Ukraine War Day #200: Russia Fights Back + No Electrons For You

Dear Readers:

While we are recovering from our traumas of the last couple days and engaging in emotional healing, I have two quick stories for today;

Zelensky Promises Stuff That He Doesn’t Have

This story is reported by Anton Antonov. Apparently the Poles have been getting antsy and demanding that Zelensky fulfill his contractual obligations to them. Exactly what he owes them, I am not sure, but electricity seems to be involved. (Poles are also demanding coal.) Watching a catfight between Poland and Ukraine is like watching a hair-pulling match between an American Karen and the favorite daughter of a mobster. “I demand to talk to your supervisor!” “You and what army, bitch?”

Come this December, Zelensky reassures his western neighbors, Ukraine will begin supplying Poland will oodles of lovely electrons flowing out of the Khmelnitsky Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) in the Ukrainian city of Niecieszyn (just to be mean, I used the Polish spelling, haha!) and into the beautiful (and historic) Polish city of Rzeszów. I made this map to show the relationship between the source and the target, the circle shows the appropriate location of the Khmelnitsky NPP, and the arrow shows the route that the Ukrainian electrons must follow, in order to warm Polish cockles this winter:

Problem: This line does not yet exist. At least that is what I am deducing since, according to the reporter, “Zelensky has ordered [his people] to speed up the construction of the electric energy line between the Khmelnitsky NPP and and Polish city of Rzeszów. In his words, the construction will be finished by December 8 and will supply Poland with the necessary amount of electricity.” Well, maybe this is not a big problem. I mean, all you need is trees and wires, just put some linemen on the job, right? Except that..

Other Problem: For some reason which I don’t understand, Zelensky is connecting this project with the precondition that “Ukraine needs to maintain normal control over the Zaporozhie NPP. We are working to secure the necessary international decisions, in order to make this happen.”

I mean, is he saying that there is some kind of technical connection between the Khmelnitsky and the Zaporozhie NPP’s? How could that be, since they are on different sides of the country? Or, is he saying that he might need to tap into the Khmelnitsky electrons himself, instead of selling them to Poland, given that the Zaporozhie NPP is no longer functional?

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that last bit. According to reporter Dmitry Zubarev, the Zaporozhie NPP has been shut down completely. This was done for safety reasons. Apparently the plant kept shelling itself with HIMARS, creating a nuisance of a hazard for THE ENTIRE PLANET!

Now, I don’t know much about nuclear energy myself. I only know that it is scary. But we have our old friend Vladimir Rogov (head of the Zaporozhie Oblast for the Russians; well, at least for now, until the Ukrainians either re-conquer that area or assassinate Rogov — little dark humor there, sorry…) to explain the difference between a “cold stop” and a “hot stop”.

Rogov: We had to do a cold stop.

Rogov: Performing a “cold stop” on Block #6 will allow us to reboot it at some point. It is currently not producing electric energy. The problem is that the block itself needs to use some electricity, in order to cool the reactor. Therefore we have reserve diesel generators functioning right now, this is just a temporary solution.

The fate of the world depends on a diesel generator. Got it. Thanks, Vladimir.

Prior to this the other blocks had been shut down in similar manner, and for similar reasons. These are wussy blocks, they couldn’t take a little Ukrainian shelling.

Oh wait! as I read further into the article, Rogov explains that one block is still working, but only to produce electricity required by the station itself. (Like, for the lights and the computers, and coffee machines, and stuff?)

In conclusion: Zelensky needs the Zaporozhie NPP to be working at full steam (for whatever reason) so that he can sell electricity to the Poles out of the Khmelnitsky NPP. But currently he does not have any sort of control over the Zaporozhie NPP. The Russians would not permit him inside, even if he had a magic key. But he is acting like he controls it, and making promises on that basis, even though he is also shelling it with HIMARS and trying to destroy itand blow up half of Europe. It all makes perfect sense.

Kadyrov Rouses and Reassures

For my second story, we have the Head of Chechnya, delivering a rousing “Churchillian” kind of speech to embolden and buck up the Russian people, in the middle of their darkest hour. The reporter, once again, is Dmitry Zubarev.

Kadyrov: “The Minister of Defense has explained to you the situation, why we had to abandon such cities as Izyum, Kupiansk, Balakleya, in the Kharkov Oblast. This was absolutely required by military strategy.

“But I, Ramzan Kadyrov, officially declare to you: All of these cities will be returned. Our guys [i.e., Chechens] are already there, preparing the ground work, and another 10,000 are almost ready to leave [for the front]. And in the very near future we will be moving onto Odessa, and you will see some concrete results.

Kadyrov: “Mistakes were made…”

“The fact that we retreated and gave up several cities — there is actually a plus side to this. I am not about to reproach anybody, because I don’t know, in depth, what kind of strategy was worked out. But I know one thing: Russia will win. These NATO shaitany and the Western European secret services, their weapons will be destroyed, destroyed by the fighting spirit of our warriors.”

That’s the end of Zubarev’s story, but on Intel Slava I saw more paragraphs from Kadyrov’s speech, already translated into English. Their translation isn’t as good as mine, but here it is, and I like the fact that Kadyrov admits, “Mistakes were made.” It makes him more credible, in my eyes, than if he went, “Oh, it was all just part of a cunning plan…”

Kadyrov:

– I’m not a strategist, as in the Ministry of Defense. But mistakes were made. I think they will draw conclusions. When you tell the truth to your face, you may not like it. But I love to tell the truth. We talked with the commanders at the fronts;

It’s a shame that nothing was said for several days. It is clear that people were not prepared for this. We always talk about our work;

– If today or tomorrow changes are not made to the conduct of a special military operation, I will be forced to contact the country’s leadership in order to explain to them the situation on earth.

[…]

– In the near future we will meet with the military commanders, we will explain to them what patriotism is. Patriots should not be offended if someone did something wrong. We must unite people around ourselves.