The view from the front: military matters and motivation for 6/7/22.
Discover more from The View from the Front. By Stan R. Mitchell.
The view from the front: military matters and motivation for 6/7/22.
Hi friend,
Happy Tuesday! Hope your week is off to a great start!
I thought we’d begin by sharing several quick items about Ukraine, then bring up some news about China, then finish with several cool pieces of tech news. Following it all up with plenty of motivation and wisdom, of course.
In Ukraine news, Vladimir Putin claimed “that Russia was not blocking Ukrainian wheat from being exported,” according to an article in The Economist. Putin made the comments while meeting with Macky Sall, the head of the African Union. There have been many countries in Africa concerned about the wheat situation in Ukraine, since high prices will impact the continent worse than most countries.
In fact, The Economist stated that Africa is on the brink of famine because of Russia’s war, something the United Nations has been warning about. Prior to the war, Russia and Ukraine combined for almost 30 percent of international wheat sales each year.
Back to what Putin stated, this is certainly an interesting comment by Putin.
On the one hand, I don’t trust a word the man says. But on the other, Russia wants to continue to have influence in Africa. And I could see him allowing the grain out as a way to show that the West is hyperventilating and over-reacting to Russia’s actions.
But while we wait to see what will happen with the wheat, Ukrainian farmers are already paying a higher price. (See below.)
Besides worrying about whether these folks survived the mines, you also have to wonder who’s going to pay to replace the tractors. Does Ukraine have an operating insurance system? Does the government have the money in place to do so?
These are the kinds of questions that I’m not sure there are pleasant answers to.
But the leadership happening inside Ukraine is still OFF the charts good, in my opinion.
As proof, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy actually visited the most-active part of frontline. (See below.)
As I saw someone mention on Twitter, this would have been as if FDR or Churchill had visited the frontline during the Battle of the Bulge.
I’m sure anyone who’s served will tell you that having a leader visit bolsters your morale and inspires you to even greater efforts. It’s no wonder these Ukrainians are fighting so hard.
Moving along, one other thing I wanted to share was the increase in attacks against Russians on ground they already control. (See below.)
From the story, which documented the attacks in the strategic rail-hub city of Melitopol:
Every few days brings a surprising report: an armoured train destroyed and a grenade attack on a command post (May 18th); railway tracks and a radar station blown up (May 22nd); a pro-Ukrainian rally (May 29th); and a collaborator’s house hit by an explosion (May 30th). Ukraine claims its partisans have killed more than 100 Russian soldiers behind enemy lines in Melitopol.
Besides these partisan attacks, Russia is also waking up to new realities on the artillery front, as shown below.
Speaking of artillery, this news isn’t going to help anything for the Russians.
But so far, the Russian population seems more than willing to pay the price of this foolish war, as evidenced below.
Moving away from Russia to China, this bit of news broke, which seems pretty significant.
The scramble for allies in the Pacific clearly continues.
Moving to tech news, I had written several months ago about Project Origin, an unmanned system, that uses a vehicle armed with medium and heavy-weight machine guns (M240 or M2/MK19 automatic grenade launchers).
At that time, the unmanned system was being used by Green Berets of the 1st Special Forces Group. But in the time since I last wrote about the weapon system, it’s now being used by regular troops, as you can see below.
In the video above, soldiers with 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Regiment out of Germany are doing some basic training with the weapon.
Not sure how soon this vehicle will be issued and used by all units, but the weapon system is clearly moving forward rapidly with development and delivery.
Two other quick tech news items.
First this.
Secondly, there was this.
Finally, let’s end with some motivation and wisdom.
That’s it for this edition.
As a reminder, please be kind and endeavor to love your fellow Americans. We need to pull this country together, and that starts with all of us.
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Semper Fidelis,
Stan R. Mitchell
P.S. Don’t forget to check out my books. I’ve written a CIA/Marine sniper series, a detective series, a private investigator series, an action-packed Western, a leadership/biography book, and two realistic war novels: one about World War IIand one about Afghanistan.
P.P.S. And here’s a short bio about me and what I’m trying to do with the newsletter.