful. So have at it - or reconsider the opportunity to become a gardener. JL

Ray Smith reports in the Wall Street Journal:

In AI interviews candidates see a screen with a written question and their face in a camera frame with a prompt to respond. Sometimes the question will require a typed-in or multiple-choice response. “AI evaluates delivery, pacing, confidence and clarity, not just content,” so practice: record yourself answering questions. Then review on mute, watching your presence and body language. Next, play the audio-only, to listen for pacing, filler words and clarity. Don’t game it by keyword stuffing. AI systems are smart enough to detect someone being overly robotic.” Since a human will review your interview, look directly at the camera when recording responses in the same way you would look at a human during an in-person interview. AI are trained to note if a candidate is reading from notes or looking up answers. Dress professionally. Check your wifi, turn off phone.  

Huge Explosion As Missile Launcher Destroyed By Drone Just As Its Firing

A Ukrainian drone saw a Russian rocket launcher firing, calculated the position and then destroyed it just as it was launching missiles, leading to a massive explosion as the the Russian missiles and adjacent ammunition not yet fired exploded. 

These mobile Russian launchers are highly accurate at up to 120 Kms so are rare and valued targets. JL

Roman Pryhodko reports in Militarnyi:

A rare Russian Smerch MLRS was destroyed at the very moment of (its) shelling Zaporizhzhia. The strike drone recorded the launch of rocket shells, which made it possible to instantly calculate the enemy’s position. The drone attacked the launch guides: the system caught fire, and the machine’s ammunition began to detonate. The destroyed complex has digitized systems, significantly improving accuracy,  guidance and increasing the flight range of the rockets. The upgraded unit can hit targets at a distance up to 120 km thanks to high-precision ammunition with satellite navigation. This is the fourth system of this type Ukrainian defenders have destroyed. 

Four Years On, Russia Is Paying For Its Fatal Ukrainian Miscalculation

Tuesday will mark the fourth anniversary of Russia's Ukraine invasion and the beginning of a fifth year of fighting. From the very first day, the war has been characterized by the Kremlin's miscalculation about its strength and capabilities versus Ukraine's, with Ukraine the clearly superior force given its relative size disadvantage. 

And as Ukrainian troops this winter make gains in the country's southeast, have stopped Russia's concerted attack in the Donbas - and as the country has refused to bend to Russia's barbaric missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian civilian targets, the only important question is for how long and to what degree, the Kremlin will continue to miscalculate. JL

Matthew Chance reports in CNN:

The past four years have exposed the reputation of invincibility surrounding Russia's (once) vast military and the previously widespread belief even among Kyiv’s allies that Ukraine would be too weak to resist a full-scale invasion. Moscow has also been unable to prevent the erosion of its traditional influence elsewhere. In 2024, the Kremlin was forced to evacuate and grant asylum to its Syrian ally, Bashar al-Assad, as he was toppled by rebel forces. Last summer, Russia stood by powerlessly as US and Israeli war planes struck Iran, another key Russian Kremlin partner. It was also unable to protect Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, a figure with close Kremlin ties, from being seized in a raid by US troops.

Ukraine's Counterattack Is Exposing Russian Lies About Who's Winning

Ukraine's counteroffensive in the southern oblasts of Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk has taken several hundred kilometers of territory, disrupted Russia's own offensive plans - and, most importantly - exposed how Russian commanders are lying to the Kremlin about the progress of the war.

Putin's refusal to negotiate seriously is based in part on his belief that his forces are advancing and wearing down the Ukrainians. But the recent Ukrainian advances, which are far more noteworthy than anything the Russians have achieved in months, has been designed to some degree to undermine the Kremlin's already shaky trust in its military by showing that the glowing reports of ground taken and held are illusory. Much of the land the Ukrainians have taken was never really 'held' in the classic sense: it was gray area in which competing teams of Russian and Ukrainian scouts hunted each other. Now that the Ukrainians have actually moved in force, Putin has further reason for concern as his supporters in the Trump administration must face the reality of their putative ally's weakness. JL

 
Phillips O'Brien reports in his substack:

The Russians never actually controlled the area the Ukrainians have taken back. The Russians had troops there, but they were the small infiltration units. As such, the Russians did not have control and the Ukrainians have cleared them out. This would be revealing. The Russians (claimed) they were making major advances in this region and the Russian military was telling Putin that. The Russians regularly claim greater advances than they actually are able to undertake (remember Kupiansk?). Putin was, once again, being given an overoptimistic picture of what his military was doing . The Ukrainians are trolling the Russians: their boasting and lack of honesty has been exposed, illuminating the lack of honesty about the state of the war being fed upwards into the Kremlin.