Russia Starts Receiving Counterpunching From AFU

An unexpected surprise for Putin's strategists.

Two years and thirty-three days of the war have passed. The situation on the front has not changed much over the past 24 hours. The Russians continue shelling Kharkiv and some other cities of Ukraine. Today they have dropped non-fragmentation bombs on residential buildings. There are casualties. Putin is purposefully destroying Ukraine's civilian infrastructure.

In turn, the day before yesterday, the AFU hit with drones the Novocherkasskaya GRES, the largest power plant in Rostov region after the Rostov nuclear power plant.

So the destruction of civilian infrastructure has become mutual. Which I think came as a surprise to Putin's strategists. One way or another, the time when the Russians could shell Ukrainian cities without fear of a response from Ukraine is over.

The slow strangulation of the Russian economy continues. It has been reported that delays in payments for Russian oil already shipped to Chinese, Indian and Turkish banks have reached several months. Under pressure from U.S. regulators, these banks have tightened compliance and require written guarantees from Russian clients that the money will never go to those on the sanctions lists.

Swiss banks have begun to close accounts on a widespread basis, even for those of their clients who have Russian citizenship along with the citizenship of some other country. For example, Swiss banks have closed the long-term accounts of several Israelis who have preserved their Russian passports.

The relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada said that tomorrow it will complete consideration of all the nearly 4,000 amendments that deputies have made to the government's mobilisation bill. As far as I understand, there are now no obstacles to bringing it to the plenary session.

This is the moment of truth for Zelensky, we will soon find out whether he still has a pro-presidential mono-majority in parliament. Whether or not he will be able to pass the mobilisation law without the help of other factions.

And if the help of other factions is needed (most likely), what will they demand from Zelensky in return? What compromises is he willing to make for the sake of passing this law? And is he ready for any compromises at all, given that he has tried many times to distance himself from the mobilisation debate.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian armed forces struck another ship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. This time it was the large landing ship - 'Konstantin Olshansky'. Ironically, this ship was Ukrainian until 2014. After the annexation of Crimea, the Russians appropriated it, i.e. simply stole it. And here is such a sad denouement. The moral is: stolen goods never do good.

Glory to Ukraine!

Alfred Kokh, Telegram