This is one of those feel good moments when you get to cheer for the good guy.

The winds of war have shifted for Ukraine. Izium was liberated today after a six month siege. Russian forces are retreating — of course they’re saying that it was “preplanned,” what else are they going to say?

This could be a major turning point in the war. The world cheers Ukraine and, with this clip, is able to laugh at Russia.

Monty Python lives.

Ask Spielberg or Scorcese, I think they would say this is as good as anything they could have staged.

New York Times:

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian forces entered the key Russian military stronghold of Izium on Saturday, continuing their rapid advance across the northeast and igniting a dramatic new phase in the more than six-month war.

“Izium was liberated today,” the city’s mayor, Valeriy Marchenko, said in an interview. While he was not yet in the city himself, he said that he was in contact with the police and that emergency services were working to clear it of possible hazards before residents could return.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense — which a day earlier had said that it was moving to reinforce its defensive positions in the region — confirmed on Saturday that it had pulled its forces out of Izium, six months after its forces laid siege to and then seized the city. In a statement, it presented the retreat as a preplanned move, intended to strengthen its efforts in the east where its army has been bogged down for weeks. […]

But the loss of Izium — a strategically important railway hub that Russian forces seized in the spring after a bloody weekslong battle — could mark a turning point in the war, dwarfed only by Russia’s humiliating defeat around the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, in the spring.

The first signs that Russian forces would retreat rather than fight emerged late on Friday.

“Yesterday evening, Russians put a white flag nearby the railway station,” Yevhen, a Ukrainian officer who participated in the liberation of Izium, said in a telephone interview. “There was street fighting all over the night.” He asked to be identified by only his first name out of concerns for his security.

Much about the Ukrainian offensive in the Kharkiv region, where Izium is, was shrouded in uncertainty amid a lack of official confirmation, and military analysts cautioned that it was a fast-moving situation that could change by the hour.

But the lightning offensive in the country’s northeast has reshaped what had become a grinding war of attrition. In a matter of days, Russian front lines have buckled, Moscow’s troops have fled and one village after another has come once more beneath Ukraine’s yellow and blue banner — like the town of Kupiansk just north of Izium, which sits on key supply routes to the eastern front line.

Here is the bottom line where the United States is concerned.

Once again, fall to your knees and thank God that Trump was defeated. Then get up and get out the vote for 2022. We’re not out of the woods yet by any wild stretch of the imagination.

 

 

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9 COMMENTS

  1. Elections matter! Everytime I hear someone talk about how voting doesn’t matter or they are going to vote for a 3rd party as a protest, I jump in their shit faster than the Germans took Poland.

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    • I knew a young man, aged 19 at the time of this conversation who said, “I didn’t vote and I never will.” His father, a conspiracy theorist, had taught him that the U.S. president was chosen by some dark cabal. Basically the message was, we’re all puppets and democracy doesn’t exist. What a way to raise a kid, right?

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  2. The soundtrack music’s from the marvelous Benny Hill’s old TV show and the closing theme’s from Curb Your Enthusiasm. Great choices both.

    • Truth can be funnier than fiction. The soldiers falling off the tank was hilarious enough but when it crashed into the tree I thought I would wet my pants. And the music is totally spot on.

        • Not all will, at least for now but some will. Not nearly enough but some.

          In the meantime, what I’d love to see is someone set up a projection screen on public access across from the Russian Embassy and every Consulate in the U.S. and play that video on a loop. With rock concert speakers! Come to think of it how cool would it be if other free countries around the world did the same? And, while this is pushing the boundaries and if it qualifies as doxing I can’t advocate this, but if do it at the properties of every Putin oligarch pal in every free country. Oh, and while we’re at it at every Trump Golf Course and club/resort!

          It will take a while but this will slowly get seen by average Russians. But more importantly, even if average Russians can’t view it right now various folks in their govt. sure as hell can. As can Putin’s oligarchs and THAT audience matters. The smaller and weaker he becomes in their eyes, and the more they will do what we all know has to be done – retire (one way or the worse way) his ass and try to salvage something of the wreckage he’s created.

      • Good ole Yackety Sax – once again I give thanks to Boot’s Randolph’s musical gift. This has to be on the short list of the best uses of it!

  3. Never forget, friends, that THIS was the whole point of Putin backing up Trump…to get back Ukraine. If this is any sign, that project has proven a spectacular failure that Russia itself may not survive.

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