On July 7, when Boris Johnson finally stepped down as Prime Minister of great Britain, I wrote:

A current poll says that party members would favor the current defense secretary Ben Wallace. But that does not mean they will get him as one of the two candidates to vote on as the MPs have the say over that choice.

Johnson may try to get someone elected who would look worse in office than he did. Liz Truss is a good candidate for that.

The process will be, as usual, a very dirty business – knives will be out to backstab certain candidates, deals will be made, favors will be promised and not be held, people will be lied to.   

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The Independent later confirmed my hunch:

Cont. reading: RIP Great Britain

After the first Ukrainian attempt to push towards had failed it is now reinforcing that failure. As I describe the move:

The only 'successful' attack was across the Inhulet river near Andriivka in the direction of the dam and river crossing that closes off the Kakhovka Dnieper reservoir.

The troops were cut off and mostly destroyed. On the western side of the salient a Russian unit crossed the Inhulet towards north and attacked the Ukrainians on that side. It soon had to pull back and the Ukrainians used the Russian crossing to reconnect with the cut off units in the salient.

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Cont. reading: Kherson ‘Counteroffensive’ – Zelenski Is Going For Broke

Only for news & views related to the Ukraine conflict.

Note: Stick to the topic or get banned.

The current open thread for other issues is here.

Last week's posts on Moon of Alabama:

• Aug 29 – Europe's Economic And Social Suicide – Provoked by The U.S. And Helped Along By Europe's Leaders
  Related:
  – Dead of Winter – Doomberg
  – Putin has pulled off a shock win that could destroy the free world – Telegraph
  – United States and Europe Shoot Themselves In the Head and Blame Russia – Larry Johnson
  – New Fertilizer Production Cuts Heighten Concerns for Global Food Supplies – Gro-Intelligence
  – ‘Fantastic confession’: Lavrov rips Baerbock's remark that Germans must suffer for Ukraine – TASS
  – The “Peacewar” of Sanctions – LA Review of Books

> Despite the hopes pinned on them, sanctions typically don’t produce the regime change desired, and they take an enormous toll on those subjected to them. The very anticipation of sanctions triggers actions that preclude their effectiveness: aggressive states’ ambitions are stoked further by desire to secure additional resources to immunize against the deprivations of threatened sanctions. The premise of sanctions — that societies make political decisions based on economic rationalism like fear of falling living standards — is not borne out by history. People often prefer bad conditions to foreign rule. <

• Aug 30 – Ukraine – A 'Counteroffensive' That Was Destined To Fail
• Aug 31 – Ukraine – A Frontline Report – Vanishing Foreign Weapons
• Sep  1 – Ukraine Tries To Prevent IAEA Inspection Of The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant
• Sep  3 – The Ukrainian 'Counteroffensive' Was Destined To Fail – Today It Did So
  Related:
  – Why Are We in Ukraine? – Claremont Review
  – America’s Wars Take on a Divisive Edge – SCF
  – Why Wars Are Easy to Start and Hard to End – Foreign Policy
  – Book Review: ‘How the West Brought War to Ukraine’ – US-Russia Accord
  – What Is America’s Goal for the Ukraine War? Answer: We Don’t Have One – 1945

• Sep 1 – The Pizza Ad Guy Is Dead
  Related:
  – MIKHAIL GORBACHEV – Patrick Armstrong
  – How the Cold War Was Resurrected – Ray McGovern
  – THE 100 YEAR WAR – U.S. ATTEMPTS TO DESTROY RUSSIA – M. Springman

• Sep 2 – Biden Launches Divisive Attack On MAGA
  Related:
  – Biden backtracks on ‘threat’ to America – RT
  – Americans Are Dying Younger, Saving Corporations Billions – Bloomberg
  – Biden Approval Falls, Holding Near Low End of His Presidency, Reuters/Ipsos Finds – US News

• Sep 4 – On Comment Moderation

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Other issues:

Cont. reading: The MoA Week In Review – (Not Ukraine) OT 2022-144

In April this year a new commentator appeared on this blog under the name of 'ostro'. Some of his comments were reasonable, some were  boring one-liners. There were many of them. Overall he did not bother me or others and time will always sift out commentators who do not fit into the Moon of Alabama community.

At the end of July I noticed by chance that 'ostro' was not as harmless as he seemed. He had started to post under two names, 'ostro' and 'ppp'. The comments did not relate to each other but came just minutes apart from the very same Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. That does not happen by chance. Again – the comments in themselves were not that unreasonable though at times a bit too aggressive.

Here it how that looked on the comment management screen of the software this blog is running on:

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Cont. reading: On Comment Moderation

On August 24 the British prime minister Boris Johnson visited Kiev:

In comments made next to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Mariyinsky Palace, Johnson said Ukraine “can and will win this war.”

Johnson's visit was the start signal for the long announced Ukrainian 'counteroffensive' towards Kherson.

In early April Johnson had called on and visited Kiev to stop well developed peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine:

“Russian and Ukrainian negotiators appeared to have tentatively agreed on the outlines of a negotiated interim settlement,” wrote Fiona Hill and Angela Stent. “Russia would withdraw to its position on February 23, when it controlled part of the Donbas region and all of Crimea, and in exchange, Ukraine would promise not to seek NATO membership and instead receive security guarantees from a number of countries.”

The news highlights the impact of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s efforts to stop negotiations, as journalist Branko Marcetic noted on Twitter. The decision to scuttle the deal coincided with Johnson’s April visit to Kyiv, during which he reportedly urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to break off talks with Russia for two key reasons: Putin cannot be negotiated with, and the West isn’t ready for the war to end.

Over the last months Britain has trained several thousands of Ukrainian troops and their officers. Together with Ukrainian special forces Britain's MI-6 secret service planned a special operation for Ukraine to regain control over the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant on the south side of the Kakhovka Dnieper reservoir. This was designed to coincide with a visit of IAEA inspectors, long held up by Ukraine, to visit the ZNPP.

The Kherson offensive started on August 30 on five axes. It was destined to fail. Three of these attempts to gain ground held by Russian troops failed. One axis was stopped after taking a few small villages of no strategic value. The only 'successful' attack was across the Inhulet river near Andriivka in the direction of the dam and river crossing that closes off the Kakhovka Dnieper reservoir.

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Cont. reading: The Ukrainian ‘Counteroffensive’ Was Destined To Fail – Today It Did So

Only for news & views related to the Ukraine conflict.

Note: Stick to the topic or get banned.

The current open thread for other issues is here.

Yesterday U.S. president Joe Biden held a speech in Pennsylvania in which he incited the public against those who want to Make America Great Again.

The optics were a bit scary, …

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…, as were his words:

Cont. reading: Biden Launches Divisive Attack On MAGA

News & views NOT related to the Ukraine conflict …

The guy in that Pizza advertisement is dead.

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His biggest mistake was his gullibility towards 'western' economist and leaders. It came at a catastrophic cost for the people in the former states of the Soviet Union. The Russians in general hated him for this. The 'western' leaders lauded him for what he has done for them.

Gilbert Doctorow has written a decent obituary:

Cont. reading: The Pizza Ad Guy Is Dead

Updated below (11:30 UTC)

Over night the Ukrainian military, from positions in Vyshetarasovka, Nikopol and Marganets, again shelled the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant on the south side of the Kakhovka Dnieper reservoir.

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This was fallowed by an early morning attempt by Ukrainian forces to land a sabotage group near the village north east of the ZNPP. Some seven boats, two self-motorized barges and some 60 soldiers were involved in the suicidal mission.

Cont. reading: Ukraine Tries To Prevent IAEA Inspection Of The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant