Drones struck the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) and adjacent training center, with representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) present. Ukraine says that Russia did it, although the Russians are the present owners of the ZNPP, and Ukraine targeted the plant before. It defies logic to assume Russia would expose their own people to drone attacks, while they can still put the Power Plant to good use once they regain control over Kherson and the downstream part of the Djnepr, and they are presently bringing in pontoon bridge-laying equipment, so I think it is safe to point the finger at Ukraine, or 'associates'.
Meanwhile the Russians also implicated Ukraine of being behind the attack on 'Crocus', based on videotaped confessions of the four prime suspects arrested as they were approaching the border with Ukraine, where the Ukrainians prepared a mine-cleared passage which would take them to Kiev, where they would receive their financial reward. Ukraine says it is nonsense. In addition the Russians indicated they traced back the money used to finance the operation to 'Burisma', the company which employed Hunter Biden, immediately after he had been 'administratively' discharged from the US Coast Guard, because drugs abuse rendered him an unreliable asset of the service, if I'm informed correctly, following the partial successful coup in Ukraine by Victoria Nuland in 2014. Not true, according to the Western media, if they even mention any of it.
Increasingly we are being fed blatant lies, but if the Russians are convinced that they have solid evidence, someone is going to pay. The gloves came off. We're past courtesy and Russia taking punches on the chin to proof they are 'above' all that. Which is why I wrote previously that it really doesn't matter anymore if 'our side' knew, or not, since the Russians no longer accept the story-line that they are dealing with rogue Ukrainians, and that NATO is merely a 'support act'. Medvedev said as much as he implied that NATO-countries were bearing responsibility for 'Crocus', even if they were not linked directly.
The French and the Germans, preparing their countries for the Olympics and the European Championship soccer this summer, are nervous, but that is not how the Russians would respond. Not 'Tit-for-Tat', always oblique, while letting the countries which were hit understand where that was coming from. They probably could find some Shi'ite, or orphaned Sunni terrorists to do their bidding if they wanted to, but I can't see them planning a strike on sports-venues, or even allowing that to happen. The story in our part of the world is that they target civilians deliberately, but if they would, there would have been scores of casualties among the civilian population. The honest story is that the Ukrainians and their 'associates' use built-up areas as protection. And whenever such a valid target is hit, buildings next to it are damaged, or destroyed as well. This is not 'Gaza'.
Budanov says that the 'Big Russian Offensive' will start in May, or early June. Or it may never happen. And if so, where will they turn their attention to? We'll have to wait and see. But as we speak all the 'mappers', including those very much pro-Ukraine, agree that the Russians are taking more territory every day. Western 'experts' are now down to predicting when a certain hammock or village will fall, and if the Russians didn't take it by that date, they 'failed'.
What's more, is that Ukraine claimed to have destroyed scores of Russian aircraft using drones, but by the looks of it that was merely wishful thinking. Not even 'spin', but simply a blatant lie. I can't see why? Yes, sure to prop up morale, but that is not going to be enough to stop the Russians under the circumstances. I'm seeing lots of very innovative new approaches from the Russians on the battlefield, using soldiers on motorcycles to surprise their Ukrainian counterparts. Using a 'Moving Barn', a tank/mine clearing-vehicle, which keeps moving despite being hit by RPG's and running over scores of mines.
Meanwhile the US is abandoning 'Project Ukraine', mainly because Ukraine's only 'play' left is targeting refineries in Russia, which is going to hurt the American and European economies, reducing support among the people in that NATO-dominated part of the world to pay the bills while they are struggling themselves. Only the 'WEF'-contracted 'left' has no objections to destroying wealth, as they envision this as the pathway to a new, clean future, and if a devastating, very 'Climate Unfriendly' war is needed to leave us without any possessions, living of Social Benefits promised by their favourite donors, so be it. But they are brain-damaged beyond repair. The irony is, that they are actively destroying all means of production and transportation as well, to 'Save the Planet', so how that is going to help Ukraine find the weapons and ammo they lack?
NATO is trying to figure out how they can revive this pipe-dream of bankrupting Russia, which is not going according to plan at all, and finding enough ammo and military equipment to slow down the Russians. While Zelensky is claiming he has a new plan for another 'Greatest Offensive', if only the US would fork over these billions Biden promised. I guess that an increasing number of military guys and gals in that country figured it out. Ukraine cannot be saved from itself, or the Russians, and if they dump the rest of their equipment and ammo in that bottomless pit, they are going to be visited by the Grim Reaper as a country. Caught between a rock and a hard place.
Ukraine is begging for new air-defence units, after burning through the systems provided earlier, and they are celebrating the expected arrival of the 'F-16 Wunderwaffen', which does require a proper runway, shelters, and sincere maintenance and support, which cannot be provided inside Ukraine as it is. So what is NATO planning to do, if Russia already announced that any such aircraft launched from airfields outside Ukraine will not be spared, while those airfields will be hit as well.
NAFO-people banging the drums of war for Ukraine fill my 'timeline' on 'X', and every now and then I do try to argue with them, hoping to make them see the light. But to no avail. Those in Ukraine itself might wake up to discover that they've been screwed by cynical bastards, which planned this whole thing from before the 2014 coup. But those NAFO-Fella's in various NATO-countries, if real people at all, want war with Russia. They want those mushroom clouds lining the horizon, and incinerated ports, industrial complexes and military bases as they frantically type their messages to the world from their blinded attic, where they used to have their 'gaming computer'. So sad.