Today's News: Spring is here

(Image from Daily Kos)

A few weeks ago, in response to someone's tweet about Russia vehicle movements in Ukraine, I replied "Spring is coming". 

It seemed to confuse people - they didn't understand what I meant. 

First, it was a minor homage to the ominous "winter is coming" line from Game of Thrones. 

Second, I also meant it ominously -- I knew Russia had started its war too late, and if Ukraine could only hold out until winter was over and the Ukraine fields were no longer frozen, it would be virtually impossible for Russia to drive masses of tanks and heavy artillery equipment into the fields of Ukraine -- even driving ordinary trucks on their dirt roads would be terrible. 

I think many who live in cities, or who come from different kinds of agricultural areas, have never seen and may not even be able to imagine gumbo mud - the soupy, sticky, thick, slippery, tire-grabbing, wheel- spinning, sink- to- the- axels mud that winter leaves behind in good silty-soiled wheat-growing fields, here in southern Saskatchewan and there, in southern Ukraine. It lasts several weeks after the snow melts and throughout the May rains, before the spring winds dry the fields enough for planting. 

Now that spring has sprung across the southern and eastern Ukraine steppes, Russia is finding out:

You want to guarantee you will fight a stupid campaign? Give yourself a hard deadline to declare victory, after suffering huge losses, in the muddy season, while fighting a determined and increasingly well equipped enemy. The quadrifecta of strategic stupidity. https://t.co/5npZnWlNbx

— Phillips P. OBrien (@PhillipsPOBrien) April 14, 2022

Mosquito season for those orcs camped outside won’t be too pleasant either

— S;L;A;V;A UKRAINE (@H_e_r_o_i_m) April 14, 2022

Russian media have been lying for years about how strong Russia is and how weak Ukraine is. Now that Russia is losing the war they have lost their minds:

Some people still don’t get it. Russia was great at information warfare which convinced itself that Russia was strong and Ukraine (and its supporters) were soft and weak. The success with the bots helped lead Russia into this disaster. https://t.co/Ks6qk4Z6Zx

— Phillips P. OBrien (@PhillipsPOBrien) April 14, 2022

https://t.co/hsrilOuRBR

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) April 15, 2022

And I was afraid Russia would think it could resort to nukes at some point. I expect the West will not stand for this:

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said that should Sweden and Finland join NATO then Russia would deploy nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles in an exclave in the heart of Europe https://t.co/SnlxpqNeXk pic.twitter.com/ZkWjZYiRez

— Reuters (@Reuters) April 14, 2022

Vladimir Putin’s “potential desperation” to extract the semblance of a victory in Ukraine might tempt him to order the use of a tactical or low-yield nuclear weapon, William J. Burns, The director of the C.I.A., says, @nytimes reports.

— UkraineWorld (@ukraine_world) April 15, 2022

Finally, I can't seem to find any new information tonight about whether Mariupol still lives or not.

The Mariupol garrison is the story of military valor not seen in Europe since World War II.
Period.

— Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 (@IAPonomarenko) April 14, 2022